Planning Commission renamed "Neeti Ayog"

India's Planning Commission will be renamed "Neeti Ayog" as part of a plan to restructure the institution that the government believes has run its course.

The name, replacing "Yojana (planning)" with "Neeti (policy)" will be announced in an amended resolution for the new plan body today, sources said.

Earlier this month, PM Modi held discussions with chief ministers on replacing the Soviet-style body with a 'Team India' concept that would give states a greater role in developing Asia's third largest economy.

The Planning Commission had suggested to a group chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that its replacement body should be structured to meet the need of changing economic paradigm and comprise sectoral experts and states' representative. The restructured plan panel could be a combination of three or four divisions.

In his first Independence Day speech in August 2014, PM Modi had indicated that the 64-year-old Commission had lost its relevance. Later, he tweeted asking for public feedback on what shape the institution should take.

It was India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a socialist who admired Joseph Stalin's drive to industrialize the Soviet Union, who in 1950 set up - and chaired - the Planning Commission to map out a development path for India's agrarian economy.

A government-backed report suggested replacing the Planning Commission with a think tank more in line with a US-style Council of Economic Advisors.

However, the opposition Congress has criticised the plan, calling it "shortsighted and dangerous".

Some Tit - Bits on Planning Commission:

The Planning Commission is an institution in the Government of India, which formulates India's Five-Year Plans, among other functions. It is located at Yojana Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi. It was established in accordance with article 39 of the constitution which is a part of directive principles of state policy.

The composition of the Commission has undergone considerable changes since its inception. With the Prime Minister as the ex officio Chairman, the committee has a nominated Deputy Chairman, who is given the rank of a full Cabinet Minister. Presently the post of Deputy Chairman of the Commission is vacant, after the new Government in the Center.

Present ex officio members of the Commission, are the Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister, Home Minister, Health Minister, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister, Information Technology Minister, Law Minister, HRD Minister and Minister of State for Planning.

The Planning Commission's functions as outlined by the Government's 1950 resolution are following:

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CURRENT AFFAIR QUIZ FOR OCTOBER MONTH

Hello friends! If you are looking for Current Affairs for October 2014 then no need to search anymore because this page is providing you Current Affairs October 2014 with questions and answers.

QUIZ 

1. India and China agreed to open a new route for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jingping to India. As per the agreement, the new route will be through?

A.    Nathula Pass

B.    Lipulekh Pass

C.    Spanggur Gap

D.   Shipkila Pass

Ans. B

2. Name the Music Maestro Mandolin player who died on 19 September 2014 in Chennai following a failed liver transplant at the age of 45?

A.    Uppalapu Srinivas

B.    Dave Apollon

C.    Ricky Skaggs

D.   None of the above

Ans. A

3. Which State government on 19 September 2014 launched a Unicode based mobile app for android phones to promote the language spoken in the State?

A.    Andhra Pradesh

B.    Tamil Nadu

C.    Karnataka

D.   Telangana

Ans. C

4. The 17th Asian Games is supposed to be held in?

A.    Doha, Qatar

B.    Incheon, South Korea

C.    New Delhi, India

D.   Guangzhou, China

Ans. B

5. Name the youngest Indian sailor who will represent India in 17th Asian Games 2014?

A.    Abigail Jillian

B.    Chitresh Tatha

C.    Vir Menon

D.   Jillian Schlesinger

Ans. B

6. Recently, Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik won the People’s Choice prize at the World Cup of Sand Sculpting-2014 in US. He won prize for his work ____?

A.    Save Tree, Enrich Green

B.    Save Tree, Save the Future

C.    Save Water, Save the Future

D.   Save Water, Save the Life

Ans. B

7. India’s Saina Nehwal clinched the women’s single title at the Australian Badminton Open Super series by defeating ___?

A.    Carolina Marin

B.    LI Xuerui

C.    Wang Yihan

D.   BAE Yeon Ju

Ans. A

8. The major tribal bodies of which State on 8 September 2014 rejected the demand for a separate State called Twipraland?

A.    Madhya Pradesh

B.    Arunachal Pradesh

C.    Tripura

D.   Maharashtra

Ans. C

9. Which state recently made it mandatory for women to wear helmets while riding a two-wheeler?

A.    Maharashtra

B.    Kerala

C.    Delhi

D.   Rajasthan

Ans. C

10. Recently, the power ministry has set up a seven-member panel called “Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy” to look into issues related power sector. The chairman of the advisory group is _____?

A.    Suresh Prabhu

B.    Pratyush Sinha

C.    Anil Baijal

D.   Partha S Bhattacharya

Ans. A

11. Ramanayaran who passed away recently, was a famous film director in ___?

A.    Tamil

B.    Kannada

C.    Hindi

D.   Telugu

Ans. A

12. Recently, which among the following Indian Airliners has joined global airline body Star Alliance?

A.    Air India

B.    GoAir

C.    IndiGo

D.   Jet Airways

Ans. A

13. Recently, the government of India has extended the ban on imports of milk and its products from China for one more year till 2015. The ban has imposed due to presence of _____?

A.    Urea

B.    Melamine

C.    Magnesium Sulphate

D.   Ammonia

Ans. B

14. Vinod Kumar Duggal resigned as the Governor of which State?

A.    Maharashtra

B.    Madhya Pradesh

C.    Manipur

D.   Nagaland

Ans. C

15. Recently India and ASEAN signed an agreement to strengthen trade relations. In this context, which of the following Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is not signed between India and ASEAN countries?

A.    Free Trade Agreement in services

B.    Free Trade Agreement in investments

C.    Free Trade Agreement in goods

D.   Free Trade Agreement in manpower

Ans. D

16. Who among the following has become the first Indian to win three medals in successive ISSF Shooting World Cup?

A.    P N Prakash

B.    Jitu Roy

C.    Saurav Roy

D.   Prashant Jain

Ans. B

17. The theme of World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2014 is ___?

A.    Land Belongs to the Future – Let’s Climate Proof It

B.    Land Degradation – Let’s join hand together to prevent it

C.    Combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture

D.   Desertification and Climate Change – One Global Challenge

Ans. A

18. The “Salar Jung Museum”, which has turned 125 years of foundation recently, is in ____?

A.    Mumbai

B.    Pune

C.    Hyderabad

D.   Kolkata

Ans. C

19. Who among the following has won the prestigious Pen Pinter Prize-2014?

A.    Salman Rushdie

B.    Ronald Clipp

C.    Arundathi Roy

D.   J K Rowling

Ans. A

20. According SEBI new slew of reforms all listed companies including PSU’s must have public shareholding of ___ per cent. Fill the blank with correct option?

A.    Ten

B.    Fifteen

C.    Twenty

D.   Twenty Five

Ans. D

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India's Mars Orbiter Mission / Mangalyan Details

23 IMPORTANT POINTS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MOM(MARS ORBITER MANGALYAN) 

• The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called as Mangalyaan (Mangalyan is an unofficial name)
• This program is run by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization)
• Manufactured by Indian Space Research Organisation Satellite Centre (ISAC)
• Launched into Earth orbit on 5th November 2013
• It was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
• This project is aimed as a "technology demonstrator". It will showcase and prove the capability for    interplanetary missions
• The launch was made using PSLV-XL C25 rocket
• The orbiter will have a life of 6 to 10 months in the orbit
• While orbiting Mars the orbiter will study surface features, minerals and atmosphere on Mars
• There are 5 main instruments on the orbiter:

                A.Lyman-Alpha Photometer (LAP)

                B.Methane Sensor For Mars (MSM)

                C.Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA)

                D.Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS)

                E.Mars Colour Camera (MCC)

• It was successfully inserted into orbit of Mars on 24 September 2014
• India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit.
• The Mars Orbiter Mission was achieved on a budget of $74 million, nearly a tenth of the amount    the US space agency Nasa spent on sending the Maven spacecraft to Mars.

Team Members worked on Mangalyaan Mission

• K Radhakrishnan Chairman of ISRO, secretary in department of space.- Responsible for leading          the mission and overall activities of Isro.
• M Annadurai Programme director, Mars Orbiter Mission -Responsible for budget management, direction for spacecraft configuration, schedule and resources.
• S Ramakrishnan Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Member Launch Authorisation Board. Responsible for realising the rocket (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) that would ferry the Mars orbiter.
• SK Shivakumar Director, Isro Satellite Centre. Responsible for developing satellite technology and implementing satellite systems for scientific, technological and application missions.
• P Kunhikrishnan Project director, PSLV programme; ninth time as mission director. Responsible for seeing the rocket completes its mission successfully and that the satellite is correctly injected in the designated orbit.
• Chandradathan Director, Liquid Propulsion system. Made rich contribution to the realisation of solid motors for sounding rockets
• AS Kiran Kumar Director, Satellite Application Centre- Responsible for designing and building three of the orbiter payloads - Mars Colour Camera, Methane Sensor and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer.
• MYS Prasad Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Chairman, Launch Authorisation Board- Responsible for range safety and schedules, overall incharge at rocket port.
• S Arunan Project director, Mars Orbiter Mission. -Responsible for leading a team to build the spacecraft.
• B Jayakumar Associate project director, PSLV project -- Responsible for the rocket systems, testing till the final lift-off. 
• MS PannirselvamChief general manager, range operation director at Sriharikota Rocket port. --Responsible for maintaining launch schedules without any slippages

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QUIZ On Currency & Capital

1. Which among the following countries is not the members of EU but use the EURO as currency?

(1) Croatia 

(2) Romania 

(3) San Marino 

(4) Panama

(5) Bulgaria 

2. Which among the following countries is the members of EU (European Union) but do not use the EURO as currency?
(1) San Marino
(2) Poland
(3) Palau
(4) Ireland
(5) Finland


3. Dollar is the currency of _____.
(1) Jordan
(2) Ecuador
(3) Hungary
(4) Monaco
(5) Mexico


4. Currency of Tanzania is ____.
(1) Tanzanian Shilling
(2) Tanzanian Dollar
(3) Tanzanian Krone
(4) Tanzanian Pond
(5) Tanzanian Dirham


5. Dong is the currency of ____.
(1) Vietnam
(2) Venezuela
(3) Yemen
(4) Zambia
(5) Uganda


6. Capital of Ukraine ___.
(1) Lusaka
(2) Sanaa
(3) Lome
(4) Kyiv
(5) None of these


7. “Lilongwe” is the capital of _____.
(1) Malta
(2) Malawi
(3) Lithuania
(4) Jamaica
(5) None of these


8. Peso is not the currency of which Country___.
(1) Cuba
(2) Mexico
(3) Argentina
(4) Estonia
(5) Chile


9. Kigali is the capital of ____
(1) Samoa
(2) Rwanda
(3) Vanuatu
(4) Tonga
(5) None of these


10. Capital of Liberia is ____.
(1) Riga
(2) Maseru
(3) Lome
(4) Monrovia
(5) Majuro

1	3	6	4
2	2	7	2
3	2	8	4
4	1	9	2
5	1	10	4

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QUIZ-General Knowledge Questions

1. 13th Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas 2015 will be held in ____? ?

1) Bangalore

2) Kochi

3) New Delhi

4) Mumbai

5) Gandhi Nagar





2. Recently H.L. Dattu sworn in as new ______ Chief Justice of India.

(1) 41st

(2) 42nd

(3) 43rd

(4) 44th

(5) None of these



3. Who is the Program director of Mangalyaan Mission of India?

1) Ratan Kumar Sinha

2) S Ramakrishnan

3) Mylswamy Annadurai

4) K Radhakrishnan

5) None of these



4. The Padma Bhushan awardee MV Kamath, who passed away, recently, was a veteran ____.

1) Historian

2) film director

3) author

4) Journalist

5) None of these



5. Ajay Jayaram is associated with which of the following games?

1) Tennis

2) Table tennis

3) Badminton

4) Billiards

5) None of these



6. Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as the president of which of the following countries recently?

1) Spain

2) Georgia

3) Cambodia

4) Turkey

5) None of these



7. As revealed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the banking system detected the highest number of counterfeit notes of which of the following denominations in FY14?

1) Rs 50

2) Rs 100

3) Rs 500

4) Rs 1,000

5) None of these



8. A bank draft can be defined as a/an ____.

(1) Letter from commercial bank

(2) Cheque drawn on the bank itself

(3) Direction to a banker to collect a customer’s debt

(4) Instruction to dishonour a stop payment

(5) None of the above



9. The RBI started issuing its bi-monthly credit policy on the recommendation of..?

1) Swaraj committee

2) Raghavan committee

3) Bimal jalan committee

4) Urjit patel committee

5) K.C. Chakravarti committee



10. In which city canara bank has opened its 7th overseas office recently ?

1) New York

2) Tokyo

3) Dubai

4) Beijing

5) London



11. With which sport is Deodhar Trophy associated?

1) Football

2) Volleyball

3) Cricket

4) Hockey

5) Badminton



12. Vistara is the joint venture airlines of ......

1) Tata-Malaysian Airlines

2) Tata-Singapore Airlines

3) Tata-Australia Airlines

4) Tata-Jet Airlines

5) None



13. Which of the following team is not one of the participant of Kabaddi League?

1) Bengal Warriors

2) Telugu Titans

3) Bihar Big Brothers

4) Dabang Delhi

5) Bengaluru Bulls



14. In order to boost tourism, e-VISA to be introduced in a phased manner at how many airports in India in the next 6 months as announced by Finance Minister in the union budget 2014-15 ?

1) 18

2) 5

3) 4

4) 9

5) 25



15. RBI has Recently hiked the trade related remittance limit from Rs.2 Lakh to ______ lakhs ?

1) 4 lakh

2) 5 lakh

3) 6 lakh

4) 8 lakh

5) 10 lakh


Answers:

1	5	6	4	11	3
2	2	7	3	12	2
3	3	8	2	13	3
4	4	9	4	14	4
5	3	10	1	15	2

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