Current Affairs Quiz , 30 Apr 2019

1) Where was a 15,000-year-old footprint, the earliest sign of humans’ presence in the Americas found?

a) USA
b) Canada
c) Mexico
d) Chile

Answer: d
• Scientists in Chile have found a 15,000-year-old footprint, the earliest sign of humans’ presence in the Americas
• The discovery challenges the previous timeline and map of human migration into South America. Most available evidence held that humans did not reach the Patagonia region at the southern tip of South America until 12,000 years ago

2) Which of the following governments recently issued a decree banning burqas and other face-covering garments in light of the Easter Sunday attacks?

a) Sri Lanka
b) Bangladesh
c) Thailand
d) India

Answer: a
• The Sri Lankan government issued a decree banning burqas and other face-covering garments from Monday, in light of the Easter Sunday attacks, which were carried out by a local cell that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

3) Which of the following has developed a unified script for nine Indian languages, named the Bharati script?

a) Department of Official Language
b) IIT Madras
c) Indian Institute of Regional Languages
d) The English and Foreign Languages University

Answer: b
• Taking a cue from European languages, several of which have the same (Roman letter–based) script, Srinivasa Chakravathy’s team at IIT Madras has, over the last decade, developed a unified script for nine Indian languages, named the Bharati script.
• The team has now gone a step further since developing the script: it has developed a method for reading documents in Bharati script using a multi-lingual optical character recognition (OCR) scheme

4) Spike-LR Anti-Tank Missiles will be procured by Indian armed forces from

a) USA
b) Russia
c) Israel
d) Sweden

Answer: c
• The Army is in the process of procuring Spike-LR Anti-Tank Missiles from Israel and Igla-S Very Short Range Air Defence Systems (VSHORAD) from Russia through a set of new financial powers for emergency procurements sanctioned by the Defence Ministry

5) Which of the following has recently announced its withdrawal from UN arms trade treaty?

a) USA
b) Russia
c) North Korea
d) Iran

Answer: a
• President Trump announced that his administration is withdrawing the U.S. signature from the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, in response to concerns from gun rights activists that it could impinge on Americans’ right to bear arms