Current Affairs Questions and Answers - June 11, 2015

ANSWER: B. University of Tokyo.

University of Tokyo continued to retain the top position while National University of Singapore second and University of Hong Kong occupied third place as earlier.

ANSWER: C. Nine.

India's progress has faltered and it has just nine top 100 universities, one fewer than last year. The IIT's of Roorkee, Bombay, Delhi, Kharagpur and Madras, besides Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University figure among the top 100, though their rankings have come down from last year. According to the Times Higher Education Asia University Ranking 2015, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore comes closest at 37th place and Punjab University at 38th position, down six places from last year.

ANSWER: A. Sanath Jayasuriya

Jayasuriya was sworn in as Deputy Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Development. The appointments come just a week after 5 MPs of President’s party joined the Council of Ministers. The expansion of the Ministry is being done to secure support for the government lead by UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. Last week 112 MPs in a house of 225 had signed a no confidence motion against Prime Minister Wickremesighe and called for installation of a SLFP Prime Minister. UNP has only 48 MPs in the house, but is supported by a faction of SLFP controlled by President Sirisena.

ANSWER: D. Haryana

Haryana Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Kumar Bedi announced that government has decided to link 164 services with online system to provide hassle free and transparent services to people. He said that out of these, 23 services had already been linked with online system.

ANSWER: B. Brazil, Turkey, Peru, Colombia and India

These five countries together attracted 78 billion dollar. It represents 73 percent of the investment commitments in developing world in 2014. Investment commitments in China in 2014 were 2.5 billion dollar, its lowest level since 2010. According to a World Bank report, India has figured in top five emerging economies for highest investment commitments in private sector, infrastructure sectors - energy, transport and water. India has figured in the list despite a drop in investment commitments of 6.2 billion dollar last year.

ANSWER: C. 0.2%

A key measurement of a country's trade, the CAD is the amount by which the value of goods and services imported by it exceeds the value of goods and services exported in a period. In a statement, RBI said that the deficit shrank to 1.3 billion US dollar or 0.2% of GDP in the quarter. This is lower than the deficit of 8.3 billion dollar, or 1.6 percent of GDP, in the previous quarter. The bank said the reduction in CAD was primarily on account of lower trade deficit as net earnings through services and primary income witnessed a decline on a quarter-over-quarter term.

ANSWER: A. Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus

As per the WHO, the elimination of neonatal tetanus is defined as less than one case in 1000 live births in every district across the country. Abolishing a disease that was once responsible for 15% of deaths in the country is surely a matter of great pride. According to the experts, three major reasons for eradication of this disease were: 1.The increase in Maternal tetanus immunisation rates 2. Introduction of cash incentives for institutional deliveries & 3. Use of delivery kits that reduce contamination along with safe umbilical cord practices. Nagaland was the last Indian state to achieve maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination.

ANSWER: C. Adani Ports

The Kerala Cabinet on 10th June’15 decided to accept the bid of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited. Adani Group was the lone bidder for the project, which had no takers in the previous rounds of tendering.

ANSWER: D. Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic.

The Cabinet has approved signing of the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicle Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic amongst BBIN. The agreement will be signed on 15th June at the BBIN Transport Minister’s meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan.

ANSWER: B. Axis Bank

Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has broken new ground to gain substantially from the Automated Fare Collection (AFC) system by roping in a private partner to make
necessary investments in hardware and software for sale of tickets besides getting assured annual royalty and a share in the business returns of the partner.

ANSWER: A. Kapil Mishra

Delhi Jal Board’s vice chairman Kapil Mishra will succeed Jitender Tomar as Delhi's law minister.

ANSWER: C. ISRO

Space pioneer award for the year 2015 was presented to Indian Space Research Organisation in the Science and Engineering category during the 34th Annual International Space Development Conference held at Toronto in Canada during May 20-24, 2015. The U.S. National Space Society presented the award in recognition of ISRO’s efforts in accomplishing the Mars Mission in its very first attempt.