Current Affairs Questions & Answers - May 07, 2016

ANSWER: Finance Bill 2016

Explanation:
Black money compliance window disclosure will be kept secret. Disclosures made in the 4 month compliance window beginning June 1 for domestic black money holders to reveal all will be kept secret according to an amendment to the Finance Bill 2016 approved by the LS. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley bought 21 amendments to the Finance Bill 2016 approved by the LS.

ANSWER: Iran

Explanation:
India and Iran have agreed to clear US $ 6.4 billion in oil payments via the European banks. Central banks of India and Iran have reached an agreement to use European banks to process pending oil payments to Tehran. Unlocking USD 6.4 billion in stalled funds, the way was cleared for global banking channels after sanctions had been imposed on Iran in 2011 over its nuclear programme. These sanctions were eased in January.

ANSWER: Domestic

Explanation:
A proposal for relaxing norms for utilisation of domestic coal to bring down the cost of power generation has been approved by the government. Government has also issued a new notified tariff policy located within 50 km radius of the sewage treatment plant of a municipality or local body will in order of closeness to sewage treatment plant use treated wage water produced by these bodies.

ANSWER: Satoshi Tsunakawa

Explanation:
Japanese firm Toshiba Corp has nominated Satoshi Tsunakawa as the next CEO following a managing accounting scandal. Currently, Tsunakawa is the senior vice president of the company

• US $1.3 billion nook keeping scandal pushed Toshiba to streamline business plans and announce job cuts.

ANSWER: Snapdeal

Explanation:
Online marketplace Snapdeal has acquired marketing and personalisation service company Targeting Mantra for an undisclosed amount. The start up’s focus is on building products for enhancement of customer buying process.

• Personalisation of services is the ket feature here
• Saurabh Nangia and Rahul Singh founded TargetingMantra in March 2013 based out of Palo Alto and Gurgaon.

ANSWER: Running

Explanation:
Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand has won the gold in the women’s 100m dash with fast timing in the second leg of the Indian Grand Prix athletics series at NIS tracks

• Dutee also crossed the finish line in 11.37 seconds and had earlier a national record of 11.33 secs in the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships in New Delhi last month.
• She had, however, missed the Rio Olympics qualification mark of 11.32secs by one-hundredth of a second.

ANSWER: 660 million times the sun

Explanation:
These groundbreaking observations were made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile by an international team of scientists that includes Rutgers associate professor Andrew J. Baker.

• ALMA, the world's largest astronomical project, is a telescope with 66 radio antennas about 16,400 feet above sea level.
• To measure NGC 1332's central black hole, scientists tapped ALMA's high-resolution observations of carbon monoxide emissions from a giant disc of cold gas orbiting the hole. They also measured the speed of the gas.
• They were able to determine the speed of a disk of cold molecular gas and dust orbiting the supermassive black hole at the heart of galaxy NGC 1332.
• The researchers calculated the black hole’s mass to be 660 million times greater than that of the Sun.

ANSWER: Parashar Kulkarni

Explanation:
Indian author Parashar Kulkarni has won the regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize for 2016. His story 'Cow and Company' about four men in search of a cow was adjudged the best from Asia.

• Kulkarni, an assistant professor in Social Sciences at Yale NUS College Singapore, writes about the intersection of religion and political economy. "
• Cow and Company is politically grounded, funny and interesting

ANSWER: Sadiq Khan

Explanation:
Labour candidate Sadiq Khan’s imminent election as London’s first ethnic-minority and Muslim Mayor in the poll held on May 5 will reinforce the city’s credentials as one of Europe’s more diverse and inclusive capitals.

• The UK voted on May 5 to the Assemblies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, 124 councils in England, and three mayoralties.

ANSWER: Pop Francis

Explanation:
Pope Francis has been presented with the International Charlemagne Prize, one of Europe’s most prestigious prizes, for his “message of hope and encouragement.”

• It is awarded annually
• The Charlemagne prize is awarded annually by the German city of Aachen for contributions to European unity.
• Previous winners include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and St John Paul II, who received a special edition of the prize in 2004.

ANSWER: Titan

Explanation:
Titan Company Limited will acquire a majority stake in CaratLane, an online jewellery store strengthening its presence in the e-commerce segment, a top official said.

• The acquisition (of CaratLane) will bring significant capabilities in the e-commerce space along with a brand, a customer segment and a business model that is very exciting,” said Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited.
• The board of directors of Titan Company approved on Friday the acquisition of majority stake in Chennai-based Carat Lane Trading Pvt. Ltd. for an undisclosed sum.

ANSWER: Magnetically levitated train

Explanation:
A Chinese city, Changsha, launched the country's first locally made magnetically levitated (maglev) train on Friday. Another Chinese city, Changchun, is getting ready to set into motion China's first hybrid railway that can run on two or three different kinds of energy.

• The maglev in Changsa city of China's Hunan province is a middle-to-low speed train that will connect the local railway station to the airport across 18.55 kms.
• It will take 19 minutes and 30 seconds to cover the journey with just one stop in between.
• The train can go up to a maximum speed of 100 kms an hour carrying 365 passengers.

ANSWER: Facebook

Explanation:
National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) on 5 May 2016 signed a partnership agreement with Facebook to build a product design initiative in India.

• The agreement focus on assisting the innovation ecosystem by helping product based companies to build solutions in key sectors where technology can play a transformational role.
• This initiative is aimed towards encouraging Indian entrepreneurs to become problem solvers and develop solutions based on innovation and design thinking.

Private sector lender ICICI Bank became the first financial institution in the country to tie up with the BRICS Grouping-promoted New Development Bank (NDB) for a partnership in bond issuances, co-financing, treasury management and human resources. As part of the pact, the two lenders — NDBs first president is ICICI Bank veteran KV Kamath — will look at each other as “preferred partners”.

ANSWER: ICICI Bank

Explanation:
A partnership has been signed between ICICI Bank and NDB who will also leverage a mutually beneficial partnership in other areas such as treasury risk management, account and cash management services and human resource development.It recently announced its first set of loans involving financial assistance of USD 811 million to support building of 2,370 mw of power capacity within the member-countries. Out of this USD 250 million has come to state-run Canara Bank for on-lending to renewable energy projects.