Current Affairs Quiz - 7th July, 2018 - Current Affairs MCQ

Commerce Secretary, Rita Teaotia, chaired the first meeting of the Task Force on e-commerce in New Delhi. The meeting deliberated upon the suggestions emerging from the sub-group meetings held in June 2018. The suggestions were on wide-ranging issues such as cross-border data flows, taxation, trade facilitation and logistics, consumer confidence, IPR and future tech, FDI and competition issues.

Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Warren Buffett as the world's third-richest person. Zuckerberg, who trails only Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, eclipsed Buffett as Facebook shares climbed 2.4%, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It's the first time that the three wealthiest people on the ranking made their fortunes from technology.

Public sector Indian Bank revised the interest rates on Foreign Currency Non-Resident (banking) term deposits with immediate effect. The bank shares were trading at Rs 337.65 a piece.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani at the Reliance Industries' 41st Annual General Meeting announced that Reliance is India's largest payer of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Excise and Customs Duty, and Income Tax in the private sector paying Rs.9844 crore in FY18. Reliance has become the first Indian company to record PBDIT (Profit Before Depreciation Interest and Taxes) of over $10 billion.

Infosys has partnered with Siemens PLM Software to develop applications and services for the open cloud-based IoT operating system called MindSphere. The partnership would help customers to use the power of data generated by their devices and improve competitiveness in the digital world. The initial focus will be on customers in the manufacturing, energy, utilities, healthcare, pharmaceutical, transportation and logistics industries. Data analytics will enhance efficiencies through capabilities like predictive maintenance and end-to-end factory visibility.

The Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) would be operated as a Sri Lanka-India joint venture. The $210 million facility, 241km south-east of Colombo, is dubbed the "world's emptiest airport" due to a lack of flights. ndia would operate the airport as a Sri Lanka-India joint venture. The joint venture would see India gain a major stake of the airport. Currently, it is running a massive loss of Rs.20 billion.

In an attempt to reduce travel expenses of ministers and bureaucrats, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also announced that foreign travel of ministers and state officials would be sanctioned only by her, apart from ordering cuts on hospitality expenses such as food and refreshments on an emergency basis. She further mandated economy class travel in low-cost airlines for all domestic air trips. Banerjee also formed a committee, to be headed by chief secretary Malay Kumar De, to supervise progress of government projects.

The Ministry of Coal has launched the Coal Mine Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) and 'Khan Prahari' mobile application in New Delhi. The basic purpose of CMSMS is reporting, monitoring and taking suitable action on unauthorised coal mining activities. The CMSMS is a Web-based GIS application through which location of sites for unauthorised mining can be detected. The basic platform used in the system is of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology's (MeiTY) map which provides village level information. The 'Khan Prahari' app uses space technology to curb illegal coal mining activity in the coalfield areas of the country, and provides people with a platform where they can report such incidents.

Researchers from MIT have designed a four-legged robot called Cheetah 3 that can run, jump onto desks, and climb obstacle-laden stairs without visual sensors. The 40kg robot has been developed with two new algorithms to provide the robot with 'blind locomotion' capabilities. Using those, the robot adjusts its movements and determines how much force to use to perform actions like stepping forward and pulling back and deals with unexpected forces like a kick. The robot can also recover from adverse conditions like being shoved or yanked by relying on "feel" instead of cameras.

ICAT has issued the first BS-VI certification for a heavy duty engine model for M/s Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicle Limited. ICAT has issued the first BS-VI certification for a heavy duty engine model for M/s Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicle Limited. The Indian Government has made a jump from the conventional BS-IV to directly adopt BS-VI emission norms as the next level for regulatory framework in India. The International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) is a division of NATRiP implementation society (NATIS). ICAT is the first of the new world class centers established under the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP).

The International Day of Cooperatives is observed across the world on July 7 with an aim to promote the co-operative model, since it contains aspects of sustainable development at its core and is based on ethical values and principles. The 2018 theme of the Day is the 'Sustainable societies through cooperation'. This year's theme was aimed at creating the sustainable societies through cooperation.

HDFC Bank has gone past Russia's Sberbank to become the most valuable bank in the emerging market outside China. HDFC Bank's current market capitalisation is $78.4 billion against Sberbank's $74.4 billion. Chinese banks are leading the pecking order in the emerging market, with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China topping the list with a market cap of $273.4 billion. There are four lenders from India that now rank among the world's 500 most valuable companies. HDFC Bank is followed by its housing finance cousin Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India.

Bajrang Punia won gold medal in the 65kg category at the Tbilisi Grand Prix in Georgia. Bajrang Punia defeated Iranian wrestler Mehran Nasiri in the finals and won gold medal in the 65kg category. He ecorded a 9-3 win over Mehran Nasiri and represent India in the 65kg after Wrestling Federation of India exempted him from trials.

State-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) will set up a state-of-the-art Civil Aviation Research Organization (CARO) at Hyderabad's Begumpet Airport to find indigenous solutions to meet the challenges posed by the growing air traffic and for enhancing safety, capacity and efficiency of aircraft operations in the country. AAI has earmarked Rs 1,200 crore for this project that will be spent over 12 years for research and development. CARO is expected to be built in three years. Union aviation minister Suresh Prabhu laid the foundation stone for CARO which will be spread over 27 acres and cater to air navigation services and airport/engineering research.

The UN member states have approved a 6.69 billion US Dollar budget for 13 peacekeeping operations for the year 2018-19. It is the second year in a row, the committee has made significant cuts to the overall peacekeeping budget. The Committee also approved significant management reforms including creation of two new departments focused on political and peacebuilding affairs and four stand-alone divisions for Africa. The United States is the biggest contributor to the United Nations.

SBI Card, the country's second largest credit card issuer, announced the launch of ELA' (Electronic Live Assistant), a virtual assistant for customer support and services. It is designed to enhance customer experience by providing relevant and instant responses to customer queries. Additionally, Customers can communicate with ELA in conversational language. The virtual assistant is currently hosted on the SBI Card website and will soon be integrated on the mobile app as well.