Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Feb 12, 2017

ANSWER: 12^th-18^th Feb

Explanation:
National Productivity Council, an autonomous body under Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India was established on 12th February, 1958, with the objective of stimulating and promoting productivity and quality consciousness across all sectors in the country.

With the Government’s focus on Make in India, the need for accelerated growth through higher productivity and quality has never been felt more.

The ongoing process of liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy makes it imperative to re-double our efforts towards enhancing productivity for competitiveness.

Also the aim is making it a mass-movement.

12th-18th February is celebrated as the ‘National Productivity Week’ every year.

The theme chosen for this year’s observance is “From Waste to Profits-through Reduce, Recycle and Reuse”.

Departmental Secretaries, PSU’s, Industry Associations, Autonomous Bodies, Universities, Local Productivity Councils & NPC Regional Directorates have been requested to actively organize workshops, essay/painting/slogan competitions, debates, training programs during the week.

ANSWER: Japan

Explanation:
The United States and Japan successfully concluded a flight test of a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA off the west coast of Hawaii on February 3, the U.S. Missile Defence Agency (MDA) announced recently.

According to the MDA, a next-generation SM-3, launched from a US warship, destroyed an incoming ballistic missile target.

A medium-range ballistic missile target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones “detected and tracked the target missile with its onboard AN/SPY-1D(V) radar using the Aegis Baseline 9.C2 weapon system. Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the ship launched an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile which intercepted the target.”

This was the third flight test and the first intercept test of a SM-3 Block IIA, the most advanced version of the SM-3 “hit-to-kill” interceptor.

The missile interceptor is designed to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missile threats and can be deployed at land-based Aegis Ashore sites and Aegis-equipped warships.

The latest of different variants of the SM-3 features a larger rocket motor and a larger kinetic warhead.

ANSWER: Ebola

Explanation:
In a first, scientists have developed an effective, rapid and economical treatment for the deadly Ebola virus using antibodies from horses.

The post-exposure treatment made with antibodies from horses could be used in the next Ebola outbreak.

This is a cost-effective treatment that can be used in low-income countries in Africa where equine production facilities are already in operation for producing snake-bite antivenin.

It's the first time that equine antibodies have been shown to work effectively against Ebola infection.

The largest recorded outbreak of Ebola virus occurred primarily in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, infecting 30,000 people and killing more than 11,000, with exported cases in Europe and North America.

The development of monoclonal antibodies were used in the UK to treat infected health workers returning from Africa.

The down side is that monoclonal antibodies require considerable investment for scale-up and manufacture, and are expensive.

Equine antibodies are a considerably cheaper alternative, with manufacturing capacity already in place in Africa.

Antibodies from vaccinated horses provide a low-cost alternative, and are already in use for rabies, botulism and diphtheria.

Scientists have also developed experimental Ebola vaccine made using an Australian virus called Kunjin, that might also help in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.

ANSWER: NEET

Explanation:
Stage has been set for single NEET-like examination for entrance to engineering colleges from the academic year 2018-19.

HRD ministry asked the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to spell out suitable norms for holding such an exercise.

The AICTE, which oversees aspects related to technical education in the country, had discussed at a recent meeting a proposal for having a single entrance test for engineering colleges for undergraduate courses.

AICTE: Know More

• Formation: November 1945
• Headquarters : New Delhi
• Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Chennai, Kanpur, Mumbai, Baroda, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Bhopal, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon
• Main organ: Council
• Affiliations: Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development
• Website: www.aicte-india.org
• Head: Dr. Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman

ANSWER: Diego Maradona

Explanation:
Former Argentina captain Diego Maradona has been handed an ambassadorial role by the game’s global governing body FIFA.

The world body is recovering from the worst graft scandal in its history, with dozens of people, including ex-FIFA executive committee members, indicted in the United States since May 2015.

Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest to ever play the game, says he is looking forward to working for a “clean and transparent” worldwide governing body.

The 56-year-old, who had spells with Barcelona, Boca Juniors and Napoli during his club career, led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

He was sent home from the 1994 tournament in the United States for failing a drugs test.

He was subsequently banned for 15 months

Diego Maradona

• Born: 30 October 1960, Lanús, Argentina
• Height: 1.65 m
• Full name: Diego Armando Maradona
• Number: 10 (FC Barcelona / Midfielder)

ANSWER: Ambassador

Explanation:
The acquisition was for INR 80 crore

CK Birla controlled Hindustan Motors Ltd - maker of the iconic Ambassador car - has sold the ‘Ambassador’ brand to French carmaker Peugeot.

According to a notification to the bourses, the “brand and certain related rights” have been sold for ₹80 crore.

Kolkata-based Hindustan Motors had suspended production of Ambassadors way back in May 2014 citing weak demand and lack of funds.

The price point could be Rs 5.5-6 lakh and go up to Rs 9 lakh. The BS IV-compliant Ambassador Encore, launched in 2013, was priced at around Rs 4.98 lakh.

According to the contours of the arrangement, Peugeot had acquired not just the mother brand Ambassador but all its variants as well.

However, the sale doesn’t include the Uttarpara plant in West Bengal, where the Ambassador used to be manufactured.

But Peugeot forged a broader deal with the C K Birla Group last month.

That includes two joint venture agreements. In the first, PSA would hold a majority stake in a joint venture with Hindustan Motors Finance Corporation (HMFC) for assembling and distributing PSA passenger cars in India.

The Chennai plant, which was hived off from Hindustan Motors, assembles Mitsubishi cars and Isuzu commercial vehicles.

PSA will also set up an equal joint venture with AVTEC, also formerly part of Hindustan Motors, for manufacturing and supplying power-trains.

ANSWER: Drones

Explanation:
Japanese tinkerers created a tiny, flower-pollinating drone for a world without insects.

Bee populations are in decline in many parts of the world.

While the reasons bees are in trouble aren’t yet well understood, the problem has some technologists investigating whether drones could fly flower-spreading pollen instead.

The latest effort comes from Japan, where investigators at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science, in Tsukuba, were looking for new uses for sticky substances called ionic liquid gels.

These have unusual physical properties.

Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology bought $100 drones and affixed patches of horsehair to the bottoms.

They then applied liquid ion gels, which MIT Technology Review says are as sticky and moist as Post-It notes, to the horsehair.

In tests, the drones were able to fly into the plants, grabbing and releasing pollen from the male and female parts of pink and white Japanese lilies.

Project leader Eijiro Miyako claims this was the first time a drone pollinated a flower.

Scientists are also working on genetically modified cyborg dragonflies that can be controlled by humans.

Technology could potentially be used on bees as well.

ANSWER: Great Himalayan National Park

Explanation:
The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh was accorded the Unesco World Heritage Site status.

The Unesco World Heritage Site Committee at Doha in Qatar granted the status to the park under the criteria of “exceptional natural beauty and conservation of biological diversity.”

The GHNP has now come in the league of Indian World Heritage Sites (WHS) such as the Taj Mahal, Ellora, Kaziranga National Park, Keoladeo National Park, Manas National Park, Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve and the Sunderbans.

UNESCO: Know More

• Formation: 16 November 1945
• Type: Specialized agency
• Legal status: Active
• Headquarters: Place de Fontenoy, Paris, France
• Membership: 195 member states
• Head: Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

ANSWER: Neelu Rohmetra

Explanation:
The government has appointed heads of 10 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), including the first woman to head one of the 20 premier B-schools in the country.

Prof Neelu Rohmetra of Jammu University is the first woman to be appointed director of an IIM at Sirmaur.

She specialises in HRD and cross-culture management.

Currently, she heads the university’s International Centre for Cross-Cultural Research and Human Resource Management.

The IIMs that got new directors are in Bodhgaya (Bihar), Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Trichy (Tamil Nadu), Nagpur (Maharashtra), Sambalpur (Odisha), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Rohtak (Haryana), Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Bangalore.

Some of these posts had been vacant for at least a year. Of the 10 appointees, three are teaching at IIM-Lucknow.

As reported on November 25, 2016, IIM-Ahmedabad’s Prof G. Raghuram has been given the top job at IIM-Bangalore.

Raghuram, a teacher at IIM-Ahmedabad for nearly three decades, is chairperson of the Public Systems Group at the premier B-School. He specialises in infrastructure and transport systems, and logistics and supply chain management.

Prof Neelu Rohmetra of Jammu University is the first woman to be appointed director of an IIM.

Bharat Bhaskar, professor of information technology systems at IIM-Lucknow, will be the head of IIM-Raipur. He was the interim director of IIM-Lucknow in 2015.

ANSWER: Sir Peter Mansfield

Explanation:
A British Nobel Prize winner who pioneered body scanning technology that has revolutionised science and medicine has died at the age of 83.

In the 1970s, Professor Sir Peter Mansfield led a University of Nottingham team that turned magnetic resonance imaging into the powerful tool.

MRI scans use strong magnetic fields and radio waves to generate 3D images of the body’s internal organs without potentially harmful X-rays.

Peter Mansfield: Know More

• Sir Peter Mansfield FRS, was an English physicist who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• This was shared with Paul Lauterbur, for discoveries concerning Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
• Born: 9 October 1933, Lambeth, London, United Kingdom
• Died: 8 February 2017
• Known for: Magnetic resonance imaging
• Education: University of London, Queen Mary University of London
• Awards: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Notable awards: Fellow of the Royal Society (1987), Knight Bachelor (1993), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2003)

ANSWER: Chandrayaan 2

Explanation:
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to deploy a rover on the lunar surface in the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

The Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon, is a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover.

After reaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter.

After a controlled descent, the Lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a specified site and deploy a Rover.