Padma Awards 2015

  Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President of India has approved conferment of Padma Awards to 104 persons as per the list below. The list comprises of 9 Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees.  17 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 17 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 4 Posthumous awardees.

 

Padma Vibhushan

S. No.	Name of the Awardee	Discipline	State/Domicile
1.	Shri L. K. Advani	Public Affairs	Gujarat
2.	Shri Amitabh Bachchan	Art	Maharashtra
3.	Shri Prakash Singh Badal	Public Affairs	Punjab
4.	Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade	Social Work	Karnataka
5.	Shri Mohammad Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar	Art	Maharashtra
6.	Shri Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya	Others	Uttar Pradesh
7.	Prof. Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan	Science and Engineering	Tamil Nadu
8.	Shri Kottayan K. Venugopal	Public Affairs	Delhi
9.	Shri Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (Foreigner)	Trade and Industry	France/UK

Padma Bhushan

1.	Shri Jahnu Barua	Art	Assam
2.	Dr. Vijay Bhatkar	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
3.	Shri Swapan Dasgupta	Literature and Education	Delhi
4.	Swami Satyamitranand Giri	Others	Uttar Pradesh
5.	Shri N. Gopalaswami	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu
6.	Dr. Subhash C. Kashyap	Public Affairs	Delhi
7.	Dr. (Pandit) Gokulotsavji Maharaj	Art	Madhya Pradesh
8.	Dr. Ambrish  Mithal	Medicine	Delhi
9.	Smt. Sudha Ragunathan	Art	Tamil Nadu
10.	Shri Harish Salve	Public Affairs	Delhi
11.	Dr. Ashok Seth	Medicine	Delhi
12.	Shri Rajat Sharma	Literature and Education	Delhi
13.	Shri Satpal	Sports	Delhi
14.	Shri Shivakumara Swami	Others	Karnataka
15.	Dr. Kharag Singh Valdiya	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
16.	Prof. Manjul Bhargava (NRI/PIO)	Science and Engineering	USA
17.	Shri David Frawley (Vamadeva) (Foreigner)	Others	USA
18.	Shri Bill Gates (Foreigner)	Social Work	USA
19.	Ms. Melinda Gates  (Foreigner)	Social Work	USA
20.	Shri Saichiro Misumi (Foreigner)	Others	Japan

Padma Shri

1.	Dr. Manjula Anagani	Medicine	Telangana
2.	Shri S. Arunan	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
3.	Ms. Kanyakumari Avasarala	Art	Tamil Nadu
4.	Dr. Bettina Sharada Baumer	Literature and Education	Jammu and Kashmir
5.	Shri Naresh Bedi	Art	Delhi
6.	Shri Ashok Bhagat	Social Work	Jharkhand
7.	Shri Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Art	Maharashtra
8.	Dr. Lakshmi Nandan Bora	Literature and Education	Assam
9.	Dr. Gyan  Chaturvedi	Literature and Education	Madhya Pradesh
10.	Prof. (Dr.) Yogesh Kumar Chawla	Medicine	Chandigarh
11.	Smt. Jayakumari Chikkala	Medicine	Delhi
12.	Shri Bibek Debroy	Literature and Education	Delhi
13.	Dr. Sarungbam Bimola  Kumari Devi	Medicine	Manipur
14.	Dr. Ashok Gulati	Public Affairs	Delhi
15.	Dr.  Randeep  Guleria	Medicine	Delhi
16.	Dr. K. P. Haridas	Medicine	Kerala
17.	Shri Rahul Jain	Art	Delhi
18.	Shri Ravindra Jain	Art	Maharashtra
19.	Dr. Sunil Jogi	Literature and Education	Delhi
20.	Shri Prasoon Joshi	Art	Maharashtra
21.	Dr. Prafulla Kar	Art	Odisha
22.	Ms. Saba Anjum	Sports	Chhattisgarh
23.	Smt. Ushakiran Khan	Literature and Education	Bihar
24.	Dr. Rajesh Kotecha	Medicine	Rajasthan
25.	Prof. Alka Kriplani	Medicine	Delhi
26.	Dr. Harsh Kumar	Medicine	Delhi
27.	Shri Narayana Purushothama Mallaya	Literature and Education	Kerala
28.	Shri Lambert Mascarenhas	Literature and Education	Goa
29.	Dr. (Mrs.) Janak Palta McGilligan	Social Work	Madhya Pradesh
30.	Shri Veerendra Raj Mehta	Social Work	Delhi
31.	Shri Tarak Mehta	Art	Gujarat
32.	Shri Neil Herbert Nongkynrih	Art	Meghalaya
33.	Shri Chewang Norphel	Others	Jammu and Kashmir
34.	Shri T. V. Mohandas Pai	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
35.	Dr.Tejas Patel	Medicine	Gujarat
36.	Shri Jadav Molai Peyang	Others	Assam
37.	Smt. Bimla Poddar	Other	Uttar Pradesh
38.	Dr. N. Prabhakar	Science and Engineering	Delhi
39.	Dr. Prahalada	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
40.	Dr. Narendra Prasad	Medicine	Bihar
41.	Shri Ram Bahadur Rai	Literature and Education	Delhi
42.	Ms. Mithali Raj	Sports	Telangana
43.	Shri P. V.  Rajaraman	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu
44.	Prof.  J. S. Rajput	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
45.	Shri Kota Srinivasa Rao	Art	Andhra Pradesh
46.	Prof. Bimal Roy	Literature and Education	West Bengal
47.	Shri Shekhar Sen	Art	Maharashtra
48.	Shri Gunvant Shah	Literature and Education	Gujarat
49.	Shri Brahmdev Sharma (Bhaiji)	Literature and Education	Delhi
50.	Shri Manu Sharma	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
51.	Prof. Yog Raj Sharma	Medicine	Delhi
52.	Shri Vasant Shastri	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
53.	Shri S. K. Shivkumar	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
54.	Ms. P. V. Sindhu	Sports	Telangana
55.	Shri Sardara Singh	Sports	Haryana
56.	Ms. Arunima Sinha	Sports	Uttar Pradesh
57.	Shri Mahesh Raj Soni	Art	Rajasthan
58.	Dr.Nikhil Tandon	Medicine	Delhi
59.	Shri H. Thegtse Rinpoche	Social Work	Arunachal Pradesh
60.	Dr.Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi	Medicine	Gujarat
61.	Shri Huang Baosheng (Foreigner)	Others	China
62.	Prof. Jacques Blamont (Foreigner)	Science and Engineering	France
63.	Late Shri Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin (Posthumous)	Others	Maharashtra
64.	Shri Jean-Claude Carriere (Foreigner)	Literature and Education	France
65.	Dr. Nandrajan “Raj” Chetty (NRI/PIO)	Trade and Industry	USA
66.	Shri George L. Hart (Foreigner)	Others	USA
67.	Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja (NRI/PIO)	Others	Portugal
68.	Late Shri Meetha Lal Mehta (Posthumous)	Social Work	Rajasthan
69.	Ms. Tripti Mukherjee (NRI/PIO)	Art	USA
70.	Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	USA
71.	Dr. Raghu Rama Pillarisetti (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	USA
72.	Dr. Saumitra Rawat (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	UK
73.	Prof. Annette Schmiedchen (Foreigner)	Literature and Education	Germany
74.	Late Shri Pran Kumar Sharma alias Pran (Posthumous)	Art	Delhi
75.	Late Shri R. Vasudevan (Posthumous)	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu

Appointments in India 2015

• National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) : Narendra Modi, Chairman
• Lok Sabha, Speaker : Mrs. Sumitra Mahajan

• Lok Sabha, Secretary-General : T. K. Viswanathan

• Rajya Sabha, Chairman : Mohammad Hamid Ansari
• Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairman : P. J. Kurien
• Rajya Sabha, Leader of House : Arun Jaitley
• Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition : Ghulam Nabi Azad

• Rajya Sabha, Secretary-General :Shumsher K. Sheriff

• National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) Vice-Chairman : Arvind Panagariya

• Chief Election Commissioner : Harishankar Brahma
• Election Commissioner : Syed Nasim Zaidi
• Comptroller and Auditor-General of India : Shashi Kant Sharma
• National Human Right Commission (NHRC) Chairperson: Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, 

• Cabinet Secretary : Ajit Kumar Seth 
• Principal Secretary to Prime Minister : Nripendra Misra
• National Commission for Backward Classes : Justice V. Eshwaraiah, Chairman
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) : Ms. Shanta Sinha, Chairperson
• National Commission for Scheduled Castes : Dr. P. L. Punia, Chairman
• National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) : Dr.Rameshwar Oraon, Chairman
• Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) : Deepak Gupta, Chairman
• National Commission on Farmers (NCF) : Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, Chairman
• National Security Adviser and Special Adviser to PM (Internal Security) : Ajit Kumar Doval
• National Investigation Agency (NIA) : Sharad Kumar, Director-General
• Railway Board : A. K. Mital, Chairman
• Intelligence Bureau (IB) : Syed Asif Ibrahim, Director
• Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) : Anil Kumar Sinha, Director
• Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) : Alok Joshi, Director
• National Security Guard (NSG) : Jayanto Narayan Choudhury, Director-General
• Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) : Prakash Mishra, Director-General
• Border Security Force (BSF) : Devendra Kumar Pathak, Director-General
• Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) : Arvind Ranjan, Director-General
• Railway Protection Force. (RPF) : P. K. Mehta, Director-General
• Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) : Parkash Mishra, Director-General
• Sashastra Seema Bal : B. D. Sharma, Director-General
• Indian Coast Guard : Vice-Admiral Anurag G. Thapliyal, Director-General
• Defence Intelligence Agency : Lt. Gen. Avtar Singh, Director-General
• University Grants Commission (UGC) : Prof. Ved Prakash, Chairman
• Defence Research and Development Organisation. (DRDO) : Dr. Avinash Chander, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary
• Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government : Dr. R. Chidambaram
• Space Commission and ISRO : A. S. Kiran Kumar, Chairman 
• Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Dept. of Atomic Energy : Ratan Kumar Sinha,Chairman
• National Commission for Minorities : Naseem Ahmad, Chairperson
• Staff Selection Commission (SSC) : Amitava Bhattacharya, Chairman
• Indian Council of Medical Research : Dr. Vishwa Mohan Katoch, Director-General
• India and Census Commissioner : C. Chandramouli, Registrar-General
• Law Commission : Justice D. K. Jain, Chairman
• Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) : Dr. B. N. Suresh, President
• National Forest Commission : Justice (Retd.) B. N. Kirpal, Chairman
• National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) : T. Nanda Kumar, Chairperson
• Border Roads Organisation : Lt. General AT Parnaik, Director-General
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) : Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor
• Press Council of India : Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, Chairman
• Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) : Ravindra Pisharody, Chairman
• Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) : R. K. Tewari, Chairman
• Central Board of Excise and Customs : Mrs. J.M. Shanti Sundharam, Chairman
• Competition Commission of India : Ashok Chawla
• Central Administrative Tribunal : Justice Syed Rafat Alam, Chairman
• National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) : R.S.T. Sai, CMD
• Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) : R. S. Sharma, CMD
• GAIL : B. C. Tripathi, CMD
• Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) : S. Behuria, Chairman
• Oil India Ltd : Sunil Kumar Srivastava, CMD
• Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) : Dr. Satbir Bedi, Chairperson
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) : U. K. Sinha, Chairman
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) : Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala,Chairman
• State Bank of India (SBI) : Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman 
• Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) : M. S. Raghavan, Chairman 
• Company Law Board : Justice Dilip Raosaheb Deshmukh, Chairman
• India's Permanent Representative to UN : Hardeep Singh Puri 
• Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) : S. K. Roy, Chairman
• Central Water Commission : Ashwin Pandya, Chairman 
• National Commission for Women : Ms. Lalitha Kumarmangalam, Chairperson
• 14th Finance Commission : Dr. Y. V. Reddy, Chairman
• National Statistical Commission : Dr. Pronob Sen, Chairman
• Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) : Pahlaj Nihalani, Chairperson
• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) : Dr. Rakesh Tewari, Director-General
• Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) : Dr. Jyotsna Suri, President
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) : Dr. Rahul Khullar, Chairman
• Enforcement Directorate : Dr. Rajan Katoch, Director
• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) : R. V. Verma, Chairman
• Bhabha Atomic Research Centre : Dr. Sekhar Basu, Director
• Indian Olympic Association : N. Ramachandran, President
• National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) : Prof. B.K.Tripathi, Acting Director
• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) : Ajay S. Shriram, President
• Prasar Bharti Board : Dr. A. Surya Prakash, Chairman
• Investment Commission : Ratan Tata, Chairman
• Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) : Shivlal Yadav, Interim President
• NASSCOM : R. Chandrasekaran, Chairman
• National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) : Ramesh Sippy, Chairman
• United News of India : Ravindra Kumar, Chairman
• Press Trust of India (PTI) : Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman
• Indian Newspaper Society (INS) : Kiran B. Vadodaria, President
• The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) : Rana Kapoor,President

GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR ALL BANK EXAMS

1. Which of the following has been replaced by NITI Aayog?
1) Finance Commission
2) National Innovation Council
3) Union Public Service Commission
4) Planning Commission
5) National Integration Council

2. Ahmet Davutoglu is the Prime Minister of which of the following countries?
1) Iran 
2) Turkey
3) Syria 
4) Lebanon
5) Yemen

3. What is the present repo rate?
1) 8 per cent 
2) 7.5 per cent
3) 7.75 per cent
4) 8.5 per cent 
5) None

4. Who holds the record for the fastest one day international cricket century?
1) Corey Anderson
2) Shahid Afridi
3) AB de Villiers
4) Brian Lara 
5) Rohit Sharma

5. Which committee recommended the segregation of Chairman and Managing Director posts in public sector banks?
1) Parthasarathi Shome
2) Arvind Mayaram
3) Raghuram Rajan
4) C. Rangarajan 
5) P.J. Nayak

6. Avinash Chander has been sacked as the Chief of?
1) CRPF 
2) ISRO
3) DRDO 
4) RAW
5) CISF

7. The 2014 Nobel Literature Prize winner is from?
1) Germany 
2) France
3) USA 
4) Japan
5) Norway

8. Ryder Cup is associated with?
1) Tennis 
2) Squash
3) Motor Racing
4) Golf 
5) Boxing

9. Space Application Centre is located in?
1) Ahmadabad 
2) Bangalore
3) Chennai 
4) Mumbai
5) Sriharikota

10. What is the present Cash Reserve Ratio?
1) 3.5% 
2) 3% 
3) 4%
4) 4.5% 
5) None of these

11. Who has been appointed the Governor of Haryana recently?
1) K.N. Tripathi
2) Ch. Vidyasagar Rao
3) K. Rosaiah
4) Kaptan Singh Solanki
5) Aziz Qureshi

12. Who is the present Solicitor General of India?
1) Mukul Rohatgi
2) Ranjit Kumar
3) Rohinton Nariman
4) Ram Jethmalani
5) None of these

13. World Development Information Day is celebrated on?
1) October 24 
2) October 16
3) October 14 
4) October 8
5) October 15

14. Who was awarded the top Danish literary prize, the Hans Christian Anderson Award in August 2014?
1) V.S. Naipaul
2) Salman Rushdie
3) Jeet Thayil
4) Amitav Ghosh
5) Anita Desai

15. Who is the present Chief Executive Officer of Google?
1) Eric Schmidt 
2) Sergey Brin
3) Larry Page
4) Marissa Mayer
5) Mark Zuckerberg

16. Which city will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games?
1) Melbourne 
2) Hamilton
3) London 
4) Glasgow
5) Gold Coast

17. In the 17th Asian Games who among the following won a gold medal in Discus Throw?
1) Mary Kom
2) Saketh Myneni
3) Seema Punia
4) Jitu Rai 
5) None of these

18. Which of the following cities is known as 'White City'?
1) Damascus 
2) Chicago
3) Bangalore 
4) Belgrade
5) Washington D.C.

19. Who is the author of the book "The Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer"?
1) Cyrus Mistry
2) Kiran Desai
3) Arundhati Roy
4) Aravind Adiga
5) Jhumpa Lahiri

20. Who won the 2014 US Open tennis men's singles title?
1) Kei Nishikori
2) Novak Djokovic
3) Marin Cilic
4) Rafael Nadal
5) Roger Federer

21. Which of the following is not a public sector bank?
1) Bank of Baroda
2) Bank of Maharashtra
3) Bank of India
4) Dena Bank
5) Karur Vysya Bank

22. Who is the present Chairman of Forward Markets Commission?
1) UK Sinha
2) Rahul Khullar
3) Ranjit Sinha
4) Ramesh Abhishek
5) Yogesh Agarwal

23. Where is the headquarters of European Union?
1) London 
2) Lyon
3) Brussels 
4) Paris
5) Vienna

24. Who among the following functioned as RBI Governor?
1) Bimal Jalan
2) C. Rangarajan
3) Yashwant Sinha
4) Both 1 and 2
5) All 1, 2 and 3

25. Who was appointed by the International Cricket Council as Ambassador for the 2015 World
Cup?
1) Ricky Ponting
2) Shane Warne
3) Adam Gilchrist
4) Saurav Ganguly
5) Sachin Tendulkar

26. Joko Widodo is the current President of?
1) Malaysia 
2) Cuba
3) Indonesia 
4) Fiji
5) Thailand

27. Who is the author of the book "The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years"?
1) Pranab Mukherjee
2) Sonia Gandhi
3) Natwar Singh
4) Manmohan Singh
5) Pratibha Patil

28. Eduard Shevardnadze passed away recently. He was the President of?
1) Russia 
2) Ukraine
3) Georgia 
4) Kazakhstan
5) Tajikistan

29. Who is the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog?
1) Narendra Modi
2) V.K. Saraswat
3) Arun Jaitley
4) Arvind Panagariya
5) Rajnath Singh

30. Payment banks can be set up with a minimum capital of?
1) Rs. 100 crore 
2) Rs. 50 crore
3) Rs. 500 crore
4) Rs. 200 crore
5) Rs. 1000 crore

31. Which country will host the IBSA Summit in 2015?
1) Brazil 
2) South Africa
3) India 
4) Singapore
5) None of these

32. Nadine Gordimer passed away recently. She was a Nobel Prize winning author from?
1) Israel 
2) South Africa
3) Germany 
4) Poland
5) Portugal

33. Which is the first Indian company to cross the Rs. 5 lakh crore mark in market capitalization?
1) Infosys 
2) Wipro
3) Tata Consultancy Services
4) Tech Mahindra
5) None of these

34. Who won the 2014 Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award?
1) Amjad Ali Khan
2) Gulzar 
3) Salim Khan
4) Muzaffar Ali 
5) Javed Akhtar

35. Which is the first country to legalize child labor, reducing the minimum age of employment
from 14 years to just 10?
1) Uzbekistan 
2) Iraq
3) Belgium 
4) Netherlands
5) Bolivia

36. The Human Development Index is calculated by?
1) UNDP 
2) ILO
3) UNICEF 
4) UNESCO
5) World Bank

37. Which is the best performing State in terms of gross state domestic product (GSDP) and per
capita income growth, as per the 2013-14 Economic Survey?
1) Bihar 
2) Gujarat
3) Tamil Nadu
4) Uttar Pradesh
5) West Bengal

38. The first bullet train will be run between Mumbai and?
1) New Delhi 
2) Bangalore
3) Jaipur 
4) Ahmadabad
5) Chennai

39. Ebola virus affected which of the following countries severely?
1) Guinea 
2) Liberia
3) Sierra Leone 
4) Both 1 and 2
5) All 1, 2 and 3

40. India's GDP grew at what percent in the first quarter of 2014-15?
1) 4.6% 
2) 5.4% 
3) 5.3%
4) 5.7% 
5) 5.9%


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

Current Affairs 2014 at a glance

● Two Indian Americans Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe became the co-champions of the
Scripps National Spelling Bee contest held in USA.

● The Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) headed by Parthasarathi Shome suggested
abolition of the post of Revenue Secretary and merger of CBDT and CBEC.

● The 40th G7 Summit was held in Brussels, Belgium in June 2014. This Summit was held without Russia.

● Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari visited China to celebrate the 60th anniversary of signing of the Panchsheel in June 2014.

● Indian-origin V.K. Rajah was appointed the Attorney-General of Singapore.

● General Dalbir Singh Suhag succeeded General Bikram Singh as the 26th Chief of Indian Army on July 31, 2014. Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha took over as the Chairman of the
Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) on July 30, 2014.

● Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) became a Member
of the United Nations Board of Auditors for a term of six years.

● The President appointed new Governors for six States in July 2014. They are: Kaptan Singh
Solanki - Haryana, Balramji Das Tandon- Chhaatisgarh, Keshari Nath Tripath- West Bengal, Ram
Naik- Uttar Pradesh, Padmanabha Acharya - Nagaland and Om Prakash Kohli - Gujarat.

● S.S. Mundra is the fourth Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He will have tenure of 3 years.

● Former External Affairs Minister and a senior Congress Party leader K.Natwar Singh released his
autobiography 'One Life is Not Enough'.

● Out of 187 countries, India is ranked 135th in the 2014 UNDP Human Development Index. Norway is the topper

● Germany won the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It beat Argentina in the final played at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 13, 2014. It is Germany's 4th World Cup Football title.

● Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland in Wimbledon men's singles tennis final. In the Wimbledon women's singles final Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic beat Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.

● The 6th BRICS Summit was held in July 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. The leaders signed a document to create the $100 billion New Development Bank. Its headquarters will be in Shanghai, China and the first President will be from India for a six year term. It is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first Summit.

● Sadananda Gowda presented the Railway Budget on July 8, 2014. Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley tabled the Economic Survey 2013-14 in Parliament on July 9, 2014 and presented his maiden Budget on July 10, 2014.

● Harry Potter fame actress Emma Watson was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by UN Women. Tennis player Sania Mirza is the brand ambassador for Telangana State.

● Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the new President of Turkey and Ahmet Davutoglu is the new Prime Minister of Turkey.

● General Prayuth Chan-ocha took over as the Prime Minister of Thailand in August 2014.

● In August 2014 four more States got new Governors. Rajasthan - Kalyan Singh, Maharashtra - Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, Karnataka- Vajubhai Vala and Goa- Mridula
Sinha.

● Congress leader K.V. Thomas is the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament.

● Former Chief Justice of India Justice P. Sathasivam was appointed the Governor of Kerala in September 2014.

● Daman Singh, the daughter of the former Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, has written a book "Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan".

● Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on August 28, 2014. The aim of the scheme is the financial inclusion of all Indians.

● Manjul Bhargava, a mathematician of Indian origin won the Field Medal. He was conferred
the award at the International Congress of Mathematicians held
in Seoul, South Korea in August.

● Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan was appointed the Chairman of the Expenditure Management Commission.

● Jaipur Pink Panthers beat U Mumba to emerge champion of the inaugural STAR ProKabaddi League in Mumbai on August 31.

● The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics were held from August 16 to 28, 2014 in Nanjing, China.
China topped the medals tally with 65 medals, including 38 Gold. India got two medals. Weightlifter Ragala Venkata Rahul bagged a silver medal and Atul Verma won a bronze in Archery.

● Shah Rukh Khan was appointed the ambassador of 'Turn Back Crime' campaign of Interpol. Amitabh Bachchan is Maharashtra's horticulture ambassador.

● India and Australia signed a civil nuclear agreement on September 5, 2014. The deal was signed during the visit of the Australian
Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

● The 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games was held from July 23 to August 3, 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland. England topped the medal chart with 174 medals. India bagged 64 medals
and finished fifth.

● Marin Cilic of Croatia defeated Kei Nishikori of Japan to win the 2014 US Open men's singles tennis title. Serena Williams of USA won women's singles title beating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the final. The mixed doubles title was won by India's Sania Mirza and Brazil's Bruno Soares.

● The 17th Asian Games were held in Incheon, South Korea from September 19 to October 4, 2014. China topped the medals tally with 342 medals. India won 57 medals and took the 8th position.

● Chennai Super Kings won the Champions League T20 title, defeating Kolkata Knight Riders
in the final in Bangalore on October 4, 2014.

● Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on the birth anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi on October 2, 2014. The Mission aims to make India clean by October 2, 2019, Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.

● Ancient Nalanda University was inaugurated after 800 years on September 19, 2014 by External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Bihar. The Chancellor is Amartya Sen and the Vice Chancellor is Gopa Sabharwal.

● The Union Government launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for urban and rural poor on September 25, 2014.

● The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit was held in Wales, UK on September 4-5, 2014.

● Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new President of Afghanistan on September 29, 2014.

● John Key was re-elected the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

● O.Pannerselvam became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu succeeding Jayalalithaa.

● Justice H.L. Dattu became the 42nd Chief Justice of India on September 28, 2014.

● Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award 2014 was presented to A. Sivathanu Pillai, an eminent missile scientist.

● October 31 was celebrated as National Unity Day. It is the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Home Minister.

● Devendra Fadnavis became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Manohar Lal Khattar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Haryana in October 2014. Both are from BJP. Laxmikant Parsekar of BJP is the new Goa Chief Minister.

● India was reelected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the period of 2015 to 2017.

● Dilma Rousseff was re-elected for her second four-year term as the President of Brazil.

● Australian author Richard Flanagan won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel "The Narrow Road to the Deep North".

● Pakistani girls' rights activist Malala Yousafzai shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with India's Kailash Satyarthi. She also won the World's Children's Prize given by Sweden and America's Liberty Medal.

● Former Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg became the 13th Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on October 1, 2014.

● Arvind Subramanian is the new Chief Economic Adviser and Rajiv Mehrishi is the new Finance Secretary of India.

● Indian Prime Minister attended the 9th G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia in November 2014.

● The 18th SAARC Summit was held in November 2014 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

● Anil Kumar Sinha is the new Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Rajinder
Khanna is the new Chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Prakash Mishra is the
new Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

● The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2014 is given to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

● Rolene Strauss of South Africa was crowned Miss World 2014 in London on December 14, 2014.

GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE MCQs FOR ALL BANK EXAMS

1. On 15 January 2015, RBI permitted banks...
1) to set up insurance joint ventures on risk participation basis.
2) to set up insurance joint ventures on partial- risk participation basis.
3) to set up insurance joint ventures on 60% risk participation basis.
4) to set up insurance joint ventures on 50 : 50 risk participation basis.
5) None of above

2. RBI allowed banks to undertake insurance business as agents of insurance companies...
1) on fee basis with any risk participation by banks and their subsidiaries.
2) on no fee basis without any risk participation by banks and their subsidiaries.
3) on fee basis without any risk participation by banks and their subsidiaries.
4) on free basis services without any risk participation by banks and their subsidiaries.
5) None of above

3. As per government of India order, Insurance is a permissible business under Section 6(1)(o) of .....
1) Banking Regulation Act 1949
2) RBI Act 1934
3) Banking Regulation Act 1959
4) FEMA 1999
5) None of above

4. If the Banks want to set up a subsidiary/ JV for undertaking insurance business with risk participation, net worth of the bank should not be less than ..........
1) Rs.100 crores
2) Rs.500 crores
3) Rs.10 crores
4) Rs.1000 crores
5) None

5. Level of net non-performing assets should be not more than ..... if the Banks want to set up a subsidiary/ JV for undertaking insurance business with risk participation as per RBI.
1) 10%
2) 3 %
3) 4%
4) 5%
5) 1%

6. Banks undertaking insurance broking/ corporate agency through a subsidiary/ JV need RBI approval. Then those banks CRAR must not be less than .......
1) 9%
2) 10%
3) 11.5%
4) 8%
5) None

7. CRAR stands for .....
1) Capital to Risk (Weighted) Average Ratio
2) Core to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio
3) Capital to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio
4) Capital to Roll (Weighted) Assets Ratio
5) None

8. Who is the regulator of insurance business in India?
1) SEBI
2) CCI
3) IRDAI
4) PFRDA
5) All of above

9. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has been renamed as...
1) BRDA
2) IRRDA
3) IDA
4) IRDAI
5) None

10. IRDAI stands for ......
1) Insurance Rules Development Authority of India
2) Insurance Regulatory Donor Authority of India
3) Insurance Register Development Authority of India
4) Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India
5) None

11. IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) earmarked .... as Insurance day , on which day it came into existence in the year 2000.
1) 8 Jan
2) 15 Apr
3) 20 May
4) 19 Apr
5) None

12. IRDAI headed by ......
1) Hemant Contractor
2) U.K.Sinha
3) Rahul Khullar
4) T.S.Vijayan
5) Ashok Chawla

13. Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) covering death and disability insurance for the benefit of rural landless households in the country. The scheme implemented through ......
1) LIC
2) SBI Life
3) Edelweiss Tokio Life
4) Exide Life
5) Future Generali

14. On 13 January 2015, which bank declared to set up another 50 econnect outlets by 31 March 2015?
1) SBI
2) Corporation bank
3) SBM
4) SBT
5) SBH

15. Jifi Saver, a savings account managed via Twitter and Facebook launched on 13 Jan 2015 by....
1) ICICI
2) HDFC
3) Yes Bank
4) TMB
5) Kotak Mahindra bank

16. For optimum utilization of Sports Authority of India's sports facilities in Delhi and across the country, which scheme was introduced?
1) come and play
2) go and play
3) try and win
4) see and goal
5) ball and bat

17. Gram Santhosh Rural Postal Life Insurance Scheme introduced by .....
1) LIC
2) India Post
3) Bajaj Allianz
4) Reliance Insurance
5) None

18. To provide separate, specialized and comprehensive health care to the senior citizens, NPHCE was introduced. NPHCE means.....
1) National Promotion for Health Care of the Elderly
2) National Programme for Health Code of the Elderly
3) Nodal Programme for Health Care of the Elderly
4) National Programme for Hospital Care of the Elderly
5) National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly

19. Kishori Shakti Yojana (KSY) introduced to empower .......... so as to enable them to take charge of their lives.
1) adolescent girls
2) women
3) widows
4) employee women
5) aged women

20. PFDF scheme introduced by central government to provide credit enhancement to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to access market borrowings based on their credit worthiness. PFDF stands for ........
1) Pooled Finance Development Fund
2) Power Finance Development Fund
3) Pooled Fund Development Fund
4) Pooled Finance Dearness Fund
5) None

21. 19th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India is ......
1) H.S.Brahma
2) Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi
3) V.S. Sampath
4) J.M. Lyngdoh
5) None of above

22. EVM stands for ........
1) Electric Voting Machine
2) Electronic Voting Module
3) Electronic Voting Memory
4) Election Voting Machine
5) Electronic Voting Machine

23. NOTA button in EVM stands for ........
1) Notice Of The Above
2) None Of The Area
3) Nine Of The Above
4) None Of The Above
5) Nice Of The Above

24. Maithripala Sirisena became the president of .....
1) Bhutan
2) Afghanistan
3) Sri Lanka
4) Myanmar
5) Bangladesh

25. Which of the following nation has Rupee as currency?
1) Bhutan
2) Afghanistan
3) Sri Lanka
4) Myanmar
5) Bangladesh

26. The new Chairman of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is .......
1) R.K. Srivastva
2) B. Prasad Rao
3) Sutirtha Bhattacharya
4) P. Sudha Kumar
5) AS Kiran Kumar

27. Which of the following is wrongly matched?
1) Kaziranga National Park - Assam
2) Khangchendzonga National Park - Sikkim
3) Murlen National Park - Meghalaya
4) Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary National Park - Arunachal Pradesh
5) Hemis National Park - Jammu and Kashmir

28. ''Youth for Clean, Green and Progressive India'' is the theme of 19th National Youth Festival concluded in .......
1) Belur
2) Raipur
3) Chicago
4) Mylapore
5) Guwahati

29. Which state has fixed minimum educational qualifications for contesting polls for local elections on 22 December 2014?
1) Goa
2) Bihar
3) Rajasthan
4) Gujarat
5) AP

30. 7th Vibrant Gujarat summit held in .....
1) Ahmedabad
2) Gandhi Nagar
3) Vadodara
4) Somnath
5) Porbandar

31. 11 countries have participated in first Buddha Heritage Walk concluded in....
1) Bihar
2) UP
3) Rajasthan
4) Delhi
5) Telangana

32. On the eve of 13th edition of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas and 7th edition of Vibrant Gujarat, P.M has inaugurated the Dandi Kutir Museum in.......
1) New Delhi
2) Ahmedabad
3) Dandi
4) Porbandar
5) Gandhi Nagar

33. Dandi Satyagraha also called Salt Satyagraha conducted by Gandhi to protest the tax regime of British India. The Dandi march held in ......
1) 1942
2) 1915
3) 1920
4) 1930
5) 1947

34. India's first district with 100% rural broadband connectivity is ......
1) Kancheepuram (Tamilnadu)
2) Thane (Maharashtra)
3) Krishna (AP)
4) Idukki (Kerala)
5) Medak (Telangana)

35. On 5 January 2015, PM Modi launched 'Prakash Path'. It is a ......
1) Urban Housing Mission
2) Digital India Project
3) Primary Education Initiative
4) Clean India Programme
5) National energy conservation movement

36. International Exchange in Gujarat's GIFT city (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) to be established by .....
1) KSE
2) MSE
3) NSE
4) BSE
5) None

37. Army day observed on....
1) 15 January
2) 4 Dec
3) 8 Oct
4) 15 August
5) 26 January

38. Bezbaruah Committee had given recommendations on .....
1) to examine the constitution of SIT on 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
2) to look into the concerns of the people of North East living in the other parts of the country.
3) to interact with trade and industry on taxrelated issues on a regular basis.
4) government advertisements
5) giving the recognition to deemed universities on regular basis.

39. Who has been conferred with the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award, for his contribution to society as a Gujarati?
1) Arun Jaitley
2) Arvind Panagariya
3) Meghnad Desai
4) Amartya Sen
5) None

40. On 4 January which neighbouring nation of India celebrates Independence day every year?
1) Sri Lanka
2) Bangladesh
3) Maldives
4) Pakistan
5) Myanmar

41. Singapore-bound Flight QZ8501, which crashed into Java Sea on 28 Dec 2014 after taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia, belongs to ......
1) Cathay Pacific
2) Lufthansa
3) Air India
4) Air Asia
5) Garuda

42. As the no party/parties unable to form the new government in Jammu and Kashmir, the president rule was imposed under....
1) Article 356
2) Article 352
3) Article 360
4) Article 19
5) Article 21

43. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir is ......
1) Krishan Kant Paul
2) N.N.Vohra
3) Urmila Singh
4) Kaptan Singh Solanki
5) Najeeb Jung


44.  Winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir is ....
1) Srinagar
2) Ladakh
3) Jammu
4) Anantnag
5) Leh


ANSWERS:
1-1, 2-3, 3-1, 4-4, 5-2, 6-2, 7-3, 8-3, 9-4, 10-4
11-4, 12-4, 13-1, 14-5, 15-5, 16-1, 17-2, 18-5, 19-1, 20-1
21-1, 22-5, 23-4, 24-3, 25-3, 26-5, 27-3, 28-5, 29-3, 30-2
31-1, 32-5, 33-4, 34-4, 35-5, 36-4, 37-1, 38-2, 39-3, 40-5,
41-4, 42-1, 43. 2, 44. 3

GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR ALL BANK EXAMS

1. Which of the following organization / agencies is specifically set up to boost overall rural
development in India?
1) RBI
2) SIDBI
3) NABARD
4) SEBI
5) EXIM

2. Which of the following states has expressed its unhappiness over the agreement on sharing of Teesta water between India and Bangladesh?
1) Jharkhand
2) Assam
3) Manipur
4) Bihar
5) West Bengal

3. Banks in India are regulated under .........
1) Companies Act, 1956
2) Banking Regulation Act, 1949
3) Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934
4) Special powers conferred on the RBI
5) None of these

4. Which of the following countries is a major producer of Jute?
1) Pakistan
2) Afghanistan
3) South Africa
4) Bangladesh
5) Sri Lanka

5. Compilation of data on industrial production in India is done by which of the following
agencies / organizations?
1) National Testing Lab
2) Reserve Bank of India
3) Census Commission of India
4) Planning Commission of India
5) Central Statistics Office

6. Which among the following US states has become the first to legalise selling of Marijuana?
1) Colorado
2) California
3) Illinois
4) Washington
5) None of these

7. India is providing financial help to which of the following countries for building a large harbour there named as Kankasanthuraj Harbour?
1) Nepal
2) Myanmar
3) Bangladesh
4) Sri Lanka
5) Vietnam

8. A Savings Bank Account opened with a commercial bank with zero balance or very minimal
balance is known as .............
1) Savings Bank Ordinary Account
2) Student Savings Bank Account
3) No Frill Account
4) Current Account
5) Call Deposit

9. What does the letter 'R' denote in the abbreviation 'BR Act' which controls banking activities
in the country?
1) Reformation
2) Regulation
3) Reporting
4) Resolution
5) Ranking

10. 'Base Rate' in banks is ..........
1) Rate of interest payable on demand deposits.
2) Rate of interest payable on fixed deposits.
3) Rate of interest charged by RBI on long term borrowings of Public Sector Banks.
4) Minimum lending rate decided by RBI which shall be adopted by all Public Sector Banks.
5) The minimum interest rate fixed by individual banks, below which they cannot lend funds, except cases like Government sponsored scheme.

11. Banking sector will fall under which of the following?
1) Agricultural Sector
2) Service Sector
3) Manufacturing Sector
4) Industrial Sector
5) Small Scale Sector

12. The Government of India has recently added the following currency for allowing Indian companies to raise debts through External Commercial Borrowings.
1) EURO
2) Dinar
3) Great Britain Pound
4) Chinese Yuan
5) Japanese Yen

13. A Saving Bank Deposit Account is one where .............
1) the deposits are made only once in a year.
2) amounts are deposited and are withdrawn as per requirement of the customers.
3) periodical Fixed Amount are deposited month wise and withdrawal are followed after a fixed period.
4) the deposits are made once in every month.
5) None of these

14. ASBA scheme is related to purchase of ......
1) IPO
2) CP
3) CD
4) TCs
5) None

15. Who among the following is the Ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha at present?
1) Mrs. Pratibha Patil
2) Mohammad Hamid Ansari
3) Dr. Manmohan Singh
4) Ms. Meira Kumar
5) L. K. Advani

16. Which one of the following countries has become the 18th Euro-area member to adopt Euro currency, recently?
1) Switzerland
2) Lat via
3) Sweden
4) Romania
5) None of these

17. Mobile banking requires .........
1) Account with a bank with mobile phone linked to interbank mobile payment.
2) Account with mobile post office.
3) Account with bank along with mobile phone linked to international mobile payment service.
4) Account with bank and mobile phone linked to interstate mobile payment service.
5) Account with bank along with mobile phone linked to inter-district mobile payment service.

18. Saina Nehwal is a famous player associated with the game of .........
1) Hockey
2) Badminton
3) Golf
4) Lawn Tennis
5) Table Tennis

19. Who among the following is the Prime Minister of Japan at present?
1) Mr. Yoshihiko Noda
2) Mr. Naoto Kan
3) Mr. Abe Shinzo
4) Mr. Yasuo Fukuda
5) None of these

20. Central Drug Research Institute is located in which of the following cities in India?
1) Jamshedpur
2) New Delhi
3) Jaipur
4) Lucknow
5) Dhanbad

21. Which of the following books is written by the Classic Russian author Maxim Gorky ?
1) As You Like It
2) Lolita
3) The Mother
4) War and Peace
5) Alice on Wonderland

22. Summer Olympic of 2016 will be organized in a city in ............
1) China
2) India
3) Brazil
4) Russia
5) South Africa

23. Which of the following terms is NOT used in the game of hockey?
1) Bully
2) Follow-on
3) Penalty corner
4) Centre pass
5) Scoop

24. If a bank of following are the usual types of deposit accounts .........
1) Savings accounts, electricity accounts and insurance premium accounts
2) Fixed deposits, Post office savings bank accounts and current deposit accounts
3) Current accounts, savings bank accounts and term deposit accounts
4) Loan accounts, savings bank accounts and term deposit accounts
5) Current bill accounts and term deposit accounts

25. When a bank dishonours a cheque ..........
1) it is called settlement of the cheque
2) it is called withdrawing of the cheque
3) it is called nullifying of the cheque
4) it is called truncating of the cheque
5) it is called return of the cheque unpaid

26. Corey Anderson, who hit the fastest century in one-day international history recently, belongs to which country?
1) Australia
2) New Zealand
3) England
4) South Africa
5) None

27. With which one of the following, the Election Commission of India tie up for online voters registration?
1) Facebook
2) Yahoo
3) Google
4) Twitter
5) None of these

28. Who among the following is the new Air Force Chief of India?
1) Arup Raha
2) Vivek Tyagi
3) Arun Singh
4) Kishore Chandra
5) None of these

29. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has received the highest number of complaints related to child abuse in school from the state of ..........
1) Karnataka
2) Tamilnadu
3) Assam
4) Delhi
5) Andhra Pradesh

30. World's top three biggest coffee exporting countries are ...........
1) Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam
2) Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia
3) Brazil, Vietnam and Indonesia
4) Indonesia, Vietnam and Brazil
5) None

31. Which among the following states has launched free CFL bulbs scheme for hut dwellers?
1) Tamilnadu
2) West Bengal
3) Manipur
4) Haryana
5) None

32. What is the name of cyclone which is recently battered west coast of Australia?
1) Hemp
2) Christine
3) Lava
4) Pristine
5) None of these

33. Which of the following countries has recently assumed the coveted chair of the ASEAN?
1) Myanmar
2) Indonesia
3) Cambodia
4) Philippines
5) None

34. According to latest study, which Indian city is expected to witness the highest demand for office space in the Asia during 2014?
1) New Delhi
2) Mumbai
3) Bangalore
4) Chennai
5) None of these

35. Who among the following has won Men's Chennai Open Tennis Trophy 2014?
1) Somdev Burman
2) Roger Vasselin
3) Stanislas Wawrika
4) David Federer
5) None of these

36. Losar festival is the most important festival celebrated in ............
1) Ladakh
2) Leh
3) Shimla
4) Srinagar
5) None of these

37. Recently, which among the following has announced to launch of an All Women Insurance branch?
1) Bajaj Allianz
2) Tata AIG General
3) ICICI Lombard
4) Reliance General
5) None of these

38. In which one of the following states, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has decide to setup world's largest corporate learning and development centre?
1) Kerala
2) Punjab
3) Maharashtra
4) Karnataka
5) None of these

39. Who among the following has been chosen for Portugal highest honour "Order of Prince Henry"?
1) Cost a Ricardo
2) Lopes Anthony
3) Alves Bruno
4) Cristiano Ronaldo
5) None of these

40. Who among the following led the team who have identified liver cancer genes?
1) Steven Robertson
2) The Bin Tean
3) Zoe Hellman
4) Matilda Ceesay
5) None of these

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

Current Affairs 2014 at a glance

❖ Narendra Damodardas Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014.
The swearing in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan was attended by the heads/ representatives of eight SAARC nations. Along with Modi 44 Ministers also took oath.

❖ The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the first party in 30 years to win a majority on its
own in the Lok Sabha. In the 16th Lok Sabha elections it won 282 seats. Indian National Congress won 44 seats.

❖ Anandiben Patel became the first woman Chief Minister of Gujarat in May 2014. Sikkim Democratic Front leader Pawan Chamling was sworn in as the CM of Sikkim for a record fifth consecutive term. Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik was sworn in as the CM of Odisha for the fourth consecutive term. Congress leader Nabam Tuki became the CM of Arunachal Pradesh for the second consecutive time.

❖ Jitan Ram Manjhi succeeded Nitish Kumar as the new CM of Bihar. TR Zeliang succeeded Neiphiu Rio as the CM of Nagaland.

❖ 13 - year-old Malavath Purna became the youngest female climber to scale the Mount Everest on May 25, 2014.

❖ Dalia Grybauskaite was re-elected as the President of Lithuania in May 2014. She is the first female President of Lithuania.

❖ Salvador Sanchez Ceren took office as the President of El Salvador on June 1, 2014. Luis Guillermo Solis became the President of Costa Rica on May 8, 2014. Juan Carlos Varela assumed office as the President of Panama on July 1, 2014.

❖ Peter Mutharika assumed office as the President of Malawi on May 31, 2014.

❖ Major General Kristin Lund of Norway is the first-ever woman to serve as the head of a UN peacekeeping operation.

❖ Nripendra Mishra was appointed as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is
the former Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

❖ Former United States Secretary of the State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her book 'Hard Choices'.

❖ 'RuPay', India's own card payment network, was launched by the President Pranab Mukherjee. It was developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). The RuPay card is accepted at all ATMs.

❖ Justice B. S. Chauhan was appointed the Chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

❖ Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) has been included in the second schedule to the RBI Act, 1934.
Now BMB becomes eligible for loans from RBI on bank rate.

❖ RBI made it mandatory for banks to install talking ATMs with Braille keypads from July 2014
onwards. It is for the benefit of persons with disabilities.

❖ P.J. Nayak Committee appointed by the RBI recommended the reduction of government stake in public sector banks to less than 50 percent.

❖ Japan won the Thomas Cup men's badminton title for the first time. Japan defeated Malaysia in the final in New Delhi in May 2014. China won the Uber Cup women's badminton title for the
13th time by defeating Japan in the final in New Delhi. India won a bronze medal for the first time in Uber Cup.

❖ Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the Indian Premier League- 7 title by defeating Kings XI Punjab at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on June 1, 2014. It is KKR's second IPL trophy.

❖ Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrasekar Rao was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, the 29th State of India, on June 2, 2014. Telugu Desham Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu took over as the first Chief Minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh on June 8, 2014.

❖ The Supreme Court appointed Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee to probe the 2013 IPL spot fixing allegations.

❖ Manuel Santos won the Presidential elections of Colombia for the second time in June 2014.

❖ Reuven Rivlin succeeded Shimon Peres as the new President of Israel in June 2014.

❖ Former army chief Abdel Fattah el Sisi was sworn in as the President of Egypt in June 2014.

❖ Mukul Rohatgi was appointed the Attorney General of India in June 2014. Ranjit Kumar is the new Solicitor General.

❖ N. Srinivasan is the first Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

❖ Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as the President of Ukraine.

❖ Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won a third term in office in June 2014.

❖ Sumitra Mahajan became the Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha in June 2014. She represents Indore Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh.

❖ Former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval was appointed the National Security Adviser (NSA). He is the first police officer to be decorated with Kirti Chakra, a gallantry award given during peacetime.

❖ Kedarnath Singh was chosen for the prestigious Jnanpith award for 2013. He is the 10th Hindi writer to receive the honor and is the 49th recipient of Jnanpith award.

❖ The 2013 Moortidevi award was given to Malayalam writer C. Radhakrishnan. He is a scientist
turned writer.

❖ France announced to honor Shah Rukh Khan with Officer of the Legion of Honour for his contribution to cinema.

❖ Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland is the first recipient of the Tang Prize
for sustainable development. She is the former Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

❖ India-born plant scientist Sanjay Rajaram was chosen for the World Food Prize for 2014. He is a renowned wheat scientist.

❖ Irish author Eimear McBride won the 2014 Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction for her debut
novel 'A Girl is a Half-formed Thing'. This prize was earlier known as Orange Prize.

❖ The autobiography of Hindi actor Dilip Kumar 'The Substance and The Shadow' was launched.

❖ The supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was test-fired. It is an Indo-Russian missile with a range of 290 km.

❖ Okavango Delta in Botswana became the 1000th site to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site List.

❖ Rani-ki-Vav, an 11th century stepwell in the Patan area of Gujarat and the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Himachal Pradesh were accorded the UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

❖ The government has accepted the report of Arvind Mayaram Committee on rationalizing definitions of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

❖ Salman Rushdie, the India born UK author was named the winner of 2014 Pen Pinter Prize.

❖ Saina Nehwal won the Australian Open Super Series badminton title defeating Spain's Carolina Marin.

❖ Magnus Carlsen of Norway won the World Rapid Chess Championship and also the World Blitz
Chess Championship, both in Dubai in June 2014.

❖ Australia retained the men's Hockey World Cup title by outplaying Netherlands in the final in
The Hague, Netherlands in June 2014. Netherlands defeated Australia to win the women's title.

❖ Rafael Nadal of Spain clinched the 2014 French Open tennis men's singles title beating Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the final. It is Nadal's 9th French open title. Maria Sharapova of Russia won
her second French Open women's singles title by defeating Simona Halep of Romania.

❖ Two Indian Americans Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe became the co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest held in USA.

Current Affairs 2014 at a glance

❖ Latvia adopted the Euro currency on January 1, 2014 and became the 18th member of the Eurozone.

❖ Corey Anderson of New Zealand scored the fastest century in One Day International cricket history on January 1, 2014. He scored a hundred in just 36 deliveries against the West Indies. He beat the previous record of 100 off 37 balls set by Shahid Afridi of Pakistan in 1996.

❖ Sheikh Hasina was sworn in on January 12, 2014 for the third time as Bangladesh's Prime Minister. Her party is Awami League.

❖ India's first monorail service was started in Mumbai on February 2, 2014.

❖ Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and eminent scientist CNR Rao were conferred the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India on February 4, 2014. The award was announced on November 16, 2013.

❖ Harish Rawat was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on February 1, 2014.

❖ 'Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer' is a book written by Cyrus Mistry, which won the DSC Prize for
South Asian Literature at the Jaipur Literary Festival 2014. This award in 2013 was won by Jeet Thayil for his novel 'Narcopolis'.

❖ Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Spain's Rafael Nadal to win the 2014 Australian Open men's singles tennis title. Li Na of China won the women's singles title by defeating Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.

❖ The prestigious Padma Awards for 2014 were announced which includes Padma Vibhushan for two individuals, Padma Bhushan for 24 and Padma Shri for 101 people. Out of 127 awardees 27 are women. Padma Vibhushan awardees are Raghunath Mashelkar (Science & Engineering) and yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar.

❖ Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese Prime Minister to be the chief guest at India's 65th Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2014.

❖ Janet Yellen is the first woman ever to head the United States central bank Federal Reserve.

❖ Sub-Inspector K. Prasad Babu was conferred the Ashok Chakra posthumously on the 65th Republic Day by the President Pranab Mukherjee. K. Prasad Babu was from Andhra Pradesh. He was given this award for an anti-Maoist operation near Andhra Pradesh- Chhattisgarh border. Ashok Chakra is India's highest peacetime gallantry award.

❖ Matteo Renzi became the youngest Italian Prime Minister in February 2014. He is 39 years old.

❖ Sushil Koirala assumed office as the Prime Minister of Nepal on February 11, 2014. He is also the President of the Nepali Congress Party.

❖ N.Ramachandran was elected the new President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in February 2014. He is also the World Squash Federation President.

❖ Satya Nadella, an Indian American, was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft on
February 4, 2014. He succeeded Steve Ballmer.

❖ Former Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar Mathur has been appointed the Chairman of the
7th Pay Commission.

❖ Eminent Gandhian and environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt was selected for the 2013 Gandhi Peace Prize. He is one of the pioneers of the Chipko movement. He was awarded the Ramon
Magsaysay Award in 1982.

❖ Famous Hindi writer Vishwanath Tripathi has been selected for the prestigious Vyas Samman for the year 2013 for his memoir 'Vyomkesh Darvesh'. Vyas Samman is a literary award given by
the K.K. Birla Foundation.

❖ Odia became the sixth language to get classical language status after Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu,
Kannada and Malayalam.

❖ The Expert Committee to Revise and Strengthen the Monetary Policy Framework, headed by RBI Deputy Governor Urjit Patel suggested the central bank to adopt the new consumer price index for anchoring the monetary policy.

❖ Facebook announced its acquisition of WhatsApp Inc. for $19 billion. WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and John Koum. It is an instant messaging app for smartphones.

❖ The Winter Olympics were held in Sochi, Russia in February 2014. Russia topped the medals table with13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze. It won a total of 33 medals. India did not win any medal. Next Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang in South Korea in 2018.

❖ Michelle Bachelet was sworn in as the President of Chile on March 11, 2014. She already served as the President once from 2006 to 2010.

❖ The third edition of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) was held in The Hague, Netherlands in March 2014. The NSS aims to prevent nuclear terrorism by reducing the amount of dangerous
nuclear material in the world.

❖ Renowned Hindi author Govind Mishra was selected for the Saraswati Samman for the year 2013 for his book "Dhool Paudho Par". He is the second Hindi author to receive the honor after the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan in 1991.

❖ ESPN cricinfo presented the Cricketer of the Generation award to Sachin Tendulkar.

❖ The International Women of Courage Award 2014 was presented by the US first lady Michelle Obama to Laxmi, a Delhi acid attack survivor.

❖ Mortal remains of about 282 Indian soldiers of 1857 mutiny were exhumed from a well at Ajnala
in Amritsar district of Punjab in March 2014.

❖ The Reserve Bank of India had extended the deadline for Indian banks to meet capital requirements under the Basel III norms by a year to March 31, 2019.

❖ Mizoram defeated Railways to win the 68th Santosh Trophy Football championship in Siliguri in
March 2014. It is the maiden Santosh Trophy title for Mizoram.

❖ Viswanathan Anand won the World Candidates chess tournament title at Khanty Mansisyk, Russia.

❖ Khushwant Singh, a renowned author, passed away on March 20, 2014. He authored books such as 'Train to Pakistan', 'With Malice towards One and All', 'The Sunset Club', 'Truth, Love and a Little Malice', etc.

❖ Eminent film lyricist Gulzar was chosen for the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2013. This award is the highest film award in India.

❖ The people of Crimea voted to become part of Russia in a referendum in March 2014. The leaders of Group of Eight (G8) countries suspended Russia from the group on the issue of annexation of Crimea by Russia. Crimea was separated from Ukraine.

❖ The third Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar in March 2014. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are the seven members of this group. Sumith Nakandala of Sri Lanka is the Secretary General. The Secretariat of BIMSTEC is established in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

❖ Assam is the first State in India to observe Child Protection Day to secure the future of children
on March 4, 2014.

❖ The armies of Nepal and India held a joint military exercise named Surya Kiran VI in Nepal.

❖ Admiral Robin K. Dhowan assumed office as the Chief of Naval Staff on April 17, 2014. He succeeded Admiral D.K. Joshi.

❖ R. Gandhi has been appointed as a Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India. RBI has four deputy governors.

❖ The 2014 Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to Ramesh Agrawal of Chhattisgarh.

❖ Koyal Rana won the Miss India 2014 crown.

❖ India - born poet Vijay Seshadri won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for his collection of poems "3 Sections".

❖ Ex-coal secretary P.C. Parakh released his book titled "Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and Other Truths".

❖ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian novelist, died on April 17, 2014. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. His major books include One Hundred Years of Solitude, Autumn of the Patriarch, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Love in the Time of Cholera.

❖ Renowned cinematographer V.- K. Murthy passed away. He won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2008. He shot India's first cinemascope movie 'Kagaz ke Phool'.

❖ RBI gave approvals to IDFC Ltd and Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited to start new banks. IDFC is an infrastructure finance company based in Mumbai and Bandhan is a micro lender based in Kolkata.

❖ Sun Pharmaceuticals will buy Ranbaxy Laboratories.

❖ Sri Lanka won the World Twenty 20 title for the first time defeating India by six wickets in Mirpur, Bangladesh in April 2014.

❖ Australian women cricket team won the Women's World Twenty 20 Cup 2014 by defeating England in the final in Mirpur, Bangladesh. This is the third successive Women's World Twenty20 title for Australia.