Current Affairs Quiz , 01 Nov 2018

1) The International Solar Alliance is a joint initiative of India and which of the following countries?

a) Japan
b) France
c) Brazil
d) Australia

Answer: b
• The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that Botswana announced their decision to join the International Solar Alliance.
• The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then French President Francois Hollande at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris on November 30, 2015.
• The idea was to form a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps in their energy requirements through a common approach.
• Towards this, the ISA has set a target of 1 TW of solar energy by 2030, which current French President Emmanuel Macron said would require $1 trillion to achieve.
• Member countries:
o The ISA is open to 121 prospective member countries, most of them located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn as this is the region worldwide with a surplus of bright sunlight for most of the year.
o So far, however, only 56 countries have signed the ISA Framework Agreement.
• India’s role:
o Apart from being a founding member, India plays a significant role in the alliance in terms of being a host as well as a major contributor to the achievement of the target.
o The ISA is the first international body that will have a secretariat in India.
o India, with a target to produce 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, would account for a tenth of ISA’s goal.
o India will also provide 500 training slots for ISA member-countries and start a solar tech mission to lead R&D.
• Why is it such a big deal?
o According to the United Nations, the initiative focuses on investment in large-scale solar energy in developing countries to both meet escalating energy demand and fight rapid climate change.
o It aims to mobilize more than a trillion dollar in order to triple the amount of solar energy installed around the world.

2) ‘UTSONMOBILE’ app was launched by which of the following ministries?

a) Ministry of Electronics and IT
b) Ministry of MSME
c) Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare
d) Ministry of Railways

Answer: d
• Ministry of Railways has introduced Unreserved Mobile Ticketing with a view to promoting three C’s- Cashless transactions (Digital payment), Contactless ticketing (no need to physically visit the point of sale) and Customer convenience and experience.
• As a big leap, booking of unreserved tickets on all non-suburban sections across all Zonal Railways has been made available from 1st November to enable seamless booking of unreserved tickets all over Indian Railways which will obviate the need for passengers to wait in queues for purchasing the tickets.
• The facility of booking unreserved tickets, including season tickets and also platform tickets is available through the ‘UTSONMOBILE’ app available for Android, IOS and Windows phones.
• Important benefits of the app:
o Mobile Ticketing shall promote 3C’s- Cashless transactions, Contactless ticketing and Customer convenience.
o Seamless booking of unreserved tickets all over Indian Railways.
o Obviate the need for passengers to wait in queues for purchasing the tickets and enhance the experience for booking unreserved tickets – journey, season tickets, and platform tickets.
o Environment friendly.

3) Kepler space telescope, a retired space observatory, was launched by which of the following countries?

a) Russia
b) European Union
c) USA
d) Britain

Answer: c
• The Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel and will be retired after a 9-1/2-year mission in which it detected thousands of planets beyond our solar system.
• Kepler is a retired space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars.
• Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched on March 7, 2009, into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit.
• After nine years of operation, the telescope’s reaction control system fuel has been depleted, and NASA announced its retirement on October 30, 2018.
• Designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets.
• Only planets whose orbits are seen edge-on from Earth can be detected.

4) Veer Surendra Sai Airport is located in which Indian state?

a) Jharkhand
b) Uttar Pradesh
c) Bihar
d) Odisha

Answer: d
• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister has approved renaming of Jharsuguda Airport, Odisha as “Veer Surendra Sai Airport, Jharsuguda”.
• Veer Surendra Sai is a well-known freedom fighter of Odisha.
• Renaming of the Jharsuguda airport in his name will fulfill long-pending demand of the Odisha Government, which reflects the sentiments of the local public of the respective area.
• It will also be a befitting tribute to the contributions of the revered personality associated with the State.

5) The National Informatics Centre comes under the aegis of which ministry?

a) Ministry of Science and Technology
b) Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
c) Ministry of Home Affairs
d) Ministry of Defence

Answer: b
• The National Informatics Centre is the premier science and technology organisation of the Government of India in informatics services and information and communication technology (ICT) applications.
• It is part of the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s Department of Electronics & Information Technology.
• Almost all Indian-government websites are developed and managed by NIC.
• Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India (https://data.gov.in) India is at the forefront in promoting innovation in Open Data ecosystem in India.
• It has been set-up by National Informatics Centre (NIC) in compliance with the Open Data Policy whose objective is to provide a platform for proactive access to Government-owned shareable data.
• These datasets are directly published on the platform by the Government Departments.