Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Sept 13, 2015

ANSWER: Mollivirus sibericum

Explanation:
Team from the French National Centre for Scientific Research has discovered a prehistoric virus called Mollivirus sibericum. It is named so because it is located underground in NE Siberian permafrost. Mollivirus sibericum means “soft virus from Siberia”. It is a giant virus as it is visible through light microscopy.

ANSWER: Dream writer

Explanation:
A business report written by a robot journalist designed by Asia’s largest Internet company, Tencent has been published. This report was completed in just 1 minute. The perfect 916 word article was released through the instant messaging service of the company. Subject of article was China’s August CPI. This is the first business report ever written by a robot journalist in the world.

ANSWER: USD 6.2 billion

Explanation:
First quarter current account deficit has fallen to 1.2% of the nation’s GDP from USD 7.8 billion or 1.6% in Q1FY15. CAD was higher as against 1.3 billion or 0.2% in Q4FY15. RBI data released on 12th September 2015 shows POL basket dropped to USD 24 billion from 40 billion. A massive component of this is crude and fall in import value is due to global crude prices crash.

ANSWER: Zigwheels and Girnar Soft

Explanation:
CarDekho is acquiring auto portal Zigwheels run by Times Internet. This is the second largest acquisition by Girnar Soft after it purchased Nasper owned Gaadi.com a year back. Girnar Soft runs CarDekho, BikeDeokho and PriceDekho sites. The co founder and CEO of CarDekho is Amit Jain. Combined entity of CarDekho, Zigwheels and Gaadi.com will compete with Cartrade.com and Carwale.com as well as horizontal classified companies like Olx and Quikr. Times Internet is part of Times Group. Zighweels receives 8 million visits per month while CarDekho and Gaadi.com receive 25 million visits per month. CarDekho was valued at USD 300 million earlier in the year.

ANSWER: Vamo

Explanation:
Airbnb is a peer to peer accommodation platform which has acquired trip planning tool Vamo. The staff and technology of Vamo will be taken on by Airbnb in what is known as a Acqui-Hire. The tool that uses Big Data for finding travel deals will be shut w.e.f October 1st 2015. The founder and CEO of Vamo is former Facebook exec Ari Steinberg. California based Airbnb raised USD 1.5 billion in new capital this year with a value of USD 25.5 billion. Company was launched in 2008 and currently has 40 million users internationally.

ANSWER: Kesoram Industries Ltd

Explanation:
JK Group through its wholly owned subsidiary JK Asia Pacific Singapore Pte Ltd has signed a binding term age agreement with JIL to acquire 100% equity in Cavendish Industries Ltd/CIL. JK Group will acquire BK Birla flagship firm Kesoram Industries’ tyre manufacturing plant at Haridwar. The enterprise value for this deal being INR 2200 crore, JK Tyre will hold biggest shareholding block and have management control of CIL.

The chairman of JK Tyre is Raghupathi Singhania and the acquisition will be funded through debt and internal accruals.

JK Tyre is among the top 3 automotive tyre manufactures in India. Another major acquisition by this company was of Mexican tyre firm Tornel for INR 270 crore.

ANSWER: Present regulation limit of number of anchor investors at 15 if public size issue is below INR 250 crore, can be increased to 25 if issue size is over 250 crore

Explanation:
SEBI has notified relaxed norms for public offers through removal of restriction on maximum number of anchor investors with the aim of raising funds via primary markets. For every additional allocation of INR 250 crore above the base INR 250 crore, there will be 10 additional investors for every increase, subject to minimum allotment of INR 5 crore per anchor investor.

In case of allocation above Rs.250 crore, a minimum of 5 such investors and a maximum of 15 such investors for allocation up to Rs.250 crore and an additional 10 such investors for every additional Rs.250 crore or part thereof, shall be permitted, subject to the minimum allotment

ANSWER: 9 Grand Slam Mixed Doubles and Mahesh Bhupathi

Explanation:
Lander Paes has created history by winning the US Open Mixed Doubles title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis. The 42 year old Paes has won 9 Grand Slam Mixed Doubles titles as against 8 by Bhupathi.

Hingis and Paes have become the first mixed doubles team since 1969 to win 3 Grand Slam mixed double titles in the same year. This was the 17th Grand Slam title for Paes and the 19th for Hingis.

Record medals and titles held by Laender Paes include Olympic bronze medal in 1996, 1 singles and 55 doubles titles and 9 mixed doubles titles. Paes has won the Australian Open 2015 mixed doubles title as well.

ANSWER: K. Murugan and 3 members

Explanation:
3 member adhoc committee will not only oversee working of BFI, it will also conduct fresh elections to bring integration into the basketball scenario in India. Apart from CEO of Indian Volleyball Federation, K. Murugan who is heading the committee, its other two members are Anandeshwar Pandey and Kuldip Vats. BFI has separated into two sets of office bearers 9 months ago and the committee aims to resolve this issue.

ANSWER: HP CEO Meg Whitman

Explanation:
Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman has joined the board of SurveyMonkey w.e.f 12th September 2015. The unicorn startup was valued at USD 2 billion in December 2014. During this time, it raised USD 250 million. Others on the board include Sheryl Sandberg. Current CEO of SurveyMonkey is Bill Veghte. SurveyMonkey now has 9 board members.

ANSWER: Jeremy Corbyn

Explanation:
Left wing leader and veteran Jeremy Corbyn who has voted against his party many times became the leader of the British opposition Labour Party making the EU exit for the UK more likely. His two main contenders are Blair loyalist Liz Kendall along with Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham.

ANSWER: Egypt

Explanation:
Egyptian PM Ibrahim Mehleb submitted the resignation of the Cabinet on 12th September 2015. It was accepted by President al-Sisi. Cabinet will remain in caretaker role till fresh Cabinet is formed. Minister of petroleum, Sherif Ismail has been appointed to form a new government within a week. Minister of agriculture, Salah Helal, resigned and was taken into custody for corruption charges and the resignation of the Cabinet follows this.

ANSWER: Qualified Institutional buyer making application for value of INR 10 crore or more through book-building process

Explanation:
SEBI introduced the concept of anchor investors in public issues in 2009. This move was to impact pricing of IPOs. Anchor investors benefit IPOs as equity markets are volatile. Anchor investors attract investors to public offers before hitting capital markets to infuse confidence. Value and volume of anchor subscriptions are an indicator of the soundness of the firm’s offer. This also sets a benchmark and provides for guidelines for issue pricing and interest among QIBs

ANSWER: Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy

Explanation:
RAeS has conferred Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy with the prestigious Silver Medal. He is the scientific adviser to MoD and eminent DRDO missile scientist. Medal was given for his contribution to develop advanced avionic sensors and systems for major national strategic programmes and systems of defence applicatio, aerospace and aeronautics in India. RAeS was established in 1866. Its first Gold medal was conferred in 1909 on Orviile and Wilbur Wright who developed aeroplanes.