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MODULE : GENERAL AWARENESS READING MATERIAL POLITICS

• Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu-Kyi released from house arrest on Nov 13, 2010 after 15 years. • Dilma Rouseff elected as first women president of . • Julia Gillard elected as first women PM of on Sept 12, 2010. • Roza Otunbayeva- Kyrgystan's first women president. • Christien Wulff- 's youngest president. • Yukio Hatoyama -Japanese PM resigned on June 2, 2010. Naoto Kan succeeds him. • David Cameron(conservative party) sworn in as British PM- first coalition government. • Indian origin politician Kamala Persad became PM of Trinidad&Tobago. • launches Census 2011- biggest Census covering 1.2 billion people. • Right to education- free and compulsory education till the age of 14. • Mukul Sangma sworn in as CM of Meghalaya suceeding D.D Lapang. • India -US annual naval exercise held in April- codename 'Malabar' • S.H Kapadia- 38th Chief Justice of India. • Haryana becomes first state to launch a web portal based public grievance monitoring system. • New Chief Election Commissioner(CEC)- Shahabudin Yaqoob Qureishi (17th CEC) succeeding Naveen Chawla. • Arjun Munda elected as CM of Jharkhand for the third time. • India signs agreements for Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-lndia(TAPI) gas pipeline project. • becomes first European country to ban Burkha in public places. • US- Russian presidents sign Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) in Prague. • Dissanayake M Jayaratne elected as PM of . • 16th SAARC summit held at Thimpu, Bhutan. 17th will be held at Maldives in 2011. • Atul Khare appointed as Assisstant Secratrary General of UN(Peace Keeping Operations). • G15 summit in Teheran elected Mahinda Rajapakse as Chairman replacing Mahmood Ahmedinejad. • Paul Kagame sworn in as president of Rwanda for the second time. • Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage bill passed on August 2010. • Ayodhya verdict on Sept 30, 2010. • Chief guest of 2010 republic day parade- S.Korean president Lee Myung Bak. • Army Chief- Lt. Gen. V.K Singh succeeds Gen. Deepak Kapoor. • Navy Chief - Adm. Nirmal Verma succeeds Suresh Mehta. • Air Force Chief - Air Marshal P.V Naik succeeds Fali Homi Major. • India- signed a civil Nuclear bill on June 28th • Secretary General of Amnesty International Salil Shetty • India and signed a protocol to the double taxation avoidance agreement that would enable the government to get information about illegal wealth in Swiss banks

BUDGET

• No income taxes upto 1.6 lakhs. 10% above 1.6lakhs upto 5 lakhs. 20% above 5 lakhs upto 8 lakhs. 30% above 8 lakhs. • MAT(Minimum Alternate Tax) increased from 15% to 18%. • Surcharge on domestic companies- reduced from 10% to7.5%. • Presumptive taxation limit for small business raised to 60 lakhs. • Central Excise duty on all petroleum products raised from 8% to10%. • 40,100 crore for MGNREGA scheme. • 48,000 crore for Bharat Nirman project. • Unit cost under Indira Awaaz Yojana upto 45,000 in plains and 48,500 in hilly areas. • Rashtriya Swastya Bheema Yojana extended to MNREGA beneficiaries who work for more than 15 days. • Allocation for defense 1,47,344 crore. • Fiscal Deficit 5.5% of GDP. • Economic survey predicted 8.5% growth for 2010-11 and 9% for 2011 -12 • Industrial growth for 2009-10 8.6% • Bharat Thirth -Pilgrimage series of trains. • Service tax on purchase of e-ticket reduced from 40 to 20 for AC/15 to 10 for sleeper SPORTS • ICC Cricketer of the Year - Sachin Tendulkar • ICC Test Player of the Year - Virender Sehwag • ICC One day player of the year- A B De Villiers • 19th FIFA world cup hosted by in 2010 Champion - , Runner up- , Golden Ball- Diego Forlan, Golden Boot- Thomas Mueller, Fair Play - Spain. Mascot- Sakumi • FIFA Player of the year - Lionel Messi • IPL III Champion-Chennai Super Kings, Runner Up- Mumbai Indians. • IPL Interim Chairman- Chirayu Amin. • Azlan Shah Hockey- India & Korea Joint winners. • French Open Singles Men- Rafael Nadal Women - Francesca Schiavone(first Italian to win the title) Doubles Men- Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic Women- Serena and Venus Williams Mixed- Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic. • Wimbledon Singles Men- Rafael Nadal Women - Serena Williams Doubles Men- Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner Women- Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova Mixed- Leander Paes and Cara Black. • Commonwealth games 2010 mascot- Shera. • Rajeev Gandhi Khel Retna - Saina Nehwal • Muttaih Muraleedharan retires from cricket. TROPHIES: BADMINTON :- Rahamtoola Cup & Chadha Cup, Open, Uber Cup FOOTBALL :- Santhosh trophy, Durand cup, Federation Cup GOLF :-Ryder cup, Brunei Cup, John Jay Hopkins Trophy HOCKEY :- Azlan Shah Cup, Agha Khan Cup

CRICKET :- Irani Trophy, Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy

AWARDS AND HONOURS • Saraswathi Samman - Surjit Patar(Punjabi Poet). • Jnanapeetham - Malayalam Poet O N V Kurup(2007) and Urdu Poet Akhlaq Khan(2008) • Vyas Samman - Amarkant for his novel 'Inhi Hathiyaron Se' • Oscars - Best Film- The Hurt Locker Best Director- Katherine Bigelow Actress- Sandra Bulloock(The Blind Side) Actor- Jeff Bridges(Crazy Heart). • Pulitzer Prize- Sheri Fink of ProPublica. • Abel Prize- John Torrence Tate. • Nobel Peace -Liu Xiabo; Literature- Mario Vargase Llosa; Physics- Andre Geim& Konstantin Novoselov; Chemistry - Richard Heck, Akira Suzuki& Ei-ichi Negishi; Medicine- Robert G Edwards; Economics - Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen& Christopher Pissarides. • Orange Prize- Barbara Kingsolver

MISCELLANEOUS • Kaziranga national park- highest density of tigers in the world. • NASOVAC- Intranasal vaccine for H1N1 developed by Serum Institute of India. • First World Classical Tamil conference held at Coimbatore. • INS Vela- Navy's oldest submarine decommissioned in Vishakapatanam. • Retirement age of Judges raised from 62 to 65. • Jantar Mantar(Jaipur) is granted world heritage status by UNESCO. • 300% salary hike for MPs. • Vineeth Jain, MD of Times of India, elected as chairman of Press Trust of India(PTI). • R.K Madhekar, new NSG chief. • Amp Roy Chaudhary, new CMD of NTPC succeeding R.S Sharma. • P.J Thomas sworn in as Central Vigilance Commissioner(CVC). • 'Hadi Rani' countries first all women police battalion inducted by Rajasthan CM. • The first set of 12 digit UID numbers distributed in Tembli in Maharashtra- first Aadhar village in India. • Ranbir Singh Butola selected as head of Indian Oil Corporation(IOC). • South Korean mountaineer Oh Eun- Sun becomes the first woman to climb the worlds 14 highest mountains. • Jessica Watson of Australia- youngest person to circumnavigate the globe. • Agatha- tropical storm across Central America. • US president nominates Subra Suresh as director of US National Science Foundation. • becomes the first country in the world to make broad band access a legal right. • UN General Assembly recognizes access to clean water and sanitation as a human right. • 2010- Jimena Navarrete of . • 2010- of US. • According to FAO, about 925 million people are under nourished in 2010. • "Top Kill" the operation to remove the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico • India ranked128th in the Global Peace Index Report-an annual publication by the Institute of Economics and Peace(IEP)

FINANCE • Murali Manohar Joshi appointed as Public Accounts Committee chairman. • OP Bhatt (SBI Chairman) elected as Indian Banks Association (IBA) chairman. • India becomes a full fledged member of Financial Action Task Force (FATF). • IMF raises India's growth forecast to 9.5% for 2010. • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report titled World Investment Report-2010 says India will be the third largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). • PM's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) projects 8.5% growth for current fiscal. • Mukesh Ambani elected as member to the board of World Economic Forum (WEF). • Government launches new series of world price index with 2004-05 as base year (at present base year is 1993-94) and will have 676 items. • World Economic Outlopk- report by IMF. • Unique identity for Indian rupee was designed by Udayakumar, NT Bombay. Symbol is a blend of Devanagiri 'Ra' and Roman letter 'R". • Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulatory body for the investment market- Chairman C.B Bhave. • GDP( gross domestic product)- it the sum total of all goods and services produced in a country in a financial year. Current GDP growth is 8.9% • RBI was set up on the recommendations of Hilton Young Commission • Tarapore Committee - Capital account convertability

OBITUARY • Arjun Sen Gupta development economist & Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal passed away on Sep 26 2010 • Bhairon Singh Shikawat former vice president & CM of Rajasthan passed away on May 15 2010 • Milon Kumar Banerjee former Attorney General of India passed away on July 20 2010 • John Shepherd-Barron inventor of ATM died on May 14 2010 • Jyoti Basu Marxist leader passed away on Jan 17

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

• WTO (153 members): Director General Pascal Lamy Head Quarters- Geneva, Switzerland . • BRIC :Brazil, , India & . Summit was held on April 15, 2010 at Brazilia • IBSA: India , Brazil & South Africa,. Summit was held on April 15, 2010 at Brazilia • SAARC( South Asian Association For Regional Co-operation) 8 members Head Quartered at Katmandu • ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) 10 members Head Quarters Jakarta • IMF (International Monetary Fund) headquartered at Washington. Managing Director - Dominic Strauss Kahn • International Bank for Reconstruction and Development(IBRD) popularly known as World Bank. President - Robert Zoellick. Headquarters - Washington. • G8: Informal group of 8 developed countries. USA, UK . .Germany, , , Russia, Canada • G20: Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. It includes 19 largest economies in the world & The European Union BOOKS & AUTHORS • The Idea of Justice- Amarthya Sen • Open an autobiography by Andre Agassi • Wolf Hall- Hilary Mantel • Songs of Blood & Sword- Fathima Bhutto • A Journey- Tony Blair • Audacity of Hope, Dreams from my Father- Barack Obama • I Dare- Kiran Bedi • Runaway- Alice Munroe • A Prisoner's Scrap Book , My Country My Life- L.K.Advani RBI RATES • Repo - Increased from 5.75% to 6%. It is the rate at which RBI lends advances to commercial banks. • Reverse Repo- Increased from 4.5% to 5%. It is the rate of interest RBI provides to commercial banks for parking their excess funds with RBI. • CRR- 6%. Commercial banks must keep a portion of their total deposit with RBI in the form of cash reserve. This is called Cash Reserve Ratio(CRR). • SLR- 25%. Part of the banks cash invested in government approved securities. This is called Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR). • Bank Rate- 6%. It is the rate at which RBI grants loans to commercial banks. IMPORTANT DAYS • April 7 - World Health Day. • April 22 - Earth Day • April 26 - World Intellectual Property Day. • May 8 - World Red Cross Day. • May 17- World Telecommunication Day. • May 31 - World Anti tobacco Day. • June 5 - World Environment Day. • July 11 - World Population Day. • August 8 - World Senior Citizens Day. • August 18 - International Day of the Worlds Indigenous People. • September 8 - International Literacy Day. • September 16 - World Ozone Day. WELFARE PROGRAMS • Bharat Nirman yojna- is a plan for developing rural infrastructure. It includes projects on roads, irrigation, housing, water supply, electrification and telecommunication connectivity. • Indira Awaaz Yojana- provides grant for construction of houses to the rural poor. • Sarva Shiksha Abhyan- flagship programme for universalization of elementary education. • MGNREGA-job cards are issued to the rural unskilled labour by guaranteeing work for 100 days in a financial year at a minimum daily wage of Rs.100. QUESTIONS

1. The eminent personality from Myanmar who was recently released from house arrest is? (a)Aung San Suu Kyi (b) Than Shwe (c)Lee Myung Bok (d)Oh Eun-Sun (e)None of these 2. First Women PM of Australia? (a)Nimrata Nikki Haley (b)Laura Chinchilla (c)Julia Gillard (d) Angela Merkel (e)None of these 3. Right to education ensures free & compulsory education for the age group? (a) 2-14yr (b) 5-15yr (c) 10-20yr (d) 6 -14 yr (e) None of these 4."Malabar" is the joint Naval exercise between India and? A) Australia (b) France (c) US (d)Russia (e)None of these 5. 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India? (a)Naveen Chawla (b)S.Y Qureishi (c)Manik Sarkar (d)Nitish Kumar (e)None of these 6. Recently signed Arms Reduction Treaty by US-Russia? (a)Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) (b) Warsaw Pact (c) Treaty of Versailles (d)Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (e)None of these 7. Proposed venue for 17th SAARC Summit is? (a)Bhutan (b)Srilanka (c)Maldives (d)lndia (e)None of these 8Budget allocation for MGNREGA in 2010? (a)Rs20,000 Crore (b)Rs 40,100 Crore (c) Rs40,000 Crore (d)Rs20,100 Crore (e)None of these

9. Name the Slum eradication Program launched by Govt of India? (a)Bharat Nirman (b)lndira Awaz Yojana (c)Rajiv Awaz Yojana (d)JNNURM (e)None of these 10.Wimbledon Women's Singles 2010 title winner is? (a)Venus Wlliams (b)Justine Henin (c)Serena Williams (d)Maria Sharapova (e)None of these 11. Ryder cup is associated with? (a)Billiards (b)Snooker (c)Golf (d)Chess (e)Badminton 12. Who has been recently awarded Jnanapeetham? (a) O N V Kurup (b)M.T Vasudevan Nair (c)Sugata Kumari (d)M.Mukundan (e)None of these 13. Highest density of Tigers is found in which National Park? (a)Kaziranga National Park (b)Ranathambore National Park (c)Corbett national Park d)Gir National Park (e)None of these 14. Navy's oldest submarine which was decommissioned recently? (a) INS Vela (b)INS Arihant (c)INS Chakra (d)INS Sindhurakshak (e)None of these 15. Name the ancient observatory in Jaipur, which was, conferred World Heritage Status? (a)Qutub Minar (b)Jantar Mantar (c)Golkonda Fort (d)Nalanda (e)None of these 16. Tropical storm that hit Central America? (a)Agatha (b)Aila (c)Katrina (d)Laila (e)None of these 17. Jimena Navarrete is from? (a)Mexico (b)Venezuala (c)lndia (d)USA (e)South Africa 18. Chairman of SEBI? (a)C B Bhave (b)O.P Bhatt (c) D.Subburao (d)Usha Thorat (e)None of these 19. A loan in which interest or principal amount is not received is termed as? (a)SME (b)NPA (c)P&SB (d)IRDA (e)None of these 20. Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) is also known as? (a)Bank Rate (b) Base rate (c)Reverse repo rate (d) Repo rate (e)None of these 21. When the growth of GDP in a country slows down suddenly people start loosing their jobs and the'situation continues for several weeks, such status of economy is known as? (a)lnflation (b)Deflation (c)Recession (d)Slowdown (e)None of these 22. Who is the author of " The Shape of the Beast"? (a) Anita Desai (b)Arundathi Roy (c) Aravind Adiga (d)Kiran Desai (e)Chetan Bhagat 23. International Literacy Day? a)September 12 (b)September 8 (c) August 12 (d) August 8 (e) none 24.What is the current Repo Rate? (a)6% (b)5.75% (c)4.5% (d)5% (e) None of these 25. The Reserve Bank of India keeps on changing various rates/ ratios frequently Why it is done? (a) To keep inflation under control (b) To ensure that Indian rupee does not loose its market value (c) To ensure that banks do not earn huge profits at the cost of public money (d) None of these (e) All a, b, c 26. Who publishes the World Development Report every year? (a)WHO (b) WTO (c) World Bank (d) USA (e) None of these 27. IMF's growth forecast for India in 2010? (a) 8.5% (b)9% (c) 9.5% (d) 10% (e) None of these 28. Nandan Nilekani is associated with? (a) JNUURM (b) UIDAI (c) UNO (d) All of these (e) None of these 29. Sum total of all goods and services produced in a country in a financial year is known as ? (a) GNI (b) PPP (c) Gini Index d) None of these (e) GDP 30."Off Side" is associated with? (a) Chess (b) Cricket (c) Hockey d) Foot Ball (e) Car Race 31. Inventor of ATM of passed away recently is? (a) Leo Pinto (b) John Shepherd-Barron (c) Tony Curtis (c) Laurant Fignon (e) None of these 32. Which country is not a member of BRIC? (a) Brazil (b) India (c) China (d) Bhutan (e) Russia 33. External Affairs Minister of India? (a) S M Krishna (b) Mamata Banerjee (c) AK Antony (d) Pranab Mukherjee (e) None of these 34. Liberhann Commission is associated with? (a) Money laundering (b) Babri Masjid Demolition (c) Gujarat Riot (d) Shopian Issue (e) Hogenekkal issue 35. Mascot of Commonwealth Games 2010? (a) Appu (b) Bima (c) Shera (d) Bear (e) None of these 36. Euro is the currency used among nations. (a) European Union (b) Latin American Countries (c) South Asian Countries (d) All of these (e) None of these 37. FTA is? (a) Foreign Trade Agreement (b) Foreign Trade Association (c) Free Trade agreement (d)AII of these e)None of these 38.The Euro zone country, which went into recession recently is? (a) (b) Italy (c) Ireland (d) Germany (e)France 39.Kyoto Protocol is associated with? (a)Climate Change (b) Global Warming (c)Oil Spill (d) Peace keeping (e) None of these 40.NIFTY is the stock index of? (a)BSE (b)CSE (c)NSE (d)RBI (e)None of these

KEY :

l.a ll.c 21.C 31.b 2.c 12.a 22.b 32.d 3.d 13.a 23.b 33.a 4.c 14.a 24.a 34.b 5.b 15.b 25.e 35.c 6.a 16.a 26.c 36.a 7.c 17.a 27.C 37.C 8.b 18.a 28.b 38.C 9.c 19.b 29.e 39.a lO.c 20.e 30.d 40.c