Current Affairs Quiz Questions: 02 & 03 February 2015

1) Novak Djokovic won his fifth Australian Open title on 1 February 2015 defeating whom?

(A) Stan Wawrinka

(B) Tomas Berdych

(C) Andy Murray

(D) Rafael Nadal

2) Nation observed the death anniversary of the Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, on 30 January 2015 as?

(A) Non Violence Day

(B) Martyrs' Day

(C) Anti-Leprosy Day

(D) Ant-Terrorism Day

3) Which Department was recently awarded GOLD in National Award on e-governance 2014-15?

(A) Department of Posts

(B) Department of Food Processing

(C) Department of Space

(D) Income Tax Department

4) Krishna Chaudhary was on 30 January 2015 appointed as the Director General (DG) of?

(A) Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

(B) Border Security Force (BSF)

(C) Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

(D) Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

5) Name the Union Minister of Communications & IT who on 30 January 2015 released a set of Commemorative Postage stamps on Swachh Bharat?

(A) Sadananda Gowda

(B) Arun Jaitley

(C) J P Nanda

(D) Ravi Shankar Prasad

6) Union Govt. recently sold its 10% stake in which company, becoming the biggest ever share sale by any private or public sector company in India?

(A) Bharat Earth Movers (BEML)

(B) Indian Oil Corporation

(C) National Insurance Company

(D) Coal India Limited (CIL)

7) Jayanthi Natarajan who quitted Congress Party on 30 January 2015 was the Union Minister of _____ in previous UPA government?

(A) Information & Broadcasting

(B) Environment and Forest

(C) Water Resources

(D) Chemical & Fertilizers

8) Anti-Leprosy Day was observed recently on?

(A) 28 January

(B) 29 January

(C) 30 January

(D) 31 January

9) Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, recently flagged off four Express trains from Bangalore remotely through which service of RailTel, a PSU of Railways?

(A) Telepresence

(B) Multi Flagger

(C) Symbolgic

(D) Train Connect

10) Reserve Bank on 30 January 2015 constituted a high-powered panel to re-examine and recommend appropriate set of businesses, size, conversion and licensing terms for the urban cooperative banking sector. Who is the chairman of the committee?

(A) V K Saraswat

(B) R Gandhi

(C) Bimal Jalan

(D) Shyamala Gopinath

11) Who won the Australian Open women's singles title 2015?

(A) Maria Sharapova

(B) Madison Keys

(C) Ekaterina Makarova

(D) Serena Williams

12) Robert Mugabe who was appointed as the new chairman of the 54-nation African Union on 30 January 2015 is the president of which African Nation?

(A) Kenya

(B) South Africa

(C) Zimbabwe

(D) Nigeria

13) Which former DRDO chief on 30 January 2015 assumed charge as a full-time member of the NITI Aayog?

(A) V K Saraswat

(B) Avinash Chander

(C) Bibek Debroy

(D) Krishna Kumar

14) Sergio Mattarella was recently elected as the new President of?

(A) Greece

(B) Italy

(C) France

(D) Canada

15) 35th National Games 2015 which started on 31 January 2015 is hosted by which state?

(A) Goa

(B) Jharkhand

(C) Kerala

(D) Haryana

16) Who among the following on 31 January 2015 took charge as chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)?

(A) R K Tyagi

(B) Jiji Thomson

(C) T Suvarna Raju

(D) None of these

17) Who among the following was the goodwill ambassador for the 35th National Games 2015?

(A) Milkha Singh

(B) P T Usha

(C) Amitabh Bachchan

(D) Sachin Tendulkar

18) India on 31 January 2015 successfully carried out the maiden canister-based trial of its most potent missile Agni-V from?

(A) Wheeler Island, Odisha

(B) Sreeharikota, Andhra Pradesh

(C) Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu

(D) Thumba, Kerala

19) 60th Filmfare Awards ceremony was held on January 31, 2015, at the Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai. Which was adjudged the Best Film?

(A) PK

(B) Queen

(C) Haider

(D) Two States

20) Carl Djerassi, 91, the chemist widely considered the father of the ______, died on 31 January 2015?

(A) Anti-Biotics

(B) Birth control pill

(C) Band Aid

(D) Injection Needle

Answers Key:

1) Ans. (C) Andy Murray

2) Ans. (B) Martyrs' Day

3) Ans. (D) Income Tax Department [Awarded for for TDS Reconciliation Analysis & Correction Enabling System (TRACES)]

4) Ans. (A) Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

5) Ans. (D) Ravi Shankar Prasad

6) Ans. (D) Coal India Limited (CIL)

7) Ans. (B) Environment and Forest

8) Ans. (C) 30 January

9) Ans. (A) Telepresence

10) Ans. (B) R Gandhi [He is the RBI deputy Governor]

11) Ans. (D) Serena Williams

12) Ans. (C) Zimbabwe

13) Ans. (A) V K Saraswat

14) Ans. (B) Italy

15) Ans. (C) Kerala

16) Ans. (C) T Suvarna Raju

17) Ans. (D) Sachin Tendulkar

18) Ans. (A) Wheeler Island, Odisha

19) Ans. (B) Queen

20) Ans. (B) Birth control pill

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Reasoning For IBPS Exam PO & Clerks

Directions (1-5): These questions are based on the following information.

Six friends met for dinner, and their names are Shruti, Yukt, Kanika, Paras, Ayush, and Rekha. They are working with 6 different designations. These designations are 

IT, Sales Agent, Specialist Officer, Analyst, Engineer, and Teacher. They took dinner at a round table. Their arrangement is in following manner-

1. Yukt is in front of Sales Agent. Teacher is second right of Ayush.

2. Kanika is opposite to Shruti, who is immediate left of Specialist Officer.

3. Paras is not a Specialist Officer, but opposite of Analyst.

4. Ayush is immediately right of Engineer and Sales Agent is immediately left of Shruti.

5. IT is between Engineer and Sales Agent.

1. Who is in front of Teacher? 

(a) Shruti  

(b) Yukt 

(c) Rekha 

(d) Kanika 

(5) None of these 

2. Who is the second right of Analyst?

(a) Specialist Officer  

(b) Sales Agent 

(c) IT

(d) Engineer 

(5) None of these

3. Who is the Specialist Officer?

(a) Rekha  

(b) Ayush 

(c) Paras 

(d) Shruti  

(5) None of these

4. What is the sitting position of Yukt?

(a) 2nd left of Shruti  

(b) 3rd right of Ayush  

(c) diagonally opposite of IT

(d) 2nd right of Shruti  

(5) None of these

5. Who among the following is the Engineer?

(1) Rekha

(2) Kanika

(3) Shruti

(4) Paras

(5) Cannot be determined

Directions (6-8): Study the following arrangement of numbers, letters and symbols carefully and answer the questions given below:

P   A   5   $   7   6   S   T   X   !   Y   2   #   3   H   K   *   @   G   4   M   C   1   =   ? 

6. Which of these should come in place of question mark in the following question?

7$6          XT!     #23     @? G       CM1 

(1) K  

(2) *  

(3) M

(4) #  

(5) none of these

7. How many such symbols are there in the series which are immediately followed by a number and preceded by an alphabet?

(1) none  

(2) one  

(3) two

(4) three  

(5) four

8. How many letter and symbol combination are there?

(1) None  

(2) one  

(3) Two

(4) three  

(5) four

9. In a certain code MORNING is written as SPNMFMH. How is SOULFUL written in that code? 

(1) VPTKKTE 

(2) VPTKETK 

(3) TPVKKTE 

(4) TNRKMVG 

(5) None of these

10. The positions of how many digits in the number 59164823 will remain unchanged after the digits are rearranged in descending order within the number? 

(1) None   

(2) One  

(3) Two

(4) Three  

(5) More than three

Solutions (1-5):

1. (4)

2. (3)

3. (1)

4. (4)

5. (2)

Solutions (6-8):

6. (2)

7. (1)

8. (3)

9. (1)

10. (3)

5  9  1  6  4  8  2  3

9  8  6  5  4  3  2  1

So position of only 4 and 2 will remain unchanged.

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Detailed Analysis RBI Rate Cut Feb 2015

Current rates:

1. Bank Rate: 8.75% 
2. Repo Rate: 7.75%
3. Reverse Repo Rate: 6.75% 
4. Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR): 4% 
5. Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): 21.50% 
6. Base Rate: 10.00%–10.25% 
7. Savings Deposit Rate: 4% 
8. Term Deposit Rate: 8.00%–9.00%

In line with market expectations, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan kept repo rate and CRR unchanged, while cutting SLR by 50 basis points to 21.5% from 22%.

"In order to create space for banks to expand credit, the SLR is being reduced from 22.0 per cent of NDTL to 21.5 per cent. Banks should use this headroom to increase their lending to productive sectors on competitive terms so as to support investment and growth," RBI said.

RBI has indicated that "key to further easing are data that confirm continuing disinflationary pressures. Also critical would be sustained high quality fiscal consolidation...". "Given that there have been no substantial new developments on the disinflationary process or on the fiscal outlook since January 15, it is appropriate for the Reserve Bank to await them and maintain the current interest rate stance," Rajan said while explaining the rationale behind status quo on rates.

"The outlook for growth has improved modestly on the back of disinflation, real income gains from decline in oil prices, easier financing conditions and some progress on stalled projects. These conditions should augur well for a reinvigoration of private consumption demand, but the overall impact on growth could be partly offset by the weaker global growth outlook and short-run fiscal drag due to likely compression in plan expenditure in order to meet consolidation targets set for the year," RBI said. "Domestically, conditions for growth are slowly improving with easing input cost pressures, supportive monetary conditions and recent measures relating to project approvals, land acquisition, mining, and infrastructure. Accordingly, the central estimate for real GDP growth in 2015-16 is expected to rise to 6.5 per cent with risks broadly balanced at this point," the central bank said.

However, it noted that there is improvement in business confidence as visible from a pick-up in new investment intentions, especially in transportation, power and manufacturing. RBI estimated the current account deficit (CAD) for 2014- 15 at 1.3 per cent of the GDP, significantly lower than the earlier projection. "The CAD has been comfortably financed by net capital inflows, mainly in the form of buoyant portfolio flows but also supported by foreign direct investment inflows and external commercial borrowings. Accordingly, there was accretion to India's foreign exchange reserves to the tune of USD 6.8 billion in Q3," RBI said. Raghuram Rajan had surprised markets last month with a 25 basis point rate cut and has hinted at more as prices cool.

The first bi-monthly monetary policy statement for fiscal year 2015-16 is scheduled on Tuesday, April 7, 2015.

Impact of this on various sectors

GDP:

• Accordingly, the central estimate for real GDP growth in 2015-16 is expected to rise to 6.5% with risks broadly balanced at this point.

Agriculture

• According to Rajan, domestic activity is likely to have remained subdued in Q3 of 2014-15, mainly reflecting the shortfall in the kharif harvest relative to a year ago. "Agricultural growth is likely to pick up in Q4 with the late improvement in the north-east monsoon and in rabi sowing," he said. "Nevertheless, growth expectations should be tempered as lead indicators such as tractor and motorcycle sales and slowing rural wage growth all point to subdued rural demand," he cautioned.

Industrial activity:

• Advance indicators of industrial activity - indirect tax collections; non-oil non-gold import growth; expansion in order books; and new business reported in purchasing managers surveys - point to a modest improvement in the months ahead. The improvement in industrial activity in November 2014 was broad- based, but continuing contraction in consumer goods production underscores the persisting weakness in consumption demand (even while raising questions about measurement of production). Giving thumbs up to the government initiatives, Rajan said, "Policy initiatives in land acquisition, as well as efforts underway to unlock mining activity and to widen the space for foreign direct investment in defence, insurance and railways, should create a more conducive setting for industrial revival. Faster clearances are also helping in resuscitating stalled projects. The improvement in business confidence is visible in a pick-up in new investment intentions, especially in transportation, power and manufacturing."

Service sector

• Mixed signals: In the services sector, the purchasing managers' survey indicates slower activity, especially in new orders. However, other indicators of the services sector including foreign tourist arrivals, automobile sales, cargo handled at ports, and railway freight traffic suggest improvement. According to Rajan, the overall growth prospects will be contingent upon a turnaround in investment and a durable improvement in the business climate to complement the upsurge in business optimism. "The sharp reduction in oil prices as well as in inflation is likely to increase personal disposable incomes and improve domestic demand conditions in the year ahead," Rajan said

Impact on inflation

• Inflation dynamics have so far been consistent with the assessment of the balance of risks by the Reserve Bank's bi- monthly monetary policy statements, although with some undershooting relative to the projected path of disinflation. While inflation declined faster than expected due to favourable base effects during June- November, the upturn in December turned out to be muted relative to projections," RBI said. "Augmenting these data with survey data on falling inflationary expectations as well as data on weak commodity prices and muted rural wage growth, the Reserve Bank projected that it would meet its objective of 6% CPI inflation by January 2016. Having committed in public statements to initiate a change in the monetary policy stance as soon as incoming data permitted, the Reserve Bank cut the policy rate on January 15, 2015," Rajan explained. "The upside risks to inflation stem from the unlikely possibility of significant fiscal slippage, uncertainty on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon during 2015 as also the low probability but highly influential risks of reversal of international crude prices due to geopolitical events," he added.

Gk Power Capsule For the Month of January 2015

Dear readers, we are pleased to present you the much awaited GK Power Capsule for the Month of January 2015

This has been compiled by Career Power Institute Delhi, keeping in the minds the important news and events for the upcoming exam. All the Best Happy Reading :)

Click here to : Gk Power Capsule For the Month of January 2015

Current Affairs Updates 03.02.2015

1. RBI releases Rs 42,000 crore to fund FY16 growth

1. Banks will have headroom to lend an additional Rs 42,000 crore because of Reserve Bank of India's move to bring down by 50 basis points the statutory liquidity ratio — the portion of deposits that banks must invest in government bonds. 
2. Rajan left the repo rate — the rate at which it lends overnight funds to banks — unchanged at 7.75%. RBI also retained the cash reserve ratio — the portion of deposits that banks have to maintain with RBI — at 4%.
3. The central bank expects that economy growth will pick up to 6.5% in FY16 which will result in an increased demand for funds in the banking sector. The cut in SLR is expected to help banks prepare their cash reserves to fund this growth. 

2. RBI doubles forex remittance limit to $250,000

1. The Reserve Bank of India has doubled the eligibility limit for foreign exchange remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to $250,000 per person per year.
2. This enhancement in limit comes after a review of the external sector outlook and as a further exercise in macro prudential management.
3. RBI had reduced the eligibility limit for foreign exchange remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to USD 75,000 in 2013 as a macro-prudential measure. 
4. With stability in the foreign exchange market, this limit was enhanced to USD 125,000 in June 2014.

3. Terror charter against Pak at RIC Summit

1. In order to corner Pakistan for sheltering and facilitating terrorists involved the 26/11 carnage and other attacks in the country, India seeks to move a resolution in the UN to punish those who shelter and finance terrorism.
2. China and Russia decided to back India for moving this proposal at the United Nations that essentially goes against Pakistan on the issue of terrorism.
3. At the RIC summit - attended by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and Swaraj - a joint communique was issued which "underlined the need to bring to justice perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist acts". 

4. Modi govt to bring new scheme to replace JNNURM

1. The existing programme to modernize urban infrastructure will be discontinued and a new plan will be introduced by the Narendra Modi government.
2. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was introduced by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2005 to improve civic infrastructure and services.
3. It will focus on spatial planning, liquid and solid waste management and public transport

5. Madhya Pradesh gets national award for excellent work in MGNREGA

1. Madhya Pradesh has been awarded the 10th national award for excellent work in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act-MGNREGA. 
2. Union Rural Development Minister Virendra Singh presented the award to state’s Panchayats and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava at the MGNREGA summit held in New Delhi.
3. 74 percent construction of permanent assets has been done through MGNREGA in the state.