Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Oct 5, 2015

ANSWER: Shymaji Krishna Varma

Explanation:
PM Narendra Modi paid tribute to freedom fighter Shyamji Krishna Varma on his birth anniversary. He was born on 4th October, 1857. He passed away on March 30, 1930. He was along the stalwarts who fought for India’s freedom such as Lala Hardayal and Veer Savarkar.

ANSWER: Infosys

Explanation:
IT major Infosys has won the position of being the third most valued firm with regard to market valuation surpassing private sector lender HDFC Bank with TCS being Number 1 closely followed by RIL in the top 10 rankings. Combined market valuation of top 8 Sensex companies rose by INR 50,464.51 crore during 30th September to 4th October 2015. HDFC followed Infosys on ranking of 10 top firms. At the end of the week, Infosys commanded a market valuation of Rs. 2,69,489.03 crore. This was Rs. 432.68 crore more than HDFC Bank’s m-cap of Rs. 2,69,056.35 crore.
TCS emerged as the biggest gainer among the top 10 firms, with its valuation rising by Rs. 12,555.44 crore to Rs. 5,17,045.42 crore. Other companies in the top 10 include RIL, CIL, ITC, ONGC, Sun Pharma, and SBI

ANSWER: Sania Mirza

Explanation:
Ace Indian tennis player Sania Mirza won the seventh title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis following their victory in the Wuhan Open women’s doubles trophy on 3rd October 2015. The winning pair defeated Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 in the title clash.Following this win, the Indo-Swiss pairing has 7 WTA titles namely Wuhan, Indian Wells, Charleston, Miami, Wimbledon, Guangzhou and US Open. They have won last 3 tournaments and 13 matches without losing a single set.

ANSWER: Shashank Manohar

Explanation:
Shashank Manohar has been formally elected BCCI president at the SGM of the board. Following his election he announced a slew of measures to face various issues such as conflict of interest, corruption in cricket and so forth. Manohar has announced BCCI would appoint independent official to preside over issues pertaining to conflict of interest. He was elected unopposed following the death of incumbent J. Dalmiya with the support of India’s ruling party, BJP.

ANSWER: Steve Camacho

Explanation:
Veteran former West Indies Cricket Board CEO Steve Camacho has passed away at the age of 69. He was also a selector for the West Indies apart from being test batsman and team manager. He was the first full time employee of the WICB. Born in British Guiana, he was a right handed opener and played 11 tests for West Indies.

ANSWER: Nikos Voutsis

Explanation:
Nikos Voutsis garnered 181 votes from 297 voting lawmakers on 4th October 2015. succeeding Zoe Konstantopoulou, who left Syriza in August after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accepted the third bailout deal for Greece. Voutsis is expected to be a more traditional Speaker than his predecessor.

ANSWER: Finger Millet

Explanation:
Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.], which figured among the six small millets in research portfolio of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), has now been formally announced as the mandate crop. Finger millet provides opportunities for small holders, and ICRISAT gene bank has nearly 6000 finger millet germ plasm accessions from 24 nations. This crop is an integral part of the ICRISAT portfolio. Following its declaration as a mandate crop, it has led consumers to improved nutrition and offers much economic opportunity which is why it has been given prominence. Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement of Sorghum and Millets in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (HOPE) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is showing encouraging results in improving productivity of finger millet and household incomes in East Africa. In Malawi, a three finger millet variety will resurrect crops that disappeared from the southern region of the nation. Finger millet variety U15 is the most preferred for rapid maturity and grain colour while IE 3779 is preferred because of disease resistance. Other mandate crops of ICRISAT include sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeon-pea and groundnut.

ANSWER: Europe, West Asia, Africa

Explanation:
With regard to Indian Navy’s overseas deployment to Africa, West Asia and Europe, INS Trikand entered Istanbul, Turkey for a 3 day visit on October 4th 2015. Indian Naval ships such as these are constantly deployed for building bridges of friendship apart from capacity building and capacity enhancement. Bilateral naval relations between India and Turkey are expected to strengthen further due to the planned visit of a Turkish warship for the International Fleet Review at Visakhapatnam, India in Feb 2016. INS Trikand is a advanced Indian Navy warship equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors capable of addressing threats in all the three dimensions – air, surface and sub-surface. The visiting ship is part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet. It is under the operational command of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, with its HQ at Mumbai.

ANSWER: Chocolate

Explanation:
Chocolate which is healthy can be eaten as medicine, as per scientists who have used herbal technologies to create the medicinal version which only has 35% fat. Cacao, the key ingredient in chocolate, contains a variety of antioxidants and minerals, which perform health benefits such as lowering BP and stroke risk. A new de-bittering agent has been used in the form of a small herb from Bolivia and Peru which can make cacao sweeter. This new chocolate was unveiled at the World Chocolate Forum in London, which has no sugar, sweeteners or heavy percentage of fat.

ANSWER: 67P

Explanation:
Rubber duck shaped comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P) is composed of a larger and smaller lobe separated by thin, neck region resulting from the merger of distinct objects. Till this time, it was unclear whether comet 67P was formed by the fusion of 2 objects or a concentrated localised erosion of a single object. Scientists have demonstrated that its peculiar shape is the result of low speed collision between completely developed comets, as per high resolution images taken from OSIRIS/Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System between August 6, 2014 and March 17, 2015 to find out more of the layers of material seen all over the nucleus.

ANSWER: Angria Bank

Explanation:
A treasure trove of corals have been located mid-sea off the coast of Konkan by National Institute of Oceanography scientists. Coral site is located in Arabian Sea around 100 km off from coastal Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg of Maharashtra. Known as Angria Bank, this area was named after famous Maharashtrian Admiral Kanhoji Anger who fought here. Expedition which discovered the corals was commissioned at INR 1.5 crore by UNDP. This marks the first expedition where the NIO RV Sindhu Sadhna was used. Close to 200 species of flora and fauna were found during the expedition with 54 species of corals of which 4 are soft. NIO is one of 37 constituent labs of CSIR.