Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Aug 21, 2016

ANSWER: Urjit Patel

Explanation:
Urjit Patel is the 8th Deputy Governor to become Governor at RBI and the sixth with an experience in the IMF.

• 52-year-old Patel was appointed RBI Governor for three years and will take charge when Rajan leaves office on September 4
• He was in the IMF between 1990 and 1995 during which he worked on IS, India and Myanmar as well as Bahamas desks.
• He was also on deputation from IMF to RBI before becoming a consultant to the ministry of finance.
• Patel will be the 24th governor of RBI.
• Patel was known as the inflation warrior during his tenure in Mint Street as IMF Chief Economist.
• The last deputy governor of RBI made its governor was YV Reddy.
• 5 former governors have served IMF before becoming RBI chief
• Some deputy governors served as governors only for interim periods.
• Second governor James Taylor who was in office from 1937 to 1943 was the first to serve as Deputy Governor before being made the RBI chief.
• CD Deshmukh was also a Deputy Governor before he became a governor on the demise of his predecessor.
• KG Ambegaokar, another deputy governor, was appointed as interim governor for one and half months till HR Iyengar could take over.
• BN Adarkar also a deputy held the post till S Jagannath could take over.
• YV Reddy also had a six year tenure as a deputy governor and served as India’s ED at IMF before becoming RBI Governor in 2003.
• Other contenders for the post which went to Patel include former RBI deputy governors Rakesh Mohan, Subir Gokarna, Vice Chairman NITI AAYog Arvind Panagariya and SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya.
• Patel led a committee in 2014 suggesting RBI adopt formal inflation targeting methods and come up with a monetary policy committee to take interest rate decisions to achieve inflation targets.
• Government agreed to both conditions adopting a 4 percent long term inflation target (+/- 2%) and formed a six member committee comprising three nominees from the government and RBI in which Governor would have casting vote.
• Patel has also had stints in Reliance Industries and Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC).

ANSWER: Doha Bank

Explanation:
Qatar based Doha bank became the first GCC or Gulf Cooperation Council Bank to open a branch in India.

• Doha bank will open a branch in Kochi, located in the LULU International shopping Mall at Edapally, It will mainly cater to the needs of the large NRI population, both in Kerala and the Gulf.
• Bank branch will be inaugurated in August last week
• Doha Bank commenced operations in Mumbai in April 2015
• It provides corporate banking, retail banking, trade finance, treasury and foreign exchange services.
• Bank is focused on the GCC trade flows.
• It will become the bank of choice for GCC based NRIs mainly from Kerala and the business community who are based in GCC countries in India.
• Doha Bank operates in Kuwait, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It also has representative offices in Singapore, London, Turkey, Korea, Tokyo, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Bangladesh, China, Sharjah, Frankfurt and Hong Kong.
• Doha Bank is one of the largest commercial banks in the State of Qatar.
• It was incorporated in 1978 and commenced its domestic and international banking services in Doha, Qatar on March 15, 1979
• Another South Indian state, Telangana has plans to set up a INR 270 crore leather complex.
• Telangana government plans to establish the leather complex at Station Khanpur village in Warangal district
• Sanction of INR 105 crore is sought under the Leather Development Programme in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry

ANSWER: MP

Explanation:
Atlas for endangered state fish of MP- Narmada Mahseer( tor tor) is being prepared.

• This is the first of its kind experiment in India.
• Forest department has begun identifying the occurrence of Narmada Masher and is mapping them in protected areas with Global Information System Technology.
• GIS helps in capturing, checking, storing and displaying data on the surface of the earth and can show different kinds of data on one map.
• For studying the different types of data on one map, the aspects that will be studied include the whereabouts, the quantity in which they are found and the places suitable for breeding
• Naddwari and Sonbhadra tributaries are being explored
• Officials said many juvenile fishes are found in these regions and they are being mapped.
• An INR 5 lakh budget has been allowed for facilitating the survey.
• Additional principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) Indore, Pankaj Srivastava said a scientific protocol would be made with the aid of collected data as well as experts of communities to ensure conservation.
• The survey officials have also started with Satpura and Devas tiger reserves and will explore other wildlife sanctuaries in the future.
• The biggest hurdle faced is that official have to have the expertise to recognise the species- they will be conducting training programmes for forest officials including forest guards, deputy rangers and rangers to ensure mapping is effective.
• Forest department has also constructed an artificial flowing water respository in Barwah to conserve the Narmada Mahseer.

ANSWER: Bengaluru

Explanation:
Bengaluru is host to the largest share of technology driven start-ups followed by Delhi-NCR and Mumbai while Hyderabad and Chennai are quite popular among techies who are budding entrepreneurs.

• Study was conducted in association with Thought Arbitrage.
• It found that technology driven startups growth was such that India moved up to third position with the US occupying the top position with more than 47,000 and UK with over 4,500.
• India’s tech startups number around 4200 up to 2015.
• In terms of total number of start ups, comprising tech and non tech areas, India figured among the five largest hosts in the world along with China.
• Number of startups in both India and China were 10,000 each.
• US is at world number one position among the overall list of 83,000 budding entrepreneurs.
• Of the Indian startups, riding on the technology, the IT hub Bengaluru was host to 26 percent.
• NCR had 23 percent and Mumbai 17 percent.
• In the catching up category Hyderabad had around 8 percent and Chennai and Pune at 6 percent each.
• Disruptive innovation in technology and process is creating new Indian startups and foreign investors including some of the well known venture capital funds showing interest in these startups.
• Synergizing Start Up India with Make in India and Digital India has the potential to expand Indian eco system for the new entrepreneurs.
• Paper suggested tax exemption for research and experimentation to encourage ideas without fear of failure.
• Courses on creation of small businesses need to be encouraged in the learning campus too.

ANSWER: Ruth Beitia

Explanation:
Spanish sportsperson Ruth Beitia won the first Olympic gold medal for Spain in women’s athletics when she took the Rio high jump to claim her first global outdoor crown.

• The 37-year-old three times European champion cleared 1.88m, 1.93m and 1.97m in her first attempt and became the oldest Olympic champion in the jumps on countback.
• All 4 remaining athletes failed to get over two metres. Mireya Demireva of Bulgaria won Silver while Blanka Vlasic from Croatia added bronze to her collection.
• Meanwhile, Russia won its first Olympic gold in women’s handball overcoming France 22-19 in a final that was fast paced.
• Defending champions Norway beat Netherlands to take bronze.
• India ended with a medal count of 2 towards the close of the Rio Olympics- bronze for wrestler Sakshi Malik and silver for badminton ace PV Sindhu.
• The flag bearer for the Indian nation towards the close of the Rio Olympics closing ceremony will be Sakshi Malik.

ANSWER: XMU-MP-1

Explanation:
Chinese scientists have discovered a small molecule that can regenerate the tissue and could make organ transplant much easier in the future.

• Research was led by professors in Xiamen and Peking University.
• The scientists have discovered a drug called XMU-MP-1 which can repair and regenerate the liver, skin and intestines.
• Pills may do away for the need for operations for organ transplant or complex biomaterial and cell therapies.
• A critical signalling molecule in the Hippo pathway which controls organ size is impacted by the drug.
• XMU-MP-1 inhibits the activity of MST1/2 the central component of this pathway and promotes cell growth in four different mouse models of acute and chronic injuries.
• This includes acetaminophen induced injury, a common cause of liver failure worldwide.
• The Chinese have applied for the patent and are cooperating with pharma companies to produce the medicine.
• Scientists have also developed laser from florescent jellyfish protein grown in bacteria.
• These lasers have the potential to be fa more efficient and compact than conventional ones and could open up the research venues in quantum physics and optical computing according to researchers.
• Breakthrough represents a major advance in polariton lasers.
• By repurposing the fluorescent proteins revolutionising biomedical imaging and allowing scientists to monitor processes inside cells, team has created a pollution laser operating at room temperature powered by nanosecond pulses measuring a billionth of a second.
• Picosecond pulses of suitable energy are 1000 times more difficult to make than nanosecond pulses so it simplifies making these pollution lasers quite significantly.
• Scientists from University of Wurzburg and Dresden University of Technology in Germany genetically engineered e-coli bacterial to produce enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP).
• Researchers filled optical micro cavities with this protein before subjecting them to optical pumping where nanosecond flashes of light are being used to bring the system up to the required energy to create laser light.
• Once the threshold for polariton lasing has been reached, pumping resulted in conventional lasing.
• This confirmed the first emission was due to polariton lasing

ANSWER: Rajiv Gandhi

Explanation:
PM Narendra Modi on 20th August 2016 paid tribute to former premier Rajiv Gandhi on his 72nd birth anniversary.

• Rajiv Gandhi born on August 20, 1944 served as the sixth PM of India from 1984 to 1989.
• He took office following assassination of his mother, then PM Indira Gandhi in 1984.
• Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi also paid tribute to his father and the former PM.
• Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide bombing at TN’s Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
• Other Indian PMs belonging to the INC include Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.
• The youngest political leader to become PM, Rajiv Gandhi was 40 at the time of taking charge of the PMO.
• Oldest person to be Indian PM at 81 years was Morarji Desai.
• Oldest living PM is AB Vajapayee born Decemer 25, 1924
• Youngest living PM is incumbent Narendra Modi born 17th September 1950.
• Narendra Modi is also the first PM of India to be born after Independence in India.
• All other PMs were born before India gained independence.