General Awareness

for IIFT
Japan - Land of the Rising Sun
 Naoto Kan – new PM
 Kuril Islands – source of dispute with Russia
 Was world’s second and Asia’s largest economy but well
ahead of China in per capita income
 Oldest still ruling Royal House in the world
 Monarch sits on Chrysanthemum Throne
 No standing army
 No manufacture, supply or storing of nuclear weapons
 Okinawa issue with USA
 [China overtakes Japan as second largest economy]
China - 3rd Largest by Area
 Hu Jintao – President; Wen Jiabao – PM
 Is building GWADAR port in Pakistan, also Karakoram Highway
to Pakistan – Port in Sri Lanka
 World’s largest FOREX reserves – more than $1 trillion
 Built THREE GORGES DAM on Yangtze River, world’s largest
hydro-electric dam
 Built world’s highest railway – linking Lhasa in Tibet with
Golmund; nicknamed Qing-1
 Manufacturing hub of world
 Third largest economy – [China now second largest]
 Claims Arunachal, disputes Sikkim
 Economy capitalist, polity communist
 Promoting civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan
 Google exits China over censorship
 China views Kashmir as disputed territory
Thailand

 King Bhumibol Adulyadej completes 60 years in power,

world’s longest reigning monarch
 Thaksin Shinawatra deposed as PM in a military coup
 Abhisit Vejjajiva new PM
 Bangkok – capital, Baht – currency
 Never colonised
 Red Shirts protest
 Hindu heritage of Thailand
Myanmar - Stratocracy

 General Than Shwe – Leader No.1, visited India in 2006

 Aung San Suu Kyi – pro-democracy leader under house
arrest since 1990
 Capital moved from Yangon to Pyinmana (aka Naypyidaw)
 32.7% BPL population
 Ruled by army since 1948
 Secret nuclear programme?
 Previously famous as Rice Bowl of the East
Sri Lanka / Bhutan
 Mahinda Rajapakse – Prez
 Peace talks between SL government
and the LTTE were brokered by
NORWAY
 Bhutan – world’s first no-smoking
country
 King Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is the Chief of State since
December 2006
 First democratic elections held in Bhutan in March 2008
 Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan since April 2008
 LTTE defeated by Lankan Army
 Sanath Foneska in limelight
 Port build with assistance of China
 Bhutan is semi-independent country
 Special links with India of Bhutan
Pakistan - First Islamic Republic
 Asif Ali Zardari – Prez; Yusuf Raza Gilani – PM
 Balochistan leader, Akbar Khan Bugti, killed by Pak military
 Benazir assassinated
 Pakistan, India fighting proxy war in Afghanistan
 Proposed Iran gas pipeline to India via Pakistan
 NWFP – stronghold of al-Qaeda & Taliban
 Sri Lankan cricket team attacked
 Epicenter of terrorism
 Unprecedented floods
 Low intensity conflict with India
 Theocratic state
 Army calls the shots
Afghanistan

 Hamid Karzai – Prez elect

 NATO forces battling resurgent Taliban in the south
 Taliban headed by Mullah Omar
 Durand Line – boundary line with Pak is source of dispute
 Afg-Pak focus for USA
 Afghanistan Taliban vs Pak Taliban
 USA fighting a losing battle?
 India helping in building infrastructure
 Vast mineral resources in Afghanistan – Pentagon study
Iran

 Mahmoud Ahmedinejad – Prez

 Ayotallah Khameini – Spiritual Head
 Secret nuclear weapons programme?
 World’s 2nd largest gas producer & 4th largest oil exporter
 Has developed missiles like HOOT, a torpedo; Shahab,
Fajr, and Shaegah series
 Confrontation with west over nuclear power programme
 Islamic Revolution – 1979
 Denial of Holocaust
 Parsis migrated from Iran
Iraq - Mesopotamia
 Jalal Talabani – Prez; Nuri al-Maliki – PM
 Saddam gets death penalty for Dujail Massacre (1982)
 Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, successor to
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
 Moqtada al-Sadr – head of Mahdi Army, Shiite militia group
 USA to withdraw from Iraq
 The Suni-Shia divide
 Iran – Iraq war
 Iraq is Arab, Iran is not
Israel - World’s first Jewish State
 Tel Aviv – capital; Knesset – parliament
 Benjamin Netanyahu – PM
 Mossad – secret service
 Owns Barak missile system, supplied to India
 Is building a Barrier Wall to separate it from Palestinian
areas
 Tripartite talks in USA
 Blockade of Gaza strip to punish Hamas
 Major defence supplier to India
 Expertise in agriculture ex. drip irrigation
 Jewish island in sea of Arab Countries
 Lebanon
 Nicknamed Switzerland of
the Middle East
 Michel Suleiman – Prez;
Saad Hariri – PM
 Beirut – Capital;
Nicknamed Paris of the
Middle East
 Was a French Colony
 Base for Hezbollah
 Multi-religious country –
Muslim / Christian
 Arab but westernised
Jordan
 Hashemite Kingdom
 King Abdullah II – HoS
 Lost West Bank to Israel in
1967 War
 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
slain al-Qaeda leader in
Iraq, belonged to Jordan
 Ally of USA
 Monarchy
 Syria
 Bashar al-Assad – Prez
 Accused of interference
in Lebanon & Iraq
 Indicted by UN in killing
of former Lebanese PM,
Rafiq Hariri
 Part of new “Axis of
Evil”
 Baath socialism
 Secular but authoritarian
 Ban on full veils
Turkey
 Recep T Erdogan – PM
 Nicknamed Sickman of
Europe
 Controversy over Armenian
Genocide
 Occupies part of Cyprus
 Kemal Ataturk made Turkey a
fiercely secular country
 Sought membership of EU
 Strained relationship with Israel
 Bridge between Asia and
Europe
 India’s Khilafat Movement – link
to Turkey
Sudan - Largest African Nation
 Prez Omar al-Bashir
 Darfur Genocide – 4 lakh dead over 4 years
 Janjaweed, Govt-backed Arab Muslim militia against
non-Arab Muslims
 Civil war in the south between Arab Muslims & Christians
– Africa’s oldest still running civil war
 Warrant against President by International Criminal Court
South Africa - Rainbow Nation
 Jacob Zuma new President
 Second largest HIV infected population after India
 Desmond Tutu, recipient of Gandhi Peace Prize (’06)
 Launched centenary of Gandhiji’s launching of Satyagraha
Movement in that country
 3 capitals – Pretoria (administrative), Bloemfontein (judicial),
and Cape Town (legislative)
 Name of Pretoria changed to Tshwane
 South Africa is venue for World Cup Soccer 2010
 Successful conduct of FIFA 2010
 Africa’s largest economy
 Home to Apartheid movement
Africa in a nutshell
 African Union – HQ at Addis Ababa, 53 members
 Uganda – Prez is Yoweri Museveni, accused of genocide
against Acholi Tribe
 Operation Atlanta anti-piracy operation off the coast of
Somalia
 15th NAM summit in Egypt in July 2009
 Libya Muammar Gaddafi’s marathon speech in UNO in
September 2009
 Constitutional reforms in Kenya
 Poverty in sub-Sahara Africa
 Tribal and religious conflicts
 Poor governance a problem
Brazil - 5th largest country by area
 Luiz Inacio LULA da Silva is Brazil prez again
 Largest ETHANOL producer
 Member of BRIC & IBSA
 Brasilia – Capital (named after a wood type)
 Rio Di Janeiro to host 2016 Olympics
 Lula da Silva in focus
 Home to massive Amazon Forest belt
 South America’s largest Catholic Country
South America in a nutshell
 Venezuela reelected Hugo Chavez as prez
 Eva Morales is elected Bolivia prez
 Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) – Marxist militant group
in Peru
 Peru’s prez is Alan Garcia
 Sebastian Pinera is president of Chile
 Alberto Fujimori, former President of Peru, sentenced to jail
term on charges of corruption
 Leftist Presidents / PMs in South America
 Spanish / Portuguese colonisation
 Home to ancient civilisations
USA - 300 million pop
 Democrats win control of H of R & Senate
 Barack Obama first Afro-American to be President
 Robert Gates is new defence secretary
 Hillary Clinton new Secretary of State
 Largest exporter & importer – overall; biggest seller of military
equipment
 Ben Bernanke – new Federal Reserve chief
 Refuses to sign Kyoto Protocol & shuns International Criminal
Court
 Sarbanes-Oxley Act – for corporate governance
 Fence built on USA border with Mexico to curb illegal
immigration & drugs trade
 Anti-outsourcing stand of USA
 USA and China are G-2
 Ground Zero Mosque issue
 Landmark civil nuclear deal and civil nuclear liability bill – USA,
India link
 2008 global financial crisis roots in USA
Central America in a nutshell
 Panama agrees to a new wider Panama Canal
 Felipe Calderon is prez of Mexico
 Daniel Ortega, former Marxist leader, prez of Nicaragua
 Cuban prez Fidel Castro handed over power to Raul Castro
(his brother)
 Sugar Bowl of the World
 Illegal immigration to USA
 Mexico emerging economy
Europe in a nutshell
 Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, is ranked World’s
Most Powerful Woman by Forbes
 Hungary PM Viktor Orban
 Romania & Bulgaria join EU (EU membership - 27)
 Silvio Berlusconi is the PM of Italy
 Italy hosted G-8 summit in July 09
 NATO’s 60 years observed
 Schengen Visa – EU Constitution
 Financial crisis – PIGS
 Germany largest economy in Europe
 European Union – backgrounder
World Trade Organisation
 Successor to the GATT
 Established on January 1, 1995
 WTO HQ – Geneva, Switzerland
 DG – Pascal Lamy (France)
 WTO has 153 members
 Vietnam is 150th member
 Russia is yet to become a member of WTO
International - Who’s Who
 Ban Ki-moon (S.Korea’s foreign minister) succeeds Kofi
Annan (Ghana) as new Secretary General of the UN
 Margaret Chan (China) is new DG of WHO
 Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
 Science fiction writer Arthur Clarke passes away
 Deep Joshi wins Magsaysay Award
 Indra Nooyi – PepsiCo CEO, also ranked world’s most
powerful business woman
 Shashi Tharoor – former UN Under Secretary General for
Communications & Public Information and now a former
Union Minister of State for External Affairs
International - Who’s Who
 Tharoor – author of The Great Indian Novel, Riot – A
Novel, India: From Midnight to the Millennium, Bookless in
Baghdad, & Show Business
 Vandana Shiva – Sydney Peace Prize
International Institutions /
Groupings
 World Bank – HO at Washington, Prez - Robert Zoellick (US)
 IMF – HO at Washington, MD – Dominique Strauss Kahn
(Germany)
 ADB – HO at Manila, Prez – Haruhiko Kuroda (Japan)
 European Commission – HO at Brussels
 WEF – Founder Chairman Klaus Schwabb (Germany)
 OECD – Hqrs Paris
 ASEAN – Hqrs Bangkok
 SAARC – Secretariat Kathmandu
 Organisation of Islamic Conference based in Riyadh
 OPEC – Vienna
Business - Facts & Figures
 IOC – India’s largest company by revenue
 Toyota – largest auto company
 Intel – largest chip-maker
 Diageo – largest spirits company (owns Smirnoff, JW)
 McDonald’s – largest fast food chain
 Vodafone – largest mobile company by revenue in world
 Bharti Airtel – crosses 11 crore subscribers in India
 Tata No.1 by market capitalisation in India
 Vedanta Resources in News
 Wal-Mart – largest retailer in world
 BP – credibility crisis
 Nokia largest hand-set maker
Economy / Business
 Vedanta to acquire Cairn
 1.6 million employed in IT in India (2007)
 Mobile number portability to be introduced
 Provident fund companies can invest 15% of their corpus in
shares
 New Pension Scheme (NPS) launched in April 2009
 Natco and Strides Arcolab are permitted to manufacture
generic version of Tamiflu
 Roche holds patent on Tamiflu
 G-20 accounts for 90% of global output
 NCDEX largest agricultural commodity exchange by volume
 International Finance Reporting Standards to be
implemented by companies by April 2011
Economy / Business
 Successful IPO of SKS microfinance
 Discussion paper on new banks by RBI
 New BPL norms of Tendulkar Commission
 Cloud computing
 Direct Taxcode
 BP Oil spill
 Base rate mechanism
 Financial inclusion
Agriculture
 India second largest producer of pepper
 No.1 in milk production
 Among the world top producer of Tea
 Largest coconut producer in world is India
 Second largest producer of fish
 Green Revolution a success in rice and wheat
 India lags behind in production of pulses, oil seeds
 11th plan aims at 4% GDP growth rate in agriculture
 Agriculture sector neglected in economic reforms
 GM crops in focus
 NFSM
 Organic Farming
 Unsustainable agriculture sector
 Percentage of people in agricultural sector
 Farmers suicides
 Is shift of population the answer?
Personalities
 Nandan Nilekani Chairman of Unique Identification Authority
(UIA)
 C. Rangarajan Chairman of Prime Ministers Economic
Advisory Council
 Angela Markel re-elected Chancellor of Germany
 Mohan Bhagwat new chief of RSS
 Iran’s President Md. Ahmedinejad denies truth of Holocaust
 President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela wins referendum
 Ramesh Pokhariyal new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand
 R. K. Pachauri head of TERI and IGPCC
 Christian Wulff new President Germany
 Centenary of Mother Teresa
 Julian Assange
Awards
 Nobel Prize – Chemistry for Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
(Indian American)
 Nobel Literature – Herta Muller (Romania)
 Deep Joshi – Magsaysay Award, 2009
 2009 Man Booker Prize – Hilary Mantel, (UK)
 2009 Man Booker International Prize – Alice Munro
(Canada)
 2009 Indira Gandhi Prize – Sheikh Hasina
 2006 Jnanpith Award – Satyavrat Shastry - Sanskirt,
Ravindra Kelekar - Konkani
 2010 Sydney Peace Prize – Vandana Shiva
Sports
 Castrol 2009 Cricket of Year – Gautam Gambhir
 2016 Olympics – Rio De Janiero
 2010 FIFA World Cup – South Africa
 2014 FIFA World Cup – Brazil
 2012 Olympics – London
 2011 World Cup Cricket – India / Sri Lanka / Bangladesh
 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games
 2010 Delhi World Cup Hockey
 Arjun Atwal – Golf - Prestigious Golf Trophy
 Vishwanathan Anand - World Chess Championship -
Sophia
Important Government Programmes
 National Highway Development Programme (NHDP),
largest Highway Development Programme ever in India
 National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme
(NREGP) target group the rural poor
 Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA)
proposed by former President Abdul Kalam
 Swarna Jayanti Gramin Swarojgar Yojana (SJSY) replaces
Integrated Rural Development Programme
 Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) 1985 covers
Diphteria, Pertusis, Tetanus, Polio, & Tuberculosis
 Integrated Child Development Programme (ICDP)
 Bharat Nirman – Rural infrastructure
Important Government Programmes
 Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) –
Urban infrastructure
 Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) big boost to power
production
 AIDP
 RTE
 RTI
 SABLA
The material given in the slides is indicative of where the focus of
preparation for the exam should be. The aspirant should use these
as probes for building knowledge base required for the exam.