Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Oct 26, 2016

ANSWER: SoftBank Vision Fund

Explanation:
SoftBank Vision Fund will invest in tech companies worldwide. Misra, in the third week of October 2016, was appointed the SoftBank Vision Fund constituted by Japanese telecom and internet major SoftBank Corp.

• The fund is managed in the UK by a subsidiary of the Saudi Binladin Group
• It is one of the largest kind in the world
• The fund will function from London
• Misra was previously the Head of Strategic Finance at SoftBank Group Corp for nearly 2 years from November 3, 2014
• Misra joined Softbank in November 2014
• He spent 5 years at UBS in the post of Global head of Credit and Head of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities in EU, AU and Middle East
• He has also served as the Head of Credit Derivatives and Chief of Global Credit Trading at Duetsche Bank AG
• He is an alumni of DPS, Delhi and IIT-Delhi
• He also pursued his graduation from UPenn
• He is also an MBA from Sloan School of Management after which he joined Merrill Lynch

ANSWER: Companion satellite

Explanation:
Tiangong-2 an experimental space laboratory of China on 23rd October 2016 launched the micro-satellite Banxing-2 which means Companion Satellite.

• The micro-satellite is the size of a printer for PCs
• Currently, the Tainggong-2 is orbiting the earth with two astronauts on board
• With a weight of 47 kilograms, the micro satellite has numerous visible light cameras including 25 megapixel cameras and wide-angle imagers
• The mission is to take photographs of Tiangong-2 and Shenzhou 11 spacecraft docked with the lab on 19th October 2016
• The satellite has been named the Selfie Stick
• It has an infrared camera that is temperature sensitive
• With three solar panels, the satellite can generate enough power to adjust its orbit to shoot photos of the lab and spacecraft
• The Shenzhou-11 spacecraft carried two astronauts into space on 17th October 2016

ANSWER: 2016 Golden Boy Award

Explanation:
Portugal’s Renato Sanches on 24th Oct 2016 was awarded the 2016 European Golden Boy award.

• Sanches defeated Man-U’s Marcus Rashford and Bayern’s Kingsley Coman. He also ousted Gianluigi Donnarumma, the AC Milan goalkeeper to win this award
• Sanches was selected following a vote from newspaper journalists across the EU to name the best player in 2016 under the age of 21
• Sanches is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as midfielder for German club Bayern Munch and the national team of Portugal
• He began his career with sports club Benfica
• He made is complete international debut in March 2016
• He was chosen for UEFA Euro 2016 at the age of 18
• He is the youngest Portuguese player to participate in a global tournament
• He scored one goal through the competition and won the Young Player of the Tournament
• The Golden Boy award is given by sports journalists to young footballers playing impressively in a single calendar year from the EU
• All nominees for this award should be below 21 years of age and play in the top tier of the EU

ANSWER: Bilal Nazki

Explanation:
Jammu & Kashmir Governor NN Vohra on 24th Oct 2016 appointed former CJ of the Odisha HC Bilal Nazki as the chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission

• Former district and session judge Jang Bahadur Singh Jamwal was also appointed member of the JKHRC
• The appointments came into place from the date the charge of their offices were assumed.
• Justice Nazki retired as CJ of Odisha HC in November 2009
• His tenure as CJ is the shortest tenure in the history of the Indian judicial system
• He was also appointed as chairperson of the Bihar Human Rights Commission
• Nazki also headed a committee set up by the Centre to review the functioning of the Haj Committee of India and its state units in 2013
• His father Ghulam Rasool Nazki was a well known broadcaster, poet and literary figure who won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1987

ANSWER: Eddie Murphy

Explanation:
Bill Murray was on 23rd Oct 2016 honoured with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour. He was presented with the award at a ceremony organised at the Kennedy Centre Concert Hall in Washington DC

• He was awarded the 19th Mark Twain Prize for making an impact on US society
• American actor, comedian and writer Bill Murray first gained recognition on Saturday Night Live, which earned him an Emmy as well
• In 2013, he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA award for best actor for his role in Lost in Translation
• He won the second Emmy for Oliver Kitteridge
• The Mark Twain award has been given since 1998
• It is named after well-known 19th century novelist Mark Twain
• Recipients of the Twain Prize received a copy of the 1884 bronze portrait of Mark Twain
• The honour was won last year by Eddie Murphy

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
The World Meteorological Organisation on 24th Oct 2016 released the annual GHG bulletin

• As per the bulletin, the average level of CO₂ in the atmosphere across the globe passed 400 parts per million in 2015
• The statistics released by the WMO points to the damage of the rising CO2 levels and the impact of climate change
• The WMO GHG bulletin reports on atmospheric concentrations of GHG
• CO₂ accounted for 65% of the radiative force by long-lived GHG
• The pre-industrial level of 278 ppm represented a balance between the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere
• Human activities have altered the balance and in 2015, globally averaged levels were 144 percent of pre-industrial levels
• In 2015, the global annual average concentration of CO₂ reached 400 ppm
• The increase of CO₂ from 2014–2015 was larger than the previous year and the average over the past 10 years
• Reducing the capacity of vegetation to absorb the CO₂ that powerful, El Nino has led to rising CO₂ emissions from forest fires
• Methane is the second most important long lived GHG and contributes to 17 percent of radiative forcing
• Atmospheric methane has reached a new high of 1845 parts per billion and is now 256 percent of the pre-industrial level
• N2O is emitted into the atmosphere from both natural (about 60 percent) and anthropogenic sources (approximately 40 percent) including oceans, soil, biomass burning, fertiliser use and numerous industrial processes.
• Its atmospheric concentration in 2015 was about 328 pp.
• This is 121 percent of pre-industrial levels
• It also plays an important role in the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer which protects us from harmful UV rays of the sun
• The World Meteorological Organisation is an intergovernmental organisation with a membership of 191 member states and territories
• It originated from the International Meteorological Organisation which was founded in the 1870s
• It was established in the 1950s
• It became the specialised agency of the United Nations for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences
• It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland
• It is a member of the UN Development Group

ANSWER: 2

Explanation:
The planet Uranus has two previously undiscovered moons orbiting near two of the planet’s rings, researchers from NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has found

• The key patterns in the rings were found while examining the images taken by Voyager 2
• He noticed the amount of ring material on the edge of the alpha ring varied periodically
• This is one of the brightest rings of Uranus
• Another similar pattern was observed in the adjoining beta ring
• Researchers analysed radio occultations - made when Voyager 2 sent radio waves through the rings to be detected back on Earth - and stellar occultations, made when the spacecraft measured the light of background stars shining through the rings, which helps show how much material they contain.
• They found the pattern in Uranus' rings was similar to moon-related structures in Saturn's rings called moonlet wakes.
• The moonlets in the rings of this planet were 4-14 kms in diameter but smaller than known moons of the planet
• The moons of this planet are hard to spot because their surface is covered in dark material
• The moonlets if they are there may be acting s shepherd moons helping to keep the rings from spreading out
• Two of the 27 known moons of Uranus are Ophelia and Cordelia which act as shepherds to the epsilon ring in Uranus.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
G. Balakrishna, also known as Arnold Schwarzenegger of Whitefield, won the Mr. Asia title at the 5th Phil-Asia bodybuilding championships in the Philippines

• He is a Bengaluru based water tanker driver
• The 25 year old also works as a gym instructor
• In 2013, the India won the Mr Universe Under-24 junior contest in Germany
• A year later, he won the Mr. Universe title in the same category at the world championships in Athens
• He is a resident of Ramadonaahalli in Varthur
• He has been trained by well known bodybuilders Sangram Chougla and Manish Kumar