Current Affairs Quiz
1. Who is the new secretary of water resources?
a) Narendra Kumar Singh
b) Upendra Prasad Singh
c) Charan Harish Singh
d) Ramesh Anil Singh
Click here to View Answer
Answer b) Upendra Prasad Singh. National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) director general Upendra Prasad Singh will be the new secretary in the water resources ministry. Upendra Prasad Singh, a 1985-batch IAS officer, will replace Amarajit Singh, a 1982-batch officer of the Gujarat cadre.
2. Who has been appointed as secretary in Department of Defence Production?
a) Prakash Varma
b) Vinith Patel
c) Ajay Kumar
d) Arjun Kumar
Click here to View Answer
Answer c) Ajay Kumar. Senior bureaucrat Ajay Kumar has been appointed as secretary in Department of Defence Production as part of a top-level minor bureaucratic reshuffle effected. Kumar, a 1985-batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, is at present additional secretary in Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
3. Who has been appointed as first chairman of National Anti-profiteering Authority?
a) J.C. Chauhan
b) C.L. Mahar
c) Bijay Kumar
d) B.N. Sharma
Click here to View Answer
Answer d) B.N. Sharma. The Union Cabinet’s approval for the creation of the National Anti-profiteering Authority under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act, the Centre appointed senior IAS officer B.N. Sharma as the first chairman of the apex body. Sharma will be assisted by four senior officials of the rank of Joint Secretary and above, namely J.C. Chauhan, Chairman Tax Tribunal, Himachal Pradesh; Bijay Kumar, Principal Commissioner GST, Kolkata; C.L. Mahar, Principal Commissioner GST, Meerut; and R. Bhagyadevi, ADG, Systems, Chennai.
4. Who is the new Chairman and Managing Director of Air India?
a) Pradeep Singh Kharola
b) Ganesh Singh
c) Vikram Singh
d) Mahesh Singh
Click here to View Answer
Answer a) Pradeep Singh Kharola. The government has appointed senior IAS officer Pradeep Singh Kharola as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Air India. Pradeep Singh Kharola will replace Rajiv Bansal, who has been serving as the interim CMD of Air India for a little over three months. Pradeep Singh Kharola, a 1985-batch IAS officer from Karnataka, is currently the Managing Director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL).
5. Britain has appointed ____________ as its first woman secretary to the United Nations
a) Victoria Treadell
b) Karen Pierce
c) Catherine Nettleton
d) Rosalind Marsden
Click here to View Answer
Answer b) Karen Pierce. Britain has appointed Karen Pierce as its new permanent secretary to the United Nations, the first woman to take on the role. Pierce, a British diplomat who has worked in several countries, previously served as the deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in New York and permanent representative to the organisation in Geneva.
6. Who was appointed as India’s G20 Sherpa till December 31, 2018, for the Development Track of the grouping?
a) Urjit Patel
b) Arvind Subramanian
c) Shaktikanta Das
d) Bibek Debroy
Click here to View Answer
Answer c) Shaktikanta Das. Former economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das was appointed India’s G20 Sherpa till December 31, 2018, for the Development Track of the grouping. There are two tracks in G20 — the Finance Track and the Development Track. Finance Track is managed by the Secretary (Economic Affairs), Ministry of Finance, as India’s Deputy to G-20 and the Development Track is coordinated by the Sherpa. The Department of Economic Affairs will provide necessary support to the Sherpa.
7. The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHGAYA) was launched in _______ recently
a) Manipur
b) Mizoram
c) Nagaland
d) Sikkim
Click here to View Answer
Answer a) Manipur. The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHGAYA) was launched in Manipur, by Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh and N. Biren Singh, Chief Minister of Manipur. A total of approximately 1.75 lakh households (1.62 lakh rural households and 0.13 lakh urban households) of Manipur are proposed to be included under the Scheme.
8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the ____ km elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail project at the Miyapur station
a) 54
b) 72
c) 85
d) 98
Click here to View Answer
Answer b) 72. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the 72-km elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail project at the Miyapur station. A mobile app named ‘T Savari’ for Metro passengers was launched by the prime minister, who was also given a power-point presentation on the project at Miyapur station.
9. Which insurance company has launched a unique micro-insurance plan ‘insurance khata’ targeted at those in the informal sector and agricultural labourers with seasonal incomes?
a) HDFC Life
b) Reliance Life Insurance
c) ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
d) IndiaFirst Life Insurance
Click here to View Answer
Answer d) IndiaFirst Life Insurance. IndiaFirst Life Insurance (IndiaFirst Life) has launched a unique micro-insurance plan ‘insurance khata’ targeted at those in the informal sector and agricultural labourers with seasonal incomes. This micro-insurance plan will be distributed exclusively through the 2.4 lakh common service centres (CSC) across the country.
10. Which country will assist India to set up a national crisis management centre in the country to handle disaster and other emergency situations?
a) USA
b) UK
c) Russia
d) China
Click here to View Answer
Answer c) Russia. Russia will assist India to set up a national crisis management centre in the country to handle disaster and other emergency situations. This was agreed during a meeting between Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Russian Minister for Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov. Both sides agreed that EMERCOM of Russia would cooperate with India in the establishment of the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) in India.
11. Who won the IBSF World Snooker Championship title 2017?
a) Aditya Mehta
b) Geet Sethi
c) John Higgins
d) Pankaj Advani
Click here to View Answer
Answer d) Pankaj Advani. Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani dished out another superb performance to outclass Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh in the final and claim yet another title at the IBSF World Snooker Championship.
12. Who won the ITTF Challenge Spanish Open in Almeria?
a) G. Sathiyan
b) Sharath Kamal
c) Soumyajit Ghosh
d) Anthony Amalraj
Click here to View Answer
Answer a) G. Sathiyan. Indian table tennis player G. Sathiyan clinched the gold medal after defeating Japan’s Kazuhiro Yoshimura 4-2 in the men’s singles final of the 2017 ITTF Challenge Spanish Open in Almeria. This was the second ITTF Challenge Series title won by an Indian this year after Soumyajit Ghosh beat compatriot Anthony Amalraj in the Chile Open final a few months ago.
13. ___________to include new mixed gender team event in 2019
a) Asian Games
b) Olympic Games
c) European Games
d) None of these
Click here to View Answer
Answer c) European Games. European Athletics is poised to spearhead the charge for radical change in the sport with organizers having unveiled a new mixed gender team competition to be introduced at the second edition of the European Games in 2019. The new competition planned for the Games in Minsk, Belarus, called Dynamic New Athletics (DNA), will see Europe’s top 30 countries compete across 10 events in two hours, culminating in a staggered pursuit relay called the “Hunt”.
