Questions

1. In a first of its kind, doctors in Sweden have transplanted into the body of 10-year-old girl a vein grown in the laboratory from her own stem cells. The core team that performed the procedure was led by:-
(a) Dr N K Mehra
(b) Dr Suchitra Holgersson(c) Dr Martin Birchall
(d) Dr George Hamilton

2. Choose the correct sentence/sentences:-
1. Scientists have discovered a new species of freshwater fish in an unnamed stream in the Western Ghats in southern Karnataka.
2. Researchers have named the fish Dario urops after the Greek words meaning "tail" and "eye" to denote a conspicuous spot near its tail.
3. They have described their finding as "unexpected" in the latest edition of international taxonomy journal Zootaxa. 
Code:-
(a) 1 and 2 (b) 2 and 3
(c) 1 and 3 (d) 1, 2 and 3

3. Who has bagged the 2012 World Business & Development Award for its transformational rural initiatives in social and farm forestry programmes in India at the Rio+20 United Nations Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
(a) Unilever Limited
(b) ITC Limited
(c) Tata Limited
(d) Reliance Limited

4. Choose the correct sentence/sentences:-
1. Gambian lawyer Fatou Bensouda was sworn in as the International Criminal Court's new chief prosecutor.
2. Fatou Bensouda is the first woman and the first African to head the team of prosecutors at the Tribunal.
3. She is investigating 17 cases in seven countries, all of them African.
Code: 
(a) Only 1 (b) 1 and 2
(c) 2 and 3 (d) All of the above 

5. Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Su Kyi accepted her Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. She originally was given the award in the year_________.
(a) 1990 (b) 1991
(c) 1992 (d) 1993

 

Current Affair

FDI in services sector up 5% in April - Oct

India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the services sector increased by a mere 5 per cent to $3.6 billion during the April-October period of this fiscal, according to the latest data of Industry Ministry.

The financial and non-financial services sector had attracted FDI worth $3.42 billion during the same period last year.

As far as overall FDI inflows are concerned, they declined by about 27 per during the first seven months of the current financial year to $14.78 billion, from $20.29 billion in the year-ago period.

In 2011-12, foreign investment in the services sector, which contributes over 50 per cent in India’s GDP, rose to $5.21 billion from $3.29 billion in 2010-11.

The other sectors which have received high level of FDI during the first seven months of current fiscal include hotel and tourism ($3.11 billion), metallurgy ($1.21 billion), construction ($691 million) and automobile ($743 million).

Country wise, high levels of FDI came during the period from Mauritius ($6.75 billion), Japan ($1.52 billion), Singapore ($1.24 billion) the Netherlands ($1.05 billion) and the UK ($611 million), the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) data showed.

The government is making sustained efforts, including involving stakeholders in policy formation, to make the investment regime more attractive and investor friendly, it said.

It has already allowed FDI in multi-brand retail sector besides hiking the cap to 100 per cent in the single brand retailing.

Foreign investments are considered crucial for India, which needs around $1 trillion in the next five years to overhaul its infrastructure sector such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth.

Decline in foreign investments could affect the country’s balance of payments (BoP) situation and also impact the rupee.