Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Nov 30, 2016

ANSWER: Gujarat

Explanation:
Akodara village in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat has earned the title of being the first digital village in India.

The village has a population of 1191 people.

It uses cashless system for payment of goods and services.

All transactions in the village are carried out through digital modes such as debit cards, SMS or net banking

Akodara close to the capital city of Ahmedabad was adopted and developed as a digital village with a rural branch of the bank by the ICICI Foundation

In the village, most transactions between INR 10 and 5000 are done through SMS. The payment goes to the shopkeeper’s bank account as the buyer and seller are both connected through the accounts in the same bank.

The village has its own website: http://akodara-digitalvillage.in.

Wi-Fi with high speed broadband connectivity has some 50 subscribers through 200 odd households.

The wi-fi facility also enables farmers to access the latest price of agricultural commodities on NCDEX with the bank acting as a hub for business activity.

The ICICI Bank has developed a dedicated and customised SMS banking platform and software for the village to enable users to do basic banking transactions in English and Gujarati.

Bank has also developed micro ATM based solution to facilitate the local mandi commission agents to make payments to farmers for their produce.

About Digital India

Date of launch: 1st July 2015

Ministry: Ministry of Communication and Information Technology

Motto: Power to Empower

Digital India consists of three core components :

• The creation of digital infrastructure
• Delivery of services digitally
• Digital literacy

ANSWER: Goa

Explanation:
Around the confusion created by demonetisation, the Indian state of Goa is the first state to operate cashless in the country from 31^st Dec 2016.

The announcement was made by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar who is the former CM of the state.

The plan includes making small vendors sell perishable goods as per mobile payment.

Vendors will be given Mobile Money Identifier codes when they register at a bank.

Customers will be able to make the transactions by dialling 99# and following instructions that appear on the screen.

The smartphone can be used to make the payment.

There is no limit on the cashless transfer of money and these transactions will be immune from any sort of fees.

Goa Goes Cashless

Goa has benefits due to its small size.

• Population: 15 lakh
• It has 17 lakh registered mobile connections.
• It has 22 lakh bank accounts.
• Most Goans use debit or credit cards

ANSWER: Xenophobia

Explanation:
The website Dictionary dot com has named Xenophobia as the word of the year for 2016.

• There was a massive surge in lookups for Xenophobia that is larger than any of the peaks seen in 2016.
• The rise in lookups was connected to attacks on foreign workers and overall rising xenophobia in South Africa.
• Largest spike in Dictionary dot com’s data of the word was June 2016.
• The word Xenophobia has Greek roots. The word can be broken down to ”Xenos” which means stranger and “phobos” meaning fear.
• Earlier this year in Nov 2016, the word “Post Truth” was named as word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries in 2016

ANSWER: Lt. Gen AK Bhatt

Explanation:
Lt. Gen AK Bhatt was appointed as DGMO (Director General Military Operations) on 28^th Nov 2016. He will succeed Lt. Gen Ranbir Singh.

Singh will now head 1 Corps with HQ in Mathura. This is one of the 4 strike corps among the 14 corps of the 1.3 million strong Army. He will replace Lt. Gen Shokin Chauhan who has been appointed DG of Assam Rifles.

General Dalbir Singh Suhag and Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha will retire from their posts on 31 December 2016.

Know About Lt-General A K Bhatt

• He belongs to the Gorkha Rifles.
• He earlier served as Military Operations Directorate Brigadier.
• He is posted at Army Headquarters as ADG of the Complaints and Advisory Board.

ANSWER: Conflicts of Interest: My Journey through India's Green Movement

Explanation:
CSE’s noted environmental scientist and activist Sunita Narain has authored “Conflicts of Interest: My Journey through India's Green Movement”

The book has been acquired by Penguin in the second week of Nov 2016. This is a personal account.

The book includes an environmental manifesto in which she lays an outline for the direction India must take to cope with climate change and environmental degradation.

The book discusses corporate lobbies and political interests scuttling environmental issues.

Know About Sunita Narain

• Sunita is an Environmentalist and political activist
• Proponent of green concept of sustainable development
• Posts held: DG of India’s Centre for Science and Environment, Director of Society for Environmental Communications
• Editor : Fortnightly magazine “Down to Earth”
• Winner of Padma Shri in 2005
• Honoured with Doctor of Science by University of Calcutta in 2009
• Named among TIME’s most influential people in 2016
• Received IAMCR Climate Change Communication Research in Action Award in 2016

ANSWER: Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016

Explanation:
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 28 November 2016 introduced the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha.

The Bill that amends tax laws seeks to impose a higher rate of tax and penalty in respect of undisclosed incomes.

This amendment bill has proposed to tax at 50 percent the unaccounted demonetised cash that is disclosed voluntary till 30 December 2016.

It says, up to 85 percent tax and penalty will be levied on undisclosed wealth that is discovered by authorities after 30 December 2016.

The Bill proposes a Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) 2016 wherein the unaccounted, now banned INR 500 and 1000 rupee notes, deposited in banks between 10 November and 30 December 2016, will be taxed at 30 percent plus a 10 percent penalty.

A 33 percent surcharge on the tax will take the total levy to 50 percent.

The Bill proposes to amend Section 115BBE of the Income Tax Act to provide for a steep 60 percent tax and a 25 percent surcharge on it (total 75 percent) for black money holders who choose to disclose after PMGKY ends.
The bill also inserts a new section that calls for an additional 10 percent penalty on being established that the undeclared wealth is unaccounted or black money, taking the total incidence of levies to 85 percent.

ANSWER: Francois Fillon

Explanation:
Former Prime Minister, Francois Fillon has won France’s conservative presidential primary, defeating opponent Alain Juppe by a landslide.

He will be up against National Front leader Marine Le Pen in the final presidential race, scheduled to be held in 2017. His vote count amounted to about 69.5% in comparison to Juppe’s 30.5%.

While Fillon’s political campaign mainly revolved around the promise of radical economic reforms, Juppe was more on the moderate side and warned of encroaching populism.

However, as far as the polls go, 62-year-old Fillon, who served as the Prime Minister of France from 2007- 2012, has an incredibly good chance of winning the presidential elections.

Campaign Promises by Fillon

• Cutting down on public spending
• Reduce immigration to a minimum
• Support for traditional family values
• Friendlier ties with Russia and its President- Vladimir Putin

ANSWER: Australia

Explanation:
High temperature of seas around Australia's Great Barrier Reef have killed two-thirds of a 700-km (435 miles) stretch of coral in the past nine months.

This is the worst die-off ever recorded on the World Heritage site, scientists who surveyed the reef said on 29^th Nov.

Their finding of the die-off in the reef's north is a major blow for tourism at reef which, according to a 2013 Deloitte Access Economics report, attracts about A$5.2 billion ($3.9 billion) in spending each year.

He said the die-off was "almost certainly" the largest ever recorded anywhere because of the size of the Barrier Reef, which at 348,000 sq km (134,400 sq miles) is the biggest coral reef in the world.

Coral Bleaching

• Occurs when the water is too warm.
• Coral expels living algae, causing it to calcify and turn white.
• Mildly bleached coral may recover.
• Coral mortality was lower in southern parts of Great Barrier reef.
• Australia is currently the largest carbon emitter per capita in the Pacific region.

ANSWER: Mirabeau BV

Explanation:
Cognizant said it would buy Dutch digital marketing and customer experience agency Mirabeau BV, to expand its digital expertise in the Netherlands and Europe. It did not disclose the terms of the transaction.

Mirabeau works with brands such as KLM, ING, Air France, Maxeda, MoneYou, LeasePlan.com, and Transavia.

The 15-year old digital firm has 260 specialists who will join Cognizant after the close.The acquisition aims to develop strategies, and then design, prototype, and scale meaningful product and service experiences.

This is the second acquisition by Cognizant in North EU.

In Oct, the company purchased Norwegian IT and BPO services provider Frontica Business Solutions for about $128 million.

The IT-BPM sector is currently valued at US$ 143 billion.

It is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.3 per cent year-on-year to US$ 143 billion for 2015-16.
The sector is expected to contribute 9.5 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than 45 per cent in total services export in 2015-16.

India’s IT Sector

• With 67 per cent of the US$ 124-130 billion market, India is world’s largest sourcing destination for IT industry.
• Employs about 10 million workforces.
• Expected to grow at a rate of 12-14 per cent for FY2016-17 in constant currency terms.
• Sector is also expected triple its current annual revenue to reach US$ 350 billion by FY 2025.
• With more than 4,200 start-ups, India ranks third among global start-up ecosystems.

ANSWER: 5000

Explanation:
Scientists have developed a new technology that uses nuclear waste to generate clean electricity in a nuclear-powered battery.

Scientists have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current.

The development could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life, researchers said.

Man-made diamond is able to produce a charge simply by being placed in close proximity to a radioactive source.

There are no moving parts involved, no emissions generated and no maintenance required, just direct electricity generation.

Long-term problem of nuclear waste into a nuclear-powered battery and a long-term supply of clean energy has been solved using the prototype 'diamond battery' using Nickel-63 as the radiation source.

Efficiency is improved by utilising carbon-14, a radioactive version of carbon, which is generated in graphite blocks used to moderate the reaction in nuclear power plants

Radioactive carbon-14 is concentrated at the surface of these blocks, making it possible to process it to remove the majority of the radioactive material.

The extracted carbon-14 is then incorporated into a diamond to produce a nuclear-powered battery.

Using carbon-14 the battery would take 5,730 years to reach 50% power, which is about as long as human civilisation has existed.

When can Nuclear Batteries Be used?

These can be used when not feasible to charge or replace conventional batteries.

Applications:

• Pacemakers
• Satellites
• High altitude drones
• Spacecraft

ANSWER: Highjacking of drones

Explanation:
A massive rise in drones will lead to dronejackings by cybercriminals, according to security experts.

Report by Intel has said hackers are expected to start targeting drones used for deliveries, law enforcement or camera crews, in addition to hobbyists.

Drones are a major tool for shippers, law enforcement agencies and farmers as well as news media.

Researchers have shown how someone could easily take control of a drone and that increase in drone usage triggers potential problems.

Many consumer drones lack adequate security making it easier to target for outside hackers. Companies like Amazon and UPS aim to use drones for delivery.

"Someone looking to 'dronejack' deliveries could find a location with regular drone traffic and wait for the targets to appear," the report said. Once a package delivery drone is overhead, the drone could be sent to the ground, allowing the criminal to steal the package.
Expensive equipment carried by drones can be used to knockout surveillance cameras used by law enforcement.