§
RBI released its
monetary policy statement in which left the short-term lending rate
and the cash reserve ratios were unchanged. What was an important aspect
associated with announcement of this policy statement? – This was
RBI’s first bimonthly monetary policy statement
§
Which
communication satellite of India expired recently after being in the orbit for
around ten-and-a-half years? -INSAT-3E
§
Which country was
forbidden from whale-hunting and grant of further whaling permits by
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its judgment? – Japan
§
Nancy Powell, who
resigned as the Ambassador of the United States to India, was appointed
Ambassador in which year? – In 2012
§
Which government
department of India was chosen for UN Environment Programmes (UNEP’s) prestigious
‘ECA Ozone Protection Award for Customs & Enforcement Officers’? - Directorate
of RevenueIntelligence
§
Who was appointed
as the third arbitrator in the dispute between Reliance Industries Limited
(RIL) and the petroleum ministry by the Supreme Court - James
Spigelman
§
What is the name
of the 14-year old Indian-American student who came to
limelight after he suggested to the US government that it could save $136
million a year by simply switching fonts from Times New Roman to Garamondin
government printing? - SuvirMirchandani
§
Who took over as
the new Chairman of Tata group firm Trent Ltd - Noel N Tata
§
The Reserve Bank
of India granted in-principle approval of bank licences to which two
entitites – IDFCLimited and Bandhan Financial Services Private
Limited
§
The Finance
Ministry released a draft of the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) which focuses on
raising more revenue from high net worth individuals, while leaving the slabs
unchanged for others. In this draft high slab of income-tax has been
proposed for individuals and Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) belonging to ‘super-
rich’ category. What is the criterion of income for
this ‘super-rich’ category? – Annual income above Rs.10
crore
§
What is the
proposed tax slab for super-rich individuals and Hindu Undivided
Family (HUF) inthe draft of the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) – 35%
§
What is the
proposed additional tax on those earning over Rs 1 crore through dividend
income in the draft of the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) – 10%
§
According to the
latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) findings for 2011-12, which
state of India had the maximum number of factories –Tamil Nadu
§
Oil Ministry
recently rejected British energy major BP plc’s application for which category
of fuel market, for which the company had submitted its application through BP
Explorer (Alpha) Ltd during December 2013 – Aviation Fuel market or
Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) market
§
What is the
approximate number of US citizens who signed up for President Barack Obama’s
highly ambitious health care programme? 7.1 million
§
Which countries
highest court gave official recognition to a third category of sex other than
male or female?– Australia
§
Which firm became
the first Indian retail e-commerce to file for an initial public
offering (IPO) on NASDAQ and to be listed on this US stock exchange? – HomeShop18
§
Who was appointed
as the new Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)? – R.
Gandhi
§
The UNHCR (United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) stated that the number of Syrian
refugees in Lebanon has reached a new milestone mark. The UNHCR also called it
a devastating milestone for the tiny Arab country with depleted resources and
an explosive sectarian mix of its own. What milestone is this?– 1
million
§
Which
international drug manufacturer took Indian firm Biocon to court for allegedly
infringing the patent on one of its diabetes drug? –Novartis AG
§
Union Minister K.
Sambasiva Rao, who tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister, was holding
which portfolio? – Union Textiles Minister
§
Which internationally-renowned tracking
system made its debut in Indian badminton circuit at
the on-going India Open Super Series in New Delhi? – Hawk-Eye technology
§
Who is heading
the 5-member committee constituted to recommend a site for the
capital of successor state of Andhra Pradesh following the formation of
Telangana? –K. Sivaramakrishnan
§
An Indian rocket
carrying the country’s second navigation
satellite, IRNSS-1B, successfully placed this satellite in earth’s
orbit. What is the name of the ISRO rocket which took IRNSS-1B into
space? – PSLV-C24
§
What is the name
of the Indian-American who was nominated by US President Barack Obama
to a key administration post as the US Alternate Executive Director at the
International Monetary Fund (IMF)? –Sunil Sabharwal
§
What is the name
of the CEO and co-founder of Mozilla (which makes the popular
Firefox web-browser), who resigned recently following protests over
his support of a gay marriage ban in California? – BrendanEich
§
A vast liquid
ocean was found on which moon of Saturn by NASA’s Cassini probe as published by
‘Science’ magazine? –‘Enceladus’
§
What is the name
of the Prime Minister of Hungary who was declared victorious in the Hungarian
parliamentary election? - Viktor Orban
§
Approximately how
much amount worth of tax evasions was detected
during fiscal-year 2013- 14 by the Directorate General of Central
Excise Intelligence (DGCEI)? – Rs. 8,000 crore
§
India’s foreign
exchange (forex) reserves soared by $5.03 billion to $303.67 billion for the
week ended 28 march 2014. What was the last time when the reserves were over
the $300 billion mark? – December 2011
§
Who was crowned as
the new Miss India in the 51st Femina Miss India contest, which culminated in
April 2014 at Mumbai? - KoyalRana Jaipur
§
Which country won
the ICC T-20 Women’s World Cup 2014, final of which was played in
April 2014? .Australia
§
Which company will
acquire Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited for $3.2 billion, as announced by the two
companies? –Sun Pharmaceuticals Limited
§
Who gave Sahara
Force India team its second podium finish by coming third in the Formula 1
Bahrain Grand Prix 2014? - Sergio Perez of Mexico
§
Who won the F1
Bahrain Grand Prix 2014 title? - Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain) for
Mercedes Team
§
What is the name
of the biblical epic movie which was banned by Malaysia and Indonesia for its
visual depiction of the prophet? – ‘Noah’
§
Which two
international cement companies announced their merger, which would now create
world’s largest cement manufacturing company? – Holcim of
Switzerland and Lafarge of France
§
In an important
decision, the Union Govt. decided to allow use of bulls in south India’s famous
‘Jallikattu’ festivals by amending the list of animals prohibited from being
trained for performances. While allowing the use of bulls in Jallikattu, the
govt. emphasized on the historic, cultural and religious significance of the
event. Jallikattu festival is held in which South-Indian state?
– Tamil Nadu
§
Indian Navy during
April 2014 sold its now decommissioned first aircraft carrier ship to
a ship-breaking company of Mumbai for Rs. 63.2 crore. What is the
name of this iconic ship which was commissioned into the India Navy in 1961 and
was decommissioned in 1997? – INS Vikrant
§
What is the name
of the Venezuelan daredevil who during April 2014 set a new Guinness record for
skydiving 14,000 feet with world’s smallest parachute? Ernesto
Gainza
§
Who won the men’s
singles title of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Badminton 2014? – Lee
Chong Wei ofMalaysia
§
What is the name
of a new tool launched by Internet giant Google as part of its elections portal
offering which will give citizens access to relevant information about
political candidates contesting from their constituency and their incumbent
Member of Parliament? –‘Know your candidate’
§
Who took over as
the new Chairman of software industry association NASSCOM? – R
Chandrasekaran
§
Which North-eastern state
capital became the second in the region to have rail-connectivity? –Itanagar
§
Which English
Premier League club was denied the permission to change its name by the
Football Association Council (FAC)? – Hull City
§
Which Indian brand
was the only Indian retail brand to be listed in the 30 Best Retail Brands in
Asia Pacific of the prestigious Inter brand’s Best Retail Brands list for 2013?
– Tanishq
§
What is the name
of the famous character featured in the iconic Archie Comics, whose character
will end in the forthcoming issue of this comic as announced? – Archie
Andrews
§
Justice Rajendra
Mal Lodha appointed as the next Chief Justice of India, who will
succeed Justice Sathasivam, will be …………….Chief Justice of India? – 41st
§
How much amount
was collected by India’s largest banking group the State Bank of India (SBI)
recently in overseas debt sale through a dual tranche bond programme, which
make it the largest ever offering from a domestic issuer? - $1.25
billion
§
What is the name
of the deadly virus for which the Computer Emergency Response Team of India
(CERT- In) issued an advisory to all Internet users in the country? ‘Heartbleed’
§
Which leading
banking luminary was appointed as the special advisor of the interim President
of BCCI-IPL Sunil Gavaskar? – Deepak Parekh, Chairman of
HDFC
§
British telecom
major Vodafone Group took full control of its Indian unit by buying the
remaining 10.97% stake in the unit. This stake was acquired from which
enterprise? - Piramal Enterprises
§
Which
international financial institution completed its first global rupee bond
programme worth $ 1 billion? -International Finance Corporation (IFC)
§
Renowned poet-lyricist and
filmmaker Gulzar was selected for the prestigious Dada
SahebPhalke award for 2013. He would be 45th recipient of this award.
What is the real name of Gulzar? – Sampooran SinghKalra
§
India retained the
top spot in the world in foreign exchange remittances from its migratory
workforce during 2013. How much remittance was received by India during the
year? – $70 billion (India was followed byChina ($60 billion),
Philippines ($25 billion)
§
According to a
series of papers published recently in the ‘Lancet Oncology’ journal, what is
the reason for 40% of all types of cancers in India? – Tobacco use
§
Which un seeded
player shocked badminton’s world number one Lee Chong Wei to win the Singapore
Open title for 2014? –Simon Santoso of Indonesia
§
Indian Navy’s
decommissioned submarine INS Vagli would be established as a permanent exhibit
at which historic town of Tamil Nadu? Mamallapuram
§
Who became the
5th Indian-born person to win the prestigious Pulitzer Prize? –Vijay Seshadri
§
In a landmark
judgement the Supreme Court gave the recognition of ‘third gender’ to trans
genders and asked the Centre to treat trans genders as “socially and
economically backward” so as to enable them to get reservations in jobs and
education. This ruling was given on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by
which entity? – The National Legal Services Authority – NALSA
§
A new round
of India-China Strategic Dialogue was held at Beijing between Foreign
Secretary Sujatha Singh and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin. The
talks aimed at maintaining the momentum of India-China relations and
implementing agreements reached at the leadership level. These talks were which
round of the India-ChinaStrategic Dialogue series? – 6th
§
Who was appointed
the new Finance Secretary? – ArvindMayaram
§
Which team won the
National T20 title for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy? –Baroda
§
What is the title
of the book written by former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh in which he claimed
that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s inability to take on vested interests led
to the coal block row? – “Crusader orConspirator: Coalgate and other
truths”
§
Usha
International, the leading household consumer durables company, has become the
official partners of which franchisee team for the 7th season of the Indian
Premier League (IPL)? –Mumbai Indians
§
Which member of
the Commonwealth organisation recently announced its decision to withhold
funding to the Commonwealth Secretariat, pointing to the Secretariat’s silence
on alleged war crimes and rights abuse in Sri Lanka? –Canada
§
New Chief of the
Indian Navy: Robin K Dhowan – 22nd
§
Which film was
selected as the Best Film for 61st National Film Awards announced? – “Ship
of Theseus”
§
Which noted
director was the Chairman of the 11-member 61st National Film Awards
selection committee which announced the winners? – Saeed Akhtar
Mirza
§
Pakistan became
the fourth country to publish ‘name and shame’ tax directory in a bid to
embarrass tax evaders.Cash-strapped Pakistan published its first tax
directory showing income tax details of all its registered taxpayers. Which are
the other three countries who already follow this practice? – Sweden,Finland
and Norway
§
With the
implementation of new Companies Act, a majority of the top 200 listed companies
will need to change their auditors over the next three years. According to the
new Companies Act, it is now mandatory for the companies to change their
auditors after how many years? – 10 years
§
U.S. President
Barack Obama signed a law that allows Washington to deny visas to anyone
(including United Nations envoys) who has engaged in terrorist acts against the
United States. This law would apparently deny a visa to Iran’s designated
ambassador to the New York-based United Nations. What is the name of
this Iranian diplomat? – Hamid Abutalebi
§
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, the Nobel Prize winning Latin-American author, who passed
away, was citizen of which Latin American country? – Colombia
§
In a surprising
development Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung announced backing out from
hosting the Asian Games of 2019. Which Vietnamese city was to host the 18th
edition of Asian Games? –Hanoi
§
What is the name
of Indian Navy’s Vice-Admiral, who put in his papers seeking
voluntary retirement after his junior Admiral RK Dhowan superseded him to take
over as Navy chief? – Shekhar Sinha
§
What is the date
for providing permanent or universal account numbers (UAN) to subscribers of
retirement fund body Employees. Provident Fund Organisation.s (EPFO) as stated
by the body recently? 15 October2014
§
Who won the
Chinese F1 Grand Prix? – Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton
§
Noted Indian
woman squash player JoshnaChinappa defeated Australia’s former
world champion Rachael Grinham in the final of which inaugural tournament to
win the title? –Richmond Open
§
Which
international Drug Company announced a multi-billion dollar revamp
plan in which it will swap assets with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and will sell some
business to Eli Lilly? – Novartis AG
§
Which state has
achieved the highest rate of increase in the number of electors in the country
in the past five years as stated in the electoral data released early this
year? –Tamil Nadu
§
Which football
club recently created history by winning the I-League title in their
debut season? –Bengaluru FC
§
What is the name
of NASA’s Moon probe which recently crashed into the lunar surface thus closing
the six- month mission? – Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment
Explorer – LADEE
§
What is the new name
of leading confectionary and chocolate manufacturer Cadbury India Limited which
was adopted by the company recently? – Mondelez India Foods Ltd.
§
What was the name
of the naval exercise conducted by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to
celebrate 65th anniversary of its Navy in which naval ships from India and
Pakistan also participated? –‘Maritime Cooperation – 2014’
§
The Supreme Court
set up a four-member committee for framing guidelines to prevent
misuse of public funds by the government and its authorities in giving
advertisements in newspapers and television to get political mileage. The court
ruled that substantive guidelines are needed to regulate such advertisements at
the cost of public exchequer. The order to constitute this committee was passed
while the apex court heard a public interest litigation (PIL) by two NGOs.
Which two NGOs are these? – Common Cause and Centre for Public
Interest Litigation (CPIL)
§
What is the name
given to the newest mineral discovered recently in Australia? – ‘Putnisite’
§
Indian Air Force
(IAF) has initiated a project for DNA profiling of its personnel, selecting
a high-risk group of air crew that undertakes dangerous missions for
the first round. Under this project the DNA samples of nearly 2,500 crew
members who face potential threat to life during everyday operations are being
collected. A database of the DNA records will be established at which place?
– Pune
§
Sherpa guides, who
assist in undertaking summit expeditions to Mt. Everest in Nepal, started the
boycott of climbing season for 2014. These guides packed up their tents and
left Mount Everest’s base camp. What is the reason for their boycott? To
honour the death of 16 of their colleagues who were killed in the deadliest
avalanche ever recorded on the mountain
§
Supreme Court
constituted a 5-member committee to look after the administration of
Kerala’s SreePadmanabhaswamy temple. With this the main trustee of the temple
was asked to hand over the keys to all secret vaults to the new committee. This
order was given based on a report by which famous lawyer, in which it was
alleged that the trustees had failed very miserably in bringing transparency in
managing the affairs of the temple? –Gopal Subramaniam
§
Who took over as
the head of 5-member temple administration committee of
SreePadmanabhaswamy temple, Thiruvananthapuram? – K.P. Indira
§ NTT Docomo recently announced its decision to exit the Indian telecom
market by selling its entire stake in its
Indian joint-venture partner Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL). The
two entities were operating in the Indian market with the Tata Docomo brand
name. NTT Docomo is which country’s No.1 telecom company?– Japan
§
The South Korean
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won offered to resign over which issue?
– After criticism of the government’s response to the ferry disaster
§
Microsoft
completed the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices & Services business. The deal,
which was announced in September 2013 means Nokia’s mobile business has become
a subsidiary of Microsoft. What is the name of this subsidiary? – ‘Nokia
Mobile’
§
Which country was
rated lowest for average internet speed in the Asia Pacific region in a
recently conducted study done by US firm Akamai? – India
§
Which country
overtook Mauritius as the top gateway of money being brought in by overseas
investors through the foreign direct investment (FDI) into Indian markets?
– The United States
§
The United States
signed Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement with which country, which would
give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them
to preposition fighter jets and ships?–The Philippines
§
The 15th edition
of IIFA was held from 24 to 26 April 2016 at – Tampa Bay, Florida
§
Which two former
Popes were declared Saints by the Pope Francis at the Vatican? – John
XXIII and JohnPaul II
§
The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) entered into a historic agreement with which
organisation to use the power of sports to promote peace and economic
development? – The United Nations – UN
§
Which India-born business
leader was appointed as the new CEO and President of Nokia? – RejeevSuri
§
Three leading
mobile operators got relief from the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate
Tribunal (TDSAT) after it allowed intra-circle roaming deals for 3G
services. The Department of Telecom had issued orders in March 2013 to stop 3G
services in circles where these operators did not have spectrum. Which three
operators are these? – Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafon
§
Which famous
American bank came to news recently for miscalculating a measure of the capital
on its books which reduced its capital level by $4 billion? – Bank
of America
§
Approximately how
many investors were lost by India’s mutual fund industry during the last
financial year (2013-14)as disclosed in recently released SEBI data?
– 33 lakh
Former Indian Air Force (IAF)
chief Norman Anil Kumar Browne was appointed India’s next
Ambassador to which country? – Norway
