Weekly CA Quiz: January 2018 2nd week with PDF

Explanation: Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar has been given the first Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Award for Probity in Public Life. The award was constituted recently by the Jammu and Kashmir government to commemorate the death anniversary of PDP founder and two-time J&K chief minister Sayeed

Explanation: Iran has banned teaching the English language in primary schools, calling the subject a “cultural invasion”. The education ministry “envisages strengthening Persian language skills and Iranian Islamic culture of pupils at the primary school stage”.

Explanation: Punjab National Bank (PNB) and National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) have tied up to provide financial assistance for economic empowerment of persons belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) families living below Double Poverty Line (DPL). Under this tie-up, PNB would act as a channelising agent for the loan schemes of NSFDC.

Explanation: The 18th All India Whips’ Conference was inaugurated by Shri Ananthkumar, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Chemical & Fertilizers at Udaipur, Rajasthan. The two-day conference is hosting around 90 Delegates belonging to 19 States and Centre.

Explanation: Senior sports journalist Shashikant Bhagwat has passed away following a heart attack. Bhagwat was associated with `Sakal’, a leading Marathi daily, for several years and retired from the newspaper

Explanation: Payment utility major National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced the appointment of Dilip Asbe as its Managing Director and CEO with immediate effect.

Explanation: Cab-hailing app Ola has partnered with ICICI Bank to offer a range of integrated services to customers and driver-partners. As part of the tie-up, customers of ICICI Bank will be able to book Ola rides and pay the fare through the bank’s mobile banking platforms — ‘iMobile’ and ‘Pockets’. ICICI Bank will also offer a ‘Pay Direct’ card for Ola’s driver partners.

Explanation: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launched a common card for rides on public buses and the metro. Delhi is the first city in the country to have a common mobility card. The card, which will function like a debit card, will be operational in all DTC and cluster buses from April 2018.

Explanation: Gujarat has topped a perception-based index of mobility of goods and efficiency of logistics chain, closely followed by Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. The state has been ranked the highest in the index, which is based on indicators such as infrastructure, services, safety of cargo, timeliness, track and trace, as per the new Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) index developed by the commerce and industry ministry along with Deloitte.

Explanation: Music maestro AR Rahman has been named the official brand ambassador of Sikkim. The renowned Indian music producer will now be campaigning for Sikkim to attract tourists and business for the state.

Explanation: Indian all-rounder Yusuf Pathan has been suspended for five months for failing a dope test during a domestic match last season. The Baroda all-rounder had inadvertently ingested a prohibited substance — Terbutaline, which can be commonly found in cough syrups.

Explanation: Having honored acclaimed actor Soumitra Chatterjee with the “Legion of Honour” which is the highest order of merit in France, the French government will confer the award to the legendary actor at the 42nd Kolkata Book Fair on January 30.

Explanation: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) Parliamentary Conference in the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in New Delhi. As many as 124 Members of Parliament and 17 mayors from 23 countries will participate in this conference. This is the first PIO-Parliamentary Conference and is a way of reaching out to the Indian community overseas by the government

Explanation: Union Minister of Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan dedicated India’s fastest and first multi-petaflops supercomputer to the nation in Pune. The supercomputer named as ‘Pratyush’ meaning the Sun, established at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, will be a national facility for improving weather and climate forecasts and services under the umbrella of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).

Explanation: In major changes liberalising foreign direct investment in key sectors, the Union Cabinet approved 100 per cent foreign investment in single brand retail trading (SBRT) and construction development. Besides, the government also decided that foreign institution investors and portfolio investors be allowed to invest in power exchanges through primary market and amended the definition of “medical devices” in its FDI policy.

Explanation: The Union Home Ministry has appointed a 12-member inter-ministerial committee to take a call on the playing of the national anthem in cinema halls and public places. The committee, led by Additional Secretary B.R. Sharma, will recommend changes, if needed, in the existing laws. Its first meeting will be held on January 19.

Explanation: K Sivan, popularly known as the ‘Rocket Man’ of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has been appointed as the new Chairman of the country’s space establishment.

Explanation: Paytm has announced that it has set up ‘Paytm Money Limited’, a wholly owned subsidiary of One97 Communications to build Investment and Wealth Management products for its users. Paytm Money will be the fourth consumer brand from the company after Paytm, Paytm Mall and Paytm Payments Bank. In addition, Paytm has also announced the appointment of Pravin Jadhav as Senior Vice President to lead this new venture.

Explanation: World Bank has projected India’s growth rate at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5% for the next two years. In its 2018 Global Economics Prospect released in Washington last night, the World Bank said, India has enormous growth potential compared to other emerging economies as an ambitious government undertakes comprehensive reforms.

Explanation: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has reached a record high in terms of the amount of wealth owned by a single person. The net worth of Bezos reached a whopping $105.1 Billion, as per Bloomberg’s Billionaire Tracker. This ranks Jeff Bezos as the richest person of all time. Previously, the spot was held by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has been left behind by the Amazon genius for the third time now.

Explanation: In the civil aviation sector, the government for the first time has allowed foreign investors to put money in Air India. So far, foreign airlines were allowed to invest in Indian companies operating scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services up to the limit of 49 per cent. However, this provision was not applicable to Air India.

Explanation: In an attempt to address security and privacy concerns around leakage of Aadhaar numbers and data, the Unique Identification Authority of India introduced two new measures – virtual ID and limited KYC. The virtual identity or virtual ID will be a random 16-digit number mapped to the Aadhaar number of a citizen, and will come with an expiration date.

Explanation: India’s first plant to convert coal to synthetic gas is to be set up in Odisha under the supervision of state-run gas transmission utility GAIL.

Explanation: In a major digital initiative to help plan the traffic flows and optimize freight operations, Railways have launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation and Real Time Information, SFOORTI, App for freight managers.

Explanation: Actress Kajol, an active supporter of eradicating preventable deaths from hygiene-related issues, has become an advocacy ambassador for a Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative.

Explanation: President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated three day International Dharma- Dhamma conference in RAJGIR in Bihar. The conference on State and Social Order in Dharma -Dhamma Traditions aims to bring together a wide array of dignatories who are responsible for governance, policy making and giving directions to countries.

Explanation: The world’s largest solar-thermal power plant has been given development approval by the South Australian government. Construction on the 150-megawatt Aurora plant, to be built by utility-scale solar power company SolarReserve, will begin in 2018 at an estimated cost of $509 million.

Explanation: The Indian Naval Ships Nirbhik and Nirghat have been decommissioned at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, after a glorious 30 and 28 years respectively in the service of the nation.

Explanation: India successfully launched its 100th satellite ‘Cartosat-2 Series’ from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota Island onboard PSLV-C40 launch vehicle.

Explanation: Baldev Raj, the director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, and a renowned administrator of nuclear power technologies in the country has passed away.

Explanation: The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade (DIT) will hold the India-UK Createch Summit in Mumbai on February 6.

Explanation: External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and Bhutan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Lyonpo Damcho Dorji on Friday jointly unveiled the ‘Special logo’ for the Golden Jubilee celebrations in New Delhi and Thimphu through video-conference.

Explanation: The Theme of the National Youth Festival(NYF) is ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’, to capitalize on the demographic dividend of young India, to capture the vibrancy and fresh perspective of youth and to pledge to accomplish the Goal of New India.

Explanation: Former world silver medallist Sarjubala Devi representing Manipur claimed the gold in 48 kg category in the National Women’s Boxing Championships in Rohtak, Haryana. She was also given the best boxer trophy.

Explanation: Eminent Hindi writer Doodhnath Singh, winner of the Bharat Bharti award has passed away.

Explanation: The Election Commission has set up a 14-member panel under Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha to study how social media and other digital platforms are used ahead of polls and make suggestions on how to adapt the Model Code of Conduct to these changes.

Explanation: India has contributed $50,000 to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s Office of Envoy on Youth to help with its mission of involving young people in the world body’s goals.

Explanation: The Supreme Court collegium has recommended the name of senior advocate Indu Malhotra as the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the apex court. She will be the seventh woman judge since independence to make it to the Supreme Court.

Explanation: NBFC firm Capital First will merge with IDFC Bank, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.  Vaidyanathan, who is currently the Chairman and MD of Capital First, will succeed Rajiv Lall as MD and CEO of the combined entity upon completion of the merger and necessary regulatory approvals.

Explanation: Federal Bank has entered into a strategic partnership with Hedge Equities Ltd for providing Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) services to NRIs.

Explanation: According to National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), recently released by the ministry of health and family welfare, Jains are the wealthiest religious community in India. Delhi and Punjab are the richest states. Bihar is the poorest.

Explanation: In Assam, Uruka was being celebrated on 13th January 2018 on the eve of Bhogali Bihu, the post-harvest festival.

Explanation: The 12th International Film Festival on Art and Artist began in Odisha where Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called upon filmmakers to come forward to work on documentaries and biopics on the literary souls.

Explanation: The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched month long Saksham 2018 (Sanrakshan Kshamta Mahotsav).

Explanation: Japan has been found to have the best structure of production and is followed by South Korea, Germany, Switzerland, China, Czech Republic, the US, Sweden, Austria and Ireland.

Explanation: India has missed the 2017 deadline that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced for elimination of Kala Azar (black fever) in his Budget speech last year. In fact, endemic blocks have increased from 61 to 68 in 17 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand.

Explanation: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)’s India International Exchange listed the first bond on its Global Securities Market. The bonds issued by Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC) are one of the highest credit rated bonds issued by an Indian corporate and has been IRFC’s first foray into the Green Bond market.

Explanation: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu attended a ceremony at the Teen Murti Memorial in Delhi to mark the renaming of Teen Murti Chowk as Teen Murti Haifa Chowk. The two leaders also laid a wreath and signed the visitor’s book at the memorial.

Explanation: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked India at 30th position on a global manufacturing index.

Explanation: The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) unveiled India’s first agri-commodity options in guar seed designed as a hedge for farmers to safeguard against price risks.

Explanation: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) decided to enable ‘Face Authentication’ in fusion mode on registered devices by July 1, so that people facing difficulty in other existing modes of verification such as fingerprints, iris, and one-time-password (OTP) could easily authenticate.

Explanation: Market regulator Sebi has approved appointment of Vijay Kumar as Managing Director and CEO of the country’s largest agri-commodity bourse NCDEX.

Explanation: Hosts Assam Hockey beat Hockey Rajasthan 3-2 in the final of the 8th Hockey India Sub Junior Men National Championship 2018 (B Division), held at the Hojai Hockey stadium, Assam.

Explanation: Actress Charu Rohatgi who is known for working in Parineeti Chopra – Arjun Kapoor starrer film ‘Ishaqzaade’ has passed away. The late actress suffered cardiac arrest in the morning which resulted in her death.

Explanation: Former Union minister Raghunath Jha has passed away. Jha was Union minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise during former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s government. He was a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and represented Bihar’s Bettiah constituency.

Explanation: Hyderabad Hunters won the third edition of the Premier Badminton League championship with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Bengaluru Blasters in the final held at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Explanation: Sarod maestro Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta has passed away after cardiac arrest. The Padma Bhushan awardee had been suffering from respiratory problems for the past few days.

Explanation: Actor Sudhir Dalvi was honoured with the Janakavi P Sawlaram. The award is jointly given by the Thane Municipal Corporation and the Janakavi P Savlaram Kala Samiti.

Explanation: Multi-faceted personality Gnani Sankaran, who made his mark as a dramatist, writer, journalist and political analyst, has passed away due to illness.