Weekly CA Quiz: October 2017 1st week

Explanation: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched ‘Single Click Pension Delivery’ scheme, wherein the money will go directly into the account of the beneficiaries. More than 35 lakh people of the state will be benefitted from this move. Chauhan also honoured the elderly who completed the age of 100 years with the “Shataayu” award.

Explanation: The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency launched a new Green Masala Bond on the London Stock Exchange’s new International Securities Market to raise funds to finance renewable energy projects across India. The five-year dated bond raised approximately $300 million (Rs19.5 billion), with a coupon of 7.125%, and became the first Green Masala Bond to be listed on the International Securities Market (ISM).

Explanation: Austria’s law banning face veils such as burkhas or niqabs comes into effect from today (October 1, 2017). The government said, acceptance and respect of Austrian values are basic conditions for successful cohabitation between the majority Austrian population and people from third countries living in Austria

Explanation: The United Arab Emirates has begun collecting new “sin” taxes on tobacco products, energy drinks and soft drinks. Beginning October 1, tobacco and energy drinks will be taxed at 100 per cent and soft drinks at 50 per cent. All six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have agreed to begin collecting so-called VAT taxes, though others may begin later than January. The GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Explanation: According to data from the Reserve Bank of India, India’s overseas debt rose marginally in the June quarter, but the corporates’ financial engineering led to an 8 percent in short term debt rise, while the long term debt fall 0.1 percent. India’s external debt amounted to $485.8 billion during the quarter ended June’17, up 1.3 per cent over the same period a year ago.

Explanation: Max Verstappen has won the F1’s Malaysian Grand Prix after beating Lewis Hamilton.

Explanation: FIFA has launched the official ball for Under-17 football World Cup and it will be called Krasava, a word generally used by Russian sports fans to describe a striking performance and it is the ultimate praise for a team when they play with creativity and flair.

Explanation: Radhika Mohan Bhagawati, veteran Guwahati-based journalist and editor of Dainik Asam, oldest Assamese daily newspaper, has passed away.

Explanation: India has opened 2 immigration check posts along the borders with Myanmar & Bangladesh. Zorinpui check post of Mizoram has been authorised as immigration check post for entry into or exit from India for all passengers to or from Myanmar. Kawrpuichhuah post of Mizoram has been authorised as immigration check post for entry into or exit from India for all passengers to or from Bangladesh

Explanation: ‘No helmet, no petrol’ rule for two-wheeler riders to reduce road accident deaths has come into force in Andhra Pradesh, with chief minister Chandrababu Naidu urging all the petrol bunk dealers to cooperate.

Explanation: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched the “Mathru Purna” scheme, which aims to provide nutritious meals to about 12 lakh pregnant women and lactating mothers in the state.

Explanation: The nation offers homage to Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on his 148th birth anniversary today (2 October). President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Senior BJP leader L K Advani and other dignitaries visited Rajghat and paid homage to the Father of the nation.

Gurugram-based VVDN, in partnership with Ireland’s Embedded Downloads, unveiled blockchain technology-based smartphone BitVault for ₹ 75,000 a unit.

Explanation: India is likely to be the world’s fastest-growing large economy in the next 10 years, driven by digitisation, favourable demographics, globalisation and reforms, predicts a Morgan Stanley report.

Explanation: Russia and China were among nine countries suspended from weightlifting for a year in an attempt to combat an epidemic of doping. The decision by the International Weightlifting Federation followed the retesting of anti-doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Countries with at least three doping offenses from those Olympics were suspended. Also suspended were Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Explanation: This year’s Nobel Medicine Prize went to US geneticists Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young for their discoveries on how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronised with the Earth’s revolutions. The trio will share the prize sum of nine million Swedish kronor (about 1.1 million US Dollars.)

Explanation: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu launched Swachh Andhra Mission on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Ace shuttler PV Sindhu has been chosen as the brand ambassador of Swachh Andhra.

Explanation: The Global Entrepreneurship Summit to be held between 28th to 30th of November in Hyderabad will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Advisor to the US President, Ivanka Trump, who leads the U.S. delegation.

Explanation: India will be the guest of honour during the sixth edition of the World Government Summit scheduled from February 11th – 13th, 2018 in Dubai.

Explanation: The largest public sector lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has waived off closing charges for savings account holders. The closure fee waiver is applicable for accounts which are at least 1 year old.

Explanation: The Reserve Bank of India has opened a branch in Dehradun, Uttarakhand to make transactions of the state government more convenient. Earlier, the state government had to do financial transactions through the Kanpur branch of the RBI.

Explanation: Bharti Airtel has received Ghana’s National Communications Authority’s approval for the merger between Bharti Ghana (Airtel) and Millicom Ghana (Tigo), subject to certain conditions. This merger will result in an entity which will be the second largest mobile network operations in the country.

Explanation: According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), India remained fourth, while England dethroned Australia from the top position in the womens cricket team rankings for the first time following the annual rankings update.

Explanation: Three American scientists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their contribution to detecting gravitational waves — ripples in the fabrics of spacetime which were predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago.

Explanation: Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City)’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) has bagged the 10th spot in the latest edition of Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), London, September 2017.

Explanation: Eminent Marathi writer and journalist Hanumant Moreshwar Marathe passed away owing to prolonged illness.

Explanation:
Switzerland
The MoU will enable technical cooperation in a range of areas including traction propulsion equipment, freight and passenger cars, tilting trains, railway electrification equipment, train scheduling and operation improvement, railway station modernisation, multimodal transport and tunnelling technology.

Explanation:
Bibek Debroy
It will facilitate optimising benefits of appropriate water management in the form of hydro-electric power, agriculture, bio-diversity conservation, reduced flood damage erosion, inland water transport, forestry, fishery and eco tourism.

Explanation:
It will be headed by Delhi High Court’s former Chief Justice G Rohini
This decision has been taken to ensure more backward among the OBC communities to avail the benefits of reservation

Foundation stone for the first ever Industrial Training Institute for the Dibyangans exclusively was laid on October 3 at Dibrugarh ITI Complex at Borboruah, Dibrugarh in Assam by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Explanation:
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated a toilet in the Mangalwara area of Bihar for the exclusive use of transgenders.

In order to protect the rich aquatic biodiversity of river Ganga from escalating anthropogenic pressures, development of a Turtle sanctuary in Allahabad, UP along with a River Biodiversity Park at Sangam (confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Sarasvati) have been approved under Namami Gange programme.

Rs. 273.06 crore
The projects involve laying of new roads in rural areas and widening and strengthening of the existing ones to improve the rural connectivity.

Repo Rate: Unchanged at 6%
Revrese Repo Rate: Unchanged at 5.75%
Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate: Unchanged at 6.25%
Bank Rate: Unchanged at 6.25%
Cash Reserve Ratio: Unchanged at 4%
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): Changed by 50 basis points to 19.5%

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lowered the country’s growth projection for 2017-18, pegging the Gross Value Added (GVA) at 6.7 per cent, from 7.3 per cent earlier, due to lower kharif foodgrain production and disruptions arising from the implementations of GST.

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson have thereby received a £825,000 prize for developing an effective method for generating 3D images of life-building structures.

The technique they developed, called cryo-electron microscopy, has allowed the structure of biomolecules to be studied in high-resolution for the first time, an advance that revolutionised the field of biochemistry.

Racer Mahaveer Raghunathan became the first Indian to win a European Racing Championship, when he sped to victory in the last two races of the Boss GP Championship (Formula Class) held at Imola, Italy.

Pooja Kadian created history as she bagged India’s first ever gold medal at Wushu World Championships in Russia.

Explanation: World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers Day, is held annually on October 5 since 1994, commemorates teacher organizations worldwide. Its aim is to mobilize support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers.

Explanation: The World Space Week is organized across the World from 4 to 10 October. In 1999, The United Nations General Assembly declared that World Space Week will take place from 4th October to 10th October every year, in commemoration and celebration of two key dates in the advancement of space technology and exploration.

Explanation: Former Minister for Information and Broadcasting Purushottam Lal Kaushik has passed away. The departed leader was the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation in the Morarji Desai Ministry and later, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Charan Singh government.

Explanation: The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017 is awarded to the English author Kazuo Ishiguro (Japanese-born British) “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.

Explanation: The Mongolian Parliament has confirmed Ukhnaa Khurelsukh as the country’s new Prime Minister. His confirmation comes after Jargaltulga Erdenebat was voted out of office last month over allegations of corruption and incompetence.

Explanation: According to Coffee Board, coffee output in India, is pegged to be a record 3.50 lakh tonnes in the 2017-18 marketing year started this month on higher acreage.

Explanation: Government of India and European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed the Finance Contract for lending of € 300 million for Bangalore Metro Rail Project Phase II Line R6.

Explanation: HDFC Life Insurance Company has launched Neo — a servicing bot for Twitter that uses artificial intelligence for customer service. The insurer hopes to deploy the bot in answering policy —related queries on social media.

Explanation: The Andhra Pradesh Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mastercard to setup a centre of excellence in Visakhapatnam.

Explanation: Vice president Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone for the first phase of the 2,890-km National Waterway-4 (NW-4) at Amravati in Andhra Pradesh.

Explanation: The Union Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with Other Union Ministries and State Governments has launched nationwide ‘Paryatan Parv’ to showcase cultural diversity of country and reinforce the principle of ‘Tourism for All’.

Explanation: President Ram Nath Kovind during his visit to Ethiopia announced that India would give Ethiopia a line of credit of USD 195 million for power transmission sector and medicines worth USD 2 million. This is the first time in 40 years that an Indian presidential delegation has visited Ethiopia.

Explanation: India reported the highest levels of online harassment through cyberstalking and threats of physical violence in the Asia Pacific region, higher than countries like Australia and Japan, a report by Norton by Symantec.

Explanation: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will lead a high-powered ministerial delegation to the ASEAN-India ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas’ which will be held in Singapore in 2018. The PBD 2018 is an important part of the celebration of 25 years of the ASEAN-India partnership.

Explanation: Vijaya Bank has entered into an MoU with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) for enabling all HPCL retail outlets with BHIM/UPI merchant solutions. This rollout will empower all petrol pump attendants and LPG delivery personnel to accept digital payments.

Explanation: Australian fast bowler John Hastings announced his retirement from first-class and one-day cricket, following a succession of grueling injuries that took toll on him.

Explanation: Due to ever-present threat of cross-border firing from Pakistan, the Centre has set up a study group to examine the problems being faced by the people living near the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. The group will meet people living in the border areas of Valley, security forces were deployed, district administration officials, local public representatives were assigned their duties and will submit their report within two months. Special secretary in the home ministry Rina Mitra will head the team.

Explanation: The country’s third largest private sector lender Axis Bank has acquired payments wallet Freecharge for Rs. 373 crore in an all-cash deal and appointed Sangram Singh as its CEO. Sangram Singh has been appointed as the CEO of Freecharge Payment Technologies Private Ltd.

Explanation: National Award-winning director Kundan Shah, best known for his dark satire “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro” and coming-of-age comedy “Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa”, has passed away.

Explanation: Mizoram’s Dampa Tiger Reserve now holds the distinction of housing the highest number of clouded leopards in Southeast Asia, the state government has claimed. The density of population of clouded leopards, locally knows as ‘Kelral’, is 5.14 per 100 sq km in the reserve, situated along the Mizoram-Bangladesh-Tripura.