Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Nov 3, 2015

ANSWER: Japan

Explanation:
S. Korea and Japan met for their first one on one formal summit in 3 years and agreed to strengthen ties which have been plagued by historical and territorial disputes. Links between Japan and 2 Asian neighbours had fallen to a new low after Shinzo Abe took office in 2012.

ANSWER: Australia

Explanation:
Australia is removing the titles associated with knights and dames once again. It had earlier done so in 1986. Former PM Tony Abbott had revived the system of knights. Malcolm Turnbull who took over from Abbott in September announced that the Queen had accepted the cabinet recommendation for removing knights and dames from the Order of Australia.

ANSWER: Ahmet Davutoglu

Explanation:
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared victory for his ruling party after results showed it garnering a majority in the parliament. Preliminary results suggest that AKP or Justice Development Party has picked up millions of votes at the expense of the nationalist MHP and pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP. AKP’s vote tally jumped nearly nine percentage points. Turnout for the election was pegged at 87% among 54 million persons eligible to vote at more than 175,000 polling stations.

ANSWER: Sistema

Explanation:
ADAG led RCom will take over Russian conglomerate Sistema’s Indian mobile telephony venture operating under the MTS brand. RCom has indicated that SSTL/Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd will hold 10% equity stake in RCom as a result of this deal. RCom will also assume liability to pay instalments for SSTL spectrum equalling INR 392 crore per year for the next decade as part of the deal.

In addition, RCom will acquire SSTL’s most valuable and superior 800/850 MHz band spectrum, suited for 4G LTE services, to supplement its own unique nationwide footprint of minimum 5 MHz contiguous 800/850 MHz spectrum aggregating 148.75 MHz.

ANSWER: Brijmohan Lall Munjal

Explanation:
Hero MotoCorp business leader B. L. Munjal passed away at the age of 92 on 1st November 2015 following a brief illness. He is survived by 3 sons and 1 daughter. Hero Group came into being in the 1950s. Munjal was born in 1923 at Kamalia, Pakistan. He was chairman emeritus of the USD 4 billion group since earlier this year and remained on BoD as non executive member. He was also a Padma Bhushan awardee.

ANSWER: India

Explanation:
India is the largest cotton producer in the world in the present financial year, according to USDA reports (United States Department of Agriculture). Cotton output in all major producing countries in the year except India was earlier expected to be lower than previous season. According to Southern India Mills Association, China will be vacating the position as the world’s largest cotton producer to India. Cotton production in China and the US has been estimated to have fallen by 13.3 and 17.7 percent as compared to the previous year. USDA reports India has estimated production of 370 lakh bales making it the largest cotton producing nation in the world.

ANSWER: BrahMos

Explanation:
India has test fired BrahMos Supersonis Cruise Missile from INS Kochi off the west coast on 1st November 2015 in a 49th test firing and it successfully destroyed target ship Alleppey which was stationed 290 km away, the missile’s full range. INS Kochi is the latest stealth destroyer of the nation. It was inducted into the navy in September 2015. This ship can carry a total of 16 BrahMos Missiles. This missile is the first supersonic cruise version known to be in service and can carry conventional and nuclear warhead of 300 kg. It can be launched from land, sea, sub sea and air.

ANSWER: The President of India and the Governance of Higher Education Institutions

Explanation:
The book ‘The President of India and the Governance of Higher Education Institutions’ provides an overview of higher education in India. It has chapters on the role of the Visitor and historical and legal analysis of the position of the Visitor in India. It also showcases President Mukherjee’s initiatives for promoting excellence in higher education and reimagining Indian universities as world class universities by taking rankings seriously. This book also provides fresh insights on nation building.

ANSWER: Panama

Explanation:
President of India, Pranab Mukherjee has extended greetings to the people and government of republic of Panama on their national day (3rd November, 2015). The people of Panama are led by president His Excellency Mr. Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez. The two countries India and Panama have cordial bilateral relations.

ANSWER: Aadashilp

Explanation:
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram inaugurated National Tribal Crafts Mela ‘Aadishilp’ in New Delhi which provides tribal artisans an important platform to showcase their talents through their products to urban India. Shri Oram said Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd. (TRIFED) through its 44 sales counter all over the country is providing much needed marketing system for tribal products. The exhibition was launched by TRIFED at Delhi Haat from November 2 to 11 and features hand crafted items, handloom products, dry flowers, cane and bamboo products, tribal jewellery, Dhokra craft, tribal weaves, embroidery, tribal paintings and products from artisans across the nation.

ANSWER: First

Explanation:
First IFFPD or International Film Festival for Persons with Disabilities will be held in Delhi from December 1st to 3rd, 2015. Festival is organised to sensitise people on issues pertaining to disabilities and showcase cinemas of relevance. Around 40 films comprising 10 feature films, 14 documentaries and 16 short films will be screened during the festival. December 3rd is the International Day for Persons with Disabilities and marks the final day of the festival.

ANSWER: Flipkart

Explanation:
Flipkart has appointed former MakeMyTrip CTO Sharat Singh and Ravi Krishnaswamy as VP of engineering for content and infrastructure respectively. Singh will lead the CMS engineering team which includes data management, quality, development, creation and content relevance. A technical strategy will be driven for content to create better user experience and purchase products on the app. Previous role in MakeMyTrip included development and execution of global technology stratagems and planning of ongoing technology innovations. He also set up a CoE and led product and delivery of engineering systems and automation at Shopzilla as MD India. He had also worked with Microsoft, Nextag. Krishnaswamy will focus on strengthening operations across IaaS and PaaS and understanding challenges pertaining to organisation design and bandwidth. He had earlier worked with Microsoft.

ANSWER: Nikhil Rungta

Explanation:
Housing dot com has appointed Nikhil Rungta as Chief Marketing Officer to strengthen top team management. Prior to this, Rungta worked as a CMO for Google in India and Reliance Jio. He has over 2 decades of experience and started leadership roles in startups like Yebhi and Yatra.

ANSWER: Indonesia

Explanation:
India and Indonesia have on 2nd November 2015 signed agreements for renewable energy and culture and discussed expanding cooperation in the field of counter-terrorism and defence. These agreements were signed during the visit of Vice President Hamid Ansari to the nation. India and Indonesia have signed an MoU for cooperation in new and renewable energy sector. Both India and Indonesia have made the commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 35 and 29 percent respectively. The country of Indonesia also supported India for organising Sahabat India (a festival of India in Indonesia). Indonesia last week assumed chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

ANSWER: National Clean Development Authority

Explanation:
A new website http://www.ncdmaindia.gov.in has been launched by the National Clean Development Mechanism Authority (NCDMA) in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. This website will capture the complete life cycle of CDM projects and apply the principles of e-governance. Online uploading of project related information in a module wise pattern will also impact the complete life cycle of CDM projects.This is the first such web based application developed in India to streamline the working of the NCDMA. The latter was launched in December 2003 for Host Country Approval to the CDM projects. New website was developed by GIZ.

ANSWER: Increase in snow accumulation that commenced 10,000 years ago is adding ice to outdo increasing loss from thinning glaciers

Explanation:
Increase in Antarctic snow accumulation which commenced 10,000 years ago is adding plenty of ice to the continent. This is outweighing the increased loss from thinning glaciers. Research is a counter view to the IPCC 2013 report which has indicated that Antarctica is losing land ice overall. As per the satellite data analysis, Antarctic ice sheet has displayed net gain of 112 billion tonnes of ice per year from 1992 to 2001. Net gain slowed to 82 billion tonnes of ice per year between 2003 and 2008. Study analysed changes in surface height of the Antarctic ice sheet measured by radar altimeters on 2 SA satellites and laser altimeter on ICESat or NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite. Air is becoming warmer and carrying moisture across continents doubling the snow dropped on the ice sheet.

ANSWER: China and France

Explanation:
In a key signal 4 weeks prior to world leaders meeting in Paris, both China and France have proposed that global climate change pact should increase emission cuts every 5 years for countries. France has also proposed automatic updating of emission targets in climate deal will be thrashed at a UN conference commencing towards the close of November. China is the world’s largest emitter of GHGs. In a joint declaration, the two presidents declared the intention to release national strategies for developing low carbon economies by 2050 within the next 5 years.

ANSWER: Single

Explanation:
Scientists have made a breakthrough in Cambridge University for solving issues pertaining to the battery that can enable a car to drive from London to Edinburgh on a single charge. The team has overcome obstacles in the development of lithium air batteries which have the ability to store 10 times more energy than lithium ion batteries. Till now, unwanted chemical reactions and problems associated with lithium air batteries had created an issue.

ANSWER: cGAS

Explanation:
Inhibition of enzyme cGAS will be effective therapy for autoimmune diseases such as SLE and AGS linked to the same inflammatory pathway. The immune system turns against the body rather than protecting it in these diseases. Scientists have said that cGAS enzyme’s activation plays a key role in these diseases. Researchers also found legal autoimmunity as a result of inability to degrade lysosomal DNA through lack of DNA digesting enzyme referred to as DNase-II.

ANSWER: Kazakhstan

Explanation:
These huge formations called Steppe Geogylphs are a step towards understanding how early humans lived. There are 260 such designs carved into the ground and made into piles of earth assembling into shapes such as rings, squares and swastika shapes, the oldest of which are 8,000 years old. Patterns were first spotted in 2007. Some speculate a possible link of these patterns to solar observations akin to Stonehenge.

ANSWER: Google

Explanation:
Internet major Google has worked with the government of India for a pilot project for providing internet connectivity under Project Ballon. Google is using big ballons at the height of 20 km above Earth’s surface for transmission of internet services. This type of technology has also been tested in Brazil, US and New Zealand. According to Google, each balloon can provide connectivity to ground area about 40 km in diameter through wireless communications technology named LTE or 4G.