Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Dec 28, 2016

ANSWER: Sagarmala Development Company

Explanation:
The Ministry of Shipping and Road Transport & Highways Shri. Nitin Gadkari said projects worth INR 1 lakh crore under Sagarmala programme at various stages of implementation and development will now be overseen by the Sagarmala Development Company.

This company has been incorporated under the Companies Act 2013 with an initial authorized share capital of INR 1000 crore and a subscribed share capital of INR 90 crore.

Main objective of the company is identification of port led development projects under the Sagarmala programme and provide equity support for the SPVs set up by Ports/State/Central Ministries and funding window or implement only those residual projects which cannot be funded by any other means/mode.

Cabinet has approved the formation of SDC under the administrative control of the Ministry of Shipping in July 2016.

Company would work towards structuring activities, bidding out projects for private sector participation, identifying risk management measures for strategic projects across multiple regions and states and obtaining the approvals and clearances.

Implementation of the identified project will be taken up by Port/State/Central Govt or Maritime Board through private or PPP mode.

Company will act as a nodal agency for the coordination and monitoring of currently identified projects under Sagarmala as well as other projects from the master plans or other sources.

A detailed master plan will also be prepared for CEZs as part of the National Perspective Plan. SDC will raise funds as debt/equity (long term capital) as per project requirements by leveraging resources provided by government of India and from multilateral and bilateral funding agencies.

About the Sagarmala Programme

Aims to harness:

• 7500 km long coastline
• 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways
• Strategic location on key international maritime trade routes
• Approved in March 2015 by the Union Cabinet.

ANSWER: Freedom fighter

Explanation:
Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications on 26^th Dec 2016 released the special stamp on freedom fighter Gaya Prasad Katiyar.

The government also released a series of 8 commemorative postage stamps on “Personalities Series: Bihar.”

The postal department also launched a commemorative postage stamp on Hardyal Municipal Heritage Public Library to honor it as one of the few oldest library of the country.

The ministry released postage stamps on these following 8 personalities of Bihar:

• Vidyapati
• Kailashpati Mishra
• Kunwar Singh
• Sachchidananda Sinha
• Karpoori Thakur
• Dashrath Manjhi
• Phanishwar Nath Renu
• Krishna Sinha

Gaya Prasad Kaityar was a dedicated Indian freedom fighter. Born at Jagadishpur, UP and joined Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1925. He got connected with Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh during the freedom struggle.

A participant in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, he was arrested in 1929 from Saharanpur.

He also went on a hunger strike at the Cellular Jail in Andaman.

He was repatriated in 1937 and arrested and transported to the cellular jail from where he was released in 1946.

Know About Hardayal Municipal Public Library

• Location: Chandni Chowk, New Delhi
• Oldest building in the locality to withstand years and advent of modern times.
• Library was set up in 1862.
• It has more than 1 lakh seventy thousand books in various languages such as Hindi, English, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit and Arabic.
• This is one of the few libraries in the world with a collection of 8000 rare books.

ANSWER: Paper

Explanation:
US scientists have discovered a bacteria powered bio battery on a single sheet of paper that can power disposable electronics.

Researchers created this new bacteria powered battery and the paper based design is a new field of research called Papertronics which fuses paper and electronics.

Battery is made on a single sheet of paper to power disposable electronics; new and unique manufacturing technology lowers fabrication time and cost.

The design of the battery can revolutionize the use of bio-batteries as a power source in remote, resource limited and dangerous areas.

These self sustained, paper based, point of care devices are vital for providing effective and life saving treatments in resource limited settings.

On one half of a piece of chromatography paper, a ribbon of silver nitrate beneath a thin layer of wax was used to create a cathode.

The reservoir was made out of conductive polymer on the other half of the paper which acted as an anode.

Once folded properly with an addition of a few drops of bacteria filled liquid, the cellular respiration of microbes powers the battery.

Device requires layers to include components such as anode, cathode and PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane).

Different folding methods mean different power and current outputs.

Scientists were able to generate 31.51 Microwatts at 125.53 microamps with 6 batteries in 3 parallel series.

They also generated 44.85 microwatts of power at 105.89 microamps in a 6 by 6 configuration.

Know More About Microwatts

• It is a derived metric SI (System International) measurement unit of power.
• The microwatt is equal to one millionth of a watt (10-6W), a unit of power equal to one millionth of a watt.
• Symbol: µW, µ w.
• Origin of microwatt: 1910-1915

ANSWER: Both of the above

Explanation:
Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, the former Sri Lankan Prime Minister passed away on 27th Dec 2016 in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka at the age of 83.

He served as Prime Minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government in 2005 and the Chandrika Kumaratunga government in 2000-2001, when he succeeded then Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

He was a nationalist member of the Sri Lankan Parliament.

He entered politics in 1960, winning the Horana seat in the March General Election as a member of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP). He was appointed the Deputy Minister of Justice in 1970 and served as General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the 1970s.

He won the Kalutara District seat in the 1994 General Election. He was then appointed as the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs and Plantation Industries and the Leader of the House in President Chandrika Kumaranatunga’s Cabinet.

ANSWER: Haryana

Explanation:
India's first DigiDhan Mela was held on 26^th Dec 2016 in Gurugram in Haryana.

The mela is the first exercise of its kind in the country and promotes cashless transactions in the post-demonetisation period.

The mela showcased the government efforts to promote digital financial transactions.

It educated people on how to use mobile phones and Aadhaar for making payments online.

Dedicated counters were set up to issue Aadhaar cards.

In the mela, 15,000 winners of the Lucky Grahak Yojana daily reward were also drawn.

Along with Lucky Grahak Yojana, Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana (Merchants) was also launched by the government to promote cashless transactions at retail counters.

Under this scheme, the government will award prizes to merchants for all digital transactions conducted at merchant establishments. They will be awarded the weekly prizes of INR 50000, INR 5000 and INR 2500

Both the schemes are implemented by the National Payments Corporation of India to attain the broader objectives set forth by the Digital India campaign.

About Lucky Grahak Yojana

• Scheme launched by Union Government on 15^th Dec 2016.
• Under this scheme, the government will offer daily reward of INR 1000 for 15,000 lucky consumers for a period of 100 days.
• Consumers using this alternate mode of digital payments, will be awarded the weekly prizes of INR 1 lakh, INR 10,000 and INR 5,000.
• This includes the following forms of transaction: UPI, USSD, AEPS and RuPay. Digital Wallets and private cards are exempt from this scheme.

ANSWER: 7,200

Explanation:
The fastest animal on land, the cheetah is now under threat. Among population declines for the wildlife species in Africa and small area of Iran, where 7,100 cheetahs remain, human encroachments are pushing the predator out of 91 % of its historic habitat.

Cheetah should therefore be defined as endangered instead of less vulnerable on the official watch list of threatened species worldwide.

About 77 % of cheetah habitats fall outside wildlife reserves and other protected areas, the study said, needing outreach to governments and villages to promote tolerance for a carnivore that sometimes hunts livestock.

Besides habitat loss, cheetahs face:

• Attacks from villagers,
• Loss of antelope and other prey that are killed by people for their meat,
• An illegal trade in cheetah cubs,
• The trafficking of cheetah skins
• Threat of getting hit by speeding vehicles.

Know More About the Cheetah

Scientific name: Acinonyx jubatus
Speed: 110 - 120 km/h (In Short Bursts, Running)
Conservation status: Vulnerable (Population decreasing) Encyclopedia of Life
Mass: 21 - 72 kg (Adult)
Height: 66 - 94 cm (Adult, At Shoulder)
Trophic level: Carnivorous

• The Cheetah has been recorded as running at 95 feet per second.
• Cheetahs are found in southern Africa and Iran.

ANSWER: Three atoms

Explanation:
Scientists have used the smallest possible bits of diamonds to assemble electrical wires just three atoms wide. This could pave the way for fabrics that generate electricity.

Putting the various types of atoms in a LEGO style, the new technology can be used to build tunu wires for a range of applications including optoelectronic devices that employ electricity and light and superconducting materials that conduct electricity without loss.

Each block consists of a diamondoid, the smallest bit of diamond, attached to sulphur and copper atoms.

Like LEGO blocks, they only fit together in certain ways that are determined by their size and shape.

The copper and sulphur atoms form a conductive wire in the middle, and the diamondoids form an insulating outer shell.

There are many ways to self assemble, the first one shown to make a nanowire with a solid, crystalline core that has good electronic properties is this.

The needle-like wires have a semiconducting core, a combination of copper and sulphur known as a chalcogenide surrounded by the attached diamondoids, which form an insulating shell.

The size is important because the material that exists in just one or two dimensions as atomic scale dots, wires or sheets can have extraordinary properties compared to same material made in bulk.

The new method allows researchers to assemble those materials with atom-by-atom precision and control.

The diamondoids they used as assembly tools are tiny, interlocking cages of carbon and hydrogen.

Found naturally in petroleum fluids, they are extracted and separated by size and geometry in a SLAC laboratory.

Diamondoids are strongly attracted to each other, through what are known as forces.

They started with the smallest possible diamondoids, single cages that contain just 10 carbon atoms and attached a sulphur atom to each.

The building blocks then drifted toward each other, due to van der Waals attraction and attached to the tip of the wire.

Know More About Johannes van der Waals

• Dutch scientist.
• Fields: Theoretical physics, thermodynamics
• Institutions: University of Amsterdam
• Alma mater: University of Leiden

Known for:


• Molecular physics (Molecular theory)
• Theorem of corresponding states
• Van der Waals equation of state (Real gas law)
• Van der Waals forces
• Van der Waals radius
• Van der Waals surface
• Van der Waals molecule

ANSWER: Housing.com

Explanation:
Housing.com has tied up with real estate major Tata Housing to create an exclusive digital marketing platform for the sale of existing inventories and launch of new projects.

The companies have formed a partnership as part of which the realty portal would offer a full stack solution by creating an exclusive integrated pan-India brand platform showcasing their current inventory (premium homes as well as Tata Value Homes) as well as exclusive launch of their upcoming projects.

Housing.com has created a wide gamut of solutions that include interactive tools such as Virtual Reality, creation of exclusive content through Housing.com design studio, leveraging Housing News, IREF platforms as well as Housing.com events and brand platform.

The partnership would also entail working jointly with Tata Housing to develop new and in Decative solutions to manage the home buyer experience across online and offline channels.

As part of this agreement, Tata Housing would also be deploying some of these solutions and technologies on their digital platforms.

Housing.com

• Founded in 2012.
• Leading online real estate platform.
• 1.7 million verified homes listed till date.
• Raised over USD 100 million in capital from investors.
• Leading investors include SoftBank, Nexus Ventures, MJH ADI BAL.

ANSWER: 8.91 lakh

Explanation:
Demonetisation did not impact the tourist footfall adversely this year, with 8.91 lakh foreign tourists visited India in Nov 2016.

This marks the growth of 9.3 % over the same month last year.

Foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) during December 2015 was 8.16 lakh, while it was 7.65 lakh in December 2014.

Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism during the month of December were INR 14,474 crore as compared to INR 12,649 crore in the same month last year, recording a growth of 14.4 %.

The US accounted for highest share of tourist arrivals followed by the UK and Bangladesh in December 2016, according to an official release.

FTAs during January-December, 2016 were 78.53 lakh, recording a growth of 10.4 % as compared to 71.14 lakh during the corresponding period last year.

FEEs from tourism in January-December were Rs 1,38,845 crore, witnessing an increase of 14.7 % as compared to the INR 1,21,041 crore during the corresponding period last year.

Among the top 15 source countries in December, share of the US was highest with 15.53 %, followed by these:

15 Source countries with Highest Foreign Tourist Arrivals (Dec 2016)

“Country”	Highest Foreign Tourist Arrivals (Dec 2016)
US	(15.53 %)
UK	(11.21 %)
Bangladesh	(10.72 %)
Canada	(4.66 %)
Russia	(4.53 %)
Australia	(4.04 %)
Malaysia	(3.65 %)
Germany	(3.53 %)
China	(3.14 %)
France	(2.88 %)
Sri Lanka	(2.49 %)
Japan	(2.49 %)
Singapore	(2.16 %)
Nepal	(1.46 %)
Thailand	(1.37 %)

“Airport”	Share of foreign tourists
Among the top 15 ports, the share of Delhi Airport was highest with	(32.71 %)
followed by Mumbai Airport	(18.51 %)
Chennai Airport	(6.83 %)
Bengaluru Airport	(5.89 %)
Haridaspur Land check post	(5.87 %)
Goa Airport	(5.63 %)
Kolkata Airport	(3.90 %)
Cochin Airport	(3.29 %)
The share of Hyderabad Airport was	(3.14 %)
while that of Ahmadabad Airport	(2.76 %)
Trivandrum Airport	(1.54 %)
Trichy Airport	(1.53 %)
Gede Rail	(1.16 %)
Amritsar Airport	(1.15 %)
Ghojadanga land check post	(0.82 %)

ANSWER: Over 5,000 km

Explanation:
India successfully test-fired on 26^th Dec 2016 its nuclear-capable, inter-continental ballistic missile Agni 5, which has a range of over 5,000 km covering whole of China, from Abdul Kalam island off Odisha coast.

The successful test-firing will pave way for the user trial of the most potent Indian missile and its eventual induction into the special forces command (SFC).

The 3-stage, solid propellant surface-to-surface missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher from launch complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR).

About 17-metre long and weighing over 50 tonnes, the surface-to-surface missile majestically rose from the confines of its canister flawlessly and achieved all targets.

It is the 4^th developmental and 2^nd canisterised trial of the missile.

While the first test was conducted on April 19, 2012, the second was on September 15, 2013 and the third on January 31, 2015 from the same base.

More About Agni

• This was the first test of the Agni-5 missile after India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime.
• The 17-metre long Agni-5 Missile weighs about 50 tonnes and is a very agile and modern weapon system.
• The Agni-6 is reported to be in early stages of development with a strike-range of 8,000-10,000 km.

Agni-5 is the most advanced nuclear capable missile with the following new technologies:


• Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and
• Micro Navigation System (MINS)

At present, India possesses:


• Agni-1 with 700 km range,
• Agni-II with 2000 km range,
• Agni-3 and Agni-4 with with 2,500 km to more than 3,500 range