Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Feb 06, 2016

ANSWER: Lieutenant General John Nicholson

Explanation:
Army Lieutenant General John Nicholson has been appointed as NATO commander for Afghanistan. The strong Senate Armed Services Committee has confirmed the nomination of Nicholson. He was US army commander of NATO land forces prior to this. He also served as chief of staff operations of the ISAF and US Forces-Afghanistan. NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance based on North Atlantic Treaty signed on April 4, 1949.

ANSWER: 7.8

Explanation:
Professional forecasters have expected Gross Value Added at basic price to rise to 7.8% from 7.4% in 2015-2016. Output growth measured GVA is expected to enhance itself marginally in 2015-2016 and further in 2016-2017. Quarterly growth projections for the next 5 quarters ensure that growth is likely to peak in July-September 2016-2017. Real GVA at base price will rise by 7.8% in 2016-2017. GVA is a globally accepted measure for gauging economic activity within the nation. CSO will release GDP and GVA estimates at basic price soon. Rupee is expected to remain stable against the US dollar, according to the survey.

ANSWER: Birla

Explanation:
Reliance Infrastructure Limited/Rinfra on 4th February 2016 signed the signing of the Share Purchase Agreement with Birla Corporation Ltd in relation to the sale of its subsidiary Reliance Cement Company Private Limited. Rinfra is owned by ADAG while Birla Corp is the flagship company of MP Birla Group. Deal is valued at INR 4800 crore.

ANSWER: Geographical Indication

Explanation:
Intellectual Property Appellate Board has registered Basmati Rice for a GI or Geographical Indications Registry . 7 month Indian Basmati rice producing states in India will now carry the GI tag. GI tag can be issued for manufactured, natural or agricultural goods. Products sold with this tag attract premium pricing and gain protection from WTO.

ANSWER: Both b and c

Explanation:
Labour Ministry has partnered with Uber, Quickr for an amazing career portal. The labour ministry has inked a pact with 8 companies including Tech Mahindra, Quikr, Monster and Uber. 8 MoUs have been inked with the National Career Service as well as start up and job employment portals. The MoU has been signed with Uber, Quikr, Monster, Tech Mahindra, Babajobs, India Staffing Federation (ISF), Buzzmatic Ventures and GoldFish for widening the scope and scale of the project.

ANSWER: Jasper Technologies Inc

Explanation:
Cisco Systems has announced that it will intend to acquire Silicon Valley based IOT startup Jasper Technologies Inc for USD 1.4 billion. Jasper offers technology to manage connected objects through cellular network with a cloud based software program, and it was valued at USD 1.4 billion in a recent venture funding round. Additionally, Jasper makes a software platform that helps for monitoring device once they are online. Cisco sees Jasper as a unique Internet of Things service platform which has over 3500 enterprise customers and 27 service providers across 100 nations.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
According to the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Indian economy will grow at 7.4% in the current fiscal (2015-2016). GDP growth rate forecast is 7.4% for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. Prospects for agriculture sector in 2015-2016 were poor due to a deficient rainfall. Agricultural growth during the first half of the current year fell to 2.0% from 2.4% for the first half of 2014-2015.

ANSWER: New Horizons

Explanation:
NASA’s New Horizons has captured images of frozen nitrogen glaciers on Pluto with plenty of floating hills which could be water ice fragments, providing insight into the abundant geological activity of the dwarf planet. Hill measures 1 to 7 kilometers and the hills are in the cast ice plain celled Sputnik Planum within the heart of Pluto, which is a miniature version of the larger mountains on the western border.

ANSWER: ZNF154

Explanation:
A tell tale marker of 5 different types of cancer was discovered by NIH researchers from the US, increasing chances of diagnosing cancer with a simple blood test. Scientists also found evidence that a methylation signature like this may be present in many more types of cancer. This specific signature occurs as DNA from cancer undergoes chemical modification through a process known as methylation. This controls the functioning of specific genes such as a dimmer on a light switch. Greater amounts of DNA methylation are present in some DNA tumors, decreasing the activity of the gene. Elevated methylation signature around the gene known as ZNF154 unique to tumors was found by the scientists.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
ICC Board on 3rd February constituted the Anti Corruption Unit Oversight Group and a decision with regard to this was taken by ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar. Aside from Rahul Dravid, other members of this group include David Peever, Louis Westom, John Abbott, David Richardson and Ronnie Flannigan.

ANSWER: Convention of Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage

Explanation:
Instrument of Ratification of the Convention of Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage 1997 was submitted to the IAEA by India’s Permanent Rep in Vienna, R. Misra. Instrument is a multilateral treaty for liability and compensation due to nuclear incidents. It will come into force from May 2016.

ANSWER: 2023

Explanation:
Reserve Bank of India said the government will buy back inflation indexed bonds/IIBs maturing in 2023 via reverse auction in February 11th. Not so effective bonds have received a below par response due to lack of marketing and associated tax issues. GoI has also notified repurchase of 1.44 percent inflation indexed government stock 2023 via a reverse auction for total amount of INR 6500 crore. Bonds were launched as alternative to gold as an investment in high current account deficit. Repurchase will be prematurely held to redeem government stock through utilization of surplus cash balance and it was an ad-hoc move.