Current Affairs Questions & Answers - July 08, 2016

ANSWER: LISS

Explanation:
EXL announced the acquisition of LISS Systems Limited, a London based insurance solution provider

• This is applicable in both life and pensions as well as general insurance sectors
• LISS automates end to end business process ranging from quotes to underwriting to policy issuance
• Customers prefer using digital channels to purchase insurance requiring new business models to deliver superior customer experience
• LISS’s flagship LISSIA platform includes multi channel interfaces, underwriting, workflow engines and document production modules to automate new policy issuance and simplify policy administration
• LISSIA platform is used for traditional and unit linked and investment products
• Launched in 2002, LISSIA supports installation of more than 1 million policies and supports insurers like AIG and Aviva

ANSWER: Avast

Explanation:
Security software firm Avast Software indicated it would buy Dutch rival AVG Technologies for USD 1.3 billion in cash to expand the presence in the emerging markets

• Avast indicated that it will pay USD 25 per AVG share representing a 33 percent premium to AVG stock’s closing price on 6th July 2016
• Avast provides free and paid software for PCs and mobile devices to businesses and individuals

ANSWER: ChennaiChef

Explanation:
Hyderabad based startup Aadya Restaurants Dosa Place has acquired Sukashree Agro Food’s retail brand ChennaiChef for a non disclosed amount and own 91 percent in it, according to announcement made on July 6, 2016

• Aadya Restaurants was founded by Ajay Koneru
• It aims to become the McDonalds of South Indian food.

ANSWER: Kerala

Explanation:
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalkrishnan also the chief mentor of Kochi Startup Village and others are set to launch the world’s first digital incubator for student startups

• Country needs more than one million jobs per month for the next 20 years to sustain and employ youth from new startups if the right environment is created
• Digital Incubator buit over 12 months has received 1000 applications from across India

ANSWER: Juergen Hase

Explanation:
Anil Ambani led Reliance Group has named Juergen Hase as the new CEO of IoT or Internet of Thing business

• Hase is a veteran in the telecom industry where he has worked for over 25 years
• He was recently director, IoT M2M at Ooredoo in Qatar

ANSWER: OpenCellular

Explanation:
Facebook on 7th July 2016 announced an open source and cost effective software defined wireless access platform aimed to improve connectivity in remote parts of the world

• Platform named Open Cellular is designed to improve connectivity as it can be deployed to support communication options from a network in a box to access point supporting everything from 2G to LTE
• System is composed of two subsystems namely general purpose and base band computing with integrated power and housekeeping system and radio frequency with integrated analog front end

ANSWER: Water Ice

Explanation:
Astronomers have found clouds of water or water ice for the first time outside the solar system using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii

• Clouds on a brown dwarf located 7.2 light years from earth were discovered
• Since its detection, this draw which is 7.2 light years from earth, is the coldest known object outside of the solar system
• This brown dwarf is known as WISE 0855
• A brown dwarf is a failed star.
• WISE 0855 has a temperature of around -23 degrees C making it as cold

ANSWER: Russia

Explanation:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a package of controversial anti terror amendments called Big Brother measures by critics costing internet companies billions of dollars

• Measures boost surveillance power for security services by requiring communication providers to store calls, messages, videos and photographs for six months as well as metadata for three years
• Notable critics of this include Edward Snowden who called the passage of the law a “dark day for Russia.”

ANSWER: Education and Research Network

Explanation:
National Association of Software and Services Companies launched the first centre of excellence in the country focused on Internet of Things

• Centre of excellence is set up at the NASSCOM startups warehouse in the city
• This Centre of excellence is a joint initiative between DEITY, ERNET and the IT industry body.

ANSWER: Deepak Singhal

Explanation:
The 1982 batch IAS officer Deepak Singhal was on July 6, 2016 appointed as the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh

• Singhal succeeds 1978 batch officer Alok Ranjan who retired on 30th June 2016 after the three month extension of service
• He will hold additional charge of Principal Resident Commissioner of UP in Delhi and Chairman of the Pradeshiya Industrial and Investment Corporation of UP

ANSWER: Debshankar Mukhopadhyay

Explanation:
Zee Learn education branch of Essel Group on July 6, 2016 appointed Debshankar Mukhopadhyay as CEO

• Essel Group is a prominent business house in India with portfolio of assets in media, entertainment, education and packaging.
• Mukhopadhyay holds 20 years of experience in the fields of education and finance and was heading educational sales, financial services and insurance at Manipal Global Education Services before this

ANSWER: Networked Readiness Indices

Explanation:
India was placed 91st in the Networked Readiness Index 2016 released by Geneva based World Economic Forum on July 6, 2016

• Index was released as part of the WEF Global Information Technology Report 2016
• The index is used to measure country’s success in creating conditions for change into digitised economy and society
• 7 countries were found to excel namely Finland Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Singapore, the Netherlands and US
• Convergence at the regional level remained elusive as it did on the international level as well

ANSWER: Kankuamo Marquezi

Explanation:
Scientists have discovered a new species of tarantula (big hairy spider0 named as Kankuamo Marquezi

• The famed Colombian novelist and 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Gabriela Garcia Marquez was the person after whom the spider has been named
• Species was discovered in large number in an isolated mountain range in Caribbean Colombia
• It was named after him as homage to the country it was located
• The arachnid has a defence mechanism includes releasing stinging hairs that dig into the eyes and skin of attackers
• The upper area of the mountain 2200 m high in a rainy cold environment is the home of this arachnid

ANSWER: Dipa Karmakar

Explanation:
Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar was named a Gymnaste de Classe Mondaile (World class gymnast) by the International Gymnastics Federation/ FIG

• She had an official letter confirming the distinction from the federation on July 6, 2016
• She became the first Indian gymnast to receive this honour. The Agartala Tripura gymnast won the brazen medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth games, becoming the first Indianf female gymnast to do so
• She also received the Arjuna Award in 2015

ANSWER: Part time workers

Explanation:
Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to introduce minimum wages for part time workers

• Labour department has issued a notification and now part time workers come under the Minimum Wages Act 1948
• State government has also increased minimum wages in all categories of scheduled employment by INR 104 per month.
• Rajasthan is called the Land of the Kings; it has several colour coordinated cities like Jaipur (Pink City) and Udaipur (White City)

ANSWER: Largest

Explanation:
Amazon forest spanning across Brazil, Columbia, Peru and other South American countries is the world’s largest forest covering 5.5 million square kilometres.

• Scientists have estimated that the forest stores 100 bt of carbon in its biomass and changes can have global consequences
• This forest suffered a mjor drought in 2005, then 2010
• 2010 drought shut down the Amazon Basin carbon sink by destroying trees and slowing growth
• Amazon may be losing the capacity to take carbon from the atmosphere as a result of this
• This marks the first basin wide study of the impact of the 2010 drought and its interaction with previous droughts
• Using long term measurements from the RAINFOR network spanning close to 100 locations across the Amazon basin, the first and second drought were found to have temporarily lost biomass

ANSWER: HD 131399Ab

Explanation:
International group of researchers have announced the discovery of a strange planet in the faraway solar system containing not one but three suns

• The world is unusual because though binary solar systems are relatively common in the universe, experts indicated systems involving three or more stars are rare
• A planet like this could have constant daylight or enjoy triple sunrises and sunsets every day
• The planet has been named HD 131399Ab and is situated 340 light years from earth in constellation Centaurus
• The cosmic body is believed to be relatively young, close to 16 million years old making it one of the youngest planets discovered outside the solar system to date
• The mass was believed to be 4 times that of gas giant Jupiter, the largest planet in the Milky Way
• The planet orbits the brightest of the three stars on a long and wide path
• The astronomy team spotted the planet through the SPHERE instrument (Spectro-Polarmetric High Contrast Exoplanet Research)on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile
• The instrument senses infrared light, making it capable of detecting heat signatures