Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Feb 14, 2017

ANSWER: Dev Patel

Explanation:
Popular musical La La Land took five prizes including best picture at BAFTA, but major awards also went to tough welfare-state drama I, Daniel Blake and fractured-family stories Lion and Manchester by the Sea.

Accepting the best-actress trophy for playing a barista who dreams of Hollywood stardom, Emma Stone said that “this country and the US, and the world seems to be going through a bit of a time.”

The UK awards, known as BAFTAs, are often seen as an indicator of who will win at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held two weeks later.

La La Land already is a dominant force at the Oscars, with 14 nominations. It also has won seven Golden Globes.

La La Land had 11 nominations for the British awards and won prizes for Stone, director Damien Chazelle, music and cinematography as well as best picture.

Casey Affleck, who played a grieving handyman in Manchester by the Sea won the best male actor.

The wintry New England drama also won Lonergan the prize for best original screenplay.

British actor Dev Patel pulled off an upset, beating favourite Mahershala Ali, from Moonlight, to the best supporting actor trophy for Lion.

He said Lion, which co-stars Nicole Kidman is “a film, about family, about a love that transcends borders, race, colour, anything.

Lion also took the BAFTA for best adapted screenplay.

Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake was named best British film.

BAFTA: Know More

• The 70th British Academy Film Awards, and for sponsorship reasons the EE British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 12 February 2017.
• Host: Stephen Fry
• Location: The Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

ANSWER: Sandeep Jajodia

Explanation:
Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd. CMD Sandeep Jajodia has been appointed the new President of industry chamber ASSOCHAM.

Balkrishan Goenka, Chairman, Welspun Group and Kiran Kumar Grandhi, vice-chairman of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, have taken over as senior vice-president and vice-president respectively.

Jajodia took over from Sunil Kanoria, vice-chairman, Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited.

ASSOCHAM initiated its endeavour of value creation for Indian industry in 1920.

It has more than 400 Chambers and Trade Associations, serving more than 4,50,000 members from all over India.

ASSOCHAM is set to influence dynamics of growth and development in the technology driven cyber age of ‘Knowledge Based Economy’.

ASSOCHAM derives its strength from its Promoter Chambers and other Industry/ Regional Chambers/Associations spread all over the country.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Food regulator FSSAI has set up a scientific panel to frame final regulations on food fortification and prepare strategies to address malnutrition problem.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has already issued the draft guidelines on fortification for five food items - salt, milk, wheat flour, rice and edible oil - to boost production and consumption of fortified foods.

The draft rules were operationalised in October 2016.

FSSAI sought comments from stakeholders before finalising the final regulations.

Fortification involves deliberately adding or increasing the content of essential micro nutrients in food items to improve quality.

Standards have been set for fortification of salt with iodine and iron; of vegetable oil and milk with vitamin A and D; wheat flour and rice with iron, folic acid, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin A and some other micro nutrients

FSSAI has set up a new Scientific Panel on ‘Food Fortification and Nutrition’ to address issues related to fortification of food the regulator indicated in a statement.

The panel has 11 experts and scientists :

• Ambrish Mithal from Medanta;
• CS Pandav and R K Marwaha (Retd) from AIIMS;
• Anura Kurpad from St John’s Medical College;
• Yogeshwar Shukla from CSIR - Indian Institute of Toxicilogy Research,
• HPS Sachdev from Sita Ram Bharatia Institute of Science and Research;
• KM Nair from NIN;
• P Ramachandran from Nutrition Foundation of India;
• Sumit Arora from NDRI;
• Sirimavo Nair from the MS University, Baroda, and
• Harsulkar from Bharati Vidyapeeth.

Members from Scientific Panels dealing with food fortifying vehicles such as wheat flour, refined flour, rice, milk, edible oil and salt will also be a part of this committee.

The Panel will identify critical nutritional gaps in the Indian diet in general as well as in specific target groups based on diet surveys and reliable scientific evidence.

It will define strategies to address nutritional needs of the general population and vulnerable groups, besides reviewing the standards for all suitable food fortifying vehicles.

The panel will also address regulatory and related technological issues, review proposals from industry using modern risk assessment methods, and prescribe standard sampling and test methods for effective monitoring, surveillance and enforcement of the relevant regulations.

FSSAI had earlier brought out Draft Regulations for fortified food - Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Food) Regulations, 2016 which were operationalised in October, 2016.

FSSAI: Know More

• Formed: August 2011
• Jurisdiction: India
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Chairman: Ashish Bahuguna
• CEO: Pawan Kumar Agarwal
• Parent agency: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India
• Website: www.fssai.gov.in

ANSWER: Jiro Taniguchi

Explanation:
Taniguchi, who was known for his elegant line drawings and intricately-constructed landscapes, died on 11^th Feb 2017.

His art earned him an international following and some of his work was made into a television series.

His death was announced by Casterman, his publisher in France, where his work was particularly well known.

Taniguchi was widely praised for the gentle manner in which he approached subjects that were often unique for Japan's manga consumers.

His works such as The Walking Man, The Summit of the Gods and The Magic Mountain, stood apart in a genre sometimes seen as rooted in extreme violence.

In The Walking Man, the protagonist of the story simply wanders around fascinated with aspects of everyday life.

Taniguchi explained, in an interview, why his art was painstakingly hand-drawn - "I do not use a computer because I do not know how, I don't have that skill," he said.

His detailed landscapes filled with cartoon characters drew comparisons in the West with European comic heroes such as Tintin.

Born in 1947 in the city of Tottori, Taniguchi had his first cartoon published in 1970.

Many years later his graphic art took off in France and in 2015 his work was featured at the annual Angouleme international comics festival.

ANSWER: Brussels

Explanation:
The restaurant awaits diners, five meters (16 feet) below the surface.

"The Pearl" is a two-meter wide white sphere tethered close to the pool's floor.

The diners jettison their weighted belts before swimming underneath and up into the pod that looks like a cross between a lunar landing craft and a giant spaceman's helmet.

Food is served by expert scuba divers who deliver foie gras, lobster salad and champagne in waterproof cases before leaving the diners peering out of the portholes.

John Beernaerts, who founded the NEMO33 pool in the Belgian capital a decade ago, has pioneered this eatery.

The restaurant, where an underwater meal costs 99 euros (USD106) per person, took more than a year to build and multiple attempts were needed to perfect the design, mechanics and food delivery system.

ANSWER: China

Explanation:
The port city on Xiamen Island is known for being home to the world's longest elevated bike path.

The installation of the world’s longest elevated bike path, resembling a winding viaduct and stretching almost five miles to connect cyclists to all five of the Xiamen’s residential areas.

At its highest point, the bicycle path rises 16 feet above the ground, but it is actually protected by an even higher road, where Xiamen’s rapid transit bus lanes are accommodated.

With a speed limit of 15 miles an hour, the path can potentially handle 2,023 bikes at one time.

The longest suspended cycle path in the world, it also conveniently has 11 exits, which connect to 11 bus stations and two subway stations.

Privately-owned bikes are welcome, and there are also over 300 for-hire bikes available for sharing.

In addition to the bike-share docking stations, the path also has plenty of space for bike parking, and some bike-centric service pavilions.

Elevated Cycling Skywalks in The World

• Award-winning Cykelslangen, or Cycle Snake, an elevated orange bike lane that spans Copenhagen’s harbour.
• Melbourne, Australia, where a plan for a $100 million ‘sky bike’ super highway is being considered.
• In the U.K., a project dubbed “SkyCycle” is the dream of Norman Foster for London. The huge highway in the sky would be suspended on pylons above the city’s existing train tracks, 49 feet wide with over 200 access points, allowing for up to 12,000 cyclists per hour.
• European bike-friendly cities include Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Berlin.

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
Adele, the English pop singer scored a perfect five awards at the 59th Grammy Awards, sweeping the top categories of album, record and song of the year.

She also restarted a tribute to George Michael.

As she accepted the album of the year award for the blockbuster “25,” the singer, born Adele Adkins, paid homage to Beyoncé.

Adele’s hit single “Hello” also collected the song award, which recognizes songwriting, and record of the year, which factors in vocal performance and record production.

In addition, she won the awards for pop vocal album and solo performance.

Beyonce, who received the most nominations this year, won two of her nine categories;

“Lemonade” won for urban contemporary album, and “Formation” won the music video award.

David Bowie’s final album “Blackstar” also picked up five Grammy Awards for alternative music album, rock song, rock performance, engineered nonclassical album and recording package.

Far more direct was the call-out to “President Agent Orange” from hip-hop collective A Tribe Called Quest.

The music was choreographed with people taking the stage in burkas and other attire representing a variety of ethnicities and genders.

Chance the Rapper, also had a big night with three Grammys. In the first award handed out, he was crowned best new artist, solidifying the industry’s broader definition of “record” and “album.”

His first Grammy, in the rap performance category, was for the track “No Problem,” featuring Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz.

Beyoncé was not the only artist with a wide nomination/win gap. Rihanna, Drake and Kanye West had eight nominations each, yet only Drake won a Grammy; his single “Hotline Bling,” won for rap/sung performance.

Comedy album winner Patton Oswalt, nominee and award presenter Margaret Cho and sibling pop duo Jesse & Joy, who won the Latin pop album Grammy for “Un Besito Mas,” also referenced social and political issues.

Country artist Sturgill Simpson, the long-shot overall album-of-the-year nominee for his boundary-pushing effort, “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth,” won the country album category.

ANSWER: Both a and c

Explanation:
Indian tabla player Sandeep Das is a part of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble ‘Sing Me Home’ that has won the Grammy in ‘World Music’ category.

Yo-Yo Ma’s ‘Sing Me Home’ features tunes composed or arranged by different global artists.

The album was released to accompany a documentary on Ma’s project titled ‘The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble’.

NY based Syrian clarinet player Kinan Azmeh, who was recently stranded overseas when U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a ban, was among those who worked on the album.

Yo-Yo Ma’s Sing Me Home features tunes composed or arranged by different global artists as it examines the ever-changing idea of home.

The album was released to accompany a documentary on Ma’s project entitled The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble.

Grammy Award winning album White Sun II has a strong Indian connection, too.

With popular names such as Adam Berry, Gurujas and Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa, this time the band had roped in the noted tabla player Abhiman Kaushal.

White Sun II, which won the 59th Grammy for being the Best New Age Album on 12th Feb 2017, features Kaushal along with Grammy-winning kora player Mamadou Diabate, and violinist Gabe Witcher.

Kaushal, originally from Hyderabad, currently works as the Adjunct Associate Professor at the department of ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Kaushal has accompanied several leading musicians, singers and dancers of North Indian classical music.

He has also recorded a soundtrack for National Geographic's Man Eaters of North India and the movie Zoolander.

ANSWER: Tianzhou-1

Explanation:
China is planning to launch its first Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft through a Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket in April.

This will be a crucial test of key technologies needed for the country's future space station, Xinhua reported on Monday.

The 13-tonne Tianzhou-1 will be launched by a new Long March 7 rocket from Wenchang in April, and dock soon after with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab 390 kilometres above the Earth.

This is according to the China Manned Space Agency(CMSA) report.

Tianzhou-1, independently developed by China, can remain in space on its own for as long as three months.

The main objective of the Tianzhou-1 mission is to test and verify on-orbit transfer of liquid propellant to Tiangong-2.

The latter last year hosted two astronauts for China's longest human spaceflight mission so far.

If successful, the spacecraft will be another major step towards China establishing a permanent human presence in space, with the Chinese Space Station(CSS) planned to be completed by 2022.

It is capable of docking with the Tiangong-2 space lab and refuelling it in addition to carrying out experiments and tests.

The Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket is scheduled to arrive at the launch centre in March, the CMSA added.

ANSWER: Tehmina Janjua

Explanation:
Career diplomat Tehmina Janjua was on 13^th Feb 2017 appointed as Pakistan's first woman foreign secretary.

Foreign Office said that Janjua will replace outgoing foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.

Tehmina Janjua will assume the post of Foreign Secretary in the first week of March 2017, Pakistan's foreign office said.

Earlier local media reports had named Pakistan high commissioner to India Abdul Basit as the front-runner for the coveted post.

She was presently serving as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

Janjua is a seasoned diplomat with a career spanning over 32 years.

She holds Master's degrees from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad and Columbia University, New York.

She has rich experience of working in bilateral and multilateral domains both at Headquarters and Missions abroad, FO said.

She also served as Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during 2011.

Janjua served as Ambassador of Pakistan to Italy from December 2011 to October 2015.

At present she is serving as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva since October 2015.

ANSWER: L&T

Explanation:
Engineering and construction company L&T inked a joint venture agreement with European defence major MBDA Missile Systems.

The JV is for development of missiles in India.

L&T will own 51 per cent stake in the JV named L&T MBDA Missile Systems and the rest 49 with the European partner.

Initially, the JV will look to develop and supply fifth generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM5s), missiles for coastal batteries and high speed target drones.

The JV will also focus on opportunities in missile and missile systems domain.

It will target prospects under different categories of defence procurement which has specific requirements for design developed and manufactured in India.

L&T is betting big on defence sector considering the government’s focus on Make In India and its decision it to procure missile systems from abroad.

L&T is targeting an annual turnover of INR 10,000 crore from its defence vertical by 2021.

The JV expects to roll out the first product in the next two years. Although it hasn’t finalised on where the missile systems will be manufactured, the company has shortlisted two out of L&T’s nine facilities.

MBDA is jointly owned by AIRBUS Group (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%) and Leonardo (25%).

About MBDA

• Industry: Defence, attack
• Founded: December 2001
• Headquarters: Paris, France; Stevenage, United Kingdom; Rome, Italy; Schrobenhausen, Germany
• CEO: Antoine Bouvier (CEO)
• Products: Missiles, missiles systems, countermeasures, countermining
• Revenue: € 2.9 billion
• Number of employees: 10,000
• Divisions: MBDA Deutschland GmbH; MBDA Inc.
• Subsidiaries: Matra Électronique
• Website: mbda-systems.com

ANSWER: Umbrella

Explanation:
International networking giant CISCO on 13^th Feb 2017 launched a cloud based secure internet gateway that provides visibility and protection against threats wherever users work.

This gateway called Umbrella provides safe access to internet everywhere users go.

The secure internet gateway helps users even if they are off VPN and provides first line of visibility and defence regardless of where the users connect from or to.

Secure internet gateway, Cisco Umbrella, can protect today's enterprise and beyond as mobility increases and new cloud services are adopted.

Umbrella stops current and emergent threats over all ports and protocols for the most comprehensive coverage.

It blocks access to malicious domains, URLs, IPs, and files before a connection is ever established or a file downloaded.

By combining "Umbrella" with CISCO Cloudlock's Cloud Access Security Broker organisations can identify which SaaS apps are being used and enforce policies to block risky or inappropriate apps.

"Umbrella" can integrate with existing systems, including security appliances, intelligence platforms or feeds, and custom, in-house tools.

This enables users to extend protection for devices and locations beyond the perimeter.

Umbrella' resolves over 100 billion internet requests every day and correlates this live data with over 11 billion historical events.

This is analysed to identify patterns, detect anomalies, and create models to automatically uncover attacker infrastructure being staged for the next threat.

About CISCO

• Type: Public
• Traded as: NASDAQ: CSCO; NASDAQ-100 Component; DJIA Component; S&P 100 Component; S&P 500 Component
• Industry: Networking equipment
• Founded: December 10, 1984, San Francisco, California
• Founders: Leonard Bosack, Sandy Lerner
• Headquarters: San José, California
• Area served: Worldwide
• Executive Chairman: John Chambers
• CEO: Chuck Robbins

ANSWER: 57%

Explanation:
Corporate India FDI overseas fell by 57% to USD 1.82 billion, in Jan 2017 according to RBI data.

Investments made in Jan 2016 amounted to USD 4.25 billion in contrast.

Of the total overseas direct investment of USD 1.82 billion, USD 246.37 million came in the form of equity money; USD 483.78 million through loans.

While the rest of USD 1.09 billion was the guarantee issued by the Indian firms in their foreign units.

Among a few major investors, Bharat Petrosources invested USD 721.42 million in four tranches in joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary in Australia and Singapore.

Intas Pharmaceuticals invested USD 344.35 million in its fully owned unit in the UK, while ONGC Videsh put in a total of USD 52.59 million in four different joint ventures in Myanmar, Russia and Vietnam.

Reliance Industries invested USD 40 million in its wholly owned energy services unit in Singapore.

ANSWER: All India Spices Exporters Forum

Explanation:
The International Spice Conference, beginning here on Feb 12, will deliberate on effective strategies and innovative technologies to improve the livelihood of spices farmers and address challenges being faced by the industry.

More than 700 delegates representing various states, Industry leaders from 40 countries, International Spice Associations representatives, Policy makers and End-Users are among those participating.

The second edition of the conference would also address food safety concerns, demand supply disparity and ways to foster sustainable growth.

The conference is being hosted by the All India Spices Exporters Forum (AISEF) which represents about to 80% of spices exports from India in collaboration with Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

AISEF celebrated its Silver Jubilee last year by laying a milestone with the first International Spice Conference (ISC) at Goa focusing on Sustainability and food safety of the spice industry.

The central theme of the conference would be “21st Century Spice Industry - Disrupt or be Disrupted.”

Sessions: India's International Spice Conference

• Spice Cultivation & Challenges Ahead,
• Products and Operational Excellence-Innovation,
• Disruption in Spice Quality standards- Food safety and Sustainability,
• Codex MRLs- Need for reforms and
• Value Added Spices- Building a Culture of Innovation