Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Sep 20, 2016

ANSWER: 1

Explanation:

• At present, only 7 states have two Houses (bicameral). These are Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Tamil Nadu Legislative Council Act, 2010 has not come into force. The Legislative Council in Andhra Pradesh was revived by the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Act, 2005.
• The 7th Amendment Act of 1956 provided for a Legislative Council in Madhya Pradesh.
• However, a notification to this effect has to be made by the President. So far, no such notification has been made. Hence, Madhya Pradesh continues to have one House only.

ANSWER: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Explanation:
The 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards was announced on 18th September 2016 at Microsoft Theatre in LA California

• The Game of Thrones won the best drama series at the 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards; Veep won the top comedy award
• The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story also earned several awards
• Julia-Louis Dreyfus won the fifth consecutive Emmy in the lead comedy actress category
  
  Here’s the list of winners:
  1. Outstanding Comedy Series – Veep
  2. Outstanding Drama Series - Game of Thrones
  3. Outstanding Variety Talk Series - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
  4. Outstanding Television Movie - Sherlock: "The Abominable Bride"
  5. Outstanding Reality-Competition Program - The Voice
  6. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series - Jeffrey Tambor as Maura Pfefferman on Transparent
  7. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Julia Louis-Dreyfus as President Selina Meyer on Veep
  8. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson on Mr. Robot
  9. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series - Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Beth Childs, Rachel Duncan, and MK on Orphan Black
  10. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie - Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran on The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story
  11. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie - Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark on The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story
  12. Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series - Game of Thrones (Episode: "Battle of the Bastards"), Directed by Miguel Sapochnik
  13. Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special - Thomas Kail and Alex Rudzinski for Grease: Live
  14. Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special - The Night Manager, Directed by Susanne Bier
• Primetime Emmy Awards is a US award bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
• It is even in recognition of excellence in American primetime TV programming and was started in 1949
• Emmy Awards is considered equivalent to Academy awards for films, Grammy Awards for music and Tony Award for Stage
• Awards are divided into three categories- Primetime Emmy Awards for television performance, Primetime Creative Arts Emmy awards and Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards

ANSWER: Hawaii

Explanation:
Waters off the coast of Hawaii in the United States are powering electricity; the rise and fall of the waves is used to generate electricity.

• Current travels through an undersea cable for a mile to a military base where it is fed into Oahu’s power grid
• This is the first wave produced electricity to go online in the US
• Ocean’s endless motion has enough power to meet a quarter of American energy needs and dramatically lower the nation’s reliance on oil, coal and gas
• Navy has established a test site in Hawaii with hopes that technology can be used to produce clean, renewable power for offshore fuelling stations for the fleet and provide electricity to coastal communities in fuel starved placed across the world
• Hawaii is a natural site for such technology and has powerful waves
• Island state also has the highest electricity costs in the nation due to heavy reliance on oil delivered by sea
• Hawaii has a legislative mandate to get 100 percent of its energy from renewables by 2045
• US has set a goal of reducing carbon emissions by one-third from 2005 levels by 2030 and many states are seeking to develop more renewable energy in coming decades
• The US could get 20-28 percent of energy needs from waves off the US coasts without harming marine preserves
• The US government and military have put in USD 334 million into marine energy research while Britain and the EU have invested more than USD 1 billion as per Marine Energy Council, a trade group
• European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland has 14 grid connected berths housing dozens of wave and tidal energy devices over past 13 years
• Wave Hub in England has several such births while China has also been testing sea units

ANSWER: Kazan

Explanation:
Hearing impaired Indian shooter Priyesha Deshmukh on 14th Sept 2016 won the bronze medal in her first ever international competition

• The first World Deaf Shooting Championships were held in Kazan, Russia from Sept 7 to 15, 2016
• Deshmukh won bronze in 10m air rifle category
• Shooter won the deal after scoring 180.4 points
• Ukraine’s Svitlana Yatsenko won Gold in the Championships while Servia’s Gordon Mikovic won silver

ANSWER: Charkhi Dadri

Explanation:
CM of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar on 18th September 2016 announced Charkhi Dadri as the 22nd district of the state

• The announcement was made at a Dadri rally in Bhiwani district
• Developmental projects worth INR 112 crore have been completed in the Dadri assembly segment
• Khattar also inaugurated nine development projects worth INR 45 crores in Dadri.
• Charkhi Dadri is a district in the state of Haryana; it was earlier a town in Bhiwani district
• Town was made by joining the villages of Charkhi and Dadri following urban development
• Charkhi Dardi is on Narnual Bathinda pass through the city on NH 148B
• It is located in southern Haryana 110 km from the NCT of New Delhi

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
India on 19th Sept 2016 indicated it believes in a policy of zero tolerance against terrorism

• This is a day after terrorists killed 17 soldiers in Uri, Kashmir in one of the deadliest terror attacks on military
• India called upon the Council to urge Pakistan to end cross border infiltration, dismantle terror infrastructure and stop being a terrorism epicentre
• "It is time that moral and material support provided by Pakistan to the perpetrators of this continuing heinous violence on the Indian soil should attract this Council's attention," it said.
• "India has been a long-suffering victim of terrorism emanating from our neighbourhood. The fundamental reason for disturbances in Kashmir is cross-border terrorism promoted by Pakistan which is so ruthless that it does not shy away from using civilians and even children by putting them in harm's way, at the forefront of violent mobs instigated and supported by their handlers from across the border," it added.
• "We urge this Council to take a holistic view of this threat and not permit the use of terrorism as state policy to be masqueraded as advocacy of human rights," it added.

ANSWER: 2nd

Explanation:
Summertime sea ice in the Arctic reached a minimum on September 10 and is now tied to the second lowest minimum in the satellite era

• NASA and National Snow and Ice Data Centre on September 15, 2016 said summertime Arctic sea ice appears to have reached annual minimum on September 10
• This will be tied with 2007 for the second lowest yearly minimum in satellite record
• Satellite data showed this year’s minimum at 1.60 million square miles (4.14 million square km). The animation above tracks the evolution of Arctic sea ice cover during 2016.
• Satellites monitor sea ice and have done so since 1978
• This has been an unusual year with melt season beginning with a record low yearly maximum extent in March and a rapid ice loss through May.
• But in June and July, low atmospheric pressures and cloudy skies slowed down the melt.

ANSWER: Lata Mangeshkar

Explanation:
Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar has been honoured with the 2016 Bangabibhushan by the West Bengal government

• CM Mamata Banerjee said the honour was in recognition of her innumerable memorable Bengali songs
• The award will be conferred after Durga Puja
• Trinamool Congress has been conferring this award to eminent people in their fields for contributions since 2011
• Dancer Amala Shankar was the first person to receive the award

Other awardees:
2011

• Mahashweta Devi- Literature
• Sandhya Mukhopadhyay- Music (Bengali Modern Songs)
• Supriya Devi- Film (acting)
• Manna Dey- Music (Bengali Modern Songs and Hindi Film Music)
• Amjad Ali Khan: Music (Indian Classical Instrumental)
• Dwijen Mukhopadhyay: Music (Rabindra Sangeet and Bengali Modern Songs)
• Shailen Manna: Sports (Football)
• Haradhan Bandopadhyay: Film (acting)

2012

• Suchitra Sen: Film (acting)
• Leslie Claudius: Sports (hockey)
• Jogen Chowdhury: Painting
• Rudraprasad Sengupta: Theatre
• Bibhas Chakraborty: Theatre
• Shaoli Mitra: Theatre
• Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay: Literature
• Sanjeev Chattopadhyay: Literature
• Goutam Ghosh: Film (Direction)
• Joy Goswami:Literature
• Ranjit Mullick: Film (acting)
• Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty: Music (Hindustani Classical)
• Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussein Khan: Music (Sehnai)

2013

• Mithun Chakraborty: Film (acting)
• Thankamani Kutti: Dancer
• B.K. Birla: Industrialist
• Ritupurno Ghosh: Film Maker
• Sandhya Roy: Actor
• Sabitri Chatterjee: Actor: Purnadas Baul: Singer
• Subhaprasanna: Painter
• Amitabha Chowdhury: Journalist
• Sourav Ganguly: Sports

2014

• Lepcha tribal leader Sonam Tshering Lepcha,
• Vocalist ArunBhaduri, proprietor of “jatra” (folk theatre) group
• Natta Company Makhanlal Natta,
• Physician Sukumar Mukherjee,
• Film stars Madhabi Mukhopadhyay and Dipankar De,
• Justice Md Abdul Gani,
• Writer Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri,
• Educationist Felix Raj,
• Singers Haimanti Shukla and Mohan Singh,
• Dancer Alakananda Roy,
• Footballer Bhutia,
• Former soccer internationals Bidesh Bose, Goutam Sarkar, Shabbir Ali and Shyam Thapa,
• Sarod maestro Tejendranarayan Majumder,
• Social activist Md Abdul Wahab,
• Journalist Bachan Singh Saral
• Tribal leader Birsa Tirkey,
• Actors Debashree Roy and Aparajita Adya,
• Singers Srikanta Acharya, Indranil Sen, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Indrani Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, cricketers Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Manoj Tiwary,
• Chess grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly.

ANSWER: Carotid body

Explanation:
A new study has found that blood pressure level in the human body is controlled by carotid body- small organ the size of grain of rice located between two major arteries that provide blood to the brain

• Scientists at the University of Bristol have found that removing one carotid body from some patients with high blood pressure can provide immediate and sustained fall in blood pressure.
• This indicates that the carotid bodies appear to be a cause of high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.
• The fall in blood pressure was impressive more than medication for targeting the carotid body to treat hypertension
• Carotid bodies detect oxygen levels in the blood and when this falls, an alarm is raised by them to signal the brain to increase breathing and blood pressure
• High blood pressure treatment typically tackles the symptoms targeting the end organs such as the heart, kidneys and blood vessels, and not the causes, according to the researchers
• Patients responded to resection had raised carotid body activity. These patients breathed more at rest and produced exaggerated breathing responses when the oxygen level in their blood was lowered.
• WHO has identified hypertension as a single most important risk factor for disease and death.

ANSWER: Param Ishan

Explanation:
State of the art supercomputer Param Ishan was launched at IIT Guwahati on 19th Sept by MHRD Union Minister Prakash Javadekar
Several technology areas will be positively affected through this supercomputer

• While some already have supercomputers, number of institutes with computer will rise and go up to 60 as government focuses on advancing infrastructure
• Param Ishan has a power of 250 teraflops
• It has a capacity of 300 terabytes
• Super computer augments research initiatives in institute and also creates right ecosystem for research
• It will be used in following areas
• Computational Chemistry,
• Computational Fluid Dynamics,
• Computational Electromagnetic,
• Civil Engineering Structures,
• Nano-block Self Assemble,
• Optimisation
• Weather and Climate Modelling
• Seismic data processing