India

Q 1. PM Modi inaugurated the longest rail – road bridge in India called Bogibeel bridge on Dec 25 2018 . Over which river is this bridge ?

Q 2. Who has acquired the controlling stake in the Max healthcare chain of hospitals that will make the combined entity the largest hospital chain in North India ?

Q 3. Which retail group has launched its Retail 3.0 strategy that combines digital and bricks and mortar and calls it the TATHASTHU model ?

Q 4. In the recently released big budget Kannada and other language Film KGF , what does G stand for ?

Q5. Name this 83 year old brand that represents the handloom weavers of Tamil Nadu. It has seen a remarkable turnaround under a new leadership in the last 4 years.

Q6. As per a recent report from the delivery service Swiggy’s which dish was the most ordered item by Indians in the last one year ?

Q7. SEBI has announced that they will soon come out with a ‘sandbox’ policy. What is a ‘sandbox’ ?

Ans. The Sandbox policy will allow companies to test products in a closed environment, a particular geography or among a set of users, before they are allowed roll out commercially meeting all regulations.

Q8. Which 2 Public Sector banks are investors in the Life Insurance co. Star Union Daichi ?

Q 10. Which company merged with KPIT and now will be demerged into two separate companies from January 2019 ?

Q 12. Why is India’s drug regulator conducting raids on Johnson and Johnson and seizing talcum powder ?

Q 13. What is the new name for the merged entity formed by the merger of IDFC Bank and Capital First ?

Global

Q 14. Name this fund manager and philanthropist . He is called the Father of Hedge Funds and as a philanthropist he advocates liberal democracy and open society. He has been named the FInancial Times person of 2018.

Ans. George Soros

Q 15. Goodyear has withdrawn out of Venezuela due to the economic crisis there . What severance benefits it is offering its workers ?

Ans. 10 tyres each

Q 16. When Elon Musk wanted to name his company Tesla , he found it was already taken. He later bought it for 75000 $. What was the alternate name thought for Tesla ?

Ans. Faraday

Q 17. Identify this logo.

Ans. Python – the programming language

Q 18. What is the business of Cronos a Canadian company where Altria Group, the maker of Marlboro has invested ?

Ans. Marijuana

Q 19. John Rockefeller had a Family Office in 1882. It has become popular in the last decade or so. What is a ‘family office’ ?

Ans. Family offices manage families’ wealth, administer assets and often other services, from paying bills to succession-planning

• Compiled by G.Mohan @go_mohan 

India

Q 1. After the merger of HUL and GSK Consumer Healthcare what would be the share of GSK in HUL ?

Ans. 5.7 %

Q4. Who has Govt appointed as the Chief Economic Adviser in place of Arvind Subramanian ?

Q7. Which event in Udaipur helped Mumbai airport to create a new record of handling 1007 flights in a single day ?

 Q8. Where has INOX launched its first LED screen based on Samsung’s ONYX technology ?

Q9 . Arundhati Bhattacharya has taken over as the Chairperson of SWIFT India. Expand SWIFT

Q 10. When the newly appointed RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das retired as Secretary from Govt of India in 2017 what parting gift did he receive from the Govt ?

Q 11. What new product category has Titan entered the Indian market with the brand name TANEIRA ?

Global

Q 12. The original designer of the I Love NY is not happy with the Amazon’s version. Who was the original designer in 1977 ?

Ans. Milton Glaser

Q13. Identify this business executive who was India head of Facebook and has now become a fund manager with SoftBank

Ans. Kirthiga Reddy

Q14. Which country has announced that to emphasize its focus on environment , it is making public transport through train , trams and buses entirely free for all , a first in the world ?

Ans. Luxembourg

Q15. Infiniti is luxury car division of which auto maker ?

Ans. Nissan

Q 16. Samsung has replaced another advertiser as the brand with the biggest advertising spend worldwide. Who has it replaced ?

Q 17. In financial lingo, what are ‘Munis’ ?

Ans. Municipal Bonds

Q19. This 7 year old is the highest earning You Tube star . Name him and his estimated earnings

Ans. Ryan , Ryan ToysReview is the YouTube channel. 22 Million $

• Compiled by G.Mohan Twitter @go_mohan

India

Q 1. In which country have 7 Indian IL&FS employees held as hostage by the local employees for non payment of salaries ?

Ans. Ethiopia

Q 2. What business is the startup EV Motors India in ?

Ans. Network of charging stations

Q 3. Who is behind the newly launched digital entertainment company Dharmatic Entertainment ?

Ans. Karan Johar

Q 4. What does Dabur call its Chyawanprash that is Sugar Free ?

Ans. Dabur Chyawanprakash sugar free

Q 5. SBI Mutual Fund is launching its first Smart Beta Fund. What are Smart Beta Funds ?

Ans. A smart Beta ETF is a type of exchange-traded fund that uses alternative index construction rules instead of the typical cap-weighted index strategy, in a transparent way. It takes into account factors such as size, value and volatility.

Q 6 Which Maruti model that was launched in 2005 has hit sales of 2 Million cars since its launch recently ?

Ans. Maruti Swift

Q 7. Where is India’s largest floating solar energy project of 150 MW being implemented by Solar Energy Corporation of India coming up ?

Ans. Rihand Dam on the UP-MP border

Q8. Revv, the car rental company has come up with a unique offer called OPEN not offered in India before. What is unique about it ?

Ans. New cars, over 25 different models ,  are available on rentals with no down payment and road tax upfront payment

Q9. As air pollution news occupies headlines, consumer durable marketers are pushing air purifiers. Most air purifiers use HEPA filters. Expand HEPA

Ans, High efficiency Particulate Air

Q 10. Which model of Bajaj Auto has Rajiv Bajaj accepted as his  biggest failure ?

Ans. Bajaj Discover 100

Q 11. Which state in India receives the largest amount by way of remittances from abroad ?

Ans. Kerala

Q 12. Why is there a threat of over 1,00,000 ATMs closing down by next year in India ?

Ans. The new safety regulations for ATMs will increase the costs so much that ATMs will become unremunerative

 

Global

Q 12. In which country chess has become so popular and fashionable that there are chess bars, chess art , chess fashion etc thanks to a world champion ?

Ans. Norway -because of Magnus Carlssen

Q 13. The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. It is the official start of the holiday season , then why is it called Black Friday ?

Ans. Black friday in the shopping sense dates from the 1960s and was originally used with reference to congestion created by shoppers; it was later explained as a day when retailers’ accounts went from being ‘in the red’ to ‘in the black’.

Q 14. Name this Chevrolet car model that was launched in 1950s and it peaked in 1960s. It was a big status symbol among filmstars that it was mentioned in a Kishore Kumar song. Now it is being withdrawn by GM

Ans. Chevrolet Impala

Q 15. What is unique about the CEO Beth Ford of Land O’Lakes a Fortune 500 company ?

Ans. First CEO who had openly announced her LGBT status

Q 16. In the US cities, Bird , Scoot, Skip and Lime are becoming a rage in the various cities. What are they ?

Ans. e-scooters on rent

Q17. 5G phones and networks are.expected to be launched commercially worldwide in early 2019. One of its key feature is eMBB. What is eMBB ?

Ans. Enhanced  mobile broadband

Q 18. WPP the advertising group,.has announced the merger of two of its advertising arms worldwide to create an integrated agency . Which two arms are being merged and what would be its new name ?

Ans. Wunderman and JWT will merge to form Wunderman Thomson

Q 19. Which is the biggest online travel agency in China ?

Ans. CTrip

Q 20. Name this US based fast food chain founded by Truett S. Cathy. It runs in his strong Christian beliefs so remains closed on Sundays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. He has instructed that his family can sell it but not take it public.

Ans. Chick Fil- A

Q 21 Force India will no longer be seen in the 2019 F1 season. In what name will that team appear after the change of owners ?

Ans. Racing Point

Q 22. What is the name of the late stage venture capital fund of Alphabet Inc with HQ is San Francisco ?

Ans. CapitalG

Q 23. By announcing that they have launched their last satellite , which communications major has announced the end of Satellite TV as we know it ?

Ans. AT & T ‘s DirectTV division

Q 24. Who is the producer of a small film called ROMA in a few theatres in US, UK , Canada with little publicity ? Yet, it is making news

Ans. Roma has been produced by Netflix which does not release it in theatres. The film has got a theatre release to make it eligible for Oscar

Q 25. In India Sony has Sony Liv OTT streaming service. What is the OTT service from Sony in US called ?

Ans. Playstation Vue

• Compiled by G.Mohan Twitter @go_mohan

India

Q1 Which technology/ industry will be regulated in India by the Digital Sky platform from December 1, 2018 ?

Ans. Drones

Q2 Alyque Padamsee , who passed away last week  was an advtg legend. He is known for his campaigns for Liril, Surf, Bajaj etc. Which newspaper was launched with a memorable ad campaign with the tagline ‘unputdownable’ by him

Ans. The Telegraph

Q3. Which Indian automobile group is part of the venture that has relaunched the vintage motorcycle brand JAWA ?

Ans. Mahindra

Q4. Former IndiGo head Aditya Ghosh has joined as CEO of which organisation ?

Ans. OYO

Q5. What technique used by freight trains in Indian Railways will make the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani faster ?

Ans. Push and pull technique where there are engines at both ends

Q6. Which state in India receives the largest amount by way of remittances from abroad ?

Ans Kerala

Q7. Why is there a threat of over 1,00,000 ATMs closing down by next year in India ?

Ans. Nearly 50% ATMs are likely to shut due to unviability of operations caused by recent regulatory guidelines for ATMs hardware and software upgrades, new mandates on cash management standards and cassette method of loading cash.All new compliances have an additional cost element.

Q8. Name this brand that has nearly 54 % share globally in the chocolate spreads market. Its nearest rival has a mere 2 % share 

Ans. Nutella

Q9. In which country chess has become so popular and fashionable that there are chess bars, chess art , chess fashion etc thanks to a world champion ?

Ans. Norway because of Magnus Carlssen

Q10. After a rather fierce competition among cities to get Amazon’s HQ2 which two cities were finally chosen as the second headquarters ?

Ans. New York City and Northern Virginia

• Compiled by G.Mohan Twitter @go_mohan

India

Q 1. What is RBI setting up for lenders to get 360 degree view of the borrowers on a real time basis ?

Ans. Public Credit Registry

Q 2. What electricals brand was bought by Qimat Rai Gupta from Haveli Ram Gandhi in 1971 ?

Ans. Havells got its name from Haveli

Q 3. What is short for Dhanvantri Trayodashi, an important day for jewellery and durable marketers ?

Ans. Dhan Teras

Q 4. Under what brand names is Patanjali’s apparel division Paridhan launching various apparels ?

Ans. Aastha, Sanskar and Livfit

Q5. Who has released this emotional short video commercial on the occasion of Diwali ?

Ans. HP Printers

Q6. In which European country has Mukesh Ambani taken e-residency and has formed a JV for e-governance ?

Ans. Estonia

Q7. What unique capability does the launch of INS Arihant add to the Indian defence ?

Ans. INS Arihant is a nuclear submarine. It provides nuclear launch capabilities from water, giving India the capability to launch from air , land and water.

Q8. Raghuram Rajan said that the board of RBI should be like X, but not like Y. X and Y are ?

Ans. X- Rahul Dravid, Y- Sidhu

Q9. In a move to improve availability of credit to MSMEs , an online mode of securing loans has been announced by government from public sector banks. This loans will be given within what time limit ?

Ans. 59 minutes

Q 10. Amazon has recently launched Amazon Audible service in India. What is this service ?

Ans. Audio books subscription service

Q 11. What innovation by the likes of L’Oreal and Godrej, later followed by others has expanded the market for ‘creme based hair dyes in India ?

Ans. Marketing of creme based hair dyes in sachets

Q 12. Country Delight, O’leche, iOrganic, Binsar are niche startups retailing what product ?

Ans. Milk from farm to home

Q 13, Which iconic building is owned by the company Associated Buildings Company Ltd ?

Ans. Bombay House

Q14. Lulu International is a chain of hypermarkets that operates in many countries. In India they have a huge mall in Kochi. Where is the HQ of Lulu ?

Ans. Abu Dhabi

Q 15. The Union cabinet has approved strategic disinvestment of the PSU Dredging Corporation of India. Who will be the acquirer of the govt’s 73 % stake ?

Ans. Consortium of four ports namely Vizag, Kandla, Paradeep and  JNPT

Q 16. Who is the newly appointed Chairman of Competition Commission of India ?

Ans. Ashok Kumar Gupta

Q 17. Name this startup founded by Sridhar Gundiah which is a network distribution platform that helps the small retailers in rural India , Karnataka to start with, to procure over 50000 products , many not available through the traditional channel

Ans. StoreKing

Q 18. Name this renowned Indian Economist who was a Professor at Yale University. He was recognised by Indian govt with a Padma Bhushan .He passed away today. RIP,

Ans. Dr T.N.Srinivasan

Global

Q 19. Which leading phone maker has released an ad for enrolling in an upgrade programme by saying ‘ Get the phones we can’t show you yet ‘ ?

Ans. Samsung

Q 20. SAP has acquired Qualtrics a 300 Mn $ revenue generating company for 8 billion $. What capability does this acquisition bring to SAP ?

Ans. Survey software capability

Q 21. Akihiko Kondo of Japan married Hatsune Miku this month attended by around 40 guests. What was unusual about the bride ?

Ans. Hatsune Miku is a 3D Hologram of a virtual reality singer

Q 22. On 11th November  , the e-commerce sites in China like Alibaba group did record sales, far exceeding Black Friday in US or Diwali in India. What is the day called ?

Ans. Singles Day

Q 23. As the cities are getting crowded and polluted , many city dwellers are looking at moving away or atleast joining farm collectives where they can live closer to nature. This movement started in UK and such places slightly away from cities have a name. What are they called ?

Ans. Transition towns

Q 24. With which other Icelandic airline is Iceland Air announced a merger ?

Ans. WoW Air

Q 25. In this picture is Tom Stuker with the crew of United Airlines. What achievement of his is being honoured by United Airlines ?

Ans. 20 Million Miles clocked by Tom Stuker on United Airlines

Q 26. Which news agency has developed ‘AI Synthetic Anchors’ using Artificial Intelligence to read news similar to real news readers ? Availability 24×7 for reading Breaking News is one big advantage

Ans. Xinhua

Q 27. Which international magazine has changed hands from Meredith to Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon ?

Ans. Fortune

Q 28. Which country ranks No 1 in the Ease of Doing Business as per the recent World Bank Report ? India is 77.

Ans. New Zealand

Q 29. “Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponized against us with military efficiency” Who said this recently about the biggest risk of technology ?

Ans. Tim Cook of Apple

• Compiled by G.Mohan Twitter @go_mohan 

India

Q 1. Identify this businessperson and her company

Ans. Devita Saraf of Vu television..VU is now one of the largest selling TV being sold through e-commerce channels

Q 2. Name this co-operative bank with operations in Maharashtra mainly and HQed in Mumbai that celebrated its centenary this September

Ans. Saraswat Bank

Q 3. Between which two locations is Pepsi moving containers containing foods and snacks on inland waterways in India for the first time by MV R N Tagore ?

Ans. Kolkata and Varanasi on National Waterway No 1

Q4. Supreme Court has asked Delhi govt to implement withdrawal of vehicles beyond a certain age to fight pollution better . What upper age limit has been prescribed ?

Ans. 10 years for diesel vehicles and 15 years for petrol vehicles

Q5. India is largely a market for commuter bikes. Of late, a few ‘Super bikes’ are getting launched by companies like Motoroyale Kinetic . What is a super bike ?

Ans. More than 600 cc approx

Q6. With which country has India signed a 75 Bn $ currency swap agreement that will help India manage the foreign exchange volatility better ?

Ans. Japan during PM Modi’s recent visit

Q7. Deloitte India Technology Fast 50 companies 2018 was brought out recently, a list of fastest growing startups in India. Which city has the largest number i.e 11 in this list ?

Ans. Bengaluru

Q8. Who will be soon launching an SUV named KICKS ?

Ans. Nissan

Q9. ITC has entered the pouch milk market , first in Bihar and later Kolkata. It has been launched as an extension of their existing brand with Svasti tagged to it. Which existing brand is being extended ?

Ans. Aashirvaad

Q 10. Which Indian corporate major was involved in the construction of the Statue of Unity, i.e Sardar Patel’s statue at Kevadia, Gujarat ?

Ans. Larsen and Toubro

Q 11. Which section of the RBI Act empowers the government to consult and give instructions to the governor to act on certain issues that the government considers serious and in public interest ?

Ans. Section 7

Q 12 . Most technology companies are big consumers of energy. They try to be socially conscious by using green and clean energy as much as possible or totally. Which tech co is the largest buyer of renewable energy in the world

Ans. Google

Q 13. After Nexa, Maruti Suzuki has launched a new showroom channel with Varun Dhawan as a brand ambassador, what is this channel called ?

Ans. Maruti Suzuki Arena

Q 14. India has shown a significant improvement in the Ease of Doing Business rankings published recently from 100 to 77  Who publishes it ?

Ans. World Bank

Q 15. Which is the brand being endorsed by Dhoni here ? The TVC also has Watson and Bravo

Ans. Peter England

Global

Q 16. It is seen as an example of a product that did not live upto it’s hype and original promise. This plane was introduced by Airbus as a double decker plane that could carry large number of passengers in 2007. Even it’s original buyer Emirates is going slow in adding this plane now ?

Ans. Airbus A380

Q 17. Microsoft is betting on three technologies for the future, artificial intelligence, quantum computing  and mixed reality. What is mixed reality and how is it different from augmented reality ?

Ans. From the Intel site 

Augmented Reality
AR overlays digital information on real-world elements. Pokémon GO* is among the best-known examples. Augmented reality keeps the real world central but enhances it with other digital details, layering new strata of perception, and supplementing your reality or environment.

Mixed Reality
MR brings together real world and digital elements. In mixed reality, you interact with and manipulate both physical and virtual items and environments, using next-generation sensing and imaging technologies. Mixed Reality allows you to see and immerse yourself in the world around you even as you interact with a virtual environment using your own hands—all without ever removing your headset. It provides the ability to have one foot (or hand) in the real world, and the other in an imaginary place, breaking down basic concepts between real and imaginary, offering an experience that can change the way you game and work today.

Q 18. World over airlines are an industry where the governments often run them for prestige as a flag carrier. Which airline is ‘should be shut down’ as per the country’s Finance Minister because it has been loss making since 2011 ?

Ans. South African Airways

Q 19. If Apple is into computers and devices, what is the brand OPPLE in ?

Ans. Lighting

Q 20. As a method of monetisation, where would WhatsApp be putting advertisements to start with ?

Ans. Advertisements in the “status” of the members

Q 21. Why are restaurants in US cutting down their size and replacing some of their tables and chairs with shelves, even as their business is growing ?

Ans. Food delivery is growing faster and less guests are visiting restaurants

Q 22. With which company would you associate Pablo Isla who has been voted once again as the best performing CEO in the world by HBR  ?

Ans. Inditex , the company behind Zara

Q 23. Nearly 60% of crude oil trade globally is done with Brent crude price as the reference. What or where is Brent ?

Ans. The Brent oil field is in the North Sea off Scotland

Q 24. Who are the 2 CEOs in this picture and which major deal has been announced by them ?

Ans. James M Whitehurst (Red Hat) and Ginni Rometty ( IBM) – Acquisition of Red Hat by IBM for 34 Bn $

Q 25. Name this cartoon character that celebrates its 90th birthday today. The company behind it is putting all its might behind it . This character despite its age is still the most popular cartoon character .

Ans. Mickey Mouse

• Compiled by G.Mohan Twitter @go_mohan