Current Affairs Quiz – January 18 2018

Current Affairs Quiz

1. Qlik, a leader in data analytics has announced the appointment of ____________ as its Country Manager for India
a) Arvind Subramanian
b) Naren Krishnamoorthy
c) Vivek Kumar
d) Arun Balasubramanian

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Answer d) Arun Balasubramanian. Qlik, a leader in data analytics has announced the appointment of Arun Balasubramanian as its Country Manager for India. In his role at Qlik, Arun will be responsible for leading and expanding Qlik’s operations in India. Qlik’s large and growing footprint includes over 45,000 customers globally. Local customers which harness Qlik’s platform-based approach to derive actionable insights include Bajaj Allianz, Bharat Forge, BookMyShow, HCL Technologies, Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, Mercedes-Benz, and Sitel, amongst others.

2. Issuer-independent digital financial services platform MobiKwik has announced the appointment of ___________ as the chief risk officer
a) Puneet Agarwal
b) Vinoth Sekar
c) Mahesh Singh
d) Praveen Mishra

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Answer a) Puneet Agarwal. Issuer-independent digital financial services platform MobiKwik has announced the appointment of Puneet Agarwal as the chief risk officer. He will be setting-up and managing the risk management framework for the financial services business at MobiKwik, which would involve creating lending policies, risk models and portfolio management strategies to help acquire the right set of customers, and build a profitable and sustainable business.

3. Which state government has announced 1% reservation for orphans in government jobs and education?
a) Kerala
b) Haryana
c) Maharashtra
d) Karnataka

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Answer c) Maharashtra. Maharashtra Government has announced 1% reservation for orphans in government jobs and education. The reservation, termed parallel reservation, will be provided under the general category, which means the government won’t need to increase its caste reservation quota that has already reached 52%. Parallel reservation means, of the total jobs available under the general category, 1% will be reserved only for orphans.

4. Which state government and NITI Aayog have entered into an MoU for development of monitoring mechanism?
a) Uttar Pradesh
b) Andhra Pradesh
c) Madhya Pradesh
d) Himachal Pradesh

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Answer b) Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh government and Niti Aayog have entered into an MoU for development of monitoring mechanism, including creation of dashboard and collection of data for improving the performance of 115 most aspirational districts in the country. An MoU was signed by Mr Ashok Jain, Advisor NITI Aayog and Mr Sanjay Gupta, Secretary, Planning Department of the government of Andhra Pradesh at the District Collectors’ Conference.

5. Which state government announced its State Innovation and Start-up Policy, aiming to generate five lakh jobs in the next five years?
a) Maharashtra
b) Gujarat
c) Assam
d) Haryana

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Answer a) Maharashtra. The Maharashtra government announced its State Innovation and Start-up Policy, aiming to generate five lakh jobs in the next five years. It also revealed its public cloud policy, which targets $2 billion opportunity for the industry. For a start, it has asked its departments to shift its data storage onto the cloud. The Fadnavis government had formed a four-member committee to draft a policy framework on cloud usage two months ago, which submitted a policy document that’s being now adopted as the public cloud policy.

6. The Central government will set up a _____ million fund to finance solar projects as the country steps up efforts to achieve its ambitious target of adding 175 gigawatts (GW) in renewable energy by 2022
a) $250
b) $350
c) $550
d) $750

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Answer b) $350. The Central government will set up a $350 million fund to finance solar projects as the country steps up efforts to achieve its ambitious target of adding 175 gigawatts (GW) in renewable energy by 2022. India will need at least $125 billion to fund a plan to increase the share of renewable power supply in the country’s grid by 2022, underlining the immense financing challenge ahead.

7. 10th Global Forum for Food & Agriculture held in ___________
a) Rome
b) New Delhi
c) Washington
d) Berlin

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Answer d) Berlin. Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is leading the Indian delegation to 10th Global Forum for Food & Agriculture (GFFA) from 18-20 January, 2018 which includes the 10th Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference. The theme of this year’s event is “Shaping the future of livestock – sustainability, responsibly, efficiently”. The discussions will focus on sustainable and productive animal production among other issues.

8. Which bank was crossed Rs5 trillion market capitalisation for the first time, making it only the third Indian company to achieve this milestone?
a) Yes Bank
b) HDFC Bank
c) ICICI Bank
d) Axis Bank

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Answer b) HDFC Bank. India’s most-valued lender HDFC Bank Ltd was crossed Rs5 trillion market capitalisation for the first time, making it only the third Indian company to achieve this milestone. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) are the other two companies which crossed market capitalisation of Rs5 trillion. RIL remained the most-valued company with a market cap of Rs5.82 trillion, followed by TCS with a market cap of Rs5.57 trillion.

9. Who is the new Prime Minister of Romania?
a) Viorica Dancila
b) Theresa Reintke
c) Daciana Octavia Sârbu
d) Laura Codruța Kövesi

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Answer a) Viorica Dancila. Romania’s ruling party has nominated Viorica Dancila as the country’s new PM after Mihai Tudose resigned from the post following a power struggle within the party. Dancila is poised to become Romania’s first female PM and the third premier to assume the office in seven months. Tudose’s predecessor Sorin Grindeanu was removed after a no-confidence vote against him last June.

10. The government has announced __________ as the deadline for the mandatory installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and panic buttons in all passenger transport vehicles, including taxis and buses
a) February 01
b) March 01
c) April 01
d) May 01

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Answer c) April 01. The government has announced April 1 as the deadline for the mandatory installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and panic buttons in all passenger transport vehicles, including taxis and buses. The move will help the passengers to alert police and transport department in panic situations. Meanwhile, three-wheelers like e-rickshaws and auto rickshaws have been exempted from the rule.

11. Which bank ties up with Transfast Remittance LLC for remittance?
a) Bank of India
b) Canara Bank
c) Vijaya Bank
d) State Bank of India

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Answer d) State Bank of India. State Bank of India (SBI), the largest commercial bank in India, has announced tie-up with Transfast Remittance LLC, the USA based payment network since 25 years with a network that covers over 6 billion people across 120 plus countries for inward remittance from the USA to India. Transfast enjoys a leadership position in the cross border payments industry and offers competitive pricing, fast transfer of funds and personalized customer engagement to notify transfers and other value added services.

12. Which payment Bank account holders can now order physical debit cards from the App?
a) Airtel Payments Bank
b) Paytm Payments Bank
c) Indian Post Payments Bank
d) Fino Payments Bank

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Answer b) Paytm Payments Bank. The account holders in Paytm Payments Bank can now order physical debit cards from the Paytm app. Earlier, the bank provided only digital debit cards which are issued to customers upon opening of Individual Savings Account. The development was confirmed by Paytm and One97 Communication founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Vijay Shekhar Sharma also announced the integration of BHIM UPI on iOS platform. The iPhone users can now create their own Paytm BHIM UPI ID on the app, and link their Savings bank account with it.

13. Amplus Energy Solutions has signed an MoU with ________ for a strategic tie-up to co-finance projects in the solar energy sector in India
a) Yes Bank
b) ICICI Bank
c) HDFC Bank
d) South Indian Bank

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Answer a) Yes Bank. Amplus Energy Solutions has signed an MoU with India’s leading bank Yes Bank for a strategic tie-up to co-finance projects in the solar energy sector in India. Yes Bank, which has been focussing on funding green energy projects in India, also announced that it will mobilise USD one billion by 2023 for financing solar energy projects in India and USD five billion till 2030. The total projects capacity under the partnership of Amplus Energy Solutions and Yes Bank is expected to be up to 1,000 MW.

14. Which country overtook the US to take the second spot for the number of app downloads in 2017, as per the App Annie 2017 Retrospective report?
a) China
b) India
c) Russia
d) Japan

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Answer b) India. India overtook the US to take the second spot for the number of app downloads in 2017, as per the App Annie 2017 Retrospective report. The report also said a user in India has nearly 80 apps and accesses over 40 of them per month. Globally, the app downloads exceeded 175 billion, while consumer spending exceeded $86 billion.

15. India has successfully conducted the “first pre-induction trial” of its over 5,000-km range __________ intercontinental ballistic missile
a) Agni-III
b) Agni-IV
c) Agni-V
d) Agni-VI

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Answer c) Agni-V. India has successfully conducted the “first pre-induction trial” of its over 5,000-km range Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile, which brings the whole of Asia and China as well parts of Europe and Africa within its nuclear strike envelope. The country’s most formidable missile will undergo one more such pre-induction trial “within this year” before it is inducted into the Agni-V regiment already raised by the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command (SFC) with the requisite command and control structures.

16. Which country has appointed politician Tracey Crouch as the minister to tackle the epidemic of loneliness?
a) USA
b) Germany
c) Switzerland
d) Britain

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Answer d) Britain. Britain has appointed a minister for loneliness to take forward the work of murdered lawmaker Jo Cox and tackle the isolation felt by more than one in ten people in the UK. Sports minister Tracey Crouch will take on the new role, in addition to her existing job, and develop a strategy to address the problem, which research has linked with dementia, early mortality and high blood pressure.

17. Who was named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year?
a) Rohit Sharma
b) Virat Kohli
c) MS Dhoni
d) Steve Smith

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Answer b) Virat Kohli. Indian captain Virat Kohli was named the ICC Cricketer of the Year at the ICC. Kohli was also named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year and captain of both ICC Test and ODI teams. Kohli regained the No 1 spot on the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen with 889 rating points, the best ever by an Indian cricketer. This is the second time in succession that an Indian won the overall cricketer of the year award. Off-spinner R Ashwin had claimed the honour last year. It was Kohli’s second gong at the 2017 ICC Awards, with the 29-year-old also being named the ODI Player of the Year. Kohli was also named captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year.

18. Who has been named as ICC’s Test Cricketer of the Year?
a) Steve Smith
b) Virat Kohli
c) Joe Root
d) Kane Williamson

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Answer a) Steve Smith. World’s top-ranked Test batsman Steve Smith has been named ICC’s Test Cricketer of the Year. This is the second time that Smith has won the award, with the first instance being in 2015. In the qualification period from September 2016 to December 2017, Smith played in 16 Tests, scoring 1,875 runs at an average of 78.12, with eight hundreds.

19. Which of the following cricketer not included in ICC’s Test Team of the Year?
a) Cheteshwar Pujara
b) Ravichandran Ashwin
c) Virat Kohli
d) Shikhar Dhawan

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Answer d) Shikhar Dhawan. Three Indians have been included in ICC’s Test Team of the Year, with the cricketer of the year Virat Kohli being named the captain of the side. India’s top-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have been included in the XI for the second time. The team also features three South Africans, three Australians and two English cricketers.

20. Which of the following cricketer not included in ICC’s ODI Team of the Year?
a) Rohit Sharma
b) Jasprit Bumrah
c) MS Dhoni
d) Virat Kohli

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Answer c) MS Dhoni. Indian opener Rohit Sharma and pacer Jasprit Bumrah have been named in ICC’s ODI Team of the Year, which is led by Virat Kohli. Rohit, who scored his third ODI double century recently, was included in the team last year, while Bumrah has been named for the first time. South Africa’s AB de Villiers has featured for the seventh time.

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