Quiz: Current Affairs

1. Who has taken over as the Chairman of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) on 1 Sept 2015?
Ans - Raghav Chandra
2. Who has been appointed as new Union Home Secretary on 31 Aug 2015?
Ans - Rajiv Mehrishi
3. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 31 Aug 2015 declared which as Domestic Systematically Important Banks (D-SIBs)?
Ans - SBI and ICICi
4. Highest mountain of North America was on 28 Aug 2015 renamed as?
Ans - Denail
5. Ratan P Watal on 31 Aug 2015 took charge as the?
Ans - Union Finance Secretary

6. Who was on 31 Aug 2015 appointed as CMD of India Trade Promotion Organisation?
Ans - L C Goyal
7. Which team won the Pro Kabaddi League in 2015?
Ans - U Mummba
8. Palakkad district in which state was recently declared as the first total HIV/AIDS literate district in country?
Ans - Kerala
9. Indian Cricket team on 1 Sept 2015 won the Test Series in Sri Lanka soil after how many years?
Ans - 22 years
10. Sports Minister recently recognized which among the following as sports discipline?
Ans - Yoga

Current Affairs: Awards

1. Mathematician Amalendu Krishna won 2015 Ramanujan prize for year 2015.
Mathematician Amalendu Krishna won 2015 Ramanujan prize for year 2015. He was bestowed with this award for his outstanding contributions in the area of algebraic cycles. Presently Krishna is mathematician professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.

2. Helena Ndume, Jorge Sampaio awarded with first-ever Nelson Mandela Prize.
Helena Ndume of Namibia and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal were on 24 July 2015 awarded  with the first-ever Nelson Mandela Prize by the United Nation at the Headquarters in New York.
Ndume, a female ophthalmologist was awarded for treating blindness and eye-related illness in Namibia and throughout the developing world.
While, Sampaio, the former president of Portugal from 1996 to 2006 and also the formal mayor of Libson from 1989 to 1995 was awarded for his contribution to his country for his struggle for the restoration of democracy in Portugal.

3. Ramachandra Guha selected for Fukuoka Asia Culture Prize 2015.
Historian Ramachandra Guha was on 24 July 2015 chosen for the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize 2015 in the Academic Category. Guha was best known for his book India After Gandhi, will speak on Gandhi, India and the World at the event. The aim his lecture would be to increase awareness of the value of Asian cultures as well as to establish a framework within which Asians can learn from and share win each other.

Current Affairs

February Current Affairs:

1. Union government on 12 February 2015 constituted a three member special investigation team (SIT) to re-open and re-investigate 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases. Who will head the SIT? Pramod Asthana
2. Cricketer Brendon McCullum was named the country's Sportsman of the year on 11 February 2015. He belongs to which country? New Zelaand
3. Name the Indian-origin scientist who has recently won the prestigious $ 500,000 National Science Foundation Career award? Gurpreet Singh
4. Indian Navy had recently conducted Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster relief (HADR) exercise at? Lakhadweep Islands
5. Unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was recently launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. This Satellite will be used by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) to monitor? Sun
6. Which tech giant announced on 11 February that it has acquired Sunrise Atelier, the New York City based maker of the popular and well-regarded Sunrise calender for iOS and Android? Microsoft
7. Yaduveer Gopal Raj Urs is new heir of which Royal Family? Mysuru Royal Family
8. Which company recentaly became the first company to reach a market value of $ 700 billion? Apple
9. World Radio Day was observed every year on? 13 February
10. Which among the following train derailed on 13 February 2015 near the border between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, in which, ten passengers died and over 100 were injured? Bangalore-Ernakulam Intercity Express

Bhagat Singh

Bhagta Singh aka Shaheed Bhagat Singh aka Bhagat Singh Sandhu was an Indian socialist and a revolutionary. He is considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian Independence Movement. He was born in Sikh family. His family had earlier been involved in revolutionary activities against the British Raj. When Bhagat Singh was a teenager, he studied European revolutionary movements. He became attracted to anarchist and Marxist idoologies.

He became involved in numerous revolutionary activities. He quickly gained prominence in the Hindustan Republican Association and became on of the it's chief leaders. Eventually, the name of the organisation was changed to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. This happened in the year 1928. Lala Lajpat Rai was killed at the hands of the police. Bhagat Singh wanted revenge for this incidence. He became involved in the number of the British Police Officer John Saunders. The police tried to capture him. However, Bhagat Singh was successful in avoiding arrest.

He made a plan to bomb the Central Legislative Assembly. He partnered with Bhuwaneshwar Dutt for this task. He bombarded the assembly with the two bombs. They were shouting slogans of revolution and threw pamphlets. After the bombarding, they surrounded. He was held on this charge in prison. He underwent a 116 day fast in jail and so he did not have food for that long. He did this to demand equal political rights for both British and Indian political prisoners. In response to this determined protest, he gained nationwide support.

His mentor as a young boy was Kartar Singh Sarabha, whose photo he always carried in his pocket. Singh is himself considered a marter by Indians for acting to avenge death of Lala Lagpat Rai. After studying Russian Revolution, he wanted to die so that his death would inspire the youth of India which in turn will unite them to fight the British Empire. While in prison, Singh and other had written a letter to Lord Irwin, wherein they asked to be treated as prisoners of war and consequently to be executed by firing squad and not hanging. Prannath Mehta, Bhagat Singh's friend, visited him in the jail on 20 March, four days before his execution, with a draft letter for clemency, but he declined to sign it.

Facts: Indian Railways

Important facts about the Indian Railways:

• The first train on the Indian soil ran between Bombay and Thane on the 16 April 1853
• 42 Railway companies operated in the country before independence
• The total distance covered by the 14,300 trains on the Indian Railways everyday, equals to three and half times the distance to moon
• Indian Railways has about 63,028 route kms of track
• Indian Railways employs about 1.55 million people
• Indian Railways carries 13 million passengers and 1.3 million tonnes of freight everyday
• IR runs about 14,300 trains daily
• IR has about 7,000 railway stations
• The longest platform in the world is at Kharagpur and is 2,733 ft in length
• Nehru Setu on Sone River is the longest Railway Bridge
• Electric locomotives are manuactured at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan
• Coaches are manufactured at ICF/Chennai, RCF/Kapurthala and BEMP/Bengaluru
• The national Rail Museum at New Delhi was set-up in 1977
• People Employed in Indian Railway are about 1.6 million
• Stations across State Lines are Navapur (Maharashtra and Gujarat) and Bhawani mandi (Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan)
• Classes of travel on Indian Railway: 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, AC Chair Car, IInd sleeper and IInd ordinary
• Railway Station with all Three Gauges is Silguri Railway Station

First/Oldest/Longest in Indian Railways

• First Passenger Train Ran on - 16th April 1853 (between Bombay to Thane)
• First Railway Bridge - Dapoorie Viaduct on the Mumbai-Thane route
• First Railway Tunnel - Parsik Tunnel
• First Ghats Covered by the Rail lines - Thal and Bhore Ghats
• First Underground Railway - Calcutta METRO
• First Computerized Reservation System Started in - New Delhi, 1986
• First Electric Train Ran on - 3 Feb 1925 (between Bombay VT and Kurla)
• Toilets on Trains were introduced in - 1897 (1st Class) and 1907 (lower Classes)
• Shortest Station Name - IB, Odisha
• Longest Station Name - Sri Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta, Tamilnadu
• Busiest Railway Station - Lucknow (64 trains everyday)
• Longest Run, Time - Vivek Express (3715 km in Approx 71 hrs)
• Shortest Run, Distance - Route between Nagpur to Ajni (3 km)
• Longest Run for Daily Train - Kerala Express (3054 km in 42.5 hrs)
• Longest Non-Stop Run, Distance - Trivandrum Rajdhani (528 km in 6.5 hrs)
• Oldest Preserved Locomotive - Fairy Queen (1855), still in working order
• Indian Railways's Fastest Train - Bhopal-Shatabdi (Runs at a speed up to 140 km/ph)
• Train with Maximum Number of Halts - Howrah-Amritsar Express (115 halts)