Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Dec 07, 2016

ANSWER: Christian Democratic Union

Explanation:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election as chairwoman of her Christian Democrats/ CDU party. She was elected with 89.5 percent of the votes. The votes were cast by under 1,000 part delegates.

Merkel is seeking the fourth term in office next year.

The endorsement was less than 96.7 percent Merkel garnered when re-elected two years ago.

Opening Germany’s doors to 1 million migrants also sapped the power and approval ratings of her party CDU.

Merkel’s lowest score in election as a chairwoman was 88.4 percent in 2004.

CDU is meeting in Essen.

Merkel was first elected party chairwoman in 2000.

About CDU

• CDU stands for Christian Democratic Union/ Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands
• Chairwoman: Angela Merkel (Chancellor)
• Vice Chairpeople: Volker Bouffier, Ursula von der Leyen, Julia Klöckner, Armin Laschet, Thomas Strobl
• Secretary General: Peter Tauber
• Founded: June 26, 1945; 71 years ago
• Headquarters: Berlin

ANSWER: Bernard Cazeneuve

Explanation:
Bernard Cazeneuve replaced Manual Valls as the country’s new PM. This is as per an announcement by French President Francois Hollande’s office.

He is currently French interior minister.

Valls is stepping down to seek Socialist Party’s nomination to be its presidential candidate in the 2017 election.

Francois Hollande will not be re-contesting for the post of President.

ANSWER: Uzbekistan

Explanation:
Shavkat Mirziyoyev was elected the country’s president in a presidential election held on Dec 4, 2016. PM and acting president Shavkat Mirziyoyev won the election as per the Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan.

He won 88.61 percent of the votes, over the required 50 percent of the valid ballots to become president.

Other presidential candidates were:

• National Revival Democratic Party’s Sarwar Otamuratov, who scored 2.35%,
• Hotamzhon Ketmonov of the People's Democratic Party scored 3.73%.
• Justice Social Democratic Party’s Narimon Umarov scored 3.46% of the votes.

Know Shavkat Mirziyoyev


• Born: 24th July 2016
• PM since 2003.
• Appointed by Supreme Assembly as interim president of Uzbekistan on 8th Sept 2016. This is following the death of president Islam Karimov.
• Governor - 1996 - 2003.
• Nominated as PM by President Karimov on 12th Dec 2003.

ANSWER: Alexander Van Der Bellen

Explanation:
Ex leader of the Greens, Alexander Van Der Bellen has won the Austrian presidential elections.

He gained more than 7.6 percent of the votes than his opponent, Norbert Hofer.

Green backed Van der Bellen and far right Freedom Party candidate Hofer were in the contest for Austrian presidential elections.

Alexander Van Der Bellen was declared the winner with 60.4 percent of the ballots as against 39.5 percent received by his rival.

Austrian Election Commission finished counting the votes and confirmed Alexander Van Der Bellen’s victory.

A total of 2,472,892 people (53.8 percent) voted for Van der Bellen, while 2,124,661 person (46.2 percent) voted for Hofer.

Austria

• Officially the Republic of Austria.
• Federal republic and landlocked country.
• Population: 8.7 million
• Location: Central Europe
• Territory: 83,879 square kilometres
• Highest point: 3798m
• Languages: Austrian German, Bavarian dialects of German.

ANSWER: Launchpad

Explanation:
eCommerce giant Amazon on 5th December 2016 launched the global startup programme named Launchpad in India.

The launchpad programme was launched to enable Indian startups to sell their products overseas.

In this regard, Amazon India tied up with:

• Start Up India programme of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), NASSCOM's 10000 Startups
• Indian Angel Network (IAN)
• NITI Aayog, Governments of Maharashtra, Telangana and TiE.

TIe-ups were made to roll in as many startups as possible.

Helping startups to sell, market and deliver products to gain more visibility, it provides exceptional opportunity for Indian startups to gain access to consumer markets nationally and internationally.

More than 25 Indian start-ups including Witworks, Leaf Wearables, Ducere Technologies, and Seventh Sense Technologies, have already joined the programme, Amazon said.

Any start-up that is interested in participating in Amazon Launchpad can apply online through the application page.

If a start-up is not supported by the current partner network, the application shall be evaluated by Amazon.in for the start-up’s fitment to the programme, the company announced.

About Amazon

• American international electronic commerce company.
• Headquarters: Seattle Washington US
• Founded: 1994
• Founder: Jeff Bezos
• World’s largest online retailer.

ANSWER: Jagdish Singh Khehar

Explanation:
India will get its first Chief Justice from the Sikh community in 2017 as Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar will be sworn in as new CJI on Jan 4, 2017. The process for his appointment as the new CJI will be set in motion by current CJI TS Thakur.

This is in concordance with the CJI being succeeded by the senior most SC judge.

Justice Thakur retires on January 3. In his letter to law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Justice Thakur described Justice Khehar as a competent and worthy successor.

With this, 64-year-old Khehar has become the first CJI besides President Giani Zail Singh and PM Manmohan Singh to occupy the top posts as a Sikh in the nation.

Justice Khehar will have a tenure from Jan 4 to Aug 28.

He was known for negating the National Judicial Appointments Commission.

This body was set up by constitutional amendment unanimously passed by Parliament to select judges for the SC and HCs.

Justice Khehar also headed a bench which created history by restoring the Congress government headed by Nabam Tuki to power in Arunachal Pradesh even after it was dismissed and President's Rule was imposed.

Know Justice Khehar

• Graduation: 1974
• Post graduation: 1977 from Panjab University
• LLM Degree in 1979.
• Started practice in Punjab and Haryana HC and designated senior advocate in 1995.
• He oversaw removal of two judges - SC judge V Ramaswamy and Chief Justice of Karnataka P D Dinakaran.
• In the Ramaswamy case, he appeared as counsel for one of the MPs who supported Ramaswamy before the inquiry panel headed by Justice P B Sawant.
• In the Dinakaran case, he as Chief Justice of Uttarakhand HC headed the inquiry panel.

ANSWER: Amar Abrol

Explanation:
AirAsia on 5th December 2016 announced the appointment of Amar Abrol as its Managing Director. This is in addition to his role as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Abrol was appointed as the Managing Director following the company's board meeting held on 29 November 2016.

He was appointed as CEO of the airline in April 2016.

He has over two decades of experience in the field.

AirAsia

• Low cost Indian carrier.
• Joint Venture: AirAsia Berhad and TATA Sons
• Majority shareholder is AirAsia Berhad holding 49 percent stake.
• TATA Sons holds 40.06 percent and Arun Bhatia 10 percent through Telestra Tradeplace.
• Headquarter: Chennai
• Started Operations: 12th June 2014
• Fourth largest low cost carrier in India.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Indonesia has extended legal protection for its wetlands and peat bogs by expanding a ban on the conversion of these carbon-rich swamps into plantations.

This could drastically reduce Indonesia's sizeable carbon footprint.

It will also prevent a repeat of the annual forest fires that plague the region, conservationists say.

A moratorium on new conversions of certain peatland areas since 2011 in Indonesia saw a revision.

Latest revision - signed into law by President Joko Widodo, and issued yesterday - clarifies and expands the law.

It holds that all peatlands are covered and that companies must restore areas they have degraded.

Research estimate the crisis caused more than 100,000 premature deaths in Indonesia and neighbouring countries.

The World Bank put the economic impact at USD 16 billion.

About Peat

• Peat also called turf is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, or mires.
• Peatlands take thousands of years to form when layers of dense wet plant material compact into dense carbon stores. When these are drained or cleared, carbon emissions go up.

ANSWER: ITTF

Explanation:
India is all set to host its first ever ITTF World Tour event here from February 16-19, 2017. The USD 120000 tournament also the biggest in terms of prize money outside the World Championships bracket.

India last hosted an International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) event of this stature before the 2010 Commonwealth Games here that offered USD 100, 000 prize money.

Back in 2010, the India Open was part of the ITTF Pro Tour which made way for the World Tour, starting from 2012.

The 2017 World Tour travels to only 12 countries excluding the Grand Finals.

India is part of the six regular World Tour events on the calendar while the other six fall in the platinum category.

ANSWER: Nobel Prize in Physics

Explanation:
Salam, the first Muslim to win the prize for science, was a member of the Ahmadi sect, which is considered heretical by law in Pakistan.

Pakistan plans to rename a university centre for physicist Abdus Salam, its first Nobel laureate, after more than 30 years of all but disowning his achievements.

Salam, the first Muslim to win the prize for science, was a member of the Ahmadi sect, which is considered heretical by law in Pakistan, denounced by Muslim leader.

The office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said it had given approval for the National Centre for Physics at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, the capital, to be renamed after Salam.

About Abdus Salam

• Salam shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for helping to pave the way to the discovery of the “God particle.
• Salam was banned from lecturing at public universities during his lifetime, and even after winning the Nobel.
• In 1974, a Pakistani law declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims and in 1984, a new law made it possible to jail Ahmadis.

ANSWER: Sammy Lee

Explanation:
Sammy Lee, a two-time Olympic gold medal-winning diver who later mentored four-time Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, has died. He was 96.

University of Southern California said that Lee died of pneumonia in Newport Beach. He was the school’s oldest living Olympian.

The 5-foot Lee, who was of Korean descent, was the first Asian-American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S.

Lee also became the first man to win consecutive Olympic titles in platform diving in 1948 and 1952 and was the oldest diver at age 32 to win Olympic gold.

He also earned a bronze in 3-meter springboard at the 1948 Games.

Lee was the AAU national champion in platform and springboard diving in 1942, becoming the first person of minority descent to win a national diving title, and in platform in 1946.

He won the 1953 Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete.

ANSWER: Bhai Mahavir

Explanation:
Former Madhya Pradesh governor Bhai Mahavir passed away in Delhi after brief illness. He was 94 and survived is by his two daughters.

Mahavir served as the Madhya Pradesh governor from April 1998 to May 2003.

He was born on October 30, 1922 in Lahore

Mahavir joined RSS as Pracharak. Also served as the member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms.

Madhya Pradesh

• Largest state in central India
• Area: 308,245 km^²Founded: November 1, 1956
• Population: 73.34 million (2012)
• Capitals: Bhopal, Jabalpur (Judiciary)

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
The government has issued directions prohibiting certain manufacturers from emitting a potent greenhouse gas with high global warming potential into the atmosphere.

The government has issued orders on October 13, 2016 directing manufacturers of hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC-22) not to emit or vent hydrofluorocarbons (HFC-23) in the atmosphere.

HFC-23 gas is a by-product of the process of manufacture of HCFC-22 gases.

Under the orders, the producers of HCFC-22 are mandated to file their report on production of ozone depleting substances under Ozone Depleting Substances Rules, 2000 as amended from time to time and to certify the status of HFC-23 production in each category being incinerated or used as feedstock or used for any other purpose on annual basis.

What is HCFC?

• Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are compounds consisting of hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine, and carbon atoms.
• HCFCs and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were created as substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) for use in refrigeration.
• They destroy the stratospheric ozone layer essential to life on Earth or contribute to global warming.
• At Kigali in Rwanda India had announced that it will eliminate the HFC-23 gas as part of its commitment to combat the threat emanating from climate-damaging HFCs.