Daily GK and Current Affairs Quiz – 5th December 2020

Correct Answer: C. Karnataka

Explanation: Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa has laid the foundation stone for an 11.5-megawatt power plant run on municipal waste. The first of its kind power plant in the state will be capable of converting 600 tonnes of municipal waste into 11.5-megawatt energy. This power plant will add 80.59 million units of power to the existing power grid. Bengaluru generates 5000 tonnes of waste every day.

Correct Answer – C. State Bank of India

Explanation: The Karnataka regional office of NABARD and State Bank of India have signed an MoU. It has been signed to extend concessional refinance facility to the beneficiaries of watershed development and tribal development projects. The MoU aims to benefit 45000 beneficiaries from 260 Farmers Producers Organisations in 28 districts.

Correct Answer – C. Odisha

Explanation: Odisha Government has approved the unified emergency helpline number 112 to provide all forms of police assistance to people in distress. The consolidated helpline number would enable police to rush services to people in an efficient manner. The helpline number 112 subsumes the earlier segregated helpline numbers like 100,101,108 and other for emergency services like police, fire and ambulance.

Correct Answer – B. Albert R. Ramdin

Explanation:  The 7th India-Suriname Joint Commission Meeting was held virtually on 2 December 2020. The JCM was co-chaired by Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan and Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation of Suriname, Albert R. Ramdin. The Ministers agreed to add new momentum to the bilateral relations in the fields of business and investment.

Correct Answer – C. 136th

Explanation: The 136th birth anniversary of the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, is being observed on 3 December 2020. The first president of India, Rajendra Prasad was born on December 3, 1884, in Ziradei, Bengal Presidency (present-day Bihar). He served as the President from 1950-1962. Dr. Rajendra Prasad became an active part of India’s freedom struggle and participated in grass root level movements such as the non-cooperation movement. After independence, Prasad was elected as President of the Constituent Assembly of India.

Correct Answer – B. Padma Bhushan

Explanation: The owner of MDH Masala, Dharampal Gulati passed away. He was born in 1923 in Sialkot, Pakistan. He was fondly called ‘dalaji’ and ‘Mahashayji’. A school dropout, Dharampal Gulati joined his father’s spice business in the early days. Back in 2019, the government honoured him with Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in the country. After partition in 1947, Dharampal Gulati moved to India and stayed at a refugee camp in Amritsar. He then moved to Delhi and opened a store in Delhi’s Karol Bagh. Gulati officially established the company in 1959. The business did not just flourish in India only but Gulati became a distributor and exporter as well. His company exports Indian spices to various parts of the world including the UK, Europe, UAE, Canda, etc.

Correct Answer – A. Assam

Explanation: An Assam reserve forest, ravaged by militancy, is set to become the state’s sixth national park. The state government has proposed to upgrade the 422-sq km Ripu Reserve Forest in Kokrajhar district. The area of proposed Raimona National Park lies within the Ripu Reserve Forest that has a history of one of the best scientifically-managed forests in the country during the late 19th century. The area comprises the highest biodiverse floristic composition of the state wherein as many as 11 different forest types and sub-types could be classified.

Correct Answer – C. 8th

Explanation: In the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2020, India has been ranked at 8th spot globally in the list of countries most affected by terrorism in 2019. The GTI score of India is 7.353 out of 10. India recorded 277 Deaths, 439 Injuries & 558 Incidents due to Terrorism in 2019. Regionally, South Asia was the most impacted region by terrorism in 2019, recording more deaths than any other region. Also, globally the deaths caused due to terrorism fell by 15 per cent to 13,286 in 2019 over 2018.

Correct Answer – C. HDFC Bank

Explanation:  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered India’s largest private sector bank HDFC Bank to temporarily halt all launches of the Digital Business generating activities planned under its program Digital 2.0, and other proposed business generating IT applications, while also ordering the bank to stop sourcing new credit card customers. The order dated December 2 comes after HDFC Bank’s internet banking and payment system were disrupted by yet another outage on November 21.

HDFC Bank has drawn criticism for various such incidents over the past two years. RBI has directed HDFC Bank’s top examine the lapses and fix accountability. HDFC Bank is one India’s largest private sector bank and has a market capitalization of Rs 7.7 lakh crore. The RBI will only HDFC Bank to add new credit card customers and launch new digital services on “satisfactory compliance with the major critical observations”. HDFC Bank’s latest digital services outage was due to a power failure at the lenders data center.

Correct Answer – D. Singapore

Explanation: Singapore becomes the first country to allow the sale of cultured meat. The meat is created from animal cells without slaughtering chickens. Eat Just Inc., a maker of meat and egg substitutes, has been approved to sell its laboratory-created chicken in Singapore.

The product, created from animal cells without the slaughter of any chickens, will debut in Singapore under the GOOD Meat brand as a chicken bite with breading and seasoning in a single restaurant. Eat Just is initially working with local manufacturer the Food Innovation and Resource Centre to make the cultured chicken. Additionally, the company is buying more equipment to expand sales to other restaurants — and eventually grocery stores.

Correct Answer – C. 4th December

Explanation: International Day of Banks is observed globally on the 4th of December. On 19 December 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 74/245, which designated 4 December as the International Day of Banks. The day is celebrated to the recognition of the significant potential of multilateral development banks and other international development banks in financing sustainable development and providing know-how, and also in recognition of the vital role of the banking systems in the Member States in contributing to the improvement of the standard of living.

Correct Answer – C. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

Explanation: S. Ramakrishnan, former Director of Indian Space Research Organisation’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) passed away. Mr. Ramakrishnan joined the VSSC, a lead centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in August 1972 after graduating from the College of Engineering, Guindy, and acquiring his MTech in Aeronautics from IIT, Madras. He joined as a member of the SLV-3 project team responsible for the development of India’s first satellite launch vehicle under the leadership of A.P. J. Abdul Kalam. He then moved to the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project in 1983 and worked on liquid propulsion systems. He was also project director for the PSLV continuation programme, and later, mission director for the PSLV C1, C2, C3 and C4 flights.

Correct Answer – C. Violinist

Explanation:  Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan launched India’s first indigenously developed ‘100 Octane premium petrol’ through video conferencing. Octane ratings are measures of fuel stability that increases engine efficiency. The high octane premium grade petrol will be marketed under the brand ‘XP-100’. It has been developed by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) at its Mathura refinery in Uttar Pradesh.

Availability of “XP-100”:

• XP-100 will be made available in a phased manner across the country and in the first phase, it will be made available in 10 cities. The cities are Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Agra, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. 
• With this launch, India has joined a select league of nations globally that have such superior quality fuel.  Till date, such quality of fuel is available only in six countries including USA, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia and Israel.

Correct Answer: D. Rajeev Chaudhary

Explanation: Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhary has been appointed as the 27th Director General of Border Roads Organisation (BRO). His appointment is effective from 1st December 2020. Lt Gen Chaudhary succeeds Lt Gen Harpal Singh who has been appointed as the new Engineer-in-Chief of the Indian Army. The BRO is responsible for the construction and maintenance of all border roads including those along the frontiers with China and Pakistan.