Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Sept 25, 2015

ANSWER: Stuti Narain Kacker

Explanation:
A 1978 batch IAS officer, Stuti Narain Kacker was on 24th September 2015 appointed as head of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights by the Union Women and Child Development Ministry.  She is ex secretary of the Department of Disability Affairs at MSOJ&E looking after the management committee of CARA. Former UPA appointee Kushal Singh’s tenure closes. NCPCR was established in March 2007 under Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005. According to the NCPCR act, the 6 member body must have 2 lady reps.

ANSWER: Abdul Bari Siddiqui

Explanation:
Abdul Bari Siddiqui. senior RJD leader was on 24th September 2015, elected president of Bihar Cricket Association, chosen in a process directed by SC. BCA elections were held in August 2015 . Siddiqui is currently chairman of state Badminton Association. Former president Vinod Kumar lost the elections. Other appointments as per the election include:  
- Working President of the cricketing body: International umpire Laliteshwar Prasad Verma
- General Secretary: Ravi Shankar Prasad
- Treasurer: Ram Kumar
- 5 Vice Presidents: Sunil kumar Singh, Gopal Bohra, Anand Kumar, S Mumtazuddin and N K Jamuar

ANSWER: Rahul Rawail

Explanation:
Indian filmmaker Rahul Rawail has resigned from the Oscar Selection Jury citing personal differences with chairperson of the jury, Amol Palekar. Resignation was tendered after the selection of National award-winning Marathi film Court as India’s official entry for Oscars 2016 (88th Academy Awards) by the jury. Court is a film directed by Chaitanya Tamhane and it has been named best picture at National Film Awards 2015 apart from winning 17 different international awards. Indian film director Rahul Rawail is known for his movies like Love Story (1981), Betaab (1983), Jeevan Ek Sanghursh (1990), Anjaam (1994) and Jo Bole So Nihaal (2005). He has been nominated as the best director twice for Filmfare Awards

ANSWER: Trinidad and Tobago

Explanation:
President  Pranab Mukherjee has congratulated the people of Trinidad and Tobago on their Republic Day.  Relations between India and Trinidad & Tobago date back to 30 May 1845. 2 way bilateral trade between India and Trinidad & Tobago include the following - petroleum-crude & products, drugs and pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, garments, rice and other food stuff including spices, I.T. services, auto components, machinery and transportation equipment, plastic products, cosmetics, organic/inorganic chemicals, electronic goods, non-ferrous metals, gems & jewelry, silk, sports goods, paints, footwear, carpets, leather goods etc. constitute the export basket from India.  Items of export from this country  include scrap metals, wood and wood products, asphalt, chemicals.

ANSWER: Republic of Guinea Bissau

Explanation:
Independence Day was celebrated on 24th September 2015 and Indian President extended warm greetings and felicitations on this occasion. The government of this republic is supportive of India. Guinea Bissau is a founder member of the Team-9 Initiative.  Under this framework, GOI has extended LOC of US$ 25 million to Guinea Bissau. India is the sole importer of almost the entire crop (98%) of cashew nuts from Guinea Bissau every year.

ANSWER: Employee Provident Fund Organisation/ EPFO

Explanation:
EPFO has been awarded the SKOCH prize for Smart Governance for its initiatives on UAN Programme and Transformation of Social Security Agenda in India. This is the fifth award for EPFO in 2 years. EPFO was also awarded two SKOCH Order-of-Merit on 22nd September, one for launching UAN for EPFO members and another for transformation of Social Security Agenda in India. EPFO has launched mobile apps and e-governance initiatives for which it has been awarded.

ANSWER: World Anti Doping Agency/ WADA

Explanation:
World Anti Doping Agency/WADA and General Administration of Sport of China signed MoU on Performance Enhancing drugs on 22nd September 2015. MoU will enhance cooperation between WADA and Chinese authorities.  Agreement will eliminate supply and manufacture of raw materials and supply of PEDs. Anti doping authorities worldwide will use the information to investigate anti doping rule violations under World Anti Doping Code. GASC will also develop links with WADA to achieve the same as will World Customers Organisation.  MoU follows DEA operation Cyber Juice on steroid and PED operation where major substances originated from Chinese labs.

ANSWER: 4

Explanation:
Currently, only 4 women feature in Forbes list of 100 richest Indians including O P Jindal group Chairperson Savitri Jindal and generic drugs maker USV Pharma Chairperson Leena Tewari and Indu Jain of Bennett, Coleman & Co are the other two women in the list.The four women have a collective wealth of $9.2 billion and account for nearly three per cent of the total net-worth of all in the coveted list whose collective wealth is around $345 billion. Jindal, ranked 23rd on the list, was followed by newcomer Leena Tewari who chairs privately held generics maker USV Pharma, ranked 54th on the list and Indu Jain of Bennett, Coleman & Co was ranked 57th on the list with a networth of $1.9 billion. Industrialist Mukesh Ambani has retained the tag as India’s richest for the ninth year in a row with a net worth of $18.9 billion followed by Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi as second-richest with a net worth of USD 18 billion while Wipro’s Azim Premji retained his third place with $15.9 billion.

ANSWER: One fourth

Explanation:
India is the fourth largest producer of crop protection chemicals globally. The domestic crop protection industry's valuation stood at USD 2.3 billion in 2014 with the sector tipped to reach USD 4.2 billion by FY2018-19. Proliferation of non-genuine products amounting to Rs 3,475 crore per annum, 25 per cent of total domestic market, adds to problems of this sector. Report is part of FICCI's policy advocacy paper and highlights systemic failure in tackling the menace of spurious pesticides.

ANSWER: Rajan Wadhera

Explanation:
Automotive Research Association of India has appointed Rajan Wadhera as its new President. Vikram Kirloskar has been appointed the Vice President. While Wadhera is President and CEO - Truck and Powertrain- at M&M, Kirloskar is vice chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor. ARAI is concerned with the issues like road safety, emission norms, fuel efficiency and various other technologies relevant for safer and cleaner vehicles. It is an autonomous body engaged in R&D activities in the auto sector approved as testing agency by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

ANSWER: Third Snan

Explanation:
The third and final shahi snaan (royal bath) during the ongoing Kumbh Mela will take place at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik on 25th September 2015 .Thousands of seers, mahants and sadhus belonging to 10 Akhadas will take the holy dip in ‘Kushavartha Teerth’ [holy pond] from 4.15 A.M. to 12.00 P.M.. A royal procession will be taken out by the seers and Mahants and devotees will be allowed to take the holy dip till late night. On September 18 2015, devotees had taken the holy dip in river Godavari on the occasion of third ‘shahi snaan’ at Nashik.

ANSWER: Saurav Ganguly

Explanation:
Ex Indian captain Sourav Ganguly appointed as president of Cricket Association of Bengal/CAB following the demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya. Dalmiya’s son was inducted as one of 2 joint secretaries replacing Ganguly. Subir Ganguly will continue as the joint secretary while Biswarup Dey will continue functioning as the treasurer.

ANSWER: Both of the above

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!

ANSWER: Quikwell

Explanation:
Healthcare start up Practo has acquired Quikwell, a company facilitating appointment scheduling at hospitals. Buyout makes Practo largest world appointment booking platform with close to 40 million appointments each year. The sum for which the acquisition has been made has not been disclosed.  This is the fourth acquisition for Practo in 5 months as it  bought Fitho (digital fitness solution) in April, followed by Genii in July and Insta Health earlier this month.Quikwell helps to synchronise patients and doctors to reduce average waiting time in hospitals by as much as 3 times. Launched in 2011 by Krishna Prasad Chitrapura and Raghavendra Prasad TS, Qikwell today has over 100 employees and appointment scheduling for 250 hospitals in as many as 19 cities. Qikwell will be led by the founders. It has clients like Manipal, Fortis, Cloudnine, Narayana Hrudalaya and over 6,000 doctors including pediatricians, gynaecologists and neurologists on its platform.India, the Philippines and Singapore are areas where Practo has offices. Bengaluru-based Practo has a team of 1,500 employees.

ANSWER: Mars Orbiter

Explanation:
After successfully completing one year of the mission life around Mars, a large data set has been acquired by 5 payloads of Mars Orbiter Mission/MOM. This marks the first anniversary of Mars Orbit Insertion released an atlas containing photos taken by the colour camera on board the spacecraft and results obtained by other payload results in a form of scientific atlas.

ANSWER: Alaska

Explanation:
The skeleton belongs to a newly-discovered species of duck-billed dinosaur, which was 30-feet long and lived through months of winter darkness and probably snow. It is the dinosaur with the most northernmost habitat ever found known as Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis. Discovery indicates a new world of dinosaurs that could live in snowy conditions and contended with months of darkness.The researchers estimate that there could be at least 13 different dinosaur present in the area — and will now continue to research to find out how they lived in regions that scientists had previously thought to be uninhabitable for reptilian dinosaurs.The new dinosaur is closely related to Edmontosaurus, another duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 70 million years ago.

ANSWER: Disaster Ready Assam

Explanation:
Apart from being located in the high seismic Zone V, Assam is situated in a frequent flood and landslides prone area. DRA app can also be used in the event of other disasters like fire.

The app also enables users to send distress messages. Billed as the first of its kind mobile android application, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) launched "Disaster Ready Assam" (DRA.) will be available for downloading in the ASDMA website and Google Play Store, officials said. Hologram, a Guwahati IT firm engaged by ASDMA has prepared the mobile app.

ANSWER: Second

Explanation:
Second edition of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) is all set to roll out with the Badminton Association of India (BAI) the first edition of which was held in collaboration with commercial partners Sporty Solutionz in 2013. The Indian body now has taken the onus on themselves to conduct the tournament after severing its association with the Sports management company.

The league will retain its six franchises format represented by the Indian cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Lucknow with talks on to replace Pune with Chennai.

ANSWER: Bank of Maharashtra

Explanation:
Mudra card to be launched by Bank of Maharashtra for micro and small entrepreneurs for meeting credit requirement. The card was launched by S. Muhnot, CMD on- Bank’s 81st Foundation Day Celebrations. Mudra card issued as a Rupay debit card is stress-free flexible credit product that meets working capital needs of micro and small entrepreneurs.