1. 2016 Empathy Global Index 2016 of 170 Top Companies has been topped by - _____________________ ?
2. 2016 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) by Sydney‚based think‚tank Institute for Economics & Peace ‚ India is ranked _____________ among 163 countries in list of most impacted nations by terrorism. Iraq is worst hit by terror in 2015, followed by Afghanistan and Nigeria ?
3. 2016 World Power Language Index (PLI) by World Economic Forum (WEF) ‚ ___________ is ranked as most powerful languages in world. Over 6,000 languages spoken in world. Hindi is ranked at 10th ?
4. Black List named A biopic of American Artist ____________, named Blond Ambition (written by Elyse Hollander) as most admired unproduced film script currently in Hollywood ?
5. A Powerful 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck off coast of Sumatra (__________) ?
6. A deep water port built in ____________’s Sittwe by India is will be started soon. It will open Kolkata‚Mizoram trade route via __________ ?
7. According to Forbes magazine's Report ‚ India has surpassed ___________________ to become world’s sixth‚largest economy in GDP terms, for the first time. It is mainly due to Consistent (Around 7 % Growth) in India's GDP ?
8. According to IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets report 2016 ‚ India surpassed Russia, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia to become world’s fourth largest defence spender. India spent ______________ Billion USD on defence in 2016 (up from 46.6 Billion USD in 2015). Top 3 ‚ United States (662 Billion USD), China (192 Billion USD), UK (53.81 Billion USD) ?
9. As per report Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, _____________
students are world’s best in Mathematics and Science ?
10. MOU between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and ____________ Geological Survey approved for Cooperation in exchange and use of Land Remote Sensing Satellite Data ?
11. Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) signed MoU with ___________ based Motivation Charitable trust to produce affordable wheel chairs in India ?
12. _____________ Government inaugurated a Solar Battery Station at Bindhakata Tengapukhuri village in Dibrugarh, which will help in fulfilling power requirements of 4 villages of area ?
13. Bank of ______________ issued new 5 Euro Note that contains controversial substance tallow, derived from animal fat ?
14. _________, Co‚founder and CEO of China’s largest ride‚sharing service provider Didi Chuxing (Didi) is named as Forbes Asia’s Businessman of the Year for 2016 ?
15. ____________ and Pakistan launched direct rail and sea freight service with first cargo train departing from Yunnan province. ?
16. ___________ commissioned its Heaviest (seven‚tonne) helicopter ‚ AC352. Meant for civil search and rescue operations specially ?
17. ______________ has provided 15.80 billion Rupees to Nepal for post‚quake reconstruction activities ?
18. ________
launched a new cargo service linking Tibet and Nepal as part of its One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative, to boost trade with South Asian neighbours ?
19. _________ launched global carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring satellite TanSat, to understand effects of climate change. It became 3rd country after Japan and United States to have its own satellite to monitor greenhouse gases (GHGs) ?
20. _________ launched its first fully‚owned overseas satellite ground station located about 200 kms north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. It will enable it to collect satellite data anywhere on Earth at fastest speed in world ?
21. __________ passed a new law to levy environment tax on polluters, especially on heavy industries. Tax rate will be 1.2 yuan ($0.17) per unit of atmospheric pollution, 1.4 yuan per unit of water pollution, 5 yuan per tonne of coal waste and 1,000 yuan per tonne of hazardous waste ?
22. _________ successfully launched Fengyun‚4 satellite, first of its new generation weather satellites into geostationary orbit. It is also nation‚„s first quantitative remote‚sensing satellite in highest orbit. ?
23. _________ ‚ administered special territory of Hong Kong will withdraw visa‚free facility for Indians from January 23, 2017, in view of preventing rising illegal immigration of Indian asylum seekers ?
24. _____________’s Congress passed law granting amnesty (excusing) to Marxist FARC rebels as part of historic peace deal reached between rebels and Government ?
25. __________ government signed deal with Google to provide faster access to Google’s data. It will allow Google to install servers in to store most popular data for giving quick access. ?
26. Economic Times Asian Business Leaders ’ Conclave 2016 held in Kualalampur (___________) ?
27. European Union (EU) and ___________ signed deal to normalise ties, whicb was previously only Latin American country not to have a cooperation deal with EU ?
28. European Union (EU) approved ____________’s USD 26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn Corporation. ?
29. European Union extended sanctions on ______________for another six months, that were put after it's annexation of Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 ?
30. European Union signed agreement with ___________ to return back its migrants who reached Europe and whose asylum requests were refused ?
31. ______________ CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Home Manager AI System - Jarvis, that he hs deployed in his house. It is voiced by Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman. Zuckerberg developed Jarvis as part of his personal challenge for 2016 ?
32. ___________’s virtual reality-focused division Oculus acquired eye-tracking technology startup‚ Denmark‚ based The Eye Tribe. ?
33. Forbes' Most Powerful People List 2016 ranked Indian PM Narendra Modi at _____________ among 74 people in List. Other Indians in list are Mukesh Ambani (38) and Satya Nadella (51).
Top 5 - Vladimir Putin (President of Russia), Donald Trump (President of US), Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany), Xi Jinping (President of China), Pope Francis (Pope of Roman Catholic Church) ?
34. ___________ became first country to use drones for national mail service. ?
35. ____________ Government will levy‚ terror tax‚ on property insurance policies of citizens to help finance a fund for victims of the recent extremist attacks ?
36. _____________ Based Food Delivery‚ Firm Hero acquired competitor‚ Foodpanda for‚ an undisclosed amount ?
37. Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by International Labour Organisation (ILO) -
- India has huge gender pay gap (____________). In India, women formed 60% of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of the highest wage-earners.
- Singapore is among lowest gender wage gap at 3%. Among major economies, South Korea only fared worse than India, with a gap of 37%
?
38. Global e - commerce firm _____________ launched its global startup program ‘Launchpad’ in India, enabling Indian startups to sell products overseas ?
39. ___________ parent Company Alphabet is named as Company Of The Year by Fortune magazine in its annual Blue Ribbon ranking ?
40. Gotthard Base Tunnel (_______________) began commercial rail services as world’s longest and deepest railway tunnel with length of 57 kilometers, overtaking Japan’s Seikan tunnel (53.9 KMs). GBT is first flat low-level route through Alps Mountains and is situated 2.3 km deep ?
41. Government has extended e-Tourist Visa facility to citizens of ___________ countries ?
42. Government ratified International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework Agreement, that was opened for signature during 22nd Conference of Parties (CoP) meeting United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Marrakesh (Morocco). ISA was jointly by Indian PM Narendra Modi and ______________ President Fran§ois Hollande in November 2015 in Paris, during 21st CoP meet.
43. India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) ___________ conducted training on Election Management‚ of SAARC Countries ?
44. India and ASEAN Group have set a target of trading at 100 billion dollar to be achieved by 2020 (Up from currently ________ ) ?
45. India eased Visa Procurement Process for _________ visitors to India ?
46. India signed MoU with __________ for providing technical cooperation in infrastructure engineering in green and sustainable construction ?
47. India will contribute ___________ to United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for 2016-17. CERF allocates approx 45 crore US Dollars annually for humanitarian operations in about 50 countries. So far India has contributed 60 Lakh Dollars to the fund ?
48. India will establish a Center of Excellence in Information Technology at ___________’s oldest and prestigious Al-Azhar University ?
49. India will export additional 240 MW of electricity to ________, through NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN). India's Joint Folk Crafts Festival with ________ also held in Kathmandu ?
50. India’s largest‚ LNG‚ importer‚ Petronet‚ signed MoU with‚ ______________'s Petrobangla‚ to set up‚ $950 million liquefied natural gas‚ import project of 7.5 million tonnes a year in‚ Bangladesh ?
51. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry approvd names for elements 113(Nihonium), 115(Moscovium), 117( Tennessine) and 118(Oganesson).
- Nihonium (Nh - 113) becme first ever element to be discovered by an Asian country (______________)
?
52. ______________ passed a landmark bill of rights, guaranteeing freedom of speech, protest, fair trials and privacy. Note that _______________ is considered one of biggest human rights violator with an unprecedented number of executions in past three decades ?
53. ___________ signed agreement to buy 80 planes from US firm aerospace Boeing and 100 jetliners from Airbus ?
54. ______________ Aerospace Exploration Agency launched a solid fuel rocket named Epsilon-2, carrying a satellite (elliptical) for studying radiation belts around the earth . A Space Junk Coollector - Kounotori 6 (HTV-6) spacecraft was also launched to perform Kounotori Integrated Tether Experiments (KITE) ?
55. _______________ Complained against India at World Trade Organisation (WTO) against certain measures taken by India on imports of 173 iron and steel products.
India imposed minimum import price (MIP) on imports of certain iron and steel products in February 2016 for six months and later extended twice for 2 months to overcome issue of cheap imports of commodities hurting domestic industry ?
56. ______________ approved 5.13 trillion yen ($43.6 billion) defence spending for fiscal year starting April 2017. It is ______________’s highest annual defence budget announced so far. ?
57. ____________ surpassed China to emerge as largest foreign US debt owner, with holding of US debt $1.13 trillion (compared to China's $1.12 trillion) ?
58. Mahindra Agri Solutions acquired __________ -based OFD Holding BV for 5 million euros ?
59. Merriam-Webster's dictionary named‚ __________ as its Word of Year 2016. ?
60. __________ launched constellation of eight mini-satellites as part Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) into space to improve hurricane forecasting ?
61. National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank will be merged to creare biggest bank of all Gulf Nations, with an asset of ___________. It will be called NBAD ?
62. National library of _____________ will digitise 4000 early printed Bengali books, as part of Year of Culture plans for 2017 and wider project titled ‘Two Centuries of Indian Print’ ?
63. ___________________ rejected India’s ‘open sky’ proposal, meant to allow unlimited flights between two countries, stating that it was not ready for agreement as of now ?
64. ______________ will hold its first ever joint military exercise named Pratikar-1 with China in February 2017 ?
65. New Approved MOUs -
- Vietnam - Information Technology (IT)
- _____________ - Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
- Thailand - Controlling narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
- United Kingdom - Intellectual Property and Ease of Doing Business in India
66. New Development Bank (NDB) approved $75 million (525 Million Yuan) loan for Shanghai Lingang Distributed Solar Power Project in ______________, with maturity length of 17 years. The project is a solar photo-voltaic power plant with total capacity of 100 MW ?
67. OAG's 2016 Megahubs Index Report -
- Chicago Airport (USA) is most connected. Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi is ______________ most connected airport in world, while Mumbai Airport is ranked 28th.
68. Oil-producing nations struck a deal to cut output along with Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It is meant to reduce global oversupply of crude oil by approx ______________
- OPEC - Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has 13 member nations and it was founded in 1960. It is headquartered since 1965 in Vienna. 13 OPEC members account for 42 % of global oil production and have 73 % of world's oil reserves.
- Members - Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela
69. _______________ test fired enhanced version of an indigenously-designed Babur cruise missile. (700 KM) ?
70. _____________ inaugurated China-backed 340 MW Chashma-III Nuclear power plant in Punjab Province ?
71. ___________ lifted an undeclared ban on import of ginned cotton from India ?
72. _________________‚„s Senate approved withdraw high denomination Rs 5,000 currency notes to curb flow of black money in country ?
73. ______________ announced end of controversial‚ kafala‚ labour system, that required all foreign workers to have a local sponsor. Workers needed sponsor's permission to switch jobs or leave country. It was compared to modern-day slavery ?
74. ___________________ expelled 35 American diplomats from country, in asnwer to USA earlier expelling its 35 Diplomats ?
75. _______________ ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov killed by a gunman in a Ankara Museum, during an exhibition. ?
76. Scientists from University of Waterloo in _________ discovered world‚„s first polluted river, contaminated about 7,000 years ago by Neolithic humans who may have been producing copper metals from ores. It is now a dry riverbed in Wadi Faynan region of southern Jordan ?
77. South American economic bloc‚ Mercosur‚ suspended ___________'s membership, after it failed to adopt certain standards and rules required for membership of the bloc ?
78. _____________ city‚ Palma de Mallorc‚ changed its name for third time in a decade, now to‚ Palma. ?
79. __________ unveiled world's tallest artificial Christmas tree with Height of 73-meters (238-foot) in Colombo ?
80. Super Typhoon Nock-ten made landfall on eastern province of ___________, Known as‚ Nina ?
81. __________-based Women's Legal Service in collaboration with TRS Law Offices (India) launched a website (www.Girlsgottaknow.In) for women in India to educate them about their legal rights ?
82. Times Higher Education’s‚ BRICS‚ and Emerging Economies University‚ Rankings‚ 2017 (Top 300 BRICS Universities) -
- ____________ became first Indian institute to ‚ be placed in the top 15 universities.
- India has 27 universities Universities in List, Second only to china (52 universities)
83.To tackle world’s worst inflation, ____________________ Government announced demonetisation of Bolivar Fuerte 100 banknotes, giving 10 days time for exchanging old notes at central bank of country ?
84. Two Indian - origin person named in Forbes’ 2nd list of wealthiest entrepreneurs under age of 40 - Vivek Ramaswamy and Apoorva Mehta. List topped by ___________ founder Mark Zuckeberg.
85. UN Security Council adopted a ________ drafted resolution to quickly deploy UN observers to Aleppo (Syria) to monitor evacuations of civilians who remain in city terrorised by ISIS ?
86. UNESCO accorded world heritage status to __________ city of Rio de Janeiro (nicknamed‚ Marvelous City). It has been registered as‚ Carioca Landscapes between Mountain and Sea ?
87. US Federal Reserve raised benchmark interest rate by __________, for second time in a decade and first in 2016 ?
88. US President Barack Obama approved USD _____________ defence budget for 2017. He also signed National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017 that recognises India as America’s‚ major defence partner ?
89. ____________ nationalised country’s largest bank PrivatBank in an attempt to avert a financial meltdown ?
90. United Nations Security Council (UNSC) extended its peacekeeping mission in _________ for a year till December 2017 ?
91. United Nations officially apologized for its role in 2010 cholera outbreak in Carribea Nation ______ ?
92. Viola Desmond became first woman to appear on face of a $10 ________ banknote ?
93. _________ government announced to set up special panel to stop child trafficking ?
94. World Bank Group halted processes initiated by India and ________________ to save Indus Water Treaty. India had earlier planned to construct Kishanganga and Ratle hydroelectric power plants on Indus River System in Jammu Kashmir ?
95. World Bank cancelled $100 million loan to _____________, meant for a natural gas efficiency project. It was cancelled as gas distribution company responsible for project failed to make any progress in achieving its developmental objectives ?
96. World's largest non-permanent indoor ice rink (2,700 square meters), opened in Paris (__________) ?
97. World’s first solar road opened in small ____________ village of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy. This 1 K long solar road is made with 30,000 square feet of solar panels ?