General Knowledge for Preparing Various Exams in India Chapter 5

61. The UN passed Arms trade treaty (ATT) to better regulate the international sale in weapons. It was passed in the General Assembly with 154 members voting ‘Yes’; three — Iran, Syria and North Korea — voting no; and 23, including India, abstaining.

62. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak dissolved Parliament in preparation for a general election.

63. Reliance Power (RPower) said it had received the first disbursement of Rs.2,550 crore ($470 million) from U.S. Exim Bank and offshore commercial banks. The disbursement is part of $2 billion loan. It forms part of the overall financing for Reliance Power’s 3,960 MW Ultra Mega Power Project at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh.

64. Softening its stand towards Pakistan, India has commenced the visa-on-arrival facility for senior citizens (above 65 years of age) of the neighbouring nation from April 1.

65. Karnataka has emerged top performer in the country in management of rural drinking water

schemes and devolution of powers to panchayat raj institutions (PRIs) in 2012-13 and received an incentive of Rs. 241.1 crore from the Union government.

66. The government has drawn up plans to launch the LPG cylinder subsidy scheme under the Direct Benefit Transfer component from July 1 in at least 45 districts. The consumers are likely to get around Rs.4,000 per annum from the government.

67. Representatives from Iran and the six global powers (P-5: America, Britain, France, Russia and China + Germany) have concluded the first day of talks at Almaty, Kazakhstan.

68. Malala Yousafzai has announced the first grant of $45,000 from the Malala Fund for girls’ education to an unnamed organisation in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. 15-year-old announced it in a video message for the Women in the World summit in New York. The video was introduced by Hollywood star and U.N. special envoy Angelina Jolie, who also pledged a donation of $200,000 for the fund.

69. USA had agreed for returning to Japan the land near Kadena Air Base on the southern island of Okinawa.

70. Reserve Bank of India has decided to let authorised money changers (AMCs) to sell Indian rupees to foreign tourists / visitors against international credit/debit cards.

71. According to the RBI directive, Amanath Cooperative Bank can conduct a financial transaction of not more than Rs. 1,000 per account a day. Besides, the bank has been stopped from accepting deposits till further orders.

72. Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal ended his 15-day-long fast with a spirited attack on the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government for its “inability” to provide power and water.

73. The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army successfully test-fired Agni-II (Range – 2000 Km) ballistic missile from Wheeler Island Odisha.

74. Having successfully completed two polio-free years, India is preparing to receive the crucial polio eradication certificate from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The certificate is issued on completion of incident-free three years.

75. Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman Prime Minister who led the Conservative party, died following a stroke.

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General Knowledge for Preparing Various Exams in India Chapter 4

46. Workshops for the World Social Forum being held in Tunisia are focusing on women’s rights.

47. Current account deficit (CAD) widened to a record high of 6.7 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) in the October-December quarter this fiscal.

48. Government-appointed Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishna has proposed an Indian Financial Code Bill to enable creation of a unified financial regulator while limiting the role of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to monetary management. Unified financial agency will comprise four existing agencies which will be merged into one. These are SEBI, FMC, IRDA and PFRDA.

49. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made it clear that Central and State government ministries, departments, companies and undertakings should not be allowed to enter business of broadcasting or distribution of television channels.

50. North Korea has said it has placed its missiles on “standby” and has warned it can strike American bases in South Korea and in the Pacific.

51. Kenya’s Supreme Court upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country’s next President.

52. Launching his Jantantra Yatra from Punjab, social activist Anna Hazare described it as the beginning of the second freedom struggle to rid the nation of corrupt politicians.

53. Supreme Court held that the modification of a well known cancer-fighting drug is not a patentable new invention. The judgment allows suppliers to continue making generic copies of Swiss firm Novartis’ Glivec or Gleevec.

54. The probe into the killing of two Indian fishermen by Italian marines off Kerala last year was handed over to the National Investigation Agency.

55. Vijaya Bank is the first bank which announced that its Risk Management Department has received ISO 27001 certification from the British Standards Institute.

56. NMDC Ltd. and IndusInd Bank were included in the CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), replacing Wipro and Siemens.

57. Core industries shrank 2.5 per cent in February, a worst-ever performance in decades. The core
industries — coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

58. Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani started a business collaboration that would allow Reliance Jio Infocomm, controlled by Mukesh, to use the nationwide optic fibre network of Anil’s Reliance Communications Ltd. for a one-time fee of Rs. 1,200 crore.

59. India inked a $252-million loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for continued improvement of rural roads in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. The loan represents the first tranche of a $800 million financing facility under the ‘rural connectivity investment programme’.

60. Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal launched Wi-Fi service in Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express at the New Delhi railway station.

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General Knowledge for Preparing Various Exams in India Chapter 3

31. Pakistan successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable Hatf-IV (Shaheen-1) ballistic missile (900 Km range).

32. Russia launched the bio-satellite (BION-M) called orbital Noah's Ark into space with various living organisms such as 45 mice, 15 geckos, micro-organisms, plants, snails and eight Mongolian gerbils. The latest bio-satellite blasted off aboard Soyuz 2 rocket from Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan.

33. The world on 22 April 2013 observed the International Mother Earth Day. The theme selected for 2013 is the Face of Climate Change.

34. British scientist Francis Crick’s Nobel Prize was sold for 2.27m US dollar at the auction in New York to CEO of a Shanghai-based biomedical firm, Jack Wang. Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize for discovery of DNA in 1962.

35. Renowned violinist and composer Lalgudi Jayaraman died in Chennai because of illness.

36. Shakuntala Devi, the Indian Mathematician died.

37. Michael Henry Denness, popularly known as Mike Denness, the former England captain died on 19 April 2013 in London because of cancer.

38. Former Governor of Karnataka, V.S. Ramadevi died in Bangalore on 17 April following a massive Cardiac Arrest. Rama Devi also served as the Chief Election Commissioner of India.

39. Margaret Thatcher, the Former Prime Minister of Britain died due to a stroke on 8 April 2013 at the age of 87. Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990 from Conservative party of Britain and was the first lady to hold the post of Prime Minister.

40. Oscar and Booker Prize winner writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala died on 3 April 2013 in Manhattan, New York after a long illness.

41. Nitaqat is a programme of the Saudi Labour Ministry to create job opportunities for its nationals by replacing a small percentage of the foreign workforce with Saudi youths. If strictly implemented, the Nitaqat would lead to the loss of jobs of some 20 lakh expatriate workers. The workers come mainly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Saudi Arab has informed New Delhi that the enforcement has been deferred by three months.

42. Malala Yousafzai has signed a deal reported to be worth nearly £2 million to publish a book “I am Malala”. Publishers of book is Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

43. U.R. Rao, who led the country’s space programme between 1984 and 1994, has become the first Indian to be inducted into the prestigious Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington.

44. Union Public Service Commission dropped the requirement of mandatory English language paper. It restored the earlier practice of candidates sitting for two qualifying papers in any Indian language and English, the marks obtained in which will not be counted for ranking.

45. Government indicated that India's total external debt was US$ 376.3 billion as at the end of December 2012, an increase of 8.9 per cent from March on account of long-term and short-term components of the foreign borrowings.

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General Knowledge for Preparing Various Exams in India Chapter 2

16. Krishnakumar Natarajan was appointed as the Chairman of Nasscom for the year 2013-14. He succeeded N Chandrasekaran.

17. Sharad Yadav was unanimously re-elected as the national President of Janata Dal (United) for third time in a row.

18. S Gopalakrishnan, the co-founder and Executive Co-Chairman of Infosys, was elected as the President of the industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2013-14. He is succeeding Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group.

19. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned after falling out with president Mahmud Abbas. Salam Fayyad was tasked with the role of caretaker for the current government.

20. Earthquake that measured 7 on Ritcher Scale killed more than 167 and injured at least 5000 people in China’s western Sichuan Province on 20 April 2013.

21. An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 killed 37 leaving behind 850 people injured in Bushehr Province of south-west Iran.

22. Eighth Session of the India-Yemen Joint Committee for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation (JCM) took place in New Delhi on March 11-12, 2013.

23. A conference of Chief Ministers on the fifth Report on Public Order of the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) was held in New Delhi. The conference was chaired by the Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde and attended by the Chief Ministers, Home Ministers of States and Lt. Governors & Administrators of Union Territories.

24. Foreign ministers from the G8 group of nations in a meeting held in London condemned North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

25. The fifth BRICS Summit was held at the Durban, South Africa. The theme of the 5th BRICS Summit was: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation.

26. The third SAARC Ministerial Level Meet on Poverty concluded in Nepal on 5 April 2013.

27. The Minister of Railways Pawan Kumar Bansal inaugurated International Conference on Dedicated Freight Corridor Challenges and Opportunities in New Delhi. This was organised by ASSOCHAM.

28. As per the 16th Annual Global CEO survey, Mahatma Gandhi figured among the top three most admired leaders of the world. An accountancy firm, PwC surveyed 1400 CEOs around the world. Winston Churchill topped the list. Steve Jobs was on second place.

29. The first test of Nirbhay cruise missile (1000 Km range)achieved partial success at Chandipur, Odisha on 12 March 2013.

30. Army Chief of Nepal, General Gaurav Shumsher Rana on 9 April 2013 flagged off a Joint Mountaineering expedition of Indian and Nepalese Army from Kathmandu to mark the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of the world’s highest peak.

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General Knowledge for Preparing Various Exams in India Chapter 1

1. Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh visited Germany from 10 April 2013 to 12 April 2013. He visited for participating in second round of Inter Governmental Consultations with Germany.

2. The Vice-President of India, Hamid Ansari visited Tajikistan from 14 April to 17 April 2013.

3. External Affairs Minister of India, Salman Khurshid visited Japan on 26-27 March, 2013 to co-chair the 7th annual India–Japan Strategic Dialogue with the Japanese Foreign Minister.

4. The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee visited Mauritius from 11 March 2013 to 13 March 2013. He was invited to be the chief guest at the 45th Independence Day celebrations of Mauritius.

5. The President of Egypt Mohamed Morsy visited India from 18 March 2013 to 20 March 2013.

6. Yash Chopra and Rajesh Khanna are to be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards 2013.

7. Asha Bhosle will be honoured with the Phalke Ratna Award for the contributions made by her in the field of music for over a period of five decades.

8. Belgian Mathematician Pierre Deligne won the Abel prize 2013.

9. The New York Times won four Pulitzer Prizes, including the award for investigative reporting for stories that detailed how Wal-Mart used bribery to expand in Mexico.

10. Legendary actor, Pran Krishan Sikand was awarded with Bollywood’s highest honour in Indian Cinema Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2012.

11. Times of India Film Awards - 2013 ceremony took place in Vancouver, Canada. The top winner of the awards was Barfi. Which bagged the best film, best director (Anurag basu), best actor (Ranbir Kapoor) and best actress (Priyanka Chopra) trophies.

12. Takehiko Nakao was appointed as the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He succeeded

Haruhiko Kuroda assignment as the Governor of the Bank of Japan.

13. Sunil Bharti Mittal appointed as the Vice-Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

14. Italy's Parliament re-elected Giorgio Napolitano to an unparalleled second term as president.

15. Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, PJ Kurien was unanimously elected as the Chairman of Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD).

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