Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Feb 25, 2016

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
The Cambrian explosion refers to an evolutionary period that began 540 million years ago when a huge number of new animal species emerged.  Sea sponges have been found to predate this explosion. MIT researchers found the right number of copies required of the SMT to produce molecule 24IPC a rare one, was only possessed by sea sponges long before algae, approximately 640 million years ago- the same time rocks containing 24-IPC were formed.

ANSWER: Beijing

Explanation:
Chinese capital has overtaken Big Apple/NYC as the home to most billionaires (around 95 to 100) according to Shanghai firm  Hurun which released yearly rankings. Reports suggest China now has more billionaires than the US. Study also found that Beijing had close to 32 billionaires more while NY just gained 4 in the past year. While Moscow was third, Hong Kong and Shanghai came in 4th and 5th.

ANSWER: Ciudadanos

Explanation:
This agreement was for supporting the Socialist bid to form a new government. Socialist leader Sanchez can now garner support from Ciudadanos. Conservative Popular Party with 123 seats has said it will vote against Sanches while far left Podemos has said it will do so if he formed a deal with Ciudadanos. The main tangle behind Socialist Party and Podemos is the latter's insistence on allowing the northeastern Catalonia region to hold a referendum on secession. The elections in Spain this time have left to Spain’s most fragmented Parliament in decades, shattering the popularity of left and right wing parties alike.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
Distinguished scientist KN Vyas has taken over as Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on 23rd February 2016, taking over from Dr. Sekhar Basu, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to Union Government DAE. Prior to this, Vyas was Associate Director for Reactor Projects Group in BARC and joined the institution after graduating from BARC training school. He has over 35 years of experience in the field.

ANSWER: Justice HL Dattu

Explanation:
65 year old Former Chief Justice of India HL/ Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu was selected as the next Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on 23rd February 2016 with a tenure of 5 years.  Date was cleared for appointment by a committee led by PM Narendra Modi and constituted of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha P J Kurien. Date’s name has been sent to President Pranab Mukherjee for approval. He retired from CJI of SC on 2nd December 2015.

ANSWER: Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Explanation:
Justice Dinesh Maheshwari of Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC was on 24th February 2016 appointed and sworn in as CJ of Meghalaya HC.  He succeeds Justice Uma Nath Singh who retired in January 2015 and Justice SR Singh was serving as acting CJI till then. Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee has been appointed as the CJ of the Karnataka HC while Justice Vineet Saran has been appointed new CJ of the Odisha HC.

ANSWER: Rajendra Singh

Explanation:
This marks the first time force will get a chief from its internal cadre since being set up in 1978 as the 4th armed force in the country after the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. He will take charge on February 29th, succeeding Vice-Admiral H C S Bisht who has been appointed as the Eastern Navy Command chief. The Coast Guard has previously always had Vice-Admirals on deputation from the Navy as its chiefs. Rajendra Singh is the first regular Coast guard officer commissioned into the armed force to become its chief. Singh will work at a time when Coast Guard is set to become a 100 aircraft 200 ship force by 2018. It currently has 135 ships.

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
Shri Amitava Bhattacharya, IAS officer 1980 batch retired Chairman Staff Selection Commission has been appointed as Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission at New Delhi. Other appointed include IAS officer of MP cadre 1979 batch Shri Bimal Julia and IPS , MT cadre 1979 batch Divya Prakash Sinha. While Julia was previously Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Sinha was Secretary-Security at the Cabinet Secretariat. Appointments have been made for five years from the date on which they enter upon their office or till they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier, as per the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005.

ANSWER: South Africa

Explanation:
The war exercise between Brazil, India and South Africa kicked off on 19th February 2016 at Goa and will conclude on 29th February 2016. This marks the first time the exercise is being conducted in Indian waters, with previous editions being held in South Africa. The main aim of the exercise is to increase interoperability amongst the 3 navies as well as develop common understanding and procedures for maritime security operations. The thrust of exercises at sea in 2016 will be on Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Surface firings, Air Defences, Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS), Flying Operations, Search and Rescue and tactical procedures.

ANSWER: Hyderabad

Explanation:
The survey was released on 23rd February and was conducted on 230 cities. It helps companies and organizations determine compensation and hardship allowances for international staff. It is compiled by Mercer which set that the highest quality of life was offered by Vienna while the lowest quality was Baghdad. & Indian cities with their ranks are provided below:

• Hyderabad-139
• Pune – 144
• Bangalore – 145
• Chennai – 150
• Mumbai – 152
• Kolkata – 160
• New Delhi – 61

ANSWER: INS Arihant

Explanation:
The submarine has passed deep see driving drills and weapons launch test and is the first of five SSBNS planned for induction.  This is the lead ship of its class and the 6000 tonne vessel was constructed under the Advanced Technology Vessel project at Vizag’s Ship Building Centre. Arihant was launched in 2009 at the Kargil War Victory Day or Vijay Diwas anniversary. Arihant has 4 vertical launch tubes which carry 12 smaller missiles/4 larger missiles.

ANSWER: Sea Sponge

Explanation:
The first animal to appear on earth was the sea sponge, according to MIT researchers, as they predate the Cambrian explosion during which large number of new animals came about. MIT studied the discovery through analysis of molecular fossils which are trace amounts of molecules found in ancient rocks surviving till current times.

ANSWER: 24-Isopropylcholesterol

Explanation:
MIT researchers have discovered that a rare molecule called 24-Isopropylcholesterol has been found in rocks at least 640 million years old. It is currently produced by sea sponges and a team has tried to find out which gene is implicated for producing 24-IPC, what organisms have this gene and when it evolved in these organisms . Team narrowed it to a single gene called SMT/sterol methyltransferase which causes organisms to produce 24-IPC if it has the correct number of copies. SMT is found in both sea sponge and algae species. Through gene analysis based on fossil record, scientists found sea sponges producing this molecule long before algae.

ANSWER: Cristiano Ronaldo

Explanation:
Real Madrid star striker Cristiano Ronaldo has attained social media history by being the first athlete in the world to reach 200 million followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He has 109.7 million followers on Facebook and 49.6 million followers on Instagram. He also has 50.7 million Twitter followers. He got more followers than NBA stars like Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant. Currently, Messi does not have a Twitter account. But the Barcelona star recently won the Ballon d’Or.

ANSWER: Both b and c

Explanation:
The first fast acting anti rabies drug of the world which deactivates the deadly virus and provides protection in the case of severe dog bites, has been developed by Pune’s Serum Institute of India and US based Mass Biologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Drug us called RMAb or rabies human monoclonal antibody or Rabishield. It precludes chances of transmitting blood none infections there in rabies immunoglobulin, a current treatment option for severe dog bites. Drug has been manufactured through the use of recombinant DNA technology and is 25% cheaper than existing rabies immunoglobulins which means it will meet needs of developed countries. In India around 20,000 deaths are caused by rabies each year. WHO estimates that 55,000 deaths are caused by rabies in Africa and Asia each year. The new drug is suitable for severe dog bite cases because it is an human IgG1 monoclonal antibody that specifically binds to a conformational epitope of G glycoprotein of rabies virus and instantly deactivates it.

ANSWER: Google

Explanation:
Google has entered into a global partnership with TechHub for benefiting startups from India for the first time. Partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs will create opportunities for TechHub’s 700 plus tech startups across the world including India. This strong partnership will empower entrepreneurs to go international from day one. TechHub members in Bengaluru and other locations such as Madrid, Warsaw and London will have access to programmes and assistance from Google. Tech hub members are from 60 nations and each member can access Google in 6 international cities.

ANSWER: Infosys

Explanation:
India’s second largest software export firm Infosys has extended the tenure of CEO Vishal Sikka by another 2 years till 2021 when the India’s 160 billion IT industry bellwether will enjoy its strongest period of growth. Infosys has beaten market expectations in the last three quarters and beaten larger rivals like TCS. Infosys will also revise his annual compensation on account of the new agreement.

ANSWER: Telecom Infra Project

Explanation:
This project will look at creation of new and alternative technologies to build and deploy telecom infrastructure. Partners include HCL, Nokia and Intel. TIP will focus on open designs for three areas of telecommunications hardware and software: access points, the backhaul network to connect them, and network core and management systems. Facebook said TIP members will contribute designs in three areas- access, back haul, and core and management. TIP will apply the design principles of the Open Compute Project, which is a Facebook project to share data centre designs.

ANSWER: Encription

Explanation:
BlackBerry has acquired UK based cyber security consultancy Encription, moving the company into the service industry to morph into software focused entity amid current turnaround. Smartphone pioneer sees massive potential in the area which is currently worth USD 16.5 billion per annum on an international scale. Acquisition will bring team of 40 cybersecurity professionals into BlackBerry’s folded also provide the company an opportunity to cross sell its own security products. Last year in September, BlackBerry acquired Good Technology for USD 425 million after acquisition of secure networked crisis communications provider AtHoc.

ANSWER: Ola

Explanation:
Taxi aggregator Ola has entered into agreement with the UP government to create 50,000 entrepreneurship opportunities across the state. Ola will work with state government to ensure skill development of youth in UP as part of the pact. It will also work with the UP state government to launch personalised mobility solutions like Ola Auto, Ola Shuttle and Ola Share.  Ola has also added ride sharing facilities recently in cities like Pune.