January 17, 2018 - Current Affairs Quiz - Current Affairs MCQ

Ratan P. Watal, Principal Adviser of NITI Aayog inaugurated the first Global Initiative on Academic Network (GIAN) course on Sustainable Urban planning using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur’s outreach centre at Noida, Uttar Pradesh. This course is being conducted under the GIAN Program of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and is actively supported by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and NITI Aayog. Under this course, participants will be given state-of-the-art remote sensing and GIS skills which will be useful in managing the rapidly changing urban environment of Indian cities. Special emphasis will be laid on water resource management, strategic emplacements for water treatment facilities and water pollution.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union minister for minority affairs, announced that, the government has withdrawn the subsidy given for Haj pilgrims. This move has been made in line with the government’s idea to empower miniorities with dignity. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that for the first time in independent India, 1.75 lakh pilgrims will go to Haj without a subsidy. He said that, this would save the government Rs 700 crore. This amount would be used for education of minorities, especially girls. In May 2017, the central government had constituted a six-member committee to analyse the Haj subsidy matter. In 2012, the Supreme Court insisted the central government to gradually reduce and stop the Haj subsidy by 2022.

The government lowered the additional borrowing requirement for the current fiscal year to Rs 20,000 crore from the previously estimated Rs 50,000 crore. The government has lowered additional borrowing requirements considering revenue receipts and expenditure pattern. The lesser borrowing will enable to constrict fiscal deficit within the target. No change will be seen in net borrowings as mentioned in the Budget for 2017-18. As per budget, gross and net market borrowings were set at Rs 5.8 lakh crore and Rs 4.23 lakh crore, respectively in 2017-18.

The Supreme Court stated that, attacking any adult man or woman opting for inter-caste marriage, by khap panchayats is “absolutely illegal”. The bench consisted of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud. The Supreme Court also said that, no khap panchayat, individual or the society can interfere with any adult woman and man’s decision regarding their marriage. Khaps are caste or community based associations, mainly in the rural areas of north India that sometimes impose harsh punishments based on age-old traditions.

Haryana State Government took a decision to form a non-banking financial company (NBFC), Haryana State Financial Services Limited. This NBFC will function as an in-house treasury manager for Haryana State Government and will be responsible for efficient management of surplus funds of State public enterprises and autonomous bodies. The NBFC will provide better rates on overnight/yearly deposits of State government entities and would enable quick and hassle-free lending. It will function under the overall control and supervision of State’s General Administration Department. It will be established as a limited company under the Companies Act and will be registered as NBFC with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

8th edition of biennial ‘National Maritime Search and Rescue Workshop and Exercise’ between ships and aircraft from the Indian and Japanese Coast Guards commenced on January 16, 2018 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. During the course of this event, a workshop was held on January 16, 2018 and search and rescue operations was conducted on January 17, 2018 in Bay of Bengal. Ships and aircraft of Coast Guards from India and Japan, the Indian Navy and Air Force and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) participated in this event. Search and rescue operations were jointly reviewed by Indian Coast Guard Director General, Rajendra Singh and Japanese Commandant Admiral Satoshi Nakajima.

Central Government has sanctioned projects worth over Rs. 10000 crore in the North East for better network connectivity. Union Telecommunication Minister Manoj Sinha has stated that most of these projects will be completed during 2018. He also mentioned that 2 memorandum of understanding (MoUs) have been signed to cover the uncovered areas in the North East including areas in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Emphasis will be laid on upgrading the network connection in border areas. Central Government will also send two nodal officers to monitor the progress on these projects.

Karnataka State Government will hold a ‘Blockchain Hackathon for Governance’ from 19th – 21st January, 2018 at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru. The Hackathon will be open to students, startups, and other IT professionals. Cloud-based blockchain technology providers will be invited to provide platforms for use in this hackathon. Karnataka is the third Indian State (After Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) that has announced plans to adopt blockchain for governance. If required, Karnataka State Government will bring out a ‘Whitepaper on blockchain use in governance’ as a prelude to a policy on blockchain. In order to deliberate on various related issues, a ‘Blockchain Conclave’ under the aegis of Bengaluru Tech Summit will also be organisedat a later stage.

Dev Information Technology Ltd has announced the setting up of “DevX”, an Accelerator Center for startups in Gujarat. Entrepreneurs can develop, test and commercially release their ideas at DevX. DevX will be Gujarat’s largest accelerator. It will have co-working space of nearly 15,000-18,000 square feet at a single location. The main focus of DevX will be on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IOT), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) etc. The first phase of DevX will be completed in May 2018. The full commissioning will be completed by December 2018. A startup can hire 1 to 100 seats in DevX for a period ranging from one month to one year.

Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Union Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, cleared procurement of 72400 assault rifles and 93895 carbines to meet their immediate requirement of Defence Forces deployed in border areas. This fast track procurement will be done at a cost of Rs 3547 crore. In a bid to give a boost to ‘Make in India’ programme and to encourage participation of private sector in defence design and production, DAC has simplified the ‘Make II’ category of the Defence Procurement Procedure. As per the revised procedure, Ministry of Defence will now accept suo-motu proposals from the industry. Start-ups have also been allowed to develop equipment for Indian Armed Forces.

As per World Economic Forums’s (WEF’s) Global Risks Report 2018, published on January 17, 2018, extreme weather events and natural disasters have been identified as the likeliest global risks to occur in 2018.The report is based on a survey, in which views of 1000 global experts and decision-makers were sought, on the most significant risks that face the world. In this context, risks pertain to diverse categories of economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological nature. In the survey, the experts were asked to prioritize 30 global risks in terms of two dimensions viz. likelihood and impact. On both the dimensions, five environmental risks viz. extreme weather; major natural disasters; biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse; man-made environmental disasters; and failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation were accorded highest weightage.

China has set up an experimental air purifying tower, considered the world’s biggest air purifier at a height of 100 meters (328 feet), in Xian, Shaanxi province. The Xian smog tower is being tested by researchers of the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The tower produces 10 million cubic metres of clean air every day. The tower has reduced smog to moderate levels even when air quality was severe. Polluted air is sucked into the glasshouses of the Xian smog tower. It is heated by solar energy. The hot air passes through several cleaning filters and this reduces air pollution.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stated that all the 14 designs of Rs 10 coin are valid and legal tender for transactions. RBI had to issue this clarification as it was observed that some traders and members of public were reluctant to accept Rs. 10 coins owing to a doubt about it genuineness. RBI stated that till date, it has issued Rs 10 coin in 14 designs and these coins are legal tender and can be accepted for transactions. It further clarified that different designs, introduced from time to time have distinctive features to reflect various themes of economic, social and cultural values.

On January 16, 2018, Thomson Reuters Corp published its debut “Top 100 Global Technology Leaders” list. This list identifies tech industry’s top financially successful and organizationally sound organizations. The rankings are based on a 28-factor algorithm that measures performance across eight benchmarks. Eight Benchmarks are – financial performance, management and investor confidence, legal compliance, risk and resilience, innovation, environmental impact, people and social responsibility and reputation. The assessment also takes into consideration patent activity for technological innovation and sentiment in news and selected social media as a measure of a company’s public reputation.

Department of Commerce (under Union Ministy of Commerce and Industry) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to undertake integrated development of the India’s logistics sector. Central Government believes that improving logistics will not only improve ways of doing business but will also create numerous job opportunities. The MoU pertains to development of domestic logistics as well as export-import logistics. Union Commerce Ministry has prepared a roadmap for modernizing India’s logistics sector and to bring it at par with the best the world. The target is to reduce the logistics cost from current 14 percent of GDP to less than 10 percent by 2022.

Reliance Communications (RCom) unveiled Eagle express submarine cable system to lay a 68000-km undersea cable for carrying data across Europe and Asia. Eagle express submarine cable is a “cloud and fiber initiative” which will be laid at a cost of $600 million. This submarine cable system will connect its base in India with Italy to the west and Hong Kong on the east. It envisages creating a Next Generation IP and Cloud environment covering Middle East, Europe as well as the large economies of India, China and Indonesia. RCom officials are forecasting the revenue potential of this system to be $1 billion per year. It is expected to be operational by 2020. This project will be financed by several partners. Six partners, including Alibaba have already committed $300 million for this system.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a $690 million contract for 10 years with M&G Prudential, to support more than 4 million customer policies. This is the second insurance company deal TCS has signed in 2018. Recently TCS signed a deal with Transamerica, a US insurance firm. M&G Prudential is a UK and European savings and investments business unit of Prudential Plc.TCS will use its insurance platform BaNCS to process insurance policies. M&G Prudential and Transamerica’s existing platforms will be transformed to new digital platform by TCS.

S Selvakumar was appointed as the Chairman and Manging Director (CMD) of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL). S Selvakumar is a senior IAS officer. He is Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. He has been given the additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) in SPMCIL. He replaces Anurag Agarwal. SPMCIL produces bank notes, coins, postage stamps, non-judicial stamps, other official documents etc.

Tracey Crouch was appointed as UK’s first-ever minister in charge to tackle loneliness and combat social isolation. Tracey Crouch is at present the minister for sport and civil society in UK. She has been given the additional role of ‘minister for loneliness’. This role has been created in memory of Labour MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in 2016. This role will implement recommendations of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness. The minister for loneliness will work with the Jo Cox Commission, businesses and charities to form a strategy to combat loneliness.

Chinese Navy inducted a new 4000-ton Type 054A Jiangkai II-class guided-missile frigate into service. This frigate has been christened Rizhao. It was commissioned at a naval shipyard in China’s Liaoning Province. Rizhao, which has been built at the Guangzhou Huangpu Shipyard in Guangdong Province is the 26th ship of the class to enter service. Estimated cost of each frigate in this series is around $348 million. Type 054A Jiangkai II-class frigates are multirole warships and can attain top speed of around 27 knots. Frigates of these series have been used by Chinese Navy for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and for conducting patrols in the South China Sea.

A 910-carat gem diamond, considered to be the fifth largest gem-quality diamond ever found has been discovered in a Lesotho mine. This diamond has been found from Letseng diamond mine, owned by Gem Diamonds Ltd., a UK-based mining company. Gem Diamonds has stated that, this diamond is the largest one discovered from Letseng mine and belongs to a category that represents less than 1% of all mined diamonds in the world. It is more valuable as it is colourless. Mining analysts have speculated that this diamond could be worth as much as $40 million.

Ronaldinho, Brazilian World Cup winner has retired from football. Ronaldinho is 37 years old. He is a winner of the Champions League and Ballon d’Or awards. He was an attacking midfielder, winger and forward. His first performance was with team Gremio. He joined Barcelona team in 2003. Ronaldinho faced a downfall during his tenure at Barcelona. He was sold to Milan team. His last professional performance was for Brazil’s Fluminense in 2015.

W.B. Rao, Hindi film cinematographer passed away, after he was admitted in a serious condition to a hospital in Juhu, Mumbai. W B Rao started his career with Indian cinema in 1960s as an assistant cinematographer. He held a senior position at the Western Indian Cinematographer’s Association (WICA). His important works are ‘Hum’, ‘Khuda Gawah’, ‘Dhadkan’, ‘Rangeela’, ‘Judwaa’, ‘Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega’, ‘Afsana Pyar Ka’, ‘Barsaat Ki Raat’, ‘Insaaf’, and ‘Jurrat’.