World Amateur Radio Day was observed across the World on 18 April 2013. This day is observed to celebrate the beginning of the IARU-the International Amateur Radio Union – back in 1925. The theme for 2013 is Amateur Radio: Entering Its Second Century of Disaster Communications. The theme commemorates to the first known use of Amateur Radio in a disaster situation by Herbert V. Akerberg — a 15-year-old from Hilltop, Ohio, USA. He is believed to be the first person to use an Amateur Radio to call for help during a disaster.

International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was founded on 18 April 1925 and is also known as the Ham Radio. In making this Ham Radio operational licensed participants operate the communication equipment in form of a service and a hobby.

Hams get involved in the Amateur radio because of their basic knowledge of radio technology and principles of operation. They need to pass an examination for getting a license to operate on radio frequencies known as Amateur Bands.

Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, Russia launched the world’s only returnable satellite called Bion-M1 on 20 April 2013. The satellite is aimed at biological research in space and for interplanetary flights in future. The Bion-1M satellite was separated from the Soyuz carrier rocket and entered an elliptic orbit at 575 kilometers above the Earth. The satellite carries 45 mice, 15 geckos, eight Mongolian gerbils, snails, and containers with various microorganisms and plants.

The satellite will conduct more than 70 physiological, genetic, morphological and molecular-biological experiments during its 30-day flight. Besides, Bion-1M carries a number of Russian and foreign microsatellites which will slowly be separated from the spacecraft in the next two days and carry on their individual missions.

Sebastian Vettel’s 27th victory in Formula One .The three-time defending champion ignored team orders Sunday and overtook fellow Red Bull driver Mark Webber toward the end to win the Malaysian Grand Prix, having been told to stand down and cruise to a 1-2 finish.

The German’s move left Webber fuming and had team officials remonstrating Vettel publicly after the race. Vettel apologized, but said he didn’t realize he had been told to hold back.

“Mark should have won,” said Vettel, who now leads the championship standings by nine points ahead of Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen. “I made a big mistake today and we should have stayed in the position. I messed up in that situation and took the lead from Mark and can see now he is upset. Apologies to Mark. The result is there and all I can say is that I didn’t do it deliberately.”

Webber refused to acknowledge his teammate after the race, and said he had been told by the team to keep a slower pace to save the tires to the end.

“Seb made his own decisions and he will have protection as usual and that’s the way it goes,” Webber said. “It’s still very raw at the moment.”

Asked if the fight had him reconsidering his role at Red Bull, Webber said he had “a lot of things going through my mind.”

Rafael Nadal of Spain won Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open 2013 on 17 March 2013. Nadal defeated Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. After winning Tokyo Open in October 2010, this is the first hard court victory of Nadal. With this, Nadal became number 4 in the world ranking.

Apart from this, Maria Sharapova won the first title of 2013 in women’s final of the tournament by defeating Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2.

India won Border Gavaskar Trophy 2013 against Australia by 4-0

•  Current Affairs  to know!

• Union Government to introduce National Policy on Drug Abuse
• Three NRIs Honoured by Indian High Commission in London on World Hindi Day 2013
• Tiger Woods Won Arnold Palmer Invitational 2013; Regained World Number 1 Ranking
• Apple bought Indoor Mapping firm WiFiSlam for 20 Million Dollar
• Two Time Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Lewis died at the age of 85
• Growth-Oriented MoU Signed Between SPMCIL and Department of Economic Affairs
• Competition Commission of India (CCI) Nominated for GCR Awards 2013

The Union Government on 18 March 2013 approved a bill that is directed towards providing access to all central and state government services such as passport, ration card and driving licences electronically, especially the Internet, within eight years.

The bill will be of directive nature and mandate the government organisations to start providing all services for citizen within eight years time through electronic medium.

The (central and state) governments will notify the service that they will provide electronically in next 5 years. They will be given extra three years after five years to ensure all services all provided electronically.

The bill is supposed to bring more transparency in the system as the electronic delivery of services will help rein in corruption.

The Electronic Service Delivery bill was brought before the Cabinet to bring it in sync with Citizens Charter Bill or The Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011, and was approved by Union Cabinet on 7 March 2013.

Mar. 14, 2013 — In the search for the fuels of tomorrow, Swedish researchers are finding inspiration in the sea. Not in offshore oil wells, but in the water where blue-green algae thrive.

The building blocks of blue-green algae – sunlight, carbon dioxide and bacteria – are being used by researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm to produce butanol, a hydrocarbon-like fuel for motor vehicles.

The advantage of butanol is that the raw materials are abundant and renewable, and production has the potential to be 20 times more efficient than making ethanol from corn and sugar cane.

Using genetically-modified cyanobacteria, the team linked butanol production to the algae’s natural metabolism, says Paul Hudson, a researcher at the School of Biotechnology at KTH who leads the research. “With relevant genes integrated in the right place in cyanobacteria’s genome, we have tricked the cells to produce butanol instead of fulfilling their normal function,” he says.

The  Prime Minister today unveiled the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 in the presence of Shri Praful Patel, Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises and Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission. The ceremony was attended by eminent leaders from the automotive industry, academia and research institutes, officers of stakeholder Ministries, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council.

The principal end objectives of the National Mission for Electric Mobility (NMEM) are National energy security, mitigation of the adverse impact of vehicles on the environment and growth of domestic manufacturing capabilities. The NEMMP 2020, the mission document for the NMEM that was approved by the National Council for Electric Mobility (NCEM) on 29th August, 2012, sets the vision, lays the targets and provides the joint Government – industry vision for realizing the huge potential that exists for full range of efficient and environmentally friendly electric vehicle (including hybrids) technologies by 2020.

The NEMMP 2020 is a well researched document and relies on in-depth primary data based study conducted jointly by the Government and the Industry which indicates that high latent demand for environmentally friendly electric vehicle technologies exists in the country. As per these projections, 6-7 million units of new vehicle sales of the full range of electric vehicles, along with resultant liquid fuel savings of 2.2 – 2.5 million tonnes can be achieved in 2020. This will also result in substantial lowering of vehicular emissions and decrease in carbon di-oxide emissions by 1.3% to 1.5% in 2020 as compared to a status quo scenario.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, on 13 January 2013 kicked out the first woman chief justice of the country, Shirani Bandarnayake after endorsing her impeachment by the Parliament that caught her guilty on the corruption charges. It is worth noticing that Bandarnayake was fired despite widespread protests by the lawyers as well as others.

Bandarnayake, 54, was given the notice in which the President ordered her to move down from the post. This happened two days after the Parliament in Sri Lanka voted to put her on trial, widening the face-off between the government and the judiciary.

Impeaching Bandarnayake was initially declared unconstitutional by the courts. In the meanwhile, the finding by parliamentary committee which had found her guilty was cancelled.  The parliamentary committee had declared on 8 December 2012, that Bandarnayake was guilty of 3 charges out of 14. The impeachment proceedings were held against her, which were moved by ruling UPFA coalition legislators.

The three charges in which she was held guilty were those of financial impropriety which were based on non-declaration of the assets.

Male and female Athlete of the Year awards

Usain Bolt, the fastest man of the world and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the women’s 100m Olympic champion won the male and female Athlete of the Year awards respectively on 8 January 2013 at Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Golden Cleats Awards ceremony which took place at Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew.

Glen Mills, the Racers Track Club head coach won the Coach of the Year Award for the second time in a row, bringing his total of winnings to 3. It was Mills who conditioned Bolt and Yohan Blake, which in turn helped them in grabbing gold and silver respectively in 100m and 200m at the London Olympics.

FIFA Ballond’Or Award

Lionel Messi, the Argentine footballer won FIFA Ballond’Or Award on 7 January 2013 as a reward to his 91-goal in a year for Barcelona and Argentina, in the year 2012. Messi voted to be the best player for the fourth year in a row managed to beat his close competitors, Cristiano Ronaldo of Spanish champion Real Madrid and Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi, still only 25, was named the world’s best player for an unprecedented fourth year running on Monday.

The award, officially known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or, came after the Barcelona player scored a remarkable 91 goals in 2012, a record for a calendar year.

Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo was second, the third time the 2008 winner has finished runner-up, and Barcelona and Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta was third as Spain again missed out.

Despite dominating international football for the last four years, no Spanish player has won the award.

“It’s incredible to win a fourth in a row, amazing,” said Messi. “I want to share this with my Barcelona team mates and my Argentina team mates.”

Although Messi did not have an outstanding year in terms of Barcelona titles, missing out on the Champions League and La Liga, he enjoyed a resurgence of form with Argentina, scoring 12 goals including his first two international hat-tricks.

Spain’s Vicente del Bosque was voted as coach of the year for the first time after his team won Euro 2012, holding off Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho and former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.

In a world first, on 3 December 1992, an engineer sent the message “Merry Christmas” from a PC to a mobile device using Vodafone’s UK network.But the origins of the idea date back further to Matti Makkonen. Over a pizza at a telecoms conference in 1984, the former Finnish civil servant put forward the idea of a mobile phone messaging service. This was to become the SMS (short message service) standard.It was just one year later, in 1985 when researcher Friedhelm Hillebrand suggested that 160 characters was “perfectly sufficient” for all communication purposes, a line of thought that soon gave birth to the very notion of a Short Messaging Service (SMS).

And so, it was the 3 December, 1992, when the first ever text message was sent, by 22-year-old British engineer Neil Papworth. On this day, Neil marked his place in the history books, revolutionising communication as we know it today, all by sending a text message that read “Happy Christma” (the ‘s’ was missed off). At the time, Neil first believed SMS to be an innovative way for a company’s staff to communicate with one another, a line of thought perhaps explaining his infamous understatement shortly after sending the world’s first text message: “at the time, it did

Eight Indian CEOs have made it to Harvard Business Review’s (HBR) list of 100 best performing global chief executives headed for the last 17 years by the late Steve Jobs of Apple. ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar, ranked seventh overall (Rank 7), was first among the Indian CEOs. Under his leadership, ITC saw its value increase by $45 billion.  He was followed by former ONGC’s late chairman and managing director Subir Raha (Rank 13). During Raha’s May 2001-2006 tenure, ONGC’s market capitalisation increased more than 10 times.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Albany (Rank 28), was ranked third among Indians. Under his leadership, Reliance Industries has grown to become India’s second-largest Indian company by turnover.  Larsen & Toubro chairman and managing Director A M Naik (Rank 32), came next. Under Naik’s leadership, the company has expanded its horizons beyond domestic frontiers, positioning itself to become a true international player. Former Bharat Heavy Electricals CMD A K Puri (Rank 38) is ranked fifth among the Indians. He is followed by Bharti Airtel chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal (Rank 65).  Jindal Steel & Power CEO Naveen Jindal (Rank 87) is ranked seventh among Indians. He is followed by Former SAIL chairman, V S Jain (Rank 89).

Jobs of Apple, who has been the best-performing CEO over the past 17 years was number 1 on HBR 2010 list as well. From 1997 to 2011, Apple’s market value increased by $359 billion, and its shareholder return experienced average compound annual growth of 35 percent. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com has now climbed to the number 2 spot, up from number 7 in HBR 2010 list. Under his leadership, the company delivered industry-adjusted shareholder returns of 12,266 percent and saw its value increase by $111 billion. The highest-ranked woman on the list is Meg Whitman, currently the CEO of beleaguered HP, whose performance as the CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008 earned her the number 9 spot.

• Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti resigned ahead of Elections
• India Successfully Test Fired Air to Air Interceptor Astra Missile
• Blackberry Smartphone maker Research-In-Motion (RIM) signed in Ranbir Kapoor as its Brand Ambassador
• Jeet Thayil along with 23 Others Chosen as Sahitya Akademi Award Winners
• New Freshwater Mosasaurs Species Discovered By the Researchers
• NYSE Agreed Selling Itself as a Part of 8.2 Billion Dollar Takeover by IntercontinentalExchange Inc.

• India and ASEAN Finalised FTA in Investments and Services
• SC dismissed Purno Sangma Petition that Challenged Pranab Mukherjee’s Election as President
• Delhi High Court dismissed the PIL that Challenged Tendulkar’s Nomination to Rajya Sabha
• Lok Sabha Passed the banking bill Clearing way for New Corporate Licenses
• Ireland to legalise Abortions when the Mother’s Life is at Risk
• International Current Affairs December 2012. Ireland on 18 December 2012 announced that it will legalise abortions when the mother’s life is at risk
• David Cameroon announced that Britain would Pull Half of its Troops from Afghanistan
• Park Geun-Hye Elected As the First Woman President of South Korea
• US House of Representatives passed the Defence Bill 2013
• Queen Elizabeth Became First Peacetime British Ruler to Attend Cabinet Meeting
• India’s Dipika Pallikal Lost in Pre-Quarters of Women’s World Open Squash Championship 2012
• India retained their Number Five Position as per the Latest ICC Test Ranking
• Roger Federer Named Swiss Male Athlete of the Year 2012
• Sardar Singh Commanded the Best Price in Hockey India League Auction

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1.In which year was Hockey introduced in the Olympic Games?

(a) Paris 1900
(b) Paris 1924
(c) London 1908
(d) London 1940

2. arrange the books with its authors .

the correct order is :

ah , bf, cg, de

ah , bf, cg, df

af , bh, cg, df

ah , bg, cf, df

3. “Razzle dazzle” is _________.

(a) a fancy display
(b) an unusal event
(c) something impossible
(d) none of the above
(a) a fancy display

4.The colour of star is an identification of :
(a) Size
(b) Distance
(c) Weight
(d) Temperature

5.Who will be appointed as chairman of Barclays from 1st November 2012 succeeding Marcus Aguis?

a) David Walker , b) Anand Mahia ,c) Tony Chair ,d) David brown

6. Where was the 15th Confederation of Indian industry insurance summit held?

a) Mumbai,b) Kolkota,c) Chennai,d) Cochin

7.How is Dubbed Gauss known in technology world?

a)A virus capable of spying mobile phone calls
b)A virus capable of spying on financial transactions, email and social networking activities
c)A business magazine
d)A banking  term

Post your answers as comments below.The winner will get an exciting prize from generalknowledgetoday ‘s  GK Books Shopping Corner . (www.gkbooks.generalknowledgetoday .com )

Also there is a point counting  system .those who achieve 100 points (by participating and answering  in the contest),will get an exciting  gift hamper too .   So let’s start posting answers !!

The correct answers,contest winner’s name along with a new set of quiz questions, will be posted tomorrow.

According to a new Forbes ranking on Wednesday that found heads of state occupying six of the top 10 spots among the world’s most powerful people, led by President Barack Obama.The list’s highest-ranked businessman was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at No. 4. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, both public officials, also made in the the top 10.

South Africa retained their status as the top-ranked team in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test Championship table following their 309-run victory over Australia Monday in the third and final Test in Perth, which gave them a 1-0 series win.

Usain Bolt won the IAAF World Athlete of the Year Award 2012 for the fourth time and United States sprinter Allyson Felix won women’s World Athlete of the Year Award 2012 on 24 November 2012 during the IAAF’s 100th Anniversary Celebration. The Jamaican sprinter Bolt had won for defending his gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter races of the summers’ Olympic Games, he also won the same award previously in 2008, 2009 and 2011. Bolt managed to be ahead of United States hurdler Aries Merritt and Kenyan runner David Rudisha to win the award.

Allyson Felix managed to secure her Gold medal in the London Olympics in the 200 meter race. Before this she managed to settle down with the Silver in the Beijing Olympics in the year 2008. New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams and British heptathlete Jessica Ennis were the other finalists of the Women award segment, who also were the gold medalists in London Olympics.

In 2003, Bolt and Felix won the Rising Star awards for the most promising young athletes of the year.

Fuleco is the Official Mascot of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ has a name, with more than 1.7 million people voting for Fuleco™.

The three-month public voting campaign, supported by FIFA Partner Coca-Cola, proved to be popular as the Brazilian public came out in force to cast their votes. More than 48 per cent voted for Fuleco™, ahead of Zuzeco (31 per cent) and Amijubi (21 per cent), making it the unanimous winner.

Ever since being introduced to the public, Fuleco™ has been making his presence felt by touring the host country and getting to know the people of Brazil. The latest results from FIFA’s independent brand tracking research indicate that he is fast becoming popular in Brazil:
• 89 per cent of Brazilians said they had seen the Official Mascot
• Fuleco™ is seen as a likeable character – he scores an average of 7.3 out of 10 on appeal