Current Affairs Questions & Answers - July 28, 2017

ANSWER: Labour Code on Wages Bill

Explanation:
The Union Cabinet has approved the Labour Code on Wages Bill which will ensure a minimum wage across all sectors by integrating existing labour related laws.

The Labour Code on Wages Bill consolidates the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

At present, laws on wages do not cover workers getting monthly wage of more than Rs 18,000.

Moreover, these laws are only applicable for scheduled industries or establishments. Even there are about half a dozen definitions of wages in various acts across the Centre and states, which employers have to grapple with.

The Second National Commission on Labour has recommended that the existing labour laws should be broadly grouped into four or five labour codes on Wages; Industrial Relations; Social Security & Welfare and Safety and Working Conditions on functional basis.

Labour Code: Know More

• Under the Labour Code on Wages Bill, the Union Labour Ministry is planning to streamline the definition of wages by amalgamating four wage-related statutes.
• The code empowers the Centre to set a minimum wage across sectors, and states will have to maintain that. However, states will be able to provide higher minimum wage in their jurisdiction than fixed by the Centre since labour is subject in the concurrent list.
• The Labour Code on Wages Bill also marks the first major initiative of Union Government in amalgamating labour laws for improving the ease of doing business as well as ensuring universal minimum wage to all.
• The minimum wage will be applicable on all classes of workers, even workers getting monthly pay of higher than Rs 18,000 will be legally entitled to a minimum wage.
• The proposed legislation is expected to benefit over 4 crore employees across the country.

ANSWER: Axis Bank

Explanation:
Private sector lender Axis Bank has decided to acquire digital wallet FreeCharge from e-commerce firm Snapdeal in an all cash deal worth ₹385 crore.

Axis bank said in a statement that it has entered in an agreement with Jasper Infotech Private Limited (which owns and operate Snapdeal) to acquire 100% stake in its subsidiaries.

These include FreeCharge Payment Technologies Private Limited and Accelyst Solutions Private Limited, which together constitute the digital payments business under the FreeCharge brand.


Axis Bank has a 5% market share which means 95% are not their customers indicating the opportunity to scale up.The acquisition will need approval from the RBI.

According to RBI regulations, any bank can have only one license for a prepaid payments instrument (PPI) like FreeCharge.

Since Axis Bank already have an PPI license, the lender have to surrender one of the licenses. Axis Bank wants to retain the FreeCharge brand.

FreeCharge

• FreeCharge has over 50 million registered wallet users and over 2,00,000 merchants.
• FreeCharge wallet is used extensively to make payments for telecom, DTH and broadband recharges and for utility payments including electricity, gas and water bills.
• The wallet will incorporate Axis Bank products like digital savings bank account, instant loans, credit card application, buying insurance and mutual fund products, among others.

ANSWER: Hillary Clinton

Explanation:
Hillary Clinton is calling her new book What Happened and promises unprecedented candour as she remembers her stunning defeat last year to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Simon & Schuster said that Ms. Clinton’s book will be a highly personal work that also is a “cautionary tale” about Russian interference in last year’s election and its threat to democracy.

In public remarks since last fall, the Democrat has cited Russia as a factor in her defeat to her Republican opponent, along with a letter sent by then-FBI Director James Comey less than two weeks before the election.

Mr. Comey’s letter, sent to Congress on Oct. 28, said the FBI “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” into the private email server that Ms. Clinton used as Secretary of State.

Days later, Mr. Comey wrote that the FBI did not find anything new.

Clinton was the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election in the US.

What Happened is scheduled to come out September 12. Ms. Clinton’s previous works include the 2003 memoir Living History, published while she was a U.S. senator from New York, and a book about her years as secretary of state, Hard Choices, which came out in 2014 as she prepared to launch her presidential candidacy.

She also wrote It Takes a Village - And Other Lessons Children Teach Us when she was U.S. First Lady.

Ms. Clinton’s upcoming memoir isn’t the first political book to be called What Happened. Scott

McClellan, a former White House press secretary during the George W. Bush administration, released a book with the same title in 2008.

Mr. McClellan’s memoir was an unexpectedly critical take on his former boss that became a bestseller.

Hillary Clinton: Know More

• Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician who was the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009.
• She is also a former First Lady of the United States
• Born: 26 October 1947 Edgewater Hospital, Chicago
• Party: Democratic Party
• Spouse: Bill Clinton (m. 1975)
• Education: Yale Law School (1969–1973)

ANSWER: China

Explanation:
BRICS countries-Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa have agreed to work together to ensure stable employment and better quality of life for their people.

Decision in this regard was taken at the 2017 Labour and Employment Ministers’ meeting held in Chongqing, China.

The meeting comes ahead of 2017 BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, China in September 2017.

Labour and Employment Ministers from BRICS counters discussed topics ranging from skills-driven development to a universally sustainable social security system.

They passed BRICS Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration. It covers a variety of areas that are of critical importance to all BRICS countries including India and called upon strengthening collaboration and cooperation on these through appropriate institutionalisation.

These areas covered under the declaration consist of Governance in the Future of Work, Universal and sustainable social security systems, Skills for development in BRICS, BRICS Social Security Cooperation Framework, BRICS Network of Labour Research Institutions and BRICS entrepreneurship research.

They also presented four documents, including one on common ground in labour market governance and an action plan on skills-driven poverty alleviation.

They also held that they should work together to boost employment and inclusive growth, enhancing the skills of professionals to alleviate poverty.

ANSWER: SurfNet

Explanation:
Scientists including one of Indian origin have developed new artificial intelligence (AI) software called SurfNet that can create three dimensional (3D) models from 2D photographs.

When fully developed SurfNet could have significant applications in the fields of 3D searches on the internet researchers.

In an advance version it can allow future robots to navigate in the real world.

SurfNet software using hundreds of thousands of 2D shapes of objects can reconstruct it model in 3D.

It utilizes machine learning to analyse 2D shapes and convert them into projected 3D forms.

In addition to transforming 2D shapes, the technology can also merge two shapes into one another. The technology becomes more refined over time as the AI learns more about the shapes.

Future potential application: It can be used in robotics, object recognition and even self-driving cars.

SurfNet will give them ability to understand the 3D environment around them using standard 2D cameras. It can also be used to create 3D content for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) by simply using standard 2D photos.

AI: Know More

• Artificial intelligence is the branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans.
• In contrast to normal hardware and software, AI enables a machine to perceive and respond to its changing environment.
• It is also called super intelligence

ANSWER: Japan

Explanation:
Embattled Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada on 28th July 2017 announced resigning, after a series of gaffes, missteps and a cover-up at her ministry that have contributed to a sharp plunge in public support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Ms. Inada (58), an Abe protege who shares his conservative views, had already expected to be replaced in a likely cabinet reshuffle next week that Mr. Abe hopes will help repair his ratings.

Support for the Prime Minister has sunk below 30 per cent in some polls, due to scandals over suspected cronyism and a view among many voters that he and his aides took them for granted.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida would add the defence portfolio to his duties, to eliminate any gap at a time when Japan faces tough security challenges, such as volatile North Korea.

The resignation coincided with a report of an investigation into suspicions that defence ministry officials tried to hide logs showing worsening security in South Sudan.

This is where Japanese troops joined in a U.S.-led peacekeeping operation.

Troop deployment in the dangerous environment violated conditions set for such activities in line with Japan's pacifist constitution.

No Japanese troops have died in combat since World War Two and the growing chaos in South Sudan fuelled concern.

Mr. Abe, who returned to power in December 2012 promising to revive the economy and bolster defence, had until recently been seen as likely to win a third term when his tenure ends in September 2018, putting him on track to be Japan's longest-serving prime minister.

But the ratings plunge is making it more likely that LDP rivals will challenge him for the top party post - and the premiership.

The main opposition Democratic Party, however, has failed to capitalise on Mr. Abe's troubles.

ANSWER: India Quake

Explanation:
Union Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Dr. Harshvardhan launched an app “India Quake” on the occasion of Foundation Day of Ministry of Earth Sciences in New Delhi on 27th July.

National Centre for Seismology (NCS) operates national seismological network with 84 stations.

These stations are connected to NCS headquarter through VSAT for real time data communication.

In the event of an earthquake NCS locates them using data from its network and disseminate earthquake parameters to all the concerned government department and other stake holders through SMS, email and fax.

However this causes some delay in dissemination and also restricts the number of recipients.

To overcome this, a Mobile App has been developed by the NCS for automatic dissemination of earthquake parameter (location, time and magnitude) after the occurrence of earthquakes.

The App will make information dissemination faster with no restrictions on the number of recipients. Any citizen can download this App and get the real time earthquake location information on his/her mobile.

Other than scientific and administrative benefits of the App, it will help in reducing panic amongst people during an earthquake.

For example, if an earthquake occurs in Hindukush region, Afghanistan and is strongly felt in Delhi, then people in Delhi will know in less than 2 minutes that the earthquake has actually occurred in Afghanistan and not in Delhi.

There are two categories of events here, scrutinized and unscrutinized. Unscrutinized events are the earthquake whose parameters have been estimated automatically by the software using the incoming waveform data from remote stations.unscrutinised

These solutions are scrutinized and confirmed by the NCS, which form the category of scrutinized events.

ANSWER: An app

Explanation:
Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Dr. Harshvardhan launched an app “Sagar Vani” on the occasion of Foundation Day of Ministry of Earth Sciences in New Delhi.

ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) under Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) provides ocean information services for the benefit of various user communities in the country.

The services are more fruitfully utilized when the advisories reaches the end user in timely manner and in user readable format.

Now-a-days ICT facilities in the country are accessible to large population of the country and that plays a major role in effective dissemination of information to the end user.

ESSO-INCOIS has adopted the state-of-the-art technologies and tools available in the country for the timely dissemination of Ocean Information and Advisory Services.

This includes Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisories, Ocean State Forecast (OSF), High Wave Alerts and Tsunami early warnings.

There are 3288 marine fishing villages and 1511 marine fish landing centres with marine fisher folk population of 3,999,214.

About 37.8% (1,511,703) of marine fisher folk are engaged in active fishing.

About 927,120 fishermen were involved in actual fishing either full or part time.

ESSO-INCOIS is serving about 3.17 lakhs of users directly through in-house efforts as well as through the partnering organizations including NGO’s and there is yet to cover.

Hence, it is necessary to target the reach of information to the 9.27 lakh involved in actual fishing either full or part time.

Presently, the advisories are being disseminated to the stakeholders from different service sections and through various stakeholders and partners, which might cause delay in dissemination of the services. I

n order to effectively and timely disseminate the advisories, directly from the lab to the end user, an Integrated Information Dissemination System (IDS) named as “SAGAR VANI” has been developed by ESSO-INCOIS through the Industry M/s. Gaian Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

This ‘Sagar Vani’ system compares with the most advanced countries’ services in terms of speed of delivery, omni channel capabilities and diverseness of services.

With this system, the services will be disseminated in local languages using advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

For the first time in India, we are also using the power of television and cable network mediums for topical and alert dissemination services.

The ‘Sagar Vani’ will now serve the coastal community, especially the fishermen community with the advisories and alerts towards their livelihood as well as their safety at Sea.

Sagar Vani: Know More

• The ‘Sagar Vani’ is a software platform where various dissemination modes will be integrated on a single central server.
• The ‘Sagar Vani’ includes Multi Lingual SMS, Voice Call / Audio Advisory, Mobile Apps (User / Admin modules), Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), Email, GTS, Fax, Digital Display Boards, Radio / Television broadcast units, IVRS, Cloud Channels, etc.
• The system also has facility to provide access to various stakeholders (NGOs, State Fishery Departments, Disaster Management Authorities, etc.).
• This is so that they too will be able to further disseminate these ocean information and alerts to the user community.

ANSWER: 2017

Explanation:
Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forests & Climate Change Dr. Harshvardhan inaugurated the 11th Foundation Day of Ministry of Earth Sciences in New Delhi on 27th July, 2017.

Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is mandated to provide the nation with the best possible services in forecasting the monsoons and other weather/climate parameters, ocean state, earthquakes, tsunamis and other phenomena related to earth systems.

It works for the Public Safety and socio-economic benefits.

The Ministry also deals with science and technology for exploration and exploitation of ocean resources (living and non-living), and play nodal role for Antarctic/Arctic/Himalayas and Southern Ocean research.

The foundation day lecture was given by Dr. Michael McPhaden, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, who is president of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Life Time Excellence Award was presented to Professor K. Gopalan for his significant contribution in the field of isotope geoscience.

The National Awards for Ocean Science & technology, Atmospheric Science & technology and Geoscience & technology were given to Prof. P. N. Vinayachandran, Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy and Professsor K. S. Krishna respectively.

The Young Researcher Awards were presented to Dr. Dhanya C. T. and Dr. Vikram Vishal for their outstanding work in Earth Science & Technology.

In addition, certificates of merit were also presented to the scientists from MoES.

ANSWER: N Dharam Singh

Explanation:
N. Dharam Singh, former Chief Minister of Karnataka, passed away at a private hospital in Bengaluru on 27th July, 2017 after a heart attack. He was 80.

Mr. Singh was the 17th Chief Minister. He headed the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government from May 2004 to February 2006.

Born on December 25, 1936 at Nelogi village of Jewargi taluk in Kalaburagi district, Mr. Singh represented the Karnataka Legislative Assembly seven times without a defeat.

He was a member of the Lok Sabha from the Bidar constituency once (2009).

Mr. Singh, a seasoned politician, was known for his gentle demeanour and knew each voter by name in his constituency - Jewargi, which he nurtured from 1978 to 2008.

Though he belonged to a small community, he won the loyalty of voters going beyond caste affiliations.

He was minister under various Chief Ministers – Devaraj Urs, R. Gundu Rao, S. Bangarappa, M. Veerappa Moily and S.M. Krishna.

He handled many portfolios such as Home, Excise, Social Welfare, Urban Development, Public Works, and Revenue.

He also served as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

Owing to the hung Assembly after the 2004 elections, the Congress joined hands with the JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and formed the coalition government.

Mr. Singh was the unanimous choice of both parties to head the government. For 20 months, he led the coalition government, which saw many ups and downs.

Later, the Dharam Singh government collapsed following the withdrawal of support by the JD(S), which joined hands with the BJP and formed another coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy that lasted for 20 months.

The State government, post noon, declared a holiday for all schools and government offices. Government offices and schools in Kalaburgi and Bidar districts will remain closed.