Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Oct 03, 2016

ANSWER: 147

Explanation:
The nation and its people on 2nd October 2016 paid homage to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on his 147th birth anniversary.

• Born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar Gujarat, Gandhi also known as Bapu or Father of the Nation preached tolerance and non-violence
• President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice President Hamid Ansari along with other dignitaries visited Rajghat, the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi to offer tributes
• An all religion prayer meeting was organised at Rajghat and several other events including Swachh and Samarth Bharat were organised across the nation
• Gandhiji was also known for his principles of non violence and satyagraha and spearheaded not only the civil rights movement in India, but across the world as well
• The nation also remembered former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on his birth anniversary i.e 2nd Oct
• He was born in 1904 and joined the Indian independence movement in the 1920s
• He coined the slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan during the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and held several important portfolios in the Nehru government before becoming PM
• A special programme was held at the Shastri Memorial at Shastri Street in Tashkent where floral tributes was paid at his statue.

ANSWER: Oct 2

Explanation:
The International Day of Non Violence was observed on Oct 2nd, 2016 which is also the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and called Gandhi Jayanti in India.

• In 2004, Iranian Novel laureate Shirin Ebadi had taken a proposal for an International Day of Non Violence from a Hindi teacher in paris teaching global students, to the World Social Forum in Bombay
• The idea was voiced by INC till a Satyagraha resolution was passed in Delhi initiated by Indian National Congress President and Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, calling upon the United Nations to adopt the idea.
• On 15th June 2007, UNGA voted to establish Oct 2nd as International Day of Non Violence
• The resolution by the General Assembly asks members of the UN system to commemorate 2nd October in an appropriate manner and spread the message of non violence

ANSWER: Kieren D’Souza

Explanation:
Bengaluru’s Kieren Dsouza has become the first Indian to complete the Spartathlon, widely described as the “world’s toughest race”.

• The 23-year old completed the distance of 246.6 km in the 2016 edition , in 33.1.38 hours,The Spartathlon is an annual run held each year between Athens and Sparta in Greece, with a reported success rate of 50%.
• In 2015, he became the fastest Indian to run above 100 miles by winning the Salomon Bhatti Lakes Ultra Marathon.
• Kieren has been in top form, heading into the Spartathlon. Last year, he completed the 222 km La Ultra in Ladakh, and again became the only Indian to do so.
• However, he believes that running is the easiest part of his sport.

ANSWER: 4th

Explanation:
India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act, that was passed in 2005, has been ranked 4th best in the world, according to the latest rankings of 111 nations with these laws.

• The rankings were based on the strength of the legal frameworks that ensures the efficient implementation of the act.
• Mexico has topped scored 136 points out of a possible total of 150, followed by Serbia and Slovenia.
• India scored a total of 128 out of 150 points. While India scored well in terms of Right to Access, RTI law scored 26 in the ‘Exceptions’ category since the ‘harm test’ is not applicable to all the exemptions mentioned in Section 8 of the RTI Act.
• India scored the highest on ‘Appeals’ (29 out of 30). In the ‘Sanctions’ category, India scored 5 out of the 8, since there is no strong legal protection for whistle blowers.
• India scored 13 out of 16 in the ‘Promotional Measures’ category since there are no prescribed standards for record management and they are not followed in practice.
• Top 10 nations with their scores can be seen below:

Mexico ------ 136
Serbia ------ 135
Slovenia ---- 129
India --------- 128
Croatia ------- 126
Liberia -------- 124
El Salvador ---- 122
Sierra Leone --- 122
Sri Lanka ---- 121
Tunisia ---- 120

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that INR 65,250 crore in black or untaxed money has been disclosed under the Government’s Income Declaration Scheme (IDS).

• The one-time compliance window closed .
• As per the scheme, launched on June 1, those who evaded taxes were allowed to avoid punishment by paying tax, penalty and cess totalling 45% of the declared income.
• Reiterating that the one-time window was not an amnesty scheme like the 1997 one, Jaitley said the tax collected in the 1997 Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) was Rs 9,760 crore with an average declaration of Rs 7 lakh.
• The tax collected from the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 will go into the Consolidated Fund of India and will be used for larger welfare of people, he added.
• Scheme was operational from June 1 till the midnight of September 30, the finance minister said the tax authorities were still tabulating the declarations, both in physical and electronic form.
• Roughly, the declarations work out to INR 1 crore per declarant.

ANSWER: Left

Explanation:
Research may have discovered why birds never seem to crash into one another - they appear to always veer to the right.

• Just like cars drive on the right of the road to avoid collisions, avian creatures were found to turn the same way when they find they are on a collision course.
• Discovering the "basic rules" of safe flying that have evolved in birds over millions of years could help program drones to avoid collisions as the skies become more crowded.
• The scientific modelling has shown that birds always veer right - and sometimes they change their altitude as well, according to some pre-set preference. As air traffic becomes increasing busy, there is a pressing need for robust automatic systems for manned and unmanned aircraft, so there are real lessons to be learned from nature.
• 2 budgies were released at opposite ends of a tunnel and their flight path was filmed by a high-speed camera.
• In more than 100 flights by 10 different birds, there was not a single crash.
• Another finding was that birds would rarely fly at the same height, and this raises the question of whether individual birds have a specific preference for flying higher or lower
• Same strategy can be used for drones and autopilots.

ANSWER: Pakistan

Explanation:
An online White House petition seeking to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism has gained a record half a million signatures, five times the number needed to get a response from the Obama Administration.
Petition was created on Sept 21 by a person with the initials RG and needs 100000 signatures in 30 days to get a response form the White House.

• Supporters of the "We the People ask the Administration to declare Pakistan, State Sponsor of Terrorism" petition had set a goal of one million signatures.
• The petition comes after Congressman Ted Poe, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, introduced H R 6069, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act in the House of Representatives.
• An initiative of the US President Barack Obama, "We the People" online petition at the White House website provides a window to American citizens to campaign before the administration on key issues .
• A new petition filed on the official UK Parliament website calling on Britain to "strongly condemn" Pakistan for providing a safe haven for terrorists on Sunday crossed the threshold of 10,000 signatures, making it incumbent upon the UK government to respond to it.
• The petition titled 'UK Govt to strongly condemn Pakistan or providing safe haven for terrorists' has now crossed the number of signatures required to make it incumbent upon the UK government to respond to it.
• Tensions between India and Pakistan are growing after militants stormed an Indian Army base in Uri on September 18, killing 19 soldiers.

ANSWER: Hunan

Explanation:
The world's longest and highest glass bridge in China's Hunan province has been reopened for public after clearing a security inspection, officials said on Oct 2nd.

• With a capacity to hold 10,000 people a day, the glass bridge saw a trial operation in late August this year, but was closed 12 days later due to "overwhelming demand".
• Glass bridge was not closed for safety reasons as rumours had suggested.
• It cleared security inspection and its construction was up to standard, the official statement said.
• According to some reports, some deficiencies of the soft and hard facilities seen during the trial period was the main reason behind its closure.
• The 430-meter-long structure is believed to be the world's longest and tallest glass pedestrian bridge offering a 360 degree view of the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon.
• During its trial operation, the bridge held no more than 800 people at a time. Each day, 8,000 visitors had the opportunity to walk on it.