Current Affairs Questions and Answers - June 01, 2015

ANSWER: C. 1st June’15

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget had proposed to raise service tax from 12.36 per cent, including education cess, to 14 per cent. The tax is levied on all services, except a small negative list. Some of the key services that will attract higher tax and hence become costlier are railways, airlines, banking, insurance, mobile, advertising, architecture, construction, credit cards, event management and tour operators.

ANSWER: A. Mandatory disclosure of foreign trips and B.) Mandatory disclosure of dormant bank accounts.

In the new forms, the government has dropped the controversial provision for mandatory disclosure of foreign trips and dormant bank accounts. The Finance Ministry in a statement said, the forms - ITR 2 and ITR 2A - will have only three pages and other details will have to be filled in schedules. At present individuals having income from capital gains are required to file Form ITR-2 but it was noticed that majority of individuals who file it do not have capital gains.

ANSWER: A. President of India.

On 30th May’15 the Cabinet had approved re-promulgation of the ordinance, which was to expire on 3rd of next month. Land bill is currently with the Joint Committee of Parliament for detailed discussion on the provisions of the controversial legislation.

ANSWER: D. France

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the previous UPA government's deal for 126 Rafales was too expensive and it would have hampered other modernisation plans of the Indian military. Parrikar termed the deal "economically unviable". He added, the deal would have required around Rs 1.3 lakh crore over a period of 10-11 years.

ANSWER: C. Singapore

The "Arumbu" app was launched at the opening of the 14th Tamil Internet Conference on 30thMay’15, which is being attended by 150 Tamil speaking delegates from Singapore and 200 from 10 countries.

ANSWER: B. Mikheil Saakashvili.

Mr. Saakashvili is widely credited with carrying out radical reforms in Georgia during his terms in office in 2004-13. However, current Georgian authorities accuse him of abuse of power and have demanded his extradition. Mr Saakashvili left Georgia after his term as President ended in 2013.

ANSWER: D. Punjab

Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal said that over all development of the rural and urban areas was the foremost priority of the Punjab government for which a major scheme has already been embarked , which would be implemented in the current fiscal.

ANSWER: A. Dilawar Singh

Dilawar Singh of Haryana pipped local hero Mohammad Akbar Khan to win 'Pedal for Kashmir' cycling competition, held along the banks of picturesque Dal Lake in Srinagar on 31st May’15. Singh took the title while Khan came runner up, followed by another local cyclist Mohammad Adil Teli.

ANSWER: D. V K Pipersenia

A 1980 batch IAS officer, Mr. Pipersenia has earlier rendered his services in various capacities. He is the 45th Chief Secretary of Assam.

ANSWER: A. 22nd May’15

A RBI press release has informed that foreign currency assets, a major part of the overall reserves, declined by 2.285 billion US Dollar to 326.839 billion. In the previous week, the reserves had surged by a whopping 1.745 billion US Dollar to touch a record high of 353.876 billion.

ANSWER: B. Neerja Sethi and C. Jayshree Ullal.

India-born Neerja Sethi, with a net worth of 1.1billion US Dollar, ranked 14th while London born Jayshree Ullal with 470 million US Dollar net worth comes at the 30th Spot on the list. Neerja Sethi, co-founded IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel with her husband, billionaire Bharat Desai, in 1980. Jayshree Ullal is the president and CEO of Arista Networks.

ANSWER: A. China

China is boosting its influence in global gold markets by establishing its largest gold investment fund led by Shanghai Gold Exchange, which is expected to raise about 100 billion yuan, 16.1 billion dollars. China has established its largest gold-investment fund in northwest China's Xi'an City aiming to bolster Beijing's role in global gold trade. The fund may also boost China's power over the world gold market. Indeed, Asia's gold demand is growing rapidly, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total. Today China is the world's largest gold producer.

ANSWER: C. Geogre Yeo.

George Yeo is a former foreign minister from Singapore. This decision comes after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has resigned as Chancellor on 19th February this year, alleging that the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) did not want him to continue, a claim denied by the government.

ANSWER: D. Hoshangabad

The Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information and Broadcasting Shri Arun Jaitley inaugurated the New Bank Note Paper Line of 6000 MT capacity at Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh on 30th May’15.

ANSWER: C. HDFC Bank

It is a part of the digital initiative by the HDFC Bank, under which it had last year launched the ‘green PIN’ scheme wherein card-users were given the PIN numbers electronically rather than in a printed kit.