General Awareness Test (August - 15) - Set 5

ANSWER: Uttar Pradesh

Explanation:
The Uttar Pradesh Tourism said the Taj had become the first historical monument in the world to have its own Twitter account.

ANSWER: Ajit Kumar Seth

Explanation:
He is a 1974-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, completed his extended tenure of four years at the Cabinet secretariat on 13th June 2015.

ANSWER: Ajinkya Rahane

Explanation:
Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane created a world record as he became the first non-keeper player to take eight catches in a Test match. He achieved the feat on the third day of the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle when he caught Rangana Herath at slip off Amit Mishra.

ANSWER: Bangladesh

Explanation:
The MoU was signed during a maiden meeting of the Joint Task Force on Fake Currency Notes (JTFFC) in Dhaka.

ANSWER: Axis Bank

Explanation:
The bank launched contactless multi-currency forex cards in partnership with Visa - the payments gateway company. Axis Bank would be the first bank to issue multi-currency contactless cards or 'tap and pay' cards which can be loaded in 15 currencies such as Swiss Franc and Hong Kong dollar besides the three main currencies - US dollar, Euro and British Pound.

ANSWER: Bihar

Explanation:
About half of the Prime Minister's Bihar Package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore will be spent on construction of highways and bridges. A press release issued by the PMO said that around 55 thousand crore rupees will be spent on four-laning and widening of highways, construction of bridges across Ganga, Sone and Kosi rivers and 12 Rail overbridges.

ANSWER: Okhla Bird Sanctuary

Explanation:
The announcement will come as a major relief to the people who have booked their flats in the area and invested huge amounts of their hard earned money. Earlier in the day, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Ministry to issue the final notification on Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around the sanctuary within three weeks Once the notification is issued, the government will allow the home buyers outside the ESZ to get occupancy certificates of their flats, which had been pending for quite some time.

ANSWER: Suvra Mukherjee

Explanation:
Mrs Mukherjee was born on 17th of September 1940 in Jessore and got married to Mr Pranab Mukherjee in 1957. She was a vocalist of Rabindra Sangeet and founded the Geetanjali Troupe. She had also written two books Chokher Aloey and Chena Achenai Chin.

ANSWER: Allahabad High Court

Explanation:
While hearing a petition filed by Shiv Kumar Pathak and others, Justice Sudhir Agarwal severely criticized the condition of junior basic schools in the state and said until wards of Judges, people's representatives and bureaucrats would study compulsorily in these schools the condition will not improve. Justice Agarwal ordered the chief secretary to ensure that children of all government and quasi government employees, People's representatives, judges and bureaucrats study in government schools and if they not obey the order some punitive actions will also be taken against them.

ANSWER: Masdar

Explanation:
Masdar city is located in UAE that relies completely on solar energy and other renewable sources of energy. Masdar city is also known as world’s first zero-carbon and car-free smart city.

ANSWER: GSAT-6

Explanation:
The launch of advanced communication satellite GSAT-6 using the GSLV-D6 rocket, powered by the indigenous cryogenic engine, began at 1152 hrs on 27th Sug’15 at the spaceport of Sriharikota.

ANSWER: Indigo Airlines

Explanation:
The deal makes IndiGo the largest airline customer for the Airbus A320-family of aircraft. It is the largest ever order in terms of volume by any company.

ANSWER: United National Party

Explanation:
The results of Sri Lanka’s 15th General Elections on 18th Aug’15 have brought to a close the Rajapaksa era in country’s politics. United National Party leader and current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesighe has return to the parliament as the leader of the largest group, with possible support from several members from the opposite camp.

ANSWER: Tamil Nadu

Explanation:
Among 20 States that were part of the analysis, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal recorded a positive growth, while others saw a significant decline. Overall, employment generation in 2012- 13 in the manufacturing sector declined to 12.95 million from 13.4 million in 2011-12, registering a fall of 3.6%.

ANSWER: Buddy

Explanation:
State Bank of India launched a mobile wallet application, SBI Buddy, in collaboration with Accenture and Mastercard. The service will be available to existing as well as non-SBI customers. The application is available in 13 languages with several features like cash transfer, bill payment, all types of ticket bookings payment and booking for movies, hotels as well as for shopping. The app is available to all android mobile phone users, at present, and soon will be launched for other mobile operating software.

ANSWER: 7

Explanation:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suspended licences of seven non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), some for being dormant and some for either not carrying out its principal business or not fulfilling various norms including minimum net owned funds. The seven NBFCs whose licences were suspended are Religare Finance, Artisans Micro Finance, Eden Trade & Commerce, RCS Parivar Finance, Nott Investments, Dewra Stocks & Securities and Swetasree Finance.

ANSWER: Jaipur

Explanation:
Mr. Modi during his visit to Fiji in 2014 had identified areas for cooperation including food processing, fisheries, solar energy, tele-medicine and climate change and proposed FIPIC summit to be held regularly. A Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation FIPIC was set up, and the forthcoming summit in Jaipur is part of the process. The first FIPIC summit was held in Suva Fiji in November, 2014.

ANSWER: Bangladesh

Explanation:
On 18th Aug’15 Bangladesh Under-16 team won their first-ever South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) under-16 title by defeating Indian team. The tournament was participated by India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives.

ANSWER: Gurmail Singh

Explanation:
The selection committee headed by former Indian hockey captain Zafar Iqbal on 18 August 2015 recommended the names of TPP Nair (former captain of Volley ball team), SP Misra (former captain of Davis Cup) and Romeo James (former goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team)for 2015 Dhyan Chand award. In 2014, the award was conferred on three individuals, namely Gurmail Singh (Hockey), KP Thakkar (Swimming-Diving) and Zeeshan Ali.

ANSWER: Tarun Khanna

Explanation:
On 17thAug’15 the book titled, The Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Megacity, authored by Tarun Khanna was released by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. The book was edited by Rahul Mehrotra, Felipe Vera and Diana Eck.

ANSWER: Karnal Singh

Explanation:
He is an IPS officer of 1984 batch of union territories cadre, currently serving as Special Director in Centre Region of Enforcement Directorate and will replace Rajan S Katoch.

ANSWER: Aditi Chauhan

Explanation:
She is India’s international football goalkeeper and made her debut for the women’s team of the West Ham United in the opening game of the season against Coventry City.

ANSWER: Himachal Pradesh

Explanation:
It was announced by the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

ANSWER: S M Khan

Explanation:
The three-member team will be headed by the Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI) SM Khan and comprise two more I&B Ministry officials.

ANSWER: 20th August

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!

ANSWER: INS Trikand

Explanation:
INS Trikand, commanded by Captain Vinay Kalia, is the latest warship of the Indian Navy equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors enabling to address threats in all the three dimensions – air, surface and sub-surface. The visiting ship is part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet and is under the operational command of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, with its Headquarters at Mumbai.

ANSWER: 11

Explanation:
A payment bank is different from conventional banks as it cannot lend to its customers. It is allowed to take deposits, allow remittances and provide simple financial products. The central bank has approved applications of National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Reliance Industries , Aditya Birla Nuvo , Airtel M Commerce, Department of Posts , Fino PayTech, Tech Mahindra, Vodafone m-pesa, Cholamandalam Distribution Services, PayTM, and Sun Pharma.

ANSWER: ISRO

Explanation:
This initiative will also help in cutting down on the carbon emissions especially in the urban areas. A meeting was held on 20th Aug’15 in this regard between the officials from the Road and Highways Ministry, the Science and Technology Ministry and ISRO. The road ministry will within a week submit all its documents with regard to battery-specification requirement to ISRO. ISRO will develop a time-bound programme for the development of these commercial batteries.

ANSWER: Seychelles

Explanation:
The cabinet has approved the signing and ratification agreement between India and Seychelles for exchange of information with respect to taxes. The Agreement will stimulate the flow of exchange of information between India and Seychelles for tax purposes, which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance. The Union Cabinet also gave its approval for the signing of the revised Air Services Agreement (ASA) between India and Seychelles to modernize and update the existing ASA signed in 1978.

ANSWER: India

Explanation:
The programme--Call To Action Summit-- will be attended by Health Ministers from 24 countries, state health ministers from India and International academic experts. It will provide a platform to deliberate upon the importance of systems, innovations, convergence and evidence in ending preventable maternal and child deaths.

ANSWER: Ashwani Lohani

Explanation:
On 20th Aug’15 Ashwani Lohani was appointed as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of national carrier Air India for three years. He will be replacing Rohit Nandan, whose extended tenure ends on 21st August. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved appointment of Lohani, a 1980 batch Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) officer, as CMD, Air India Ltd. He is presently working as Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation in Bhopal.

ANSWER: United States

Explanation:
Scientists in the U.S. have found a way to take carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air and make carbon nanofibres, a valuable manufacturing material. Their solar-powered system runs just a few volts of electricity through a vat full of a hot, molten salt; CO₂ is absorbed and the nanofibres gradually assemble at one of the electrodes. It currently produces 10g in an hour. The team suggests it could be scaled up and makes an impact on CO₂ emissions, but other researchers are unsure. Nonetheless, it could offer a cheaper way of making carbon nanofibres than existing methods.

ANSWER: Piraeus

Explanation:
The migrants, most of them Syrian refugees, boarded the Eleftherios Venizelos car ferry in Kos, Kalymnos, Leros and Lesvos in the past few days. The influx of migrants in Greece has increased dramatically in the past month to around 50,000. Greece has become the main transit point for migrants into the European Union in the past few months, with UN officials estimating that almost 160,000 have arrived on its shores since January.

ANSWER: Himachal Pradesh

Explanation:
It makes Himachal Pradesh the first state in North India to do so. Known as LED based Energy, Efficient and CCMS (Centralized Control and Monitoring System) Smart Street Lighting Scheme for Urban Local bodies and named as Rajiv Gandhi Illuminating Scheme for Hill Town Advancement (RISHTA).

The Urban Development Department has taken this innovative in collaboration with EESL (Energy Efficient Services Limited), a joint venture company formed by 4 power sectors-National Thermal Power Corporation, Power Grid Corporation of India, Power Finance Corporation Ltd. and Rural Electrification Corporation. Under the scheme, the EESL will invest all the capital upfront.

ANSWER: Rajeev Gandhi

Explanation:
The birth anniversary of Rajeev Gandhi was observed on 20th Aug’15.

ANSWER: Saina Nehwal

Explanation:
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal regained the number one spot in world badminton rankings by toppling Spaniard Carolina Martin to whom she had lost in the summit clash of the just-concluded World Championships. Olympic bronze medallist Saina, who was beaten by Carolina at Jakarta on 16th Aug’15, dethroned the Spaniard in the latest Badminton World Federation ranking released on 20th Aug’15.

ANSWER: Sebastian Coe

Explanation:
The world government body of athletics, the International Association of Athletics Federations - the IAAF, has chosen the British former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe as its new president. His election comes at a time, when the organisation is facing allegations of widespread doping in the sport. He succeeds Senegalese Lamine Diack, 82, who has led the IAAF for 16 years.

ANSWER: 1st Apr’17

Explanation:
The sale and registration of vehicles not meeting the new emission norms won't be allowed in the country from April 2017 and only Bharat Stage compliant four-wheeler vehicles will be manufactured. BS-IV norm was first introduced in the country in April 2010.

ANSWER: Anupam Kher

Explanation:
Anupam Kher has been appointed as the UN ambassador of the 'HeForShe' campaign for gender equality. The 'HeForShe' campaign has been initiated by UN Women. Its goal is to engage men as agents of change for the achievement of gender equality and women's rights, by encouraging them to take action against inequalities faced by women and girls.

ANSWER: Adille Sumariwalla

Explanation:
He is an Olympian 100m runner and President of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), was elected as one of the nine individual members of the all-powerful IAAF Council at the IAAF’s 50th Congress held at Beijing.