1. KEY FEATURES OF UNION BUDGET-2017
- Existing rate of taxation for individual assesses between income of 2.5 lakhs to 5 lakhs reduced to 5%.After rebates, zero tax liability for people with income of 3 lakhs. All other categories will also get uniform benefit of Rs 12,500. Surcharge of 10% of tax payable on categories of individuals whose annual taxable income is between 50 lakhs and 1 crores. More than 1 crore: 15 percent surcharge.
- As per the re-Infrastructure and agriculture cess to be levied. 0.5 per cent Krishi Kalyan Cess to be levied on all services.
- As per the Recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, Rs.2.87 lakh crore will be given to Gram Panchayats and municipalities.
- To promote transparency in electoral funding, maximum donation of 2000 rupees in cash is restricted from one person.
- Allocation for social sector, including education and health care is Rs.1,51,581 crore.
- A total of 62 Navodaya Vidyalayas will be opened. Rs.1804 crore will be allocated for skill development.
- Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will be abolished.
- A sum of Rs.19,000 crore will be allocated under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana to connect the remaining 65,000 eligible habitations by laying 2.23 lakh kms of roads by 2019.
- Including the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (for which the total investment is Rs.27,000 crore), the total investment in the road sector will be Rs.97,000 crore.
- Allocation of Rs 23,000 crore to the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana.
- Rs 48,000 crore allocated towards the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
- Total allocation for agriculture and farmers' welfare is Rs.35,984 crore.
2. Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) national president and former Minister of State for External Affairs, passed away on February 1, 2017?
E. Ahamed.
He served as Minister of State for External Affairs in the Manmohan Singh government (2004–14).
3. Former Sports Editor of The Hindu and former editor of Sportstar, who passed away on February 1, 2017?
Nirmal Shekar.
Nirmal, who was one of India’s most widely read sportswriters became The Hindu’s Sports Editor in 2003 and took independent
charge of Sportstar in early 2012.
4. Who is the 69th and current United States Secretary of State, serving since February 1, 2017?
Rex Tillerson.
5. The former England and Chelsea midfielder who announced his retirement from professional football on 2 February 2017?
Frank Lampard.
He is an English former professional footballer and children's writer. He is the all-time leading goal scorer for Chelsea, where he played for 13 years.
6. Britain's House of Commons has passed a bill on February 1, 2017 paving the way for Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger negotiations for the UK's exit from the European Union. What is the name of that bill?
Brexit Bill. (The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017).
Brexit is a commonly used term for the United Kingdom's planned withdrawal from the European Union. Withdrawal from the European Union is governed by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. Under the Article 50 invocation procedure a member notifies the European Council and there is a negotiation period of up to two years, after which the treaties cease to apply – although a leaving agreement may be agreed, although aspects such as trade may be difficult to negotiate until the UK has left the EU. The Supreme Court ruled in the Miller case in January 2017 that the government needed parliamentary approval to trigger Article 50. After the House of Commons overwhelmingly voted, on 1 February 2017, for the government's bill authorising the prime minister to invoke Article 50, the bill passed into law as the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017.
7. Which country has suspended the issuance of visas for nationals of Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran?
Kuwait.
8. Which country has tested a new version of a missile that can carry up to 10 nuclear warheads?
China.
The flight test of the Dongfeng-5C missile (DF-5C) was carried out using 10 multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs).
9. Which Indian Cricketer has been unveiled as the latest cover star of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, following his leading role in India's clean sweep of trophies in all three formats of their recent series against England?
Virat Kohli.
‘Wisden Cricketers’ is regarded as the ‘Bible of cricket’ and is one of the bestselling English cricket magazines. On 2014 Sachin Tendulkar for the first time had featured on the cover of this magazine, making him the first Indian cricketer to have appeared on the cover.
10. Who has been named the world's highest-earning athlete for the first time, becoming only the second individual from a team sport to lead the Forbes rankings since they began in 1990?
Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo, climbed to the top of the list by earning $88 million in 2016, ahead of Barcelona's Lionel Messi in second place with $81m and NBA star LeBron James in third with $77m.
11. Which is the world’s most valuable brand, snagging the No.1 spot from Apple which has been the incumbent since 2011?
Google.
12. Well known Indian-origin British sculptor was named the winner of a prestigious $1 million Genesis Prize by Israel for his commitment to Jewish values?
Anish Kapoor.
The Bombay-born British sculptor (his father was Hindu and mother Jewish), who has previously won the Turner Prize in 1991, was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2012 and a knighthood the year after, has historically held a huge commitment towards humanitarian causes.
13. Which airways has launched the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight, a 9,032-mile (14,535km) marathon from Doha to Auckland, New Zealand?
Qatar Airways.
14. Delhi Police Commissioner who was appointed director of CBI, country's premier probe agency?
Alok Kumar Verma.
15. Who has been appointed as the interim CEO of Prasar Bharati Board?
Rajeev Singh.
16. Which country won the African Nations Soccer Cup-2017 defeating Egypt (2-1) in the final?
Cameroon.
17. Name the Indian batsman who has become the first person to score a triple century in a Twenty20 match?
Mohit Ahlawat .
Mohit Ahlawat unbelievably smashed 302 from just 72 balls in a local T20 clash in Delhi.
18. Who has been appointed as the 12th president of Germany?
Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
19. BAFTA AWARDS -2017.
The British Academy Film Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The 70th British Academy Film Awards were held on 12 February 2017 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Here is the complete list of Winners of BAFTA Awards-2017.
Best Film: La La Land
Best British Film in 2017: I, Daniel Blake
Best Director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress: Emma Stone, La La Land
Best Supporting Actor: Dev Patel, Lion
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences
Best Film Not in the English Language: Son of Saul
Best Documentary: 13th
Best Animated Film: Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Cinematography: Linus Sandgren, La La Land
Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay: Luke Davies, Lion
Best Editing: John Gilbert, Hacksaw Ridge
Best Production Design: Stuart Craig and Anna Pinnock, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Best Costume Design: Madeline Fontaine, Jackie
Best Makeup and Hair: J. Roy Helland and Daniel Phillips, Florence Foster Jenkins
Best Sound: Claude La Haye, Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Sylvain Bellemare, Arrival
Best Special Visual Effects: Robert Legato, Dan Lemmon, Andrew R. Jones and Adam Valdez, The Jungle Book
Best British Short Animation: A Love Story
Best British Short Film: Home
The EE Rising Star Award: Tom Holland
Best Original Music: Justin Hurwitz, La La Land
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer in 2017: Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari (writer/director), and Emily Leo, Oliver Roskill and Lucan Toh (producers).
20. Name the river island in Assam which, becomes first ever carbon neutral district of India by the year 2020?
Majuli.
21. Which country successfully test-fired its interceptor missile on February 11, 2017, achieving a significant milestone in the direction of developing a two-layered Ballistic Missile Defence system?
India.
22. Who has been appointed as the 9th chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)?
Ajay Tyagi.
Tyagi will take over as the chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India when outgoing SEBI chief UK Sinha’s tenure ends on March 1, 2017.
23. Who became the first batsman to score four double-centuries in four consecutive Test series?
Virat Kohli.
Only Don Bradman and Rahul Dravid had scored three double hundreds in three successive Test series.
24. Which country won the Twenty20 World Cup -2017 for the Blind defeating Pakistan in the final by 9 wickets?
India.
25. The Chairman of Japanese electronics and energy giant Toshiba Corp who resigned on February 14, 2017 after the company logged massive losses in its nuclear business?
Shigenori Shiga.
26. National Security Adviser of Donald Trump who has resigned amid growing questions about whether he had deceived Vice President Mike Pence, and potentially the FBI, about his phone calls with the Russian envoy on December 29, 2016?
Michael Flynn.
27. For the first time, the Supreme Court issued contempt notice to a sitting high court judge, for levelling allegations against former judges of the Supreme Court and sitting judges of Madras High Court. Who is that sitting high court judge?
Justice CS Karnan.
A Calcutta High Court judge, Justice Karnan had recently written to the Prime Minister levelling corruption charges against former Judges of the Supreme Court and sitting judges of Madras High Court and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an enquiry.
28. Nobel laureate and one of the pioneers in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) , passed away on February 8, 2017?
Sir Peter Mansfield.
Mansfield was an English physicist who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Paul Lauterbur, for discoveries concerning Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
29. Who has been appointed as the Ambassador of FIFA in February, 2017?
Diego Maradona.
30. Who has become the fastest wicketkeeper-batsman to score 3,000 runs in ODIs?
Quinton de Kock.
South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock completed 3,000 runs in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) in the match against Sri Lanka and he took 74 innings to reach this milestone.
31. Who became the fastest man to take 250 wickets in Test Cricket?
Ravichandran Ashwin.
Ravichandran achieves this accolade in in just his 45th international test match which is against Bangladesh, surpassing the previous mark set by Australian Dennis Lille of 48 Test matches. Ashwin becomes just the sixth Indian bowler to achieve this remarkable feat behind the names of Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev and Harbhajan Singh to reach 250 test wickets.
32. Who has been appointed as the new captain of Pakistan ODI team in February 2017?
Sarfraz Ahmed.
Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed has been named as ODI captain after Azhar Ali decided to step down from the role on 09.02.2017.
33. Who has been named as new England Test captain replacing Alastair Cook in countdown to Ashes series?
Joe Root.
34. Middle-order Pakistani batsman who has achieved an unwanted record for the most number of ducks in T20 cricket?
Umar Akmal.
Akmal now has 24 ducks under his belt, surpassing South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs, Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan, and West Indies’ Dwayne Smith, who are all tied on 23.
35. The space agency of which country has successfully launched 104 satellites from a single rocket in February 14, 2017?
India.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) achieved a major milestone with a successful record-setting launch of 104 satellites on a single rocket. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) blasted off from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre with three satellites from India and 101 smaller nano satellites (also called nanosats) from five other countries: the U.S., the Netherlands, Israel, Kazakhstan and Switzerland. This number crushes the previous record of 37 satellites sent into orbit aboard a single Russian Dnepr rocket in June 2014.
36. Career diplomat who was appointed as Pakistan's first woman foreign secretary on February 13, 2017?
Tehmina Janjua.
37. Who was crowned Laureus Sportsman of the Year (2017) for a record equalling fourth time, matching the achievement of Roger Federer and Serena Williams?
Usain Bolt.
Gymnast Simone Biles clinched the top honour in the women's category at the Laureus World Awards 2017.
38. Who has sworn in as the new chief minister of Tamil Nadu in February 2017?
Palaniswami.K.
39. Famous Dutch artist and the creator of Miffy (Nijntje in Dutch), who enchanted millions of young children around the world for more than half a century, passed away in February 2017?
Dick Bruna.
40. Pakistani professional cricketer and former captain of the Pakistan national cricket team who announced his retirement from international cricket on February 19, 2017?
Shahid Afridi.
He holds a record of taking most wickets (97) and most player-of-the match awards in Twenty20 International cricket. He is known for his aggressive batting style, and previously held the record for the fastest ODI century in 37 deliveries. He also holds the distinction of having hit the most number of sixes in the history of ODI cricket and he has taken 48 Test wickets and over 350 in ODIs.
41. Samsung vice chairman who has been arrested in Korea on charges of corruption?
Lee Jae-yong.
42. The 39th Chief Justice of India who passed away on February 19, 2017?
Altamas Kabir.
He was the Chief Justice at Supreme Court for a brief period of nine months in 2012-13.
43. What is the name given to the eighth continent in earth sprawling underwater beneath New Zealand?
Zealandia.
The continent, dubbed Zealandia, also includes New Caledonia and other islands and territories in that section of the southwest Pacific Ocean. The dedicated study of this area over the past 10 years has determined it is not just a group of continental islands and fragments but that it has a continental crust large and separate enough to be officially declared a separate continent. The seven continents exist are Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.
44. Name the final vessel in the series of twenty fast patrol vessels (FPVs) designed and built by the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) which was commissioned in February 18, 2017?
C.G.S.Ayush.
45. Who has been appointed as the new national security advisor of U.S.President?
Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster.
46. Who is the first woman police officer to head the Scotland Yard?
Cressida Dick.
On 22 February 2017, the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police jointly announced that she will be appointed as the next Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police by the Queen, on the formal recommendation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. She is the first woman to hold this rank.
47. Who has been named as the ‘Captain of the Year’ at the 10th annual ESPN Cricinfo Awards?
Virat Kohli
Kohli becomes the first player to receive the Polly Umrigar Award - given to the International Cricketer of the Year - for the third time. Kohli first received the award in 2011-12 and in 2014-15.
Awards list:
CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award - Rajinder Goel, Padmakar Shivalkar
BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award For Women - Shanta Rangaswamy
Polly Umrigar Award - Virat Kohli
Dilip Sardesai Award - R Ashwin
Jagmohan Dalmiya Award for best woman cricketer (senior) of 2015-16 - Mithali Raj
Jagmohan Dalmiya Award for best woman cricketer (junior) of 2015-16 - Deepti Sharma (Uttar Pradesh)
48. Who becomes the fastest batsman to claim 9000 ODI runs (205 innings), surpassing former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, who did so in 228 innings?
AB de Villiers.(South Africa).
49. THE COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS OF OSCAR AWARDS 2017:
Best Picture - 'Moonlight' by Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
Best Actress in a Leading Role - Emma Stone for 'La La Land'
Best Actor in a Leading Role - Casey Affleck for 'Manchester By The Sea'
Best Director - Damien Chazelle for 'La La Land'
Best Adapted Screenplay - Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for 'Moonlight'
Best Original Screenplay - Kenneth Lonergan for 'Manchester By The Sea'
Best Original Song - 'City Of Stars' from 'La La Land' by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Best Original Score - Justin Hurwitz for 'La La Land'
Best Cinematography - Linus Sandgren for 'La La Land'
Best Live Action Short - 'Sing' by Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy
Best Documentary Short - 'The White Helmets' by Orlando Von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
Best Film Editing - John Gilbert for 'Hacksaw Ridge'
Best Visual Effects - Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R Jones and Dan Lemmon for 'The Jungle Book'
Best Production Design - David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco for 'La La Land'
Best Animated Feature - 'Zootopia' by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer
Best Animated Short - 'Piper' by Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer
Best Foreign Language Film - 'The Salesman' by Asghar Farhadi
Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Viola Davis for 'Fences'
Best Sound Mixing - Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace for 'Hacksaw Ridge'
Best Sound Editing - Sylvian Bellemare for 'Arrival'
Best Documentary Feature - Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow for 'O J: Made In America'
Best Costume Design - Colleen Atwood for 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them'
Best Makeup and Hairstyling - Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson for 'Suicide Squad'
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) - Mahershala Ali for 'Moonlight'.
50. Who has become the first Indian sportsperson to sign a Rs 100-crore endorsement deal with a single brand?
Virat Kohli.
The Indian cricket captain has struck an eight-year deal with sports lifestyle brand Puma worth about Rs 110 crore. Kohli is now set to join the likes of Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, and footballers Thierry Henry and Oliver Giroud - among others - as a global ambassador for the brand.
51. The Indian shooter won a bronze medal in the women's 10m air rifle event at the ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) World Cup in Delhi?
Pooja Ghatkar.
52. Which club won the League Cup-2017 held at Wembley Stadium in London by defeating Southampton, 3-2?
Manchester United
Manchester United have won the League Cup for a fifth time.
53. Who has been appointed as the first vice president of Azerbaijan?
Mehriban Aliyeva
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has appointed his wife as first vice president – a newly-established position that would see its holder take over as temporary leader if the president were to step down or prove unable to perform his duties.
54. The Indian shooter who won bronze medal in men's 10-metre air pistol event at the ongoing ISSF Shooting World Cup in Delhi?
Jitu Rai.