Current Affairs Questions & Answers - July 23, 2016

ANSWER: NCLT

Explanation:
Government has notified rules for the National Company Law Tribunal which replaced the Company Law Board.

• Rules for the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal have been notified by Corporate Affairs Ministry.
• Tribunal and its appellate authority were part of the Companies Act, 2013 whose many provisions came into effect from April 2014.
• NCLT and appellate tribunal were notified by the Ministry on June 1.
• It has been set up at 10 locations including the NCT, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai.
• Infrastructure has been provided at 10 locations apart from taking requisite steps to provide supporting staff.
• Among others, NCLT has powers to delegate inquiry related to proceedings prior to this, securing assistance of a magistrate or collector to take the property’s possession.
• NCLT will improve ease of doing business in the country.

ANSWER: Goa Auto Accessories Ltd

Explanation:
Hindustan Aeronautics and French partner Safran will soon invest INR 170 crore to acquire defunct state owned company in Goa.

• Acquired company’s land assets will be used as a unit for servicing military helicopter engines.
• HAL and Safran which is an aircraft engine manufacturer said they will form a venture for MRO of helicopter engines used in the nation and other countries.
• 50:50 entity will be placed around October with each partner contributing INR 25 crore as per shareholder agreement.
• New company will acquire the land and assets of Goa Auto Accessories Ltd in Honda, Sattari about 40 km from Panaji in north Goa.

ANSWER: Justice (Retd) Girdhar Malviya

Explanation:
Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has formed a committee to prepare the draft Ganga Act headed by Justice (Retd) Girdhar Malviya

• Tenure of the panel will be for another three months extended by an additional three months.
• Panel has been asked to prepare Drat Act on Ganga ensuring the wholesomeness of the river.
• Act should have provisions to ensure cleanliness (nirmalta) and uninterrupted flow (aviralta) of the Ganga.
• Members of the committee include VK Basin, Prof A Gosain and Prof Nayan Sharma. The Member Secretary will be Sundeep, Director, National Mission for Clean Ganga.
• Act will also help the Centre to implement the inter-state nature of works in a coordinated fashion.

ANSWER: 110

Explanation:
India is ranked at a low of 110 of 149 nations for achieving SDGs according to a recent index topped by Sweden

• Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Bertelsmann Stiftung have launched a fresh Sustainable Development Goal Index to provide a report card for tracking SDGs and ensuring accountability.
• Sweden has topped the chart followed by Denmark and Norway as the top 3 performing countries.
• Germany and the UK are the only G-7 countries found among the top 10 performers.
• US ranks 25th on the index; Russia and China were 47th and 76th respectively.
• India ranks 110th on the list. Pakistan is 115 and Bangladesh is 118.
• Central African Republic and Liberia were at the base of the index.
• Index collected data for 149 nations to assess where each country stands in 2016 with regard to SDGs.

ANSWER: 1

Explanation:
Companies can now submit PAN or TAN registration within a single day if they submit digital signature certificate based application thereby ensuring ease of doing business

• Individuals can also get a new Permanent Account Number through Aadhaar based e-signature facility to reduce effective time in allotment.
• Fast tracking the allotment of PAN and Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) to company applicants, digital signature certificate based applications have been introduced on portals of PAN service providers.
• This includes NSDL eGov and UTIITSL.
• As part of the new process, PAN and TAN will be allowed within a single day.
• Seeding of Aadhar in PAN will curb the problem of duplicate PAN.

ANSWER: EXIM Bank

Explanation:
RBI has received a proposal from the Commerce and Industry Ministry to use part of the forex reserves to provide long term loans at low interest rates to the Export Import Bank of India

• A portion of the forex reserves have been asked to be set aside for project export finance for the EXIM Bank.
• RBI offered the un-utilised amount under its limit of USD 5 billion to the India Infrastructure Finance Company as a long term loan to EXIM Bank.
• IIFCL indicated RBI committed the entire quantum of USD 5 billion to borrowers and there would not be any residual or un-utilised amount offered to EXIM bank.
• EXIM Bank has been able to command competitive pricing in its foreign currency debt issues.
• Amount of INR 1300 crore was released to the EXIM Bank by the government as capital in 2015-2016.

ANSWER: USD 5.34 billion

Explanation:
India has received USD 5.34 billion FDI in the current two months of the present financial year

• During April-May, country attracted USD 4.76 billion FDI under automatic route.
• Around USD 582 million came through the approval route.
• The aim is to ensure that India is one of the most attractive and investment friendly investment destinations in the world.
• Government has relaxed FDI policy in sectors such as pharma, defence, food retailing and broadcast.
• During the two months, defence received no FDI and pharma attracted USD 452.86 million foreign inflows.
• The other sectors include air transport, information and broadcasting and retail trading.
• In Q1 April-June of 2016-2017, FPI investors pumped in INR 10,4561 crore.
• For attracting the international investor, numerous reforms were taken in the FDI and FPI policy.

ANSWER: Charles Huggins

Explanation:
Charles Huggins donned the jersey for TN and Railways in the national hockey championships in the 1960s and 1970s

• He passed away at the age of 74 and is survived by a wife, two sons and a daughter.
• Huggins represented ICF in the senior division league, first played for Madras in the nationals in 1960.
• Huggins joined ICF in 1962 and from 1964 to 1974 was the goalkeeper of the Indian Railways team in national championship.

ANSWER: Grab

Explanation:
Southeast Asian ride hailing service Grab has teamed up with Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group to roll out mobile payment platform in the biggest market, going beyond transport

• Partnership will also provide Grab with access to 50 million existing customers in Indonesia.
• This is his first step to launch mobile payment solutions widely in SE Asia .
• Grab’s partnership with Lippo Group to develop universal payments platform will be a step forward for e-money in Indonesia.

ANSWER: 14

Explanation:

• India’s Department of Science and Technology and Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology has approved 14 joint projects in 4 focus areas of cooperation- water, solar energy, biotechnology and seismology.
• Delegations also discussed proposals to enhance scientific and technological linkages between Indian and Mexican experts.

ANSWER: Suresh C Angadi

Explanation:
Suresh C. Angadi has been appointed as the Chairperson of the House Committee by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan

• He is serving his third consecutive term as LS member from Belgavi.
• Meghwal is the outgoing chairperson.
• The committee was reconstituted with 11 of the 12 members on June 12 this year.

ANSWER: US

Explanation:
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and US Secretary for Energy Ernest Moniz has agreed to increase technical and institutional cooperation in hydrocarbons and energy

• Cooperation will be enhanced in assessment of onshore and offshore conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reserves in India, new technologies for developing biofuel and development of petroleum storage.

ANSWER: Solar Power Tree

Explanation:
Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched the Solar Power Tree in New Delhi

• It was developed by the CSIR Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute a constituent lab of CSIR.
• Solar Power Tree harnesses solar energy for producing electricity with an innovative vertical arrangement of solar cells.
• This reduces the requirement of land as compared to conventional Solar Photovoltaic Layout while keeping the land character intact on the other.
• Cultivable land can be utilised for solar energy harnessing along with farming at the same time.
• Innovation will find viability in rural as well as urban areas.
• This tree takes only 4 square feet of land for 5KW whereas in a conventional layout, it requires 400 square feet of land.
• Holding the photovoltaic panels at a higher height on an average it gets more sunrise for one hour in a single day.
• It is possible to harness 10-15 percent more power as compared to conventional layout on ground.
• This has a battery back up of 2 hours on full load giving light even after the sunset.

ANSWER: Egypt

Explanation:
President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee has extended greetings and felicitations to the Government and people of the Republic of Egypt on the eve of their national day.

• Their national day is celebrated on July 23, 2016.
• The current president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
• India views Egypt as the important partner in the Arab world and contribution in the India Africa Forum Summit.

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
PM Shri Narendra Modi saluted Indian revolutionaries Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bal Gangadhar Tilak on their birth anniversary (July 22 2016)

• Bal was known as one of the trio of Lal, Bal and Pal constituting Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai.
• These revolutionaries devoted themselves to the freedom struggle and shaped Indian history.