Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Feb 01, 2017

ANSWER: UNICEF

Explanation:
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in a unique initiative has partnered with UNICEF India to publish a Resource Book.

This will serve as a ready reference for all the Stakeholders dealing with child rights and child protection issues .

The book which was released recently by Supreme Court Judge, Justice Madan B. Lokur clearly defines the roles of the Commissions with their responsibilities for catalysing systematic changes for advancement of child rights.

The resource book also provides a brief frame work for examining and understanding contemporary child rights issues, in addition to those mentioned in the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.

The 343-page, lucidly written publication clearly defines the roles of the Commissions as quasi-judicial statutory bodies and the co-ordination mechanism with other important stake holders like:

• Child Welfare Committees,
• Juvenile Justice Boards,
• Law Enforcement Agencies and
• the Judiciary.

The Resource Book is the outcome of the endeavour by NCPCR to create synergy amongst all State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights.

ANSWER: Operation Clean Money

Explanation:
Income Tax Department (ITD) has initiated Operation Clean Money, on 31^st Jan 2017.

Initial phase of the operation involves e-verification of large cash deposits made during 9th November to 30th December 2016.

Data analytics has been used for comparing the demonetisation data with information in ITD databases.

In the first batch, around 18 lakh persons have been identified in whose case, cash transactions do not appear to be in line with the tax payer’s profile.

ITD has enabled online verification of these transactions to reduce compliance cost for the taxpayers while optimising its resources.

The information in respect of these cases is being made available in the e-filing window of the PAN holder (after log in) at the portal https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

The PAN holder can view the information using the link “Cash Transactions 2016” under “Compliance” section of the portal.

The taxpayer will be able to submit online explanation without any need to visit Income Tax office.

Email and SMS will also be sent to the taxpayers for submitting online response on the e-filing portal.

Taxpayers who are not yet registered on the e-filing portal (at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in) should register by clicking on the ‘Register Yourself’ link.

Registered taxpayers should verify and update their email address and mobile number on the e-filing portal to receive electronic communication.

Data analytics will be used to select cases for verification, based on approved risk criteria.

If the case is selected for verification, request for additional information and its response will also be communicated electronically.

The information on the online portal will be dynamic getting updated on receipt of new information, response and data analytics.

The response of taxpayer will be assessed against available information.

ANSWER: Dushyant Chauthala

Explanation:
Dushyant Chautala was elected as president of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) .

This was at the annual general body meeting held at Gurugram on 31^st Jan 2017.

M.P. Singh and Arun Kumar Banerjee will be the new secretary general and treasurer respectively, according to a release from TTFI.

The office-bearers:

• President: Dushyant Chautala;
• Secretary General: M.P. Singh;
• Treasurer: Arun Kumar Banerjee;
• Vice-Presidents: Milind Torwane, M.S. Sirsa, Chiranjib Choudhary, P. Karunakaran, Vero Nunes, Sharad Shukla, R.K. Parida and Haresh Sangtani;
• Joint Secretaries: Mantu Ghosh, Jayesh Acharya, Tridip Duvarah, Prakash Raju;
• Executive Members: Yatin K. Tipnis, Manjit Singh Dua, S. Halder, T.K. Vijay Rangam and Ajay Sharma.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
Former Union minister and Indian Union Muslim League leader E Ahamed has passed away early on 1st Feb 2017 after he suffered a cardiac arrest, a senior doctor has confirmed.

The 78-year-old Ahamed died at 2:15 am at RML hospital where he was admitted and put on artificial life support.

Ahamed's body will be taken to Kerala later today.

The MP from Kerala's Mallapuram suffered a cardiac arrest .

This was during the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament.

At around 2.15 PM, he was shifted to the RML trauma centre's ICU where he was put on ventilator and breathed his last.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad were some of the visitors at the RML hospital.

E. Ahamed: Know More

• Born: April 29, 1938
• Birth place: Malappuram, Kerala, India
• Died: 1 February 2017 (aged 78)
• Location: Delhi, India
• Political party: Indian Union Muslim League

ANSWER: Amazon, Expedia

Explanation:
On 31^st Jan 2017 , two tech companies - Amazon and Expedia - filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Seattle against the Trump administration.

They were arguing that the order will hurt their businesses.

The filings represent an escalation of technology industry's efforts to push back on the order signed by Trump.

The lawsuit asked the court to declare key parts of the executive order unconstitutional.

Expedia argued that the executive order hurt its ability to recruit employees from overseas.

It also said it could undermine the core of the company's business as an internet travel company.

About thousand Expedia customers with passports from one of the seven countries, have made travel plans that involve flights to, from or through the US.

Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia's chief executive, was born in Iran and fled the country with his parents after the Iranian revolution in 1978.

Amazon said it was aware of 49 employees out of its US work force of 180,000 who are from one of the countries identified in the order, nearly all of whom hold citizenship in another country.

Seven job candidates, all of them originally from Iran but citizens of other countries, have received employment offers from Amazon.

The company is considering jobs for the candidates in other countries.

In an email to employees, CEO Jeff Bezos, said the firm had expressed its opposition to the order to administration officials and congressional leaders.

He said the firm was exploring "other legal options as well."

At Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, hundreds of employees crowded into a quad near the main cafeteria to protest the order.

ANSWER: Both of the above

Explanation:
Most of the over 100 natural World Heritage sites that are being severely damaged by expanding human infrastructure and land use are in Asia.

This is as per a new study.

India's Manas Wildlife Sanctuary and Nepal's Chitwan National Park are among the most impacted Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS).

Urgent intervention is clearly needed to save these places and their outstanding natural universal values.

Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS), via the formal process run by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), are globally recognised.

This are considered as containing some of the Earth's most valuable natural assets.

The authors looked at human pressure over time using the updated global Human Footprint criteria, which includes roads, agriculture, urbanisation industrial infrastructure, and deforestation/ forest loss.

They found that the Human Footprint has increased in 63 per cent of Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS) across all continents except Europe over the past 20 years.

The most impacted NWHS were found in Asia.

Even celebrated places like Yellowstone National Park in the US were impacted, losing some six per cent of its forests.

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park that crosses the Canadian and USA border lost almost one quarter of its forested area (23 per cent or 540 km2).

ANSWER: 7.9%

Explanation:
Government has marginally revised upwards GDP growth for 2015-16 to 7.9 per cent from the earlier estimate of 7.6 per cent.

This is after factoring in latest data on agriculture and industrial production.

Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for 2015-16 and 2014-15 stands at INR 113.58 lakh crore and INR 105.23 lakh crore, respectively.

This is showing growth of 7.9 per cent during 2015-16 and 7.2 per cent during 2014-15, stated the Central Statistics Office (CSO) while releasing the revised data today.

However, the figure for 2014-15 has remained unchanged at 7.2 per cent in the second revision of the national accounts for the fiscal.

The estimates of GDP and other aggregates for 2012-13 to 2014-15 have also undergone revision due to use of latest available data on agricultural production and industrial production.

In 2015, CSO had estimated GDP growth rate for 2015-16 and 2014-15 at 7.6 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively.

CSO said the Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant (2011-12) basic prices grew at 7.8 per cent in 2015-16 as against 6.9 per cent in 2014-15.

According to the revised numbers, growth in real GVA in 2015-16 has been higher than that of 2014-15, mainly due to stronger growth in:

• Agriculture, forestry and fishing (0.8 per cent),
• Manufacturing (10.6 per cent),
• Trade, repair, hotels and restaurants (11.6 per cent),
• Transport, storage, communication and services related to broadcasting (9.1 per cent)
• Real estate, ownership of dwelling and professional services (12.6 per cent).

In 2015-16, at constant prices, the growth of primary (agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining and quarrying) has been pegged at 2.6 percent.

The secondary (manufacturing, electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services and construction) and tertiary (services) sectors has been estimated at 7.8 per cent and 9.8 per cent as against a growth 6.1 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively, in the previous year.

Per capita net national income at current prices is estimated at Rs 86,513 and Rs 94,178, respectively, for 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Per capita PFCE (private final consumption expenditure) at current prices is estimated at Rs 57,402 and Rs 61,571 for 2014-15 and 2015-16, respectively.

CSO: Know More

• The Central Statistics Organisation (CSO) of India is responsible for co-ordination of statistical activities in India.
• It also oversees evolving and maintaining statistical standards.
• It has a well-equipped Graphical Unit.
• The CSO is located in Delhi.
• Some portion of Industrial Statistics work pertaining to Annual Survey of industries is carried out in Calcutta.

Its activities:


• National Income Accounting
• Conduct of Annual Survey of Industries,
• Economic Censuses and its follow up surveys,
• Compilation of Index of Industrial Production, as well as Consumer Price Indices for Urban Non-Manual Employees,
• Human Development Statistics,
• Gender Statistics,
• Imparting training in Official Statistics,
• Five Year Plan work relating to Development of Statistics in the States and Union Territories; Dissemination of statistical information,
• Work relating to trade, energy, construction, and environment statistics,
• Revision of National Industrial Classification

ANSWER: Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh

Explanation:
The Union Finance Ministry has agreed to contribute partially to a new dedicated railway safety fund.

It is named as ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh’ and presented in the upcoming Union Budget 2017-18.

The proposed safety fund will be utilised for track improvement, bridge rehabilitation, rolling stock replacement, human resource development, improved inspection system and safety work at level crossing.

The Finance Ministry is likely to grant a fresh infusion of only INR. 5,000 crore in the upcoming financial year out of the initial proposed corpus of INR. 20,000 crore.

About INR. 10,000 crore will be earmarked from the Central Road Fund (CRF).

This is collected by levying a cess on diesel and petrol at present for safety-related work.

Railways may now be asked to fund the remaining INR. 5,000 crore for the initial corpus from its own resources.

For this, Indian Railways may either have to bring back a cess on rail tickets to finance its share of Rail Safety Fund or look to fund it from non-budgetary resources.

About the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh

• Railways requested Union Finance Ministry to create ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh.
• This is a ‘non-lapsable’ safety fund of INR. 20,000 crore over five years.
• Its request was based on the recommendations of a high-level safety review committee.
• This was headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman Atomic Energy Commission.
• The Committee, in its report submitted in 2012, had projected an investment requirement of INR. 1 lakh crore on safety over five years.