Table of Contents
MCQ 1
Manufacturer of apache helicopters is
- Dassault Rafale
- AugustaWestland
- HAL
- Boeing
- Apache is considered the most fiercest, lethal survivable, deployable and maintainable multimission helicopter in the world.
- It can fly up to a speed of around 290 km/hour.
- It can effect an attack in30 seconds.
- It can climb at a rate of 889 metres in a minute
- Its endurance is 3 hours 9 minutes.
- The new fleet of Apache helicopters will be part of 125-Helicopter squadron, popularly called “Gladiators” of the IAF.
MCQ 2
- The Asiatic Society of Mumbai began its journey in 1804 as the Literary Society of Bombay.
- I was the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society too
Choose correct
(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None
- Asiatic Society of Mumbai
- Recently, the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, elected it’s 1 st woman president (‘Prof. Vispi Balaporia’) in 215 years of its existence.
- The Asiatic Society began its journey in 1804 as the Literary Society of Bombay.
- It was founded by ‘Sir James Mackintosh’, a Scottish colonial administrator who had a keen interest in Oriental studies.
- In 1826, the Literary Society became the Mumbai arm of the London-based Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
- It came to be called the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (BBRAS).
- In its early days, membership of the Society was restricted to Europeans and the natives were not allowed to join until 1841.
- In 1954, the institution was severed from its London parent and became the Asiatic Society of Bombay.
- In 2002, it acquired its present name and its journal has been in publication since 1841.
- It’s activities include conducting historical research, awarding historians, and running an institute of post-graduate studies.
- It’s library, home to over 1 lakh books, consists of rare manuscripts contributed to it by the East India Company.
- It also has the prized collections of,
- Original copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy and
- Coins issued by ‘Kumaragupta’ (5th century), ‘Akbar’ (16th century) and ‘Shivaji’ (17th century).
- The Society offers Junior Fellowships for research.
- It recommends scholars for the ‘Tagore National Fellowship’ of the Ministry of Culture.
- The Governor of Maharashtra is the Society’s Chief Patron.
MCQ 3
NASA’s DART mission is related to
- Global atmospheric studies
- Space debris
- To deflect an asteroid in space
- To train mars travellers
- Deflecting an Asteroid
- NASA’s DART mission, aims to deflect ‘Didymos B’, the “moonlet” of the Didymos asteroid system.
- It is an ambitious double-spacecraft mission to deflect an asteroid in space.
- It is to prove the technique as a viable method of planetary defence.
- Among all the causes that may cause extinction of life on Earth, an asteroid hit is widely acknowledged as one of the likeliest.
- The mission, includes NASA and the European Space Agency, is known as the ‘Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment’ (AIDA).
- The target is the smaller of two bodies in the “Double Didymos asteroids” that are in orbit between Earth and Mars.
- Didymos is a near-Earth asteroid system.
- Its main body measures about 780 m across, the smaller body is a “moonlet” about 160 m in diameter.
- The project aims to deflect the orbit of the smaller body through an impact by one spacecraft.
- Then a second spacecraft will survey the crash site and gather the maximum possible data on the effect of this collision.
- NASA is building the Double Asteroid Impact Test (DART) spacecraft for launch in summer 2021.
- It is planned to collide with the target at 6.6 km/s in September 2022.
- Flying along with DART will be an Italian-made miniature CubeSat, called LICIACube, to record the moment of impact.
- ESA’s contribution is a mission called ‘Hera’, which will perform a close-up survey of the post-impact asteroid.
MCQ 4
India and Russia on Wednesday agreed to open a maritime route between
- Gujrat to Vladivostok
- Chennai to Moscow
- Chennai to Vladivostok
- Vishakhapattanam to Vladivostok
MCQ 5
According to World gold council India stands in the terms of gold reserves in countries list
- 11th
- 10th
- 9th
- 4th
MCQ 6
Benefits of setting Repo Rate as benchmark for lending are
- Loans will be cheaper
- More transparency for customers
- Better transmission of monetary policy
Choose correct
(A) 1 & 2
(B)2 & 3
(C) All
(D) None
Current scenario:
- The marginal cost of fund based lending rate (MCLR) is currently the benchmark for all loan rates. Banks typically add a spread to the MCLR while pricing loans for homes and automobiles.
Why repo?
- The RBI has mandated that the spread over the benchmark rate to be decided by banks at the inception of the loan should remain unchanged through the life of the loan. It should remain unchanged unless the borrower’s credit assessment undergoes a substantial change and as agreed upon in the loan contract.
- If the lending rates are linked to the repo rate, any change in the repo rate will immediately impact the home and auto loan rates, since RBI has mandated the spread to remain fixed over the life of the loan.
- Benefits of setting Repo Rate as benchmark for lending:
- It will make the system more transparent since every borrower will know the fixed interest rate and the spread value decided by the bank.
- It will help borrowers compare loans in a better way from different banks.
- There shall be standardisation and ease of understanding for the borrowers. This would mean that same bank cannot adopt multiple benchmarks within a loan category.
What is Repo Rate?
- Repo stands for ‘Repurchasing Option’. It refers to the rate at which commercial banks borrow money from the RBI in case of shortage of funds.
- It is one of the main tools of RBI to keep inflation under control.
What is MCLR?
- The Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) system was introduced by the Reserve Bank to provide loans on minimal rates as well as market rate fluctuation benefit to customers. This system has modified the existing base rate system of providing home loans. In this system, banks have to set various benchmark rates for specific time periods starting from an overnight to one month, quarterly, semi-annually and annually.
- MCLR replaced the earlier base rate system to determine the lending rates for commercial banks. RBI implemented it on 1 April 2016 to determine rates of interests for loans.
MCLR aims:
- To improve the transmission of policy rates into the lending rates of banks.
- To bring transparency in the methodology followed by banks for determining interest rates on advances.
- To ensure availability of bank credit at interest rates which are fair to borrowers as well as banks.
- To enable banks to become more competitive and enhance their long run value and contribution to economic growth
MCQ 7
- Austria’s capital Vienna has retained its ranking as the world’s most liveable city according to annual report by UN habitat
- Among India’s cities, Only Delhi remains in top 50
Choose correct
(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None
- While New Delhi has been given an overall score of 56.3, Mumbai has got 56.2, while top-ranked Vienna has scored 99.1 and least-ranked Damascus (Syria) has got 30.7 points.
- New Delhi dropped by six places to rank 118th on a list of the world’s most liveable cities due to increase in cases of petty crimes and poor air quality, an annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) showed on Wednesday.
- While the national capital registered the biggest decline in Asia, Mumbai also fell two places since last year to rank 119th on the list topped by Vienna (Austria) for the second consecutive year.
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