Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Oct 08, 2016

ANSWER: Pakistan

Explanation:
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Oct 7, 2016 said that the Indo-Pak border will be completely sealed by December 2018.

• The action has been taken amid rising tensions between the two nations after army strikes on militant bases in PoK
• Singh informed about the decision after a meeting with states sharing the border with Pakistan in Jaisalmer
• Sealing will be monitored at the MHA level, BSF level and chief secretary level
• Some of the participants for reviewing security arrangements at the border included Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Punjab CM Sukhbir Singh and MoS for Home in Gujarat Pradeepsinh Jadeja and Kashmir Chief Secretary Brij Raj Sharma
• The Home Minister also asked the countrymen to trust the security forces and stand by them
• The India-Pakistan border is an international border running between Pakistan and India that demarcated the Indian lines and the 4 provinces of Pakistan
• The total length of the border is 2900 km
• It is known as Line of Control

ANSWER: Colombia

Explanation:
The 2016 Nobel peace prize was awarded on 7th Oct 2016 to the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for resolute efforts to bring the nation’s 5 decade long civil war to an end.

• This war claimed the lives of 220,000 Colombian people and displaced nearly 6 million
• This civil war is the one of the longest in modern times and the sole remaining armed conflict in the Americas
• President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas as he sought to move the peace process forward.
• Accord was controversial though he was able to ensure Colombian voters were able to voice their opinion concerning the peace accord in a referendum
• Outcome of the vote was not what was expected as a narrow majority of 13 million Colombians voted against the accord
• Despite the No majority vote in the referendum, President Santos brought the conflict to an end
• His endeavours to attain peace fulfil the criteria of the prize
• Former Nobel peace prize winners range from Red Cross to Mother Teresa and Desmond Tutu.
• The first winner of the Nobel peace prize was Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross Movement

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Manipur based theatre legend Heisnam Kanhailal passed away on Oct 6, 2016 following a brief illness at the age of 75. He has contributed to the field of experimental theatre for more than 40 years

• Born in Imphal, he worked with a noted theatre director and playwright Badal Sirkar but continued to experiment with alternative art theatre
• He later founded the Kalakshetra, the theatre laboratory in Manipur.
  
  He is famous for the following productions:
  
  
• Tamnalai (The Hunting Spirit)
• Kabui-Keioiba (Half Man Half Tiger)
• Draupadi
• He had also undertaken a research project on actor-training methodology with assistance from the Ford Foundation Grant, Emeritus Fellowship and Nehru Memorial Fellowship
• He was a recipient of several awards such as Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1985, Natya Ratna in 1997 from the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad and Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship in 2011
• He was awarded the Padma Shri civilian award in 2004
• He was also awarded the Padma Bhushan civilian award in 2016 by the Union Government

ANSWER: Platinum

Explanation:
Delhi International Airport Limited on 6th Oct 2016 announced that Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport attained platinum rating from Indian Green Building Council.

• With this, the Terminal-3 of the IGIA has become the first platinum rating from the Indian Green Building Council
• This is under the Green Existing Building O&M rating system by the IGBC
• This is another significant environmental achievement by IGIA after being accredited as the first Carbon Neutral airport in the Asia Pacific recently by the Airports Council International
• The Indian Green Building Council, part of the Confederation of Indian Industry was formed in 2001
• The vision of the council is to enable a sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment by 2025
• Council offers a wide array of services which include development of new green building rating programmes, certification services and green building training programmes
• The council also organises Green Building Congress, the annual flagship event on green buildings
• Committee based council is member driven and consensus focused

ANSWER: China

Explanation:
The International Monetary Fund on Oct 4, 2016 released the World Economic Outlook 2016. The report projects global growth at 3.1 percent in 2016 with slight increase to 3.4.

• Persistent stagnation, particularly in advanced economies, could further fuel anti-trade sentiment stifling growth
• Growth in emerging Asia and especially India continues to be resilient and India’s GDP is projected to expand at 7.6 percent in 2016 and 2017, considered the fastest pace among the major global economies
• The IMF urged India to continue reform of its tax system and eliminate subsidies to provide more resources for health care, infrastructure and education
• Advanced economies will expand just 1.6 percent in 2016 less than 2.1 percent pace of 2015- forecast is .2 percent below the July forecast which was 1.8 percent
• The IMF has marked down its forecast for 2016 to 1.6 percent from 2.2 percent forecasted in July
• US growth is likely to pick up to 2.2 percent in 2017
• Following the Brexit referendum of June, IMF has forecasted that UK growth will slow down to 1.8 percent in 2016 and 1.1 percent in 2017
• The EU area will expand 1.7 percent in 2016 and 1.5 percent in 2017, as against 2 percent growth in 2015
• Japan, the world’s number three economy will remain subdued at 0.5 percent in 2016 and 0.6 percent in 2017
• In the emerging markets and developing economies, growth will accelerate for the first time in six years to 4.2 percent, slightly higher than the July forecast of 4.1 percent
• In 2017, emerging economies are expected to grow at 4.6 percent
• China’s economy, the world’s second largest is forecast to expand 6.6 percent in 2016 and 6.2 percent in 2017 down from the growth of 6.9 percent in the previous year
• Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economies continue to struggle with lower commodity revenues weighing in on growth in the region
• Nigeria’s economy will shrink to 1.7 percent in 2016 and South Africa will barely expand
• By contrast, several of the region’s non-commodity exporters including Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Ethiopia and Senegal will grow at a more robust pace of greater than 5 percent in the year
• Economic activity in the region slowed as several countries are mired in recession, with recovery expected to take hold in 2017
• Venezuela’s output is forecast to 10 percent in 2016 and will shrink another 4.5 percent in 2017
• Brazil will see a contraction of 3.3 percent in 2016 yet it is expected to grow at 0.5 percent in 2017 on the assumption of declining political and policy uncertainty and waning effects of past economic shocks
• Countries in the Middle East are also confronting challenging conditions from subdued oil prices and civil conflict as well as terrorism.

ANSWER: 5%

Explanation:
World Bank India, the world’s largest remittance recipient in 2015 may receive a remittance of USD 65.5 billion this year, a drop of 5 percent according to the World Bank.

• The reason for this is weak economic growth in remittance source countries and cyclic low oil prices
• In 2016, remittance flows are expected to decline by 5% in India and 3.5% in Bangladesh while they will grow by 5.1% in Pakistan and 1.6 percent in Sri Lanka, the latest report on remittances said
• Despite the drop, India is topping the countries receiving remittance this year, according to most estimates
• The World Bank indicated in 2016, India is expected to receive a remittance of USD 65.5 billion followed by China (USD 65.2 billion)
• Pakistan is positioned at number 5 and estimated to receive USD 20.3 billion in 2016
• Remittances to South Asia are expected to decline by 2.3 percent in 2016 following a 1.6 percent decline in 2015
• This is due to weak economic growth in remittances source countries and cyclic low oil prices
• India retained its top spot in 2015, attracting close to USD 69 billion in remittances according to the World Bank
• Remittances from GCC countries continued to decline on account of lower oil prices and about market nationalisation policies in Saudi Arabia
• Gulf Cooperation Council is an alliance of 6 Middle Eastern companies- Kuwait, Saudi arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar
• This is set against the backdrop of tepid global growth, remittance flows to low and middle income countries to low and middle income countries
• New normal of slow growth has been entered and in 2016, remittance flows to LMIC are projected to reach USD 442 billion, marking an increase of 0.8percent over 2015
• Modest recovery in 2016 is largely driven by an increase in remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean on the basis of a stronger economy in the US
• By contrast, the remittance flows to other developing regions either fell or recorded a deceleration in growth
• Low prices continued to be a factor in reduced remittance flows from Russia and the GCC countries
• Additionally, structural factors have also played a role in dampening remittances growth
• Anti-money laundering efforts have prompted banks to shit accounts of money transfer operators, diverting activity to informal channels
• Remittances continue to be an important component of the global economy, surpassing international aid
• This new normal of weak growth in remittances can impact economies across the globe and create a new set of challenges for economic growth.

ANSWER: Madhya Pradesh

Explanation:
India’s first diamond mineral block has been auctioned in Madhya Pradesh. In a first, a diamond mineral block in MP’s Panna district having precious stone deposit worth INR 106 crore has gone under the hammer.

• Hatupur Diamond mineral block was successfully auctioned on Oct 5, 2016 in Panna district
• This is the first diamond mineral block in the country, which went under the hammer
• Bansal Construction Works emerged as the preferred bidder by submitting the highest final price after two rounds of competitive bidding
• The block is under G3 category and is spread over an area of 133.50 Ha.
• It has 0.604 MT of inferred resources with diamond incidence of 10.20 carat/100 tonnes.
• An additional revenue of INR 25 crore is estimated from a block to the state government over the mining lease period
• The royalty and other statutory payments over the lease period are estimated at INR 11 crore
• SBI capital markets was the transaction adviser for the auction process
• MP is aimed to become the top mining destination in the country

ANSWER: EU

Explanation:
India and the European Union on 7th Oct signed an MoU for a Water Partnership to clean Indian rivers with European assistance.

• The MoU was signed at the World Sustainable Development Summit organised by The Energy and Resources Institute
• The sixth goal of the UN SDGs is Clean Water and Sanitation
• One of the latest central government initiatives for cleaning up rivers is the National Mission for Clean Ganga
• Other rivers also need to be focused on

ANSWER: V Hydrae

Explanation:
Through NASA’s Hubble space telescope data, scientists including those of Indian-origin have detected super-hot blobs of gas, each twice as massive as Mars, being ejected bear the dying star

• Plasma balls are zooming at such a massive speed that it only takes 30 minutes for them to travel to the Earth from the moon
• Stellar cannon fire has continued once every 8.5 years for the past 4 centuries
• This object has a high-speed outflow from the previous data, yet this is the first time this is being seen in action
• Fireballs present a mystery to astronomers, as the ejected material could not have been shot out by the host star, referred to as V Hydrae
• The star is a bloated red giant, residing 1,200 light years away and has shed at least half of its mass into space at the time of death
• Red giants are dying stars in the final stage of life that are exhausting their nuclear fuel that makes them shine
• They have expanded in size and are shedding outer layers into space
• Best explanation suggests plasma balls were launched by an unseen companion star
• Scientists have theorised that the companion would have been in elliptical orbit carrying it close to the red giant’s puffed up atmosphere every 8.5 years
• As the companion enters the bloated star’s outer atmosphere, it swallows material which then settles into a disk around a companion and serves as a launching pad for blobs of plasma travelling at half a million mph
• The star system could be an archetype explain the dazzling variety of glowing shapes uncovered by Hubble that are seen around dying stars called planetary nebulae
• A planetary nebulae is an expanding shell of glowing gas expelled by a star late in its life.
• These gaseous blobs produced during the late phase of the star’s life help make the structures seen in the planetary nebulae
• STIS or Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph was used to study V Hydrae and the surrounding region over a period of 11 years
• Spectroscopy decodes light from an object, revealing information regarding its velocity, temperature, location and motion.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
The White House indicated that Obama has signed an executive order lifting sanctions on 7th Oct, 2016. Myanmar’s new civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi also visited the Oval Office.

• Obama’s move marks the culmination of years of rapprochement between the US and Myanmar that Obama has worked to facilitate
• The Southeast Asian nation has pursued political reforms over the past give years following decades of oppressive military rile
• The US has also eased broad economic sanctions on Myanmar including prohibitions on investment and trade.
• The US has also retained more targeted restrictions on military owned companies as well as officials and associates of the former ruling junta

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
In its September list of new words, the Oxford English dictionary has included entries such as yogasana, aiyoh and aiyah.

• Ayioh is one of the most versatile words in the Dravidian lexicon and expresses a range of emotions including shock, consternation and apprehension.
• The term aiyah is spoken by speakers of South Indian languages and the expression differs from Ayya used as an honorific.
• The Oxford English Dictionary/OED is 150 years old.
• It has up to 600,000 entries and its publisher, the Oxford University Press calls it the definitive record of the English language.