GK Power Capsule – May’ 2014 (The
Hindu Review)
1. Narendra
Damodardas Modi was sworn‐in as the
15th Prime Minister of India on 26
May 2014. Along
with him, 45‐member Council of
Ministers that
Ministers of State with
independent charges and 12
Ministers of State also took oath
of their offices. This
is the first time that, 25% of the
Cabinet post has
been allocated to women. Out of 23
Cabinet post, 6
has been allocated to women. The
representative
from SAARC nations included
1.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan
2.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala of Nepal
3. Prime
Minister Navin Ramgoolam of Mauritius
4.
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan
5.
President Abdulla Yameen of Maldives
6. President
Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan
7.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka
8. Speaker
of the Bangladesh National Parliament,
Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury
2. 16th
Lok Sabha Election 2014 results were declared
on 16 May 2014. The elections were
conducted in
543 constituencies across India.
In the Elections
2014, the main opposition party
Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) won the elections by
securing 282 seats.
On the other hand, the incumbent
party the Indian
National Congress (INC) lost the
elections by
securing only 44 seats. National
Democratic Alliance
(NDA) led by BJP was successful at
securing 334
seats, whereas, UPA led by INC was
successful at
securing only 60 seats. The BJP
for the first time has
won the elections with majority
since independence
and it is the only the second time
that a noncongress
party has succeeded at securing
this feat.
3. Winning
parties of the four states
1. Odisha
‐ Biju Janata Dal (BJD) emerged as the
winner party.
2. Arunachal
Pradesh – Congress emerged as winner
in the election
3. Sikkim
‐ Ruling Democratic Front (SDF) won the
elections
4. Andhra
Pradesh Assembly elctions were held for
two different states namely
Telangana and
Seemandra
This GK Capsule has been prepared
by Career Power Institute Delhi (Formerly Known as Bank
Power). This has
been prepared on the basis of news
and events appeared in The Hindu Newspaper in the month of May 2014.
a) In Seemandra – Telgu Desam
Party (TDP) won the
election
b) In Telangana – Telangana Rastra
Samithi (TRS)
won the election
4. Former
Intelligence Bureau Chief Ajit Doval was
appointed as the National Security
Adviser.
5. Japanese
national, Hiroshi Naka was appointed as
the Vice President and Auditor
General of World
Bank.
6. Mukul
Rohatgi was appointed as the 14th Attorney‐
General of India. He will succeed
Gulam Vahanvati.
7. Nripendra
Misra was appointed as the Principal
Secretary to the Prime Minister.
8. Ahmed
Maitiq was sworn‐in as the new Prime
Minister of Libiya.
9. Petro
Poroshenko won the Ukrainian Presidential
Election.
10. Rajiv
Mathur took over as the new Chief Information
Commissioner (CIC). Mathur
succeeded Sushma
Singh.
11. Anandiben
Patel was sworn‐in as the first woman
Chief Minister of Gujarat.
12. Narendra
Kumar Verma was selected as Managing
Director of ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL).
13. Pranab
Mukherjee appointed Narendra Modi as the
15th Prime Minister of India.
14. Biju
Janata Dal (BJD) President Naveen Patnaik was
sworn‐in as the Chief Minister of
Odisha for fourth
consecutive term.
15. Pawan
Chamling was sworn‐in as the Chief Minister
of Sikkim for a record fifth
consecutive time.
16. Jitan
Ram Manjhi was sworn‐in as the new Chief
Minister of Bihar. He succeeded
Janata Dal – United
(JD‐U) leader, Nitish Kumar who
resigned after the
debacle of the party in the 16th
Lok Sabha election.
17. Nabam
Tuki was sworn‐in as the eighth (seventh as
person) Chief Minister of
Arunachal Pradesh.
18. Justice
BS Chauhan was appointed as the Chairman
of the Cauvery Water Disputes
Tribunal (CWDT).
19. Major
General Kristin Lund of Norway became the
first‐ever woman to head a UN
Peacekeeping Force
in its entire history.
20. Montek
Singh Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairman of
Planning Commission of India
resigned.
21. Prime
Minister’s Economic Advisory Council
(PMEAC) Chairman Chakravarthi
Rangarajan
resigned.
22. Nitish
Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar resigned.
23. Prime
Minister of Slovenia, Alenka Bratusek
resigned.
24. UN
Envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi submitted his
resignation to UN
Secretary‐General Ban Ki‐moon in
New York. He was also the League
of Arab States
Special Representative on the
Syrian crisis.
25. Jamil
Mahuad, the former President of Ecuador was
sentenced for 12 years in jail for
embezzlement by a
court of Ecuador.
26. Sushma
Swaraj became the first woman External
Affairs Minister of India.
27. Shah
Rukh Khan on 13 May 2014 became the first
Indian to feature on the cover
page of the business
magazine Forbes Middle East.
28. US
Senate confirmed the name of Indian – American
Indira Talwani as the federal
judge in
Massachusetts.
29. The
Tel Aviv District Court of Israel sentenced
former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
to six years in
prison for corrupt practices in
real estate projects.
30. Sunday
Times Super‐Rich List released on 11 May
2014 ranked London‐based Hinduja
Brothers as the
richest in UK. The two brothers,
Srichand and
Gopichand Hinduja topped the list
having a fortune
of 11.9 billion pounds.
31. Indian‐American
Manish Shah was confirmed as a
federal judge in Illinois by US
senate.
32. UN
secretary General Ban Ki‐moon awarded the
prestigious Dag Hammarskjold medal
to the eight
Indian soldiers, who lost their
lives in peacekeeping
operations in 2013.
33. Vishwanath
Tripathi, eminent Hindi writer was
awarded with the prestigious Vyas
Samman for the
year 2013. He received the award
for his work
Vyomkesh Darvesh.
34. The
project Mobile Seva under Department of
Electronics and Information
Technology (DeitY)
won second rank in the 2014 United
Nations Public
Service Award.
35. Former
President APJ Abdul Kalam was awarded
with honorary degree by Edinburgh
University in
Scotland.
36. Pranab
Mukherjee, the President of India conferred
National Florence Nighangle Awards
2014 on 35
nursing personnel from across the
country for their
meritorious services.
37. Two
Indian‐Americans Manjusha P. Kulkarni and
Ranjana Paintal were selected for
Champions of
Change by the White House. The
award was
announced in recognition of their
work to educate
Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders (AAPI) about
President Barack Obama’s signature
healthcare Act.
38. Indian
Aviation Academy was awarded with the
International Arch of Europe Award
for quality and
technology in Gold Category.
39. Turkish
investigative journalist Ahmet Sik won 2014
UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press
Freedom
Prize.
40. Indian
Air Force aircraft MIG‐21 crashed at
Marhama Sangam on National Highway
in Bijbehara
of Anantnag district in South
Kashmir.
41. The
World Health Organisation declared outbreak of
polio as a World Health Emergency
after detecting
new cases of polio across borders
from countries
like Syria and Pakistan. As per
the WHO, the virus is
considered endemic in only three
countries:
Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
42. Improving
the Business Environment in India report
was released by Department of
Industrial Policy and
Promotion. Gujarat ‐ model of land
acquisition was
termed as the best in the country.
Karnataka –
integrated and comprehensive
system for VAT.
Maharashtra – Labour Management
solution and
setting up Maharashtra Industry,
Trade and
Investment Facilitation Cell.
Rajasthan and Punjab –
single window clearance system.
43. United
Nations International Telecommunications
Union 2014 released the new
statistics Information
and Communications Technology. The
statistics
claimed that by the end of 2014
the world will have
about 3 billion internet users –
two‐thirds of them
will be from the developing world
– with mobilebroadband
penetration approaching 32
percent. The
3 billion people accounts for
about 40 percent of
world’s population.
44. Malavath
Poorna, a 13‐years and 11‐month old girl
of Andhra Pradesh became the
youngest woman to
climb the Mount Everest, the
highest peak in the
world.
45. Indian
Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN)
conducted annual bilateral naval
exercises named
SIMBEX 2014 in Andaman Sea.
46. Gorakhdham
Express going from Delhi to Gorakhpur
rammed into a stationary goods
train near
Khalilabad in Uttar Pradesh.
47. A
coal pit in Soma of western Turkey collapsed after
an explosion. The collapse killed
at least 274
miners.
48. Film
Winter Sleep was honoured with Palme d’Or
Award at the 67th Cannes Film
Festival held in
Cannes from 16 May to 25 May 2014.
The film has
been directed by Turkish director
Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
The Grand Prix Award ‐ The Wonders
directed by
Italian director, Alice
Rohrwacher. Best actress
Award ‐ Maps to the Stars stared
by Julianne Moore.
Best Actor Award ‐ Timothy Spall
stared by the Mr
Turner. Best director Award‐
Foxcatcher directed by
Bennett Miller.
49. Spain
suspended the 12th bull fight festival (called
San Isidro festival in Spain)
after matadors got
injured by bulls.
50. To
pay tribute to the 100 years of Indian cinema,
Brazil released two postage stamps
designed by an
Indian graphic designer.
51. A
documentary film, Silent Screams – India’s Fight
Against Rape directed by Pria
Somiah won three
awards at the 2014 New York
Festivals International
TV and Film Awards. The three
awards includes ‐
Gold World Medal for 'Best
Investigative Report',
Two Bronze Gold Medals each in the
Current Affairs
and Human Concerns sections
respectively.
52. Supersonic
Akash air defence missiles successfully
intercepted the targets Lakshya
(pilotless target
aircraft). The three Akash missiles
were launched
from the Integrated Test Range
(ITR), Balasore, off
the coast of Odisha.
53. Union
Government appointed Lieutenant General
Dalbir Singh Suhag as the 28th
Chief of Army Staff
(COAS). He will assume the charge
on 31 July 2014
the date on which General Bikram
Singh retires.
54. First
indigenously developed air‐to‐air missile Astra
(Range – 60 Km) successfully test
fired from a
Sukhoi‐30MKI fighter jet over the
Arabian Sea off
Goa. Astra is India's first Beyond
Visual Range (BVR)
Air‐to‐Air missile.
55. The
Book entitled Anticipating India ‐ The Best of
National Interest written by
Shekhar Gupta, the
editor‐in‐chief of The Indian
Express was released.
56. Arunendra
Kumar, the Chairman of Railway Board
released a book entitled India
Junction – A Window
to the Nation.
57. A
book My Years with Rajiv and Sonia written by
R.D.Pradhan released. R.D.Pradhan
has penned his
work experiences with Rajiv Gandhi
and Sonia
Gandhi in his book.
58. A
book entitled A Stamp is Born authored by C. R.
Pakrashi was released by Vice
President of India, M
Hamid Ansari.
59. Arctic
Summer written by Novelist Damon Galgut
was released.
60. The
candidate was written by Indian Journalist
Anirudh Bhattacharya.
61. PM
Narendra Modi created a new Ministry of Skill
development and Entrepreneurship.
It was created
recognizing the importance of
skill development in
India.
62. Dhubri
constituency in Assam registered a highest
voter turnout of 88.22 percent
whereas Srinagar
registered a lowest voter turnout
of 25.86 percent.
63. The
Union Home Ministry extended the ban imposed
on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) in
India for five more years.
64. The
Supreme Court held that Candidates fighting
elections can be disqualified if
they fail to disclose
information about assets and
liabilities of even their
spouse and dependent children.
65. President
of India gave his assent to the
Whistleblowers Protection Bill
2011. The Bill carries
provisions for setting up regular
mechanism to
encourage persons to disclose
information on
corruption or willful misuse of
power by public
servants, which includes
Ministers. The Bill also
demands adequate protection to
persons who
reports corruption.
66. The
Constitution Bench of Supreme Court of India
upheld the Constitutional validity
of the Right to
Education (RTE) Act. The apex
court said that the
Act is not applied to unaided
minority institutions.
67. The
Election Queue Management System, a first of
its kind initiative was introduced
in Burdwan
district, West Bengal during Lok
Sabha election. The
Election queue management system
helped voters to
find out the level of crowd in the
polling booths in
Burdwan district.
68. The
Supreme Court ruled that statement of rape
victims should be directly
recorded by a judicial
magistrate within 24 hours instead
of police
officials.
69. Indian
environment activist Ramesh Agrawal has
won the prestigious Goldman
Environmental Prize,
also known as the Green Nobel.
70. The
University Grants Commission wants to hold a
fresh inspection of 41 deemed
universities which
were sought to be de‐recognised on
the basis of the
Tandon Committee report.
71. President
Barack Obama said he had no desire to
contain or counter China despite
clinching a defence
pact with the Philippines which
will inject U.S. forces
close to the volatile South China
Sea.
72. The
28‐member European Union has temporarily
banned the import of Alphonso
mangoes and four
vegetables from India from May 1.
73. The
Centre disclosed in the Supreme Court the
names of 18 individuals who had
stashed black
money in LGT bank in
Liechtenstein, as per the
information furnished by the
German government to
India in 2009.
74. The
Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate
Tribunal (TDSAT) allowed three top
mobile
operators — Bharti Airtel,
Vodafone India and Idea
Cellular — to continue with their
3G intra‐circle
roaming (ICR) pact and provide
roaming services to
their customers. It quashed
cumulative penalty
worth Rs.1,200 crore imposed on
the three
operators by the Department of
Telecommunications for violating
licence
agreement.
75. A
first information report (FIR) was registered
against the BJP’s prime
ministerial candidate,
Narendra Modi, on Election
Commission orders for
allegedly violating electoral laws
by displaying the
party’s lotus symbol after voting
in Gandhinagar.
76. The
Obama administration has retained India on the
‘Priority Watch List’ of nations
in the U.S. Trade
Representative’s ‘Special
301’annual report on
global intellectual property rights
(IPR) regimes, on
the basis that there were “growing
concerns with
respect to the environment for IPR
protection and
enforcement in India.”
77. The
sultan of oil‐rich Brunei announced that tough
Islamic criminal punishments would
be introduced.
78. A
newspaper‐initiated investigation, that claims to
prove the use of chlorine and
ammonia bombs on
civilian targets by the government
of President
Bashar al‐Assad regime of Syria,
has led to the
formation of a fact‐finding team
of weapons
inspectors by Organisation for the
Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
79. The
International Monetary Fund said that Russia
was already in recession and
slashed its growth
forecast for 2014 citing the
effect of the Ukraine
crisis on investment.
80. Export‐Import
Bank of India (Exim Bank) plans to
set up a project development
company (PDC) in
Africa, with the participation of
State Bank of India
(SBI), IL&FS and African
Development Bank.
81. The
Tamil Nadu government rejected the Centre’s
offer to order a National Investigation
Agency (NIA)
probe into the twin blasts in the
Bangalore‐
Guwahati Express at the Chennai
Central station.
82. Dutch
police arrested around 30 Greenpeace
activists, including the captain
of the group’s
flagship Rainbow Warrior, as they
tried to stop a
Russian tanker delivering Arctic
oil from docking.
83. Manoj
Vaish, Managing Director and Chief Executive
Officer of Multi Commodity
Exchange (MCX), has
resigned.
84. The
loss on sale of diesel has climbed to Rs. 6.80
even as state‐owned oil companies
skipped, for the
second time, the monthly price
increase on
government diktat.
85. India
has accused Switzerland of “providing
protection to taxpayers found to
have evaded Indian
taxes” and seriously undermining
India’s efforts at
tackling offshore tax evasion and
stashing away
unaccounted income abroad.”
86. The
Defence Research Development Organisation
finally has its own flying
platform, a light aircraft, for
testing a new set of air‐borne
radars. The just
acquired ‘ Nabhratna ’ (or jewel
in the sky), a
custom‐built Dornier‐228 aircraft,
will speed up the
development cycle of special
radars that the DRDO is
working on, Director‐General
Avinash Chander said.
87. At
least 250 people were missing after a landslip
buried villages in northern
Afghanistan. Badakhshan
is a remote province in northeast
Afghanistan
bordering Tajikistan, China and
Pakistan.
88. Saudi
citizens can now petition 90‐year‐old King
Abdullah directly and lodge
complaints through an
Internet site set up at the
initiative of the monarch
himself.
89. Two
subway trains collided in Seoul.
90. The
wilful bank loan default by 400 customers to
various public sector banks have
crossed the
Rs.70,000‐crore mark. Having
released the names of
top 50 wilful defaulters in
December 2013, the All
India Bank Employees’ Association
(AIBEA) will
publish the second list of
remaining 350 candidates.
91. Union
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram urged the
Asian Development Bank to increase
its annual
lending capacity to $20 billion in
the next ten years.
He was speaking at the 47th Annual
Meeting of ADB
Board of Governors in Astana
(Kazakhstan).
92. India’s
first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which was
headed for the scrap yard, got
another breather
from the Supreme Court as it
blocked the vessel’s
journey to ignominy. The ship was
due at the scrap
yard on May 17 after it was sold
for Rs.60 crore
through an e‐auction to the
Mumbai‐based IB
Commercials Pvt Ltd.
93. The
Supreme Court held that imposition of the
mother tongue as the medium of
instruction in
primary classes in
government‐recognised, aided or
unaided private schools was
unconstitutional.
94. Weeks
after India signed the agreement for building
units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam
Nuclear Power
Plant, New Delhi, at a meeting in
Colombo, sought to
allay fears in Sri Lanka over the
safety of the project.
95. Minors
above 10 can now open and operate savings
bank accounts independently.
Another decision was
to allow minors of any age to open
savings, fixed or
recurring deposit accounts through
natural or
legally appointed guardians.
Earlier, minors were
allowed to open fixed and savings
deposit accounts
with the mother as guardian.
96. The
government has introduced a draft notification
that bans India from importing
animal‐tested
cosmetics.
97. The
Obama administration said that it had signed a
20‐year lease on its military base
in Djibouti in the
Horn of Africa.
98. The
Reserve Bank of India told banks that they were
not permitted to levy penal
charges for nonmaintenance
of minimum balances in any
inoperative account.
99. Bharti
Enterprises Founder and Chairman Sunil
Bharti Mittal will co‐chair the
three‐day World
Economic Forum on Africa being
held in Abuja
(Nigeria) from May 7.
100. Supreme
Court banned ‘jallikattu’ (bull fighting)
and bullock cart racing in Tamil
Nadu. The court also
banned bullock cart racing in
Maharashtra.
101. India’s
first voter Shyam Saran Negi cast his vote
at a polling booth at his native
place in Himachal
Pradesh. Mr. Shyam Saran Negi
became the first
voter of the country when
elections were held for
the first time in the country on
October 25, 1951 in
Kinnaur.
102. DRDO
successfully flight‐tested an underwaterlaunched
missile called K‐4 with a range of
about
3,000 km. The launch took place
from a pontoon
submerged more than 30 metres deep
in the sea off
the Visakhapatnam coast. The
sources described K‐4
as “the proud successor” of the
K‐15 with Range of
700‐km. The K‐15 is now under
production and
ready for integration into India’s
nuclear‐powered
submarine, Arihant .
103. Fresh
data released by the United Nations shows
a 45 per cent decrease in maternal
deaths since
1990. An estimated 2.89 lakh women
died in 2013
from complications in pregnancy
and childbirth as
against 5.23 lakh maternal deaths
in 1990.
104. Chief
of the Naval Staff Admiral Robin Kumar
Dhowan announced that the newly
inducted aircraft
carrier, INS Vikramaditya, is now
operationally
deployed and its integral MiG‐29K
fighters have
been fully integrated with the
carrier.
105. RBI
said that banks would not be permitted to
charge foreclosure charges or
pre‐payment
penalties on all floating rate
term loans (home loans
and auto loans) sanctioned to
“individual
borrowers”, with immediate effect.
106. You
can now watch the Earth live — as viewed
from space. Nasa is live‐streaming
views of Earth
from space captured by four
commercial highdefinition
video cameras that were installed
on the
exterior of the International
Space Station last
month.
107. The
Election Commission gave Congress vicepresident
Rahul Gandhi a clean chit,
absolving him
of the charge that he had violated
the poll code by
entering a booth in Amethi when
voting was in
progress.
108. A
ceasefire between South Sudan’s government
and rebels came into effect
following a deal to end a
brutal five‐month war that has
pushed the country
to the brink of genocide and
famine.
109. Iran
and Pakistan agreed to go ahead with the
gas pipeline project which was
discussed in a
meeting between Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif and
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
in Tehran.
110. The
world’s first airplane completely powered
by electricity has successfully
taken to the skies for
its maiden flight, and could bring
down air travel
cost by more than a third, its
developer Airbus said.
The small experimental aircraft
called ‘E‐Fan’ took
off from an airport near Bordeaux
in southwestern
France.
111. Tata
Housing announced its foray into Sri Lanka
with an investment of over $400
million (about
Rs.2,400 crore) to develop a
township project at
Colombo.
112. A
week after the World Health Organisation
report dubbed Delhi as the most
polluted city in the
world, Lieutenant‐Governor Najeeb
Jung constituted
a high‐powered committee to look
into pollution
levels in the city.
113. Transgenders
appeared closer to getting
reservation in employment and
education in the
public sector with the National
Commission for
Backward Classes (NCBC)
recommending their
inclusion in the Central list of
the OBCs.
114. The
government should cut its holding in public
sector banks to under 50 per cent,
a RBI panel
report said, criticising the way
in which the lenders
are now being governed. The panel,
headed by ex‐
Chairman of Axis Bank, P. J.
Nayak, said governance
at the 26 public sector banks
suffered due to several
‘externally imposed constraints’
like dual regulation
by the RBI and the Finance
Ministry, and external
vigilance by agencies such as the
CVC and CAG,
among others.
115. The
Competition Commission of India has
ordered a fresh probe against
Google for alleged
abuse of its dominant position in
the online search
advertising space.
116. China
said it would slap provisional antidumping
measures on single‐mode optical
fibres
imported from India, alleging that
Indian companies
were dumping them in the Chinese
market.
117. United
States Secretary of State John Kerry
described China’s moves to deploy
an oil rig in
waters disputed by Vietnam as
“provocative,”
prompting an angry rebuttal from
Beijing. The
Chinese government accused the
U.S. of making
“erroneous” remarks that had
“emboldened some
countries’ provocations.” In
recent days, Chinese and
Vietnamese vessels have been in a
tense stand‐off,
sparked by China’s deployment of
an oil rig in the
waters of the South China Sea off
the Paracel Islands,
which are claimed by Beijing.
118. Pakistan
confirmed that it had agreed to play six
full series of cricket against
India with official
backing, the first since the 2008
Mumbai terrorist
attacks suspended play between the
teams.
119. Justice
B.S. Chauhan, Judge of the Supreme
Court, has been appointed Chairman
of the Cauvery
Water Disputes Tribunal.
120. Micro
finance institution (MFI) Bandhan
Financial Services Ltd. has
appointed Deloitte to
prepare its roadmap for launching
banking services.
121. The
Reserve Bank of India is holding its Central
Board meeting in Shimla.
122. The
16th Lok Sabha will have the highest
number of MPs with criminal cases
against them.
Over a third or 34 per cent of the
new MPs face
criminal charges, says data from
the Association for
Democratic Reforms (ADR), which
analysed the
election affidavits filed before
the Election
Commission.
123. Total
foodgrain output for 2013‐14 is estimated
to reach a record level of 264.38
million tonnes as
against 257.13 million tonnes
achieved the previous
year.
124. African
leaders at a summit in Paris have agreed
on a regional plan of action to
combat Boko Haram,
the Islamist group that has abducted
more than 200
girls and threatened to sell them
into slavery. In a
rare show of unity, the leaders of
Nigeria, Cameroon,
Niger, Chad and Benin pledged
cooperation
including joint border patrols and
sharing
intelligence to find the girls,
snatched from Nigeria
more than a month ago.
125. Washington
charged five “Chinese military
hackers” with cyber‐espionage,
alleging that
between 2006 and 2014 they broke
into the
computer networks of six U.S.
corporations and
made away with a “significant”
trove of intellectual
property and trade secrets
relating to the nuclear
power, metals and solar products
industries.
126. China
set up a 10 billion Yuan ($1.6 billion) fund
to take forward its ambitious
“maritime silk road
plan” to build ports and boost
maritime connectivity
with Southeast Asian and Indian
Ocean littoral
countries.
127. India
continues to rank lowest in the World
Bank’s ranking on the ease of
‘Doing Business’ for
2014. India is now ranked at 134
against 131 in
2013. It is now placed lower than
Brazil, Russia,
China and South Africa.
128. The
Reserve Bank of India allowed star trading
houses and premier trading houses
to import gold
under the 20:80 scheme. Under this
scheme
Importers can buy gold provided a
fifth of the
imported quantum is exported as
finished products
like jewellery.
129. President
Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the
mercy petition of Yakub Abdul
Razak Memon,
brother of fugitive ‘Tiger’ Memon,
whose death
sentence was upheld by the Supreme
Court in the
1993 case of Mumbai serial blasts.
130. Shah
Rukh Khan is the lone Indian celebrity to
have made it to the top‐ten
wealthiest actors,
beating Tom Cruise and Johnny
Depp. He has an
estimated fortune of $600 million.
He is second on
the list put out by Wealth‐X.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld
tops the list with a net worth of
$820 million.
131. China
and Russia signed a landmark gas deal
ending more than decade‐long
negotiations, with the
agreement for the annual supply of
38 billion cubic
metres of natural gas.
132. An
Egyptian court sentenced deposed president
Hosni Mubarak to three years in
prison on
corruption charges.
133. Reserve
Bank of India, for the benefit of persons
with disabilities, has made it
mandatory for banks to
install talking ATMs with Braille
keypads from July
1, 2014, as talking ATMs with
Braille keypads.
134. The
16th Lok Sabha will see the highest number
of first‐time MPs in over 30
years. Data shows that
315 of the 543 elected MPs — or 58
per cent — are
first‐timers.
135. The
Thailand Army chief seized power in a
military coup. General Prayut
Chan‐O‐Cha made the
announcement in a televised
address to the nation,
saying the powerful armed forces
had to act to
restore stability in the Southeast
Asian nation.
136. Flipkart
announced that it has acquired rival and
leading fashion e‐tailer
Myntra.com.
137. The
board of BSE, the largest stakeholder in the
United Stock Exchange (USE), has
decided to merge
the struggling currency bourse
with itself, a move
that will boost its own stressed
currency trading
business that is dominated by rival
NSE.
138. Heavily‐armed
terrorists attacked the Indian
consulate in Herat and were
repulsed by the Indo‐
Tibetan Border Police guards
stationed at the
diplomatic outpost in western
Afghanistan.
139. Iran
has for the first time in six years addressed
concerns about the so‐called
“possible military
dimensions” of its nuclear
programme, a new IAEA
report showed.
140. IDBI
Bank signed an agreement with the
Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and
Industry (FICCI) under which it
will offer loans to
micro, small and medium
enterprises (MSME) at one
percentage point lower interest
than the market
rates and also charge low
processing fee.
141. Foreign
exchange reserves rose by $1.093 billion
to $314.92 billion in the week
ended May 16.
142. Two
prominent members of the Aam Aadmi
Party — Shazia Ilmi and G.R.
Gopinath — quit the
party citing differences over
Arvind Kejriwal’s “jail
politics” and “lack of internal
democracy” in the
party.
143. In
a goodwill gesture ahead of visits by the
Pakistan Prime Minister and Sri
Lankan President to
Delhi for the swearing‐in of
Narendra Modi,
Islamabad and Colombo have ordered
the release of
up to 161 Indian fishermen in
custody. While
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif ordered the
release of 151 Indian fishermen
and 57 boats, Sri
Lankan Presi‐dent Mahinda
Rajapaksa ordered the
release of five Indian fishermen
in custody in
Colombo.
144. Anti‐corruption
activist Anna Hazare is planning
to launch a non‐political social
movement called Asli
Azadi Abhiyan (true freedom
movement) in Mumbai
on August 9, coinciding with the
anniversary of the
Quit India movement. The Gandhian
plans to lead a
march from Kashmir to Kanyakumari
later this year
to take the campaign to the
people.
145. Next
Summit: Brazil‐Russia‐India‐China‐South
Africa BRICS summit in Brasilia,
in July. The United
Nations General Assembly in New
York in
September, Association of South
East Asian Nations
summit in Nay Pyi Taw in October.
Meeting of the G‐
20 group of major economies in
Brisbane Australia.
146. The
Union government announced the setting
up of a high‐level Special
Investigation Team to help
unearth black money stashed away
abroad, at the
first meeting of the Cabinet,
presided over by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi. SIT would
be headed by
former Supreme Court judge Justice
M. B. Shah and
another retired Supreme Court
judge Justice Arijit
Pasayat would be its
vice‐chairman.
147. An
Indian Air Force MiG‐21 fighter jet crashed in
an open field at Marhama near
Bijbehara in
Anantnag district of south
Kashmir.
148. Aam
Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal
backed down from his stand and
furnished a
personal bail bond, facilitating
his release from the
Tihar Jail in the defamation case
filed against him by
BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.
149. U.S.
forces will complete their withdrawal from
Afghanistan by the end of 2016.
150. AirAsia
India announced that its maiden flight
on June 12 will take off from
Bangalore to Goa at an
introductory fare of Rs 990 (all
taxes inclusive).
151. The
fiscal deficit in 2013‐14 stood at 4.5% of
GDP, lower than 4.6% projected in
the revised
estimate, mainly on account of
curbs on government
expenditure.
152. Highlighting
the priorities of his ministry, Union
Minister for Urban Development,
Housing and
Poverty Alleviation Venkaiah Naidu
said he wants to
motivate private sector to go for
housing for their
staff as part of their social
responsibility because
"housing for all by 2022 is
the motto of this
government."
153. Singapore
has replaced Mauritius as the top
source of foreign direct
investment into India,
accounting for about 25 per cent
of FDI inflows in
2013‐14.
154. The
Indian economy will grow 5 per cent in
2014 and record a slightly higher
expansion of 5.5
per cent next year on stronger
consumption and
investment, a UN report said.
155. The
monsoon may arrive in the country at the
southern Kerala coast around June
5, the India
Meteorological Department (IMD)
said.
156. India
will overtake Japan to become the world's
third largest oil consumer behind
the US and China
by 2025, US Energy Information
Administration
(EIA) said.
157. With
improvement in macroeconomic indicators
and steady implementation of
policy reforms, the
Indian economy is likely to cross
the $5‐trillion
mark by 2025, a Morgan Stanley
report said.
158. Diesel
prices were hiked by Rs 1.09 a litre,
excluding state levies.
159. Delhi
is the most polluted city in the world,
according to a World Health Organization
study
released.
160. In
another step towards shedding banking
secrecy practices, 47 nations
including Switzerland
and India, have agreed upon
automatic exchange of
information on tax matters. The
endorsement of the
'Declaration on Automatic Exchange
of Information
in Tax Matters' by 47 countries
under the aegis of
Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and
Development will come as a boost
for India which is
stepping up pressure on
Switzerland to share details
on alleged black money stashed
away by Indians
there.
161. Marred
by domestic and external problems, the
Indian economy's annual average
growth rate may
not exceed 6 per cent during the
12th Five‐Year Plan
(2012‐17), compared with the
target of 8 per cent.
162. RBI
will bring out guidelines on differentiated
banks and “on‐tap” bank licences
in the next four
months and then start inviting
applications for the
same.
163. The
Reserve Bank has directed banks to convert
credit balances in any inoperative
foreign currency
denominated deposit into Indian
rupee if the former
remains not in use for a period of
three years from
date of maturity of deposit.
164. The
RBI has directed non‐banking financial
companies (NBFCs) to round off all
transactions to
the nearest rupee so as to avoid
unnecessary
discomfort to public.
165. The
digital payments industry in India is
expected to grow by 40 per cent to
reach Rs 1.2 lakh
crore by the end of 2014 as the
number of people
using credit/debit cards, online
transactions and
cash cards surges, a study said.
166. Investors
pumped in more than Rs 1.12 lakh
crore in various mutual fund
schemes in April,
making it the highest amount in
three years.
167. MasterCard
said that it has entered into an
agreement with Opus Software
Solutions Pvt. Ltd., to
acquire its subsidiary, ElectraCard
Services Private
Limited, a global provider of
software solutions and
processing services for electronic
payment and card
systems.
168. President
Pranab Mukherjee launched its own
payment gateway 'RuPay',
equivalent of Visa and
Mastercard, which will work on
ATMs and mechant
outlets and help in reducing cash
transactions.
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