GENEAL KNOWLEDGE FOR GROUP II EXAMS

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

*The winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize –

Laszlo Krasznahorkai

 The 78-year-old stock exchange which was allowed to

exit by SEBI recently – Madras Stock Exchange

 The new rate of service tax effective Jun 1 – 14 per cent

 The Indian city where Google has announced to set up

its largest campus outside the US – Hyderabad

 The amount South Korea has offered to provide for

infrastructure projects in India – USD 10 bn

 The country where 12-day annual multi-nation military

exercise ‘Eager Lion’ was held recently – Jordan

 The present PM of Mongolia – Chimed Saikhanbileg

 The bank whose first branch in China was inaugurated

by PM Modi in Shanghai recently – ICICI Bank

 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

(WTISD) – 17 May

 The new MD and CEO of Syndicate bank – Arun

Shrivastava

 Winner of the 2015 Sudirman Cup badminton tournament

– China

 The veteran singer and guitarist who died recently – BB

King

 India’s position on the 124-nation global Human Capital

Index 2015 – 100th

 The new president of Japan’s SoftBank Corp – Nikesh

Arora

 The new chairman of the National Safety Council (NSC)

– Satish Reddy

 National Technology Day which commemorates Nuclear

Tests in Pokhran – 11 May

 International Nurses Day – 12 May

 Chief of the BRICS Bank or the New Development Bank

– KV Kamath

 RBI introduced the banking ombudsman scheme in –

1995

 The founding father of the European single currency

euro who died recently – Alexandre Lamfalussy

 The only Indian firm in the world’s top-10 list of consumer

finance firms compiled by Forbes – HDFC (ranked 7th)

– The firm that has topped the list – American Express

 The veteran actor who was presented with Dada Saheb

Phalke award for 2014 – Shashi Kapoor

 The Indian tech billionaire ranked as Asia’s wealthiest

entrepreneur under the age of 40 as per Wealth-X – Arun

Pudur

 The Indian-origin woman who got Cabinet rank in the

new David Cameron govt in the UK – Priti Patel

 The hockey team India defeated 3-0 in a 4-match series

recently – Japan

 The winner of the Spanish Grand Prix F1 championship

on 10 May – Nico Rosberg

 The skill training scheme for members under 35 yrs of

age of households that have completed 100 days’ work

in 2014-15 under MGNREGA – Livelihoods In Full

Employment (LIFE)

 The typhoon that hit Philippines on 10 May – Noul

 The bilateral trade between EU and India at present –

100 bn euros

 The year by which the NOFN (National Optical Filere

Network) project aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram

panchayats – 2016

 The country where a contingent of the Nine Grenadiers

regiment of the Indian Army marched in an international

military parade on 9 May – Russia

 The state where a strategically important new naval base

INS Sardar Patel was commissioned on 9 May – Gujarat

 The Naxal hotbeds where the PM initiated welfare

projects worth about `25,000 cr on 9 May – Dantewada

 The former Gujarat Chief Secretary appointed as the

Election Commissioner of India recently – Achal Kumar

Jyoti

 The 119th Constitution (Amendment) Bill passed by the

Parliament – LBA Bill

 The French Defence Minister who visited India on 5

May – Jean-Yves le Drian

 The date after which banks have to issue only EMV

chip-based and PIN-enabled debit and credit cards – 1

Sep 2015

 The woman wrestler who won bronze in Asian

championship in Doha on 6 May – Geeta Phogat

 The winner of Sportsperson of the Year award at inaugural

TOISA awards presented on 7 May – Jitu Rai

 The deadline for new model cars to pass minimum frontal

and side crash tests – Oct 2017

 The new Prime Minister of UK whose Conservative Party

won 331 out of 650 seats recently – David Cameron

 The state where the Polavaram multipurpose project will

come up – Andhra Pradesh

 The head of the Committee looking after the issue of

MAT on FIIs – AP Shah

 India’s current position in the global list of countries in

terms of their travel and tourism competitiveness – 52nd

 Mother’s Day – Second Sunday of May

 The country where President Pranab Mukherjee attended

the Victory Day parade recently – Russia

 The country which has topped the biennial Travel &

Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) 2015 – Spain

 The bank which has launched a product that could

process personal loans in 10 seconds – HDFC Bank

 As per the RBI, gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio

as on Mar 15 – 4.45 per cent

 The port to be developed by India in Iran – Chabahar

 PM Narendra Modi has become the first Indian PM to

visit this country – Mongolia

– The capital city of Mongolia – Ulan Bator

 The book written by Vikas Swarup which was made into

Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire – Q&A

The only category that showed a growth in excise duty

collections during FY14 as per CAG – Petroleum

products

 India’s position in global market capitalisation (m-cap)

ranking as on May 2015 – Tenth

 The new threshold for FDI for which approval of CCEA

is compulsory – Rs.3,000 cr

 The four states whose territories come under the ambit

of the LBA Bill – Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and

Meghalaya

 The surface-to-air short-range missile defence system

inducted into Army’s arsenal recently – Akash

 The Chinese micro-blogging site equivalent to Twitter –

Sina Weibo

 The insurance firm that raised its stake in the insurance

JV with Bharti group to 49 per cent recently – AXA Group

 The moon of Jupiter whose lava lake’s detailed

observations was captured recently – lo

 The state with the least number of married 19-year-old

girls as per data from the census 2011 – Nagaland

 India’s position in terms of number of reactors in

operation globally as per IAEA data – 7th

 The company that has come up with the free Internet

access site, Internet.org – Facebook

 The country which is buying 24 Dassault Rafale jets

from France in $7.02 bn – Qatar

 The two retail majors who have announced their merger

in a `750-cr all-stock transaction – Future and Bharti

Retail

 The name of Royal baby of Duke and Duchess of

Cambridge of the UK – Charlotte Elizabeth Diana

 The veteran investor who was killed in a recent accident

in the US – Parag Parikh

 The new cleanliness initiative of West Bengal on the

lines of Swachch Bharat Mission – Mission Nirmal

Bangla

 The amount the Centre would invest to revamp road

infrastructure in the Northeast – `20,000 cr

 The new web browser unveiled by Microsoft – Edge

 The upper limit on withdrawals at micro-ATMs fixed by

the banks – `10,000

 The 161st member of the World Trade Organisation

(WTO) which joined it on 27 Apr – Seychelles

 International Day of Yoga – 21 Jun

 India’s position in generating electricity from nuclear

source as per IAEA data – 13th

 World Dance Day – 29 Apr

 The new limit for FDI in the pension section – 49 per

cent

 The prominent social and human rights activist of

Pakistan who was shot dead in Karachi recently – Sabeen

Mahmud

 The first African-American woman to become the US

attorney general (83rd) recently – Loretta Lynch

 Winner of the women’s singles title at the Badminton

Asia Championships in China on 26 Apr – Ratchanok

Intanon

 The name of India’s rescue operation in quake-hit Nepal

– Operation Maitri

 The Indian 155mm, 45-calibre artillery gun which

successfully cleared Indian Army’s tests recently –

Dhanush

 Winner of the Shamkir Chess tournament on 26 Apr –

Magnus Carlsen

 Winner of the Asian Banker Achievement Award 2015

for ‘Technology Implementation’ – Bharatiya Mahila

Bank

 The state where the Indian Army on 26 Apr conducted a

major exercise, ‘Akraman-II’ – Rajasthan

 The Indian honoured by France with the Officier de la

Légion d’Honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour) –

Yashwant Sinha

 The sports body suspended by the govt recently –

Paralympic Committee of India (PCI)

 The Malaysian ace shuttler banned by the Badminton

World Federation for doping recently – Lee Chong Wei

 The bank which has made its global foray by opening its

first overseas representative office in Abu Dhabi – YES

Bank

 The city where the 4th International Wind Conference

will be held on Jun 22-23 – Coimbatore

 The re-elected president of Kazakhstan – Nursultan

Nazarbayev

 Winner of the men’s singles title of the Badminton Asia

Championships in China on 26 Apr – Lin Dan

 The Indian-origin scientist at MIT who won the 2015

Heinz Award – Sangeeta Bhatia

 The first woman officer (Indian Navy) to die in the line of

duty recently – Kiran Shekhawat

 The UNESCO recognised site in Kathmandu which

collapsed in 25 Apr earthquake – Dharahara Tower

(Bhimsen Tower)

 The Afghan president who visited India recently – Ashraf

Winner of the 2015 edition of the Pandit Deenanath

Mangeshkar Award – Anil Kapoor

 The President of the International Olympic Committee

(IOC) who visited India recently – Thomas Bach

 India’s ranking in the recently released World Happiness

Report 2015 – 117th

 The Marathi writer who was presented the 50th Jnanpith

Award by the PM on 25 Apr – Bhalchandra Nemade

 The state awarded as the Best e-Panchayat state – Assam

 National Panchayati Raj Diwas – 24 Apr

 The 10-day naval exercise conducted between India and

France recently – Varuna

 The country which has topped the 2015 World Happiness

Report – Switzerland

 The country that marked the centenary of the Ottoman

massacre of up to 1.5 million people on 24 Apr – Armenia

 World Malaria Day – 25 Apr

 The country where the Calbuco volcano erupted for the

first time in more than 42 years recently – Chile

 The country to which India on 9 Apr delivered three

Cheetal helicopters – Afghanistan

 Earth Day – 22 Apr

 The batsman who scored most runs (547) in the ICC

Cricket World Cup 2015 – Martin Guptill

 The bowlers who took most wickets (22 each) in the ICC

Cricket World Cup 2015 – Mitchell Starc and Trent Boult

 The Indian-American sworn in as the Surgeon-General

of US on 22 Apr – Vivek Murthy

 The country which hosted the Bandung Conference

recently – Indonesia

 The firm which has bought the telecom equipment

business of Alcatel-Lucent – Nokia

 The country to which the Indian embassy in Yemen has

been shifted – Djibouti

 The country which has launched the construction of its

first nuclear power plant in Mersin province – Turkey

 The country where BHEL, with the Russian company

INTMA, will set up a gas-based power project –

Kazakhstan

 India’s new Ambassador to France – Mohan Kumar

 The Indian scientist (co-creator of element 117) who has

won Hevesy Medal Award 2015 – Susanta Lahiri

 The former PM of Nepal who died on 16 Apr – Surya

Bahadur Thapa

 The new name of the tourist visa on arrival scheme –

e-tourist visa