GK & Current Affairs: December 25, 2016

1. Who has been selected for the prestigious 2016 Jnanpith Award?
[A]Kedarnath Singh
[B]Ravuri Bharadhwaja
[C]Chandrashekhara Kambara
[D]Shankha Ghosh
Answer: Shankha Ghosh
Notes:
Shankha Ghosh, the well-known Bengali poet, critic and academician, has been selected for the prestigious 52nd edition of the Jnanpith Award (2016) by the Government of India (GoI) for his poetic idiom and experiments with various poetic forms mark his greatness as a creative talent. With this, Ghosh has become the 6th Bengali author to win India’s highest literary award after Mahasweta Devi, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Subhash Mukhopadhyay and Bishnu Dey. The Jnanpith Award is presented every year to a literary figure for their outstanding contribution in literature. The award carries a citation, prize money of Rs. 12 lakh and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati.
2. Which of the following transactions are eligible through “Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana” for merchants?
[A]Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)
[B]Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS)
[C]Unified Payment Interface (UPI)
[D]All of the above
Answer: All of the above
Notes:
The Union government will launched the “Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana” for Merchants and “Lucky Grahak Yojana” for Consumers in New Delhi. The purpose of the schemes is to encourage people to move towards significantly higher usage of digital transactions through the offer of incentives. Both the schemes will be implemented by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). For these schemes, only those transactions that take place through RuPay Cards, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) are eligible. The schemes will be launched with the first draw by the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on December 25, 2016. Winners will be selected on a daily and weekly basis under the Lucky Grahak Yojana and weekly basis under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana, leading up to April 14, 2014, when the schemes will culminate with a mega draw. The draws for these events will be taken out in 100 different cities around the country, in a ceremony accompanied by a digital payments adoption fair “DigiDhan Mela”.
3. The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs has recently launched “OCMC” to provide speedy redressal of consumer grievances. What does “OCMC” stands for?
[A]Online Consumer Media Centre (OCMC)
[B]Online Consumer Mediator Centre (OCMC)
[C]Online Consumer Mediacy Centre (OCMC)
[D]Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC)
Answer: Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC)
Notes:
The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan has recently launched an ‘Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC)’ in association with the Bengaluru’s National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to provide speedy redressal of consumer grievances in New Delhi. Initially, the OCMC deal with only cases related to e-commerce companies and will facilitate online and even physical mediation between consumers and companies. Apart from this, ministry has also launched ‘Smart Consumer’ mobile App and helpline no. ‘14404’ for consumer related grievances and also launched Microsite based on the theme “Digitally Safe Consumer Campaign” to help consumers for being vigilant and not falling prey to cyber frauds.The basic purpose of the Centre is to encourage consumers and companies to go for pre-litigation and provide them with an option to settle disputes amicably.
4. Who has won the 2016 All India Football Federation (AIFF) Player of the Year?
[A]Jeje Lalpekhlua
[B]Rowllin Borges
[C]Uvena Fernandes
[D]Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
Answer: Jeje Lalpekhlua
Notes:
Jeje Lalpekhlua, the Mohun Bagan and Chennaiyin FC striker, has been named the 2016 All India Football Federation (AIFF) Player of the Year. He will be presented a prize of Rs. 2.5 lakh along with the glittering Trophy. Beside this, AIFF inducts two ‘2016 AIFF Award for Special Recognition’ awards for Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Uvena Fernandes. They will be bestowed with Rs. 1 lakh and a trophy piece.
5. “EazyPay” a mobile-based application for merchants has been launched by which of the following banks?
[A]State Bank of India
[B]ICICI Bank
[C]HDFC Bank
[D]Punjab National Bank
Answer: ICICI Bank
Notes:
The ICICI bank has recently launched “EazyPay” a mobile-based application for merchants that allow consolidation of all modes of payments, including digital wallets, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), QR code, and credit & debit cards. The app is a one-stop solution for all merchants to collect payments from their customers, allows multiple users to connect to the same account. This makes it possible to be used for cash-on-delivery payments.
6. Chetan Ramarao, who passed recently, was the noted film actor of which language?
[A]Telugu
[B]Malayalam
[C]Kannada
[D]Tamil
Answer: Kannada
Notes:
The veteran Kannada film actor, Chetan Ramarao (76) has recently passed away in Mysuru, Karnataka. Ramarao had acted in more than 350 films in his career spanning almost five decades.
7. The Good Governance Day (GGD) is observed on which day in India?
[A]December 23
[B]December 24
[C]December 26
[D]December 25
Answer: December 25
Notes:
The Good Governance Day (GGD) is observed every year in India to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The day was established to honor Prime Minister Vajpayee by fostering awareness among the Indian people of accountability in government. From December 25, 2016, the Good Governance campaign will be undertaken for 100 days during which Ministers and Members of Parliament (MoP) will travel across the country and attend programmes highlighting the government’s key initiatives. The effort of the government is to improve delivery systems, to promote digital transformation and take forward the connectivity revolution in all sectors.
8. The book “On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism” has been authored by whom?
[A]Martha Gellhorn
[B]Lynsey Addario
[C]Marie Colvin
[D]Paul Conroy
Answer: Marie Colvin
Notes:
The book “On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism” has been authored by noted journalist Marie Colvin. It is a collection of author’s finest work that includes her various interviews with Yasser Arafat and Colonel Gadaffi, reports from East Timor in 1999 where she shamed the UN into protecting its refugees, accounts of her terrifying escape from the Russian army in Chechnya and reports from the strongholds of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers where she was hit by shrapnel, leaving her blind in one eye and many more.
9. The 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup will be held in which country?
[A]India
[B]England
[C]Sri Lanka
[D]New Zealand
Answer: England
Notes:
The 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup will be held between July 7–21, 2018 in London, England. Recently, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has adopted some changes regarding to 2018 Hockey World Cup viz. a 16-team competition per gender, 4 pools of 4 teams each, winners of each pool qualifies for Quarter Finals, last placed team in each Pool eliminated, ranking of eliminated teams based on their performance at the time of elimination, etc. It was also decided that the 2022 Hockey World Cup would also be a 16-team competition, per gender. The 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup will held from 28 November to 16 December 2018 in Odisha, India.
10. The 2016 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup cricket tournament has been won by which country?
[A]India
[B]New Zealand
[C]England
[D]Australia
Answer: India
Notes:
India has won the 2016 Asian Cricket Council Under-19 Asia Cup title by defeating Sri Lanka by 34 runs in the final at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The international tournament was the part of the qualification process for the 2018 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which will be held in New Zealand from January 12 to February 4, 2018. .

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