Current Affairs Quiz , 07 Mar 2019

1) The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is headquartered in

a) Vienna
b) Geneva
c) New York
d) Nairobi

Answer: a
• The latest report released by United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says that while the global trend of purchasing drugs over the internet, particularly on darknet trading platforms using cryptocurrencies has already spread across South Asia, it is particularly rampant in India.
• UNODC is a global leader in the fight against illicit drugs and international crime. Established in 1997 through a merger between the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, UNODC operates in all regions of the world through an extensive network of field offices
• The World Drug Report is a yearly publication that presents a comprehensive assessment of the international drug problem, with detailed information on the illicit drug situation
• It has its headquarters in Vienna (Austria)

2) Which of the following organisations has recently launched SWAGAT – an Automatic Fare Collection Gating System?

a) CSIR
b) Bharat Electronics
c) IISc
d) TIFR

Answer: b
• Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a defence public sector undertaking, presented SWAGAT – the Automatic Fare Collection Gating System.
• SWAGAT is an initiative steered by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with BEL and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) with the support of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and State Bank of India (SBI).

3) Which of the following cities was adjudged India’s cleanest city for the third straight year in the Swachh Survekshan Survey 2019?

a) Hyderabad
b) Surat
c) Indore
d) Kochi

Answer: c
• Indore was adjudged India’s cleanest city for the third straight year in the central government’s cleanliness survey
• The second and third positions in the category were grabbed by Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysore in Karnataka.

4) Which of the following tech-giants have recently unveiled a new app ‘Bolo’ to help children in primary school learn to read in Hindi and English?

a) Facebook
b) Microsoft
c) Google
d) Infosys

Answer: c
• Tech giant Google unveiled a new app ‘Bolo’ that aims to help children in primary school learn to read in Hindi and English.
• The free app, which is being launched in India first, uses Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech technology.
• The app features an animated character ‘Diya’, who encourages children to read stories aloud and helps if the child is unable to pronounce a word. It also lauds the reader when he/she completes the reading.

5) Which of the following countries is the last to ratify the Rome Statute, making it the 124th State party to the International Criminal Court (ICC)?

a) Burundi
b) India
c) Israel
d) Malaysia

Answer: d
• Malaysia ratified the Rome Statute, making it the 124th State party to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The decision to join the ICC after 20 years of resistance is not only a welcome development but highlights the importance of long-term persistence in the pursuit of human rights protections.
• Established by the Rome Statute in 1998, the ICC is a permanent international court with jurisdiction over those most responsible for committing the most serious human rights crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.