Current Affairs - 6 January 2015

On 5 January 2015 who was named as the first Vice-Chairman of the newly announced NITI Aayog (Policy Commission), which replaced Planning Commission?

• 

  Arvind Panagariya

  Arvind Panagariya is an eminent free market economist and has been an Economics professor at Columbia University in New York. He, as vice chairman, would have a pivotal role in coordinating economic strategy and hold cabinet rank. Economist Bibek Debroy along with former secretary of defence research and development V.K. Saraswat were named as the other full-time members of the commission. NITI Aayog (the new commission) was set up to modernise economic strategy after decades of Soviet-style central planning. Panagariya’s market-friendly, pro-growth economics has helped shape Modi’s outlook and is seen by many as an attack on overbearing labour regulations and state-run companies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 January 2015 launched a scheme for distribution of LED bulbs in which city under which consumers will be able to request for LED bulbs as replacement for ordinary bulbs and CFL bulbs?

• 

  Delhi

  Under the scheme, consumers in Delhi will be able to request for LED bulbs under the Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP) through a new website launched by Prime Minister on the same day. Consumers can register for this scheme either through the website or by sending an SMS to a designated number. Under the programme, consumers will pay Rs. 130 per LED bulb as compared to market prices, which range from Rs. 350 to Rs. 600. LED bulbs, which have longer lives, are considered to be highly energy efficient, and environmentally friendly. In general, LED bulbs are expected to have a life 50 times longer than ordinary bulbs and 8-10 times longer than CFLs. It was estimated that 7,000 units of electricity could be saved by replacing ordinary bulbs in South Block, the central govt. office in Delhi.

What major restrictions on willful defaulters were imposed by Indian capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 5 January 2015?

• 

  - Companies in which a promoter, director or subsidiary is declared a wilful defaulter will not be allowed to issue equity, debt securities, or non-convertible redeemable preference shares

  - Wilful defaulters will not be allowed to make an offer to take over a listed company in India, but will be allowed to make a counter-offer in case they are the target of a hostile takeover

  Under law wilful defaulters are classified as companies or individuals who deliberately thwart repayment of dues to lenders. The SEBI proposals come as part of a concerted effort by Indian policymakers to tackle the bad loans that are hurting profitability at state-run banks, where stressed loans account for 12.9% of loans compared with 4.4% at private sector lenders, according to the data issued by the RBI. The RBI last year also passed tougher rules on wilful defaulters, including making companies that guarantee loan obligations of their units responsible if the subsidiary is declared a wilful defaulter.

The Union Cabinet on 5 January 2015 approved the largest ever telecom spectrum auction under which under which the government will sell 380.75 megahertz of second generation (2G) spectrum in three bands. What is the total value that govt. expects to fetch from this auction?

• 

  Rs. 64,840 crore

  The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved a reserve price of Rs. 3646 crore pan-India per MHz in 800 MHz, Rs. 3980 crore for 900 MHz band pan India excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and J&K; Rs. 2191 crore pan India in 1800 MHz band. 2100 MHz may also be put on auction simultaneously after Defence Ministry vacates it. Proceeds from this year’s auction will help government reach its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP. Government had garnered about Rs. 62,162 crore from the last auction in February 2014.

Who was appointed as the new Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir High Court on 5 January 2015 by the President?

• 

  Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir

  Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir was the senior-most judge of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court. He took place of Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar who superannuated. This appointment was done by the President in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 100 of the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir.

Andhra Bank, which of-late was facing threat of merger in view of high non-performing assets (NPAs) from big corporate clients, especially from the infrastructure sector, almost got a new lease of life recently and there is no merger threat for the bank for now. Why this threat has evaporated?

• 

  Presently no bank is in a position to support another bank in view of the prevailing economic conditions

  The issue of mergers came up for discussion in the two-day bankers meet (“Gyan Sangam”) held in Pune between 2 and 3 January 2015. It emerged that going by the prevailing situations no bank is in a position to support other by acquiring stake or by some other similar manner. This, in effect, gives a new lease of life for Andhra Bank, the only public sector bank from Andhra Pradesh. The Government is set to grant a capital of about Rs. 200- 300 crore. Andhra Bank with a 5.99% non-performing assets (NPAs) in September 2014, will continue to focus on retail and small and medium enterprises. Once the loan-waiver completes in Andhra Pradesh, it hopes to have agriculture portfolio back in the prime.

Pakistan cancelled this year’s first anti-polio campaign which was to start from 5 January 2015. What was the reason for this?

• 

  Security reasons and threat perceptions

  The anti-polio drive was to begin on 5 January in some areas of the Rawalpindi district, the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and parts of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. However the drive was rescheduled to 19 January 2015 due to threat perceptions.  Meanwhile a polio worker was attacked in the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on 5 January. The year 2014 has been the toughest year for Pakistan’s anti-polio programme as the number of confirmed cases reached 297, the highest in the country since 1999. During the past six months, Pakistan recorded the highest number of polio cases followed by Afghanistan and Nigeria.

COMPUTER AWARENESS PRACTICE MCQs FOR BANK EXAMS

• 1. The right click option of mouse is NOT used in which of the following?
  1) To copy selected text into the clipboard
  2) To rename file
  3) To cut the selected text
  4) To access properties of an object
  5) None of these

• 2. .......... is the process of dividing the disk into tracks and sectors.
  1) Tracking
  2) Formatting
  3) Crashing
  4) Allotting
  5) None of these

• 3. A place in the computer system where data and programs are temporarily stored is called....
  1) paste
  2) open
  3) memory
  4) pocket
  5) None of these

• 4. Correcting errors in a program is referred to as...
  1) debugging
  2) bugging
  3) rectifying
  4) modifying
  5) None of these

• 5. Graphical diagrams are used to represent multiple perspectives of a system which include
  1) use-case, class and state diagrams
  2) state, interaction and derivative diagrams
  3) interaction, relationship and class diagrams
  4) deployment, relationship and use-case diagrams
  5) None of these

• 6. Which is the best view for representing your thoughts as a presentation of a computer?
  1) Outline view
  2) Notes page view
  3) Slide sorter view
  4) Slide view
  5) None of these

• 7. What does SMPS stand for?
  1) Switched Mode Power Supply
  2) Single Mode Power Supply
  3) Simple Mode Power Supply
  4) Synchronous Mode Power Supply
  5) None of these

• 8. RSA is........
  1) Symmetric Cryptosystem
  2) Digital Signature
  3) Asymmetric Cryptosystem
  4) Block Cypher
  5) None of these

• 9. ......... hardware technology was used to fifth-generation computers.
  1) Transistors
  2) Valves
  3) ICS
  4) ULSI
  5) VLSI

• 10. For each instruction in program memory the CPU goes through a ........
  1) decode - fetch - execute sequence
  2) fetch - decode - execute sequence
  3) fetch - execute - decode sequence
  4) execute - store - decode sequence
  5) fetch - store - decode sequence

• 11. A proxy server is used for which of the following?
  1) To provide security against unauthorised users
  2) To process client requests for web pages
  3) To process client requests for database access
  4) To provide TCP / IP
  5) None of these

• 12. A repair for a known software bug, usually available at no charge on the Internet, is called a(n).....
  1) Version
  2) Patch
  3) Tutorial
  4) FAQ
  5) None of these

• 13. A modem performs.....
  1) Modulation
  2) Demodulation
  3) Data compression
  4) All of these
  5) None of these

• 14. Which access method is used for obtaining a record from a cassette tape?
  1) Direct
  2) Sequential
  3) Random
  4) All of the above
  5) None of these

• 1. The right click option of mouse is NOT used in which of the following?
  1) To copy selected text into the clipboard
  2) To rename file
  3) To cut the selected text
  4) To access properties of an object
  5) None of these

• 15. A failure that occurs in an Oracle program when there is a logical failure in handling of a statement is called.........
  1) Instance failure
  2) Media failure
  3) Process failure
  4) Statement failure
  5) User error

• 16. Which of the following represents the size of a floppy?
  1) 3.5 inches
  2) 5.25 inches
  3) 8.0 inches
  4) All the above
  5) None of these

• 17. To format a number in date format, press..
  1) Ctrl + Shift + @
  2) Ctrl + Shift + #
  3) Ctrl + Shift + %
  4) Ctrl + Shift + $
  5) Ctrl + Shift + ∗

• 18. ........ uses an embossed steel band to form the letters printed on the paper.
  1) Laser printer
  2) Dot-matrix printer
  3) Daisy wheel printer
  4) Band printer
  5) Ink-jet printer

• 19. OR, XOR and AND functions can be performed by .............. of a computer in the CPU.
  1) Memory
  2) CU
  3) Register
  4) ALU
  5) Processore

• 20. Internet provides....
  1) Online communication
  2) Software sharing
  3) Customer support service
  4) Online journals and magazines
  5) All of the above

• 21. System software is the set of programs that enables your computer's hardware devices and ................ software to work together.
  1) Management
  2) Processing
  3) Utility
  4) Application
  5) None of these

• 22. ............................ are specially designed computer chips that reside inside other devices, such as your car or your electronic thermostat.
  1) Servers
  2) Embedded computers
  3) Robotic computers
  4) Mainframes
  5) None of these

• 23. SMPT, FTP and DNS are applications of the ............. layer.
  1) data link
  2) network
  3) transport
  4) application
  5) None of these

• 24. According to which of the following, in a database, should information be organised and accessed?
  1) Physical position
  2) Logical structure
  3) Data dictionary
  4) Physical structure
  5) None of these

• 25. WORM stands for ....
  1) Wanted One Read Memory
  2) Write Once Read Many
  3) Write Original Read Many
  4) All the above
  5) None of these

• 26. Which of the following is separate software layer that acts as 'glue' between the client and the server parts of an application and provides a programming abstraction?
  1) Freeware
  2) Firmware
  3) Shareware
  4) User-supported software
  5) Middleware

• 27. Which of the following is a must for a computer?
  1) Chip
  2) Data
  3) Mouse
  4) Processor
  5) None of these

• 28. Disk can be used to store.......
  1) Random files
  2) Sequential files
  3) Both (1) and (2)
  4) Horizontal files
  5) None of these

• 29. A derived class may also be called as.....
  1) sub-class
  2) super class
  3) parent class
  4) deprived class
  5) None of these

• 30. The capacity of  program counter is.......
  1) 8 bits
  2) 14 bits
  3) 16 bits
  4) 12 bits
  5) 32 bits

• 31. In ........... generation computer the speed was measured in nanoseconds.
  1) first
  2) second
  3) third
  4) fourth
  5) fifth

• 32. The process of transferring of files from your computer to the computer on the internet is called .......
  1) downloading
  2) uploading
  3) FTP
  4) JPEG
  5) downsizing

• 33. Timing and control unit is a part of a(n)....
  1) ALU
  2) Processor
  3) Memory
  4) CMOS
  5) BIOS

• 34. Chip is the common name for a(n)....
  1) transistor
  2) resistor
  3) integrated circuit
  4) semiconductor
  5) None of these

• 35. ................. is developed specifically for a distinct industry.
  1) Personal productivity software
  2) Application software
  3) Decision support system
  4) Vertical market software
  5) System software

• 36. Which of the following services is not provided by Internet service provider?
  1) Internet transit
  2) Domain name registration
  3) Hosting
  4) Dial-up access
  5) None

• 37. A source program is written in a ............. language.
  1) high-level
  2) low-level
  3) binary
  4) All the above
  5) None of these

• 38. The transfer rate of a standard USB 2.0 Device is .....
  1) 100 M bit/s
  2) 250 M bit/s
  3) 480 M bit/s
  4) 500 M bit/s
  5) 1 G bit/s

• 39. The control part of a disk is known as
  1) surface
  2) hub
  3) cylinder
  4) cluster
  5) None of these

• 40. Which of the following languages is used for process control?
  1) ADA
  2) COBOL
  3) BASIC
  4) PASCAL
  5) LISP

• ANSWERS:
  1-5, 2-2, 3-3, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1, 7-1, 8-2, 9-4, 10-2
  11-1, 12-2, 13-4, 14-2, 15-4, 16-4, 17-2, 18-4, 19-4, 20-5
  21-4, 22-2, 23-4, 24-2, 25-2, 26-5, 27-4, 28-3, 29-1, 30-3
  31-3, 32-2, 33-2, 34-3, 35-4, 36-5, 37-1, 38-3, 39-2, 40-1.