Current Affairs – Apr II 1. Which Bank recently launched Twitter handle account? SBI BACKGROUND: State Bank of India (SBI) on 11 April 2014 launched its Twitter handle account. SBI aims to strengthen its social media presence with this launch. The Twitter handle for SBI is TheOfficialSBI. The bank expects this Twitter handle to connect better with the tech-savvy Earlier, young SBI had also launched accounts generation. on Facebook and Youtube. Mid-sized private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank had launched twitter-linked current accounts in March 2014. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco and has offices in New York City, Boston, San Antonio and Detroit. Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read short 140-character text messages, called tweets. Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device app. Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass and the site was launched in July 2006. 2. Who has been appointed as Next Chief Justice of India? Justice R.M.Lodha BACKGROUND: President of India on 11 April 2014 appointed Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha as Next Chief Justice of India. Justice Lodha will take his charge from 27 April 2014. He will be the 41st Chief Justice of India. He will succeed Justice P. Sathasivam. Justice Lodha will have a brief tenure of five months as the Chief Justice of India (CJI). He is scheduled to retire on 27 September 2014. He is 64. Justice Lodha is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after CJI P. Sathasivam. The name of Justice Lodha was recommended as the next CJI by Justice Sathasivam He practiced Law in the Rajasthan High Court and dealt with all branches of law — constitutional, civil, company, criminal, taxation and labour. He was elevated as a Permanent Judge of the Rajasthan High Court in January 1994. He was transferred to the Bombay High Court where he assumed office in February 1994. Justice Lodha was transferred back to the Rajasthan High Court in February 2007. He had been the Administrative Judge of the Rajasthan High Court and was chairman of State Judicial Academy. He was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court on 13 May 2008 and elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on 17 December 2008. 3. Heartbleed: A new security threat. Discuss BACKGROUND: Heartbleed is a new security threat which adversely impacts the online safety of internet users worldwide. This threat can result into compromising of confidential information. This problem is limited to OpenSSL, a variant of SSL/TLS, but OpenSSL software is used by a large no. of websites. This threat is believed to be a result of a programming error in OpenSSL software by Robin Seggelmann a German Software developer. About two years ago, he submitted new features of OpenSSL while working on its update. In one of the features, he forgot to validate a variable containing length and so did his coworkers. This essentially means that an opening is created in SSL/TLS, an encryption technology marked by the small, closed padlock and https: on Web browsers to show that traffic is secure. Another worry of the security experts is that this error had been unnoticed since past two years. Impact • This error makes it possible to snoop on Internet traffic even if the padlock is closed. • Secured keys which are used for deciphering the confidential data can be accessed without the knowledge of owners. • This can result into of compromising of emails, commerce applications and instant messages and other encrypted information. • Anonymous persons can snoop information from computer server and steal information. Remedial Measures Though a new fixed version of OpenSSL has been released but now the individual website administrators are required to use this version and make required changes. On an individual level, one needs to change passwords, but the websites which are being used needs to implement the newer fixed version. 4. Shompens of …………………………. islands casted votes for the first time for Lok Sabha: Andaman & Nicobar BACKGROUND: Shompens of Andaman & Nicobar (A&N) islands for the first time casted their votes in Great Nicobar on 10 April 2014. Shompens - one of the stone-age tribes - casted the votes for the Lok Sabha constituency of Bay Islands for Lok Sabaha election 2014. Shompens are one of the six tribes that inhabit the forest in the southern-most tip of the country. They are classified as primitive tribal group along with the four other tribes Jarawa, Andamanese, Onge and the Sentinelese. According to 2011 Census, their population is only 229 and about 60 Shompens cast their votes at the polling station which is in the interior jungle in Great Nicobar Biosphere reserve. About Shompens The Shompens have very limited contact with outsiders and live in about 12 habitations made of bamboo and leaf thatch. The Shompens are of Mongoloid stock and they are skilled hunter-gatherers but they do not have knowledge of raise plantation of various crops. Primarily they survive on the hunting and gathering, besides honey and fish 5. Which of the following countries has been suspended from the powerful G8 grouping recently: A) Italy B) Germany C) Russia D) Canada ANS-C Background: The Group of Eight (G8) was the name of a forum for the governments of a group of eight leading industrialised countries, that was originally formed by six leading industrialised countries and subsequently extended with two additional members. [1] Russia, which was invited to join as the last member, was excluded from the forum by the other members on March 24, 2014 as a result of its involvement in the 2014 Crimea crisis in Ukraine.[2] Thus the group now comprises seven nations and will continue to meet as the G7 group of nations. The forum originated with a 1975 summit hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, thus leading to the name Group of Six or G6. The summit became known as the Group of Seven or G7 the following year with the addition of Canada. The G7 is composed of the seven wealthiest developed countries on Earth (by national net wealth or by GDP[3]), and it remained active even during the period of the G8. Russia was added to the group from 1998 to 2014, which then became known as the G8. The European Union is represented within the G8 but could not host or chair summits 6. The recently concluded TROPEX drill was conducted by: A) Indian Army B) Indian Navy C) Indian Air Force D) All the above combined ANS-B BACKGROUND: The Navy has successfully completed one of its largest war drills spread over Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal region and involving its frontline assets such as INS Chakra and 75 combat and surveillance aircraft. “The Navy’s major annual exercise Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX) concluded on Friday involving large scale naval manoeuvres in all three dimensions surface, air and underwater, across the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR),” a Navy release said on Saturday. 7. The recently published book ‘Rogue Elephant: Harnessing The Power of India’s Unruly Democracy’ has been authored by who among the following: A) Simon Denyer B) Anita Nair C) Indrajit Hazra D) Solomon Northup E) None of these ANS-A BACKGROUND: Five years ago, India was an emerging world power being courted by the world’s most powerful political and business leaders, an upbeat story of unparalleled economic growth. Since then, it has failed to account for the human capital at the heart of its effort to modernize: more than one billion people clamoring for what has become known as the “Indian Dream”—an education, a career, and an opportunity to pull one’s family out of poverty and into prosperity. Today, India is suffering an immense crisis of confidence— crippling political corruption, politicians mired in the status quo, economic inequality, brutal violence against women, and rampant social injustice. Simon Denyer, former Indian bureau chief for the Washington Post, perceptively captures India at this crucial tilting point in its history—from the Nehru-Gandhi family dynasty that has ruled the country for most of its post-independence years, to flawed heroes such as news anchor Arnab Goswami and anticorruption crusader Arvind Kejwiral, to, most compelling, ordinary people fighting daily against corruption and the system. They, Denyer convincingly shows, are harnessing the force of the world’s largest democracy to positive effect, demanding transparency and accountability as 8. What is the expanded form of NCBC: A) National Commission for Broadcasting Control B) National Commission for Backward Classes C) National Commission for Border and Coasts D) National Commission for Backward Communities ANS-B National Commission for Backward Classes is an Indian statutory body established on 14 August 1993, under the provisions of National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993 (Act No. 27 of 1993). The commission was the outcome of the direction of the Supreme Court in the Mandal case judgement. The commission has five members: a Chairperson who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court; a social scientist; two persons, who have special knowledge in matters relating to backward classes; and a Member-Secretary, who is or has been an officer of the Central Government in the rank of a Secretary to the Government of India. Their term is of Three years 9. The book ‘A Strange Kind of Paradise: India Through Foreign Eyes’ is written by: A) Sam Miller B) Robert Nickelsberg C) Malvika Singh D) Vandana Vasudevan ANS-A BACKGROUND: A Strange Kind of Paradise is an exploration of India's past and present, from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in India for many years. Sam Miller investigates how the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, Arabs, Africans, Europeans and Americans - everyone really, except for Indians themselves came to imagine India. His account of the engagement between foreigners and India spans the centuries from Alexander the Great to Slumdog Millionaire. It features, among many others, Thomas the Apostle, the Chinese monk Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Vasco da Gama, Babur, Clive of India, several Victorian pornographers, Mark Twain, EM Forster, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles and Steve Jobs. Interspersed between these tales is the story of Sam Miller's own 25-year-long love affair with India. The result is a pellbinding, 2500-year-long journey through Indian history, culture and society, in the company of an author who informs, educates and entertains in equal measure, as he travels in the footsteps of foreign chroniclers, exposes some of their fabulous fantasies and overturns longheld stereotypes about race, identity and migration. A tour de force that is at once scholarly and thought-provoking, delightfully eccentric and laughout-loud funny, this book is destined to become a much-loved classic. 10.IUCN is an international union associated with which of the following: A) Conservation of Nature B) Consumption of Nutrients C) Countries with Nuclear power D) Cure and Neutralisation E) None of these ANS-A BACKGROUND: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature [UICN], in French) is an international organization dedicated to finding "pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges". The organization publishes the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses the conservation status of species IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects globally and brings governments, nongovernment organizations, United Nations agencies, companies and local communities together to develop and implement policy. IUCN is the world's oldest and largest global environmental network—a democratic membership union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries. IUCN's work is supported by more than 1,000 professional staff in 60 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. The Union's headquarters are located in Gland, Switzerland, near Geneva