Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Sep 28, 2016

ANSWER: Jim Yong Kim

Explanation:
World Bank has reappointed President Jim Yong Kim as he was the only candidate in a process criticised by the World Bank staff and campaigners as lacking transparency and dominated by the United States.

• Bank’s board offered a strong endorsement of Kim’s record including setting the goal of eliminating extreme global poverty by 2030 and an internal reorganisation to promote better coordination which provoked staff dissent
• Board also said an effort under Kim to cut bank spending reduced administrative costs by USD 400 million, money then reinvested to support the bank’s goals.
• Expenditure review is on track, allowing the organisation to increase its support for countries and focusing on delivering results more quickly
• The Bank’s largest shareholder has chosen all World Bank presidents since the creation of the institution in the 1940s- this is the United States
• Kim was the first US nominee to face a challenger when Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala entered the contest.
• Kim received the US endorsement almost immediately after the window for nominations for the term beginning next July opened, perhaps warding off challengers and avoiding a repeat of 2012.
• Bank’s staff association held that WB faced a crisis of leadership

ANSWER: Schoogle

Explanation:
Students from KR Montford School in Perambur designed an online search engine and app to create awareness on internet usage and online distractions.

• The 15 member class XI students designed a search engine called Schoogle- Google for School
• This is an exclusive engine for the student community with information pertaining only to education
• Students have also come out with games designed on educational concept with the idea that students that can log on with their school ID and dabble in science and maths.
• The project coordinator will be presenting the idea to Google
• Another app Poppeagle expected to of life on 28th Sept 2016 has been designed for alerting students and parents on internet usage by users
• Internet being a big distraction for students, online monitoring tools such as these are beneficial.

ANSWER: BGR-34

Explanation:
Scientists at the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research were awarded for developing BGR-34, an Ayurvedic anti-diabetic drug

Senior principal scientists at CSIR said the drug has been found successful in controlling blood pressure.

• Developed around after 4 years of research at CSIR labs in Lucknow, drug was found to reduce a type of haemoglobin reflecting how well the body controls diabetes; this is called HbA1c
• Its levels reflect how well the body is controlling diabetes
• Studies on levels from 7.8 to 7.3 percent in diabetic patients given a daily dose of BGR-34 for 3 months showed that complications related to diabetes can be delayed by keeping this level below 7 percent
• Post prandial blood sugar levels reduced from 204 to 194 mg/dl
• In healthy adults, there should be less than 180 mg/dl of blood
• The drug not only controls diabetes, but also reduces the risk of co-morbidities such as hypertension and load on liver and kidney
• CSIR launched the drug late last year and it is available in pharmacies and online vendors like Amazon at the nominal cost of INR 5 per tablet
• The drug can be taken as a supplement along with allopathic medication

ANSWER: Shimon Peres

Explanation:
Nobel prize winning visionary Shimon Peres pushed his country towards peace through the Israeli accord.

• The former Israeli President and Prime Minister whose life story mirrored that of the Jewish state passed away on 28th Sept 2016
• He was 93 at the time of his death following a stroke
• He had a 70 year long political career and his public life was credited with leading Israel through its most defining moments.
• He disentangled troops from Lebanon and rescued the economy from triple digit inflation in the 1980s
• He also was a protege of Israeli founding father David Ben Gurion
• He was first elected to the Parliament in 1959 and held every major Cabinet post including defence, finance and foreign affairs
• He also held three brief stints as the PM
• His key role in the first Israel Palestine peace accord earned him a Nobel Prize.
• Shimon Peres was born on Aug. 2, 1923, in Vishneva, then part of Poland. He moved to pre-state Palestine in 1934 with his immediate family.
• Rising quickly through Labour Party ranks, he became a top aide to Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister and a man Peres once called “the greatest Jew of our time.”
• At 29, he was the youngest person to serve as director of Israel’s Defence Ministry, and is credited with arming Israel’s military almost from scratch.
• He authored as many as 10 books

ANSWER: India

Explanation:
As it turned 18 on 27th Sept, 2016, Google announced many products such as YouTube and Google Station specially designed for India.

• India is currently the world’s second largest internet market
• “Every second, three more Indians come online for the first time — that’s over 10,000 people every hour,” Google Vice-President (Next Billion Users) Caesar Sengupta said.
• Google is coming up with products and services that transcend networks, languages and devices for India
• The firm announced extending its initiative to provide Wi-Fi at 400 railway stations in India in partnership with RailTel to include public places such as bus stops and malls.
• ‘Google Station’ would give partners an easy set of tools to roll-out Wi-Fi hotspots in public places.
• It will provide software and guidance on hardware to turn fibre connections into fast, reliable and safe Wi-Fi zones.
• The firm introduced a more efficient version of YouTube Go, that will enable both viewing and sharing videos offline.

ANSWER: Reliance

Explanation:
Reliance Communications (RCom) and Reliance Jio (RJio) are working together through a “virtual merger” of their infrastructure such as spectrum and towers and the two companies are reaping the synergies, according to RCom president Anil Ambani.

• “What we have accomplished is a virtual merger between Rcom and RJio. Our spectrum is shared, our network is shared, our towers are shared, our fibre shared, our voice is shared and every effort to reap synergies, every effort to lower our costs, to be capital light has been achieved,”- he said in an official statement.
• RCom has a full 4G LTE long term evolution network on a pan Indian basis without capital expenditure on the balance sheet
• Assets shared and traded with Rjio have ensured RCom does not shell out entire capital expenditure
• RCom is also unlikely to bid at the upcoming spectrum auction given that RJio has deposited Rs.6,500 crore as earnest money deposit,
• The proposed merger with Aircel will create wealth for shareholders
• RCom expects a deal soon for its tower business, he said.

ANSWER: Both of the above

Explanation:
A novel species of a ground-dwelling lizard has been discovered in Goregaon's Aarey Colony and Thane's Badlapur forested belts.

• The species has been named after a Bengaluru-based scientist Varad Giri and is found in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in north Mumbai, the Aarey Colony, a few localities in Nanded, Chandrapur and Amaravati districts and a few localities in Gujarat.
• Species was discovered 130 years after the last such gecko was found
• The species, of the genus Cyrtodactylus known in Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka, is a member of the subgenus Geckoella.
• Earlier, this new species was considered as Geckoella Collegalensis. However, based on morphological characters and DNA data, it has been described as a new species.
• This uncommon species is mostly seen moving among the leaf litter on the forest floor.
• Active during the night, they take refuge during the day under rocks and logs and grow to the length of 6 cm
• The new species are a widely distributed species in India- they live in human dominated landscapes

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Apart from India, Bangladesh and Bhutan have also pulled out of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November, saying the environment is not right for the successful holding of the meet.

• The decision was conveyed by Bangladesh and Bhutan on 27th Sept to the Saarc chair Nepal, sources said
• The decision by three countries of the eight-member grouping not to attend the summit would lead to its collapse.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same day also decided not to attend the SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November.
• The announcement by India came on a day foreign secretary S Jaishankar issued a second demarche to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit over September 18 Uri attack and confronted him with proof of "cross-border origins" of the terror strike in which 18 jawans were killed.
• The attack has triggered a strong response from India which has reviewed the 56-year-old Indus Water Treaty (IWT), and decide to reconsider the MFN status granted by it, unilaterally, to Pakistan.

ANSWER: Introduce a credit card

Explanation:
The Central Bank of Iran is allowing local financial institutions to issue credit cards for the first time in the Islamic Republic.

• The full introduction of the cards could take some time as local banks will need to get used to the credit card system, according to the head of Iran’s central bank Valiollah Seif.
• The step aims at improving public spending
• Number of credit cards issued will depend on applications received
• The cards will be offered with three set credit limits topping off at $15,000.
• Cards will be able to be used for purchasing goods and services over the counter and online.
• Accounts unpaid within a month will be subject to an 18 percent annual interest rate charge.
• Before this, only debt and prepaid cards were available
• According to Turkish payments processor Iyzico, the country has 231 million active cards operating through the Shetab debit card system.
• I ran’s financial institutions are trying to adjust after decades of sanctions against the country were lifted at the beginning of the year.