Genesis-January 2015 Issue I

2
Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve
The Genesis
January 2015-Issue-I
Big Stories
NITIAayogtoreplacePlanningCommission
Current Affairs
India
States
16
World
18
Sports
23
Economy
25
Corporate
28
Cyberbuzz
34
Science&Technology
35
NITI Aayog: 3
In line with the Government
of Indias approach of less
government and a move
away
from
centralised
planning, the socialist-era
Planning
Commission
has
been replaced by a new
think-tank that will be headed
by the Prime Minister and will
have all Chief Ministers as
members in a broad-based
Governing Council
People
BusinessBiography:ArvindPanagariya
Faces:MahendraSinghDhoni
22
Knowledge Corners
BookReview:WinningStrategiesforBusinessbyRKBaisya
36
GroupDiscussion:Developmentshouldgetpriorityoverdefence
37
Crossword,Sudoku
38,49
Doyouremember?
43
CorporateKnowledgeQuiz
45
PointCounterpoint
50
Faces: MS Dhoni: 22
Dhonis brand value worth
millions
of
dollars
will
undergo a change after his
retirement from Tests but it
is unlikely that the poster
boy from Ranchi will go
downhill in the world of
endorsements, said ad-gurus
Prasoon Joshi and
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I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. Donald Trump
www.endeavorcareers.com
THE GENESIS
NITI Aayog to replace Planning Commission
In line with the Government of Indias approach of less government and a move away from
centralised planning, the socialist-era Planning Commission has been replaced by a new thinktank that will be headed by the Prime Minister and will have all Chief Ministers as members in a
broad-based Governing Council to involve states in evolving national development priorities.
announced that the Planning

Commission, seen as a
cumbersome relic from the
days of a planned economy,
would be replaced with a new
body in sync with the
contemporary economic world.
Modi had invited chief
ministers to a meeting in the
capital in December to discuss
the issue. Most of the chief
ministers
had
favoured
restructuring of the socialistera body created in 1950, but
some Congress chief ministers
had opposed disbanding the
existing set up.
Manmohan Singh, as Prime
Minister of the then Congressled government, had said in
April 2014 that the current
structure has no futuristic
vision in the post-reform
period.
The NDA believes Niti Aayog
will provide an effective forum
that strengthens cooperative
federalism and the concept of
Team India.
Relic of a socialist era

The government on January 1, 2015 replaced the 64-yearold Planning Commission with a new body called NITI
Aayog, and tasked with transforming India as indicated in
the first word of the name. NITI stands for National
Institution for Transforming India.
The decision had been expected ever since Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, had
The Centre-to-state one-way

flow of policy, that was the
hallmark of the Planning
Commission era, is now sought to be replaced by a
genuine and continuing partnership of states. It will put an
end to slow and tardy implementation of policy, it said.
Niti Aayog will serve as a Think Tank of the
government as a directional and policy dynamo and
would provide the governments at the Centre and in states
with strategic and technical advice on key policy matters
including economic issues of national and international
importance.
THE GENESIS

Soviet-style centralised planning and resource allocation
is irrelevant in a liberalised market economy, where
private investment is the key driver and States compete
with each other to attract such investments.
for large projects. The original focus of the Planning

Commission was on resource allocation.
NITI Aayog: Office bearers
The India for which the Niti Aayog has been set up is a
radically different country. The old assumptions about
low domestic savings, foreign exchange constraints and
shallow financial markets have withered away.
In the new scheme of things, the Prime Minister will head

NITI Aayog as the chairperson, and appoint a deputy
chairperson as well as a chief executive officer or CEO. It
will have five full-time members and two part-time
members, while four union ministers would serve as exofficio members.
The erstwhile command economy era body set up nearly
65 years ago by late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had
a Deputy Chairman and full-time members with a
member secretary, an official, as a convener.
The Prime Minister appointed renowned NRI Economist
Arvind Panagariya as the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog.
Economist Bibek Debroy and former Defence Secretary
V.K. Saraswat have been appointed as the Full-Time
Members.
Why Planning Commission had to go
The private sector has replaced the public sector as the

main engine of investment many decades ago. The
markets have a far greater role to play in mobilizing
savings and channelling them towards productive
investments.
The Planning Commission stared irrelevance in the face,
even though it did try to reinvent itself as a manager of
social sector schemes.
The commission had remained powerful over the decades
because it had emerged as a sort of parallel cabinet with
the Prime Minister as its head.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Railways Minister Suresh
Prabhu and Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan
Singh have been appointed as the Ex-Officio Members.
In 2012, the Planning Commission was pilloried for

spending some Rs. 35 lakh to renovate two office toilets,
and then it was lampooned for suggesting that citizens
who spent Rs. 27 or more a day were not poor.
Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport,

Highways and Shipping), Thawar Chand Gehlot (Social
Justice and Empowerment) and Union Smriti Zubin Irani
(HRD) have been appointed as Special Invitees.
A boost to cooperative federalism
Why Planning Commission was started

Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a socialist
who admired Joseph Stalins drive to industrialize the
Soviet Union, set up and chaired the Planning
Commission to map out a development path for Indias
agrarian economy in 1950 when India had just become an
independent republic. The threat of political
fragmentation had not completely gone away; it was a
mere three years after the bloody partition of the country.
Central planning was as much a political project as it was
an economic one.
The early plans were drawn out when India was short of
domestic savings and foreign exchange. The state was
supposed to play the role of entrepreneur because it was
assumed that private industry did not have the resources
The Commissions power in allocating central funds to

states and sanctioning capital spending of the central
government was deeply resented by states and various
government departments. Its new avatar promises to be
different. According to an editorial in The Hindu the
NITI Aayog seeks to substitute centralised planning with
a bottom-up approach where the body will support
formulation of plans at the village level and aggregate
them at higher levels of government. In short, the new
body is envisaged to follow the norm of cooperative
federalism, giving room to States to tailor schemes to suit
their unique needs rather than be dictated to by the
Centre. This is meant to be a recognition of the countrys
diversity. The needs of a State such as Kerala with its
highly developed social indicators may not be the same as
that of, say, Jharkhand, which scores relatively low on
this count. If indeed the body does function as has been
envisaged now and the jury will be out on that
States will, for the first time, have a say in setting their
own development priorities.
January 2015-Issue-II
THE GENESIS
Business Biography
Arvind Panagariya: Niti Aayogs Chanakya
He has been a supporter of the prime ministers economic policies and openly
spoken on the success of the latters tenure as chief minister of Gujarat.
Renowned US-based NRI Economist Arvind Panagariya

was appointed as the Vice Chairman of the newly
constituted NITI Aayog by the Prime Minister Narendra
Modi recently. To many, Panagariya is the obvious choice
for the post. Not only is he an experienced economist with
a stellar academic record, but he is also one of the few
economists to have volubly criticised the economic
policies of the previous government while lending his
intellectual support to Narendra Modi in the run-up to the
general elections last year.
Panagariya is an Indian-American economist and
Professor of Economics at Columbia University and an
ex-Chief Economist at the Asian Development Bank. He
has also worked for the World Bank, IMF, WTO and
UNCTAD in various capacities. He did a Masters degree
in economics from Rajasthan University in 1973 and a
doctorate from Princeton University in 1978, in
international economics and development economics.
Panagariya has written/edited ten books the prominent
among them being India: The Emerging Giant, Indias
Tryst with Destiny: Debunking Myths that Undermine
Progress and Addressing New Challenges (co-authored
with Jagdish Bhagwati), Free Trade Areas and Rules of
Origin: Economics and Politics and Why Growth
Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced
Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries
(co-authored with Jagdish Bhagwati).
Panagariya writes a monthly column in The Economic
Times, Indias top financial daily. He has also written
guest columns in the Financial Times, Wall Street
Journal, The Hindu, India Today and Outlook. He has
appeared on numerous national and foreign television
channels. He also features in Bloomberg TV India for the
show Transforming India With Arvind Panagriya.
His friends call him a pragmatist who is guided by
evidence rather than ideology. Much shouldnt be read,
therefore, in his views on issues such as centre-state
relations, education and health contrasting sharply with
those advocated by the previous regime.
Panagariya, who was critical of UPAs Food Security Act
and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, has
repeatedly made the case for transitioning towards cash

transfers of government benefits. He has argued that
replacing the current subsidy regime, which suffers from
a high level of leakages, with an efficient system of cash
transfers would ensure benefits reached the targeted poor.
His strong views on the subject suggest that putting in
place such a subsidy regime is likely to be a top priority
for him at the NITI Aayog.
Panagariya has also repeatedly called for market reforms in land and labour, in particular. He contends that in
contrast to the development trajectory of most Asian
countries, India has effectively bypassed the
manufacturing stage, transitioning from an agricultural to
a service-oriented economy. But as the service sector has
a limited capacity to absorb labour, the surplus labour
force currently engaged in agriculture has nowhere to go.
The imbalance in the economy - 50 per cent of labour is
in agriculture while the sector accounts for less than 15
per cent of GDP - can be rectified only if labour-intensive
manufacturing is developed in India. However, he sees
the countrys stringent land and labour laws as
impediments in this objective. Rajasthan, where
Panagariya was a member of the state economic advisory
council, was the first to propose changes to land and
labour laws.
The economists views on government spending,
however, go against those advocating fiscal prudence in
the current scenario. Panagariya has advocated a more
liberalised spending, arguing that greater capital
expenditure could relax some of the infrastructure
bottlenecks facing the country. With the chief economic
advisor, Arvind Subramanian, also making a similar point
in the mid-year review, it is likely that the government
will have a rethink on this issue.
Those who think that Panagariyas appointment heralds a
new age of right-wing economics in India might want to
consider what he told Reuters last year. He said that
though India should give markets a freer rein, it still
needed growth in social spending as the country was
home to a third of the worlds extremely poor. The
policy movement, therefore, may not be from the left to
the right, but from far left of centre towards a centrist
position.
January 2015-Issue-II
THE GENESIS
Current Affairs: India

HAPPENINGS
Winter Session of Parliament ends
The Winter Session of Parliament ended on December 23. The
important bills passed by both houses of the Parliament
include the following:
The Apprentices (Amendment) Bill, 2014 - The bill makes
various changes to the act regulating the training of
apprentices in the country.
The Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and
Maintaining Registers by certain Establishments)
Amendment Bill, 2011 - Amends two labour laws to change
the definition of small establishments, among other things.
The Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2014 - Makes two amendments - the first permits for the
leader of the single largest party in Lok Sabha, in the absence of a leader of opposition, to be in the selection
committee for the appointment of the Central Bureau of Investigations director. The second amendment states that the
appointment of the CBI director cannot be invalidated on the ground of absence or vacancy of any member of the
selection committee.
The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Bill, 2014 - Declares the four IIITs (Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur
and Kanchipuram) as Institutes of National Importance.
The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2014 enables the setting up of another central university in Bihar, in
addition to an existing one.
The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Orders (Amendment) Bill, 2014 - Adds communities in the list of scheduled
castes in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Tripura. It also removes the Majhi community from the list in Sikkim.
The Textile Undertakings (Nationalisation) Laws (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2014 - Seeks to amend the Sick
Textile Undertaking (Nationalisation) Act, 1974 and the Textile Undertakings (Nationalisation) Act, 1995, which
provide for nationalisation of certain textile undertakings, and for their management by the NTC - a central public
sector enterprise under the textiles ministry.
The Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill, 2013 - Seeks to add new provisions to the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 to
comply with the International Convention for the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on Ships, 2001.
The Merchant Shipping (Second Amendment) Bill, 2013 - Proposes to amend the existing act to bring it in conformity
with the International Labour Organisations Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, which lays down the standards for
the living and working conditions of seafarers, including their food, accommodation, medical care, social security, and
recruitment.
The School of Planning and Architecture Bill, 2014 - Grants deemed university status to these schools in Bhopal,
Vijayawada and Delhi - benefitting the students of the first two who are still awaiting their degrees.
The National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Amendment Bill, 2014 - Seeks to maintain the
status quo with respect to encroachment or unauthorized development or construction from various dates. Protection
has also been provided against punitive action by any local authority.
THE GENESIS
India catching up on MDG targets

India has already achieved 5 of the 12 targets under UNs
Millennium Development Goals and is close to achieving four
more by 2015, Statistics Minister V K Singh said in the Lok
Sabha in December. MDGs are international development
goals that UN member states including India, have agreed to
achieve by the year 2015. MDGs consist of eight goals whose
achievement is statistically tracked on the basis of 12 targets.
Out of these 12 targets, India has already achieved 5 targets.
India is likely to achieve:
The target of reducing the proportion of poor to half between
1990 and 2015
The targets which envisaged primary education for all
students and eliminating gender disparity at all levels of
education by 2015
The target to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other major diseases by 2015
The target to achieve cooperation with the private sector, making available the benefits of new technologies, especially
information and communications
India is unlikely to achieve the target of:
Reducing child mortality ratio by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015
Integrating the principal of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reversing environment
loss.
Reducing maternal mortality ratio to three quarters and halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger
between 1990 and 2015.
Reduce to half by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation.
Lokpal selection panel composition cleared: The leader of the largest opposition party in Lok Sabha will be
included in a panel to select the chairperson and members of Lokpal under the amended law, governing the functioning
of the anti-corruption body. The amendments in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act paves the way for the inclusion of
Congress party leader Mallikarjun Kharge in the selection panel led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As per the Lokpal
Act, the selection committee consists of the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Leader of Opposition in the Lower House, the Chief
Justice of India or a judge of the apex court nominated by him and an eminent jurist who could be nominated by the
President.
CBSE launches Saransh: the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has launched an on-line facility titled
Saransh for schools affiliated to it, said HRD Minister Smriti Irani in December. Saransh helps the schools to look at
their performance in scholastic and co-scholastic areas at an aggregate level, and at the level of each student in the
school. All the performance metrics are presented through numbers as well as in charts/graphs for easy understanding.
The online facility helps schools compare their performance vis-a-vis other schools.
UAV Panchi test successful: The wheeled-version of Indias indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Nishant
successfully undertook its maiden flight in December. The UAV named
Panchi, meaning bird, is capable of taking-off and landing using small
airstrips. While Panchi has all the surveillance capabilities of UAV Nishant, it
will have longer endurance as it does not have to carry the air bags and
parachute system as in the case of UAV Nishant. Similar to Nishant, Panchi can
be used for intelligence gathering missions over hostile territory,
reconnaissance, target designation, surveillance besides others.
THE GENESIS
Pinaka MarkII successfully test fired: An advanced version of the indigenously developed Pinaka Mark-II
rocket was successfully test fired in December from a defence base in Balasore, Odisha using a multi-barrel launcher.
The unguided rocket system is meant to neutralise large areas with rapid salvos. It has been inducted into the army and
the present trials were conducted with some improvements. With a battery of six launchers, the Pinaka system can fire a
salvo of 12 rockets in 44 seconds.
Sea trials of INS Arihant started: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar flagged off first Made-in-India nuclearpowered submarine INS Arihant from Vizag for sea trials in December. INS Arihant will be propelled by a pressurised
water reactor (PWR) that uses enriched uranium as fuel. The PWR will generate about 80 MW of power. India presently
has the nuclear submarine INS Chakra that has been leased from Russia. Once inducted, the INS Arihant will help the
country complete its nuclear triad giving it the capability to respond to nuclear strikes from sea, land and air-based
systems.
Ban on NDFB (S) extended: Government has extended the ban imposed on NDFB (S), the Bodo militant group
responsible for the killing of more than 70 people in Assam in December, by five more years. The notification declaring
the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) as an outlawed organisation under Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act for five years was issued by the Home Ministry. Meanwhile, the Centre has extended the Suspension of
Operations (SoO) agreement with NDFB (Progressive) for six months till June 30, 2015.
Compensation for 1984 riot victims approved: A proposal to give Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of victims of
the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that occurred after assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was approved by the
government in December. The compensation to the families of the riot victims will be given in addition to what they have
so far received from the government and other agencies. Of the 3,325 victims, 2,733 were killed in Delhi alone while the
remaining were from other states.
Survey of India to map Ganga to nab polluters: The Survey of India will take up works for
geographical identification of sources contributing to the pollution of River Ganga right from Gangotri to its mouth near
Bay of Bengal. The Rs 542-crore estimated Survey of Ganga project will provide the central government with exact
ground level coordinates of all polluting sources located in the entire 250,000 square kilometre Ganga Basin. We are in
advance stages of finalising the Rs 542-crore project from the National Mission for Clean Ganga. To clean a river like
that, we need to know exactly the polluting sources, said Dr Swarna Subba Rao, surveyor general of India in Hyderabad
in December.
SC permits new CBI Director to probe 2G case: The Supreme Court has allowed new CBI Director Anil
Kumar Sinha to take charge of the investigation and prosecution in the 2G scam cases, more than three weeks after it had
removed his predecessor from the probe after allegations of him trying to protect some of the accused. Earlier, the Court
had removed the then CBI Director Ranjit Sinha from 2G cases, saying the allegations against him of protecting some
accused appear to be prima facie credible.
Mission Indradhanush, which aims to cover by 2020 children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated
against seven vaccine-preventable diseases, has been launched by the government. The diseases are diphtheria, whooping
cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B. Union Health Minister J P Nadda launched the mission on
Good Governance Day to mark the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 25.
NDMA members appointed: The government has appointed a scientist, an armyman and a UN expert on disaster
reduction as members of the revamped NDMA, which had previously seen mostly politicians and retired bureaucrats
with no background of disaster management holding office. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the names of
Kamal Kishore, a disaster reduction expert at the United Nations Development Programme, Lt Gen N. C. Marwah
(retired), and D N Sharma, Director of Health, Safety and Environment Group at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The
PM is the ex-officio chairperson of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The NDMA will have four
members, besides a Vice-Chairman.
THE GENESIS
Expert group set up to check cyber crime: Home Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the setting up of a
five-member expert group to tackle cyber crime in December. The members of the expert group will be CDAC (Pune)
Director-General Rajat Moona, Professor Krishnan of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, CERT-In DirectorGeneral Gulshan Rai, Manindra Aggarwal of IIT-Kanpur and D. Dass of IIIT-Bengaluru. Joint Secretary (Centre-State)
Kumar Alok will be the convener of the group. The group will prepare a road map for effectively tackling cyber crime
and give suitable recommendations on possible partnerships with the public and private sectors.
Govt departments asked to avoid private email services : The government has asked all central and state
departments and ministries to stop using private email services for official communication and instead use indigenous
services provided by NIC, to prevent misuse or leakage of classified data. Issued by the Computer Emergency
Response TeamIndia (CERT-In) in December, the circular stated that India-based email communication systems should
be preferred for official work as the servers of private email service providers are based out of India and is prone to
misuse or leakage of classified and proprietary data. The CERT-In is the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing
and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian Internet domain.
Liars Dice out of Oscar race: Indias official entry Liars Dice (Hindi) is out of Oscars race after it failed to
make the cut in the Academys shortlist in the Best Foreign Language Film category in Los Angeles in December. Nine
films advanced to the next round of voting. Directed by Geethu Mohandas and starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and
Geetanjali Thapa, Liars Dice scored at the National Awards in May 2014 where Thapa won the Best Actress award
while Rajeev Ravi won the Best Cinematography award.
Stamp commemorating Kuka Movement released: A commemorative stamp to highlight heroic deeds of
those engaged in 1857 Kuka movement of the Namdhari Sikhs against the British was released by the government on
December 24. The Kuka Movement marked the first major reaction of the people in the Punjab to the new political order
initiated by the British after 1849.
MISC: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a five-day cultural festival Sanskriti in Varanasi on December 25.
Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar flagged off the Gwalior-Lucknow Sushaasan Express from the birth place of
former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Gwalior on December 25.
EVENTS
World Diamond Conference: The Gem & Jewellery Export
Promotion Council (GJEPC) in association with the World Diamond Mark
Foundation (WDMF) and with the support from the Ministry of Commerce
and Industry organized the first World Diamond Conference in New Delhi
in December Twelve Indian companies have signed contracts to buy
diamonds directly from Russian diamond mining giant ALROSA. Russia is
the worlds largest producer of diamond, while India is the worlds biggest
manufacturing centre for cut and polished diamonds.
International conference of Ahmadiyya Muslims: The three-day annual international conference of the
Ahmadiyya Muslim community concluded at its headquarters in Qadian town of Gurdaspur district in Punjab on
December 26. The event saw the participation of more than 17,000 delegates from all over the world including 6,000
from Pakistan. H. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian was the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in 1891 AD.
IMPORTANT DAYS
National Mathematics Day: The 127th birth anniversary of acclaimed Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan
was celebrated as the National Mathematics Day on December 22. Born on this day in 1887 in Tamil Nadus Erode
district, Ramanujan made extraordinary contribution in number theory, infinite series, mathematical analysis and making
formulas and equations. The mathematical genius compiled more than 3,900 mathematical results and equations. His
Ramanujam Prime and Ramanujam theta discoveries had also inspired further research on the subject.
THE GENESIS
10
National Consumer Day was observed on December 24 to mark the day on which the Consumer Protection Act
(1986) received the assent of the President. The Act provides effective safeguards to the consumers against different
types of exploitation such as defective goods, unsatisfactory services and unfair trade practices.
National Energy Conservation Day was observed by the Power Ministry on December 14 with the launch of a
campaign Bijli Bachao, Desh Banao.
AWARDS
Sahitya Akademi Awards 2014
Eight books of poetry, five of novels, three of essays, three of short stories, one each of literary criticism, autobiography
and play have won the Sahitya Akademi Award this year announced in New Delhi on December 19.
Language
Title and Genre
Assamese
Mariam Astin Athaba Hira Barua (Short Stories)
Bengali
Piya Mana Bhabe (Poetry)
Bodo
Udangnifrai Gidingfinnanei (Poetry)
Dogri
Hashiye Par (Novel)
Gujarati (late)
Chhabi Bhitarani (Essays)
English
Trying to Say Goodbye (Poetry)
Hindi
Vinayak (Novel)
Kannada
Uttaraardha (Essays)
Kashmiri
Kore Kakud Pushrith Gome (Poetry)
Konkani
Manthan (Essays)
Maithili
Uchat (Novel)
Malayalam
Manushyanu Oru Aamukham (Novel)
Marathi
Chaar Nagarantale Maaze Viswa (Autobiography)
Nepali
Satta Grahan (Short Stories)
Odia
Bipula Diganta (Poetry)
Punjabi
Agarbatti (Poetry)
Rajasthani
Sundar Nain Sudha (Short Stories)
Santali
Mala Mudam (Play)
Sindhi
Sija Agyaan Buku (Poetry)
Tamil
Agngnaadi (Novel)
Telugu
Mana Navalalu - Mana Kathanikalu (Literary Criticism)
Urdu
Shahdaba (Poetry)
Award for Manipuri and Sanskrit languages will be declared later
Author
Arupa Patangia Kalita
Utpal Kumar Basu
Urkhao Gwra Brahma
Shailender Singh
Ashvin Mehta
Adil Jussawalla
Ramesh Chandra Shah
G.H. Nayak
Shad Ramzan
Madhavi Sardesai
Asha Mishra
Subhash Chandran
Jayant Vishnu Naralikar
Nanda Hankhim
Gopalkrushna Rath
Jaswinder
Rampal Singh Rajpurohit
Jamadar Kisku
Gope Kamal
Poomani
Rachapalem Chandrashekara Reddy
Munawwar Rana
The Awards were recommended by distinguished Jury members representing 22 Indian languages and approved by the
Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met under the Chairmanship of Dr. Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, President
of the Sahitya Akademi. Manipuri and Sanskrit language awards will be declared later on. The Award in the form of a
casket containing an engraved copper plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs. 1,00,000/- will be presented to the authors of
these books on March 9, 2015 at New Delhi during the Festival of Letters organized by Sahitya Akademi.
Asia Cosmopolitan Award: Former Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, was honoured with
the Second Asia Cosmopolitan Award in Nara, Japan on December 21. The award cited the former
Indian leaders contribution in transforming Indias economy and its integration with the broader East
Asian economy throughout his tenure. Others who received the award include Prize-Professor Peter
David Drysdale of Australia for Economic Science and Professor Wang Gungwu of Singapore for
Social Science. The two recipients of Cultural Prize were Rithy Panh, a Cambodian filmmaker and
Japanese theatre group, the Takarazuka Revue Company.
THE GENESIS
11
SASTRARamanujan Award: Professor James Maynard of Oxford University and the University Of Montreal,
Canada were conferred the SASTRA-Ramanujan Award 2014 in Kumbakonam (TN) on December 21. The annual
award, established in 2005, honours young mathematicians for outstanding contributions in the areas influenced by
mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. Maynard was chosen for the USD 10,000 award in recognition of his
advances on various long-standing problems on prime numbers.
Ojas Art Award: Three artists, who work with the tribal art form of Gond, have been selected to display their
artworks at the upcoming mega literature festival in Jaipur in January 2015. The trio -- Bhajju Shyam, Venkat Raman
Singh Shyam and Roshni Vyam were picked as the winners of the inaugural Ojas Art Award in December. The award
has been co-organised by Delhi-based art body Ojas Art with Teamwork Arts, which produces the Zee Jaipur Literature
Festival.
Singapore International Film Festival: Indian filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane won the Best Film and the Best
Director awards for his first feature film Court at the 25th
Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) in Singapore in
December. Court follows the trial of an outcaste Dalit folk
singer and unveils the power structures of society and
prejudices of the court. The film features trial of the ageing
singer for abetting the suicide of a sewerage worker with an
inflammatory song. Meanwhile Ritesh Batra-directed The
Lunchbox was named Best First Feature by Toronto Film Critics in Toronto in December.
International Film Festival of Kerala: Argentine movie Refugiado has bagged the coveted Suvarna
Chakoram (Golden Crow Pheasant Award) for the Best Feature Film in the 19th edition of the International Film
Festival of Kerala, which concluded in Thiruvananthapuram on December 19. The movies director-producer Diego
Lerman and co-producer Nicolas Avruj share the prize money of Rs 15 lakh and trophy. Japanese director Hiroshi Todas
Summer Kyoto was adjudged as the Rajatha Chakoram (Silver Crow Pheasant award) for the Best Director and the
FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Award for the Best Asian film while Iranian director Hossein
Shahabis bagged the Rajatha Chakoram in the Best Debut Director category for the movie The Bright Day.
Yash Chopra Memorial Award: Amitabh Bachchan (72) was conferred

with the second Yash Chopra Memorial Award in Mumbai on December 26.
Bachchan delivered several blockbusters such a s Deewar, Kabhi Kabhie,
Trishul, Kaala Patthar, Silsila, Mohabatein, Veera Zaara and Bunty Aur
Babli in his long association with Chopra. The Award has been instituted by the
TSR Foundation of T Subbarami Reddy in the memory of the late producerdirector, who died in 2012. Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar was the first recipient
in 2013.
Qutab Minar award: Director Subhash Ghai was given the prestigious lifetime achievement award, which is also
known as Qutab Minar award, at the third edition of Delhi International Film Festival (DIFF) that opened in New Delhi
on December 20. The eight-day long festival also saw an audio-visual presentation of the ace filmmakers more than
three decades of work was shown at the ceremony.
Dubai International Film Festival awards: Noted Indian playback

singer Asha Bhosle, 81, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at
the 11th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in December. The octogenarian
singer has recorded more than 12,000 songs and is known for her versatility as a
singer of film songs, pop songs, ghazals, folk songs and bhajans. Acclaimed
Egyptian actor Nour El-Sherif was also presented with the DIFF Lifetime
Achievement Award for his work in over 100 films, in a career spanning nearly
five decades. The eight day film festival will come to an end on December 17.
THE GENESIS
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PERSONS IN NEWS
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya: Rich tributes were paid to Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya on his 153th birth
anniversary by leaders across the country on December 25. Respectfully addressed as Mahamana, Malaviya was an
educationist and politician most remembered as the founder of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916, the
largest residential university in Asia and one of the largest in the world. He also served as the Vice Chancellor of Banaras
Hindu University from 1919-1938. Malaviya had held the position of President of the Indian National Congress on four
occasions, 1909, 1913, 1919 and 1932. He left Congress in 1934 to join the Hindu Mahasabha.
Narendra Modi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who did not make it to the final eight selected by TIME for the
annual Person of the Year title, has been hailed as one by its readers in an online poll conducted by the publication.
Modi has been named winner of this years readers poll for TIME Person of the Year, securing more than 16 per cent
of the almost five million votes cast in December. Protesters in Ferguson, who were demonstrating against a grand jurys
decision not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in
August ranked second with 9 per cent of the votes.
K. Radhakrishnan: Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research

Organisation (ISRO) is one of the 2014 top ten scientists chosen by the prestigious journal Nature.
This is the first time in the recent past that the journal has chosen an Indian working in India. When
Indias Mangalyaan successfully settled into Mars orbit in September 2014, the country became the
first and only nation to have done so on its maiden attempt. The space organisation crossed two
other major milestones this year. In January, the space organisation achieved spectacular success
with the spaceflight of an Indian cryogenic engine and stage. The recent launch of the heaviest and
tallest GSLV Mark III and the successful re-entry of the unmanned crew module were the other landmark achievements.
Prakash Mishra: Senior IPS officer Prakash Mishra took over as the new Director General of countrys largest
paramilitary and lead anti-Naxal operations force CRPF in December. Among other appointments made in December,
Rajinder Khanna became the new Director of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), T. Vijayakumar took charge as
the Director-General of CAPART (Council for Advancement of Peoples Action and Rural Technology) and O. P. Singh
as Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Dineshwar Sharma took charge as the new Director of
Intelligence Bureau on January 1 succeeding Syed Asif Ibrahim. R K Srivastava was appointed as the Chairman of the
Airports Authority of India (AAI) for a five-year term.
Raghubar Das: Raghubar Das was sworn in as the first non-tribal Chief Minister of Jharkhand in 14 years since it
was carved out of Bihar in Ranchi on December 28. A former employee of Tata Steel, he served as the member of
legislative assembly for five times, representing Jamshedpur East since 1995. With 37 seats, the BJP in coalition with
ally AJSU (5 seats) could form a stable government with the support of 42 MLAs in the 81 member Assembly.
Malik sisters: By scaling Mount Vinson, Antarcticas highest mountain at 4,892 metres, Tashi Malik and Nungshi
Malik from Dehradun have become the worlds first
twins and siblings to climb the highest peaks on the
seven continents. The 23-year-old twins accomplished
their Mission 2 for 7 on December 16 when they
scaled Vinson. The mission started by conquering Mt.
Kilimanjaro (Africa) in February 2012. The mission
progressed as they conquered Mt. Everest (Asia) in
May 2013; Mt. Elbrus (Europe) in August 2013; Mt.
Aconcagua (South America) in January 2014; Mt.
Carstensz Pyramid (Australia/Oceania) in March 2014; and Mt. McKinley (North America) in June 2014.
Clean India brand ambassadors: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25 nominated a few more
prominent personalities for the Clean India campaign including former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, first
THE GENESIS
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woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi, comedian Kapil Sharma, Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya, classical
dancer Sonal Mansingh, the famous dabbawalas of Mumbai, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Ramoji Rao and
his Eenadu group, and TV Today chairman Aroon Purie and his organisation.
Pranathy Gangaraju of Georgia was crowned Miss India USA 2014, which is the oldest
running Indian pageant outside of India. Pranathy, 19, is a student majoring in film acting and
production, a media release said on December 14. Monica Shah, 24, of Florida and Angela Nand,
27, of Hawaii, were respectively declared first and second runners up among 21 contestants from
various parts of the country.
OBITUARIES
K. Balachander (84), acclaimed filmmaker and founder of Kavithalaya Productions died
in Chennai on December 23. Apart from Tamil, he had made films in other languages such as
Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. He made his directorial debut in Hindi films with Aaina starring
Mumtaz and Rajesh Khanna in 1974. His next movie in Hindi was Ek Duje Ke Liye in 1981
for which Balachander received the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay. The films hit song
Tere Meere Beach Mein won a Filmfare Award for Best Lyrics for Anand Bakshi and a
National Film Award for Best Male Singer for SP Balasubrahmanyam. Popularly referred to in
the Tamil film industry as Iyakunar Sigaram (literally the Director who scaled the peak)
Balachander was known to have given breaks to todays superstars like Rajinikanth and
Kamal Hassan. He received several accolades including Dadasaheb Phalke award (2010),
Padma Shri (1987), Kalaimamani Award (Tamil Nadu) Nandi and Golden Nandi Award (Andhra Pradesh).
G. Venkataswamy (85), senior-most Congress leader from undivided Andhra Pradesh, died in Hyderabad on
December 22. He was elected to the Lok Sabha seven times. Venkataswamy was an active trade unionist and headed the
Indian National Trade Union Congress from 1961 to 1964. He founded the B.R. Ambedkar Education Society which was
converted into a public education trust.
Chunibhai Vaidya: Gandhian and land rights crusader Chunibhai Vaidya (97) died in Ahmedabad on December 19.
Vaidya participated in the freedom struggle and in Vinoba Bhaves Bhoodan Movement. He waged a battle against
Emergency in 1975 and faced imprisonment and was felicitated with the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 2010. His book
Assassination of Gandhi: Facts and Falsehood was translated and published in eleven languages.
Sobho Gianchandani: Acclaimed writer and leftist leader Sobho Gianchandani (94), who was given the sobriquet
of a man from Mohenjo-Daro by Rabindranath Tagore, died in Pakistans Larkana in December. Gianchandani, who
studied at the Shantiniketan College in West Bengal, was the first non-Muslim and non-Urdu recipient of the renowned
Kamal-e-Fun Award -- a top literary award given to writers in the field of literature.
Nand Chaturvedi: Noted Hindi poet and a litterateur Nand Chaturvedi (91) died in Udaipur on December 26. He
was given Bihari Puraskar of K. K. Birla Foundation for his poem Yeh Samai Mamuli nahin. Other awards won by him
include Prasaran Sanmaan by Prasar Bharati, Sahitya Vachaspati award by Prayag Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and Mira
Puraskar, the highest literary honour of Rajasthan Government.
Madhavi Sardesai: Konkani writer Dr. Madhavi Sardesai (52) passed away in Margao on December 15. A wellknown critic and linguist, Sardesai had received the Sahitya Akademi award for the second time recently for her book
Manthan, an anthology of critical essays written in the Konkani language. Earlier Sardesai had also received Sahitya
Akademi Award for translation of her book Eka Vicharachi Jivit Katha on Gandhis life.
Mohammad Farooq: The oldest litigant in the Babri Masjid case, Mohammad Farooq (100), died in Ayodhya on
December 25. A resident of Ayodhya, Farooq was one of the seven main litigants from Muslim side in the 1949 Babri
Masjid case regarding placing of Lord Ram idols in the premises.
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14
N. Krishnamurthy: Acclaimed Carnatic vocalist Nedunuri Krishnamurthy (87) passed away in Visakhapatnam on
December 8.
S Balasubramanian (79), Chairman of Vikatan group of Tamil publications, died in Chennai on December 19.
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Talking of Justice Peoples Rights in Modern India by Leila Seth
Honour and Fidelity: Indias Military Contribution to the Great War 1914 to
1918 by Amarinder Singh
A Few Good Men and the Angry Sea by Air Commodore Nitin Sathe
Vande Bharatam by Pt. Prabodh Kumar Mishra
Rajesh Khanna: The Untold Story of Indias First Superstar by Yasser Usman
How Sachin Ruined My Life by Vikram Sathaye
Odyssey in Tibet Pilgrimage to Kailas Manasarovar by Tarun Vijay
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Salt of the Earth: The Story of Tata Chemicals by Philip Chacko and Christabelle Noronha.
Fiction:
The Way Things Were by Aatish Taseer

The Steradian Trail by M. N. Krish
A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor
The Red Helmet by Deepika Shetty
Matabele Dawn by Saad Bin Jung
EXTERNAL RELATIONS
RUSSIA
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir V. Putin, came on an
official visit to India on December 11 for the 15th Annual India-Russia
Summit. Defence training and strengthening nuclear cooperation were
among the 20 agreements signed between India and Russia following
delegation level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
President Putin in New Delhi. The two countries signed
agreements/MoUs on the following issues:
Quality: MoU was signed between Quality Council of India (QCI) and Federal Accreditation Service of Russian
Federation for technical cooperation on accreditation.
Health: The MoU between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research (RFBR) seeks to boost cooperation in Health Research.
Power: MoU between TATA Power and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) describes cooperation in exploring
investment opportunities in the energy sector across the Russian Federation.
Fertilisers: MoU between ACRON of Russia and NMDC of India (consortium leader) envisages acquisition of stakes
by Indian companies in a project of ACRON, a Russian fertilizer company.
Finance: MoU between VTB (Vneshtorgbank) of Russia and ESSAR Group envisages a loan of US$ one billion to
ESSAR by VTB for general corporate purpose. The MoU between Indias IDFC and RDIF (Russian Direct
Investment Fund) creates a fund for investments in India and Russia.
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Petroleum: MoU between Oil India Limited and Zarubezhneft envisages cooperation in joint exploration of
hydrocarbons. The MoU between ESSAR and ROSNEFT for long-term supply of crude oil envisages ten year supply
and purchase by India of crude oil and feed stocks/products.
Industry associations: The MoU between FICCI and Delovaya Rossiya aims at identifying new areas of economic
cooperation. Media: The MoU between news agencies Press Trust of India and ITAR-TASS envisages cooperation on
exchange of news and the right to use news items.
IT: The MoU between Electronics and Software Export promotion Council of India (ESEPCI) and Skolkovo
Foundation of Russia describes support to companies in the Information Technology sector.
Nuclear energy: The signing of contract between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and
ATOMSTROYEXPORT (ASE) for unit 3 and 4 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant will mark the commencing of
the implementation.
Renewable energy: The MoU between Gamesa Wind Turbine Pvt Ltd. of India and ROTEK of Russia will facilitate
cooperation between the two companies in wind power equipment.
Space: The MoU between EIRENE SYSTEMS of India and GLONASS Union envisages a joint venture to market
GLONASS technologies and solutions in India.
USA: Sikorsky of US has bagged the 6,000-crore contract for supplying 16 multi-role helicopters to the Indian Navy.
The US firm was the only left in the fray after the partial ban on European company Finmeccanica, it emerged as the
winner. The final negotiations for Sikorskys S-70B Seahawk will start soon. Also Indian-American Richard Rahul
Verma was unanimously confirmed as the next US Ambassador to India by the Senate in December.
NZ: ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has won
an offshore oil and gas exploration block in New Zealands Taranaki offshore basin, in December.
GERMANY: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will jointly open the
Hannover trade fair along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
when he travels to Germany next April, said German ambassador
Michael Steiner in New Delhi in December. The fair will showcase
Make in India initiative to promote the country as a
manufacturing hub among global investors. India is the partner
country at the Hannover Messe 2015, which is also the worlds
largest industrial trade fair.
MAURITIUS: By delivering an offshore patrol vessel to Mauritius, India exported its first warship on December 20.
Built by defence PSU Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) in Kolkata, the USD 58.5 million
CGS Barracuda is capable of moving at a maximum speed of 22 knots with an approximate displacement of 1350
tonnes.
NEW AMBASSADORS: Envoys of Serbia, Egypt, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh presented their credentials to
President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in December: Vladimir Maric, Ambassador of Serbia; Hatem El
Sayed Tageldin, Ambassador of Egypt; Szilveszter Bus, Ambassador of Hungary; Bulat Sergazyuly Sarsenbayev,
Ambassador of Kazakhstan and Syed Muazzem Ali, High Commissioner of Bangladesh.
CLMV: Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala

Sitharaman said that Culture, Commerce and Connectivity will
be the hallmark of Indias relations with the CLMV countries,
namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The second
India - CLMV Business Conclave, ASEAN - India Economic
Engagement: The Way Forward was organized by CII and
Indias Ministry of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on December 11. Ajay Shriram is the CII President while
Chandrajit Banerjee is the Director General of the industry chamber.
THE GENESIS
16
Current Affairs: States

DELHI
Himmat, a mobile application of Delhi Police that will allow women to send a distress call to Police Control Room
and their relatives in case of any emergency, was launched in New Delhi by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on January
1. In case of an emergency, the user can send an alert by shaking her phone or by pressing the power button/soft
button. As soon as the distress button is pressed, it will trigger a 30-second audio and video recording on the phone
which will be relayed to the Police Control Room and the victim will get a call back from the PCR. An SMS alert will
also be sent to minimum of five friends and relatives of the user.
Netra, the light weight UAV fitted with night vision cameras, will be used by Delhi Police to patrol the streets of the
national capital. The device has already been used by security agencies like BSF, CRPF for counter-insurgency
activities while NDRF used it to search for survivors during the Uttarakhand flash floods of 2013.
Aiming at turning Delhi into a smart city, the Union Ministry of Power launched a pilot project in New Delhi in
December on conversion of streetlighting from conventional system to an energy-efficient and environmentfriendly LED type.
In a noble initiative, Delhi Police has launched Operation Milap, a scheme aimed at uniting missing children with
their parents. The drive has been launched by the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Crime Branch of the
Delhi Police during which teams will check all the Children Homes in the national capital.
The Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated the WiFi Broadband Services at New Delhi
Railway Station in December. The project is being executed by RailTel, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways.
Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu flagged off the bi-weekly New DelhiBhatindaNew Delhi
Shatabdi Express at New Delhi Railway station on December 18.
BIHAR
Bihar Police January 1 launched a special drive named Operation Mahavir against trafficking of children. A
team of policemen has been set up in each of the 38 districts to crack down on gangs involved in trafficking of
children. Police will closely monitor places like brick kilns, roadside hotels, markets, bus stands and railway stations
to trace missing children.
HARYANA
The fortnight-long annual Surajkund International Crafts Mela will begin on February 1, with Chhattisgarh as
its theme state and Lebanon, the partner nation. The fair showcases the richness and diversity of the handicrafts,
handlooms and cultural heritage of India.
RAJASTHAN
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje started the distribution of the Bhamashah cards among women
belonging to BPL category in Ajmer in December to ensure that they get monetary benefits of government schemes.
The cards will help the beneficiaries to withdraw money transferred to their bank accounts under various schemes.
MAHARASHTRA
The Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly has revoked the suspension of five Congress MLAs, who were held
responsible for creating a ruckus as well as misbehaving with the Maharashtra Governor who arrived to address the
first joint sitting of the state legislature in November.
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17
A Bill to rename Pune University as Savitribai Phule Pune University was passed unanimously by the
Maharashtra Legislative Council in Nagpur in December.
GUJARAT
The Gujarat government has come out with the rules and regulations for national as well as international cab
service providers operating in the state. The governments move comes in the wake of the rape of a woman by the
driver of a smartphone application-based taxi service in Delhi recently. These rules, however, will not be applicable to
local taxi drivers.
The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) announced its partnership with Microsoft India to transform Surat into a
smart city by introducing several citizen centric services including water management and urban planning. In
coming months, Microsoft will help SMC to roll out these services through its CityNext program.
WEST BENGAL
The worlds second tallest power transmission towers, built by Haldia Energy Limited (HEL), has come up
in West Bengal. The 236-metre-long twin towers, located at HELs 600-MW capacity plant at Haldia and Raichak
across the river Hooghly, are the tallest in the country. The worlds highest transmission tower (370 m) is in China.
TRIPURA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the second unit (363 MW) of a 726 MW power plant that will
supply power to Bangladesh and seven northeastern states in December. The state-owned ONGC, IL&FS and the
Tripura government jointly floated ONGC Tripura Power Co Ltd (OTPC) to set up the Rs.9000-crore Palatana
power plant in southern Tripura, some 60 km south of Agartala.
MIZORAM
Governor of Uttarakhand Aziz Qureshi was transferred and appointed as the governor of Mizoram on Dec 30.
Meanwhile, Governor of Meghalaya KK Paul was transferred and appointed as the governor of Uttarakhand for
remainder of his term. Paul will continue to hold additional charge of the office of governor of Manipur. West Bengal
Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi will discharge functions of governor of Meghalaya, in addition to his own duties.
KERALA
Keralas tourism campaign Gods Own Country, Peoples Own Tourism - which aims to link tourism with
rural areas - was launched in Thiruvananthapuram in December. The campaign focuses on linking tourism with the
mainstays of rural Kerala, including agriculture, traditional trade, village lifestyles and art forms.
After the success of its women empowerment initiatives like Kudumbashree, a community- based poverty reduction
project, and She-Taxi, Kerala is gearing up to set another landmark by creating countrys largest social
entrepreneurship network of women. The programme, Sandesh One will be a network of 1000-plus women to
generate mass employment at the grassroots level by promoting various micro-enterprises.
A total of 18,112 people dressed as Santa Clause gathered at the Shakthan Thampuran Market ground in Thrissur
(Kerala) on December 27, registering a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of Santa Clauses.
ANDHRA PRADESH
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched the Farmers Debt Redemption Scheme in
December, fulfilling a key electoral promise to waive farm loans of up to Rs 1.50 lakh per family. As per the Debt
Redemption Scheme, those who took loans between April 1, 2007 and December 31, 2013 are eligible for the waiver.
THE GENESIS
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Current Affairs: World

HAPPENINGS
Lima Climate Change Conference
A new 2015 agreement on climate change took a further step forward in Lima following negotiations by over 190
countries from December 1 to 14.
Nations concluded the Lima Climate
Change Conference by elaborating the
elements of the new agreement,
scheduled to be agreed in Paris in late
2015.These
Intended
Nationally
Determined Contributions (INDCs) will
form the foundation for climate action post 2020 when the new agreement is set to come into effect.
The Lima Climate Conference achieved a range of other important outcomes and decisions:
Pledges were made by both developed and developing countries prior to and during the COP that took the
capitalization of the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) past an initial $10 billion target.
The Conference recognised that National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) offer an important way of delivering resilience.
Governments made progress on coordinating the delivery of climate finance and of the various existing funds. Further
pledges were made to the Green Climate Fund in Lima by the governments of Norway, Australia, Belgium, Peru,
Colombia and Austria. This brought the total sum pledged to the Green Climate Fund to close to USD 10.2 billion.
Several countries formally submitted information and data on the status of their greenhouse gas emission reductions to
the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) secretariat. An information hub will be
launched on the UNFCCC web site, spotlighting actions by countries carrying out REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation) activities. The aim is to bring greater transparency on both the actions being
undertaken, including safeguards for communities and the payments being made.
USA and Cuba resume diplomatic relations after 50 years: The United States will restore full
diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the
release of an American contractor, Alan Gross, held in prison for five years, U.S. officials said on December 17, 2014. In
a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted
a final meeting at the Vatican, President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to
put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 minutes
off the U.S. coast.
Japans LDPKomeito coalition reelected: Prime Minister Shinzo Abes Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
and its junior partner the Komeito Party won 325 seats, a more than two-thirds majority, in the election for the 475-seat
lower house in December. The LDP alone secured 290 seats, while Komeito got 35 seats. An overwhelming majority in
the powerful chamber means the ruling bloc could approve bills rejected by the upper house and the dominant majority in
the lower house also makes it possible to propose amending the countrys pacifist constitution. Voter turnout was at a
record low of 52.38 percent. Japans Parliament re-elected Abe to serve another term as prime minister on December 24.
Global Arms Trade Treaty comes into force: A treaty laying down international rules for the USD 85 billion
global arms trade went into force in December. As many as 130 countries have signed the treaty and 60 have ratified it.
The Global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) covers international transfers of everything from tanks to combat aircraft to
missiles, as well as small arms. The treaty compels countries to set up national controls on arms exports. States must
THE GENESIS
19
assess whether a weapon could be used to circumvent an international embargo, be used for genocide and war crimes or
be used by terrorists and organised crime.
New Russian military doctrine labels NATO security threat: The Kremlin published a revised military
doctrine in December that labels NATO a fundamental threat to Russian security, reflecting the deteriorated relations
between Moscow and the West. The doctrine decries the reinforcement of NATOs offensive capacities directly on
Russias borders, and measures taken to deploy a global anti-missile defence system in Central Europe. The doctrines
harsher tone also follows decision by Ukraine to abandon its non-aligned status, a symbolic move that provoked
Moscows anger by potentially clearing the way for Kiev to request NATO membership.
Eurasian Economic Union: Russia and four other ex-Soviet nations have completed the creation of a new
economic alliance intended to bolster their integration. The Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Russia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, came into existence on January 1, 2015. In addition to free trade, its to coordinate
the members financial systems and regulate their industrial and agricultural policies along with labor markets and
transportation networks. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the new union will have a combined economic output
of USD 4.5 trillion and bring together 170 million people.
Nicaragua starts work on Panama Canal rival: Nicaragua announced

the start of work on a new canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in
December. The 278km waterway will be longer, deeper and wider than the
Panama Canal. The Grand Canal of Nicaragua, as it has been called, aims to rival
Panamas waterway and lift the country out of poverty. The opening ceremony
was largely symbolic, as work began on an access road for machinery needed to
build a port for the canal on Nicaraguas Pacific coast.
UN asks Israel to compensate Lebanon for oil spill: The UN

General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution asking Israel to pay
Lebanon over USD 850 million in damages for an oil spill caused by an Israeli air force attack on oil storage tanks during
its war with Hezbollah in July 2006. The assembly voted 170-6 in favor of the resolution, with three abstentions on
December 19. Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, Micronesia and Marshall Islands voted no. General
Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion.
WTO talks on dutyfree trade in IT goods collapse: Talks on cutting trade tariffs on information
technology products in Geneva collapsed in December, delaying and potentially scuppering a deal estimated to be worth
$1 trillion to global trade. The talks aimed to update the WTOs 17-year-old Information Technology Agreement, which
guarantees zero-tariff and duty-free trade on hundreds of products, adding about 200 more products to the list. Several
participants blamed the failure on a deadlock between China and South Korea over liquid crystal display (LCD) screens.
South Korea, home to top LCD producer LG Display Co Ltd, wanted LCD screens included in the deal. But China,
which wants to foster its own LCD industry, refused.
Maldives signs up for Chinas Maritime Silk Road: The Maldives has joined Chinas 21st Century
Maritime Silk Road project, becoming the second nation in Indias backyard after Sri Lanka to sign up for the multibillion infrastructure scheme floated by Beijing to firm-up its influence in the region. The Maldives joined the project - a
brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping in December 2014. India has not joined the Maritime Silk Road project but
has sought more details from China about it.
NASA detects organic matter on Mars: In a promising find, the NASA Curiosity rover has detected organic
molecules - the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life - on Mars. The organic molecules, found by the team
responsible for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on Curiosity, were in a drilled sample of the
Sheepbed mudstone in Gale crater - the rovers landing site - the US space agency said in December. Organic molecules
consist of a wide variety of molecules made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.
THE GENESIS
20
130 killed in terror attack on Peshawar school: At least 100 children were among a staggering 130 people
killed when heavily armed terrorists launched a brazen attack on an army-run school in Pakistans Peshawar city on
December 16. Six terrorists first set a vehicle on fire and then stormed the Army Public School building in Peshawar, the
capital of Pakistans Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. All six were killed by the Special Forces.
Churchills painting fetches 1.8m pounds at auction: A painting by Sir Winston Churchill titled The
Goldfish Pool at Chartwell has fetched 1.8 million pounds at recently held auction in Sothebys, London in December.
The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell, which depicts the pond at Churchills Kent home, was painted in 1932 was described
by Sothebys as a striking manifestation of the artist at his very best. The previous auction record for one of Churchills
paintings was 1 million dollars. Churchill was Britains Prime Minister during World War II and he died in 1965.
Country Threat Index: Pakistan is placed eighth in the list of the most dangerous countries in the world which is
led by Iraq, said the Country Threat Index (CTI) compiled in December by IntelCenter, a Washington-based company
working for intelligence agencies. The rankings were prepared after examining the volume of terrorist and rebel alerts,
messaging traffic, videos, photos, incidents and the number of killed and injured in a country over the past 30 days. The
other countries in the top 10 are Nigeria (second), Somalia (third), Afghanistan (fourth), Yemen (five), Syria (six), Libya
(seven), Egypt (nine) and Kenya (10).
Political Risk Atlas: A report on countries facing extreme political risks released in December has placed Somalia
in the first position. The report titled Political Risk Atlas 2015 focuses on nearly 200 countries that are facing political
risks. Released by Verisk Maplecroft, the atlas has scored 198 countries on 54 political risks to enable international
organisations to identify risks to their operations, investments and supply chains. Somalia has retained its position as the
country with the highest risk while Syria is in second place, followed by Central African Republic (third), South Sudan
(fourth), Iraq (fifth), Libya (sixth), Afghanistan (seventh), DR Congo (eighth), Sudan (ninth) and Yemen (10th).
US, NATO end Afghan combat mission : The US and NATO ceremonially ended their combat mission in
Afghanistan in Kabul on December 8, 13 years after the September 11 terror attacks sparked their invasion of the country
to topple the Taliban-led government. NATOs International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, which was in
charge of combat operations, lowered its flag, formally ending its deployment. US Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of
NATO and US forces, said that the mission now would transition to a training and support role for Afghanistans own
security forces, which have led the fight against the Taliban insurgents since mid-2013.
Worlds first herbal Koran unveiled: The worlds first handcrafted herbal Holy Koran, made from about 200
medicinal plants, was unveiled in Dubai in December. The Koran has been made by the Islamic arts and calligraphy
company, Heddem Arts. The Koran is made of high potency herbal mixtures prepared as per Unani medical system.
Herbal sheets of the Holy Koran have many therapeutic properties when the reader moves his fingers on the letters or in
and around the pages, the herbal mixture seeps through the pores in the fingers, providing health benefits, Heddem Arts
said in a statement.
PERSONS IN NEWS
Anerood Jugnauth: Former President and leader of the Alliance Lepep party, Anerood Jugnauth was appointed
Mauritius new Prime Minister by President Kailash Purryag in capital Port Louis on December 14. The appointment
came one day after the resignation of former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam who lost in the polls. Ramgoolam was
serving his third term as the Prime Minister since 2005. Ramgoolam leads the centre-left group that brings together the
Labour Party (PTR) and the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) party of ex-prime minister Paul Berenger.
Beji Caid Essebsi (88) was confirmed as the winner of Tunisias first free presidential election since independence
from France in 1956. Essebsi, a leader of the anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party, won just over 55% of votes cast in the
runoff round on December 21, defeating the incumbent, the former human rights activist Moncef Marzouki, who held the
post through an alliance with the moderate Islamist movement Ennahda.
THE GENESIS
21
Rolene Strauss (22) of South Africa became the 64th Miss World in London on
December 14. She won the title over runner-up Miss Hungary Edina Kulcsar. Miss
United States Elizabeth Safrit took third place. Strauss, a fourth-year medical student at
University of the Free State, put her studies on hold after being crowned Miss South
Africa in March. Indias Koyal Rana could make it only to top 10. Priyanka Chopra was
the last Indian to clinch the crown in 2000.
Julia Morley: For the first time in 63 years, Miss World pageant has decided to ditch
the swimsuit round from its competition from 2015. Julia Morley, the chairwoman of
Miss World announced in London in December that next year onwards there would be no swimsuit round. The Miss
World pageant is trying to keep up with its theme of beauty with a purpose and Morley feels bikini round does not
serve any purpose. Eric Morley started the Miss World competition in 1951 and over the year it has come to represent
120 countries.
Vivek Murthy: Dr. Vivek Murthy has become the first ever Indian-origin doctor to be named as the Surgeon General
of the United States as the Senate announced its decision in December, putting an end to a year of uncertainty over his
nomination. The Senate voted 51 to 43 to pick the 37-year-old for the top position. The 37-year-old is the youngest
doctor to occupy the post.
Rajiv Shah, the Indian-American Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development has decided to step
down in February 2015. Shah has led the agency since 2010. USAID describes itself as the lead U.S. government agency
working to fight poverty and promote democracy around the world.
Maleeha Lodhi: Pakistan has appointed renowned journalist and writer Maleeha Lodhi as the countrys permanent
representative at the UN in December. Lodhi has been editor of leading English newspapers in the country and currently
writes on security issues. Previously, Lodhi has twice served as Pakistans ambassador to the US (1993-1996 and 19992002) and as Pakistans high commissioner to Britain (2003-2008).
Reverend Libby Lane: The Church of England appointed its first ever female Bishop in December, overturning
centuries of tradition in a Church that has been deeply divided over the issue. It named Reverend Libby Lane, 48, as the
new Bishop of Stockport in northern England.
OBITUARIES
Showbiz: Booth Colman (91), known for his roles in television series Star Trek, and films like Julius Caesar,
passed away in Los Angeles on December 23. Larry Auerbach (91), the Emmy award-winning director and the man
behind the long-running soap opera Love of Life, passed away in Los Angeles on December 21. Veteran Italian actress
Virna Lisi (78), known for her role in 1965 comedy classic How To Murder Your Wife, died in Rome on Dec 18.
Phil Stern (95), an award-winning photographer who snapped combat scenes in World War II and later became known
for candid shots of Hollywood stars like Marlon Brando, died on December 16. Stern, who shot for Life, Look and other
magazines, honed his skills as a war photographer.
AWARDS

Olof Palme prize: Chinese pro-democracy activist Xu Youyu was awarded Swedens Olof
Palme Human Rights Prize in December. The Olof Palme Prize is an annual prize worth
$75,000 granted by the Swedish labour movement. It commemorates the memory of the
Nordic countrys Social Democratic prime minister, an outspoken international human rights
advocate, who was assassinated in the Swedish capital Stockholm in 1986.
THE GENESIS
22
Faces
Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Fast & furious
Relying on his unorthodox batting technique and his inspirational leadership, Dhoni rose from
his humble origins to become Indias most marketable cricketer with endorsement income
comparable only to Sachin.
Indian team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni surprised the

cricket world in Melbourne on
December 30 with his sudden
announcement
of
immediate
retirement from Test cricket.
Under Dhonis captaincy, India
won the top prize in all formats: the
No.1 Test ranking for 18 months
starting December 2009, the 50over World Cup in 2011 and the World Twenty20 on his
captaincy debut in 2007.
Dhoni made his test debut against Sri Lanka in Chennai in
December 2005. He played 90 Tests in his ten-year long
cricket career and has made 4876 runs with a top score of
224 against Australia at Chennai in 2012-13 and an
average of 38.09. He scored six hundreds and 33 fifties
and has taken 256 catches and made 38 stumpings.
Dhoni became captain for the first time in November
2008 against South Africa at Kanpur. He went on to lead
India in 60 Tests out of which India won 27 tests (the
highest by any Indian captain), lost 18 while 14 were
drawn. Under his captaincy, the team managed to win just
six Tests on overseas while losing 15 and drawing 9. As a
captain, Dhoni made 3454 runs at an average of 40.63.
Dhoni as a batsman and wicketkeeper in ODIs: Matches:
250, Highest Score: 183, Average: 52.85, 100s: 9, 50s:
56, Catches: 227, Stumpings: 85
One of Indias most flamboyant cricketers ever, Dhoni
represented the brash and rising new middle-class India.
He didnt respect reputations. He improvised, he learned,
but didnt make an apology about his batting style, which
was not the most elegant. He became a multi-faceted ODI
batsman, one who could accumulate, one who could
rebuild, and one who could still unleash those big sixes.
Dhoni brought to captaincy a thick skin and relative
indifference to results that an Indian captain needs to keep
the job for long. His calmness on the field helped and
worked like a charm in the shorter formats, although
tactically he sometimes sat back for too long in Tests. All
that cant argue against the fact that India had some of
their best years in Test cricket, in terms of tangible

achievement, under Dhoni, and that Dhoni has for years
been among the best ODI batsmen in the world.
However, post the 50-over World Cup win in 2011,
reality struck, and an ageing team kept losing in
unfamiliar conditions. Among the most embarrassing
defeats under Dhoni were the 0-4 whitewashes suffered in
England (2011) and Australia (2011-12). After eight
straight Test losses away from home, Dhoni the captain
came under immense pressure, which was accentuated by
a 2-1 home series loss to England in 2012-13, the first
time India had lost a series at home in more than 8 years.
This brought out a new chapter in Dhonis career wherein
he seemed more assertive as a captain, started building a
new team and became the first Indian captain to win four
Tests in a series, when India defeated Australia 4-0 to win
the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. While India under Dhoni
continued to do well at home, overseas losses continued.
These included 0-1 defeats in SA and NZ and in 2013-14
and 1-3 in England in 2014 and now 0-2 in Australia.
Impact of retirement on Brand Dhoni

Dhonis brand value worth millions of dollars will
undergo a change after his retirement from Tests but it is
unlikely that the poster boy from Ranchi will go downhill
in the world of endorsements, said ad-gurus Prasoon Joshi
and Prahlad Kakkar after his retirement announcement.
According to the 2014 figures, Dhoni endorses more than
20 brands, charging approximately Rs 13 crore per annum
for each. The 33-year-old is also the sole Indian in
Forbes lists of worlds most valuable athlete brands
where he is ranked fifth with a brand value of USD 20
million.
Kakkar believes Dhonis salability would have dropped
had he also quit from ODIs and T20 Internationals. He
further said: Anyway Dhonis brand value was not
because of Test matches, it was because of ODIs and T20.
So as long he is playing, he should be fine. Dhonis
departure from the longest format can only raise the
profile of Virat Kohli, who is already considered the
biggest thing in Indian cricket.
THE GENESIS
23
Current Affairs: Sports

FOOTBALL
Hero Indian Super League
Substitute Mohammad Rafique headed the only goal of the match in
injury time as Atletico De Kolkata clinched the inaugural Hero
Indian Super League (ISL) football tournament with a 1-0 win over
Kerala Blasters at the D.Y. Patil stadium in Mumbai on December
20. The tournament featured eight teams -- Chennaiyin FC, FC Goa,
Atletico de Kolkata, Kerala Blasters FC, Delhi Dynamos FC, FC
Pune City, Mumbai City FC and NorthEast United.
Elano Blumer of Chennaiyin FC, who netted 8 goals in 11 matches, won the Golden Boot Award for scoring the
maximum number of goals in the tournament followed by Miroslav Slepika of FC Goa, Iain Hume of Kerala Blasters
FC, Gustavo Marmentini dos Santos of Delhi Dynamos FC and Fikru Teferra Lemessa of Atltico de Kolkata were
joint second with 5 goals each.
Jan eda of FC Goa won the Golden Glove award given to the top
goalkeeper finishing ahead of Apoula Edima Edel Bete of Atltico de
Kolkata, Subhasish Roy Chowdhury of Atltico de Kolkata, David
Benjamin James of Kerala Blasters FC and Rehenesh TP of NorthEast
United FC.
Manyavar Rang Jama De Most Exciting Player of the League award
went to Luis Garcia of Atltico de Kolkata. The Muthoot Group Fair
Play Award was won by Delhi Dynamos FC.
FIFA rules out any change in 2018 & 2022 World Cup hosts: FIFA will not reopen the vote for the 2018
and 2022 World Cups, and will publish at least some of the confidential report into the bidding process, President Sepp
Blatter said in in December. The 78-year-old Blatter, who is seeking a fifth term as president, said there are no legal
grounds to revoke the executive committees decision (in 2010) on the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
CRICKET
ICC World Cup 2015 Ambassador: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on December 22, 2014 named
Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Ambassador. In his role as ICC Cricket World Cup
2015 Ambassador, Tendulkar will promote and support a variety of ICC initiatives to enhance the profile of the
tournament. Tendulkar retired from international cricket in 2013 after representing his country in 200 Tests, 463 OneDay Internationals (ODI) and one Twenty20 International. In a career spanning 24 years, the 41-year-old scored a total of
34,357 international runs and 100 centuries. A member of the Indian world cup winning team in 2011, Tendulkar is the
all-time leading run-getter in World Cup history with 2,278 runs in 45 matches
at an average of 56.95.
CA trademarks 63 not out: In an attempt to thwart people from cashing

in on the late Australian batsman Phillip Hughes tragedy, Cricket Australia (CA)
has trademarked the phrase 63 not out. CA says it registered the trademark in
conjunction with Phillips management purely as a defensive registration to
prevent others trying to exploit Phillips memory. Unlicensed Phillip Hughes
merchandise was being sold on online auction sites including t-shirts, stickers
and memorial trophies. Earlier in December, Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes passed away after succumbing to
injuries he endured from a bouncer at the SCG in a Sheffield Shield match.
THE GENESIS
24
BADMINTON
Top ranked Indians: Kidambi Srikanth continued his meteoric rise in world badminton as he ended the season by
becoming only the third Indian male shuttler to break into the top-five, reaching a career-high fourth in December. The
21-year-old Indian, who clinched the China Super Series Premier before reaching the semifinals of back-to-back
tournaments in Hong Kong and Dubai, joined the elite club which comprises Prakash Padukone and national chief coach
Pullela Gopichand, who were World No. 1 and 4 respectively in the past. Among Indian women, Saina Nehwal retained
her number four position in the latest ranking which was released in Kuala Lumpur on December 25.
BWF Superseries: Chen Long of China beat Denmarks Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-16, 21-10 to win the Mens
Singles title at the $1,000,000 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Superseries Finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex in
Dubai on December 21. Tai Tzu Ying won the Womens Singles title defeating South Koreas Sung Ji Hyun 21-17 21-12
in the final. Indias best formers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth lost in the semi-finals.
Tata Open: H. S. Prannoy and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde clinched the mens and womens singles titles respectively in
the USD 25,000 Tata Open India International Challenge badminton tournament, in Mumbai in December. Prannoy
defeated a fighting R M V Gurusaidutt in a thrilling mens singles final 21-16 20-22 21-17 that lasted 64 minutes at the
Cricket Club of India (CCI) courts. 17-year-old Ruthvika got the better of Arundhati Pantawane 19-21 21-18 21-14 in the
womens singles final.
CHESS
London Classic Chess: Five-time chess world champion Viswanathan Anand won his maiden London Classic title
after defeating British Grandmaster Michael Adams in the fifth and final round, in London in December. Meanwhile at
Kottayam, Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman clinched his maiden National Premier Chess title in December. He tallied 8.5
points from the 13-round event.
Chess Olympiad: Top seeds India bagged the gold medal in the World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad at Gyor in
Hungary on December 22. India beat Turkey 3.0-1.0 in the 10th and final round to clinch the title ahead of Russia and
Iran at the FIDE tournament held at the University of West Hungary. The Indian team comprised Diptayan Ghosh,
Murali Karthikeyan, Aravindh Chithambaram, Kumaran Balaji and G K Monnisha.
MISC
Tennis World Champions for 2014: Serbian Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams of the US were declared the
mens and womens World Champions for 2014 by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in Paris in December. The
27-year-old Djokovic won Wimbledon, reached the final at French Open and finished the year ranked No.1 in the world.
The 33-year-old Williams won the US Open, the 18th Grand Slam title of her career, and was also ranked No.1 by the
Womens Tennis Association. Americans Bob and Mike Bryan were Mens Doubles world champions while Sara Errani
and Roberta Vinci of Italy were the Womens Doubles world champions.
Theme song of National Games: The theme song of the 35th National Games, composed by singer and composer
Hariharan, was formally released in Thiruvananthapuram on December 24. A promotional video starring the Games
Goodwill Ambassador Sachin Tendulkar was also released. The three-minute song which has a mix of languages -Hindi, Malayalam and English -- has been written by lyricist Javed Akthar.
World Cup Kabaddi: The Indian mens team continued their winning streak by clinching the fifth Kabaddi World
Cup title, while the womens side bagged the crown for the fourth consecutive time at the Guru Gobind Singh
Multipurpose Stadium in Badal (Muktsar) on December 20. The Indian mens team defeated Pakistan 45-42 for the
fourth time, while the women team beat New Zealand 36-27 for the second time in a row.
Golf: Om Prakash Chouhan won the 13th TATA Open at the Beldih Golf Course in Jamshedpur on December 21.
Indias Arjun Atwal won the Dubai Open at the Els Golf Club in Dubai on December 21.
THE GENESIS
25
Current Affairs: Economy

Insurance Ordinance repromulgated
The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014,
signed by President Pranab Mukherjee on December 26,
hikes foreign investment limit in the insurance sector to
49 per cent from the current 26 per cent.
Insurance penetration in India is very low compared to
the global average. The sector is in need of capital to
expand and ensure better access to insurance services,
especially in rural areas and for economically weaker
sections. Enhancement of the foreign equity cap with the
safeguard of Indian Ownership and Control is a critical
aspect of the Ordinance, which will potentially enhance
capital availability.
The Ordinance is aimed at amending the Insurance Act, 1938, the General Insurance Business (Nationalization) Act,
1972 and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 to remove archaic and redundant provisions
in the Insurance Laws, empower IRDA to enable more effective regulation and enhance the foreign equity investment
cap in an Indian Insurance Company from 26 to 49% with the safeguard of Indian ownership and control.
The Ordinance is aimed at allowing insurance companies to raise capital through new and innovative instruments,
which would help capital intensive insurance industry to garner resources for business growth.
The Ordinance will empower IRDA to regulate key aspects of Insurance Company operations in areas like solvency,
investments, expenses and commissions, which is in keeping with global best practices of regulation. The absence of
such empowerment for IRDA potentially undermines faith in our regulatory framework and discourages investment in
the sector.
The Ordinance will also substantially enhance penalty provisions to ensure compliance with Insurance Laws by
companies, which is essential to uphold the consumer interest.
Coal Ordinance repromulgated

President Pranab Mukherjee signed The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 on December 26 that will
facilitate e-auction of coal blocks for private companies for captive use and allot mines directly to state and central
PSUs. The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2014 has already been approved by the Lok Sabha during the session
but could not progress in the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill provides for allocation of coal mines and vesting of the right, title and interest in and over the land and mine
infrastructure, together with mining leases, to successful bidders and allottees through a transparent bidding process.
The need of the ordinance was felt to overcome the acute shortage of coal in core sectors such as steel, cement and
power utilities.
Gearing up for fresh allocation of coal blocks cancelled by the Supreme Court, government has introduced a bidding
mechanism for auction of 65 mines to private players while 36 other blocks will be directly allotted to state-owned
companies. There would be different criteria for auction to regulated sector, including power, and unregulated sectors.
Of the 101 blocks to be allotted and auctioned in the first lot, 63 mines would be given to the power sector, while the
rest would be for sectors like steel and cement.
THE GENESIS
26
States reject draft GST bill: State finance ministers rejected the draft GST bill in
December even though, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had promised to pay states a
compensation of Rs 11,000 crore this fiscal for losses suffered for a reduction in central
sales tax (CST). The proposed goods and service tax (GST) will replace CST. The
empowered committee of state finance ministers objected to two critical pieces of reform bringing petroleum products under GST and remove state-level entry tax on goods.
Besides, the states wanted higher compensation for notional losses in revenue.
LS passes Bill on eviction from public premises: The Lok Sabha passed a bill amending the law for
eviction of occupants of public premises in December. The amended law redefines such places to include companies in
which at least 51 percent of the paid-up share capital is held by the central or state governments and which carries
business of public transport including metro railway. The bill seeks to amend some provisions of the Public Premises
(Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971 which was enacted to provide for speedy eviction of unauthorized
occupants from public premises including that of government companies and corporations.
Wholesale inflation rate drops to zero: The annual rate of inflation, based on wholesale prices, fell to nil for
November from 1.77 percent for the previous month and 7.52 percent for the corresponding period of the previous year.
Data released on December 15 by the commerce and industry ministry on official wholesale price index (WPI) suggests
that with a fall in the numbers for November, the overall price level in the country now was at the same level as that in
the corresponding period of last year. The most notable decline was in the index for fuels which fell by 5.2%, while for
primary articles and manufactured products, the two other main sub-groups, the decline was 1% and 0.3%, respectively.
The wholesale decline comes on the back of retail inflation declining to a record low of 4.38 percent in November from
11.16 percent during the corresponding month last year. The retail inflation rate recorded is the lowest since India started
computing consumer price index (CPI) in January 2012.
10 crore Aadhaar numbers linked to bank accounts: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
said that the number of Aadhaar numbers that have been linked to bank accounts has touched 10 crore, enabling these
individuals to digitally receive subsidies and benefits under government schemes. Establishing a link between an
Aadhaar number and a bank account makes it easy for the government to identify genuine beneficiaries and route welfare
payments and subsidies directly into their bank accounts.
DBTL is worlds largest direct benefit transfer scheme: The ambitious scheme of giving cash subsidy on
cooking gas directly to the consumers has become the worlds largest direct benefit transfer, with 2.5 crore households
getting about 550 crore rupees since November 15. The scheme was rolled out in 54 districts and was extended all over
the country from January 1, 2015. Under the direct benefit transfer on LPG (DBTL), cash subsidy is paid to the
consumers so that they can buy cooking gas at market price. Pahal, or Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme for LPG (DBTL),
has already surpassed Brazils famous Bolsa Familia programme in terms of the number of beneficiaries.
Norms on FDI in medical devices sector relaxed: The government has made it easier for foreigners to fully
own existing medical device makers in India, in a bid to boost investment in the $7-billion sector. Foreigners wanting to
buy 100 per cent of device makers no longer need to get prior approval from January 2015.
India cuts US Government Securities exposure: India has trimmed its holdings of US government securities
to $77.5 billion at the end of October even as the worlds largest economy is expanding at a moderate pace. Data from
the US Treasury Department showed that India held securities worth $80 billion in September and further reduced its
exposure to $77.5 billion in October - also a three-month low. In August, the holdings were to the tune of $80.4 billion
while they stood at $79.7 billion in July. While China remains the largest holder of American government securities, it
cut down exposure to $1.25 trillion in October.
Rs. 500 crore sanctioned for HRIDAY: The urban development ministry has sanctioned Rs. 500 crores for the
Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) that aims to develop 12 heritage cities. The heritage
THE GENESIS
27
cities are Amritsar, Ajmer, Mathura, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Vellankani, Varanasi, Puri, Dwarka, Badami, Warangal and
Amravati.
Bill to legalize erickshaws passed: The Lok Sabha passed a bill to legalize e-rickshaws by bringing them
under the ambit of the Motor Vehicles Act on December 18. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2014 also provides
for the central government to make rules on the specifications for e-carts and e-rickshaws and the manner and conditions
for issuing driving licenses. The bill also relaxes the rules for issuing driving licenses for those driving e-rickshaws. The
bill also envisages that the vehicles would be owned by the driver and cannot be rented out.
Indian trade portal launched: Minister of State (Independent Charge) Commerce and Industry Nirmala
Sitharaman inaugurated a user-friendly Indian Trade Portal (www.indiantradeportal.in) in December which is aimed at
providing information pertaining to Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) and preferential tariffs, rules of origin, technical
barriers to trade faced by Indian exporters at single point. The Indian Trade Portal has been developed and maintained by
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
WTO favours India in steel dispute with US: The WTO has ruled against the US imposing high duty on
imports of certain Indian steel products, an order hailed by India in December as a significant victory that will help
domestic manufacturers and exporters. The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled that the
high duty imposed by the US on the certain Indian steel imports was inconsistent with various provisions of the
Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM). The implication of this ruling is that the US has to
amend its domestic law to be WTO compliant.
TARC recommends Banking Transaction Tax: The Tax Administration & Reform Commission (TARC)
headed by Parthasarathi Shome has proposed levying of Banking Transaction Tax on withdrawal of cash beyond a
specified limit in a day to check black money. Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) was introduced in June 2005 but
was withdrawn in April 2009. BCTT was levied in respect of cash withdrawals in a day exceeding Rs 50,000 in the case
of an individual and Rs 1 lakh in the case of other persons.
RBI notifies new FDI policy for defence, railways infra: The Reserve Bank notified the governments
decision to increase foreign investment ceiling in defence sector and permitting 100 per cent FDI in railways
infrastructure sector in December. In the defence sector, foreign investment (FDI, FIIs, RFPIs, NRIs, FVCIs and QFIs)
up to 49 per cent has been permitted under government route (FIPB) in the defence sector. The earlier cap was 26 per
cent. In the railway segment, FDI will be allowed in construction, operation and maintenance of suburban corridor
projects through PPP, high speed train projects and dedicated freight lines. FDI has also been allowed in rolling stock
including train sets, and locomotives/coaches manufacturing and maintenance facilities, railway electrification, signaling
systems, freight terminals and passenger terminals, among others.
SBI launches Composite Index: The country now has another monthly economic index, with the State Bank
launching a tool that will primarily track manufacturing activity to offer forward-looking economic trends. Launched in
December, the SBI Composite Index rivals the existing data point from British lender HSBC. The SBI index has been
developed on the basis of the banks internal loan portfolio, which mirrors the credit demand in the country, and other
data sets available in public domain. The Index will analyse data from both manufacturing and services industries to
determine expansion or contraction in the economy, said SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya. The bank has
created two indices - the SBI Monthly Composite Index and the SBI Yearly Composite Index.
LS passes bill to bring payments law in tune with global norms: A bill aimed at bringing Indias
banking payment system in sync with international practices was passed by the Lok Sabha in December. Replying to a
debate on Payment and Settlement Systems (Amendment) Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there was a gap in
the law which needed to be addressed so that there is protection for payments in case of insolvency. The amendment
seeks to protect funds collected from the customers by the payment system providers and to extend the Act to cover trade
repository and legal entity identifier issuer.

THE GENESIS
28
Current Affairs: Corporate

PERSONS IN NEWS
Jacqueline Fernandez: Jacqueline Fernandez and former Supreme Court
judge KS Radhakrishnan have been given PETA Indias People of the Year
award for their contribution towards the protection of animals in December.
Fernandez was chosen for using her massive star power to advocate for the
protection of all animals from horses used to pull carriages known in India as
Victorias to rabbits used in painful cosmetics tests. Justice Radhakrishnan
headed a bench that passed a landmark judgement in favour of PETA India and
the Animal Welfare Board of India, clarifying that bulls must not be used in
jallikattu, bull races, bullfights or any other type of performance.
Alisher Usmanov: Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov is returning a Nobel Prize medal he bought at auction
for USD 4.7 million recently to the man who put it on the block: the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
winner James Watson. Usmanov revealed recently that was the anonymous buyer of the medal auctioned at Christies
by Watson on December 4 in New York. It was the first Nobel award to be sold by a living laureate. In my opinion, a
situation in which an outstanding scientist sells a medal recognising his achievements is unacceptable, Usmanov said,
voicing his satisfaction that the medal will stay with the person who deserved it.
Vikram Akula, founder and former chairperson of SKS Microfinance, was appointed chairman of the financial
inclusion start-up Vaya Finserv Private Limited in December. Vaya is a business correspondent (BC) which facilitates
savings and loans for Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of women on behalf of banks. Vaya is stated to be the first BC to use
tablet banking in the field. Akula, whose three-year non-compete clause after leaving SKS ended recently, will also
take a 26% stake in Vaya.
Vijay Mallya: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs rejected the re-appointment of liquor baron Vijay Mallya as
managing director of Kingfisher Airlines in December without giving any reasons, as pressure mounts on the tycoon
to help his company repay its debts. Indian banks want Mallya to help repay more than $1 billion of loans Kingfisher
owes to a consortium of largely state-run banks. United Bank of India has already declared Mallya a wilful
defaulter, which in Indian law would mean that he could be forced to stand down from any corporate posts and could
damage the fundraising prospects of businesses with which he is associated. Kingfisher has not flown since 2012.
Ramalinga Raju: A trial court in Hyderabad sentenced the founder of erstwhile Satyam Computer Services
(SCSL), Ramalinga Raju, and brother Rama Raju to six months of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh each in
December for violation of various provisions of the Companies Act. The CBI charged Raju and former employees of
Satyam with offences ranging from falsification of records, cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and causing
disappearance of evidence. The Satyam scam came to light on January 7, 2009, when Ramalinga Raju confessed to a
massive accounting fraud in the company.
Warren Buffet: Billionaire investor Warren Buffet topped the list of the 10 biggest single charitable donors of
2014 by giving USD 2.1 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the form of shares of his company,
Berkshire Hathaway, said global wealth intelligence and prospecting company Wealth-X in December. Nicholas
Woodman, GoPro Founder CEO and Chairman was ranked second. Eight of the top 10 donations of 2014 were made
by American philanthropists. Hong Kong real estate tycoons Ronnie and Gerald Chan are the only non-Americans to
appear on the list.
Patricia Barbizet: Christies International Plc, the worlds largest auction house by sales, named Patricia Barbizet
its first woman chief executive officer in December to replace incumbent Steven P. Murphy. Barbizet, 59, is chairman
of Christies and CEO of Artemis SA, the holding company thats owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault
and that acquired the auction house in 1998. Barbizet will retain her chairman title.
THE GENESIS
29
Norbert Reithofer: German luxury automaker BMW said in December that CEO Norbert Reithofer will leave his
post early to become Chairman of the board as part of generational change and would be replaced as CEO by BMW
production executive Harald Krueger. The Munich-based company said that Reithofer will replace board chairman
Joachim Milberg at the shareholder meeting on May 13.
Ralph Baer: Ralph Baer (92), popularly known as The Father of Video Games died on December 8. The
Magnavox Odyssey was the worlds first commercial home video game console. It was released in 1972. The Odyssey
was designed by Ralph H. Baer, who began around 1966 and had a working prototype finished by 1968. This
prototype, known as the Brown Box, is now at the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of American History in
Washington, D.C. In 1978, Baer co-developed a memory game named Simon. He was awarded the National Medal of
Technology by the US government in 2006 for his work and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in
2010.
Dr Dre: Rapper-producer Dr Dre has been named the highest paid musician of 2014 after banking USD 620 million,
Forbes magazine said in December. The 49-year-old star landed the top spot with a figure nearly six times higher than
Beyonce who was named second in the Forbes list. Beyonces this year earnings totalled USD 115 million. Dres
massive earnings came from his music and electronics company, Beats, which he co-founded in 2008 and sold it to
Apple in May 2014 for USD 3 billion.
Frida Giannini: The French fashion conglomerate Kering has announced that Gucci creative director Frida
Giannini will step down after 12 years at the fashion label. Kering said in December that Giannini will leave her
position after showing her fall/winter 2014-2015 menswear collection in Milan in February. Giannini joined the
Florentine fashion house in 2002 as the lead designer for leather goods, adding womens ready-to-wear in 2005,
before being named the sole creative director.
Priyanka Chopra: After launching her music career in the US, Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has now
sealed a one-year TV development deal with ABC Television Studios in December. The 32-year-old former Miss
World will be a part of an ABC series developed for her or star in an existing project targeted for next fall.
Ranveer Singh: On the occasion of World AIDS Day on December 1, 2014, Durex took a step further in
promoting the message of safe sex by partnering with Creativeland Asia and MTV to launch a nation-wide campaign.
The campaign features a 360 integrated campaign, which will leverage the campaign thought Make love without fear
through the brand ambassador Ranveer Singh.
EVENTS & HAPPENINGS

Indian Car of the Year 2015: Hyundai Elite i20 has won the
Indian Car of the Year 2015 (ICOTY) award in December. The Elite i20
has been receiving laurels from both critics and customers alike and the
car has become the one of the best selling cars in India. Elite i20 has
received over 60,000 bookings and has found 32,000 buyers within 4
months of launch. Hyundai Elite i20, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Honda
City had the fight going for the top honours at the 10th Indian Car of the
Year awards. With this award, Hyundai has become the only car
manufacturer to win two successive ICOTY Awards with the Grand i10
winning the coveted title last year. Hyundai is also the only car
manufacturer to receive the award for three times with Elite i20 (2014),
Grand i10 (2013) and i10 (2008). The Jury of ICOTY 2015 included journalists from Auto Bild, Auto X, Motoring
World, Car India and Overdrive, BBC Top Gear, Evo India and The Hindu Business Line.
Scotland Yard HQ sold to Abu Dhabi developers: Londons iconic Scotland Yard police headquarters
has been sold for 370 million pounds to a real estate developer group from Abu Dhabi. New Scotland Yard, as it is
THE GENESIS
30
known, has been taken over by the Abu Dhabi Financial Group. The building on Victoria Street in Westminster has
been the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police since 1967. Its famous rotating sign will move to its new
headquarters in the Curtis Green building on Victoria Embankment, the Mayor of Londons office said in December.
India is Dominos biggest market outside US: Dominos, the worlds largest pizza delivery chain, sells
more pizzas in India than anywhere else outside its home country the US. Dominos Pizza India, run by the Bhartia
family-promoted Jubilant FoodWorks, now makes and sells four lakh pizzas every day, or more than 12 crore pizzas a
year about twice the number of burgers McDonalds sells in India.
Instagram now bigger than Twitter: Instagram said on December 10 it has the potential to change the
world as it announced it has overtaken Twitter with 300 million users. The companys CEO Kevin Systrom described
the milestone as exciting and said the company would continue to grow. Twitter claims to have 284 million users
accessing the network each month. Facebook, which boasts 1.35 billion monthly active users, bought Instagram in
2012.
LAUNCHES
eWill : HDFC Securities launched a unique electronic will writing service e-Will in India in
December. The company has launched the service in collaboration with its legal partner WillJini.
The service claims to assist individuals write their personal e-Will online without making any
personal visits or phone calls. This do-it-yourself service is automatic and is not prepared or
vetted by an advisor. HDFC Securities said e-Will was 100% confidential, tenable and legally
compliant as stamp paper or registration was not mandatory in India. An HDFC Bank customer
could prepare an e-Will by registering on HDFC Securities website. The individual has to give a
list of assets and to whom one wishes to bequeath them to. e-Will would be charged at Rs 4,000
plus 12.25% taxes. The prepared e-Will is printed and retained by the customer after getting the witnesses to sign.
Lifetime Fixed: Axis Bank, Indias third largest private sector bank, announced the launch of a Lifetime Fixed
interest Home Loan scheme for housing customers in December. The new product offers home buyers housing loans
at a fixed rate of 10.40% p.a. for the entire duration of the loan i.e. up to 20 years. The offer is valid only for a limited
period and is created specifically for housing customers with a loan size of up to Rs. 50 lakh.
Grand: Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) announced the launch of Grand, a unique savings bank account tailored
exclusively for customers 55 years and above in December. Grand has been designed keeping in mind their need for
hassle-free banking, financial independence and personal attention. Grand offers priority service and first aid card
which provides essential customer information and emergency contacts details. It also offers queue privileges at the
branch. Further, customers will get a health card from Indian Health Organisation (IHO), offering up to 50 per cent
discount on treatments, consultation and procedures. Customers also can avail special lifestyle offers from brands
including Lenskart, Zicom, MakeMyTrip and eBay.
Transparent credit card: ICICI Bank launched Indias first credit card with a transparent design. The card, part
of ICICI Banks Gemstone Collection, has been launched in association with American Express in December. The
ICICI Bank Coral American Express Credit Card will provide benefits on the lifestyle front, including an
introductory extended credit period offer and bonus reward points on online transactions. Plastic credit cards are
generally opaque in nature, having details like the card holders name, photograph, signature and bar code, among
others. This card has all these features, but without the opacity.
New academic Chairs at IIMA: The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) announced tie-ups
with corporate bodies for pooling 20 crore to be utilised towards research in financial markets, infrastructure and
entrepreneurship, said Prof Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM-A, in December. These include the CRISIL Chair of
Financial Markets, the ATS Infra Chair for Infrastructure Management and the SAP Faculty Fellow Chair will be
established by SAP India.
THE GENESIS
31
Huffington Post India edition: US-based news and blogging platform Huffington Post launched its Indian
edition in association with Times of India Group in December. Global media investment conglomerate GroupM has
also come on board as a strategic partner for brand synergies and advertising in India for the Huffington Post, a news
and blogging platform. The launch comes at a moment when India is facing huge and unique challenges, but also
when Indias spiritual traditions have taken their place at the center of a global conversation about what it means to
live a good life, said President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group Arianna Huffington.
Disney Mono Pop by Satya Paul: Disney has teamed up with iconic Indian fashion brand, Satya Paul to
launch a stylish retro-modern collection titled Disney Mono Pop by Satya Paul in December. The launch event saw
Bollywood actress Esha Gupta wearing a Minnie Mono Pop saree from the collection. Inspired by the unique
interpretations of iconic Disney characters, the Satya Paul design studio has created a nostalgic collection that reflects
and reminisces the evolution of Mickey and Minnie over the years.
Google Chromecast: Google launched its Chromecast streaming device in India in December. The device which
resembles a USB flash drive allows users to stream videos from the internet to a television from a laptop, phone or
tablet. Google has collaborated with Bharti Airtel to stream the online videos. Google says Chromecast is a thumbsized media streaming device that plugs into the HDMI port on your TV. Simply use an Android phone, tablet,
iPhone, iPad, Mac or Windows laptop, or Chromebook to cast your favourite entertainment and apps right to the big
screen.
Change.org: In a twist on how Silicon Valley companies are financed, several technology luminaries have banded
together to effectively do the work of a traditional venture capital firm. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and others have invested $25 million in Change.org, the
petitions website, to help it expand in December 2014. Change.org lets users create online petitions that call on
governments and companies to act on specific issues. One recent campaign, begun after Michael Browns death in the
US, calls for police in St. Louis County, the city of St. Louis and Ferguson where Brown was killed, to wear body
cameras. It quickly received more than 130,000 signatures.
Liquid Jade and Liquid E700: Taiwanese IT company Acer restarted its smartphone business in India in
partnership with e-commerce firm Snapdeal with the launch of two new handsets Liquid Jade and Liquid E700,
priced at Rs 11,999 and Rs 16,999, respectively, in December.
Xolo Omega: Domestic device brand Xolo (a Lava company), launched two smartphones under its new Omega
brand - Omega 5.0 and 5.5 at Rs 8,999 and Rs 9,999, respectively in December. The phones come with a curved back
for a better grip and smooth edges and sport embedded power and volume rocker keys.
Gorilla Glass 4: Corning introduced its Gorilla Glass 4 in India in December that is 25 per cent thinner than the
Gorilla Glass 3, yet two times more damage-resistant. According to the companys scientists, the glass survived eight
out of 10 times when devices were dropped from the height of a metre on rough surfaces mimicking the asphalt and
concrete of roads and pavements.
CB Unicorn 163cc: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd launched the new CB Unicorn 163cc in the
Indian market for a starting price of Rs. 69,350 (ex-showroom, Delhi) in December. The New CB Unicorn 160 is
Hondas fourth launch of 2014 after Activa 125, CD110 and Gold Wing and with this launch, Honda is further
strengthening its portfolio in 150cc-180cc motorcycle segment, designed to woo the youth.
A3 Cabriolet: German luxury automobile manufacturer Audi launched its first compact convertible sports car A3
Cabriolet priced at Rs.44.75 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) in December.
Mr. M: HT Medias job search digital portal, Shine.com, launched a campaign to promote its revamped mobile
application in December. The companys new mobile app leverages the strength of a candidates social and personal
networks to help him find the perfect job. The app helps a person to use personal contacts available on his phone to get
THE GENESIS
32
in touch with people from the company where he wants to apply. Shine.com has created a mascot, a mouse called Mr.
M, to promote the brand. The campaign comprises three ad films which are laden with humour and sarcasm.
Discovery Turbo: Discovery Network Asia Pacific has come out with countrys first channel for men by
rebranding its existing Discovery Turbo into an English entertainment channel in December. Discovery Turbo, an
English channel which focused on motoring shows would now offer contents ranging from adventure, survival, reality,
gazettes, technology, weapons to new life style. It has transformed the channel started in 2010 with a new brand
mantra Men Like That.
The Cascades: Aiming to tap the e-commerce market, Tata Housing sold a luxury residential project, being
developed in Bangalore at a cost of Rs 150 crore, exclusively during the Googles Great Online Shopping Festival
(GOSF) held in December. The ultra-luxury project is named The Cascades.
Largest blast furnace: The largest blast furnace in India was blown-in at SAILs IISCO Steel Plant at Burnpur
in West Bengal in December. The state-of-the-art furnace named Kalyani was blown-in in presence of chairman C S
Verma, has a useful volume of 4160 cubic meter and has now become the biggest operating blast furnace in the
country. Prior to this, the largest Blast Furnace of the country was installed by Sail at its Rourkela Steel Plant in 2013.
CAMPAIGNS
#ChangeTheAir: Through a digital campaign launched on National Pollution Control Day on December 2, Godrej
Aer urges people to #ChangeTheAir by renewing the PUC certificates of their smoke-spewing vehicles. The objective
is to get people to renew the Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates of their vehicles, on time, and not wait till
their cars start emitting dangerous fumes.
SPONSORSHIPS
MRF to sponsor ICC World Cup: The International Cricket Council has announced a new association with
MRF Tyres of India, which will be the global partner for the ICC Cricket World Cup, to be held next year. The ICC
is delighted to welcome MRF on board as a Global Partner for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, ICC Chairman N
Srinivasan said in Chennai in December.
JOINT VENTURES & MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

RIL forms JV with Chinas Shandong Ruyi: To reposition its textile business and expand globally, Reliance
Industries announced a joint venture with Chinas Shandong Ruyi Science & Technology Group in December. The JV
firm, where Reliance Industries will own 51% and Shandong Ruyi will have 49%, also plans to bring some global
brands to India while benefiting from the strength of RILs Vimal brand. RIL will transfer its existing textile business
into the newly incorporated JV for which it will receive cash consideration. Ruyi Group operates in India under the
Georgia Gullini brand in the worsted suiting segment of the market.
Snapdeal buys Wishpicker: E-commerce major Snapdeal has acquired Wishpicker, an online gift retailer
founded in 2013 by IIT-Delhi graduates Apurv Bansal and Prateek Rathore. Wishpicker claims to provide gift ideas
from across the internet through intelligent gift recommendation engine. It uses parameters like relationship with the
recipient, age and personality for suggesting gifts.
Microsoft acquires Acompli: Microsoft acquired an email start-up company Acompli for over 200 million
dollars in December. The application also works like the desktop version of Outlook combining contacts, calendar,
and mail into a single interface that works together.
CSR
Connect To Learn: Telecom equipment firm Ericsson launched its global education initiative Connect to Learn
in India in December. Ericsson in association with three NGOs has launched projects for periods of one to three
THE GENESIS
33
years. With Smile Foundation, it will offer job-oriented skills and placement assistance to underprivileged youth in
NCR and Mumbai. The company will establish 12 networked learning centres in Delhi as knowledge hubs for girls
with Plan India. As a part of the third project, Ericsson will collaborate with Pratham Education Foundation for
Learning Excellence Programmes in schools in the villages of Gurgaon.
DISPUTES & CONTROVERSIES

ASCI upholds complaints against 105 ads
Advertising industry watchdog ASCI upheld complaints against 105 campaigns in October for misleading ads,
including those by Mahindra & Mahindra, HUL, Philips, Procter & Gamble and e-commerce firms as Snapdeal,
flipkart, goibibo. Out of those 105 campaigns found violating norms, 44 belonged to personal and healthcare category,
followed by the education category with 43 advertisements, the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) said in
a statement in December.
The Customer Complaints Council (CCC) concluded Mahindra & Mahindra has violated guideline and its ad
campaign for its utility vehicle Bolero Maxitruck Plus. The advertisement claims that a new Bolero Maxitruck Plus is
stronger than three Chota Haathi (Tata Ace). The comparisons made in the advertisement were not substantiated, and
were likely to mislead the consumers about the product advertised and ones with which it is compared, ASCI said.
A complaint against TV ad of Snapdeal was also upheld for making derogatory reference to women in its campaign.
In this advertisement a boy is telling the audience that my girlfriends sister is very cute. When we go outside she
always come with us, absolutely free. Just like Snapdeal Diwali bumper sale in which a product is absolutely free with
another. The TVC makes a derogatory reference to women and refers to women as a commodity, CCC said.
UBI names UB Holding wilful defaulter: In fresh trouble for liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the United Bank
of India (UBI) identified United Breweries Holdings, the guarantor of grounded airline Kingfisher, as wilful defaulter
in December. The bank has already declared Kingfisher Airlines and its four directors, including Mallya, as wilful
defaulters. We have identified United Breweries (UB) Holdings as wilful defaulter because company had the
resources to repay the loan as guarantor of Kingfisher Airlines, said UBI.
Google tax: A new British tax on companies that shift profits out of the country and into tax havens will target
inter-company fees for services like use of intellectual property. Companies will also be required to report their
potential liability to the new tax, which the note said will sit outside the existing corporate tax system. That is intended
to avoid legal challenges under existing tax treaties with countries like Ireland, a major conduit for shifted profits.
Google shuts down news site in Spain: Google closed its news-linking service in Spain in response to
legislation under which publishers will soon be able to force internet sites to pay for re-publishing headlines or
snippets of news.
HC asks Xiaomi to suspend sales: The Delhi High Court has ordered Xiaomi Technology Co Ltd to
temporarily stop selling its smartphones in India in a case related to patent infringements that telecom equipment
maker Ericsson had filed against the Chinese company. Xiaomi, whose low-priced but feature-rich smartphones have
made it the biggest smartphone vendor in China, sells its phones exclusively through online retailer Flipkart.com. Both
Xiaomi and Flipkart.com were ordered by the Delhi High Court in December to stop selling the devices until Feb 5.
Ericsson said Xiaomi was using its technology without paying it a licensing fee.
Swiss charge former HSBC analyst with data theft: The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland
has brought charges of data theft against a former employee of global banking group HSBC who is suspected of
carrying out a huge security breach at its private banking offices in Geneva. Fugitive IT specialist Herve Falciani has
been charged with transmitting stolen bank information to the Paris-based National Directorate of Tax Investigations
and other foreign authorities. He fled Switzerland and was arrested in Spain but a court ruled against extraditing him.
THE GENESIS
34
Cyber buzz
Consumer Electronics Show
Smart pedals that warn when a bike is stolen and helmets
for
cyclists
that spot
an
imminent
crash have
been
unveiled
at
the
2015
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) organised in Las
Vegas from January 6 to 9. Also LG has shown off a
second version of its curved smartphone.
The prototype helmet has been developed by Volvo to
warn a vehicle when it has got too close to a cyclist.
It also also lets cyclists know if they are in a vehicles
blind spot so they can take action to avoid a collision.
The helmet works with popular smartphone fitness
monitoring apps that track the location and speed of a
cyclist. This information is shared with any Volvo
vehicles nearby that are equipped with the firms City
Safety system. This alerts drivers to the presence of a
cyclist even if the rider is in a blind spot or when
visibility is poor.
The system calculates potential trajectories of both
bicycle and car and warns when a collision is imminent.
It can also take control of a car to apply brakes if it gets
too close to a cyclist. Drivers will be alerted via the cars
head-up display and the rider will be warned through a
light mounted on the helmet.
The systems ability to warn about imminent collisions
could help save lives as accident data suggests 50% of all
cyclists killed on the roads collided with a car.
By exploring cloud-based safety systems, we are now
getting ever closer to eliminating the remaining blind
spots between cars and cyclists and by that avoid
collisions, says Volvo.
Also at CES, French firm Connected Cycle showed off its
smart pedal that it hopes will help reduce the number of
cycles being stolen.
The pedals have in-built sensors that spot when a bicycle

has been nabbed and can report where it has been taken.
Connected Cycles pedal looks like any other but it can
be used to turn an old, dumb bike into one that is much
smarter. The inside of pedal has GPS, a GPRS connection
and also a sensor that captures the cyclists activity.
Everything goes to the cloud and is displayed on a
smartphone app.
It is totally autonomous, it has its own generation of
energy and internet connection so that the owner can be
alerted if someone steals his bike. The pedal has its own
coded key to ensure that it can only be used by its rightful
owner.
The smart pedals on display at CES were prototypes and
the firm was now preparing a crowd-funding drive so it
can finish development and start commercial pedal
production
The curved smartphone LG G Flex 2 is smaller than its
predecessor and its display can now handle highdefinition
images.
The
self-healing
coating on its
rear has also
been improved
to
quickly
repair
any
scratches
it
suffers. The updated G Flex has an OLED (organic lightemitting diode) display 5.5in (14cm) in size - a half-inch
smaller than the original - and the curve of the whole
device is less pronounced than the first version.
LG said the self-healing coating covering the back of the
phone will now seal scratches in 10 seconds or so. Earlier
versions took minutes to do the same.
The OLED screen also helps make the phone very
resistant to damage from being inadvertently sat or
stepped on.
Also onboard are a 13.1 megapixel camera on the
handsets rear and a 2.1 MP camera facing forwards.
Inside the phone is Qualcomm 810 processor and the
gadget runs LGs version of Googles Android OS.
THE GENESIS
35
Science & Technology

Toyota opens up hydrogen patents
Audi and BMW have launched innovations that help

drivers park, avoid crashes or which can take over behind
Car
maker
Toyota
has
announced
that it will
freely share
almost 6,000
patents
it
owns covering
hydrogen fuel
cell
technology.
It said it took
the step in a
bid to drive
development
of cars that
use the alternative fuel source.
the wheel when cars are on motorways or major roads.
The announcement was made soon after it showed off its

Mirai hydrogen-driven car in Las Vegas.
Toyota is one of a record number of car unveiling new
models or connected-car strategies.
The patents will be made available free of charge to
anyone wanting to use them. The patent portfolio covers
fuel cell stacks, high-pressure hydrogen tanks, software
control systems and the industrial processes involved in
generating and supplying the gas.
The first generation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which
are expected to be launched over the next five years,
would require unconventional collaboration among car
makers, governments, power firms and researchers.
While the infrastructure to support electric cars is slowly
starting to appear in many nations, re-fuelling stations for
hydrogen powered cars are much harder to find. By
opening up its patents, Toyota hopes to boost the number
of places that fuel-cell powered cars can fill up.
The announcement was made soon after Toyota showed
off its Mirai car recently. The hydrogen-powered vehicle
went on sale in Japan in December and will go on sale in
Europe and the US in late 2015. Toyotas move follows
that of Tesla motors which shared its patent portfolio in
2014.
As a publicity stunt Audi is attempting to let a speciallymade A7 drive itself 550 miles from San Francisco to Las
Vegas. Test drivers and journalists will be passengers in
the car and will take over when the vehicle passes
through towns and cities. Audi said the piloted driving
system in the car is almost ready to put in its production
models.
Volkswagen has unveiled a gesture-controlled in-car
entertainment and information system which used a 3D
camera tucked into a compartment by the rear view
mirror. This captures hand gestures activating buttons on
touch screens between the driver and passenger seats.
The Golf R Touch system enables people inside to open
and close the sun roof by with a push gesture.
VWs new cars will also be connectable with
smartphones via both Android Auto and Google Car Play
apps by the end of 2015 in the US and Europe. It is also
continuing to work on autonomous driving and parking
technology.
Nvidia has launched its Tegra X1 processor, which it
claims will have the power to handle the computational
needs of futuristic autonomous cars. Processing units will
be analysing data from sensors or processing images that
appear on screens inside a car to help a driver or to
entertain passengers.
THE GENESIS
36
Book Review
Winning Strategies for Business By Rajat Kanti Baisya
Infosys, though number two in the information

technology industry after TCS, pioneered the global
delivery model using American process discipline with
an Indian middle-class heart, says Rajat Kanti Baisya, a
senior professor of marketing and strategy management in
his Winning Strategies for Business.
the assertion that the ability of companies to adapt their

strategy to the needs of the ever changing business
environment is the key factor in their long-term survival
and success. His strategic triangle is made up of the
three Cs of corporation, customer and competitor - and
the key mantra is innovation.
The book throws light on survival strategies for

organisations in the new economic order.
In 11 chapters studded with diagrams, tables and

illustrations, Baisya stresses that the essence
of manufacturing during the next decade will
be flexibility. It is necessary to create a
category to rule it. He cites several examples
to buttress his point. Rasna has an 80 per cent
share of its segment of Rs. 300-plus crore and
Thums Up (brand sold by Parle owner
Ramesh Chauhan to Coke in 1980s) continues
to sell more in India than Coke despite parent
company Parles surrender.
The Amul girl with her utterly butterly

delicious tagline finds mention in the Guinness
Book of World Records as the longest-running
advertisement. Consistent advertising and
promotion strategy helped make it the
legendary brand competitors have never been
able to catch up with.
Amul and Infosys are two of the five Indian
case studies of companies that survived the
competition and grew to emerge as global
Indian players.
Reliance, which is nearly 20 times the size of Amul
though its 12 years younger, is lauded for its
revolutionary step to access cheap capital by tapping the
stock markets. Biocon one of Indias most inventive
biotechnology companies gets the authors praise for
harnessing its strong R&D infrastructure to enter new and
untapped product lines as long back as in 1991.
And Rasna, of course, has become almost a generic name
for soft-drink concentrates, fighting off global giants like
Tang by entering the price-conscious middle-class market
with its unbeatable cost-per-glass value proposition.
The author himself describes the book as being for
students and teachers of management as well as
practising managers and corporate planners in industry
and researchers in strategic management. He begins with
Risk-taking is essential for corporate

excellence - extraordinary people take paths
which others may dismiss as hair-brained. At the same
time, Baisya cautions corporates about the perils of
unrelated diversification.
Beware, too, the four danger signals of organisational
decay: not changing product lines, labels and the like;
allowing high costs; not adjusting to technology shifts;
and lack of innovation. Swiss horologists, for instance,
lost out to the upstart Japanese watchmakers, especially
Seiko, because they ignored the fact that quartz
movement was replacing the traditional mainspring. From
1968 to 1990, the Swiss slipped from a 65-per-cent share
of the world market to 10 per cent!
India is one of the most dynamic business environments
on earth - from kirana stores to giant conglomerates.
Baisya claims that his book will serve as a strategic
toolkit to enable a manager to develop a winning plan for
his or her company.
Managers Who Make A Difference: Sharpening Your Management Skills by T. V Rao: What qualities do you need
to be a successful manager, and how can you develop the qualities you already possess? Managers Who Make a Difference
examines how managers perceptions about themselves shape their behaviour at work, and studies the ways in which people
can translate their ambition, sense of purpose, perseverance, confidence, and resourcefulness into successful management.
How can you train yourself to spot competences in others and build on them to create an effective team? How do you achieve
the right balance between adherence to existing systems, and creative or experimental problem-solving? And do you have the
people skillsthe ability to network extensively and build trust-based relationshipsrequired to be a leader? Richly illustrated
with anecdotes and experiences of well-known managers, and with a broad array of tips and self-assessment tools to sharpen
your management skills, this book is a must read for all practising and aspiring managers.
THE GENESIS
37
Group Discussion
In government expenditure, development should get priority over defence

FOR
21st century world is governed by economic cooperation
and pursuit of mutual interests by nations. In todays
interlinked world, economic realities determine the
political order of a country.
Gone are the days of cold war era and the mindless arms
race. No doubt security of national boundaries is
necessary for maintaining the sovereignty of a state but
development should always precede the defence.
A country howsoever strong on military front will be
vulnerable to internal turbulence and emergency like
situations if it fails to provide basic necessities of life to
its citizens roti, kapda aur makan (food, clothing and
shelter). Diversion of funds meant for development to
acquisition of weapons is counterproductive in the longterm interests of the nation.
There are a number of examples which prove this fact
that those countries which instead of undertaking
development initiatives emphasized on defence
strengthening are today facing the worst situations inside.
Pakistan is a pertinent example. Right after partition it has
given military expenditure priority over development. Its
arms race with a larger neighbour which has never really
threatened it has worsened the basic life of its citizens.
Hunger, poverty, unemployment are at constant rise.
Disenchanted youth have become easy recruits for
religious extremists and radical forces. Today terrorism is
threatening the very survival of Pakistan.
During cold war, development took a backseat and a
major chunk of national budget of the Soviet Union and
its East European allies went into establishing military
bases. Most of the states transformed into police states
and took least care of welfare of its subjects. The
downfall of a large number of communist regimes was
the logical outcome of the discontentment people felt.
In todays globalized world economies of different
countries closely connected. No country in this situation
would even think of attacking other and risk incurring
huge expenditure and loss of resources at a large scale.
India has long-running border dispute with China yet
neither India nor China today think of settling it by
fighting a war. Both the countries are major trade partners

and a war can cause loss to both. Similar is the condition
between several other countries. Then why not give
primacy to development over defence?
AGAINST
Maintenance of peace and stability are the basic needs for
development. When there is peace then only development
can take place. If a country is not militarily strong then
there are chances of internal strife and rebellion. If a
country is well defended then there are rare chances of its
being attacked.
The more a country is militarily prepared the less it
suffers during war. The best example of this is Sino-Indo
War (1962). If India had been militarily prepared then it
couldnt have suffered so much. In contrast Israel
managed to defeat a combined army of Egypt, Syria and
other Arab countries in Yom Kippur War (1973).
Militarily preparedness is an insurance against external
aggression.
India faces threat from almost all its neighbours as well as
faces threat from terrorism, left wing extremism,
insurgency in northeast as well as social problems like
caste related violence and communal riots. For these
factors India is compelled to maintain a strong defence
force to maintain peace and stability inside its territory as
well as to defend itself from external aggression.
India also aspires for recognition as a regional power on
par with China and needs to maintain a strong defence
force by which it can also help other nations to maintain
peace and stability in the area. For example, Sea Piracy
Piracy is prevalent in Horn of Africa region and many
ships supplying commodities to India pass through this
area and many Indians are working in Merchant shipping
sector. So ultimately piracy-is harming India and so in
order to protect its interest India has to spend more on its
navy. Also security needs to be stepped up in border areas
and in our territorial waters.
Foreign investment comes only when there is peace and
environment is conducive to investment. If a country is
insecure and is constantly facing external threats,
investors wont come. Hence expenditure on defence can
never be compromised because development can happen
only in a peaceful and secure environment.
THE GENESIS
38
Crossword
(Answers on page No: 49)
ACROSS
45 ___ ones true colours: revealing true character? (7)
46 Knot in wood (5)
ACROSS
1 Waxy solid derived from coconut flesh (5)
4 Planned, plotted or colluded (7)
8 Ind. For. Ser. (3)
10 __ Lanka: our southerly neighbour? (3)
11 Altar items (5)
12 City on the Ganges (5)
13 Speech disorder (7)
15 Renown or glory? (5)
16 U.P. city (7)
17 Formal express of choice or opinion in an election? (4)
20 International Air Transport Assoc. (4)
23 Ms Dhupia of Bollywood (4)
24 Elongated figure (6)
26 Storyteller (8)
27 Film for which Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin and Jane
Campion won Oscars in 1993 (3,5)
28 ___ Chandra Chatterji: creator of Vande Mataram? (6)
31 Absence (4)
32 Line of track or fence (4)
34 A word meaning half (4)
35 ___ ___ with: escaped punishment for a crime? (3,4)
36 Say or pronounce (5)
38 It can be used to jot down a few random thoughts? (7)
41 Cows intestine (5)
42 Lazy person (5)
43 Metal vase (3)
44 ___ days: hottest period of the year? (3)
DOWN
1 ___ with: become friendly with and understand? (5)
2 What you get when you are unfairly treated? (4,4)
3 Murderer (8)
4 Breathe deeply (4)
5 Myra ___: famous pianist? (4)
6 French woman (6)
7 Headquarters of regiments, fleets of buses, etc. (6)
8 Trespasser, gatecrasher (8)
9 Godmother in Godmother (7,4); 14 Benefit; gain (9)
18 Fill with great fear; dominate by intimidation (9)
19 Had two paid occupation one by day and one by night? (11)
21 Open-mouthed (5)
DOWN
22 Jewish religious leader (5)
23 12:00 oclock (4)
25 Hawaiian Island (4)
27 Period when little nippers begin to break through the
gum line (8)
29 Making indirect or casual mention (8)
30 Chanakya was also known by this name (8)
33 Things to eat that contain quite a lot of sugar? (6)
34 Machine used for generating of electrical power (6)
37 Beyond suburban (5)
39 Bangkok citizen (4)
40 A sparking-is one of four or six used in a car (4)
THE GENESIS
39
Do you remember?
(All questions based on content of previous issue; Answers on page No: 43)
1. Who was BJPs coalition partner in Jharkhand
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Assembly elections in December 2014 ((Jharkhand

Vikas
MorchaPrajatantrik/Jharkhand
Mukti
Morcha/Congress/All Jharkhand Students Union)?
Which party won maximum seats in Jammu &
Kashmir Assembly elections in December 2014
(National Conference/People Democratic Front
(Secular)/Peoples Democratic Party/BJP)?
Jammu
&
Kashmir
has
a
______
(bicameral/unicameral) Legislature.
Jharkhand has a ______ (bicameral/unicameral)
Legislature.
What is the term of Jharkhand Assembly (3 years/4
years/5 years/6 years)?
What is the capital of Jharkhand?
What is the term of Jammu & Kashmir Assembly (3
years/4 years/5 years/6 years)?
Which is the second largest party in Jharkhand
Assembly after BJP (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha
Prajatantrik/Jharkhand Mukti Morcha/Congress/All
Jharkhand Students Union)?
Which is the second largest party in Jammu &
Kashmir Assembly after PDP?
Bharat Ratna Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya joined
which party after leaving Congress (Bharatiya Jana
Sangh/Swaraj Party/ Hindu Mahasabha/Janata Party?
Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee founded which
party with Deendayal Upadhyaya and Shyama Prasad
Mookerjee in 1951 (Bharatiya Jana Sangh/Swaraj
Party/Hindu Mahasabha/Janata Party?
Who is/are the only non-Congress leader/leaders to
complete full term as Prime Minister of India?
Atal Bihari Vajpayee won his first Lok Sabha election
from which constituency in UP?
Which party was founded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in
1977?
Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as Foreign Minister under
which Prime Minister?
Who was the first Indian leader to address the UN
General Assembly in Hindi?
Which party was founded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in
1980?
Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister for the
first time in which year?
How many times was Atal Bihari Vajpayee sworn in
as Prime Minister?
Which famous educational institution was founded by
Madan Mohan Malviya?
21. Which district in Kashmir was in news for a terrorist
attack that killed eight army men in December?

22. Which paramilitary force suffered 14 casualties in a
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarhs Sukma district in

December?
Who is the Advisor to the Union Government on
Naxalism?
What has been set up by the Supreme Court to
exclusively hear cases concerning social issues on
every Friday particularly those related to women,
children and underprivileged?
The Delhi High Court has questioned the government
over the issue of coins on what type of events?
What is NALSA?
Which section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) will be
removed by the government to decriminalise attempt
to commit suicide?
The hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814
happened in which year?
What is the objective of the Textile Undertakings
(Nationalisation) Laws (Amendment and Validation)
Bill, 2014 passed by Lok Sabha in December?
Which 4,000km range nuclear capable ballistic missile
developed by DRDO was test-fired by Armys
Strategic Forces Command from the Wheeler Island in
December?
NC3I is:
IMAC is:
The passage of Central Universities (Amendment)
Bill, 2014 by Parliament facilitates the setting up of
____ Central University in Motihari, Bihar (Mahatma
Gandhi/Ram Manohar Lohia/Karpoori Thakur/Deen
Dayal Upadhyay).
Lok Sabha passed the School of Planning and
Architecture Bill for converting three Schools of
Planning and Architecture into centres of excellence in
December. These are located at:
The Parliament passed the Indian Institutes of
Information and Technology (IIIT) Bill to bring four
institutes of information technology under the ambit of
a single authority and help students get degrees in
December. These are located at:
Which is Indias highest ranked institution in the
Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging
Economies Rankings 2015 covering 18 countries?
What was jointly organised by the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare and the Partners in Population and
Development (PPD) in New Delhi on Nov 26-27?
THE GENESIS
40

38. The 4th India-______ Partnership Conference was
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
organised in New Delhi on November 26-27.

Where was the 18th SAARC Summit organised on
November 26-27?
The abbreviation SATIS stands for SAARC
Agreement on Trade in ________.
The 18th SAARC Summit has declared 2016 as the
SAARC Year Of _______.
What was the three-day National Conference on issues
for optimal use of water resources organised by the
Water Resources Ministry in New Delhi named?
Three global organisations WTO, WASTE and
FINISH signed MoU to share best practices in the
sanitation sector and help millions of Indians gain
access to basic sanitation facilities recently. FINISH is:
Which states traditional craft of brass and copper
utensil making was recognised by UNESCO as
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in
December?
Which telescope is being set up jointly by USA,
China, Japan and India at Mount Mauna Kea in Hawaii
to give a major boost to the field of astrophysics and
understanding different facets of the Universe?
When was the Armed Forces Flag Day observed in
December?
When was the World AIDS Day observed in
December?
When was the International Day of Disabled Persons
observed in December?
When was the Law Day observed in November?
The Law Day is observed every year to mark which
event?
Whose birth anniversary was observed as National
Milk Day on November 26?
Which three persons were remembered for their
invaluable contribution in developing Gujarats cooperative sector on National Milk Day recently?
When was the World Heritage Week observed in
November?
What is INTACH?
Who is the author of Black Tornado: The Military
Operations of 26/11?
Who is the author of The Dramatic Decade: The
Indira Years?
Which Rajya Sabha MP is the author of Modi
Government: New Surge of Communalism?
Which veteran Communist leader is the author of
Calcutta Diary?
Who is the author of The Prince of Gujarat?
Who is the author of The Mahabharata Quest?
Who is the author of Shadow Play?
62. Who is the author of Rokda: How Baniyas Do
Business?
63. Which was the Best Film at the 45th International Film
Festival of India organised in Goa in November?

64. Which award was given to the Best Film at the 45th
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
International Film Festival of India organised in Goa

in November?
Who won the Best Director award at the 45th
in November?
Who won the Best Actor (Male) award at the 45th
in November?
Who won the Best Actor (Female) award at the 45th
in November?
Who won the Centenary Award for Best Film at the
45th International Film Festival of India organised in
Goa in November?
Who won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 45th
in November?
Who won the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Outstanding
Contribution in Constructive Work in November?
Contribution in Application of Science & Technology
for Rural Development in November?
Contribution in Development and Welfare of Women
and Children in November?
Contribution in Promotion of Gandhian Values
Outside India by Individuals other than Indian
Citizens in November?
Which was the Best Film at the 20th Kolkata
International Film Festival in November?
Who won the First Justice Nagendra Singh
International Peace Award instituted by the
International Goodwill Society of India in December?
Who won the 2014 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and
for which book in November?
Who named Prime Minister Narendra Modi Asian of
the Year 2014 for being a development-focused
leader who also fashioned an impressive victory for his
BJP in the years national elections?
Who took charge as the new Director of the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in December?
Which Tamil Nadu-based party was revived by GK
Vasan who left Congress in December?
Which medal was given to President Pranab
Mukherjee by the Calcutta University in November?
THE GENESIS
41

81. Who is Indias new Special Representative of India to
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
conduct boundary negotiations and strategic

consultations with China?
Which sportswoman was appointed the UN Goodwill
Ambassador for the South Asian region by UN
Women on the International Day To End Violence
Against Women in November (Saina Nehwal/Sania
Mirza/PV Sindhu/L. Sarita)?
Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon
Foundation, was appreciated by Prime Minister,
Narendra Modi for providing cure to those affected by
which disease in India?
Who is the author of Coded Conspiracy?
Which fashion designer was given the Order of Civil
Merit award by the Spanish government in New Delhi
in November?
What is the autobiography of eminent jurist V. R.
Krishna Iyer (100) who died on December 4, titled?
Which government award was given to eminent jurist
V. R. Krishna Iyer (100), who died on December 4, in
1999 (Bharat Ratna/Padma Vibhushan/Padma
Bhushan/Padma Shri)?
Which state saw Indias first communist government
come to power in 1950s?
Who was the winner of the 1987 Presidential election
contested by eminent jurist V. R. Krishna Iyer (100)
in?
Which acclaimed theatre personality founded the
Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts and Research
near Auroville in Puducherry?
What was the debut film of Deven Varma (78) who
died in December?
Which former Chief Minister of Maharashtra died in
Mumbai at the age of 85 on December 2?
Which former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh
passed away at the age of 53 in on November 30?
Legendary dancer Sitara Devi (94) died in Mumbai on
November 25. She was famous for which style of
Indian dance (Kuchipudi/Manipuri/Odissi/Kathak)?
Which historian known for books such as Bengal
under Akbar and Jahangir and The Cambridge
Economic History of India (co-edited with Irfan
Habib) died at 90 recently?
What is the Delhi-Kathmandu-Delhi bus service
launched by PM Narendra Modi on Nov 25 called?
Sister-city arrangements were signed between
Kathmandu & Varanasi, Janakpur & ____ and
Lumbini & ____ during the Nepal visit of PM
Narendra Modi in November.
Which aircraft was gifted to the Nepal Army by India
during the Nepal visit of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi in November (Hunter/Jaguar/Dornier/Dhruv)?
99. India hosted the sixth RCEP at Greater Noida in
December. RCEP is:

100. HAL has signed a contract worth Rs. 100 crore to sell
101.
102.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
112.
113.
114.
115.
116.
117.
118.
which aircraft to Mauritius for maritime surveillance

in November (Hunter/Jaguar/Dornier/Dhruv)?
What was the Indo-Russian joint air force exercise that
concluded at the Halwara Air Force Station in Punjab
on November 28 called?
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited
New Delhi in December to iron out issues regarding
Indias purchase of which fighter jets manufactured by
French firm Dassault?
HRIDAY is:
Irena Bokova is the Director General of which UN
affiliate?
Which festival was accorded the status of an
adventure sport by Maharashtra government in
December?
Who plays the role of Union Carbide chairman Warren
Anderson in the film on Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984,
Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, released recently?
Which countrys police will assist the Uttar Pradesh
government in setting up of the countrys first
highway patrol?
Indias tallest power transmission towers have come
up in which state?
PM Narendra Modi introduced the concept of
SMART policing where R in SMART stood for:
Which annual cultural was inaugurated by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in Kohima in November?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the
closing ceremony of which annual festival organised
in Imphal in November?
India _______ (has/has not) signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared
June 21 as International Day of ______ in December.
France has postponed delivery of which warship to
Russia (Hornet/Mistral/Scorpene/Poseidon) over the
war in Ukraine?
Which Foundation is the creator of the Annual Web
Index? The index ranked countries around the world in
terms of universal access, relevant content & use,
freedom & openness and empowerment.
Abkhazia is a separatist region in which European
nation (Armenia/Turkey/Georgia/Ukraine)?
Which is the least corrupt nation in the world
according to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of
175 countries released by Transparency International?
What is the Asteroid Explorer spacecraft launched by
Japan in December to probe the origin and evolution
of the solar system named?
THE GENESIS
42

119. Just like the US has GPS and China has BeiDou, what
120.
121.
122.
123.
124.
125.
126.
127.
128.
129.
130.
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
138.
139.
is Russias satellite navigation system called?

Whose painting broke the record for the most
expensive piece of artwork by a woman in November
when it sold for a staggering 44.4 million dollars at an
auction?
Which human rights event was hosted by Moroccan
city on November 28-30?
Which nation bordering India observed its first
Constitution Day on December 4?
Who was named as his new Defense Secretary by
President Barack Obama in December?
Which African President has been freed from charges
of human rights abuses by the International Criminal
Court (ICC) in December for want of evidence in
December?
Vicente Lenero (81), who died in Mexico City on
December 4, was acclaimed as a _______
(scientist/writer/diplomat/poet).
Radwa Ashour (68), who died in Cairo on November
30,
was
acclaimed
as
a
_______
Kent Haruf (71), who died in Denver on Nov 30, was
acclaimed as a ______ (scientist/writer/diplomat/poet).
Mark Strand (80), who died on Nov 29, was acclaimed
as a _______ (scientist/writer/diplomat/poet).
Denham Harman (98), who died in Nebraska on Nov
25,
was
acclaimed
as
a
____
Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in ______ in
December (Oslo/Stockholm/Geneva/Malmo).
Nobel Prizes other than the Peace Prize was awarded
in ______ in Dec (Oslo/Stockholm/Geneva/Malmo).
China has awarded the Confucius Peace Prize to which
former President of a South American nation in
December?
Who won the first Miss Universal Peace and
Humanity title at an event in Lebanon in December?
Who won the Miss Supranational beauty pageant in
Warsaw in December?
Who won the Club World Cup defeating the
Argentinian side San Lorenzo 2-0 in Marrakech in
December?
Who won the British Broadcasting Corporations
(BBC) 2014 Overseas Sports Personality award?
Who won the Deodhar Trophy in a keenly contested
day/night final in Mumbai on December 3?
Who won the Blind Cricket World Cup (BCWC) after
defeating Pakistan in Cape Town in December?
Who were the winners of gold, silver and bronze
medals at the Hero Champions Trophy hockey hosted
by India in December?
140. Who was the top goal scorer at the Hero Champions
Trophy hockey hosted by India in December?
141. Who won the 119th All India Beighton Cup Hockey
Tournament in Kolkata in December?

142. Who were the winners and runners-up and where was
the final of Davis Cup tennis played in December?

143. Who were the winners and runners-up and which was
the venue of the Champions Tennis League in Dec?

144. Who won the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold Womens
145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
150.
151.
152.
153.
154.
155.
156.
157.
158.
159.
160.
161.
Singles Badminton on November 30 (Saina

Nehwal/Ashwini Ponnappa/PV Sindhu/Jwala Gutta)?
Who won the Mens and Womens races respectively
at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on November 23?
Who was named IAAF World Athlete of the Year
(Male) in November?
Who was named IAAF World Athlete of the Year
(Female) in November?
Who won medals for India at the 8th World Womens
Boxing Championships in Jeju (Korea) in November?
Who won the Hero World Challenge Golf tournament
at Orlando, Florida on December 8 pocketing USD
one million for his extraordinary performance?
Who won the Rs 1 crore CG Open 2014 at the
Bombay Presidency Golf Club on December 6?
Super Victor is the mascot of which sports event
scheduled for 2016?
Vinicius is the mascot of which sports event scheduled
for 2016?
Who were the winners and runners-up and where was
the World Kabaddi League final played in Nov?
Who won the IBSF World Snooker title in Bangalore
on Nov 29?
What is the lock-in period for FDI in construction
projects after the new policy notified in December?
What is the minimum floor area (square km)
requirement for FDI in construction projects after the
new policy notified in December?
What is the minimum investment ($million)
requirement for FDI in construction projects after the
new policy notified in December?
Which initiative of Gurgaon District Administration
won the Award of Excellence in the category of
Best Non-Motorised Transport Project at the Urban
Mobility India conference and Expo in Delhi in Nov?
Which Indian cement company won the Asia
Corporate Excellence and Sustainability Award
(ACES) in Singapore in November?
The government has launched a special deposit
scheme for the girl child to provide for higher
education and marriage needs. What is it named?
Who is the head of the committee that has
recommended immediate roll-out of banking,
THE GENESIS
43

insurance and e-commerce services by the postal
department in its report submitted in December?
Who is the head of the committee set up by the
government to regularly interact with industry and
ascertain areas where clarity on tax laws is required?
Who is the head of the committee set by the Railway
Minister ensure transparency and accountability in all
tendering processes?
What was the theme of the India International Trade
Fair (IITF) organised in Delhi in November?
What will be the theme of the 2015 India International
Trade Fair (IITF) to be held in Delhi?
What is the minimum and maximum monthly deposit
under Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY)?
The new Labour Laws Amendment Bill passed by
Parliament
in
December
defines
small
establishments as units employing between 10 and
162.
163.
164.
165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.
171.
172.
173.
____ workers as against the limit of 19 workers at

present.
Which was the launch site for Indian Space Research
Organisations GSAT-16 in December?
Which was the rocket used in the launch of Indian
Space Research Organisations GSAT-16 in December
(Orion/Atlas/Proton/Ariane)?
What is the mission objective of Indian Space
Research Organisations GSAT-16 launched in
December
(Weather
monitoring/Geological
Survey/Space Exploration/Communication)?
What is the ISRO unit to monitor its satellites based in
Hassan, Karnataka called?
Which US satellite was the co-passenger of Indian
Space Research Organisations GSAT-16?
India conducted successful tests of GSLV launch
vehicle
in
December.
What
is
CARE?
Do you remember? Answers

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
All Jharkhand Students Union

Peoples Democratic Party
Bicameral
Unicameral
5 years
Ranchi
6 years
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
BJP
Hindu Mahasabha
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Balrampur
Janata Party
Morarji Desai
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
BJP
1996
Three
Banaras Hindu University
Baramulla
CRPF
K. Vijay Kumar
Social Justice Bench
Religious
National
Legal
Services
Authority (NALSA)
Section 309
1999
To
ensure
effective
implementation of the revival
scheme for sick textile units
Agni-IV
31. National
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
Command Control
Communication and Intelligence
Network
Information Management and
Analysis Centre
Mahatma Gandhi
Delhi, Bhopal and Vijayawada
Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur
and Kanchipuram.
Indian Institute of Science
(Bangalore)
Conference on Population and
Development
Arab
Kathmandu
Services
Cultural Heritage
Jal Mathan
Financial Inclusion Improves
Sanitation and Health
Punjab
Thirty Meter Telescope
December 6
December 1
December 3
November 26
The drafting of the constitution
by the constituent assembly in
1949
Dr Verghese Kurien
Dr. V. Kurien, Sardar Patel and
Tribhovandas Amin
November 19 to 25
54. Indian National Trust for Art and

55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
Cultural Heritage
Sandeep Unnithan
Pranab Mukherjee
Sitaram Yechury
Ashok Mitra
Rajmohan Gandhi
Christopher Doyle
Shashi Deshpande
Nikhil Inamdar
Leviathan (Russian)
Golden Peacock
Nadav Lapid for the Israeli film
The Kindergarten Teacher
Alexey Serebryakov (Russian
film Leviathan) & Dular
Sarkar (Bengali film Chhotober
Chhobi)
Alina Rodriguez (Cuban film
Behaviour) & Sarit Larry
(Israeli film The Kindergarten
Teacher)
Ek Hajarachi Note (Marathi)
directed by Shrihari Sathe
Wong Kar-Wai (Chinese)
Surendra Koulagi (Founder,
Janapada Seva Trust, Karnataka)
Ram Kumar Singh (Director,
Suruchi Shikshan Vasahat Trust,
Gujarat)
Chennupati Vidya (Founder
President,
Vasavya
Mahila
Mandali, AP)
THE GENESIS
44

73. Sulak
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
Sivaraksa
(Founder,
International
Network
of
Engaged Buddhists, Thailand)
Jointly won by Iranian film
Tales and Palestine film Eyes
of the Thief
Justice
Dalveer
Bhandari,
Member of the International
Court of Justice
Bilal Tanweer for The Scatter
Here Is Too Great
The Straits Times
Anil Kumar Sinha
G K Vasan
Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial
Medal
Ajit Doval (National Security
Adviser)
Sania Mirza
Leprosy
Nikhil Chandwani
Ritu Beri
Wandering in Many Worlds
Padma Vibhushan
Kerala
R. Venkitaraman
Veenapani Chawla
Dharmaputra (1961)
Abdul Rehman Antulay
Jarbom Gamlin
Kathak
Tapan Raychaudhuri
Pashupatinath Express
Ayodhya, Bodh Gaya
Dhruv ALH
Regional
Comprehensive
Economic Partnership
Dornier
Avia-Indra I
Rafale
Heritage
Development
and
Augmentation Yojana
UNESCO
Dahi Handi
Martin Sheen
New Zealand
West Bengal
Responsive and Reliable
Hornbill festival
111.
112.
113.
114.
115.
116.
117.
118.
119.
120.
121.
122.
123.
124.
125.
126.
127.
128.
129.
130.
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
138.
139.
140.
141.
142.
143.
144.
145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
150.
151.
152.
Sangai Festival
Has not
Yoga
Mistral
World Wide Web Foundation
Georgia
Denmark
Hayabusa
GLONASS
Georgia OKeeffe (1887-1986)
World Forum on Human Rights
China
Ashton Carter
Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya)
Writer
Writer
Writer
Poet
Scientist
Oslo
Stockholm
Fidel Castro
Ruhi Singh
Asha Bhat
Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo
East Zone
India
Germany, Pakistan and Australia
Jeroen
Hertztberger
(Netherlands)
Indian Oil
Switzerland, France, Lille
Pune Marathas (Pat Cash,
Marcos Baghdatis, Agnieszka
Radwanska, Saketh Myneni),
Delhi Dreams, New Delhi
PV Sindhu
Guye Adola (Ethiopia) &
Florence Kiplagat (Kenya)
Renaud Lavillenie (pole vault)
Valerie Adams (shot put)
S. Sarjubala (48kg) and Saweety
(81kg)
Jordan Spieth (USA)
Chikkarangappa S.
Euro
(European
football
championship)
Rio Olympic Games
153. United Singhs, Khalsa Warriors,

154.
155.
156.
157.
158.
159.
160.
161.
162.
163.
164.
165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.
171.
172.
173.
174.
175.
176.
177.
178.
179.
180.
181.
182.
183.
184.
185.
186.
187.
188.
189.
190.
191.
192.
193.
194.
195.
Mohali
Yan Bingtao (China)
No lock-in period
20,000 sq mt
USD 5 million
Rahagiri
ACC Limited
Sukanya Samriddhi Account
TSR Subramanian committee
Ashok Lahiri
E. Sreedharan
Women Entrepreneurs
Make in India
Rs. 500 and Rs. 5000
40
Arianespace, Kourou, French
Guyana
Ariane
Communication
Master Control Facility
DIRECTV-14
Crew Module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment
Sheffield Shield
R. Vinay Kumar and Harbhajan
Singh
Hockey
Dabang Mumbai
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel
Novak Djokovic
Saina Nehwal and Kidambi
Srikanth
Magnus Carlsen of Norway
Fazilka
100
Rs. 50000
90
Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram
Jyoti Yojana
Chitra Ramkrishna
FieldFresh Foods
Intel
James Watson
Milind Khandekar
Kamani Tubes
THE GENESIS
45
Corporate Knowledge Quiz

(All questions based on content in December II & January 1 issues)
(Answers on page No: 49)
1. Which Bollywood actress was chosen for PETA

Indias People of the Year award for her efforts in
protection of animals?
a) Jacqueline Fernandez
b) Rani Mukherjee
c) Shabana Azmi
d) Amrita Rao
2. Which of the following small cargo vehicles is also
called Chota Haathi by its manufacturer?
a) Tata Ace
b) Piaggio Ape
c) Mahindra Maxximo
d) Maruti Omni Cargo
3. Which e-commerce companys campaign was banned
by ASCI for making derogatory reference to women?
In this advertisement a boy is telling the audience that my
girlfriends sister is very cute. When we go outside she
always come with us, absolutely free. Just like Diwali
bumper sale in which a product is absolutely free with
another.
a) Snapdeal
b) Flipkart
c) Amazon India
d) Jabong
4. Which of the following is the nations first 3D mobile
game launched by the Indian Air Force to attract
generation-next youth to pursue a career in the IAF?
a) Lords of the Skies
b) Wings of the Skies
c) Hawks of the Skies
d) Guardians of the Skies
5. What is the tax imposed by some western countries on
companies that shift profits out of the country and into tax
havens will target inter-company fees for services like use
of intellectual property called?
a) Microsoft Tax
b) Google Tax
c) Facebook Tax
d) Amazon Tax
6. Ronnie and Gerald Chan are the only Asians in the list
of worlds biggest _______ in 2014 according to global
wealth intelligence and prospecting company Wealth-X.
a) Venture capitalists
b) Gamblers
c) Investors
d) Donors
7. Which Russian billionaire returned the returned the
Nobel Prize medal auctioned by DNA researcher James
Watson in December?
a) Alisher Usmanov
b) Solomon Kerensky
c) Roman Abramovich
d) Leonid Mikhelson
8. Google recently launched a device in India that
resembles a USB flash drive and allows users to stream
videos from the internet to a television from a laptop,
phone or tablet. What is the device called?
a) Chromepad
b) Chromecast
c) Chromebowl
d) Chromevision
9. Vikram Akula was the founder of one of Indias
leading companies in which sector?
a) BPO
b) Advertising
c) Microfinance
d) Real estate
10. Which of the following sold its luxury residential
project called The Cascades, being developed in
Bangalore, exclusively during the Googles Great Online
Shopping Festival (GOSF) held in December?
a) Tata Housing
b) Unitech
c) Parsvnath Developers
d) Hiranandani Constructions
11. Who designed Magnavox Odyssey the worlds
first commercial home video game console launched in
1972?
a) Ralph Baer
b) Vincent Cerf
c) Nolan Bushnell
d) Douglas Engelbart
12. Which telecom equipment firm has launched
Connect To Learn, an initiative of Columbia
Universitys Earth Institute and Millennium Promise,
THE GENESIS
46

with specific focus on benefitting girls and their
education needs in India in December?
a) Siemens
b) Nokia
c) Huawei
d) Ericsson
13. Which of the following private sector banks is known
for its Gemstone Collection range of credit cards?
a) HDFC Bank
b) ICICI Bank
c) Axis Bank
d) Kotak Mahindra Bank
14. Which of the following launched a unique electronic
will writing service e-Will in India in December?
a) India Infoline
b) HDFC Securities
c) Edelweiss Financial Services
d) Motilal Oswal Financial Services
15. Which private sector bank announced the launch of
Grand, a unique savings bank account tailored
exclusively for customers 55 years and above, in
December?
a) HDFC Bank
b) ICICI Bank
c) Axis Bank
16. Which private sector bank announced the launch of
Lifetime Fixed interest Home Loan scheme in
December?
a) HDFC Bank
b) ICICI Bank
c) Axis Bank
17. Which Indian credit rating firm has decided to set up
a Chair of Financial Markets for conducting research at
the IIM-A to help financial markets evolve and function
better?
a) ICRA
b) Brickworks
c) CRISIL
d) CARE
18. Who among the following was ranked as Asias
richest person by a Bloomberg according to the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index in December?
a) Jack Ma
b) Li Ka-shing
c) Robin Li
d) Mukesh Ambani
19. Frida Giannini is a well-known:
a) Singer
b) Actress
c) Sculptor
d) Fashion Designer
20. Gorilla Glass, which is known for its scratch and
impact-resistant qualities, is used in premium
smartphones and televisions these days. Which glass
company owns the trademark Gorilla Glass?
a) Asahi
b) Corning
c) Borosil
d) Pilkington
21. Google has closed its news-linking service in which
European nation over copyrights issues in December?
Under its new legislation publishers will soon be able to
force internet sites to pay for re-publishing headlines or
snippets of news.
a) Spain
b) Portugal
c) Germany
d) Britain
22. Which Chinese mobile phone company was ordered
by Delhi High Court in December to temporarily stop
selling its smartphones in India in a case related to patent
infringement claims made by telecom equipment maker
Ericsson?
a) ZTE
b) Huawei
c) Xiaomi
d) Oppo
23. Instagram has overtaken Twitter with more than 300
million users in December. Who is its founder CEO?
a) Mike Krieger
b) Evan Spiegel
c) Simon Cowell
d) Kevin Systrom
24. Which e-commerce company has acquired
Wishpicker, an online gift retailer founded in 2013 by
IIT-Delhi graduates Apurv Bansal and Prateek Rathore?
a) Snapdeal
b) Flipkart
c) Indiatimes Shopping
d) Jabong
THE GENESIS
47

25. Which banks ex-employee Herve Falciani is wanted
by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland for
passing on information on Swiss bank accounts to tax
regulatory authorities in France and other countries?
a) HSBC
b) Citibank
c) Royal Bank of Scotland
d) Standard Chartered Bank
26. Who among the following was named the highest
paid musician of 2014 after earning USD 620 million by
Forbes in December?
a) Dr Dre
b) Rihanna
c) Beyonce
d) Lady Gaga
27. Which of the following is the online petitions site
jointly funded by business rivals such as Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang,
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and others? The portal
lets users create online petitions that call on governments
and companies to act on specific issues.
a) Act.org
b) Know.org
c) Reform.org
d) Change.org
28. Former IT pioneer was Ramalinga Raju was six
months of imprisonment in December for offences
ranging from falsification of records, cheating, criminal
conspiracy, forgery and causing disappearance of
evidence?
a) Satyam
b) Polaris
c) Subex
d) Zensar
29. Which of the following has announced joint venture
with Chinas Shandong Ruyi Science and Technology
Group in December?
a) Reliance Industries
b) Arvind Mills
c) Raymond
d) Digjam
30. Which of the following launched CB Unicorn 163 CC
motorcycle in India in December?
a) Bajaj Auto
b) Hero MotoCorp
c) Suzuki Motorcycle India
d) Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India
31. Which Bollywood actress has signed a one-year TV

series development deal with ABC Television Studios in
December?
a) Vidya Balan
b) Deepika Padukone
c) Priyanka Chopra
d) Anushka Sharma
32. Which American newspaper has launched its Indian
edition in tie up with The Times of India in December
2014?
a) Washington Post
b) Boston Globe
c) Huffington Post
d) New York Times
33. Which of the following has forayed into the Indian
mobile phone business with the launch of two models
Liquid Jade and Liquid E700 in December 2014?
a) Dell
b) Acer
c) IBM
d) Hewlett Packard
34. Which of the following won the Indian Car of the
Year 2015 award in December? The Jury comprised
journalists from Auto Bild, Auto X, Motoring World, Car
India and Overdrive, BBC Top Gear, Evo India and The
Hindu Business Line.
a) Hyundai Elite i20
b) Maruti Suzuki Ciaz
c) Honda Amaze
d) Volkswagen Golf
35. Whose appointment as Managing Director in an
airline was rejected by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
in December?
a) Kalanithi Maran
b) Vijay Mallya
c) Subrata Roy
d) Jeh Wadia
36. Which of the following has acquired email start-up
company Acompli for over 200 million dollars in
December 2014?
a) Microsoft
b) Google
c) Facebook
d) Twitter
37. Which Indian liquor company was identified as wilful
defaulter by United Bank of India (UBI) in December?
THE GENESIS
48

a) Mohan Meakins
b) Radico Khaitan
c) United Breweries
d) Tilaknagar Industries
d) Jobsahead.com
38. Which Indian tyre company was announced as

official sponsor of 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup by
International Cricket Council in December?
a) Apollo Tyres
b) JK Tyres
c) CEAT
d) MRF
39. Which steel company inaugurated Indias largest blast
furnace at Burnpur in West Bengal in December 2014?
a) SAIL
b) Tata Steel
c) Essar Steel
d) Jindal Steel
40. Which of the following has launched countrys first
channel for men with the punchline Men Like That in
December?
a) Zee
b) National Geographic
c) Discovery
d) Star
41. Which well-known fashion designer has launched
sarees featuring Disney characters like Mickey and
Minnie in December?
a) Satya Paul
b) Neeta Lulla
c) Aki Narula
d) Ritu Kumar
42. Which e-commerce company launched Indias first
online Rehab and Support store for the differently-abled
in December 2014? It aims at providing accessibility to
differently abled people for a convenient shopping
experience, with more than 1,100 products ranging from
wheelchairs to hearing machines and walking sticks.
a) Snapdeal
b) Flipkart
c) Infibeam
d) Jabong
43. Which of the following is the job search portal run by
HT Media of the Hindustan Times Group?
a) Naukri.com
b) Monster.com
c) Shine.com
44. Which air freshener brand launched a digital

campaign on National Pollution Control Day urging
people to renew PUC certificates in December?
a) Areon
b) Ambi Pur
c) Godrej Aer
d) Odonil
45. Which e-commerce MNC launched its own brand of
diapers in the US under the brand Elements in Dec?
a) Amazon
b) ebay
c) Best Buy
d) Shopify
46. Which MNC auction house named Patricia Barbizet
as its first woman chief executive officer in December
2014?
a) Sothebys
b) Bonhams
c) Mullocks
d) Christies
47. Which of the following acquired IT security firm
PasswordBox in December?
a) Kaspersky
b) Quick Heal
c) Intel
d) IBM
48. Whose contraceptive brand Durex launched a
campaign featuring brand ambassador Ranveer Singh on
the occasion of World AIDS Day on December 1?
a) Reckitt-Benckiser
b) J.K. Ansell
c) Unilever
d) Procter & Gamble
49. Who runs Dominos Pizza chain in India?
a) Future Group
b) AV Birla Group
c) Jubilant Foodworks
d) RP Sanjeev Goenka Group
50. Which of the following launched its Mini 3-door and
5-door models in India in November?
a) BMW
b) Fiat
c) Nissan
d) Toyota
THE GENESIS
49
Corporate Knowledge Quiz: Answer Key

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
Sudoku
(Solution below)
SUDOKU II
SUDOKU I
Solutions:
CROSSWORD
SUDOKU I
SUDOKU II
THE GENESIS
50
Point-Counterpoint
Freedom of expression does not mean
hurting someones sentiments. If there are
such scenes, the Censor Board should
remove them so that communal harmony is
not disturbed.
Every film may hurt religious sentiments

of somebody or the other. We cant remove
scenes unnecessarily because there is
something called creative endeavour where
people present things in their own way.
Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi

Mahali, Cleric, on demands for deleting
objectionable scenes from Pk
Leela Samson, Chairperson of Censor

Board of Film Certification (CBFC)
The Modi government is nothing but a Uturn sarkar, a government of imitation and
industrialists.
Decades of Congress rule left India in a

very bad shape. To expect miraculous
changes in just six months would be unjust.
Ajay Maken, Congress, while releasing

a 30-page booklet, Chhe Mahine Paar, Uturn Sarkar (after six months, a U-turn
government).
M. Venkaiah Naidu, Parliamentary

Affairs Minister
Government should come clean on it.

There is no evidence ... How can you say
that a terrorist attack was prevented?
Congress has touched a new low in Indian

politics. They are playing politics over
terror, petty politics on national security.
Sambit Patra, BJP Spokesperson
Ajoy Kumar, Congress Spokesperson,

over the Pakistani boat incident
Marketing and photo operations do not
contribute to the development of the
nation.
Rahul Gandhi, on NDA Governments
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Firstly, the Congress Party should clean

the dirt from the minds of their leaders, and
after that, they will automatically see the
cleanliness.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minister of
State for Minority Affairs
I was deeply disappointed with Mamata

Didis reaction to the interrogation and
arrest of some of TMC leaders in the
Saradha chit fund scam.
Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister
The decision to give up captaincy was

right though the decision not to play Test
cricket is an incorrect one.
Sourav Ganguly, former India captain
If the nation gets to know how much black

money the BJP has spent this year on
elections, the party will get black-listed.
Derek OBrien, Trinamool Rajya Sabha
MP
Today the entire nation should salute

Dhoni for the immense joy he gave us in test
cricket. A day to celebrate and not be
conspiratorial.
Suhel Seth, media personality
THE GENESIS

Genesis-January 2015 Issue I

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Genesis-January 2015 Issue I

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2

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

NITI Aayog to replace Planning Commission

announced that the Planning

Relic of a socialist era

The Centre-to-state one-way

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

for large projects. The original focus of the Planning

NITI Aayog: Office bearers

In the new scheme of things, the Prime Minister will head

Why Planning Commission had to go

The private sector has replaced the public sector as the

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance

In 2012, the Planning Commission was pilloried for

Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport,

A boost to cooperative federalism

Why Planning Commission was started

The Commissions power in allocating central funds to

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Renowned US-based NRI Economist Arvind Panagariya

repeatedly made the case for transitioning towards cash

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Current Affairs: India

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

India catching up on MDG targets

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Yash Chopra Memorial Award: Amitabh Bachchan (72) was conferred

Dubai International Film Festival awards: Noted Indian playback

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

K. Radhakrishnan: Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

The Way Things Were by Aatish Taseer

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

CLMV: Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Current Affairs: States

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Current Affairs: World

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Nicaragua starts work on Panama Canal rival: Nicaragua announced

UN asks Israel to compensate Lebanon for oil spill: The UN

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Indian team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni surprised the

their best years in Test cricket, in terms of tangible

Impact of retirement on Brand Dhoni

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Current Affairs: Sports

CA trademarks 63 not out: In an attempt to thwart people from cashing

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Current Affairs: Economy

Coal Ordinance repromulgated

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Endeavor Careers Dream Endeavor Achieve

Current Affairs: Corporate