11. ‘Naseem-Al-Bahr’ is a bilateral naval exercise between India and which country?
[A] Indonesia
[B] Iran
[C] Oman
[D] Saudi Arabia
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C [Oman]
Notes:
The 12th edition of the ‘Naseem-Al-Bahr’ bilateral exercise between the navies of India and Oman is to be held in Goa. The exercise is held once in every two years between Indian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman since 1993.The previous edition of the exercise was held in December 2017 in Muscat, Oman.
Recently, two naval ships of the Oman Navy arrived in Goa, while the Indian Navy ships Beas and Subhadra will participate in the exercise.
12. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is set to observe 2020 as which year?
[A] Year of Security
[B] Year of Mobility
[C] Year of Protection
[D] Year of Achievement
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B [Year of Mobility]
Notes:
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) recently announced that it will observe 2020 as the ‘Year of mobility’. It was also announced that special attention would be provided towards creation of more residential units and welfare measures for their troops. The announcement was made by the Director General of CISF, Rajesh Ranjan.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is a Central Armed Police force under the Ministry of Home affairs, headquartered at New Delhi.
13. Scientists recently discovered dwarf galaxies with massive black holes using Very Large Array (VLA) observatory. Where is the observatory situated?
[A] Japan
[B] China
[C] U.S.A
[D] Russia
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C [U.S.A]
Notes:
According to the recent study published in ‘Astrophysical Journal’, Scientists have discovered thirteen huge black holes in some dwarf galaxies. The galaxies are found to be located several light years from the earth and in half of the galaxies, the black holes are not in the centre of the galaxies.
The high-resolution images of the galaxies with black holes were captured using the Very Large Array (VLA) observatory. It is a radio telescope observatory, which is situated in New Mexico, U.S.A. VLA was set up by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
14. Recently, the Government of India has issued revised guidelines for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with other nations. At present (January, 2020) India has Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties with how many countries?
[A] 32
[B] 40
[C] 42
[D] 48
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C [ 42 ]
Notes:
India has Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties with 42 countries and is signatory to various International Conventions for cooperation in criminal matters. The Home Ministry is the designated central authority for this. The recently revised guidelines have incorporated various legal and technological developments in recent years and aim to make documentation more compliant with international requirements. The revised guidelines provide step-by-step guidance to the investigation agencies for drafting and processing letters rogatory or mutual legal assistance requests and service of summons, notices and other judicial documents. The guidelines have taken into account the concerns raised by various courts for prompt and timely responses in service of documents to person residing abroad. These revised guidelines have provision for service of documents to authorities of foreign country preferably within ten days of receipt of request in respect of offences committed against women and children.
15. January 9 is celebrated as Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas every year. In which year, Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to India on this date?
[A] 1914
[B] 1915
[C] 1916
[D] 1917
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B [ 1915 ]
Notes:
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is celebrated every year to mark the contribution of overseas Indian community in India’s development. It commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India on 9 January 1915. The event is organized by Ministry of External Affairs every year on this day since 2003. 2020 marked 16th Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas.
16. The Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently released a book titled ‘Karmayoddha Granth’ on the life of which Indian political leader?
[A] Atal Bihari Vajpayee
[B] Narendra Modi
[C] L K Advani
[D] Arun Jaitley
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B [Narendra Modi]
Notes:
The Union Minister for Home Affairs, Amit Shah recently released a book titled ‘Karmayoddha Granth’. The book is based on the life of the present Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the book releasing event, Amit Shah hailed Modi for successfully transforming the Gujarat BJP organisation and his leadership qualities as the Indian Prime Minister.
Narendra Modi is the 14th and the incumbent Prime Minister of India since 2014. Prior to that he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat since 2001.
17. Union Minister Smriti Irani recently launched a welfare scheme named ‘Yashaswini’ from Goa. What does the scheme aim at?
[A] Vaccination to Children
[B] Assistance to women Self Help Groups
[C] Cleaning of Beaches
[D] Assistance to schools
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B [Assistance to women Self Help Groups]
Notes:
Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles, Smriti Irani recently launched a scheme named ‘Yashaswini’ from Goa. It is a women empowerment scheme, which aims at supporting women Self Help Groups (SHGs) with interest free loans up to ₹5 lakh. The scheme will also help them to get guidance from experts.
During the event, the Minister also launched Swasthya Sakhi Project and a mobile breast cancer screening initiative, which will be carried out by Anganwadi workers to screen all women of Goa for breast cancer.
18. What is a “Shopper’, which was sometimes seen in news recently ?
[A] e-Commerce website
[B] Malware
[C] Robot
[D] Electric vehicle for shopping
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B [Malware]
Notes:
Kaspersky Labs, an international cyber-security and anti-virus provider recently made an announcement about a trojan application or a malware named ‘Shopper’. It is said to randomly increase the ratings of some popular e-commerce applications through the social media counts of the victims.
Nearly 14% of the users, who were affected by the malware were Indians while the highest number of people affected were from Russia.
19. Which country won the inaugural ‘ATP Cup’ 2020 tournament held at Sydney?
[A] Spain
[B] Serbia
[C] Switzerland
[D] France
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B [Serbia]
Notes:
The team representing Serbia defeated the team of Spain in the inaugural ‘ATP Cup’ 2020 Tennis tournament held at Sydney. The top-rated Tennis player of Serbia and World No 2 Novak Djokovic defeated the World No 1 Rafael Nadal of Spain. With this victory, Serbia won the title by defeating Spain 2-1.
Djokovic subsequently partnered with his team-mate Viktor Troicki to win the doubles match and confirmed the country’s victory.
20. What is the deadline to separate roles of chairman and MD in top 500 companies, as per the recent directions of SEBI?
[A] April 1st,2020
[B] April 1st,2021
[C] April 1st,2022
[D] April 1st,2023
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C [April 1st,2022]
Notes:
As per the recent notification of the Securities Market Regulator SEBI, the deadline to separate roles of chairman and MD in top 500 listed companies by market capitalisation is deferred by two more years to April 2022. Earlier, the top 500 companies were mandated to perform the separation by April 2020.
The proposal of splitting the roles of Chairman and MD was first made by the SEBI’s Committee on Corporate Governance headed by Uday Kotak.