Must read series-15 for SSC CGl tier-1 current gk part. These questions are most important. Thats why i am publishing them once again. [important]This questions are useful for any competitive exam like IAS, bank PO, SSC CGL, RAS, CDS, UPSC exams and all state related exams. You can attempt them for fun too.[/important]
1. Which among the following ministries have recently launched the Rajiv Rinn Yojana (RRY)?
Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) In order to overcome the constraints faced during the pilot phase of implementation of the Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP), the government has proposed for revamp and relaunch as Rajiv Rinn Yojana (RRY). The amount of loan is proposed to be increased up to Rs. 5.00 lakhs for EWS and Rs.8.0 lakhs for LIG beneficiaries with an interest subsidy up to a maximum Rs. 5.0lakhs for both categories of beneficiaries and with suitable modifications to address other concerns.
2. Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony for the year 2012 was conferred on ____________?
Pandit Ravi Shankar The Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony has been instituted as a part of the commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and an announcement to this effect was made by the then Finance Minister in his Budget Speech on 28th February, 2011. It is an International Award with prize money of Rs. 1 Crore for promoting values of Cultural Harmony. The Jury constituted for the selection of Tagore Award for the year 2012 under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister of India selected Pandit Ravi Shankar, the Indian Sitar Maestro, to be the first recipient of the Tagore Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Cultural Harmony and Universal Values.
3. Key Resolve 2013 is the joint military exercise of __:
United States and South Korea The US and Republic of Korea (ROK) militaries have started the annual computerised command post exercise, Key Resolve 2013, on the Korean Peninsula, despite North Korea declaring the armistice agreement to be invalid. More than 3,000 US personnel are participating along with 10,000 South Korean troops during the combined land, air and naval exercise, which is scheduled to conclude on 21 March. The exercise will also witness participation from five UN Command states, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark and the UK. North Korea has repeatedly called for cancellation of the US-ROK annual joint exercises, arguing that they are a provocation and a prelude to an invasion, despite US maintaining that the drills are aimed at enhancing the alliance’s operational readiness.
4. Ganesh Pyne, who recently passed was a well-known ________?
Painter Legendary painter Ganesh Pyne passed away recently. Pyne was born in Kolkata in 1937 and in his long career of five decades his paintings were exhibited round the world – Paris, London, Washington and Germany. Described famously as ‘an artist’s artist, a philosopher’s philosopher and master fantasist of them all’, Pyne had received several awards and accolades for his works. He was known for his small tempera paintings, rich in imagery and symbols and acknowledged the influence of great painters like Abanindranath Tagore, Hals Rembrandt and Paul Klee. But it was his exposure to Walt Disney’s cartoons and his own experience as a young animator in Calcutta that finally liberated him and helped him develop two important stylistic features – distortion and exaggeration which he used to explore the deep recesses of his fantastical imagination to create uncanny images of disquieting creatures.
5. The world’s largest biogas plant was inaugurated in __________?
Finland The world’s largest biogas plant was inaugurated on Finland’s western coast as the country seeks to limit its use of foreign coal. Built near an existing coal-fired power plant in Vaasa, central Finland, the 140 MW biomass gasification factory is expected to cut coal use by up to 40 per cent. Fuelled mainly with wood residue from Finland’s large forestry sector, the plant is expected to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 2,30,000 tonnes a year while providing both heating and electricity for Vaasa’s approximately 61,000 residents.
6. Barauni Thermal Power Project is located in ___:
Bihar Barauni Thermal Power Project is one of the major projects undertaken by Bihar State utility to reduce dependence on the central sector.
7. Recently, which among the following ministries has launched e-PPS scheme?
Union Ministry for Communications and IT Union Minister for Communications and IT, Kapil Sibal has launched the ‘Electronics Project Proposal System (e-PPS), developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, through the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). The e-PPS system will initially operate on a pilot basis. The Electronic Project Proposal System (e-PPS) is a web-based system that encompasses the complete life-cycle of funding of R&D projects, beginning with online submission of project proposals for funds, to monitoring and management of funded projects. E-PPS replaces the existing manual system of project funding wherein the Project Investigators (PI) submit hard copies of R&D proposals, which are presented to a Working Group and based on the recommendations of the Working Group the proposals are further processed in DeitY. It is a One-Go Dash-Board to see the projects from initiation to completion. It reduces the total processing time of proposals and aids easy dissemination of project information.
8. Recently, who among the following was re-elected for a second term as IAEA chief?
Yukiya Amano Japan’s Yukiya Amano was re-elected for a second term as the director general of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency amid international concerns about Iran’s development of a nuclear program.
9. Which among the following Indian IT major has been recognised for the second year as one of the world’s most ethical firms by business ethics think-tank Ethisphere Institute?
Wipro Indian IT bellwether Wipro has been recognised for the second year as one of the world’s most ethical firms by business ethics think-tank Ethisphere Institute. As a leading US-based international organisation dedicated to creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, governance and anti-corruption and sustainability, the institute selects global firms that embrace ethical business practice and demonstrate industry leadership, forcing peers to follow them.
10. . The first women’s Government Medical College of independent India is located in __________?
Haryana Bhagat Phool Singh Medical College is a government run medical college at Khanpur Kalan in the Sonepat district of Haryana in India. It is the first women’s Government Medical College of independent India and the first such institution in North India since Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Medical College that was established in 1914. The college was inaugurated on International Women’s Day, 2013 by Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of India’s ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance.
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Current Affairs-March 2013 Part-1
Very important questions for IAS, RAS, SSC CGL, UPSC, BANk PO, UPSC,RPSC, Bank exams and all other exams.If you like the post kindly give rating. [important]This questions are useful for any competitive exam like IAS, bank PO, SSC CGL, RAS, CDS, UPSC exams and all state related exams. You can attempt them for fun too.[/important]
11. The Union Budget 2013-14 has pegged the fiscal deficit for the current year at___:
5.2 per cent Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget 2013 speech said that the fiscal deficit for the current financial year has been curtailed at 5.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is lower than the estimated fiscal deficit target of 5.3%. The fiscal deficit target for the coming financial year was announced at an anticipated 4.85 of the GDP. The Economic Survey 2013 said that the country is likely to hit a fiscal deficit target of 5.3 percent of GDP this year despite a significant shortfall in revenue. Chidambaram’s announcement has come in lower than the survey’s estimates.
12. Union Budget 2013-14 has proposed to levy a surcharge of 10 percent on individuals whose annual taxable incomes exceeds __:
1 crore Finance Minister P. Chidambaram proposed to levy a surcharge of 10 percent on individuals whose annual taxable incomes exceed Rs.1 crore. The surcharge will be levied for the 2013-14 financial year. Presenting the union budget 2013-14 to the lower house of the parliament, Chidambaram said there are only 42,800 individuals in the country who will be liable to pay the surcharge. The finance minister urged such high networth individuals to follow the example of industrialist Azim Premjee, who recently gave $2.3 billion to an education charity he controls, reportedly the biggest charitable donation in the country’s recent history. Chidambaram also increased the surcharge on domestic companies whose annual income crosses Rs.10 crore from five percent to 10 percent.
13. International Court of Arbitration at the Hague has recently ruled in favour of India as Pakistan has objected the construction of a power project. The power project in question is __:
Kishanganga project India hailed the recent verdict of an International Court of Arbitration at the Hague on the Kishanganga hydroelectric project. Recently, an International Court of Arbitration at the Hague has ruled in favour of India on the Kishanganga hydroelectric project and upheld India’s right to divert water from the hydroelectric project to Kashmir. Pakistan had objected the hydroelectric project on grounds that it violated the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1965. Pakistan had moved for arbitration in May 2010, claiming India was trying to divert the Jhelum River and the project would rob it of 15 percent of its share of river waters. India had claimed the Indus Waters Treaty gave it the right to transfer waters between the Jhelum’s tributaries to generate hydropower. Pakistan has been objecting to the construction of the hydroelectric project on the Kishanganga River in Kashmir, which is called Neelum upon entering Pakistan. In November 2009, Pakistan had proposed the establishment of a Court of Arbitration and the appointment of a neutral expert to resolve the Kishanganga dam dispute.
14. What is the name of the new version of Office software launched by the Microsoft?
Office 365 Software giant Microsoft launched the latest version of its Office 365 solution for businesses in India, which will enable them to access emails and other productivity tools from a variety of devices. The new Microsoft Office 365 is a comprehensive suite with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote and Access. It provides seamless sharing of data across multiple devices like desktops, laptops, mobiles and tablet PCs and since the solution is cloud-based, users can access their mails and files while on the move.
15. As per a recent government decision, one major port is to be developed in each of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. What is the current number of Major Ports in India?
12 The government said it will set up a port each at Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal in 2013-14, to effectively handle increased cargo traffic. Ministry of Shipping, in the Maritime Agenda 2010-20, had proposed setting up of two major ports — which handle heavy cargo traffic — in the country. At present there are 12 major ports in India — Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Kolkata (with Haldia), Chennai, Cochin, Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin, Kandla and Visakhapatanam. This move is aimed at catering to increased import of coal and oil and container volumes in the years to come.
16. World’s biggest wildlife summit was held in which among the following countries recently?
Bangkok Recently, Thailand’s Prime Minister pledged to outlaw her nation’s legal domestic ivory trade. Thailand is the key place where illegal ivory from Africa is laundered into products destined for their biggest market in China. The announcement came on the opening day of the world’s biggest wildlife summit in Bangkok. The two-week meeting of the 178 nations that form the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) faces bitter battles over improved protection for polar bears and ending “trophy” hunting for rhinos. It aims to tackle the trade in shark fins, which kills 100 million sharks each year.
17. The location of the proposed National Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine (NISSM) is___:
New Delhi In a major initiative to cater to the back-up mechanism of athletes’ overall performance, the government proposed the establishment of National Institute of Sports Science and Medicine at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. The proposed NISSM would be leading institute in the country to support high performance of sportspersons and integrate sciences and medicine into the training of elite sportspersons in the country as well as into the teaching curriculum of sport coaching in the country.
18. The government has recently merged some schemes out of the three schemes given below.
1 and 2 The Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY) has now been merged with the AABY to provide better administration of life insurance cover to the economically backward sections of society. The scheme extends life and disability cover to persons between the ages of 18 and 59 years living below and marginally above the poverty line under 47 identified vocational/occupational groups, including ‘rural landless households’. It provides insurance cover of a sum of Rs. 30,000 on natural death, Rs. 75,000 on death due to accident, Rs. 37,500 for partial permanent disability due to accident, and Rs. 75,000 on death or total permanent disability due to accident. The scheme also provides an add-on benefit of scholarship of Rs. 100 per month per child paid on half- yearly basis to a maximum of two children per member studying in Classes 9 to 12 (including ITI courses).
19. As per the recently released Government data, which among the following States has the highest percentage households availing of banking services?
Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (89.1 per cent) has the highest percentage households availing of banking services while Assam (44.1 per cent) is the lowest followed by Bihar (44.4 per cent).
20. . New START treaty is signed between which among the following countries?
United States and Russia New START (for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) is a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It is expected to last at least until 2021. New START replaced the Treaty of Moscow (SORT), which was due to expire in December 2012. In terms of name, it is a follow-up to the START I treaty, which expired in December 2009, the proposed START II treaty, which never entered into force, and the START III treaty, for which negotiations were never concluded.
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