General Awareness PYQs

• The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha by road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari.
• The Bill seeks to amend the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. Increasing penalties of traffic violations is among the changes proposed in the amendment.
• The amendment Bill proposes to omit a clause of the Motor Vehicle Act to decide certain other aspects.
• The amount fined for Drink and drive is Rs. 10,000.

• Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme of Telangana is the world's biggest irrigation project .
• The scheme is worth Rs 80,000 crore and envisages irrigating 18 lakh acres of land in 13 districts, stabilising another 17 lakh acres in another 7 districts.
• It has been built across rive Godavari and will lift the water to a height of half-a-kilometer.
• The project was constructed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL).
• Telangana CM-K. Chandrashekhar Rao
• Telangana capital-Hyderabad

• The audacity of hope is written by former President of the United States - Barack Obama. This book was published in 2006.
• He served as the 44^th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017.
• He was the first African American to be elected to the presidency.
• What happened, Hard Choices, Living History and It takes a village are written by Hillar Clinton

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved a new initiative - Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy (STRIDE).
• It is to boost research culture in the country.
• STRIDE will provide support to research projects that are socially relevant, locally need-based, nationally important and globally significant.

• India's GS Lakshmi has become the first-ever woman referee to be appointed on the ICC International Panel of Match Referees.
• Lakshmi's appointment follows close on the heels of Claire Polosak, who recently became the first female umpire to stand in a men's One-Day International.

• Vijay Kumar Chopra has been unanimously elected as Chairman of Press Trust of India.
• Vineet Jain, MD of Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL), the publisher of Times of India, was elected for the post of Vice-Chairman of the news agency.
• Chopra succeeds N Ravi, Publisher and former Editor-in-Chief.
• Vineet Jain has previously been chairman of PTI in 2010.

The correct answer is option 5, i.e. 130^th

• 3^rd August 2019, marks the 130^th birth anniversary of the pioneer of Khari Boli in Hindi poetry, Maithili Sharan Gupt, who moved the nation with his writings at the time of independence struggle.
• Maithili Sharan Gupt, one of the most influential poets in modern Hindi was born on August 3, 1886. He was born in Chirgaon, Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh
• He is widely known for introducing Khari Boli (plain dialect) in the poetry.
• Most poets of his time wrote in the Braj Bhasha dialect, whereas he took a different approach with the Khari Boli dialect.
• He was a recipient of the third-highest (then second-highest) Indian civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in the year 1954.
• For his book Bharat-Bharati (1912), widely quoted during India's freedom struggle, he was given the title of 'Rashtra Kavi' by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930.
• After India became independent in 1947, he was also made an honorary member of the Rajya Sabha, where he used poetry to put his opinions before the other members.
• He remained a member of the Rajya Sabha till his death in 1964

The correct answer is option 2, i.e. Red.

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued draft regulations aiming to mandate packaged food companies to label high fat, sugar and salt contents in front of the package itself in red colour.
• The food labels will also declare, per serve percentage contribution to RDA (recommended dietary allowance) on the front of the pack.
• Makers of chips, soups, biscuits, juices and other packaged foods will soon have to display red colour coding on the front of packets of products that have high levels of fat, sugar or salt content as per the regulator’s new draft of labelling regulations.

The correct answer is option 3, i.e. Barack Obama.

• Barack Obama is the author of "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming The American Dream".
• Barack Obama was the forty-fourth president of the United States and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.
• He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Dreams from My Father.

The correct answer is option 2, i.e. Kerala.

• Kerala continued to top the list for the best performing State in the health sector among the 21 large States, while Uttar Pradesh retained the worst performer tag, according to the second edition of NITI Aayog’s Health Index.
• Kerala, which got an overall score of 74.01, was followed by Andhra Pradesh (65.13), Maharashtra (63.99), Gujarat (63.52) and Punjab (63.01), Himachal Pradesh (62.41), Jammu and Kashmir 62.37, Karnataka (61.14) and Tamil Nadu (60.41).
• Uttar Pradesh continued to be at the bottom of the list with its score falling to 28.61. Other States at the bottom of the list were Bihar (32.11), Odisha (35.97) and Madhya Pradesh (38.39).
• Among the UTs, Chandigarh jumped one spot to top the list with a score of (63.62), followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli (56.31), Lakshadweep (53.54), Puducherry (49.69), Delhi (49.42), Andaman and Nicobar (45.36) and Daman and Diu (41.66).
• The Index ranks the States and Union Territories based on 23 health-related indicators, including neonatal mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, proportion of low birth weight among new-borns, proportion of districts with functional Cardiac Care Units, full immunisation coverage and proportion of specialist positions vacant at district hospitals.

The correct answer is option 4, i.e. Atlantic Ocean.​

• Captain Aarohi Pandit, a 23-year-old pilot from Mumbai became the world's first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo in a Light Sports Aircraft (LSA).
• She achieved the feat around, when she landed her tiny aircraft at Iqaluit Airport in Canada, after a gruelling 3,000 km long flight, under adverse and extreme weather conditions the following take-off from Wick, Scotland (United Kingdom), with brief stopovers in Greenland and Iceland.
• En route, she set another world record as the first woman pilot to fly solo above the treacherous Greenland ice-cap in an LSA.
• This is part of her ongoing year-long global circumnavigation flight which was launched with her friend Keithair Misquitta on July 30.

• Hemis, the two-day religious festival is from Ladakh.
• It brings out the colorful shades of the culture of Ladakh.
• The victory of good over the evil is marked by this festival.

The correct answer is option 3, i.e. Brasil.

• The 11^th BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will be held on November 13-14 in the city of Brasilia, Brazil.
• The Brazilian capital will host the BRICS summit for the second time already.
• BRICS is an informal association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• The state leaders have held regular summits since 2009.
• Since 2013, the chairing country has also invited states close to it geographically and geopolitically to the summits.
• The last such meeting(10^th) was held in July 2018 in Johannesburg.

The correct answer is option 2, i.e. Climate Action.

• The theme for 5^th International Yoga Day is ‘Climate Action’.
• There is a two day celebration of Yoga Day at the United Nation in which there is session called “Yoga with Gurus” followed by a panel discussion on the chosen theme for the Yoga Day.
• The International Day of Yoga is celebrated annually on June 21 to raise global awareness about the benefits of the ancient Indian practice.  It comes with a different theme every year.
• In India this year, its theme is on climate change. Yoga is an ancient art that keeps your mind, body and soul in peace.
• While performing yoga during 5^th International Yoga day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said “yoga is above everything, as he performed various asanas with around 40,000 enthusiasts at the Prabhat Tara ground in Ranchi, Jharkhand here to mark the fifth International Day of Yoga.

• Ismail Omar Guelleh has been conferred the second highest civilian award in India, Padma Vibhushan for 'exceptional and distinguished service' in 2019.
• The other recipients include Teejan Bai, Anilkumar Manibhai Naik, and Balwant Moreshwar Purandare.
• A total of 112 awardees were selected for Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards.

• India's rank has slipped five places to 141 among 163 countries on the Global Peace Index 2019.
• Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008.
• Afghanistan is now the least peaceful country in the world, replacing Syria, which is now the second least peaceful.
• In South Asia, Bhutan topped the index with 15^th rank.
• The Global Peace Index is compiled every year by the Sydney-based think tank Institute for Economics and Peace.

• S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs had attended key ministerial meetings of the regional forums of ASEAN, Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) and East Asia Summit.
• The ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting was co-chaired by Jaishankar and his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai.
• They reviewed the progress in the implementation of the key decisions of the leaders of ASEAN Member States (AMS) and India.
• The meeting in Bangkok reviewed the progress of the decisions reached at the Informal ASEAN-India Breakfast Summit held in Singapore on November 15 last year.
• The participants at the meeting also exchanged views on important regional and international issues and on ways and means to further strengthen the ASEAN-India strategic partnership.
• S Jaishankar also co-chaired the 10^th MGC Ministerial Meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Vietnam, Prak Sokhonn.
• The ministers also deliberated on the current regional and international issues and on further strengthening of the EAS as the region's prominent leaders-led forum for discussions on global political-security and economic issues.

The correct answer is option 1, i.e. Ministry of Rural Development.

• The Ministry of Rural Development, a branch of the Government of India, is entrusted with the task of accelerating the socio-economic development of rural India. Its focus is on health, education, drinking water, housing and roads.
• The Ministry of Rural Development has two departments namely Department of Rural Development and Department of Land Resource.
• Government launched the Pradhan Mantri Gramdoya Yojana (PMGY) and the Ministry of Rural Development was entrusted with the responsibility of implementing drinking water, housing and rural roads component of PMGY.
• Narendra Singh Tomar is the Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Minister of Rural Development in the Second Modi ministry.(17^th LokSabha)