General Awareness Quiz for Bank Mains Exams 2024-02nd January

Q1. Approximately how much crore of Sovereign Green Bonds (SGB) did the Government of India (GoI) raise in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), as informed by Union Minister R.K. Singh, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)?

(a) Rs. 10,000 crore
(b) Rs. 12,000 crore
(c) Rs. 14,000 crore
(d) Rs. 16,000 crore
(e) Rs. 18,000 crore

Q2. Between which two celestial bodies is the Psyche spacecraft traveling to explore a unique metal-rich asteroid with the same name?

(a) Earth and Venus
(b) Jupiter and Saturn
(c) Mars and Jupiter
(d) Venus and Mercury
(e) Uranus and Neptune

Q3. Who is the chairman of the ‘One Nation One Election’ committee as per the notification issued by the Law Ministry, which includes 8 members?

(a) Narendra Modi
(b) Amit Shah
(c) Ram Nath Kovind
(d) Arun Jaitley
(e) Rajnath Singh

Q4. Which Indian fintech decacorn has recently launched the Pincode app, a consumer-facing app aimed at strengthening its e-commerce initiatives and integrated into India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) framework?

(a) Paytm
(b) PhonePe
(c) Google Pay
(d) Amazon Pay
(e) MobiKwik

Q5. Which of the following judges is not part of the five-judge bench that delivered the verdict on petitions challenging the abrogation of J&K’s Article 370 and its bifurcation into Union Territories?

(a) Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud
(b) Justice B R Gavai
(c) Justice A. S. Bopanna
(d) Justice Kishan Kaul
(e) Justice Sanjiv Khanna

Q6. Which of the following parameters and their respective weights in the RBI-DPI are not matched correctly?

(a) Payment Enablers – 25%
(b) Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors – 10%
(c) Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors – 15%
(d) Payment Performance – 40%
(e) Consumer Centricity – 5%

Q7. To support which sector did India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) enter into a strategic partnership, aiming to promote the extension of formal financial services and other support services?

(a) Agriculture
(b) Information Technology
(c) Healthcare
(d) Manufacturing
(e) Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises

Q8. Which company has been named the official sponsor of the Indian Contingent for the 19th Asian Games 2022 that was held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8, 2023?

(a) Reliance Industries
(b) Amul
(c) Tata Group
(d) Coca-Cola
(e) Infosys

Q9. Which online grocery delivery player recently entered the unicorn club in 2023 with a series E fundraising of $200 million, valuing the company at $1.4 billion?

 (a) Zepto
(b) Grofers
(c) BigBasket
(d) Dunzo
(e) Zomato

Q10. Recently, Survey of India and which of the following companies have formed a strategic partnership to create a three-dimensional (3D) digital twin-mapping program in India?

(a) GeoSpoc
(b) Genesys International
(c) Astra Info Systems
(d) Geofiny Technologies Pvt Ltd
(e) Geosys

Solutions

S1. Ans. (d)
Sol. Union Minister R.K. Singh, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), in a written response to a query in Lok Sabha, informed that the Government of India (GoI) had raised Sovereign Green Bonds (SGB) of Rs.16,000 crore (approximately) in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23).
Details:

• Out of the total funding, Rs. 6,186 crores was crafted to offer low-cost funds for renewable energy projects via green bonds.

S2. Ans. (c)
Sol. The Psyche spacecraft is traveling to a unique metal-rich asteroid with the same name, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
Details:

• By August 2029 the spacecraft will begin exploring the asteroid that scientists think – because of its high metal content – may be the partial core of a planetesimal, a building block of an early planet.
• Psyche’s main computer, flight software, fault-protection systems, and most of the telecommunication systems come from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.

S3. Ans. (c)
Sol. The ‘One Nation One Election’ committee, as per a notification by the Law Ministry, is chaired by former President of India Ram Nath Kovind.
Details:

• The committee comprises seven other members, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ghulam Nabi Azad, NK Singh, Subhash C. Kashyap, Harish Salve, and Sanjay Kothari.

S4. Ans. (b)
Sol. Walmart-backed Indian fintech decacorn PhonePe has recently launched Pincode, a new consumer-facing app aimed at strengthening its e-commerce initiatives.
Details:

• The app will be integrated into India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) framework.
• This move comes three months after Flipkart completed the full ownership separation of PhonePe.

What is ONDC:

• The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a government-backed initiative that seeks to democratize e-commerce by transforming it from a platform-centric model to an open network for buying and selling goods and services.
• With ONDC, a buyer registered on one e-commerce site can purchase goods from a seller on another participating e-commerce site.
• It’s not-for-profit and promotes open networks developed on open-sourced methodology.

S5. Ans. (c)
Sol. Justice A. S. Bopanna is not part of the five-judge bench.
Details:

• The Supreme Court delivered a verdict on petitions challenging the abrogation of J&K’s Article 370 and its bifurcation into Union Territories.
• The five-judge bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, conducted hearings over 16 days.
• Chief Justice, along with Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, authored the operational aspects of the verdict, while Justices Kishan Kaul and Sanjiv Khanna provided separate but concurrent judgments.

S6. Ans. (d)
Sol. The RBI-DPI comprises 5 broad parameters that enable the measurement of deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different periods.
These parameters are –
(i) Payment Enablers (weight 25%),
(ii) Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors (10%),
(iii) Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors (15%),
(iv) Payment Performance (45%)
(v) Consumer Centricity (5%)

S7. Ans. (e)
Sol. India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) entered into a strategic partnership to promote the extension of formal financial services and other support services to MSMEs, especially enterprises in rural and remote areas of the country.

S8. Ans. (b)
Sol. Amul is named as the official sponsor of the Indian Contingent for the 19th Asian Games 2022 to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8, 2023.
Details:

• Amul has partnered with Indian sportspersons through the Indian Olympic Association since the London 2012 Olympics for all Indian contingents to the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and Asian Games and we are pleased to further strengthen our decade-long relationship.

S9. Ans. (a)
Sol. Online grocery delivery player Zepto has become the second Indian startup in 2023 to enter the coveted unicorn club with its series E fundraising of $200 million, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, the startup.

S10. Ans. (b)
Sol. Recently, the Survey of India (SoI) and Genesys International, a leading Indian mapping company, announced a strategic tie-up for a three-dimensional (3D) digital twin-mapping program in India.
Details:

• The twin digital copy will also help policymakers understand how infrastructure will function in different situations, such as high-footprint events, an increase in population, or natural disasters.
• The strategic partnership aims to create digital twins of major cities and towns, leveraging Genesys’ all-India highly accurate navigable maps.
• The Genesys constellation of sensors and SOI’s recently launched Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) network allow for real-time high-precision positioning data.