Entrance Examination 2011 General
Knowledge 105
Marks
I Expand the
following 10 Marks
a. FSLRC FINANCIAL SECTOR LEGISLATIVE REFORMS
COMMISSION
b. WFP WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME
c. CEDAW COMMISSION TO ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
WOMEN
d. MNP MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY
e. GHI GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX
f. GAGAN GPS-AIDED
GEO AUGMENTED NAVIGATION
g. IUCN INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE CONSERVATION
OF NATURE
h. PUCL
PEOPLES’ UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
i. NRHM NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH MISSION
j. NCHE
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
II Explain the following economic and financial
market terms in one or two short sentences. 10
Marks
1.
Inflation . Rising PRICES, across the board. Inflation means less
bang for your buck, as it erodes the purchasing power of a unit of currency.
Inflation usually refers to CONSUMER PRICES, but it can also be applied to
other prices (wholesale goods, WAGES, ASSETS, and so on). It is usually expressed as
an annual percentage rate of change on an INDEX NUMBER
2.
FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) Investing directly in
production in another country, either by buying a company there or establishing
new operations of an existing business. This is done mostly by companies as
opposed to financial institutions, which prefer indirect investment abroad such as buying small parcels
of a country's supply of shares or bonds. Foreign direct investment (FDI) grew
rapidly during the 1990s before slowing a bit, along with the global economy,
in the early years of the 21st century
3.
Command Economy.
When a GOVERNMENT controls all aspects of economic
activity. Sometimes referred to as a Centrally Planned economy where all
economic decisions – what to produce, how to produce, and how much to produce –
are all decided by a Central Government agence such as the Planning Commission.
4.
Devaluation. A sudden fall in the value of a currency against other currencies.
Strictly, devaluation refers only to sharp falls in a currency within a fixed exchange rate
system. Also it usually refers to a deliberate act of GOVERNMENT policy, although in recent years
reluctant devaluers have blamed financial speculation.
Most studies of devaluation suggest that its beneficial effects on competitiveness
are only temporary; over time they are eroded by higher prices
5.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) Gross domestic product, a measure of economic activity in a country. It is
calculated by adding the total value of a country's annual output
of goods and services. GDP = private consumption + investment
+ public
spending + the change in inventories + (exports
- imports).
It is usually valued at market prices.
6.
Microfinance “Microfinance” is often defined
as financial services for poor and low-income clients. In practice, the term is
often used more narrowly to refer to loans and other services from providers
that identify themselves as “microfinance institutions” (MFIs). These
institutions commonly tend to use new methods developed over the last 30 years
to deliver very small loans to unsalaried borrowers, taking little or no
collateral. These methods include group lending and liability, pre-loan savings
requirements, gradually increasing loan sizes, and an implicit guarantee of
ready access to future loans if present loans are repaid fully and promptly.
More broadly, microfinance refers
to a movement that envisions a world in which low-income households have
permanent access to a range of high quality financial services to finance their
income-producing activities, build assets, stabilize consumption, and protect
against risks. These services are not limited to credit, but include savings,
insurance, and money transfers.
7.
Stock Price index (eg. Dow Jones) A group of stocks put together in a standardized way
to provide a useful window into a sector or market's performance at a glance. That is,
a stock index groups together a certain list of stocks and usually takes an
average of their prices so as to provide an idea of how the
industry or market represented in the stock index is doing. Very often, stock
indices are weighted to prevent a few data points from
overwhelming it. For example, the S&P 500 is weighted according to market capitalization, while the DJIA (Dow Jones Indusrial Average) is
weighted for price.
8. Venture Capial
PRIVATE EQUITY to help new companies grow. A
valuable alternative source of finance for ENTREPRENEURS, who might otherwise have to rely
on a loan from a probably risk averse
bank manager. The United States has by far the world’s biggest venture capital
industry. Some economists reckon that this is why more innovative new firms
have become successful there. As legend has it, with a bright idea, a garage to
work in and some venture capital, anybody can create a Microsoft.
9. Privatisation Selling state-owned businesses to private
investors. This policy was associated initially with Margaret Thatcher’s
government in the 1980s, which privatised numerous companies, including PUBLIC UTILITY businesses such as British
Telecom, British Gas, and electricity and water companies. During the 1990s,
privatisation became a favourite policy of governments all over the world.
There were several
reasons for the popularity of privatisation. In some instances, the aim was to
improve the performance of publicly owned companies. Often NATIONALISATION had failed to achieve its goals
and had become increasingly associated with poor service to customers.
Sometimes privatisation was part of transforming a state-owned MONOPOLY into a competitive market, by
combining ownership transfer with DEREGULATION and LIBERALISATION.
The meeting brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment.The WEF is committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
Beside meetings, the foundation produces a series of research reports and engages its members in sector specific initiatives.
III Explain in one or two sentences what the
following New Media terms mean.
(10 Marks)
1.
Spam Misuse or abuse of mailing lists to send the
same message to a large number of people who didn't ask for it. Unsolicited
mails.
2.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
A file format designed to enable
printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images,
layout, etc.). PDF documents can be viewed on any operating system (Windows,
Macintosh, linux,). It was developed by the Adobe Corporation
3.
Open Source Software _ Open Source Software is software for which
the code is available to the users so that they may read it, make changes to
it, and build new versions of it.
4.
Three G Spectrum Three G stands for Third Generation. Through
Three G Spectrum mobile phone users can not only talk to others (make voice
calls) but also send and recieve non-voice data such as emails. It can be used
for video chats. (The first generation is fixed line analog telephony, the
second generation is about wireless mobile telephony to make voice calls).
5.
Internet Meme An Internet meme is an idea that is
propagated through social networks, blogs, or emails. A meme could be a
hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase. ______________________________________________
IV Identify the following people, places or
events and explain in one sentence why they were in the news during the past
year. (20 Marks)
- Salman
Taseer Ouspoken secular Pakistani
politician and Governor of the Punjab province since 2008 was assassinated
on January 3 by one of his elite police guards. Mr. Taseer, 65, a
successful businessman and publisher of a liberal English-language daily
newspaper, was exceptional, even within the secular-minded Pakistan
Peoples Party, for his vocal opposition to the religious parties and the
extremism they spread. He was imprisoned in the 1980s under the military
dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq for it and was still opposing the
religious parties 30 years later.
He recently took up a campaign to repeal Pakistan’s
contentious blasphemy laws, which were passed under General Zia as a way to
promote Islam and unite the country. The laws have been misused to convict
minority Pakistanis as the Islamic forces unleashed by the general have
gathered strength. The laws prescribe a mandatory death sentence for anyone
convicted of insulting Islam.
2. Bradley
Manning Bradley E. Manning (born December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was arrested in
May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed restricted material to the
website WikiLeaks.
He was charged in July that year with transferring classified data onto his personal computer,
and communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source. An
additional 22 charges were preferred in March 2011, including "aiding the
enemy," a capital offense, though prosecutors said they would not seek the
death penalty. He currently awaits a hearing to decide whether he will face a court martial.[1]
Manning
had been assigned in October 2009 to a support battalion with the 2nd
Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, based at Forward Operating
Base Hammer, near Baghdad. There he had access to the Secret Internet Protocol
Router Network (SIPRNet),
used by the United States government to transmit classified information. He was
arrested after Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker, reported to the FBI
that Manning had told him during online chats in May 2010 that he had
downloaded material from SIPRNet and passed it to WikiLeaks, which had already
started publishing it.[2]
The
leaked material is said to have included 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables;
footage of a July 2007 Baghdad airstrike, published by
WikiLeaks in April 2010; and footage of the May 2009 Granai
airstrike in Afghanistan, which WikiLeaks said it would release in future.[2]
Manning
was at first detained in a military jail in Kuwait, then transferred to the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico, Virginia,
where he was held from July 2010 to April 2011 in maximum-custody solitary confinement.[3] Amnesty International expressed concern,
calling the detention conditions harsh and punitive, and 295 American legal
scholars signed a letter in April 2011 saying the conditions amounted to a
violation of the U.S. constitution.[4] Later that month, the Pentagon
transferred him to a medium-security facility in Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, where he can interact with other pre-trial detainees.[
3. C.
K. Prahlad Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad (August 8, 1941 – April 16, 2010)] was the Paul and Ruth McCracken
Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business
in the University of Michigan.
He is famous as the father of the concepts
of Core competency and BoP - Bottom of the pyramid.
After graduating from Harvard,
Prahalad returned to his master's degree alma mater, the Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad. But he soon returned to the United States, when in 1977, he was
hired by the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan,
where he advanced to the top tenured appointment as a full professor. In 2005,
Prahalad earned the university's highest distinction, Distinguished University
Professor.On April 16, 2010, Prahalad died of a previously undiagnosed lung illness in San Diego, California.[2] He was sixty eight years old at the time of his death, but he left a large body of work behind.
In the earlier days of Prahalad's fame as established management guru, in the beginning of the 90's, he advised Philips' Jan Timmer on the restructuring of this electronic corporation, then on the brink of collapse. With the resulting, successful, 2–3 year long Operation Centurion he also frequently stood for the Philips management troops.
C. K. Prahalad is the co-author of a number of well known works in corporate strategy including The Core Competence of the Corporation (with Gary Hamel, Harvard Business Review, May–June 1990) which continues to be one of the most frequently re-printed articles published by the Harvard Business Review.[5] He authored several international bestsellers, including: Competing for the Future (with Gary Hamel), 1994; The Future of Competition (with Venkat Ramaswamy), 2004; and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits Wharton School Publishing, 2004. His last book, co-authored by M. S. Krishnan and published in April 2008, is called The New Age of Innovation.
Prahalad was co-founder and became CEO of Praja Inc. ("Praja" from a Sanskrit word "Praja" which means "citizen" or "common people"). The goals of the company ranged from allowing common people to access information without restriction (this theme is related to the "bottom of pyramid" or BOP philosophy) to providing a testbed for various management ideas. The company eventually laid off 1/3 of its workforce and was sold to TIBCO. At the time of his passing, he was still on the board of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs.
Prahalad has been among top ten management thinkers in every major survey for over ten years. Business Week said of him: "a brilliant teacher at the University of Michigan, he may well be the most influential thinker on business strategy today." He was a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission of the United Nations on Private Sector and Development. He was the first recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for contributions to Management and Public Administration presented by the President of India in 2000.
- Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali
Rights groups have regularly condemned his government, which they say holds hundreds of political prisoners, although he denies this.
Ben Ali faced an unprecedented mass revolt initially sparked by discontent over joblessness, which ended his 23 years of iron-fisted rule.
He survived such a long term as president by mixing authoritarian rule with a degree of prosperity and stability for his people.
On November 7, 1987, he toppled Habib Bourguiba, the ailing father of Tunisian independence who was by then reported to be senile, all Tunisians hailed his "bloodless, non-violent takeover."
His supporters hailed him as the "saviour" of a rudderless country and credited him with laying the foundation for a liberal economy and with nipping in the bud the Islamist Ennahdha party.
Western governments viewed him as an effective bulwark against Islamist extremism despite criticism of his slow moves toward democracy.
Upon taking office, he scrapped the title of "president for life" created by Bourguiba and limited the number of presidential terms to three.
On the social front, he launched a "solidarity" policy, creating a special fund for the underprivileged and a social security system, while pursuing the promotion of education and women's rights initiated by his predecessor.
Such measures earned him the support of a growing middle class. But he consolidated his rule by muzzling the opposition, keeping strong control of the media and armed forces and gradually extending the number of terms he is allowed to serve under the constitution.
5. Jose
Saramago The Portuguese novelist José Saramago, who explored Portugal's troubled
political identity in a series of novels published over the last four decades
and won the Nobel prize for
literature in 1998, died today at the age of 87.
An
outspoken atheist and communist, he challenged the orthodoxies of
post-dictatorship Portuguese life with novels such as Baltasar and Blimunda,
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis and All the Names, but reached his widest
audience with the 2008 film of his 1995 novel, Blindness, directed by Fernando
Meirelles. He spent the last years of his life in Lanzarote after the
Portuguese government had vetoed the nomination of his novel The Gospel
According to Jesus Christ for an EU literary prize in 1992.
His
translator Margaret Jull Costa hailed his "wonderful imagination" and
his focus on the "dignity of the ordinary man".
"He
was the greatest contemporary Portuguese writer," she said, "a
complete original. It's been an enormous privilege to have translated his
work."
Born in 1922, he worked as a car
mechanic and a journalist before devoting himself to fiction in his 50s. His
breakthrough came in 1982 with his fourth novel, Baltasar and Blimunda, a story
of the love of a maimed soldier for a young clairvoyant in 18th-century Lisbon.
Giovanni Pontiero's 1988 English translation brought his work to a
international prominence.His reputation grew through the 1980s and 90s as he published a series of important and fantastical novels, written in a flowing mellifluous prose which follows the rhythm of speech. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, first published in 1984, is widely acknowledged to be his masterpiece – an account of the return to Lisbon of an imaginary character invented by the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa after the death of his creator. The Stone Raft, first published in 1986, imagines the Iberian peninsula cut off from Europe and adrift on the Atlantic, while All the Names (1997) turns a registry office clerk into a hero as he sets off in pursuit of an unknown woman.
Praised by the Swedish Academy for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony", the award of the Nobel prize in 1998 took his fame to a new level.
Saramago's editor at Harvill Secker, Rebecca Carter, found it "hard to take in the fact that someone as vibrant should have left us", and saluted his body of work as "one of the most important of the last century – radical, witty, humane, endlessly challenging and questioning".
He continued to write until his death, and experimented with a daily blog, Outros Cadernos de Saramago, in 2008, which was published between hard covers as The Notebook in English earlier this year. A bout of pneumonia left him seriously ill last year, but he had made a full recovery and was expected to appear at the Edinburgh festival in August to promote his latest book in English, The Elephant's Journey. His last book, Cain, in which Abel's brother serves as a kind of alter-ego as he travels through the Old Testament, was published in 2009 with an English translation expected next year.
6. Miep
Gies Miep Gies (February
15, 1909 – January 11, 2010) was one of the Dutch
citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and several family friends in an
attic annex above Anne's father's place of business from the Nazis
during World
War II. She discovered and preserved Anne Frank's diary after the Franks were
arrested. Gies and the other helpers could have been executed if they had been
caught hiding Jews. On the morning of August 4, 1944, acting on information
provided by an informant, the Grüne
Polizei arrested the people hidden at Frank's place of business, as well as
Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman. A few days later, Miep unsuccessfully tried
to bribe the Austrian Nazi officer to release her friends.
Before
the hiding place was emptied by the authorities, Gies retrieved Anne Frank's
diaries and saved them in her desk drawer. Once the war was over and it was
confirmed that Anne Frank had perished in Bergen-Belsen, Gies gave the
collection of papers and notebooks to the sole survivor from the Secret
Annex, Otto Frank. After transcribing sections for his family, his
daughter's literary ability became apparent and he arranged for the book's
publication in 1947. Gies did not read the diaries before turning them over to
him, and later remarked that if she had she would have had to destroy them
because the diary contained the names of all five of the helpers as well as
their black market suppliers. She was persuaded by Otto Frank to read it in its
second printing.
- Dashrath Patel Died 1 December 2010
At 83, he was planning 'Retro', an exhibition of all his works around the world. But an illness overcame him and he left the institute he helped found — the National Institute of Design (NID) — and Ahmedabad in tears.
Born in Sojitra near Nadiad in 1927, he was always a Patel with a difference. He never finished formal schooling and hardly got any academic training in the arts when he was already known as an artist. Patel's simplicity — he would mostly be seen in a lungi and kurta — often reflected in his designs.
A multi-faceted personality, Patel was not just a painter, ceramist, photographer and graphic designer, he was a philosopher of sorts. A contemporary of Tyeb Mehta, MF Husain and VS Gaitonde who were together in the 50s in Bhulabhai Desai Institute, Mumbai, he was introduced to photography by the legendary Henri Cartier-Bresson and both developed a deep friendship. Cartier-Bresson always stayed with Patel whenever he visited in Ahmedabad. When Cartier-Bresson died, an inconsolable Patel parted with a collection of pictures of the French master, clicked by him, to be made public for the first time.
He was known to work closely with other legends as well, like Charles Eames, Harendranath Chattopadhyay, Chandralekha and countless others. "The first to get a Padma Shri for design and design education in 1980, Patel was also the first recruit at NID," says Ahmedabad-based designer Subrata Bhowmick. "We knew him as an energetic man who was a creative artist till the very end. He paid attention to detail and always thought out of the box," says Pradyumna Vyas, NID director.Design guru Dashrath Patel, who passed away on Wednesday morning, was the first director of education at the National Institute of Design (NID). He was a find of the Sarabhai siblings, Gautam and Gira, who founded NID in 1961. He worked here for two decades.
"Our family came to Ahmedabad almost 100 years ago. My grandfather, who was a contemporary of Mahatma Gandhi, practiced as a barrister," says Patel's younger sister Snehlata.
Senior NID faculty MP Ranjan recalls how when he joined in 1969, Patel was putting up a huge exhibition `The World is my Family' on Mahatma Gandhi. "He was a very enterprising person and learnt from the masters of the field," says Ranjan. Patel designed all major public exhibitions that India organised in foreign countries.
He had studied fine arts in Chennai and then went to Paris to study painting, sculpture and ceramics. A bachelor, Patel leaves behind a huge void, and lots of inspiration.
- Lin Dan _Most Valuable Player, Guangzhu Asian Games, 2010
He has been nicknamed "Super Dan" by his fans.
- Miyagi Prefecture ________________________________________________
Miyagi: Vast areas in Japan have been
left unrecognisable by the devastation caused by Friday's quake and tsunami.
The coastline of Miyagi prefecture was one of the worst-hit regions.
Police estimated 10-thousand dead among the 2.3 million people who lived in the prefecture, the Japanese equivalent of a state.
South of Miyagi’s capital Sendai, near the epicenter of the quake, the village of Fujitsuka has completely submerged.
A massive search and
rescue operation has been launched. But the rescue workers say it is hard to
find survivors in the floodwaters left behind by the tsunami.The coastline of Miyagi prefecture was one of the worst-hit regions.
Police estimated 10-thousand dead among the 2.3 million people who lived in the prefecture, the Japanese equivalent of a state.
South of Miyagi’s capital Sendai, near the epicenter of the quake, the village of Fujitsuka has completely submerged.
The town of Iwanuma took the full force of the tsunami.
- Ashwini Akkunji : The only Indian woman athlete to win two gold medals in the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010
Ashwini
Chidananda Shetty Akkunji is an Indian sprint
athlete from Siddapura, Kundapura
taluk, Udupi district, Karnataka who
specializes in 400 metres.Ashwini has won Gold Medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2010
Asian Games in 4x400 m relay team event with Manjeet
Kaur, Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose
and a individual gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles on 25 November 2010 at the
2010 Asian Games held at Guangzhou, in China
V Name the
following: 10
Marks
1.
The first woman to be elected President of Brazil (October
2010)
Dilma Rousseff
2.
Governor of the Reserve Bank of India _Duvvuri
Subba Rao
3.
The President of the World Bank _Robert Zoellick
4.
The popular name for the recent revolutions
in the Middle East and Norh Africa which have sought to overthrow authoritarian
rulers and replace them with democratically elected represenatives.
Jasmine Revolution
5.
Winner of he Nobel Peace Prize.
Liu Xiaobo
6. The Chief Election Commisioner of India
S. Y.
Quraishi
7 Former Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of India who is under a cloud for amassing wealth in the name of his
relatives.
K. G. Balakrishnan
8 The Foreign Minister of Pakistan.
Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar,
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. The former Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Quereshi was not
re-allotted the External Affairs portfolio after a Cabinet reshuffle in
February. Quereshi has since called for the resignation of both the President
and the Prime Minister for their failure to stand up to the U.S. in the Osama
bin Laden affair.
9. The winner of the Dadabhai Phalke Award
- 2010
K,
Balachander
10. Winner of the player of the tournament (Golden Ball) in World
Cup Footbal 2010, South Africa.
Diego Forlan
V Answer
the following. 30
Marks
1. The
Supreme Court on May 9, 2011 stayed the verdict of the Allahabad High Court
that directed the division of 2.77 acres of land at the disputed Babri Masjid
site into three parts. Who are the contending parties in the Ram
Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case?
The Sunni Central Wakf Board, U.P.; the
Nirmohi Akhara; the All-India Hindu Mahasabha and Bhagwan Shri Ram Virajman
2. Which
celebrated pro-democracy leader was released from detention in November 2010
after spending 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest?
Aung San Suu Kyi
3. After
a delay of nearly nine months following the elections of March 2010, who was
recently confirmed Prime Minister of Iraq by the Iraqi parliament?
Noor al Maliki
4. Which
former viceroy of India was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican
Army in August 1979 while holidaying in Mullaghmore, County Sligo on the
northwest coast of Ireland?
___________________________________________________________
Lord Mountbatten
5. Which
African leader was recently inaugurated president of Ivory Coast six months after
the elections following a bloody struggle by his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo to
hang on to the presidency which he had held for ten years?
___________________________________________________
Alassane Ouattara
6. High level talks on the progress of the
four-nation TAPI project were held in New Delhi in April 2011. The project,
expected to be compleed by 2016, will bring great benfits to the members. Which
nations are involved in the project and how are they supposed to benefit on
completion of the project?
Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
India. Natural Gas pipeline to bring gas from Central Asia to Pakistan and
India
7. Which Indian pioneer of entrepreneurial
self-help movement and grass roots development was conferred the Global
Fairness Initiative Award by Hillary Clinton in Washington D.C. in November
2010?
Ela Bhatt
8. Who
was the seventh president of the International Olympic Committee who died in
April 2010. During his 21 years as its head, the Olympic movement became truly
worldwide both in the number of participating countries and the size of
audiences (through television). His career was also mired in controversy wih
accusations of corruption and timidity in dealing with doping.
Juan Antonio Samaranch
9. Which
spacecraft, according to a California Institute of technology release in
December 2010, is set to become the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.
The spacecraft launched in 1977 is now about 1.08 trillion miles from the Sun.
Voyager I
10. Which South
Korean island located near disputed territory on the divided peninsula did Norh
Korean forces subject to an artillery barrage towards the end of last year?
Yeonpyeong
11. Which
Indian born professor of finance and author of Fault Lines was named by Forbes Magazine, as one among the seven
most powerful economists world?
Raghuram G. Rajan, Booth
School of Business, University of Chicago
___________________________________________________________
12. Which
Indian billionaire recently pledged $ 2 billion (Rs. 8846 crore) to improve
school education in India, through a Foundation which works mainly with schools
in rural India?
Azim Premji
13. On December
9, 2010, the Union Law Minister and the Chief Election Commissioner unveiled a
plan to introduce far reaching electoral reforms. A high level committee has
already been appointed to look into some of the controversial proposals in the
plan. Name two contentious issues which
the minister feels requires a national debate.
Compulsory voting under penalty of law;
disqualification of candidates who have been accused of any crime
14. The
2010 Winter session of the parliament has been described as the wors session of
the parliament in 25 years. Starting on November 9, the Lok Sabha worked only
for 5.5 per cent of the time available and the Rajya Sabha only 2.4 per cent.
What were the reasons which brought the parliament of the largest democracy in
the world practically to a halt?
The UPA Government’s refusal to yield to Opposition
demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee inquiry into the 2-G Spectrum scam
15. During the
visit of which foreign Head of State last year did India sign 30 agreements,
the highlight of which was the consolidation and extension of strategic
co-operation in the civilian nuclear, hydrocarbon, and space sectors?
Dmitry Medvedev, President of the
Russian Federation
16. Which
Central Vigilance Commissioner, on cancellation of his appointment by a Bench
of the Supreme Court, sought the Court’s protection from being maligned by the
nedia through constant references to him as “tainted”?
P. J. Thomas
Mario Vargas
Llosa.
____________________________________________________________________
18.
Which refurbished NASA “probe” has discovered some of
the oldest galaxies ever seen, some dating back 13 billion years?
Hubble Telescope
19.
In January of last year, which country became only the
third in the world to develop, and test a new technology to intercept and shoot
down enemy missiles in mid-air?
Peoples Republic of China
20.
Which country, last year, passed a law banning the
wearing of the full-face veil, the burqa or niqab in public?
France
21.
In September of last year, the Central Government
unveiled a new plan to engage constructively with the people of the troubled
state of Jammu & Kashmir. What is the main proposal under this plan?
A three-member panel of
“interlocutors” was appointed by the Central Govt. to seek out various shades
of opinion in J&K. The members were Sr. Journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha
Kumar and Chief Informaion Commissioner M.M.Ansari.
22.
Which country, in August 2010, approved significant
changes to its 1978 Constitution including a controversial provision allowing
the President to seek a third term in office?
Sri Lanka
23.
Name the author of the new biography of Gandhiji, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle
with India, a book which has been used to stir trouble and call for its ban
in certain parts of India.
Joseph Lelyveld
24.
Who is Chhatradhar Mahato?
Convenor of the Lalgarh Police Santrash Birodhi
Janasadharaner Committee and a prominent tribal leader though he is
himself not an adivasi by descent. He came to
prominence following the Salboni blast in 2008. Conesed 2011 elecxtions as an
Independent.
25.
In July 2010 the rupee became the fifth currency to be
represented by a symbol after the US $, the British pound, the Euro and the
Japanese Yen. Which IITan and doctoral candidate designed the character
which was adopted by the Government.
Dharmalingam Udayakumar, IIT Bombay
26.
Name the Editor-in-chief of one of the largest
circulating regional Indian dailies, who died in August 2010 after serving the
paper for nearly 56 years.
K. M. Mahew of Malayala Manorama
27. In
which Indian city is located the oldest Jewish synagogue (built in 1565) in India?
Kochi
28. “Tendrils”
where the Kipling family stayed in India, now part of the Cecil Hotel, is
locted in which city in India?
Shimla
29. Which well
known Malayalam poet and lyricist was declared winner of the Jnanapeeddh award for 2007?
O. N. V. Kurup
30. Who scored India’s first ever Test century in
the Bombay Test against England in 1933-34?
Lala
Amarnath
VII. Why were the
following places in the news in the last 12 months? (5 Marks)
1. Fukushima:
Nuclear power plant of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. destroyed in the earthquake-tsunami
of March 11, 2011
2. Jaitapur
Jaitapur
Nuclear Plant – is a proposed 9900 MW power project of the India’s State-owned
nuclear operator, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), at Madban
village of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. Being built in collaboration with French
giant, Areva, it will be the world’s largest nuclear power generating
station by net electrical power rating.
The radiation
scare that has hit home in Jaitapur does not concern safety of life alone. The
tragedy in Japan has alarmed villagers of this coastal town about their
livelihood once the project is completed. Ratnagiri is one of the largest
export bases for arguably the world’s most popular mango, the Ratnagiri Alphonso, with an estimated
turnover of a staggering Rs 2,200 crore. The district’s annual fish catch is
pegged at around 1,25,000 tonne. It is natural, say villagers, for
consumers to be sceptical about mangoes and fish coming from a region that houses
a 10,000-mw nuclear power plant.
3. Copiapo,
Chile City in northern Chile about 40
miles east of the coastal town of Caldera.
The 2010
Copiapó mining accident, also known as the "Chilean mining accident"
or "Los 33", began on 5 August 2010 as a large cave-in at the San
José copper–gold mine in the Atacama
Desert about 45 kilometers (28 mi) north of Copiapó, in
northern Chile, South
America. Thirty-three men trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft)
underground some 5 kilometers (3 mi) from the mine entrance
subsequently survived for a record 69 days. Instability at the mine had led to
previous accidents, including one death, and as a result it was originally
thought that the miners had not survived the collapse or would starve to death
before they were found.
A
tremendous outpouring of sympathy for the plight of the miners and their
families by the Chilean people, who had gone through the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami less than
six months earlier, led to the government taking over the faltering search and
rescue operation from the mine's owners, privately held San Esteban Mining Company. Eight
exploratory boreholes were hastily drilled and 17 days after the accident, a
note written in bold red letters appeared taped to a drill bit. It read Estamos bien en el refugio, los 33 (English: "We are well in the
shelter, the 33").
Once
they knew that the men were alive, the rescuers implemented a comprehensive
plan to both nurture and rescue them. It included deployment of three large
drilling rig teams, nearly every government ministry, the expertise of NASA and more than a
dozen international corporations. After 69 days underground, all 33 men were
brought to the surface on 13 October 2010 over a period of almost 24 hours.
After winching the last trapped miner to the surface, the rescue workers, all
still underground, held up a sign for the TV cameras reading Misión cumplida Chile (English: "Mission accomplished
Chile"), which was seen by a TV audience estimated at more than 1
billion viewers around the world watching the rescue live. All 33 miners were
rescued, almost all in good medical condition with no long-term effects
anticipated. Two miners were found to be suffering from silicosis,
one of whom also had pneumonia, while others had dental infections and corneal problems
Three of the men underwent immediate surgery under general anesthesia for their
dental problems. Private donations covered one-third of the US$20 million cost of
the rescue, with the rest coming from the mine owners and the government.
Various lawsuits and investigations resulting from the accident are still
pending as of March 2011
4. Tahrir
Square ___________________________________________
Over 1 Million in
Tahrir Square on February 9, 2011
The square became established as
a focal point and a symbol for the ongoing Egyptian democracy demonstrations.
On 2 February violence erupted between the pro-Mubarak
and pro-democracy demonstrators here, followed by the 3 February 'Friday of
Departure' demonstration, one of the named "day of" events centered
in the square. Within a week, due to international media coverage, the image
and name of Tahrir Square became known worldwide. A Facebook page called "Tahrir Square" ميدان التحرير was maintained by a rotating staff of twenty during the uprising, particularly to offset the lack of and/or distorted coverage of events and responses in the state-run media outlets.
An iPhone and Blackberry app called Tahrir Square was launched on May 6th 2011. It offers a unique opportunity for Egyptians everywhere to provide their collective and unfiltered opinion on the hottest topics of the new Egypt. The results presented clearly in simple graphs and tables for everyone to see. The interactive mobile app will be distributed on a regular basis to over a dozen Egyptian news agencies, government offices, the military council, and hundreds of social media sites.
The 18-day revolt centered in the square — led by the young people of Egypt and joined by citizens of all ages, genders, and classes — succeeded in removing Mubarak from power on Friday 11 February 2011, when the president officially stepped down from office. The announcement that Mubarak had passed all authority to the Council of the Armed Forces, was made by longtime intelligence chief and new vice president Omar Suleiman. Tahrir Square erupted in a night-long celebration after the twilight announcement, with shouts such as "Lift your head up high, you're Egyptian," "Everyone who loves Egypt, come and rebuild Egypt," and others. The next day Egyptian Cairen women and men came to clean up the square, "they came and cleaned up after their revolution," relaying 'projectiles' in the cobblestone paving and removing eighteen day's worth of trash and graffiti.
Post-revolution
Tahrir Square, with 'democracy
anniversary' celebrations and visits from foreign dignitaries, continues to be
a symbol of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. British Prime Minister David
Cameron, Catherine Ashton, the High
Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European
Union, Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State of the United
States, and John Kerry, Chairman of the American Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations visited Tahrir Square after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.
5. Tembhli,
Nandurbar District, Maharashtra became the first Aadhar Village on 29 September
2010.
Ranjana Sonawne: 782474317884. With
this number, Ranjana has become the first Indian to get the UID (Unique
Identification). Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Allaince
Chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched the Aadhar project on Wednesday and presented UIDs to ten people here.
The Unique Identification Authority
of India (UIDAI) chief, Nandan Nilekani, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok
Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Maharashtra Governor K.
Shankaranarayanan, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia
were also present at the inauguration function of project held outside Tembhli
village, and was attended by over 1 lakh residents from the area.
Hailing the UID as the way to
create and retain ‘identity' among all Indians, Ms. Gandhi said, “With this, Tembhli has got a special importance in
the map of India. People of Tembhli will lead the rest of the country. It is a
historic step towards strengthening the people of our nation.”
Stating that the UID will help
people in ‘all fields,' Ms. Gandhi stated: “Our idea is to not just focus on
development, but to bring about inclusive growth amongst our people. This
scheme will make sure people will get what they deserve.”
“Starting from this tiny hamlet,
the scheme will reach more than a billion people of this country.”
VIL
Match the following: Write in Column B the description that most closely
matches the name in Column A. 10
Marks
Eg. Brian Lara Highest
individual score in an
innings
in Test cricket
1. Madhubala Kutty Srank
2. Daniel Barenboim Photographer of Mercury poisoning
In
Minamata, Japan
3. Andres Iniesta Children’s author of Narnia
4. Bhimsen Joshi Israeli conductor in concert in
Gaza
5. C. S. Lewis The only goal in World Cup Soccer final
6. Shaji Karun Anarkali
7. Tyson Gay To many, the greatest sports writer
8. CLR James Cat on a Hot in Roof
9. Eugene Smith He beat the world’s fastest man
10. Elizabeth Taylor Voice, now still
Madhubala Anarkali
Daniel Barenboim Israeli
conductor who led a peace concert in Gaza
Andres Iniesta Only
goal in World Cup Soccer (2010) final
Bhimsen Joshi the
voice, now still
C. S. Lewis Chronicles
of Narnia
Shaji Karun Kutty
Srank (National award winning film)
Tyson Gay He
beat the world’s fastest man (Usain Bolt)
CLR James To
many, the greatest sports writer
Eugene Smith Photographer
who brought the world’s attention to mercury poisoning in the Japanese fishing town
of Minamata
Elizabeth Taylor Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof
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