Daily GK and Current Affairs Quiz – 8th October 2020

Correct Answer: D. China

Explanation: An IEEE Spectrum report, the Beijing-based company is set to send the world’s first mining robot named ‘asteroid mining robot’ into space by November 2020 to identify and extract resources. The mining robot will be launched into space by a Chinese Long March series rocket. The 30-gram spacecraft, NEO-1, is likely to be launched as a secondary payload on a Chinese Long March rocket. This company also has another mission, Yuanwang-1 (‘Look up-1’), nicknamed ‘Little Hubble’, which is to be launched by late 2021 or early 2022.

Correct Answer: B. Russia

Explanation: India is currently in advanced talks with Russia to acquire light weight tanks. These are newly developed tanks in Russia. They are being acquired to be used in high altitude areas of Line of Actual Control. The need to buy Sprut Light Tanks has come after border hostilities with China increased in the Line of Actual Control. The new tank is under trial in Russia. India is to acquire two dozen Sprut light weight tanks in the first tranche. The cost of one tank is less Rs 500 crores. This falls within the emergency financial powers provided to the chiefs after Galwan clash.

Correct Answer: D. 1082

Explanation: Around Rs. 1082 crore was paid to over 41,000 farmers for procurement of paddy on Minimum Support Price. As on 3 Oct 2020, a cumulative procurement of Paddy in this Kharif Marketing Season is over 5,73,000 tonnes. Paddy procurement for 2020-21 has commenced across the procuring States. The Procurement of seed cotton, Kapas during Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21 has started from 1st Oct’20.

Correct Answer: B. MiHOPE

Explanation: The Mental Health Foundation of India (MHFI) has launched an exclusive web portal for comprehensive mental health care (MiHOPE). It will focus on the treatment of mental illness for the people. The web portal is all set to become functional from October 10, 2020, and people can access it online consultations with support from doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Correct Answer: D. Myanmar

Explanation: India and Myanmar have agreed to work towards the operationalisation of the Sittwe port in the Rakhine state in the first quarter of 2021. The announcement came after the conclusion of the two-day long visit of COAS General M M Naravane and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla to Myanmar on 4-5 October. Both sides agreed to further strengthen their partnership.

Correct Answer: B. Swiggy

Explanation: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has entered into an MoU with Swiggy, to onboard street food vendors on its e-commerce platform. The MoU aims at giving the street food vendors online access to thousands of consumers and help them grow their businesses. The arrangement has been facilitated under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme.

Correct Answer: B. Sikkim

Explanation: The red cherry pepper chilli of Sikkim which is locally known as the “Dalle Khursani” has earned the geographical indication (GI) tag from the Union department of Industry promotion and internal trade. Notably, it is considered as one of the hottest chillies in the world. Dalle Khursani fetches as much as Rs 480 per kg in the local market today. Dalle Khursani has been included in the GI Registry of the Government of India on the basis of an application filed by the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (Neramac) on behalf of Sikkim. It is to be mentioned that the largest manufacturer of Dalle Khursani products is the state government-owned Sikkim Supreme.

Correct Answer: E. All A, B and C

Explanation: The Government of India appointed economists Jayant R Varma, Shashank Bhide and Ashima Goyal as members of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Their appointments were cleared by the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet chaired by PM Modi. The current MPC was set up by the GoI in 2016 following the finalisation of Monetary Policy Framework Agreement. The framework introduced inflation targeting.

The committee consists of six members. Of these three are nominated by GoI as done recently. A Government official cannot be appointed to the committee. The other three member of the committee are appointed within RBI. The Governor is the ex-officio chairperson of the committee. The Deputy Governor is the Executive Governor of the bank.

Correct Answer: B. Ravi Chopra Committee

Explanation: The Ravi Chopra Committee was appointed the country’s apex court, the Supreme Court. The SC appointed the HPC to oversee the dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi worth Rs 12000 Crore which aims to widen 889kms of road linking Chardham shrines. The Committee has alleged that the Chardham road project has violated court order. The Supreme Court had ruled that width of roads constructed under Chardham project shall be 5.5 metres. This was ruled based on the recommendation of Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) for mountain roads. To the contrary, the GoI had sanctioned road width of 10-12 metres. The MoRTH has allowed the 700 km road project to continue with 10-metre width. This according to the Committee is a contravention of the SC. The project aims to provide connectivity to the four Hindu pilgrimages such as Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

Correct Answer: B. HDFC Bank

Explanation: Ravi Santhanam, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), HDFC Bank has been recognised in the Forbes list of ’The World’s Most Influential CMOs’. Ranked at Number 39, he is the only CMO of an Indian company to be featured in the illustrious list which includes marketing heads of Apple, BMW, Lego, Adobe, Microsoft, P&G among others. This is the 8th edition of this annual list released by Forbes with research partners Sprinklr and LinkedIn. This year, 427 global CMOs were eligible for consideration. It is generated using data from news reports, websites and social networks to measure influence.

Correct Answer: C. 8th of October

Explanation: Indian Air Force Day is celebrated every year by the Indian Air Force on 8th of October. This year Indian Air Force celebrated its 88th anniversary. Indian Air Force was officially established on 8 October 1932 by the British Empire as the Royal Indian Air Force. The name was changed to Indian Air Force in 1950.

The special occasion will be celebrated with a ceremonial parade and flypast involving a variety of aircraft at the Hindon airbase. IAF’s frontline warplanes like Rafale, Su-30MKI, Apache, Tejas, ‘Gajraj’ will showcase its lethal firepower. 56 aircraft, including 19 fighters and seven transport aircraft along with 19 helicopters, would be taking part in aerial display during this year’s Air Force Day Parade. The Rafale fighter aircraft would fly in the ‘Vijay’ formation along with the Jaguars and then in the ‘Transformer’ formation with the Sukhoi-30 MKI and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas fighter aircraft during the IAF Day parade this year.

Correct Answer: C. PARAM Siddhi

Explanation: The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will be commissioning India’s largest HPC-AI supercomputer ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI’. This initiative will place India among the top countries in global AI supercomputing research and innovation. The initiative was headed by Abhishek Das, Scientist and Program Director (HPC-AI Infrastructure Development) at C-DAC, who conceived the idea and designed the architecture for the largest HPC-AI infrastructure in India.

Correct Answer: B. M A Ganapathy

Explanation: Senior IPS officer, M A Ganapathy has been appointed as the Director-General of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). He is a 1986 batch IPS officer of Uttarakhand cadre. The post of BCAS chief fell vacant after Rakesh Asthana was appointed as the Director-General of Border Security Force in August. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Ganapathy to the post of Director-General, BCAS, for a tenure up to his superannuation on February 29, 2024.

Correct Answer: D. Cricket

Explanation: Afghanistan batsman Najeeb Tarakai passed away on after a tragic road accident. The 29-year-old opening batsman was hit by a car while crossing the road in eastern Nangarhar in Jalalabad. Najeeb Tarakai has played 12 T20Is and one ODI for his country. He made his international debut at the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.