Current Affairs Questions and Answers - August 22, 2015

ANSWER: C. Pacific Island Nations

In his opening remarks in the 2nd India -Pacific Islands Cooperation, FIPIC Summit in Jaipur on 21st Aug’15, the Prime Minister said that the member countries must together press for reform in the UN Security Council to ensure its relevance and effectiveness in the 21st century. The island nations participated in the FIPIC summit included Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, Solomon Islands and Tonga.

ANSWER: A. Alexis Tsipras

Mr Tsipras, who was only elected in January this year, said that he is stepping down and calling early elections after suffering a rebellion within his left-wing Syriza party over the country' new bailout programme. He said that Greece got the best deal possible for its three-year, a 86 billion euro bailout package. Mr Tsipras said that he will shortly meet with the President of the Republic and present his resignation and that of his Government.

ANSWER: B. Gujarat High Court

A bench headed by acting Chief Justice Jayant Patel admitted the case and stayed operation of notification of compulsory voting till final disposal of the case. Gujarat became the first state to make voting compulsory in local-municipal as well as panchayat polls after governor OP Kohli approved the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009, which had been rejected by earlier governor, Kamla Beniwal.

ANSWER: D. Arunachal Pradesh

The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Nabam Tuki violated norms to allot construction works to his family members during his tenure as PWD minister of the state. On 21st Aug’15 acting Chief Justice of Gauhati High court K Sreedhar Rao and Justice P K Saikia passed this order.

ANSWER: B. IOC

It can fetch about 9,500 crore rupees to the exchequer. The floor price for the share will be announced on 22nd Aug’15 and the Offer for Sale will take place on 24th Aug’15. Presently, the government holds 68.57 per cent shares in IOC, the biggest oil refining and marketing company in the country. The stake sale in IOC will be the fourth disinvestment this fiscal. The earlier 3 stake sales had raised over 3,000 crore rupees. The government is targeting to raise 69,500 crore rupees from disinvestment in the current fiscal.

ANSWER: C. Iran

With this India has also indicated that it wants to reach out to Iran. The order means that Iranians can easily apply for visas at Indian consulate in Iran. The decision also comes in backdrop of the P5 + 1 countries ie; U.K, China, France, Russia, U.S. and Germany nations clinching a nuclear agreement with Iran during July 2015.

ANSWER: A. India

India is the fourth country to have a hotline after Russia, Great Britain and China.

ANSWER: D. Twinkle Khanna

Mrs. Funnybones is about how a modern woman looks at India and how India looks back at her.

ANSWER: C. Chetan Bhagat

This is the second non-fiction book written by the country’s biggest-selling writer Chetan Bhagat. His first non-fiction book was What Young India Wants which was well received by the readers.

ANSWER: B. Vidya Lakshmi

The portal is a first of its kind provides single window for students to access information and make application for educational loans provided by banks as well as for government scholarships.

ANSWER: C. Bangladesh

The UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) issued 395286 carbon credits worth 3.56 million US Dollar to two Bangladeshi organisations.

ANSWER: B. Kerala

With this, Cochin airport became the first airport in India to run on solar power. The project is reportedly the single largest solar project which has been constructed in an airport in India.

ANSWER: A. Phantom

The order to ban the release of the Saif Ali Khan-starrer film in the theaters in Pakistan was issued by Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan of the Lahore High Court. The petitioner in his plea argued that the film set on post-26/11 attacks contains filthy propaganda against him and his outfit.

ANSWER: C. R Gandhi

A report of the High Powered Committee on UCBs headed by RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi however clarified that the conversion will not be compulsory for large UCBs and they can continue the way they operate currently in terms of balance sheet or asset size. In order to minimise the systemic risk, the committee has recommended that large UCBs convert themselves into commercial banks. The panel further said smaller UCBs with business size of less than 20,000 crore rupees willing to convert to Small Finance Banks can apply to the Reserve Bank for conversion. It has also suggested that licenses may be issued to financially sound and well-managed cooperative credit societies having a minimum track record of 5-years to operate as UCBs. RBI has invited suggestions and comments from public on this report by 18th of next month.