Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Sept 18, 2015

ANSWER: Hand in Hand

Explanation:
India and China will be conducting a bilateral HiH military exercise as a CBM between the world’s biggest and second biggest armies. HiH exercise will be held in Kunming in China. China has recently cut its 2.3 million strong PLA by 2017 through a proposed 3,00,000 troop cut and is strengthening its naval and air forces for out of area operations and expansion of large missile inventory comprising anti ship and anti satellite missiles. India is looking to streamline modernisation and slash the size of the 1.18 m army. China’s annual defiance budget is USD 130 billion while it is USD 40 billion for India. India has limited missile arsenal as compared to China. China has DF-3LA ICBMs with 11,200 km range, JL-2 SLBMs with 7200 km range. India currently has no ICMBS or SLBMs. While China has more than 250 nuclear warheads, India only has 50-110. Of submarines, China has 53 of which 5 are nuclear powered while India has 34 of which 1 is nuclear powered. In terms of major warships, China has double (75) that of India (3)) though it has only 1 aircraft carrier against 2 in India. China has 1600 fighter jets and more than 7,000 battle tanks and India’s corresponding numbers are 550 and 3,200. Bilateral military CBMs between the countries include HiH exercises, Border Defence Cooperation Agreement 2013 and border personnel meeting points at Chushul, DBO( Ladakh, Nathu La, Sikkim) Bum La and Kibithu( Arunachal Pradesh).

ANSWER: 7

Explanation:
Nepalese Parliament has passed a new national constitution after reaching a historic agreement for creating a federal state. Long delayed bill for the same has been passed with 507 out of a total of 598 voting in favour for it. The marathon voting follows protests from the south. New charter will replace interim constitution in place since close of 10 year civil war that caused the abolition of monarchy. The new charter will come into force w.e.f 20th September 2015.

ANSWER: 10

Explanation:
RBI has shortlisted 10 micro lenders to establish small banks for loan advancement for unbanked, small businesses, micro and small industries as well as unorganised sectors which do not have access to large bank financing. From 10 entities granted approval in principle, 8 are micro-finance providers, one is a local area bank and the remaining is a non banking finance company. Small banks are akin to regular CoBs while scale of service will be smaller and these banks should generate 75% of business from the priority sector namely agriculture and areas where large banks are not present. Around 50% of their loans will be under INR 25 lakhs. Licenses for payment banks were recently issued as well. Much like payment banks, minimum paid up equity for small finance banks is INR 100 crore and RBI has said small banks can bring down initial contribution to 40% which can be lowered to 26% over the next 12 years. Sole NBFC in the list is AU Financiers set up in 1996. Other micro lenders chosen and their year of establishment is as follows:

- Capital Local Area Bank-2000
- Disha Microfin- 2009
- Equitas Holdings-2007
- ESAF Microfinance and Investments-1992
- Janalakshmi Financial Services-19999
- GVN(NE) Microfinance-2008
- Suryoday Micro Finance-2008
- Ujivan Financial Services-2005
- Utkarsh Micro Finance-2009

ANSWER: Blackstone

Explanation:
SERCO BPO is being acquired by Blackstone for INR 2558 crore which is less than half the price at which it was sold to the former 4 years ago. Following the purchase by the US investment and advisory firm, BPO will retain its old name Intelenet Global Services. Blackstone owned this BPO unit till 2011 after which it was sold to SERCO for USD 630m. The proceeds from this transaction will be used for cutting down on Serco’s debt. Internet was initially a JV between TCS and HDFC. The latter purchased the stake of the former in 2004 and sold the unit to Blackstone in 2007. Some of the major consolidations seen in past 3 years includes IBM’s sale of Daksh to Concentric, Convergys merger with Stream and Aegis’s sale of US business to tele performance. This is the largest acquisition by Blackstone to be made and SERCO BPO’s CEO will be Susir Kumar.

ANSWER: 39

Explanation:
Additionally 7 frequencies have reportedly been auctioned. It is the frequencies of smaller towns like Tirupati and Vijaywada which remained unsold. Biggest bidders were Entertainment Network India Ltd(part of TOI group owning Mirchi brand) with INR 339.2 crore for 17 channels and HT Media Ltd which bid INR 339.8 crore for 10 channels. Third in line was Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd( Sun Group) with INR 134.9 crore for 3 channels and Reliance Broadcast network Ltd with INR 116.9 crore for 14 channels. Delhi fetched the highest bid at INR 169.2 crore which was 5 and half times reserve price of INR 31.4 crore indicating a scarcity premium. Mirchi brand will now cover 43 cities following the auctions. The top 5 companies and their frequencies won and amount spend were:

- ENIL(Mirchi)-17-INR 339.2 crore
- HT Media Ltd-10- INR 339.8 crore
- Digital Radio(Sun)-3-INR 134.9 crore
- Reliance Braodcast-14- INR 116.9 crore
- Music Bradocast-11- INR 62.6 crore Delhi fetched 5.5 times the reserve price of INR 31.4 crore.

ANSWER: 10% or more

Explanation:
Lenders will not require prior approval by the central bank for making equity investments if they have capital risk weighted asset ration of 10% or higher and have made profits in the previous financial year, according to notification by RBI. Equity investments without prior approval would have to equal around less than 10% of the company’s paid up capital or lower than one fifth of the paid up capital if including subsidiaries or JVs.

ANSWER: NHAI International

Explanation:
NHAI International will have offices in different countries and function like rail PSUs undertaking construction and consultancy projects internationally. It will be outside the ambit of NHAI. Iran, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are some of the nations planning to award contracts to India in coming years. GoI has also made the decision to increase India’s national highways network to 1.5 lakh km in a year through addition of 50,000 km more than the existing/current network. Target is 30 km of road construction every day by March 2016. A separate body is also being planned for carrying out the expressways project. Mass transit projects are also on the anvil.
Panel for preparing the reorganisation of NHAI has been formed.

ANSWER: 19.9%

Explanation:
Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp is buying back 19.9% stake held by German automaker Volkswagen AF with repurchase of as many as 122.8 m shares on 17th September at closing price of 3,842.5 yen per share for up to 471.7 billion yen ($3.9 billion) via the Tokyo Stock Exchange's off-hours trading system before the market opens.US Fund manager Loeb’s Third Point LLC holding a stake in Suzuki has urged the Japanese company to cancel shares it is repurchasing.

ANSWER: National Stock Exchange

Explanation:
Infrastructure lending company IFCI has sold 1.5% of its stake in NSE for INR 263.3 crore. It has made partial divestment of up to 1.5% of stake in NSE at 6,75,000 equity shares, to a certain buyer, at a price of Rs 3,900 per share, aggregating Rs 263.3 crore on September 15, 2015. The company earlier held 5.6% in NSE.

ANSWER: UEM India Pvt Ltd

Explanation:
Toshiba Corporation has acquired majority stake of 80% through acquisition of additional 54% stake in UEM. Minority shareholders remain Krishna Kshetry, founding member and IVFA. Toshiba Corporation increased its stake in the Noida based company from its promoter for a deal valued at around INR 400 crore. UEM is valued at INR 750 crore and the Japanese firm purchased a 26% stake in this company in March 2014. K. Matsui has been appointed as chairperson and MD of the company. UEM has presence over 30 nations across the US, C. America, Africa and Asia. India has around 18% of the world’s population yet only 2.4 % of its land area and 4% of its renewable water resources. Water segment has high growth potential in India, as per CII. CII has also said public private partnership (PPP) model with the state utilities, urban local bodies for water supply and distribution has business potential of around $1,750 billion, while setting up of water treatment plants, sewage and effluent treatment plant has a business potential of around $1,303 billion.

ANSWER: Apus

Explanation:
InMobi has tied up with Apus for entering Indian markets. It will have exclusive rights for advertising close to INR 25 million users in India for the remaining 24 months and first rights to global advertising inventory of the app maker. China based Apis raised USD 116 m from investors and it looks to tap USD 15 m from Indian market and expand its user base to 80 million by 2016. Apart from Apus, other Chinese companies eyeing the Indian market include Baidu and Fosun. Other recent partnerships of InMobi include Dell Inc and Paytm.

ANSWER: Zerodha

Explanation:
Zerodha has started its online trading platform Kite in 10 languages including hindi. It was founded by 35 year old Nithin Kamath. Kite uses 175th of internet bandwidth as against conventional trading platforms and uses an advanced behavioural analytics and visualisation platform called Quant for making investment decisions. Start up was founded in Bengaluru in 2010.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Cabinet has provided ex post facto approval to increase the number of working days in MGNREGA by 50 and monsoon rains have been 16% below normal so far making this the second successive poor monsoon. Diesel subsidy has also been announced to help farmers save standing crops. Cabinet approved Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission with an outlay of INR 5,142.08 crore. The mission seeks to set up 300 rural clusters by 2019-20 across the country to bridge the rural-urban divide.

ANSWER: Hasit Joshipura

Explanation:
USD 15 billion engineering group Larsen and Toubro has appointed former India head of GSK Pharma, H. Joshipura as the head of its corporative initiatives ahead of its strategic plan Project Lakhsya. IIM-A and L&T chairman Naik worked closely with him during the time spent in institution for selecting its director.

ANSWER: Dr Thomas R. Insel

Explanation:
Dr. T.R Insel has left the NIMH to pursue development of technologies for early detection and treatment of health problems at Google Life Sciences. Google is currently in the process of organising into a fresh company called Alphabet. Intel seeks to lower untreated psychosis in the US from an average of 74 weeks to 7 weeks by 2020. Power of data analytics will be used to understand how to cope with mental health issues.

ANSWER: Enceladus and Cassini

Explanation:
Researchers found that beneath its icy crust, Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a global ocean and the magnitude of its slight wobble as it orbits the planet can only mean its outer icy shell is not frozen solid. This implies spray of water vapour, icy particles and organic molecules observed from the south pole of the moon is being fed through this large water reservoir. Previous Cassini data analysis suggested presence of lens shaped body of water under the south polar region of this moon. Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since 2004. Saturn has 53 named moons and an additional 9 which are currently being studied. Some of its moons are even larger than planets. For example moon Titan is larger than planet Mercury.

ANSWER: Manpreet Kaur

Explanation:
Manpreet Kaur broke the national record for women’s shot put at the 55th national Open Athletics Championships earning a berth in the Rio Olympics. The 25 year old sportswoman from Ablana threw the shot put to a distance of 17.96m on her second attempt in the final, which was enough to achieve the entry standard for the Rio Games. And in doing so, she rewrote a long-standing national record, set by Harbans Kaur way back in 1997.

ANSWER: Ranjana Saikia

Explanation:
R. Saikia headed the 3 member internal complaints committee panel at TERI which found former director general R. K. Pachauri guilty of sexual harassment. However, the TERI ICC committee which also upheld charges of intimidation and stalking against him has been reconstituted following Saikia’s resignation. The reconstituted committee now comprises the following members:

- D. Vibha Dhawan – Presiding Officer
- Ms Mili Majumdar – Member
- Dr Ibrahim H Rehman – Member
- Dr Suneel Pandey – Member
- Ms Vagisha Kochar (Adv.) – Member.

ANSWER: Only abode of the Asiatic lion in the world

Explanation:
Gir National Park has completed 50 years as a sanctuary on September 18 2015. It had 174 lions when it was notified as a sanctuary on September 18, 1965. This park is the only abode of the Asiatic Lion in the world. To commemorate this, a special postage stamp and year long festivities have been launched. People of Peninsular Saurashtra where this sanctuary is located have saved the Asian lion from extinction. Gir’s lion population has grown to 523 and the protected area which was 1265 sq. km in 1965, has now expanded to 22,000 sq. km.

ANSWER: 1970 to 2012

Explanation:
As per the WWF Living Blue Planet report, half of the world's marine population (49%) has disappeared between 1970 and 2012, a plunge to the “brink of collapse“ caused by over-fishing and other threats. 29% of world’s oceans are classified as overfished and a further 61% as fully exploited. Global population sizes of the Scombridae family of food fish has decreased by 74%. Declining stocks of blue fin and yellowfin have pushed them to near extinction.There has been a 50% reduction in population numbers globally of fish during the period from 1970s to early 2000s.Almost 75% of the world's coral reefs are threatened with their cover having decreased by more than 50% in the last 3 decades. With over 25% of all marine species living in coral reefs and about 850 million people directly benefiting from them economically , the loss of these reefs would is considered dangerous. 20% loss in mangrove cover between 1980 and 2005 equal to as much as 3.6 million hectares indicates rate of loss is 3-5 times greater than average global forest loss. Global catches of sharks have increased by 300%. This means that 25% of shark, rays and skates are now threatened with local extinction.5,829 populations of 1,234 species were studied as part of this report.