Current Affairs Questions & Answers - July 06, 2016

ANSWER: Solar Urja Lamp

Explanation:
Government of India has provided INR 1800 crore assistance to IIT-B for SoUL or the Solar Urja Lamp programme.

• Under the programme, the institution will disseminate solar lamps to 10 crore school children across the country
• Mission commissioned will scale up the program to INR 1800 crore
• IIT-B has partnered NGOs having presence at grass root level

ANSWER: Australia

Explanation:
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull on 5th July 2016 refused to step down even as opposition labour party leader Bill Shorten called for Turnbull to quit as leader of the Liberal National Party Coalition indicating the premier was out of touch and unable to provide parliamentary stability promised to Australian voters.

• Turnbull said he will not step down from the post and described the Labour leader’s attack as purely political
• Australia has said that there is no such thing as a failed election

ANSWER: Selfie elbow

Explanation:
Doctors have warned that capturing the perfect selfie puts avid selfie takers at risk of developing selfie elbow. Like tennis or golfer’s elbow, the addiction to causing a pain in the primary elbow and there has been a spurt in patients landing in the doctor’s office from this condition.

• According to Jordan Metzi, a sports medicine physician at Hospital for Special Surgery in the US, the problem is overuse
• Akin to carpal tunnel and tendinitis, it has a repetitive nature of the task that causes the aches
• Interface between technology and human body causes injuries

ANSWER: Medd

Explanation:
With this acquisition, 1mg is expanding to offer a service for booking imaging tests such as CT Scans, MRIs and X-Rays. Diagnostics is a USD 5-8 billion industry in India making for 25% of the total pharmacy business.

• 1mg currently offers these services across 23 cities is hoping to cover over 30 more cities 2016 with diagnostics and a total contribution of diagnostics in the revenue from 15 to 25 percent
• Medd operates across Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Bengaluru and Jaipur
• It was cofounded by IIT Bombay graduates Arpit Kothari and Anurag Mundhada and Carnegie Mellon graduate Era Dwivedi in 2015

ANSWER: ASAP Info Systems

Explanation:
Staffing company TeamLease Services said it will acquire ASAP Info Systems for an enterprise value of INR 67 crore

• The Bengaluru headquartered ASAP Info Systems offer IT staffing solutions to numerous MNCs and domestic companies
• TeamLease financial resources will be financing transactions and is expected to close before the close of August 2016
• TeamLease Services have signed a definitive agreement to this effect
• Transactions will be done through TeamLease wholly owned subsidiary TeamLease Staffing Services Private and subject to customer closing conditions and regulatory approvals
• TeamLease has long serviced IT companies for non IT staffing positions and expects ASAP to help continue the expansion after the current offices are merged
• ASAP Info Systems posted posted revenue of INR 63 crore with EBITDA of around INR 11 crore in 2015-2016

ANSWER: QuickEdmin

Explanation:
Hyderabad IT services company Ray Business Technologies Pvt on 4th July has acquired digital education enterprise resource planning ERP product - QuickEdmin-to boost the service offerings

• Raybiztech’s maiden acquisition will deepen its presence in India outside of its largest market in US and Australia

ANSWER: Microsoft

Explanation:
US biotech company Monsanto and Microsoft have come up with a partnership to invest in agricultural technology startups in Brazil.

• Monsanto will join a Brazilian investment fund with up to 300 million reais, managed by Microsoft evaluation new ideas for new digital tools to be applied to agricultural production within the country
• Chosen ideas will receive funding of close to 1.5 million reais, (USD 459,000) for early development.
• Project owners will have to pay the option to pay back the investment after three years or conversion of the money into equity

ANSWER: Forever 21

Explanation:
Kumar Mangalam Birla led Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail has acquired Indian business of international clothing brand “Forever 21” from Diana Retail Pvt Ltd, the US based company’s local franchise partner for over INR 175 crore or USD 26 million.

• Transaction involved acquisition of the Forever 21 Undertaking of Diana Retail from July 1 through business transfer agreement and not share transfer.
• Consideration for acquisition is USD 26 million
• Forever 21 will form part of the Madura Fashion & Lifestyle division
• Forever 21 is among the fastest growing fashion retailers in the world with a network of more than 700 stores worldwide.

ANSWER: Devor Camps

Explanation:
Travel Boutique Online, a travel portal backed by Naspers has acquired strategic equity stake in Devor Camps a chain of branded adventure camps in India

• Travel Boutique Online has more than 19,000 agents and Devor Camps will cross sell each other’s products and offerings
• Devor Camps was founded by Dheeraj Jain along with Chirag Gupta, Aakar Gandhi and Gautam Yadav

ANSWER: Hero MotoCorp Ltd

Explanation:
The largest two wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd has inked a wage settlement pact with permanent workers at Gurgaon Plant

• This involves a while of INR 12500 spread over three years
• The three year agreement will be implemented in retrospective effect commencing from August 1, 2015 till July 31, 2018
• Earlier wage settlement was effective from August 1, 2012 to July 31, 2015
• Company’s management and workers union has been reached after months of negotiations
• As per the settlement, permanent workers of the Gurgaon facility have been provided a hike of INR 12,500 over three years

ANSWER: 19

Explanation:
With an aim to provide adequate representation from states for BJP, 4 MPs from Rajasthan and 3 MPs from UP, MP and Gujarat on July 5, 2016 secured berths in the Modi government

• 19 MPs joined the government in the second expansion and reshuffle by PM Narendra Modi
• It saw record number of Dalit and OBC leaders being given ministerial posts
• 3 MPs from UP- Mahendra Nath Pandey, Krishna Raj and Anupriya Singh Patel elected from Mirzapur were made ministers
• PP Chaudhary, Vijay Goel, Arjun Ram Meghwal and CR Chaudhary MPs from Rajasthan joined the government
• 3 faces were from Gujarat namely Mansukh Madaviya, Purushottam Rupala and Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor
• Madhya Pradesh MPs- Anil Madhav Dave, Faggan Kulaste and MJ Akbar also became ministers
• Dalit leader from Almora Ajay Tamta was inducted into the CoM from Uttarakhand
• Ramdas Athalawale leader of the Republican Party of India, an ally of BJP also joined the government
• MPs from other states like SS Ahluwalia from Darjeeling in WB, Ramesh Jigajinagi from Bijapur in Karnataka and Rajan Gohain from Nowgong in Assam have also become ministers
• All with the exception of Vijay Goel and Faggan Kulaste are new faces while few have been ministers in BJP ruled state governments
• Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar was elevated to Cabinet rank in a ceremony held in Rashtrapati Bhawan’s Durbar Hall

ANSWER: Madhav Dhekane

Explanation:
ISRO Inertial Systems Unit has a new director in ISRO Inertial Systems Unit, Department of Space, Vattiyoorkavu in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

• Dhekane is the 7th director of IISU
• Madhav Dhekane has obtained a B-Tech in electrical engineering and M-Tech in Systems and Control from IIT, Mumbai
• He joined the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in 1983
• He had various significant positions in ISRO such as Deputy Director, Control Guidance and Simulation Entity at VSSC, Chief Controller at VSSC and Associate Director (R&D) at VSSC
• Inertial Systems Unit was a research and development unit of ISRO
• Specialized fields include fields of launch vehicle inertial systems, spacecraft inertial systems, inertial sensors evaluation and simulation, inertial system production and more.

ANSWER: Juno

Explanation:
NASA’s unmanned Juno spacecraft on 3rd July 2016 has begun orbiting Jupiter, a key victory for the USD 1.1 billion mission to uncover the origins of the biggest planet in the solar system

• NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California also issued a welcome message from the mission control
• Solar observatory which has travelled 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion km) since it launched 5 years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida entered the aimed for orbit around Jupiter at 11:53 pm
• Juno should circle the planet 37 times before making a death plunge in 2018 to prevent the spacecraft from damaging icy moons of Jupiter
• Juno will not be the first spacecraft to circle Jupiter as NASA indicates the orbit will bring it closer than predecessor Galileo launched in 1989.
• Galileo found evidence of subsurface saltwater on Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto before taking the final plunge into Jupiter in 2003

ANSWER: Javeline thrower

Explanation:
Javeline thrower Annu Rani on 2nd July 2016 bettered her national record with a 59.87m throw at the 56th National Inter State Senior Athletics Championship in Hyderabad

• Rani improved her previous meet mark with a first round 59.06m at GMC Balayogi Stadium
• Her 59.87 m throw came in the fourth round
• Suman Devi could only log 55.88m to snare second place
• Haryana’s Sharmila Kumari finished third with 53.80m throw
• Annu Rani is the current national record holder in javelin throw
• She is supported by Olympic Gold Quest and at the 2014 National Inter State Championship in Lucknow, Rani broke the national record held by Gurmeet Kaur with a throw of 58.83m.

ANSWER: Malawi

Explanation:
President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee has extended greetings and felicitations to government and people of Republic of Malawi on the eve of their National Day (July 06, 2016)

• Prof Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi was greeted by President Mukherjee as well

ANSWER: Comoros

Explanation:
President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee has extended greetings and felicitations to Government and people of the Union of Comoros on their national day

• The national day was July 6, 2016
• The current president of the Union of Comoros is Col Azali Assoumani
• India and Comoros also enjoy close and cordial relations

ANSWER: Lois Lane

Explanation:
Noel Neill is an American actor who is the first to play the role of Lois Lane on the Adventure of Superman television series

• She passed away on 3rd July 2016 at the age of 95
• Lois Lane is a fictional character who is an award winning journalist and key female interest of Superman
• Noel Neill was born in November 1920a and she has also appeared in numerous productions of the Superman franchise.