Professional Documents
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August 2013
A publication of Nirdeshak.com
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Section 2 (h) Govt. seeks to insert the explanation that that any association or body of individuals registered or recognised as political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 will not be considered a public authority. The Central Information Commission (CIC) in its decision dated 3 June, 2013, had held that the political parties, namely, AICC/INC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP, and BSP are public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. While deciding that the said political parties are public authorities, the CIC had relied mainly on the grounds that there is substantial (indirect) financing of political parties by the Central Government and they perform public duty)
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settled at 20% but in special circumstances it can now go up to 25%. LIC for long has been perceived as the last resort for the govt. to meet its disinvestment target, though the Centre denies it) 8) Recently which company became the most valuable company of the Aditya Birla group by overtaking cement company UltraTech? Idea Cellular (During July 2013 Ideas market capitalisation increased to Rs. 52916 crore while UltraTechs was calculated at Rs. 50820 crore. Idea Cellular, which was known earlier as Birla AT&T, has made rapid progress. It started as an alliance with the Tata group, before the Tatas deciding to use CDMA technology. After initial hustle, the Birlas paid a hefty ransom of 4400 crore to buy out the Tata stake) 9) The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently given its approval to students to pursue two degree programmes simultaneously. This approval was given based on recommendations of an expert panel constituted on this issue. Who headed this panel? Dr. Furqan Qamar, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Hyderabad
10) In the recently released Academic Ranking of 500 World Universities (ARWU) for 2013 only one Indian institute features in the list. Which institute is this? Indian Institute of Science (IIS), Bangalore (Harvard University has been described as the worlds best university with a score of 100; followed by Stanford University with a score of 72.6. University of California, Berkeley; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and University of Cambridge have scored around 71 points. American universities captured 17 positions of the top 20 slots, with two going to the British universities and one being occupied by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich. Of the 500 universities ranked, American universities captured a total of 182 slots; European universities occupied 200 slots but only three made the top 20. As many as 17 Chinese universities were included as well)
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3) What is the name assigned to a dazzling multi-media series for displaying achievements during last nine years of the UPA government, second phase of which was unveiled during August 2013 by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting? Glimpses of the India Story (With an eye on the general elections scheduled to be held next year, the UPA government has unveiled a series of audio-visual clips as a part of its multimedia campaign to highlight its achievements and showcase the impact of its policies in the last nine years. Under this important achievements of the UPA govt. like Aadhaar, Direct Benefits Transfer, Right to Information (RTI) and upcoming Food Security legislation have been highlighted) 4) Subrata Kumar was nominated for the Prime Ministers Shram Ratna Award for year 2012 as announced by the union govt. on 14 August, 2013 on the eve of the Independence Day. He is associated with which company? Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur (Shram Ratna is the highest honour in India given to workers employed in any private or public enterprise or departmental undertaking employing 500 or more workers. A cash award of Rs. 2 lakh and a citation is given under Shram Ratna. In addition to this 8 employees of different departments were conferred with the Shram Bhushan Award, 20 with Shram Veer or Shram Veerangana and 41 with the Shram Shri or Shram Devi awards. Shram Bhushan carries a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh while Shram Veer or Shram Veerangana and Shram Shri or Shram Devi carry a cash prize of Rs. 60,000 and Rs. 40,000 respectively) 5) Which public sector bank recently sought Rs 1,800-crore capital infusion from the Centre through allotment of preferential shares? Bank of Baroda (BoB) Union govt. currently, has a stake of 55.4% in BOB) 6) The Rashtriya Uchattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) has proposed to put a ceiling on the number of colleges to be affiliated to any university. What is this proposed ceiling? 200 (This has been done following several state universities having a large number of colleges affiliated to a single university. For example Osmania University has 901 colleges affiliated to it while 811 colleges are attached to Pune University. The average number of affiliated colleges per university is 300. This has negatively affected the academic quality of the university. The one lakh crore-worth Rashtriya Uchattar Shiksha Abhiyan, when implemented, will lead to setting up and upgradation of new colleges and universities. The scheme will also facilitate increased number of students from secondary to higher education)
7) Indian telecom subscriber base crossed 90-crore mark in May this year after almost two years. It registered a marginal growth and the base grew by 0.34% to reach 90.005 crore, according to latest TRAI data. When the telecom subscriber base had first crossed the 90-crore mark? In September, 2011 (It had later touched 96.55 crore mark in June, 2012. Since then the base has been shrinking steadily) 8) A Dronacharya Award winner and the coach of former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev passed away on 16 August, 2013 at Mohali. Apart from Kapil Dev, he helped shaping the careers of cricketers such as Yograj Singh, Ashok Malhotra, Chetan Sharma and Harbhajan Singh. What was the name of this famous cricket coach? Desh Prem Azad
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1988-batch officer of the India Foreign Service (IFS)) 8) Scientists at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington on 15 August, 2013 announced the discovery of a new species of mammal, which is the first mammalian carnivore species to be newly identified in the Americas in 35 years. What name has been given to this newly discovered mammal? Olinguito, pronounced oh-lin-GHEE-toe (The discovery of Olinguito is seen as a rare one. It was found in the dense forests of Ecuador and Colombia in the Northern Andes and it belongs to the raccoon family) 9) Who was appointed as the new Chairperson of the National School of Drama (NSD) Society on 19 August, 2013? Ratan Thiyam (Thiyam is a well-known theatre personality from Manipur and his appointment has been done for a period of 4 years. He takes over from theatre director, Amal Allana, who demitted office as NSD Chairperson in June this year after serving two consecutive terms)
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conducted its second nuclear test, his retirement and dedication to teaching thereafter and his years as President) 8) The new Petronet LNG terminal near Kochi in Kerala received its first cargo vessel carrying liquified gas on 20 August, 2013. This new LNG terminal, which has been built at a cost of Rs 4,200 crore, is situated at Puthuvype (With this first shipment, this LNG terminal, with an annual capacity of five million tonnes, is all set to commence operations soon. Besides the Kochi plant, Petronet operates a 10 million tonnes per annum terminal at Dahej in Gujarat, which it plans to expand to 15 million by 2016. It is also constructing a facility in Andhra Pradesh)
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writer of this anthem? Javed Akhtar (It has been sung by Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan. National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) supported the HRD Ministry in creating the Anthem, which depicts child-centered principles and entitlements and its video version has been shot in government schools. The anthem begins with opening lines tan, tan, tan, sunoghanti baji school ki, chalo school tumko pukare ) 8) Which two new members were appointed to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the 2G scam on 29 August, 2013 by the Union Govt., a move which was opposed by the BJP? P. Bhattacharya and Ashok S. Ganguly (Bhattacharya is a member of the Congress whereas Ganguly is a nominated member of the Upper House. BJP opposed this move as this would affect the balance in the panel. Two vacancies in this JPC were created after the retirement of Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and the resignation of E. M. S. Natchiappan (Congress) after becoming a Minister. There are 10 members from the Rajya Sabha in the 30-member joint panel) 9) Union Govt. is very soon going to sell 100% of its stake in 6 airports of the country to private parties. Which 6 airports are these? Chennai, Lucknow, Jodhpur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Kolkata (The Civil Aviation Ministry will issue a Request For Qualification (RFQ) document in a few days for Chennai and Lucknow airports. The RFQ for the other four Jodhpur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Kolkata would be issued in the next few weeks)
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8) Raghunath Panigrahi, who passed away during August, 2013, was associated with which field? Classical Singing (79-year old Panigrahi was a doyen of Indian classical singing and was one of the very few singers who sang classical songs in languages as diverse as Oriya, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Raghunath Panigrahi was best known for his own style of interpreting the Sanskrit epic poem Gita Govinda, composed by the 12th-century poet Jayadeva. Sanyukta Panigrahi, the renowned Odissi dancer who passed away in 1997, was his wife) 9) Who was selected as the next Chairman & Managing Director of PSU major ONGC by Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) as announced on 30 August, 2013? D.K. Sarraf (Sarraf is presently the Managing Director of ONGC Videsh Ltd. Sarrafs name was recommended by PESB after conducting interviews of four candidates for the post. Sudhir Vasudeva, the current Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, is due to retire on 28 February, 2014. PESBs recommendation is due to be cleared by Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas and other concerned authorities. ONGC is the largest oil and gas producer in the country)