Current Affairs PDF February 2013 Page 1

www.jagranjosh.com Current Affairs PDF February 2013 Page 1

CURRENT AFFAIRS

PDF

February 2014

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February 1, 2014

1) What was the minimum tenure fixed for officers of the

three premier services — IAS, IPS and IFoS according to

new rules announced on 30 January 2014 aimed at

checking political interference? –Two years (Under the

new rules circulated by Department of Personnel and

Training (DoPT) of the central government, a cadre

officer, appointed to any cadre post, shall hold the office

for at least two years unless he or she is promoted,

retired or sent on deputation outside the state or for

training exceeding two months. However, transfers and

postings before two years will be done by a Civil Services

Board to be constituted by states under the new rules.

States have now been mandated to constitute a civil

services board, which is to be headed by the chief

secretary)

2) Family of late Justice J.S. Verma recently refused to

accept an award conferred on him posthumously by the

Union Government. In a letter written to President

Pranab Mukherjee his family mentioned that accepting it

would be against his principles as he never hankered for

any such honours. Which award was conferred on late

Justice J.S. Verma recently? – Padma Bhushan (Late

Justice J.S. Verma was one of the 25 winners of Padma

Bhushan announced by the Union Government on 25

January 2014. Verma, who had headed the government

committee to frame stricter laws and suggested legal

reforms to deal with sexual assault cases in the wake of

the 16 December Delhi gangrape case, died on 22 April

2013)

3) What was the GDP growth rate figure for Indian

economy for 2012-13 declared by the Union Government

on 31 January 2014? – 4.5% (This GDP growth rate is

0.5% lower as compared with the earlier estimate of 5%

on account of subdued performance in agriculture,

mining and manufacturing. Growth in 2012-13 is the

lowest in a decade, with the previous low of 4% recorded

in 2002-03. The estimates for 2012-13 were released by

the Central Statistics Office (CSO) under the Ministry of

Statistics and Programme Implementation)

4) A special court in Chittagong (Bangladesh) on 30

January 2014 awarded the death penalty to Paresh

Barua, chief of the breakaway United Liberation Front of

Asom faction. He was awarded this sentence along with

13 others, including two former Bangladesh Ministers. In

which criminal offence they were involved? – In an arms

haul in 2004 (The police had seized 10 trucks carrying

weapons and ammunition from the state-owned

Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd. jetty while the arms were

being offloaded from two fishing trawlers. Investigations

revealed that the weapons were manufactured in China

and were being shipped to the ULFA. Paresh Barua and

the former Secretary of the Industries Ministry, Nurul

Amin, have been absconding since the recovery, and the

court sentenced them in absentia)

5) Who was nominated as the new Director of the

National Security Agency (NSA) by U.S. President Barack

Obama on 31 January 2014? – Michael Rogers (He is the

Vice Admiral of the U.S. Navy and would take over at a

moment when the spy agency is under unprecedented

pressure following leaks from ex-intelligence contractor

Edward Snowden. Rogers would take over from Gen

Keith Alexander at the helm of the NSA)

6) Who on 30 January 2014 became the first woman to

be appointed in an International Cricket Council (ICC)

umpires panel? – Kathy Cross of New Zealand (Cross was

named as an Associate and Affiliate panel of International

umpires for 2014 following the annual review and

selection process. The panel comprises 11 umpires that

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sits below the elite panel and these umpires officiate in

ICC World Cricket League matches for teams ranked in

divisions three to six and other associate and affiliate

tournaments)

February 2, 2014

1) Asia s first “hore Based Test Fa ilit “BTF as commissioned into the Indian Navy recently with which

India joined the select league of just two countries –

the United States and Ukraine. Where this SBTF has

been established? – at INS Hansa in Panaji (Goa) – The

SBTF is primarily used for flight testing of Naval aircraft

that operate from aircraft carriers. The SBTF has two

parts including the Take-off Area with a ski-jump facility

and the Landing Area with arresting wire facility, both

of which are a replica of INS Vikramaditya)

2) Who was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of

Uttarakhand on 1 February 2014? – Harish

Rawat(Rawat was the Union Water Resources Minister

in Union Government and he succeeded Vijay

Bahuguna who was asked by the Congress high

o a d to step do i a id to oost the part s prospects ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

Bahuguna relinquished his post on 31 January 2014.

Rawat became the 8th Chief Minister of the state)

3) Which Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) of

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) was on 31

Ja uar ele ated to the status of I“‘O s Propulsion Complex giving more autonomy to this

centre? – Mahe dragiri e tre, at Ta il Nadu s Tirunelveli (The Mahendragiri centre, which was

functioning under LPSC in Valiyamala near

Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, would henceforth

directly report to the ISRO chairman. The Mahendragiri

centre has been instrumental in assembling and testing

as many as 125 engines made by ISRO so far. The

elevation would be a challenge to the scientists working

in the centre)

4) In the first-ever move that would adversely affect

flight operations to the US, the Federal Aviation

Administration (FAA) on 31 January 2014 downgraded

I dia s a iatio safet ra ki g, ri gi g it elo Pakistan and at par with countries like Ghana, Barbados

and Bangladesh. Air passengers to and from the US may

have to face the brunt as Indian airplanes would have

to go through more engineering and other safety

checks on the American soil. What would be the main

effect of this downgrade on Indian airline companies?

This downgrade would effectively bar Air India

and Jet Airways from increasing flights to the US

from the current level

They would also not be able to enter into any new

code-share relationships with any US airline

(The downgrade does not mean that these airlines are

unsafe but shows that the Directorate General of Civil

A iatio DGCA s safet o ersight is ot e ough to properly monitor safety performance of Indian carriers.

As per the FAA, the downgrade means that the DGCA

does not meet the safety standards set by UN agency

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO))

5) Which British nuclear power site came to news on 31

January 2014 after an alert was declared after

discovering higher than usual levels of radioactivity, but

later called it off, saying naturally occurring radon gas

had triggered the alarm? – Sellafield (Sellafield is the

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largest nuclear site in Europe and is situated in

orth est E gla d. It is the site of Britai s orst nuclear accident in 1957 and once the producer of

pluto iu for u lear o s. The pla t s operati g company said there was nothing wrong with its

operations, but for several hours the cause of the

higher reading at an air monitor near a perimeter fence

was unclear, raising fears of a radioactive leak)

6) The Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I tie between

India and Chinese Taipei started on 1 February 2014.

This is the first ti e that a tie of the te is prestigious Davis Cup was organized at a city of Madhya Pradesh

(MP). Which centre is this? – Indore (The tie was held

at Madh a Pradesh Te is Asso iatio s MPTA s)

tennis facility at Indore. India won the tie on the first

day itself by taking unassailable 3-0 lead. MPTA is one

of the very few state associations which has its own

tennis complex consisting of six synthetic flood courts,

gym, swimming pool and medical facilities)

February 3, 2014

1) I dia s first o orail – Mumbai Monorail was

opened for the general public on 2 February 2014 after

being inaugurated on 1 February. Which authority owns

and operates this monorail project? –Mumbai

Metropolitan Region Development Authority

(MMRDA) – The Rs. 3,000-crore Mumbai Monorail

project is being implemented in two phases. The

MMRDA has already spent Rs. 1,900 crore of Rs. 3,000

crore allocated for the project, including the civil work

for the second phase. Commercial operations of the

8.9-km first phase connecting Wadala-Chembur

stations on the northeastern fringe of Mumbai

metropolis commenced on 2 February with the first

train leaving the Wadala station at 7am. The Mumbai

Monorail is not just the first in the country, but across

the subcontinent. Monorails are in operation in China,

Japan, Singapore, Australia, Dubai, Europe, and the

Americas

2) Indian Museum, Kolkata, which is the largest

museum in India, completed how many years of its

establishment on 2 February 2014? – 200 years (Indian

Museum was founded on 2 February 1814 by the

Asiatic Society of Bengal. It is known to be the oldest

useu i Asia. Museu s fou der-curator was Dr.

Nathaniel Wallich, a Dutch botanist. A special

commemorative stamp was released by Prime Minister

Dr. Manmohan Singh on this occasion)

3) Mount Sinabung, which started erupting again on 1

February 2014, is in which country? –Indonesia (16

persons died due to this eruption. Mount Sinabung

erupted again on 1 February just a day after authorities

allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated

to return to its slopes, saying volcanic activity was

decreasing. Sinabung in western Sumatra (Indonesia)

has been erupting for four months)

4) India completed a 5-0 rout of Chinese Taipei in the

first round of their Asia/Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie

at MPTA Complex, in Indore on 2 February 2014. India

would now face which team in April 2014 to fight for a

place in the World Group play-offs? – South Korea

5) Which team won the Ranji Trophy for 2014 on 2

February 2014? – Karnataka (Karnataka defeated

Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy finals at Hyderabad to

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claim their 7th Ranji title. Chasing a modest victory

target of 157 in little over two sessions, Karnataka

batsmen reached the destination with ease as they

knocked off the runs in 40.5 overs)

6) Who took over as the new Managing Director and

Chief Executive Officer of MCX on 1 February 2014? – Dr. Manoj Vaish (Prior to joining MCX, Vaish was the

Managing Director & CEO of NSDL Database

Management. His appointment was approved for a

period of 3 years by the FMC)

February 4, 2014

1) 101st Indian Science Congress (ISC), which was

inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on

3 February 2014, is being organized at – Jammu

University, Jammu (The theme of ISC 2014 is

I o atio s i “ ie e a d Te h olog for I lusi e De elop e t . The Co gress ould o lude o February 2014)

2) Price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Piped

Natural Gas (PNG) are expected to be reduced by

around Rs. 15 and Rs. 5 per kg respectively following a

rejig in the domestic gas supplies announced by the

Union Government on 3 February 2014. What was

done under this rejig? – Government raised domestic

gas supplies to raise allocations to fuel

retailers (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

decided to raise the share of domestic gas to 100 % of

the requirement for CNG (transport) and PNG

(domestic). This would lead to reduction in price of CNG

(transport) and PNG (domestic) across the country

(except in those City Gas Distribution (CGD) entities

which are already getting 100% domestic gas))

3) President Pranab Mukherjee on 3 February 2014

launched the National Mission on Libraries (NML) to

modernise and digitally link public libraries across the

country. Creation of a National Virtual Library of India is

one of the major component schemes of NML. NML is

an initiative of which Ministry? –Union Ministry of

Culture (Kolkata-based Raja Rammohun Roy Library

Foundation (RRRLF) is the nodal agency for the

implementation of NML. NML is a 10-member body

headed by Prof. Deepak Pental, former Vice Chancellor

of Delhi University. Approved by the government in

November last year, NML was set up in pursuance of a

report of the National Knowledge Commission, which

recommended a total revamp of the Library and

Information Service sector to serve the changing needs

and expectations of the users and give a fillip to the

library movement in the country)

4) Social networking site Facebook completed how

many years of its establishment on 4 February 2014? – 10 years (The site was launched by Mark Zuckerberg

on 4 February 2004, from Harvard University. The site

was conceived as a way to connect students, and let

them build an online identity for themselves. The social

networking site has since expanded to cover a large

swath of the world, with more than 1.2 billion people

using its site on a monthly basis)

5) Who took o er as Asia De elop e t Ba k s e Country Director for India on 3 February 2014? –Teresa

Kho (She was heading the Bangladesh Resident Mission

of ADB and replaced Hun Kim, who is now Deputy

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Dire tor Ge eral of ADB s “outh Asia Depart e t i Manila)

6) Who was appointed as the new CEO and Managing

Director of MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX), the

ou tr s e est full-fledged stock exchange on 2

January 2014? – Saurabh Sarkar (He was appointed

following a formal approval from market regulator SEBI.

Sarkar, previously MD and CEO of United Stock

Exchange of India Ltd, has also worked with global

financial services giants like Credit Agricole, Standard

Chartered and Calyon, and ANZ Grindlays Bank in the

past)

February 5, 2014

1) Who will head the 7th Central Pay Commission which

will revise salaries of over 50 lakh central government

employees and remuneration of 30 lakh pensioners? – Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur, former Judge of the

Supreme Court (The composition of the 7th Central Pay

Commission was approved by the Prime Minister

recently. The other members of the Commission,

include, Oil Secretary Vivek Rae (full time Member),

NIPFP Director Rathin Roy (part-time Member) and OSD

in Expenditure Department Meena Agarwal

(Secretary). The Commission has been mandated to

submit its report in two years time and its

recommendations would be implemented from January

1, 2016. Earlier in September 2013, the Prime Minister

had approved setting up of the 7th Pay Commission)

2) Which India-born executive was appointed as the

new CEO of U.S. software giant Microsoft on 4 February

2014? – Satya Nadella (His appointment came into

effect immediately and he replaced Steve Ballmer.

India-born Satya Nadella has been with Microsoft for

last 22 years and he became third company of the

company after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Satya was

born in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) and attended

Hyderabad Public School at Begumpet)

3) Eminent scientist Prof. C N R Rao and legendary

cricketer Sachin Tendulkar were conferred with the

ou tr s highest i ilia ho our, the Bharat ‘at a, President Pranab Mukherjee on 4 February 2014. With

this conferring, how many personalities have received

Bharat Ratna? – 43 (Rao (79) and Sachin Tendulkar (40)

both of whom are recipients of Padma Vibhushan – the

ou tr s se o d highest i ilia ho our, thus joi ed a list of 41 eminent personalities who have been

conferred with the award that is given in recognition of

exceptional service of the highest order, since it was

instituted in 1954)

4) The National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW)

demanded immediate reconstitution of the erstwhile

Banking Services Recruitment Board (BSRB) to save

banks from staff crunch and work overload. NOBW

claimed that due to disbanding of BSRB recruitment

process in the banking sector has almost come to a

standstill and as a result banking transactions have

suffered. When was BSRB disbanded? – in 2005 (This

de a d as ade at NOBW s Golde Ju ilee Celebrations held at Nagpur on 3 February 2014. NOBW

also claimed that most of the staff in the public sector

banks was working beyond their specific limit, thereby

affecting not only their output but also the overall

functioning of the institutions)

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5) Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on 3 February

2014 proposed to constitute a new mission to work in

the area of high-end computing with an outlay of Rs.

4500 crore. What is the name given to this mission,

which was announced on the occasion of 101st Indian

Science Congress at Jammu? –National Mission on

High Performance Computing – NMHPC

6) At the 101st Indian Science Congress at Jammu, the

Pri e Mi ister reiterated his go er e t s resol e to establish the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) to

primarily study atmospheric neutrinos. This

observatory is proposed to be established at which

place in Tamil Nadu? – Theni(India-

based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a

proposed particle physics research project to primarily

study atmospheric neutrinos in a 1,300 meters

(4,300 ft) deep cave under Ino Peak near Theni, Tamil

Nadu, India. This project is notable in that it is

anticipated to provide a precise measurement of

neutrino mixing parameters)

7) The first of the Datsun GO hatchback was unveiled

off the assembly line at Chennai on 4 February 2014

marking the global re-launch of the new-generation

Datsun. Which company owns the Datsun brand which

is now being re-launched with Datsun GO? – Renault

Nissan (Datsun was a famous brand in the stable of

Japanese company Nissan. But the brand was phased

out in 1986 barring a few pick-up models. Later Nissan

formed a strategic alliance with French auto company

Renault. In March 2012 Renault Nissan announced

plans to revive the Datsun brand and announced that

cars under Datsun brand would be sold in India,

Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. The company re-

launched the brand during 2013 in India. Important to

note is that Datsun is launching its first hatch-back GO

from India)

February 6, 2014

1) The I dia Ba ks Asso iatio IBA duri g Fe ruar 2014 issued an advisory to banks to ensure business

continuity after Microsoft ends support for its popular

Windows XP operating system on 8 April 2014. In its

advisory it drew the attention of banks to a study by

Microsoft in which it claimed that very large number of

Indian public bank branches would become vulnerable

following the U.S.- ased fir s de isio to stop support to Windows XP. How many public sector bank branches

were claimed to be affected? – 34,000 (The fiscal

impact of this could be as much as a loss of business

opportunity worth Rs.1,100 crore in a day and a loss of

income worth Rs.330 crore over a period of three days.

Windows XP – launched in October, 2001 – is three

generations behind the latest operating system

Windows 8, which was launched in October, 2012)

2) The UPA government faced a major embarrassment

on the first day of the extended winter session of

Parliament on 5 February 2014 as a united Opposition

forced the government to defer the Communal

Violence Bill in the Rajya Sabha. The bill, titled

the Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to

Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2014, is intended to

replace which bill? – Communal Violence (Prevention,

Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill,

2005 (Government deferred the bill as the opposition

parties stepped up their attack on the government,

accusing it of going against the spirit of federalism and

e roa hi g upo “tates rights

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3) The Kerala Public Expenditure Review Committee on

4 February 2014 recommended raising of the

retirement age of State employees and teaching and

non-teaching staff of private aided educational

institutions and autonomous bodies such as universities

from 56 to – 58 years (The committee, in its report

tabled in the Kerala Assembly on 4 February, pointed

out that there was an unprecedented 45.71% increase

in expenditure on payment of salaries to government

employees and teaching and non-teaching staff in all

institutions coming under the government payment

system during 2011-12. The year witnessed a 50.85%

increase in pension payments. The two payments

together constituted 48.69% of the total expenditure,

resulting in acute resource crunch)

4) Who was presented with the 26th Moorti Devi Award

of the Bharatiya Jnanpith on 4 February 2014? – Haraprasad Das, the renowned Odia writer (The award

consists of a citation and a cash prize of Rs 4 Lakhs.

Moorti Devi Award is among the highest rated

literature awards in India)

5) Which Indian automobile company during February

2014 unveiled – Zest and Bolt – two new car models? – Tata Motors (The company unveiled the sedan Zest

and hatchback Bolt. These will be launched in India in

. These t o are Tata s e odels after al ost four years)

6) The international career of maverick England

batsman Kevin Pietersen came to an abrupt end on 5

February because – He was dumped from the team for

the upcoming tour of the West Indies and the

subsequent World Twenty20 Championships in

Bangladesh (The dramatic announcement was made by

the ECB after a disastrous Ashes series in Australia

which the English team lost 0-5. The 33-year-old

swashbuckling batsman, who played 104 Tests and 136

ODIs, is set to e d as E gla d s highest ru -scorer in all

formats of the game after a career spanning nine years.

Pietersen has 8181 Test runs at an average of 47.28 and

4440 ODI runs at 40.73 under his belt. The right-hander

has 1176 runs in the 37 Twenty20 Internationals he has

played so far)

February 7, 2014

1) The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) recently

calculated that the new fuel efficiency standards from

2017 would help the country reduce oil consumption

by 2.22 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) as

compared to the business as usual scenario by 2017

and 10.5 mtoe by 2022. The Ministry of Road Transport

and Highways is to implement the new fuel efficiency

standards under which act? –The Central Motor

Vehicle Rules, 1989 (The fuel efficiency norms are part

of the de a d a age e t that the go er e t had professed for years in order to regulate the volume of

oil imported. It also feeds in to the Energy Efficiency

mission under the National Action Plan on Climate

Change)

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2) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)

on 5 February 2014 approved the proposal of the

Ministry of Home Affairs to establish an emergency

response system for women and other vulnerable

groups who may face violence. The Geographical

Information System (GIS) based call-taking and

Geographical Positioning System (GPS)-based police

vehicle dispatch system will be able to respond to

distress calls and ensure speedy assistance to women.

What is the name of this system? –Integrated

Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) Platform (Distress or

emergency alarms generated by panic buttons,

landlines, mobiles through individual devices pioneered

by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) or

mobile phone applications would be tracked and

Emergency Response (ER) units will be dispatched to

attend the call. It will be integrated with the existing

Dial 100 system for seamless operation and

coordination between the two systems. The initiative

will provide 24 hours and 24X7 helpline service to

women in distress and an efficient and effective

response system to attend to their calls as well as for

alarms related to other emergency services such as

medical and disaster (fire etc.) by other responders in

an integrated manner. This project would obtain

funding from the Nirbhaya Fund. The project involves a

total expenditure of Rs. 321.69 crore)

3) North and South Korea on 5 February 2014 agreed to

hold reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

The reunions will take place at the Mount Kumgang

resort in North Korea between February 20 and 25.

Korean War took place in which years, which resulted

in separation of many families and which are now being

tried to rejoin through this agreement? – 1950-53 (This

war separated many families and is a highly sensitive

issue for the two neighbours. The two Koreas have

allowed temporary reunions of selected divided

families on a handful of occasions since a 2000 summit.

Many members of divided families are in their 70s and

80s and want to see their relatives one last time. If the

reunions go ahead, they will be the first since 2010. A

similar round of reunions was due to take place in

September, but was called off at the last minute by

North Korea)

4) Who won the Zurich Chess Challenge 2014, which

concluded at Zurich (Germany) on 5 February 2014? – Magnus Carlsen of Norway (World Chess Champion

Carlsen won the first major tournament since his World

Cha pio ship i o er I dia s Vish a atha A a d of India during November 2013. Carlsen scored a total of

10 points, 8 from Classical format and 2 from Rapid

format. Vishwanathan Anand was again out-of-form

and finished the championship at 5th place. Final

Standings : 1. Carlsen (10 points) 2 and 3 Caruana and

Aronian (9 points each) 4. Nakamura (7.5 points) 5.

Anand (5 points) and 6. Gelfand (4.5 points)

5) What is the name of the 4-day biennial defence

exhibition that commenced at New Delhi on 6 February

2014? – 8th DEFEXPO India (This biennial exhibition

seeks to showcase the best of Indian defence products,

technologies and services at a time when the

Government has made a number of important policy

and procedural changes relating to defence

manufacturing and acquisition. As many as 624

companies from 30 countries are taking part in this

exhibition. The Union Government is looking forward to

encourage strong partnerships between India and

international manufacturers capable of meeting I dia s growing defence needs through this exhibition)

6) Which Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh came to

highlight on 6 February 2014 after he gave notice for a

no- o fide e otio agai st his o part s UPA Govt. led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh? – Sabbam Hari (He and M Venugopala Reddy (TDP)

separately gave the notices for no-confidence motion

shortly before the Lok Sabha met for the day, a day

after Telangana issue rocked Parliament. The MPs from

Seemandhra, as well as those from the TDP, have been

protesting the division of Andhra Pradesh in the House.

Any move to bring a no confidence motion requires the

support of some 50 odd members 10% of the

membership of the House)

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February 8, 2014

1) The 2014 Winter Olympics commenced officially on 7

February 2014 at Sochi (Russia) with a breath-taking

opening ceremony at Fisht Olympic Stadium. This is

which edition of Winter Olympics? – 22nd(The official

name for this game is XXII Olympic Winter Games. The

motto of these games is – Hot. Cool. Yours . “o hi is

situated on the Black Sea coast bordering Georgia)

2) Whi h it is I dia s offi ial id for the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site? – Delhi Delhi s id for this prestigious status fo uses o Old Delhi s Shahjahanabad area – which served as the capital

under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan from 1638 to 1648

– and the British capital planned by architect Edwin

Lutyens. The deadline for submitting entries ended on

31 January 2014. Initially, of the seven historical cities

in Delhi, four figured in the dossier prepared for the

bid. Following consultations with international experts

and in line with UNESCO guidelines, the list was pruned

to just “hahjaha a ad a d Lut e s Delhi. Mu ai is also in contention as an alternative)

3) Which company will become India s first tele o player to be fully owned by a foreign company

follo i g appro al of o pa s FDI proposal the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 6

February 2014? – Vodafone (The CCEA on 6 February

appro ed the tele o ajor Vodafo e s ‘s 10,141

crore (or $1.6 billion) proposal to buy out minority

shareholders in its Indian unit. This is the single largest

foreign investment in the telecom sector)

4) The Indian Newspaper Society (INS), an umbrella

association of the Indian newspaper industry on 5

February 2014 rejected the Indian Readership Survey

I‘“ after the Media ‘esear h Users Cou il (MRUC), which carries out the survey, refused to

withdraw the controversial report. What was the

controversy associated with IRS 2013? – Numerous

newspaper groups claimed that IRS 2013 was riddled

with serious anomalies and did not reflect ground

realities (The IRS, conducted by research firm Nielsen,

is used by advertisers and media agencies as a metric to

decide in which newspapers to advertise in. 18 leading

publishers strongly condemned the survey in a joint

statement, citing glaring inconsistencies that included

wild swings in overall newspaper readership across

states. The entire advertising revenue of the print

industry depends on this survey)

5) As protests continued to rage over attacks on people

from the Northeast, the Central Government on 6

February 2014 announced the formation of a

committee that will examine the reasons behind such

attacks and suggest remedial measures. Who was

appointed as the head of this 6-member committee? – M.P. Bezbaruah (Bezbaruah is a retired bureaucrat

belonging to the Northeast. The committee headed by

him will examine various kinds of concerns, including

those regarding security of people from the

northeastern states. This committee has been

established to ensure that the rights of the people from

the northeast are ensured and such incidents do not

happen in future)

6) In a victory for working journalists and newspaper

employees, Supreme Court on 7 February 2014 upheld

the validity of the Majithia Wage Board, saying that its

recommendation are based on genuine consideration.

It also dis issed e spaper orga isatio s halle ge to the constitutional validity of the working journalists and

newspaper employees act. Now the recommendations

of Majithia Wage Board comes into effect from – April

2014 (The court held that the wage board will be

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implemented from 11 Nov 2011 when it was notified by

the government and the arrears from 11 Nov 2011 to

March 2014 will be paid to the employees in four equal

instalments spread over a period of one year and the

revised pay scales under the recommendation of the

board)

7) Which company launched its Celerio hatchback

featuring automatic transmission at the ongoing Auto

Expo at Greater Noida? – Maruti Suzuki (With the

Celerio Automatic, Maruti Suzuki has stirred up the

market for automatics. The Celerio has a 1-litre petrol

engine. The base variant of the manual transmission

version (LXi) has been priced at Rs. 3.90 lakh (ex-

showroom, Delhi) while the VXi has a price tag of Rs.

4.20 lakh and the ZXi, Rs. 4.50 lakh. The ZXi (optional) is

being offered for Rs. 4.96 lakh. According to automobile

experts, automatics were not popular because of their

lower mileage in comparison with manual transmission

cars. However, with Maruti claiming uniform mileage

for the manual and automatic transmission variants of

the Celerio, that perception may change)

8) What is the a e of Google s e orporate ideo-

conferencing product which was launched on 6

February 2014? – Chromebox (Chromebox video-

conferencing tool is available in the US at a starting

price of $999 and is to be released later this year in

Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand,

and Spain. As many as 15 people can take part in a

Chromebox video conference using smartphones,

tablets, laptops or other Internet linked computers)

February 9-10, 2014

1) India could return to the Olympic fold after 14

months of suspension by its parent body IOC, after the

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on 9 February 2014

successfully conducted its elections. Who was elected

as the new President of IOA? – N Ramachandran (N

Ramachandran is the President of World Squash

Federation and younger brother of BCCI chief N

Srinivasan. Kho Kho Federation of India president

Rajeev Mehta and All India Tennis Association chief Anil

Khanna were elected unopposed as secretary general

and treasurer respectively. Abhay Singh Chautala and

Lalit Bhanot were elected as president and secretary

general in the IOA polls on 5 December 2012, a day

after the IOC suspended India for government

interference and for allowing tainted persons in the

election process. The IOC had declared the elections

null and void. Chautala and Bhanot were barred from

contesting on the ground that they have been charge-

framed by a court of law)

2) Till February 2014, the Reserve Bank of India has

issued the certificate of authorisation to how many

non-bank entities for setting up and operating white

label ATMs (WLAs) in India? – Four (The entities which

got the permission are Tata Communications Payment

Solutions; Prizm Payment Services, Mumbai; Muthoot

Finance , Kochi and Vakrangee Limited, Mumbai. In

June 2012, the RBI issued guidelines permitting non-

bank entities to set up and operate WLAs in the country

after seeki g the ‘BI s authorisatio u der the

Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. Prior to

this, only banks were permitted to set up and operate

ATMs in India. As many as 17 entities had sought the

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RBI nod for WLAs. WLAs serve customers from all

banks and will be connected with the entire ATM

network in the country)

3) BCCI President N. Srinivasan was selected as the first

ever Chairman of International Cricket Council (ICC) on

8 February 2014. The decision was taken under a series

of revolutionary changes and reforms made in the

stru ture of ICC at its go er i g od s eeti g i Singapore, which effectively placed India (BCCI),

England (ECB) and Australia (CA) in charge of the game.

Which two cricket associations withheld their votes at

this meeting? – Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Sri

Lanka Cricket (SLC) – PCB and SLC abstained from

voting, citing need for more time to discuss the

proposals, while other eight full members backed the

reforms. N. Srinivasan will take his charge from July

2014.

4) Plastic notes in the denomination of Rs. 10 will be

introduced on a trial basis in which five cities in the

second half of 2014, as stated by the Union

Government on 7 February 2014 in the Parliament? –Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar

5) Who was selected as the new President of the

Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) on 7

February 2014? – R Sridharan (Sridharan, a Chennai-

based practicing company secretary, replaced

S.N.Ananthasubramnian as ICSI President. This is the

first time in several years that an incumbent ICSI Vice-

President has not gone on to become the President of

ICSI. It is tradition for the Vice-President to become the

President of the ICSI)

6) Indian public sector banks went on a two-day strike

from 10 February 2014 after the conciliation effort

made by the Central Chief Labour Commissioner to

avert the all-India bank strike scheduled failed. Which

bank union made a call for this strike? – United Forum

of Bank Unions – UFBU (The talks between the UFBU

a d the I dia Ba ks Asso iatio o er a fi e-year wage

revision package, held in New Delhi on 6 February 2014

failed as UFBU alleged that the bank managements had

nothing new to offer)

7) Which Chennai-headquartered vacation ownership

company merged into Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. (TCIL)

in a Rs 870-crore merger deal announced on 8 February

2014? – Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) – Post-merger,

Sterling will be a 100% subsidiary of TCIL. It will

continue, however, to retain its name, and be run

independently by its Managing Director, Ramesh

Ramanathan, and his team. The transaction is expected

to close by the fourth quarter of 2014, and the open

offer price will be announced later. The merger with

TCIL is expected to strengthen Sterling market position

as there are multiple natural synergies which both

companies will mutually benefit from)

February 11, 2014

1) Over 5,000 online activist groups, websites,

companies and online platforms came together on 11

February 2014 for a day long protest in opposition to

U ited “tates i tellige e age N“A s Natio al “e urit Age s ass sp i g regi e. What is the name given to this protest initiative? – The Day We Fight Ba k (The Day We Fight Back is a planned protest

agai st N“A s ass sur eilla e a d a o e oratio

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of late open-Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who was

the co-founder of Reddit. Popular groups like Mozilla,

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reddit and Boing Boing

gave their support to this initiative. Several interest

groups in various cities across the world, including from

India, pledged their support for the protest campaign)

2) The committee which investigated allegations of

spot-fixing and betting in the Indian Premier League

(IPL) submitted its report to the Supreme Court on 10

February 2014. Who headed this committee? – Justice

Mukul Mudgal (Supreme Court on 8 April 8 2013

appointed Justice Mudgal to enquire into the allegation

of spot-fixing in the IPL on a petition by Cricket

Association of Bihar. The report mainly concluded that

the allegations of betting and passing of information

against BCCI Chair a N. “ri i asa s so -in-law

Gurunath Meiyappan stand proved. The report also

concluded that Meiyappan was the face of Chennai

“uper Ki gs C“K a d reje ted “ri i asa s o te tio that he was merely a cricket enthusiast. The apex court

bench headed by Justice AK Patnaik, upon receiving the

report, said that they will pass appropriate order after

going through it)

3) Who was elected unopposed as the new Prime

Minister of Nepal on 10 February 2014? – Sushil

Koirala (Sushil Koirala is the President of Nepal

Congress and he was declared elected by the Nepali

Parliament after he got 405 votes in his support from a

total of 553 votes. Earlier the Nepali Congress and the

CPN-UML signed a seven-point agreement on 9

February to reconcile their differences over power-

sharing that was beginning to deepen the political

impasse in the country. The two parties also announced

the plan to prepare the draft of the new Constitution in

six months and promulgate in a year)

4) According to an announcement made by the Union

Government in the Parliament on 10 February 2014,

which two new major ports are to be established by

2020? – Sagar in West Bengal andDugarajapatnam in

Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh (As per the

feasibility report prepared the date of completion of

the Phase-I of the project at Dugarajapatnam is 2018

and for Sagar 2019-20. Currently, there are 12 major

ports – Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Kolkata

(with Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin,

Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin

and Kandla. These ports handle 75% of the total cargo

traffic in the country)

5) A controversy arose over the appointment of an

Additional Director in the CBI with reports suggesting

that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC)

o erlooked the Ce tral Vigila e Co issio s CVC recommendation. Who was considered for

appointment by the ACC for this post due to which this

controversy came to fore? – Archana

Ramasundaram (Archana Ramasundaram is a 1980

batch Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer. The appointment of

Ms. Ramasundaram, earlier posted as chairperson of

the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board,

was cleared by the ACC. However, the CVC had,

instead, recommended the name of Ranjit Pachnanda,

a senior IPS officer of the 1983 batch, who is now

posted in West Bengal)

6) MILAN 2014, the biennial exercise of Navies,

concluded on 9 February 2014 at Port Blair (Andaman &

Nicobar). The six day event started on 4 February 2014

was the biggest edition since its inception in 1995. How

many countries took part in MILAN 2014? – Seventeen,

including hosts India (These 17 countries were India,

Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya,

Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand,

Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania

and Thailand. MILAN, with its emphasis on building

friendship and understanding between personnel at the

tactical level, also presented ample opportunities for

the sailors to build personal bonds and friendships a

food festival, cultural programmes and sports activities.

It was the first time that MILAN included a jungle

survival drill and a special sporting event in the form a

triathlon which saw healthy participation. 15 naval

ships of different countries took part in MILAN 2014)

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February 12, 2014

1) Who is the author of the o tro ersial ook The

Hindus: An Alternative History , hi h as ithdra from India by its publisher Penguin Books India on 11

February 2014? – Wendy Doniger(Wendy Doniger is a

U.S. Indologist who wrote this book, which published in

2009, elucidates the relationship between recorded

history and imaginary worlds. The book was withdrawn

by Penguin India following a court-backed settlement

with a Delhi-based voluntary group (Shiksha Bachao

Andolan Committee) which had objected to several

inaccuracies and biases in it)

2) I dia s a ti-corruption watchdog Central Vigilance

Commission (CVC) completed how many years of its

establishment on 11 February 2014? - 50 years (CVC,

the apex anti-corruption institution of the country, was

set up on 11 February 1964. On this occasion President

Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 2-day Golden

Jubilee Celebrations of CVC at New Delhi which was

presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh)

3) More than a year after being shunted out of the

Olympic movement due to tainted officials, India was

on 11 February 2014 welcomed back by the

International Olympic Committee (IOC) within days of

conducting a fresh election in the IOA (Indian Olympic

Association). When IOC had imposed a ban on IOA for

adheri g to the go er e t s “ports Code a d for allowing tainted persons to take part in the election

process? – On 4 December 2012 (The IOC lifted the 14-

month old ban on India after the IOA barred charge-

framed officials from its fresh election held on 9

February in which World Squash Federation chief N.

Ramachandran, was elected as the President)

4) What is the name of the Commissioner of the US

Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) who came to

India on 10 February 2014 and whose visit assumed

tremendous significance in the wake of the

recent string of punitive actions by the USFDA against

Indian pharmaceutical companies? – Margaret A.

Hamburg (On the occasion of this visit, India and the

U.S. on 10 February signed a pact under which the

U“FDA a d I dia s do esti drug regulator ill o share information before undertaking inspections of

companies and collaborate on inspection of drug units

for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliance)

5) Which railway recently launched a new android-

ased s artpho e app a ed HYLITE“ , hi h is claimed to be the first of its kind of app on Indian

Railways offering most of the enquiry needs of city-

based passengers? – South Central Railway – SCR (SCR

lau hed the HYLITE“ app, hi h sta ds for Hyderabad Live Train Enquiry System. This is a

GPS/GPRS-based smartphone application on android

platform for disseminating real time train information

via smartphones to the rail users in the twin cities of

Hyderabad and Secunderabad. By downloading HYLITES

app into their smart phones, the passengers can have

access to the real time running status of MMTS (Multi-

Modal Transport System) trains on the move. At

present SCR operates 121 MMTS services, ferrying 1.5

lakh commuters on an average per day. Using this app,

the MMTS users will be able to get the present location

of all MMTS trains on run at that moment and the

expected arrival timings at any boarding station of their

choice, to the selected destination stations)

6) What is the name of the Indian-origin executive who

has been appointed co-head of the Gold a “a hs securities division? – Ashok Varadhan (Varadhan is

urre tl the head of a ro tradi g i Gold a s

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Securities Division and will join Isabelle Ealet and Pablo

Salame as co-head of the di isio . Gold a “a hs securities division is the largest and most profitable of

the global investment bank s four u its

February 13, 2014

1) Which two Northeastern states are set to come on

rail ap as part of ‘ail a s e te sio of et ork i the Northeastern States as announced in the interim

Railway Budget for 2014-15, which was presented in

the Lok Sabha on 12 February 2014? – Meghalaya and

Arunachal Pradesh (The state of Meghalaya is all set to

come on the Railways map in this financial year itself,

as the Dudhnoi-Mehendipathar new line is getting

completed by March 2014. The capital (Itanagar) of

Arunanchal Pradesh would also soon be on the rail map

in this financial year, as Harmuti-Naharlagun newline is

expected to be commissioned shortly)

2) Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge presented the

interim Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha on 12 February

2014. How many new premium, express and passenger

trains were announced in this budget? – 17 new

premium trains, 38 express trains and 10 passenger

trains

(Click Here to see List of all New Trains)

3) 17 premium trains were announced in the interim

Railway Budget for 2014-15. What is the name given to

these premium trains, which will have dynamic fare

mechanism like airlines? – Jai Hi d (Encouraged by the

success of a premium AC special train between Delhi

and Mumbai, Railways announced to run 17 more such

trai s hriste ed Jai Hi d o us routes, with speed

exceeding the flagship Rajdhanis and touching at just a

few stations. Cutting down on the time of travel, these

trains will have passenger friendly timings keeping in

mind the professional and personal needs of the large

majority. Tickets will be booked under the dynamic fare

mechanism scheme much like the bookings done in

airlines with an advanced reservation period of only 15

days initially. No wait-listed ticket will be generated

expect for RAC and no cancellation would be allowed)

4) In the Interim Railway Budget of 2014-15 what is the

targeted Gross traffic receipt for 2014-15? – Rs.

160,775 crore (Out of this goods receipts are

expected Rs. 105,770 crore and passenger

receipts Rs. 45,255 crore)

5) What is the total Annual Rail Plan envisaged in the

interim Railway Budget? – Rs. 64,305 crore(with a

budgetary support of Rs. 30,223 crore)

6) What is the name of the new umbrella of central

sector scheme which was introduced by merging

MNAIS (Modified National Agricultural Insurance

Scheme), WBCIS (Weather Based Crop Insurance

Scheme) and CPIS (Coconut Palm Insurance Scheme)

throughout the country from Rabi 2013-14? – Natio al Crop I sura e Progra e – NCIP

7) Which player came out as the most expensive player

for the 7th edition of IPL, auction for which was held on

12 February 2014? – Yuvraj Singh (He was purchased

for a staggering price of Rs. 14 crore by Royal

Challengers Bangalore (RCB). This is the highest amount

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paid so far for a pla er i the IPL s histor . Delhi Daredevils acquired Dinesh Karthik for Rs. 12.5 crore

and Kevin Pietersen for Rs. 9 crore)

February 14, 2014

1) What is the a e of I dia s first pu lic sector unit

(PSU), the revival plan for which was approved by the

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 13

February 2014? – ITI Limited, which was formerly

known as Indian Telephone Industries Ltd (The

company was established in 1948 and was incorporated

in 1950 under the then Mysore Companies Act, 1938

and later converted as the first PSU of the country to

assist the Government in the sensitive and strategic

telecommunication field. The company was referred to

the Board of Industrial and Financial Restructuring

(BIFR) in 2004-05 and declared a sick company. BIFR

had recommended a revival plan for ITI Ltd. The revival

plan will be supported through financial restructuring

by fund infusion of Rs. 4,156.79 crore)

2) RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan announced on 12

February 2014 that in coming days Indian citizens

without a bank account would be able to withdraw

cash from an ATM (automated teller machine) with the

help of mobile technology. Payment banks will play

important role in facilitating this system under which a

payment system will facilitate funds transfers from

bank account holders to those without accounts

through ATMs. Which committee had recently

recommended establishment of payment banks? – Nachiket More Committee on Financial Inclusion (The

interesting proposal essentially is that the sender can

go to an ATM with a participating bank and ask the

money to be withdrawn from his account. The

intermediary then processes the payment and sends a

code via mobile to the recipient. The recipient takes

that code to the nearest ATM of that participating

bank, punches in the code and withdraws the money)

3) The United States ended its nine-year hands-off

distance from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

with U.S. Ambassador Nancy J. Powell meeting him in

Gandhinagar on 13 February 2014. The U.S.

Go er e t had a elled Nare dra Modi s isa i 2005 under which act, which is applied rarely? – The

Immigration and Nationality Act (This rarely applied

U.S. legislation bars grants of visa to applicants such as

convicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic who might

have indulged in severe violation of religious freedom.

However, the U.S. govt. is still silent on revoking the

visa ban imposed on Modi. Gujarat is not only the

location of several American start-ups but the site of a

multi-billion-dollar site for nuclear power reactors – the

biggest single ticket investment opportunity for the U.S.

economy in India. While the European Union was the

first in the Western bloc to end the deliberate isolation

of Narendra Modi ever since the Gujarat riots of 2002,

the Gujarat Chief Minister has been feted by other

countries including a high profile visit to China)

4) What is the name of the expelled Congress MP

whose name came to limelight for using the hazardous

pepper spray to prevent the introduction of the

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Telangana bill in the Lok Sabha leading to chaos and

disarray in House on 13 February 2014? – L.

Rajagopal (He represented Congress from Vijayawada.

The spray was used in the Well of the House as Home

Minister Sushilkumar Shinde introduced the Andhra

Pradesh Re-organisation Bill amid vociferous protests

by members from Seemandhra)

5) Balu Mahendra, who passed away on 13 February

2014 at a Chennai hospital, was associated with which

field? – Films (74-year old Balu Mahendra was a

renowned Tamil film director and ace cinematographer.

His asterpie es su h as Azhi atha Kola gal , Moo tra Pirai , Veedu , “a thi a ‘aga a d Va a Va a Pookal left a i deli le ark o the

Indian film industry)

February 15, 2014

1) Which insurgent group from India ranked fourth

among the top ten most active non-state armed groups

i , a ordi g to the IH“ Ja e s latest Glo al Terrorism and Insurgency Atta k I de , – a major

defence and business risk think-tank? – The Communist

Party of India (Maoist) – According to this study index a

total of 258 attacks were claimed by, or attributed to,

the CPI (Maoist), even though this represented a 29%

decrease from the 362 attacks recorded in 2012.

2) Which insurgent group was ranked first in the list of

the most active non-state armed groups in 2013 as

reported i the IH“ Ja e s latest Glo al Terroris a d Insurge Atta k I de , ? – Barisan Revolusi Nasional

(Thailand)

Following is the list of Top 10 most active non-state

armed groups in 2013

1. Barisan Revolusi Nasional (Thailand)

2. Taliban

3. Islami Chhatra Shibir (Bangladesh)

4. Communist Party of India – Maoist

5. Al-Qaeda in Iraq

6. Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabaab)

7. FARC (Colombia)

. Ne People s Ar Philippi es

9. Jabhat al-Nusra (Syria)

10. Unified Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist

3) India Post (Dept. of Posts) on 13 February 2014

launched electronic Indian Postal Order (e-IPO) for

Indian Citizens living in India. e-IPO facilitates paying

online fee for which purpose? – For seeking

information under the RTI (e-IPO is a facility to

purchase an Indian Postal Order electronically for

paying RTI fee online through e-Post Office Portal

(https://www.epostoffice.gov.in) or India Post web-site

(www.indiapost.gov.in). After paying the fee online one

just need to annex the print-out of the receipt to the

RTI application. Earlier last year the Department had

launched the e-IPO on 22 March 2013 for Indian

Citizens living abroad across the globe)

4) Indian market regulator SEBI on 13 February 2014

cleared new corporate governance norms that require

listed companies to justify CEO salaries, put in place

whistle-blower policies and have orderly succession

plans. What is the main objective of this new norm? –

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To exhort listed companies and their top executives

to follo Good Busi ess Pra ti es (The new norms

were cleared by the SEBI board on 13 February and the

relevant provisions would be incorporated in the listing

agreement soon. The board also cleared new KRA (KYC

Registration Agency) Regulations that would make it

easier for the investors to comply with Know Your

Client (KYC) requirements across various segments of

the capital markets)

5) Which cable television provider announced a deal to

acquire Time Warner Cable for $45 billion which would

create a company that could control three-quarters of

the US cable industry? – Comcast(Comcast is the

biggest cable television provider in the US and owns

the NBC broadcast network, as well as the Universal

film studio. With 22 million of its own pay TV customers

a d Ti e War er Ca le s illio , the o i ed entity will end up with about 30 million subscribers in

the US when the deal is complete. However, any

merger is likely to face tight scrutiny from US

regulators. Time Warner Cable has been the subject of

an eight-month takeover battle by smaller cable

operator Charter Communications. The deal comes

after Time Warner Cable rejected a $60bn bid from

Charter Communications during January 2014)

6) I dia s first G o ile ser i e as lau hed o February 2014 by Bharti Airtel in association with Apple

in which city? – Bangalore (According to the joint

announcement made by Bharti Airtel and Apple,

uto ers possessi g Apple s iPho e s a d iPho e will be able to use 4G services in the city as these

phones support the 2300MHz TD-LTE band that Airtel is

using for 4G services in the city. Bharti Airtel also

claimed that it was the first operator in India to

officially bring the 4G services to the country in 2012.

But that service was only data service and now both 4G

data as well as voice service is being provided)

7) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal resigned from

his post o Fe ruar after his go er e t s id to table the Janlokpal Bill in the Assembly failed.

Opposition parties BJP and Congress termed the bill as

unconstitutional and voted against its tabling. Arvind

Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government

re ai ed at Delhi s hel for ho a da s? – 48

days (Arvind Kejriwal took charge as Delhi CM on 28

December 2013)

February 16-17, 2014

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1) Which state government became the first to enact

the Lokayukta Bill within the three-month deadline

following the passage of the Lokpal Bill by Parliament in

December 2013? – Odisha (The State Assembly on on

14 February 2014 passed the Odisha Lokayukta Bill,

2014, with provision of keeping Chief Minister, ex-Chief

Ministers, other ministers and public servants under

the purview of a six-member anti-corruption panel. The

Bill, introduced in the Assembly on 12 February was

unanimously passed after a two-day discussion. The Bill

has provisions similar to that of the Central Act which

was passed in Parliament in December, 2013)

2) Who is the author of the ook ModiNo i s , hi h was released on 15 February 2014? – Sameer Kochhar

(This book presents the vision behind the Gujarat Chief

Mi ister Nare dra Modi s e o o i a d de elop e t strategies and focuses on the Gujarat story. The book

tells how Modi brought about a sea change through his

unique brand of ModiNomics)

3) Who broke pole- ault great “ergei Bu ka s ear old indoor pole vault world record on 15 February

2014? – Renaud Lavillenie of France (Lavillenie broke

Bu ka s re ord of . eters hi h he set o February 1993 by crossing 6.16 meters. Incidentally this

re ord as also reated i Bu ka s ho e to of at Donetsk (Ukraine), where he created this record more

than 20 years ago and Bubka was among the audience

too. Bubka, the Olympic champion in 1988, set multiple

indoor and outdoor world records including the top

seven indoor marks. Renaud Lavillenie is the gold

medallist of 2012 Olympic Games)

4) Union Govt. on 14 February 2014 approved the

setting up of two plants to manufacture semiconductor

chips in India by two business consortia involving total

investment of around Rs 63,412 crore. Where these

two plants would be set up? – Uttar Pradesh and

Gujarat The usi ess o sortiu o sisti g of I dia s Jaiprakash Asso iates, IBM a d Israel s To er Jazz ill set up a plant at a cost of Rs 34,399 crore near the

Yamuna Expressway in UP. The second consortium of

France- ased “TMi roele tro i s, I dia s H“MC Technologies (Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Corporatio a d Mala sia s “ilterra, ill set up a pla t in Prantij in Gujarat at a cost of Rs 29,013 crore)

5) Which Indonesian volcano started erupting on 14

February 2014 which resulted in closing-up of

operatio s at ou tr s se e i ter atio al airports? – Mount Kelud (This volcano stopped erupting on 15

February but white smoke was still billowing up to 3

kilometres high from its crater. The airports were later

opened 16 February onwards after volcanic activity

subsided)

6) Who resigned as the Director General of Cricket in

the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on 15 February 2014?

– Javed Miandad (Miandad who is serving as Director-

General cricket in the board since 2008, sent his

resignation letter to the new PCB chief, Najam Sethi

just four days after the government sacked Zaka Ashraf

as Chairman and dissolved the governing body. Since

Ashraf was reinstated as Chairman last month by the

Islamabad High Court. Miandad who played 124 Tests,

took over a central role in the board affairs and was

appointed to several committees)

February 18, 2014

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1) Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented

the Vote-on-Account on 17 February 2014, which

would take care of union expenses until the

go er e t s ter e ds i Ma . What the expected fiscal deficit was for 2013-14, as announced in

this vote-on-account? – 4.6% of GDP (The fiscal deficit,

which is the gap between expenditure and revenue,

was 4.9% of GDP in the previous financial year. Earlier

fiscal deficit was expected to be around 4.8%. As per

current indications, the fiscal deficit has come down

mainly on account of expenditure compression and

higher realisation from the 2G spectrum auction)

(Click Here for – Interim Budget at a Glance)

2) What is the expected agricultural growth rate for

2013-14 as announced in the Vote-on-Account on 17

February 2014? – 4.6%

3) Union govt. announced a moratorium for

educational loans in the Vote-on-Account presented on

17 February 2014. With this announcement 9 lakh

student borrowers are expected to benefit to the

extent of Rs. 2,600 crore. Educational loans taken

before which year would be given moratorium? –2009 (P. Chidambaram proposed a moratorium period

for all education loans taken up to 31 March 2009, and

outstanding at the close of the 2012-13 fiscal. However,

such student-borrowers, estimated to be in the vicinity

of nine lakh, would have to pay interest for the period

beginning 1 January 2014)

4) What is the total outlay for defence for 2014-15 as

announced in the Vote-on-Account on 17 February

2014? – Rs. 2,24,000 crore, which is 10% more than

that of 2013-14

5) A venture capital fund for scheduled castes (SCs)

with an initial capital of Rs. 200 crore was announced in

the Vote-on-Account presented on 17 February 2014.

Which financial entity would set up this VC fund? – IFCI

6) Which two business segments were exempted from

the service tax in the Vote-on-Account presented on 17

February 2014? – Blood banks and provider of rice

warehousing facilities

7) Justices Rajesh Kumar Agarwal and Nuthalapati

Venkata Ramana on 17 February 2014 assumed charge

as Supreme Court judges. With their inclusion Supreme

Court s stre gth of judges has go e to – Thirty

one (This strength includes Chief Justice P. Sathasivam.

The sanctioned strength of judges in the apex court is

31 including the Chief Justice)

8) Who was asked by Italian President Giorgio

Napolitano to form a new government on 17 February

a d is poised to e o e Ital s ou gest Prime

Minister to take place of his predecessor Enrico Letta?

– Matteo Renzi (39-year old Renzi is a leftist leader and

he as o i ated as Ital s ou gest-ever prime

minister after a daring power grab that has been

welcomed by investors but has left many Italians

skeptical. As head of the Democratic Party, Renzi

engineered the ouster of his predecessor Enrico Letta-

a member of his own party- accusing him of failing to

live up to reform pledges in his stormy 10 months in

go er e t. ‘e zi ould e o e Ital s ou gest e er prime minister, two months younger than Benito

Mussolini when he came to power in 1922)

9) New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum and B J

Watling broke the world record for the highest sixth-

wicket partnership with a 352-run stand against India in

the ongoing second cricket Test in Wellington on 17

February 2014. They broke record of which

partnership? – Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna

Jayawardene (Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna

Ja a arde e s re ord stood at ru s, hi h the

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scored against India for 6th wicket in 2009. In the

course of the partnership, McCullum became only the

sixth player in history and the first from New Zealand to

score two double centuries in back-to-back Test

matches. Watling joined McCullum on 16 February

when New Zealand were tottering at 94 for the loss of

five wickets)

February 19, 2014

1) A historic bill to carve out Telangana State out of

Andhra Pradesh was on 18 February 2014 passed by

the Lok Sabha amid din and strong protests by

members from Seemandhra region. The Andhra

Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2014 was adopted by voice

vote with main opposition BJP supporting Congress.

Which major parties opposed this bill? – CPI(M),

Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress (There was

no live telecast by the Lok Sabha TV for 90 minutes

during clause by clause consideration of the bill before

its passage and this decision of Lok Sabha Speaker

Meira Kumar was opposed vehemently by many

members saying it was against the democratic norms

a d a la k da i the ou tr s de o ra

2) In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on 18

February 2014 granted relief to the three convicts in

the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case – Murugan,

Santhan and Perarivalan – by commuting their death

sentence into life term. What was the ground for

commuting death sentence of these three convicts? – On the grounds of inordinate delay in disposal of their

mercy petitions by the President (A three-judge Bench

headed by the Chief Justice P. Sathasivam rejected the

contention of the Centre that the three convicts did not

deserve any mercy as they never showed remorse for

the killing of the former Prime Minister and they

enjoyed their prison life. In May 2012, the apex court

had transferred to itself the writ petitions filed by three

convicts in the Madras High Court challenging the

rejection of their clemency plea by the former

President Pratibha Patil after 11 years. The High Court

on 30 August 2011 stayed their execution)

3) What is the name of the proposed agency for better

a age e t of the go er e t s orro i gs hi h was announced by the Union Finance Minister P.

Chidambaram in his vote-on-account on 17 February? – Public Debt Management Agency –

PDMA (Chidambaram announced that the Centre is

ready with the Public Debt Management Agency Bill

and that the proposed agency will be established as a

non-statutory body and is expected to begin work in

the next fiscal. Former finance minister Pranab

Mukherjee had first announced setting up of PDMA in

his budget speech of 2011-12. The PDMA is expected to

consist of RBI officials, civil servants and people from

the private sector)

4) Italy on 18 February 2014 recalled its Ambassador to

India for consultations, asserting it will decide to deal

with the situation of ambiguous and unreliable

behaviour by Indian authorities in matter pertaining to

involving marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore

Girone, facing murder charges. What is the name of the

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Italian Ambassador who has been recalled? – Daniele

Mancini

5) Amarkant, who passed away at the age of 88 years at

Allahabad on 17 February 2014, was associated with

which field? – Hindi Literature (Amarkant, a winner of

the Jnanpith Award in 2009, is considered as one of the

prominent writers of story writing pioneered by Munshi

Pre Cha d. Ka t s pro i e t o els are Inhin

Hathiyaron Se”, Katili Raah ke Phool , Sookha Patta , Kale Ujle a d Bee h ki Dee ar . His other story

olle tio s are Zindagi Aur Jonk , Desk Ke Log , Maut Ka Nagar , Mitra Milan a d Kuhasa . He had

won several awards, including Jnanpith award in 2009,

Sahitya Acdemy Award in 2007, Uttar Pradesh Hindi

Sansthan Award, Maithli Sharan Gupta Award,

A arka t Keerti “a a fro MP Go t. a o g others)

6) Which express train will become the first train in

India to be attached with a Braille-embedded AC coach

for visually-challenged passengers? – Purushottam

Express (Purushottam Express is a superfast train

running between New Delhi and Puri (Odisha). In a first

of its kind, the Railways manufactured an AC three-tier

coach with Braille signages as part of its social

commitment to make trains and stations more-friendly

towards specially-abled passengers. This coach would

be first attached to the Purushottam Express by the

end of February 2014. Expected to be a major step for

facilitation of visually-impaired passengers during

journey in trains, Railways plans to equip more AC and

non-AC coaches with Braille-embedded signages)

7) Who became the first Indian bowler to grab a hat-

trick in the under-19 cricket World Cup in a match

against Scotland on 17 February 2014? – Kuldeep

Yadav (Kuldeep is a left-arm spinner from Kanpur (UP)

and he and Aamir Gani were the pick of Indian bowlers

ith four i kets apie e. Kuldip s histori feat a e i the 19th and 21st over)

February 20, 2014

1) Which company will purchase mobile messaging

service WhatsApp for up to $19 billion as announced on

19 February 2014? – Facebook The orld s iggest social networking company Facebook is paying $12

billion in Facebook stock and $4 billion in cash for

WhatsApp. I additio , the app s fou ders a d employees will be granted $3 billion in restricted stock

that will vest over four years after the deal closes.

Facebook will keep WhatsApp as a separate service,

just as it did with Instagram, which it bought for about

$715.3 million. WhatsApp has more than 450 million

monthly active users. In comparison, Twitter had 241

million users at the end of 2014)

2) Which telecom company became the first in India to

cross 200 million customer mark recently? –Bharti

Airtel (Bharti Airtel made this announcement on 19

February 2014. It took 14 years for Bharti Airtel to

reach 100 million subscribers but only five years to add

the next 100 million. Bharti Airtel is the largest telecom

operator in India, both in terms of customers and

revenues. The company ranks as the fourth largest

mobile operator in the world and it started mobile

operations in India in 1995)

3) What is the name of the bill which was passed in the

Rajya Sabha on 19 February and which provides for

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protection of livelihoods rights, social security of street

vendors and for regulation of urban street vending in

the country? – The Street Vendors (Protection of

Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill,

2014 (The Provisions of the Bill are aimed at creating

conducive atmosphere for street vendors, and

designated spaces for them to carry out their business.

The Bill provides for constitution of a Town Vending

Authority in each Local Authority, which is the fulcrum

of the Bill, for implementing the provisions of the Bill,

survey of all existing street vendors, and subsequent

survey at-least once in every five years, and issue of

certificate of vending to all the street vendors identified

in the survey, with preference to SC, ST, OBC, women,

persons with disabilities and minorities)

4) New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum became the

first Kiwi batsman to hit a Test triple-hundred when he

scored 302 runs against India on 18 February 2014 on

the fifth day of the second and final cricket Test of the

test series. He o ertook hi h ats a s s ore to become highest individual Test scorer for New Zealand?

– Martin Crowe, who scored 299 against Sri Lanka at

Wellington in 1991 (With the help of this mammoth

innings New Zealand was successful in drawing the

second test and won the two test series by 1-0)

5) What is the name of second book written by

celebrated writer JK Rowling under pseudonym which

will be released during June 2014? – The

Silkworm (JK Rowling is the author of the popular

Harr Potter series a d the ook The Cuckoo’s Calling as her first o el ritte u der a pseudo . The

Silkworn ill agai feature Cor ora “trike, the pri ate dete ti e she i trodu ed i The Cuckoo’s Calling . ‘o ert Gal raith is the adopted pseudo of JK Rowling)

February 21, 2014

1) The Union Cabinet on 20 February 2014 cleared a

proposal for setting up the much-awaited Equal

Opportunities Commission (EOC), a statutory body to

check discrimination of minority communities in jobs

and education. Which committee had recommended

setting up of such a panel? – Justice Sachar

Committee The EOC s a date is to e sure that o minority community is discriminated against on

religious grounds by redressing complaints. It has to

make binding recommendations that people from

minority communities find adequate representation in

government employment or educational institutions.

The Sachar Committee that studied the socio-economic

condition of the minorities in India had noted that

though Muslims constituted 18.5% of the population,

their representation in bureaucracy was just about

2.5%)

2) Which language on 20 February 2014 became the

si th la guage of the ou tr to get lassi al la guage status after the Union Cabinet approved it? – Odia (With this Odia came into the same league as

Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, which

have already been conferred the classical language

status. Odia is billed as the first language from the Indo-

Aryan linguistic group and the case for making it a

classical language was also premised on the fact that it

has no resemblance to Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali and

Telugu. Once a language is declared classical, it gets

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financial assistance for setting up a centre of excellence

for the study of that language and also opens up an

avenue for two major awards for scholars of eminence.

Besides, the University Grants Commission can be

requested to create – to begin with at least in Central

Universities – a certain number of professional chairs

for classical languages for scholars of eminence in the

language)

3) The Rajya Sabha cleared the deck for formation of

new state of Telangana by passing the contentious

Telangana Bill on 20 February 2014. Union Govt. also

a ou ed a ……poi t de elop e t pa kage for successor states of Andhra Pradesh to cope up with the

situation. – Six (A six-point development package for

successor states of Andhra Pradesh was announced.

For purposes of Central assistance, Special Category

Status will be extended for a period of five years to the

successor state of Andhra Pradesh comprising 13

districts. Tax incentives will be offered to promote

industrialisation and economic growth in both the

states, on the lines of those extended to some other

states)

4) The National Mission for Green India (NMGI)

received approval from the Cabinet Committee on

Economic Affairs on 20 February 2014 as a Centrally-

sponsored scheme. The project, which has a planned

investment of about Rs. 13,000 crore during the 12th

Plan Period, aims to add six to eight million hectares of

forest cover as well as improve degraded forests over

10 years. NMGI comes under which Action Plan? – National Action Plan on Climate Change (The project

is one of the eight missions under the National Action

Plan on Climate Change. Some studies estimate that

the new and restored forests will absorb about 43

million tonnes of green house gases. About Rs. 46,000

crore will be spent on this scheme. It is estimated that

a out % of I dia s forests are degraded urre tl

5) Which major port of the country was renamed

Kamarajar Port as announced by the Union

Government on 20 February 2014? – Ennore Port in

Chennai (The Ennore Port in Chennai is one among the

12 major ports in the country. The Cabinet renamed

Ennore Port Ltd (EPL) as Kamraj Port Ltd (KPL). The

port, which started functioning in 2001, is a schedule B

Mini Ratna Company. It has seen export of 4,49,720

automobile units till December 2013 including by

automobile manufacturers like Nissan, Ford and Ashok

Leyland from Chennai, Toyota from Bangalore and

Honda from Delhi)

February 22, 2014

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1) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during February 2014

constituted a committee to examine the

recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative

Reforms Commission (FSLRC) relating to capacity

building in the banking sector. The committee has been

tasked with the responsibility of identifying capacity

building requirements keeping in view the role of

financial sector and what it should deliver. Who is

heading this 9-member committee? – G

Gopalakrishna (G Gopalakrishna is an Executive

Director in the RBI. The committee will examine the

skills required at various levels/operations to deliver on

the required role and also identify qualifications

relevant to specific areas of operation in banks and

non-banks. Further, it will evolve methodologies for

prescribing certification for required qualifications)

2) What is the proje tio for I dia s GDP gro th rate for 2014-15 as announced by the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) on 20 February 2014? – 5.4% (However, the IMF projected a growth rate of

4.6% for 2013-14. IMF said the Indian economy is likely

to expand by 5.4% on stronger global scenario,

improving export competitiveness, a favourable

monsoon and a confidence boost after recent policy

actions)

3) What is the name of the chairperson and managing

director of Kolkata-headquartered United Bank of India

(UBI), who took voluntary retirement on 20 February

2014? – Archana Bhargava (Archana Bhargava was

appoi ted as U ited Ba k s CMD i April a d her appointment was up to February-end 2015. Her

retirement comes in the wake of a surge in bad loans

and the bank posting a loss in the third quarter. United

Ba k s gross o -performing assets jumped 194%

to Rs. 8,545.50 crore (includes fresh slippage

of Rs. 3,172 crore in the October-December quarter) as

at December-end 2013 against Rs. 2,902 crore as at

December-end 2012)

4) The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs on 20 February

2014 launched an online shopping portal for sale of

authentic tribal products. This portal

(eshop.tribesindia.com) is being managed and operated

by which body coming under Ministry of Tribal Affairs?

– Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development

Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) – Main objective

of developing this portal is to create a niche market for

indigenous artisans and to provide branding, source

certification and developing standards for tribal

products)

5) Which South Asian country on 21 February 2014

e tered i to a agree e t ith Japa s Nissa Motor Co to supply electric cars for its taxis and government

fleet aiming to reduce reliance on imported oil? – Bhutan (Under the agreement Nissan will supply its

Leaf electric car and set up charging stations in Bhutan.

Bhutan, with a population of 7,20,000, produces and

exports hydro-ele tri it . But it s eager to redu e its dependence on fossil fuels shipped in from abroad. The

Leaf is the orld s est-selling electric car, selling a

cumulative 1,00,000 so far since going on sale in late

2010, comprising 45% of the global electric vehicle

market)

6) Bor Wildlife Sanctuary was recently upgraded to the

status of a tiger reserve. This sanctuary is situated in

which state? – Maharashtra (Bor Sancturay is situated

near Hingni in Wardha district. With this total number

of tiger reserves in Maharashtra have gone up to six.

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Four new wildlife sanctuaries of Umred-Karandla, new

Nagzira, new Bor and new Navegaon were also created

by the state Wildlife Board)

February 23-24, 2014

1) Curtains came down on the 22nd Winter Olympics

2014 at Sochi (Russia) on 23 February 2014 with a

breathtaking closing ceremony. Which country topped

the medals tally in these games to claim the first spot?

– Russia (Hosts Russia won 13 gold medals, 11 silver

and 9 bronze medals to take its total tally to 33 medals.

Norway came second with 11 gold medals and Canada

claimed third spot with 10 gold medals)

Final Medals Tally (First Five Standings)

Country Gold Silver Bronze Total

Russia 13 11 9 33

USA 9 7 12 28

Norway 11 5 10 26

Canada 10 10 5 25

Netherlands 8 7 9 24

2) 23rd Winter Olympics of 2018 would be held at – Pyeongchang, South Korea (Pyeongchang was handed

over the Olympic flag of Winter Olympics at the closing

ceremony of 23rd Games held on 23 February 2014)

3) Matteo ‘e zi as s or i as Ital s ou gest Pri e Minister ever on 22 February 2014 after he cobbled

together a government he says will change the face of

the cou tr s politi s a d e o o . Who as the youngest Italian Prime Minister before Renzi? – Benito

Mussolini, who came to power in 1922 (Renzi, the 39-

year-old leader of the Centre-Left Democratic Party,

unveiled his government on 21 February and said the

broad coalition will bring hope to the economically

stagnant country. He had been serving as Florence

mayor when he engineered a power grab last week to

effectively force fellow Democrat, Enrico Letta, to step

down after 10 months at the helm of a fragile, often-

squabbling coalition)

4) Who will become the first Goan woman judge to be

elevated to the High Court? – Anuja

Prabhudessai (Anuja Prabhudessai is the North Goa

Principal and District and Sessions Judge and she will be

elevated as the Bombay High Court judge)

5) Whi h I dia it s u i ipal orporatio as registered in the Guinness Book of World Records for

measuring the blood pressure of over 8,000 people in a

matter of just eight hours? – Vadodara, Gujarat (The

Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) achieved the

feat on April 7, 2013 on the occasion of the World

Health Day. A team of 227 doctors were part of the

exercise in which blood pressure of 8,368 people was

counted in eight hours. VMC was presented the

certificate on 21 February 2014)

6) Who defeated India in the quarter-finals of U-19

Cricket World Cup on 22 February 2014 to oust it out of

the tournament? – England

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7) US food and drug regulator USFDA (US Food and

Drug Administration) during February 2014 imposed

first ban under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention

and Tobacco Control Act and this ban pertains to a

product from India. Which product is this? – Bidi (USFDA for the first time have banned the sale and

i port of idi produ ts ade a I dia o pa as they did not meet regulatory standards. According to

a statement made by it products manufactured by

Pune-based Jash International – Sutra Bidis Red, Sutra

Bidis Menthol, Sutra Bidis Red Cone and Sutra Bidis

Menthol Cone – were found to be not substantially

equivalent to tobacco products commercially

marketed. This means they can no longer be sold or

distributed in interstate commerce or imported into the

US)

February 25, 2014

1) Whi h Afri a ou tr ’s Preside t o Fe ruar 2014 signed a controversial anti-gay bill that allows

harsh penalties for homosexual offenses, despite

appeals fro “outh Afri a’s retired Ar h ishop a d Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu and U.S. President

Bara k O a a? †Uganda(Ugandan President Yoweri

Museveni this bill, which is popular in Uganda, but

rights groups have condemned it as draconian in a

country where homosexuality is already illegal. The law

punishes first-time offenders with 14 years in jail. It also

sets life imprisonment as the penalty for acts of

aggravated homosexuality. The bill originally proposed

the death penalty for some homosexual acts, but that

was later removed amid international criticism)

2) Who was named as the interim President of Ukraine

on 23 February 2014, a day after the Parliament

impeached President Viktor Yanukovych? – Oleksandr

Turchynov (Turchynov is the speaker of the Ukrainian

Parliament and his appointment also cleared the path

for formation of a new government. The Parliament

impeached Viktor Yanukovych after he rejected a trade

pact between the European Union and Ukraine. The

protests against Yanukovych started during November

2013 after his apparent move to incline towards

Russian Govt. and moving away from European

influence. Over 80 people died since protests turned

violent on 18 February)

3) I dia’s first all- o e a k †Bharati a Mahila Bank (BMB) tied up with which public-sector general

insurance company for launching 3 health insurance

products for women account holders of the bank?

†New India Assurance (These policies, BMB Sakhee,

BMB-Nirbhaya and BMB-Parivar Suraksha provide

customised package of health insurance policies from

New India Assurance. While Sakhee Policy aimed at

rural women, offers covers up to Rs 50,000, the

Nirbhaya schemes offers cover limit up to Rs 5 lakh.

Parivar Suraksha offers family floater facilities)

4) Which team won the second edition of the Hero

Hockey India league (HHIL), final of which was held on

23 February 2014 at Ranchi? – Delhi Waveriders (Delhi

Waveriders beat Punjab Warriors 6-4 in the final via

shootouts. Ranchi Rhinos won the third place downing

Uttar Pradesh Wizards 4-3 via tie-breaker)

5) Who became the first Indian to be elected President

of Administrative Tribunal of the Asian Development

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Bank (ADB)? – Lakshmi Swaminathan (Swaminathan is

the seventh president of the Tribunal. She is the first

Indian to become the president of the Tribunal. Of the

previous six presidents, two had been from the US, two

from Philippines, one from Sri Lanka and one from the

UK. Swaminathan is a jurist in administrative law and

was the vice chairman of the Principal Bench at Delhi of

the Central Administrative Tribunal. Manila

headquartered ADB consists of 64 member countries,

including India)

6) Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia on 24

February 2014 announced launching three devices

based on Android platform. This is the first time that

the company has used the ever-growing Android

operating system for its phones. With this Nokia wants

to join the growing demand for Android-based

smartphone market in emerging markets. What is the

name given to this Android- ased pho e series? †X-

Series (Nokia is to launch three phones in under this X

series – Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL. Android

operating system is owned by Google and Nokia has till

now preferred Windows platform for its smartphones)

February 26, 2014

1) What is the name of the bitcoin exchange, which was

once the largest bitcoin exchange in the world and

which on 25 February 2014 came to news for virtually

disappearing from the internet with many millions of

dollars of customer deposits? – MtGox MtGo s website was down on 25 February and its founder was

unaccounted-for during the day. MtGox is a Tokyo-

based exchange which allowed users to trade Bitcoins

for US Dollars and several other currencies. MtGox was

going through some serious problems after news

surfaced that almost 750,000 bitcoins (currently worth

more than £200m) were missing in the exchange and

this theft went unnoticed for several years)

2) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)

during February 2014 gave its approval for foreign

equity participation up to 74% of the paid-up capital of

which private bank based in Kerala? –Federal

Bank (The 74% foreign equity permission comes with

sub-limit of 49% for FIIs and 24% for NRIs)

3) State-run United Bank of India (UBI), which is going

through serious financial mess on account of huge

increase in non-performing assets (NPAs), is expected

to be provided with how much additional funds by the

union govt. to meet its capital requirements? – Rs.

1,000 crore (The bank will issue perpetual non-

cumulative preference shares to the govt. to over the

risis reated its alloo i g NPAs. UBI s CMD Archana Bhargava had quit the post last week citing

health problems. The bank had been earlier stopped

from issuing any loans above Rs. 10 crore by the RBI)

4) I dia s airports regulator the Airports E o o i Regulatory Authority (AERA) on 25 February 2014

scrapped the user development fee (UDF) being levied

at which international airport with effect from 1 April

2014? – Hydera ad s ‘aji Ga dhi I ter atio al

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Airport (With this cost of flying from Rajiv Gandhi

International Airport will become cheaper from 1 April.

Currently, domestic passengers departing from

Hyderabad airport have to pay a UDF of Rs 430 plus

taxes (effectively Rs 484 per passenger) and

international passengers Rs 1,700 plus taxes (Rs 1,910).

UDF is a charge levied by airports on passengers as part

of their revenue stream)

5) Which public sector undertaking (PSU) was recently

kept out of the proposed Central Public Sector

Enterprises (CPSE) Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)? – PowerGrid Corporation (With the exit of PowerGrid

Corporation the CPSE ETF would now consist of 10 PSU

firms. These 10 PSUs are – ONGC, Coal India Limited,

GAIL, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Rural Electrification

Corporation (REC), Oil India Limited (OIL), Container

Corporation of India Limited (CCIL), Power Finance

Corporation (PFC), Engineers India Limited (EIL) and

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The proposed CPSE

ETF will serve as an additional mechanism for the

government to monetise its shareholdings in those

CPSEs that eventually form part of the ETF basket)

6) What is the name of the interim chief of Pakistani

Taliban who was shot dead on 24 February 2014 by

unidentified gunmen in the militant stronghold of

North Waziristan? – Asmatullah Shaheen(Shaheen was

o the Pakista ar s list of t e t ost a ted Taliban commanders, and had had a $120,000 bounty

placed on his head since 2009. He was appointed as

interim chief of the Pakistan Taliban following the

killing of Hakimullah Mehsud, the previous leader, in a

US drone strike on 1 November 2013)

February 27, 2014

1) Who was appointed as the new Chairman and

Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

Limited (ONGC Ltd.) on 26 February 2014? – Dinesh K.

Sarraf (The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet

(ACC) approved the appointment of Sarraf, who at

prese t is the Ma agi g Dire tor of ONGC s o erseas

arm, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL). Sarraf replaces

Vasudeva who turned 60 on 25 February and retires on

28 February. The Union Govt. earlier rejected Oil

Mi ister M. Veerappa Moil s proposal to gi e “udhir Vasudeva a post-retirement extension. ONGC Ltd. is

India s ost profita le o pa

2) Which Kilo-class submarine of the Indian Navy came

to news on 26 February 2014 for being involved in an

explosion in which two officers were feared dead and

seven other Navy personnel seriously injured? – INS

Sindhuratna (INS Sindhuratna is a Russian-origin Kilo

Class submarine of the Indian Navy which was involved

in an exercise along the Mumbai harbour when a

leakage in the battery compartment of the submarine

occurred. This is the tenth accident involving an Indian

Navy warship and the third submarine mishap in the

last seven months. Indian Navy went through one of

the most serious accidents involving a submarine on 14

August 2013 when INS Sindhurakshak suffered a major

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fire a d sa k at Mu ai s Na al Do k ard. a al crew members died in this accident)

3) Navy Chief Admiral D.K. Joshi resigned on 26

February 2014 taking moral responsibility over the

spate of mishaps involving naval warships in the last

seven months. He submitted his resignation hours after

submarine INS Sindhuratna had a mishap in which

seven sailors were taken seriously ill and two officers

were missing. How much service of Admiral Joshi was

left? – About 15 months (The Defence Ministry

immediately accepted his resignation and ordered that

Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral R.K. Dhowan

should take over as the Acting Chief till a regular Chief

is appointed. Admiral D.K. Joshi became the first

military chief to resign from his post since

independence)

4) What is the name of the volatility index launched by

the National Stock Exchange on 26 February 2014

which has been based on the index options prices of

Nifty? – India VIX (India VIX would provide future

contracts facility to investors and would help investors

hedge near-term volatility risks in their equity portfolio.

I dia VIX i di ates the i estor s per eptio of the arket s olatilit i the ear ter . The index depicts

expected market volatility over the next 30 calendar

days. A high India VIX value would suggest that the

market expects significant increase in volatility, while a

low value indicates the reverse. India VIX and Nifty

have a negative correlation)

5) Cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade on which route

resumed between India and Pakistan on 26 February

2014 after remaining suspended for over five weeks? – Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route (The PoK authorities

suspended the cross-LoC trade on 17 January 2014

after 114 packets of brown sugar were recovered from

a truck and the driver was arrested. The travel on

Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road was also suspended. The

trade between the two sides of Kashmir on Srinagar-

Muzaffarabad road resumed following agreement

between the two sides to this effect on 24 February)

6) Ennore port was on 26 February 2014 officially

renamed as Kamarajar Port Ltd. The decision, which

came a few days ago in the form of Union Cabinet

approval, was formalised with Union Shipping Minister

GK Vasan unveiling a plaque at a function organised by

the port at Chennai on 26 February. Tamil Nadu has the

maximum number of major ports (three) in India.

Which are the other two major ports in Tamil Nadu? – Chennai and Tuticorin

February 28, 2014

1) The University Grants Commission (UGC) on 27

February 2014 approved a key proposal to lower the

eligibility criteria for OBC students appearing for the

National Eligibility Test (NET) that determines entry into

teaching at higher education institutions. How much

relaxation was given to OBC students? – 5% (While so

far OBC students had to score a minimum 60% to be

eligible for the exam, they will now be given 5%

relaxation and will thus require 55% aggregate scores in

three subjects to be eligible to appear for UGC-NET.

General category students must score 60% to be

eligible)

2) Which eminent jurist on 27 February 2014 declined

to e part of the pro ess to sele t I dia s first Lokpal and thus giving a major embarrassment to the Union

Govt.? – Fali S. Nariman (Nariman informed the Prime

Mi ister s Offi e PMO that the pro ess to sele t Lokpal was such that most competent and most

independent would get overlooked. It is understood

that he was asked on 21 February to be the search

o ittee to sele t I dia s first Lokpal)

3) I dia s first Post Offi e “a i gs Ba k ATM as inaugurated on 27 February 2014 by Finance Minister

P. Chidambaram at – Chennai I dia s first Post Offi e Savings Bank ATM was inaugurated at Thiyagaraya

Nagar Head Post Office in Chennai. This initiative of

opening Post Office Savings Bank ATM is part of the

go er e t s ‘s. , rore IT oder isatio s he e for the Department of Posts specified in the interim

budget for 2014-15)

4) Who was elected by the Ukrainian parliament as the

ou tr s Pri e Mi ister o Fe ruar ? – Arseniy Yatsenyuk (Arseniy Yatsenyuk is the former

opposition leader and a close ally of former Prime

Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. He was backed by 371 of

417 participating deputies in the Parliament. Before his

election, Yatsenyuk vowed to sign an association

agreement with the European Union and promised to

keep Crimea inside Ukraine)

5) Which region on 25 February 2014 became the sixth

region in China to allow couples to have a second child

if either parent is an only child? – Shanghai “ha ghai s legislature passed a a e d e t to rela the it s birth control policy. The amendment, passed at a

meeting of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai

Mu i ipal People s Co gress, ill go i to effe t fro March 2014. Shanghai now faces a spate of

demographic challenges, including a low birth rate, an

aging population and an unbalanced population

structure. Similar reasons were cited when the third

plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China

Central Committee decided to ease the restrictions of

the decades-old one-child policy during November

2013. In addition to Shanghai, the cities of Beijing and

Tianjin, along with the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi

and Anhui have already made similar revisions easing

the restrictions of the one-child policy)

6) In which year China had introduced the one child

policy to tackle the then problem of explosive

population growth? – In 1979 (This policy was

introduced in 1979 to alleviate social, economic, and

environmental problems in China. However, this policy

is considered by many experts as a misnomer as the

policy allows many exceptions: rural families can have a

second child if the first child is a girl or is disabled, and

ethnic minorities are exempt)