Current Affairs Questions and Answers - July 23, 2015

ANSWER: C. Aadhar

The court was hearing a batch of pleas against decisions of some states to make Aadhaar cards compulsory for a range of activities including salary, PF disbursements and marriage and property registration. Countering the contention that the scheme of Aadhar based on collecting personal data violates the citizens right to privacy, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that there is no Fundamental Right to privacy so these petitions under Article 32 should be dismissed. The bench observed that if a court comes to the conclusion that the Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right then Government cannot waive it, while the Attorney General said, if such issues are arising in the matter then why can't it be referred to a larger bench.

ANSWER: A. Soyuz

The spacecraft blasted off on schedule from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in the barren Kazakh steppe, carrying cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui of Japan. The three astronauts were originally scheduled to travel to the orbiting lab in late May but Russia put all space travel on hold after the failure of the unmanned Progress freighter taking cargo to the ISS in late April.

ANSWER: C. Kolkata

South-Eastern Railway is the first to introduce Suvidha train to connect Kolkata and Ernakulam, a distance of 2,294 kilometer in just 37 hours. The first Suvidha train of South-Eastern Railway will start running from first of next month between Howrah and Ernakulam.

ANSWER: B. 12th

There are thirty one countries including India in the world which generate electricity from nuclear source. India ranked at 12th position in terms of power generation. However, it stood at 6th position in terms of number of reactors in operation country- wise, globally.

ANSWER: D. 2017-20

The launchers proposed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the coming years i.e. till March 2017 include Ten Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV), Two Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLV) and one developmental flight of GSLV Mk III.

ANSWER: C. Puducherry

In less than a month of launch of Smart City Mission by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Puducherry has emerged as the first nomination to be received by the Ministry of Urban Development. The Government of Union Territory of Puducherry has nominated its capital city for inclusion in the 100 Smart Cities Mission launched on the 25th of last month. Puducherry which has a population of 6,57,209 has done well in respect of several Stage-1 evaluation criteria and scored 75 of the possible 100 marks.

ANSWER: D. Singapore

The White-shipping refers to commercial shipping information about movement of cargo ships. The Singapore Navy and the Indian Navy conduct the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) together annually. In 2015, the SIMBEX was held in May, this was the 22nd in the series.

ANSWER: A. Hisao Tinaka

Hisao Tanaka resignation came as a backdrop of appointment of an independent panel by Toshiba which pointed that the firm had overstated its operating profit by a total of 151.8bn yen (1.22 billion US dollar). He will be succeeded by Masashi Muromachi, who is presently the Chairman of Toshiba.

ANSWER: B. Yakub Memon

He is currently lodged in the Nagpur central jail, will be executed by hanging on 30 July 2015. He had applied for curative petition after his review petition was rejected earlier by the SC upholding the death sentence to him.

ANSWER: A. National Dairy Research Institute

Use of this technique will help in reducing the level of cholesterol in Ghee up to 85 to 90 percent. It also does not affect the taste and quality of the ghee.

ANSWER: D. More than 900

Suspecting tax evasion of at least 5,000 to 6,000 crore rupees, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has clamped down on a large number of organised syndicates who had set up shops to convert black money into legitimate-looking funds through the stock market platform.

ANSWER: B. BSE

BSE had launched an enhanced module for pledge reporting wherein the NBFCs shall be able to submit quarterly reporting of pledged data. This is in line with RBI's recent initiative vide its circular dated April 10, 2015. Currently, more than 65 NBFCs are using this platform on BSE. So far, the total value of promoters' pledged holding stands at nearly 2 lakh crore rupees on the exchange. On August 21, 2014, the central bank had directed NBFCs with asset size of 100 crore rupees and above to report online to stock exchanges, information on the shares pledged in their favour, by borrowers for availing loans. In its circular in April this year, the RBI had asked NBFCs to report data on pledged shares on a quarterly basis, among others.

ANSWER: C. To ensure availability of crop loans of up to 3 lakh to farmers at 7% per annum

The decision to continue interest subvention on short term crop loans was taken by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the fiscal 2015-16.