Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Jan 06, 2016

ANSWER: Kunal Shah

Explanation:
Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has named Kunal Shah, co-founder and chief executive officer of FreeCharge as the new chairman of the association. He will replace Nsiahnt Rao who relocated to Chennai to launch a startup called Freshdesk. Shah founded Free Charge in August 2010 and in 2014 it was acquired by Snapdeal. IAMAI also announced Vishwas Patel, who is chief executive officer of CCAvenue as the new treasurer.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was passed by the Parliament in the Winter session after it received the assent of the President on the 26th December, 2015 and has been published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary on 29th December, 2015. The provisions of the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2015 shall be deemed to have come into force on the 15th June, 2015.

ANSWER: Central Armed Police Forces

Explanation:
With a view to enhancing representation of women in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh approved 33% posts at Constable level for being filled up by women. The 33% reservation of Constable level posts in CRPF & CISF and 14-15% posts at Constable level in border guarding forces that is BSF, SSB & ITBP will immediately commence. CAPFs comprise 5 security forces namely Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB).

ANSWER: Shyam Benegal

Explanation:
Government of India has constituted a Committee headed by renowned film personality Shyam Benegal for Holistic interpretation of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act and Rules and the reshaping of the censor board. Apart from Mr. Benegal, the other Members of the Committee are Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Piyush Pandey, Bhawana Somaaya, Nina Lath Gupta and Joint Secretary (Films) as Member Convenor.

ANSWER: Arunima Sinha

Explanation:
Arunima Sinha, the amputee mountaineer after conquering Mount Everest,has scaled Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. Arunima, in a statement, said she started her mission on the morning of December 12 and hoisted the Indian tricolour on December 25 at the summit. Aconcagua is the highest peak outside Asia, at 6,960.8 metres.

ANSWER: Raghunandan Mandal

Explanation:
BJP MLA Raghunandan Mandal has passed away at Korka district at the age of 63. His death was condoled by Arjun Munda, and CM Raghubar Das. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

ANSWER: SH Kapadia

Explanation:
Sarosh Homi Kapadia, Ex-Chief Justice of India passed away on 4 January 2016 in Mumbai at the age of 68. He is survived by wife and a son and a daughter.Born in the 1940s, during 1990s, he was elevated to the Bench as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court, and in 1993, he was appointed as a Permanent Judge.On 12 May 2010, he was sworn in as the 38th Chief Justice of India by the President Pratibha Patil and retired in September 2012.

ANSWER: Mary Barra

Explanation:
Marry Barra was on January 4th 2016 elected as Chairman of GM Board of Directors with immediate effect succeeding Theodore Solso, who will continue serving as the Lead Independent Director of the Board. She was earlier GM’s CEO in January 2014. She began her career as a GM in the company and has served the firm in various capacities.

ANSWER: RK Mathur

Explanation:
Former defence secretary RK Mathur has been sworn in as 8th CIC by President Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi. As the CIC, Mr. Mathur will have tenure of about three years, till he attains the age of 65 years. The Central Information Commission has been headless twice since the BJP government came to power in 2014. At present there are 7 information commissioners with 3 posts lying vacant.

ANSWER: Kate Atkinson

Explanation:
British writer Kate Atkinson on 4th January 2016 won the novel of the year prize at Costa Book Awards 2015. She has won for the second time in 3 years. She won the award for A God in Ruins, a story of war and its aftermath. With this, she became the first author to receive the Costa novel prize three times: for A God in Ruins in 2016, Life After Life in 2013 and Behind the Scenes at the Museum in 1995.

ANSWER: Lyft

Explanation:
GM has invested USD 500 million in ride hailing company Lyft and forming a partnership leading to on demand, self driving cars. This is the biggest investment by the traditional automaker in the mobility company and is an acknowledgement by GM that the transportation landscape is fast changing. In May 2014, Fontinalis Partners a venture capital firm co-founded by Ford Motor Co's executive chairman Bill Ford invested this company. Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer and Ammann say the two companies began serious discussions about the investment months ago.

ANSWER: Sri Lanka

Explanation:
World’s largest blue star sapphire weighing 140.49 carats valued at USD 100 million has been found in a Sri Lankan mine. Sapphire was found in the city of Ratnapura, in southern Sri Lanka, which is known as the ’City of Gems.’It could fetch $175 million. It has been valued at less. Current record for blue star sapphire is 1395 carats. The sapphire has been named the ‘The Star of Adam’ based on the belief that Adam arrived in Sri Lanka after being sent away from the Garden of Eden. It is claimed he then lived on the slopes of a mountain now known as Adam’s Peak. Blue star sapphires are so named because of the distinctive mark found at their centre.

ANSWER: 5

Explanation:
Government of Indian abolished export duty on iron ore pellets, from 5 to 0 percent in a move that will make the commodity more competitive amidst weakening prices and falling demand. In the year 2014, government has levied a 5% export duty on iron ore pellets which are value added products of leftover low grade iron used in still making. Notification in this regard was issued by Central Board of Excise and Customs. Pellet Manufacturers Association of India Secretary General, Deepak Bhatnagar has said that industry had been lobbying the withdrawal of export duty since 2014 when it was first levied and that pellet industry’s capacity utilisation has fallen to 35%.

ANSWER: 7.98 MT

Explanation:
India has produced 7.98 MT sugar and exported 0.3 MT till December 2015-2016. Country’s sugar output rose to 7.98 MT in a percentage increase of 6.5 during the first three months of 2015-2016 while exports were 3,00,000 tonnes during the same period, according to industry body ISMA. As per the latest production data released by Indian Sugar Mills Association, overall output of the country rose to 7.98 MT in October-December 2015-2015 up from 7.49 MT in the same period a year ago. Sugar output in top sugar producing state Maharashtra rose to 3.37 MT from 3.26 MT in the review period.

ANSWER: Iran

Explanation:
Kuwait has recalled its ambassador to Iran over attacks on Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic after the latter country cut diplomatic ties following the execution of Shia cleric Al-Nimr. Several Saudi allies have followed the kingdom’s lead and scaled back diplomatic ties to Iran including Bahrain and Sudan.

ANSWER: Both of the above

Explanation:
Government of India, the State of Jharkhand and Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited have signed an MoU under the UDAY scheme or Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana. MoU is for operational and financial turnaround of discoms and this is the first MoU to be signed by a state for this scheme. MoU will aid in electrifying 2200 villages in Jharkhand and providing 24/7 electricity to all.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
With a major initiative towards fast track implementation of Namami Gange programme, the first company of Ganga Task Force Battalion was deployed at Garmukteshwar on 5th January 2015. Three such companies are set to be deployed at Allahabad, Varanasi and Kanpur. Jawans of the Ganga Task force will also be deployed along the river to ensure industrial effluents and individual polluters do not contaminate the river. The Ganga Gram Yojana was also launched at Village Puth in UP’s Hapur District with 1600 villages situated under the Ganga river bank will be developed as per the scheme. During the first phase of the programme, 200 villages were selected.

ANSWER: Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Explanation:
This would help companies of the two nations to form joint ventures for exports to other nations. When the FTA came into effect in June 2005, Pakistan’s exports to Sri Lanka were to the tune of $150 million. In 2010-11, they went up to $332 million but dropped to $260 million in 2013-14 and 2014-25, according to Rabiya Javeri Agha, Secretary of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. Under the agreement, Sri Lanka’s exports to Pakistan were valued at about $52 million, accounting for around 70 per cent of the country’s total exports to Pakistan, as per a document of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

ANSWER: Hydrogen

Explanation:
Scientists have come up with reasonably priced, efficient biomaterial which catalyses the formation of hydrogen leading to eco-friendly ways to produce the biofuel. The biomaterial was produced by Indiana University Researchers which is 150 times more efficient than unaltered form of enzyme and attains strength from being protected with protein shell or capsid of bacterial virus. The genetic material used to create the enzyme, hydrogenase, is produced by two genes from the common bacteria Escherichia coli which is inserted inside the protective capsid. Resulting biomaterial is called P22-Hyd and is produced through a simple fermentation process at room temperature and it breaks the chemical bonds of water to create hydrogen and also works in reverse to recombine hydrogen and oxygen to generate power.

ANSWER: Tiger

Explanation:
Karnataka is already No. 1 when it comes to the country's tiger population and its lush forests are home to more big cats than 406, the number thrown up by the national tiger census report in 2014. Census report released by Wildlife Institute of India in protected areas has found a healthy tiger population here. The findings clearly indicate that protected areas, located in the confluence of the Eastern and Western Ghats, have scope for adequate funding and more protection under the Project Tiger initiative.

ANSWER: Ignify

Explanation:
Hitachi Solutions India, subsidiary of Tokyo based Hitachi has acquired IT solutions provider Ignify for a non disclosed amount. With the latest acquisition Hitachi Solutions will add 450 more technical and delivery resources and expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region. Ignify has offices in the United States, India, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand as well as Japan. The company offers e-commerce end-to-end business to business and business to consumer platform. Hitachi Solutions recently set up a subsidiary in Singapore as well.