Q1. Name the country which   ranked  3rd in global military expenditure ?

1. India
2. China
3. Pakistan
4. Saudi Arab
5. None of These

Q2. The railways has announced operation of 75 Vande Bharat express trains on prominent routes by

1. 2019
2. 2020
3. 2021
4. 2022
5. None of These

Q3. Name the bank on which Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 1.12 crore for non-compliance with certain directions, including those related to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.

1. State Bank of  India
2. Punjab National Bank
3. Bank of Maharashtra
4. Bank of Baroda
5. None of These

Q4. Which of the following is  the world's third biggest oil consuming and importing nation

1. India
2. China
3. Russia
4. UK
5. None of These

Q5. The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on April  22 interacted with the representatives of 14 distinguished US universities and invited them to set up foreign universities/institutions at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in

1. Delhi
2. Chennai , Tamil Nadu
3. Pune , Maharashtra
4. Gandhinagar, Gujarat
5. None of These

Answers

1 -----------------1   India

2-------------------4    2022

3------------------3    Bank of Maharashtra

4------------------1   India

5-------------------4    Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on April  22 interacted with the representatives of 14 distinguished US universities and invited them to set up foreign universities/institutions at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Budget 2022-23 permitted setting-up of world-class foreign universities in Gandhinagar's GIFT City, free from domestic regulations, to facilitate the availability of skilled manpower in the financial services space.

Key advantages for US universities include 100 per cent foreign ownership with no restriction on repatriation of profits, no domestic law will apply, regulatory ease through unified regulator IFSCA, and opportunity to collaborate with Indian students, faculty and financial industry, she said during the virtual meeting.

She further said that as IFSC acquires critical mass with the growing concentration of the financial services industry, demand for high quality human capital is expected to increase significantly.

Foreign universities in IFSC could contribute towards addressing this demand, she said. It is a win-win opportunity for the financial services industry as well as the foreign universities operating out of IFSC, and this can create an ideal global ecosystem for the development of skills needed in the future, she said.

Besides the Finance Minister, the meeting was also attended by Ambassador of India to the US Taranjit S Sandhu; Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran; and virtually by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) Chairperson Injeti Srinivas.

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) is a unified authority for the development and regulation of financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the IFSC in India. Currently, GIFT-IFSC is the maiden international financial services centre in India.

India has agreed to extend an additional USD 500 million credit line to help Sri Lanka import fuel, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said, amid delays in chalking out a bailout package with the IMF to mitigate the dire financial crisis facing the island nation.

Sri Lanka has been struggling to pay for imports after its foreign exchange reserves plummeted sharply in recent times, causing a devaluation of its currency and spiralling inflation.

India has already agreed to defer USD 1.5 billion in import payments that Sri Lanka needs to make to the Asian Clearing Union. On April  22 , New Delhi has also extended the tenure of a USD 400 million swap given in January this year, the Indian High Commission said. Sabry is currently in Washington to negotiate a programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Sri Lanka needs at least USD 4 billion to tide over its mounting economic woes, and Sabry has been holding talks with international institutions such as the World Bank as well as countries like China and Japan for financial assistance.

On April 12, Sri Lanka suspended its debt servicing for the first time in its history. Last week, the Sri Lankan government said it would temporarily default on USD 35.5 billion in foreign debt as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine made it impossible to make payments to overseas creditors.

Sri Lanka has been witnessing mass anti-government protests in recent weeks as it suffers food shortages, soaring fuel prices and major power cuts due to the unprecedented financial crisis.

Spanish authorities are pledging full transparency as they launch inquiries into allegations that the phones of dozens of supporters of Catalan independence were hacked with powerful and controversial spyware only sold to government agencies.

An internal probe by the country's intelligence agency, a special parliamentary commission to share its results, and a separate investigation by Spain's ombudsman will be arranged to show that central authorities in Madrid have “nothing to hide," the minister for presidency and relations with parliament, Félix Bolaños, announced.

Bolaños also said the government remained committed to negotiations with separatists on the future of the restive northeastern region of Catalonia.

Pere Aragonès, a pro-independence left-wing politician leading Catalonia's government, said last week that it was putting “on hold” relations with Spain's national authorities after cybersecurity experts in Canada revealed “massive political espionage.”

Aragonès accused Spain's intelligence agency, known as CNI in Spanish, of the alleged hacking.

India's crude oil import bill nearly doubled to USD 119 billion in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, as energy prices soared globally following the return of demand and war in Ukraine.

India, the world's third biggest oil consuming and importing nation, spent USD 119.2 billion in 2021-22 (April 2021 to March 2022), up from USD 62.2 billion in the previous fiscal year, according to data from the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC).

It spent USD 13.7 billion in March alone, when oil prices surged to 14-year high. This compared with USD 8.4 billion spending in the same month last year.

Oil prices started to surge from January and rates crossed USD 100 per barrel in the following month before touching USD 140 per barrel in early March. Prices have since receded and are now around USD 106 per barrel.

According to PPAC, India imported 212.2 million tonnes of crude oil in 2021-22, up from 196.5 million tonnes in the previous year. This was, however, lower than pre-pandemic imports of 227 million tonnes in 2019-20. The spending on oil imports in 2019-20 was USD 101.4 billion.

The imported crude oil is turned into value-added products like petrol and diesel at oil refineries, before being sold to automobiles and other users.

India, which is 85.5 per cent dependent on imports to meet crude oil needs, has a surplus refining capacity and it exports some petroleum products but is short on production of cooking gas LPG, which is imported from nations like Saudi Arabia.

The nation consumed 202.7 million tonnes of petroleum products in 2021-22, up from 194.3 million tonnes in the previous fiscal, but lower than pre-pandemic 214.1 million tonnes demand in 2019-20.

Import of petroleum products in 2021-22 fiscal was 40.2 million tonnes worth USD 24.2 billion. On the other hand, 61.8 million tonnes of petroleum products were also exported for USD 42.3 billion.

Besides, India also spent USD 11.9 billion on import of 32 billion cubic meters of LNG in 2021-22. This compared to USD 7.9 billion spent on import of 33 bcm of gas in the previous fiscal and USD 9.5 billion on import of 33.9 bcm in 2019-20.

Net oil and gas import bill, after adjusting for exports, came to USD 113 billion, up from USD 63.5 billion in 2020-21 and USD 92.7 billion in 2019-20.

India had spent USD 62.2 billion on the import of 196.5 million tonnes of crude oil in the previous 2020-21 fiscal, when global oil prices remained subdued in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher crude oil import bill is expected to dent the macroeconomic parameters.

The country's import dependence has increased owing to a steady decline in domestic output. The nation produced 32.2 million tonnes of crude oil in 2019-20, which fell to 30.5 million tonnes in the following year and to 29.7 million tonnes in FY22, the PPAC data showed.

According to PPAC, India's oil import dependence was 85 per cent in 2019-20, which declined marginally to 84.4 per cent in the following year before climbing to 85.5 per cent in 2021-22.

Players from Afghanistan's national women's football team competed in a local league match in Australia on April  24  for the first time since fleeing the hardline Islamist Taliban.

The result was a scoreless draw after an Afghan goal was disallowed for being offside in a lower league amateur match in the eastern state of Victoria.

But for the Afghan women it was a powerful, symbolic victory as they returned to the pitch together after leaving their homeland to rebuild their lives in Australia.

The game showed that the Taliban could not stop the players, said team captain Nilab, who like her teammates did not give a family name so as to protect relatives living in Afghanistan.

Australia helped dozens of Afghan national women's team players and their relatives to escape when the Taliban swept back to power eight months ago.

Team coach Jeff Hopkins praised their performance against amateur Melbourne side ETA Buffalo SC -- a club established in 1982 by friends who had migrated from East Timor -- in the Football Victoria State League 4 West competition.

Q1. The Minister Narendra Modi on April  24  met delegations from the United Arab Emirates looking for opportunities to invest in Jammu and Kashmir and said that the private investment proposals in the union territory has reached around

1. Rs 38, 000 crore
2. Rs 34,000 crore
3. Rs 30,000 crore
4. Rs 26,000 crore
5. None of These 

Q2. The National Panchayati Raj Day is celebrated on

1. April 20
2. April 2Q2.
3. April 2Q3.
4. April 2Q4.
5. None of These 

Q3. Name the person who has been   stepped down from the post of vice-chairperson (V-C) of central government think-tank Niti Aayog after a tenure of close to five years ?

1.  Suman Bery
2. Arvind Panagariya
3. Rajiv Kumar
4. Amitabh Kant
5. None of These 

Q4. Name the person who has received the first Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar award  ?

1. Anupam Kher
2. A. R. Rahman
3. Amitabh Bachchan
4. Narendra Modi
5. None of These 

Q5. Name the nondescript hamlet in Jammu and Kashmir's border district of Samba  which  has entered into the 'modern history' of India on April  24  as country's first "carbon neutral panchayat" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicating to the nation 500 KV solar plant, installed in a record time of nearly three weeks ?

1. Palli
2. Rafiabad
3. Achabal
4. Nadihal
5. None of These            

Answers

1--------------Rs 38, 000 crore

2--------------  April 2Q4. 3--------------  Rajiv Kumar

4-------------- Narendra Modi

5--------------  Palli

With more than 2.2 crore passengers travelling daily by trains from over 7,000 stations in India, the railways has decided to install 65,000 digital display screens at 2,000 stations to ensure round-the-clock display of train timings, running status and other passenger-related information.

These digital display screens would be installed at strategic points at foot overbridges, platforms, waiting rooms and concourses at all selected stations under the Railway Display Network (RDN) project. Railtel, a Central PSU, has been entrusted with the task of executing the mega project, tenders for which have been floated.

The information provided to passengers through these large screens and video walls will be in the form of audio, video, live or recorded messages. The information to be displayed will include train arrival/departure, platform, passenger amenities, passenger safety and security, emergency messages, messages related to disaster management, infotainment and social messages.