Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Nov 08, 2017

ANSWER: Plan India

Explanation:
Goa ranked top and Bihar featured at the lowest in Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI) released by Child development NGO Plan India on November 1 during its national conference in Delhi.

The composite index has been developed within research for the NGO's Plan for Every Child campaign which is aimed at comprehensively understanding the dimensions of various problems affecting children, particularly girls, in difficult circumstances.

The multidimensional index, which provides a state wise ranking, has been calculated by analysing four issues pertinent to the situation of girls - child safety/protection, poverty, health and education.

In the ranking, Goa is followed by Kerala, Mizoram and Sikkim. Bihar ranked the lowest at 30, with Delhi faring only slightly better at 29 and Uttar Pradesh at 28.

The highest ranking north Indian state is Himachal Pradesh at the sixth position.

Analysing more than 170 indicators, the index has been developed to serve as measurable evidence with the aim of assisting and influencing policy makers.

The education GVI, for instance, is calculated with the help of more than just state literacy figures. The state's school dropout rate, teacher to student ratio and existing school infrastructure are also accounted for in it.

The idea in this case is to analyse available data for all factors which comprehensively impact the ability for a girl child to get an education.

Similarly, poverty GVI accounts for income, assets and land ownership indicators.

Gender vulnerability index, plan India Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI) released by Child development NGO Plan India ranks the states of India on a composite parameter of child safety/protection, poverty, education and health.

Going forward, the organisation plans to present a further breakdown in the form of a district-level quantitative index, based on the same indicators.

Karnataka is an example of a state that is overall doing well [rank 7], yet there is a considerable divide between the north and the south of the state.

Goa - 0.649
Kerala -0.625
Mizoram - 0.620
Sikkim - 0.604857
Manipur - 0.60374
Himachal Pradesh - 0.595334
Karnataka - 0.592642
Punjab - 0.585888
Maharashtra - 0.580309
Uttarakhand - 0.573855
Tamil Nadu - 0.57324
Telangana - 0.57186
Andhra Pradesh - 0.569104
Nagaland - 0.560614
Chattisgarh - 0.547195

ANSWER: Odisha Higher Education Programme for Excellence and Equity

Explanation:
A Financing Agreement for IBRD loan of US$ 119 million (equivalent) for the "Odisha Higher Education Programme for Excellence & Equity (OHEPEE) Project" was signed with the World Bank.

The Objective of the project is to improve the quality of 'students' equitable access to selected institutions and enhance governance of the higher education system in Odisha.

Project Component:

Result Areas are:
(I) Improved quality of and students' equitable access to selected institutions of higher education: Institutional Development Plan (IDP) Grants (performance – based Financing)

(II) Enhanced governance of the higher education system: (i)Improvement of governance in colleges (ii)Improvement of financial and procurement management and accounting in all government and government-aided colleges.

ANSWER: Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process Regulations

Explanation:
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has amended its Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process Regulations to ensure that as part of due diligence, prior to approval of a Resolution Plan, the antecedents, credit worthiness and credibility of a Resolution Applicant, including promoters, are taken into account by the Committee of Creditors.

With a view to ensure that the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process results in a credible and viable Resolution Plan, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has carried-out amendments to the IBBI (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Resolution Process, 2016 (CIRP Regulations).

The Revised Regulations make it incumbent upon the Resolution Professional to ensure that the Resolution Plan presented to the Committee of Creditors contains relevant details to assess the credibility of the Resolution Applicants.

The details to be provided would include details with respect to the Resolution Applicant in terms of convictions, disqualifications, criminal proceedings, categorization as wilful defaulter as per RBI guidelines, debarment imposed by SEBI, if any, and transaction, if any, with the Corporate Debtor in the last two years.

Apart from the above, the Resolution Professional has to also submit details in respect of transactions observed or determined, if any, covered under Section 43 (Preferential Transactions); Section 45(Undervalued Transactions); Section 50 (Extortionate Credit Transactions); Section 66 (Fraudulent Transactions) under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

By virtue of the above mentioned changes in the Regulations, the Resolution Applicants, including promoters, are put to a stringent test with respect to their credit worthiness and credibility.

Further, it also imposes greater responsibility on the Resolution Professionals and the Committee of Creditors in discharging their duties.

The amendments are available at www.mca.gov.in and www.ibbi.gov.in.

ANSWER: Grahak Sadak Koyla Vitaran App

Explanation:
Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Railways & Coal has launched 'Grahak Sadak Koyla Vitaran App' benefitting customers of Coal India Limited (CIL) lifting coal through road mode.

The customer friendly app, launched recently in Kolkata on CIL's Foundation Day, helps achieve transparency in despatch operations, as a tool to monitor, whether the despatches are made on the fair principle of 'First in First Out' and keeps track of all the activities from issuance of Sale Order to physical delivery of coal by road.

The main benefits of the App for the customers, against the Sale Orders issued, include easy accessibility of the information at the click of the button, apart from transparency in the system of loading programme and despatch.

The app also helps in logistics planning for lifting of coal in tune with the loading programmes.

It further helps in improved planning of procurement, production and stock management by the customers.

The main features of the app are that it provides date-wise, truck-wise quantity of coal delivered against the Sale Orders and information related to Scheme-wise, Colliery-wise, Grade-wise, customer-wise details of Sale Orders issued during a period.

In terms of loading it provides allotment verses lifting status in details from different sources truck by truck and summary of the despatch.

Coal India is addressing its customer needs in a big way and made 'ease of doing business' a major consumer commitment.

The launching of the app is also one of the initiatives of CIL towards achieving the much cherished goal of 'Digital India' and transparency.

Need for the App

• It may be recalled that CIL in a move to rush more coal to power stations, coal supplies to plants located in shorter distances have been offered through road mode from available pithead stock.
• As a result, power plants located within 50 Kms to 60 Kms from the mines may take as much coal from the nearest mines as they can.
• During 2016-17 despatch of coal through road mode had been about 140 Million Tonnes (MTs) out of the total despatch of 542 MTs by CIL accounting for 26%.
• The impetus given in the current fiscal has improved movement of coal through road considerably.
• As of end of October 2017 the movement of coal through road mode at a little over 93 MTs accounted for 29% of the total coal despatch of 317 Mts.
• The road despatch during the current fiscal till October 2017 went up by 12 MTs compared to same period last fiscal.

ANSWER: SHe-Box (http://shebox.nic.in/)

Explanation:
WCD Minister Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi on 7th Nov 2017 launched a comprehensive SHe-Box online complaint Management System for women working in both public and private organizations to lodge complaints of sexual harassment at workplace.

The SHe-Box was launched in New Delhi today to ensure the effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act (the SH Act), 2013.

The new SHe-Box portal offers the facility of making online complaints of sexual harassment at workplace to all women employees in the country including government and private employees.

Those who have already filed a written complaint with the concerned Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) or Local Complaint Committee (LCC) constituted under the SH Act are also eligible to file their complaint through this portal.

Launching the online facility, the WCD Minister, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said that this is a historic step since it is probably the first ever time that the government of any country has launched an online portal to receive complaints of sexual harassment at workplace.

SHe-Box

• SHe-Box portal is an effort to provide speedier remedy to women facing sexual harassment at workplace.
• Once a complaint is submitted to the portal, it will be directly sent to the ICC/LCC of the concerned employer.
• Through this portal, WCD as well as complainant can monitor the progress of inquiry conducted by the ICC/LCC.
• This is a proactive step taken by MWCD in the wake of the worldwide social media campaign #MeToo, where women have related their experience of facing sexual harassment and abuse.
• The portal can be accessed at the link given below:
• Link to the SHe-Box portal: http://shebox.nic.in/
• Users of SHe-Box also have the option of interacting with Ministry of WCD through this portal, with an assured time-bound response.
• The portal also provides information on 112 institutions empaneled by MWCD to conduct training/workshops on the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace.
• It also has the option for resource persons and institutions willing to contribute to training on this subject in various organisations to submit their applications.
• SHe-Box will provide a platform to these empanelled institutes/organisations to share their capacity building activities with the Ministry which in turn will be able to monitor the activities of these institutes/organizations so empanelled from across the country.
• The Ministry has published a Handbook and Training Module on the SH Act to provide information about the provisions of the Act in easy to use practical manner.
• The private organizations are encouraged to customize the Training Module as per their extant service rules and disciplinary procedures prescribed therein.

ANSWER: Nirbhay

Explanation:
India on Nov 7, 2017 successfully flight-tested its indigenous Nirbhay (the fearless) land-attack cruise missile, which can deliver nuclear warheads to a strike range of 1,000-km, after a string of failures since March 2013.

The development is significant because the armed forces have long been demanding nuclear land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs), with ranges over 1,000-km and versatile enough to be fired from land, air and sea.

Often brandished as India's answer to the famed American Tomahawk missiles, as also an effective counter to Pakistan's Babur LACM, the Nirbhay had been in the making for a decade without much success till now.

The sub-sonic missile, designed to carry a 300-kg nuclear warhead, had failed during its first test in March 2013.

Though the second test in October 2014 was a partial success, the third and fourth tests in October 2015 and December 2016 also flopped, leading to talk that the project may have to be scrapped.

The missile has the capability to loiter and cruise at 0.7 Mach, at altitudes as low as 100 m.

The flight test achieved all the mission objectives completely from lift-off till the final splash, boosting the confidence of all scientists associated with the trial.

The guidance, control and navigation system of the missile is configured around the indigenously designed Ring Laser Gyroscope (RLG) and MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) along with GPS system.

The missile majestically cruised for a total time duration of 50 minutes, achieving the range of 647 km.

The fifth test from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off Odisha coast, was dubbed a "complete success" by DRDO.

A series of successful tests of this ground-launched version of Nirbhay will pave the way for its induction into the armed forces, though its sea-based variant capable of being fired from nuclear-powered submarines will be the real game-changer.

Difference Between Ballistic and Cruise Missiles

• Ballistic missiles like the Agni follow a parabolic trajectory, leaving and re-entering the earth's atmosphere before hitting their targets.
• Cruise missiles like Nirbhay, in turn, are designed to fly at low-altitudes, almost hugging the terrain, to evade enemy radars and missile defence systems.
• Nirbhay has the capability to loiter and cruise at Mach 0.7 at altitudes as low as 100-metre.
• After an initial blast off with a solid-propellant booster rocket engine to gain speed and altitude, Nirbhay deploys its smallish wings and tail fins in the second-stage to thereafter fly like an unmanned aircraft.
• It's designed to be highly manoeuvrable with "loitering capabilities" to first identify and then hit the intended target with precision.

BrahMos: Know More

• The supersonic BrahMos missiles, produced jointly with Russia, have already been inducted into the armed forces.
• But the BrahMos, which flies almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8, is meant to carry only conventional warheads and currently has a strike range of only 290-km.
• At least three tests of the extended range (450-km) BrahMos have been conducted after India joined the 34-nation Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June 2016.
• India, of course, has come a long way in developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles like the Agni series, which have strike ranges from 700-km to over 5,000-km.

ANSWER: Durlstotherim newmani

Explanation:
Scientists have discovered the remains of humankind's oldest mammal ancestor - a tiny rat-like creature that lived 145 million years ago.

The fossils of the nocturnal mammal were discovered on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset, by palaeontologists from the University of Portsmouth in the U.K.

The animal is the earliest in the line that evolved into humans, and branched off into creatures as diverse as blue whales and pigmy shrews.

The new species has been named Durlstotherim newmani - after an amateur palaeontologist and pub owner Charlie Newman, who helped scientists collect the new specimens.

Researchers were sifting through small samples of earliest Cretaceous rocks when they unexpectedly found two teeth.

The teeth are of a highly advanced type that can pierce, cut and crush food.

Mammal teeth evolved over time, from very simple ones that were not very efficient, to molar-like ridged teeth which could tear, chew and grind food very easily.

ANSWER: Phosphorylation

Explanation:
Scientists, including those of Indian origin, have discovered a compound that may have played a crucial role in the origin of life on Earth.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in the U.S. hypothesised that a chemical reaction called phosphorylation may have been crucial for the assembly of three key ingredients in early life forms.

These ingredients are short strands of nucleotides to store genetic information, short chains of amino acids (peptides) to do the main work of cells, and lipids to form encapsulating structures such as cell walls.

No one has ever found a phosphorylating agent before that was plausibly present on early Earth, researchers said.

The compound produced these three classes of molecules side-by-side under the same realistic conditions, researchers said.

The TSRI scientists have now identified such a compound: diamidophosphate (DAP).

A phosphorylation chemistry that could have given rise, all in the same place, to oligonucleotides, oligopeptides, and the cell-like structures to enclose them.

That in turn would have allowed other chemistries that were not possible before, potentially leading to the first simple, cell-based living entities.

The study is part of an ongoing effort by scientists around the world to find plausible routes for the epic journey from prebiological chemistry to cell-based biochemistry.

Other researchers have described chemical reactions that might have enabled the phosphorylation of pre-biological molecules on the early Earth.

However, these scenarios have involved different phosphorylating agents for different types of molecule, as well as different and often uncommon reaction environments.

DAP could phosphorylate each of the four nucleoside building blocks of RNA in water or a paste-like state under a wide range of temperatures and other conditions.

With the addition of the catalyst imidazole, a simple organic compound that was itself plausibly present on the early Earth, DAP's activity also led to the appearance of short, RNA-like chains of these phosphorylated building blocks.

With DAP and water and these mild conditions, you can get these three important classes of pre-biological molecules to come together and be transformed, creating the opportunity for them to interact together.