QUESTION 1: The twin cities of Hyderabad, India and Secunderabad are divided by a lake. The famous stone embankment across the lake is known by a pretty simple name. There are two theories associated with how it got its name. State both of them.
ANSWER 1: The first theory is that its called Tank bund because over the years the size of the 22 km² lake has reduced dramatically and people started referring to it as a really big 'tank' (a small enclosed water body). Also, there's an old M48 Patton Tank on display next to rotary park on the Bund. Thus another theory behind the name Tank Bund. The tank is one of 100s captured during the Battle of Assal Uttar in the Indo-Pak 1965 war.
QUESTION 2: Answer the following :
a) What are the earliest Christians in India known as? (The Caste's name).
b) Who is attributed to have travelled from the west and performed the first baptisms ? (The person's name or how he is popularly know as).
c) When? (Which year).
d) Where? (The exact place name).
ANSWER 2: a) Mar Thoma Khristianis/ Nasrani people
QUESTION 3: Paraphrasing a great man's saying - "You are first ignored, later laughed at. Then they fight you, but you win." Connect this with a term in software jargon, its usage, the great man whose saying have paraphrased and the person who coined the term.
ANSWER 3: The term is GandhiCon. And the person is Eric S. Raymond. GandhiCon describes levels of recognition and perceived threat from open/free competitors to established commercial products. The "-Con" suffix is a nod to the military term "DEFCON."
QUESTION 4: What word for a strong cotton working cloth or overalls, comes from a low lying village near Bombay where it was first manufactured?
ANSWER 4: Dungarees from Dongari Kapar named after fort Dongari Killa.
QUESTION 5: In August 2003, J Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu issued orders to enforce a law that had been passed 53 years earlier, but not enforced. What law was that?
ANSWER 5: The law was "Tamil Nadu Prevention of Cruelties to Animals Act, 1950". It was used to clamp down on religious offerings (sacrifice of 500 buffaloes) made in the temple near the town of Trichy in August 2003. The practice continued even after that. 200 buffaloes were offered in temple in Karur district in June 2004.
QUESTION 6: What was British's first trading post in India? What was the year?
QUESTION 7: Which state of India gets its name from the fact that 5 tributaries run through it. Name the state, each of the five tributaries, and the river the tributaries belong to.
ANSWER 7: River is Indus. Famous five tributaries - the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej - that give Punjab its name (land of the five rivers).
QUESTION 8: Name the Indian who discovered a law related to supernova? He also had an asteroid named after him.
"...for in 2000 the Government decided to issue a new "revised" set, guided by the following principle: that there would be a hundred volumes, each of 500 pages. The edifice painstakingly created by Swaminathan and his team was dismantled; and the entries now "remixed" according to the new specifications. In the process, the illuminating prefaces written to the original volumes have been dropped. Also missing are the maps and illustrations. The cross-references, so carefully prepared and so indispensable to scholars, have been rendered meaningless."
What are these volumes? Who is Swaminathan? What became of this controversy?
ANSWER 10: These were the volumes of collected works of Mahatma Gandhi. Made by Professor K. Swaminathan. This controversy was some time ago and was defacing the name of Mahatma Gandhi, now they want to create a new edition of these volumes that are more factually accurate.
QUESTION 11: What perecentage of the earth’s population are followers of Dharmic religions? What percentage of Asia’s population are the followers of Dharmic religions?
ANSWER 11: 20.58% and 31.3%
QUESTION 12: Back in the days before cinema, high entertainment and comic books; mass media existed in the form of story tellers and entertainers, who traveled from village to village with dolls and scrolls depicting scenes drawn from myths and folklore. Name this folk-art.
QUESTION 13: What is the Indian connection to a popular online photo service? Name the connection and the photo service.
ANSWER 13: ValueLabs developed the platform for Snapfish that was bought by HP. ValueLabs is planning to expand its India-based centre, and it already has 2 in Hyderabad.
QUESTION 14: This is the only country to have supported India in all its foreign policies in the last 50 years. However, it rarely gets praised for it and hardly gets any media coverage as India's strategic partner. Which country is being talked about and what is the reason behind its perpetual support to India's foreign policy.
ANSWER 14: Bhutan - The defence and foreign policy of Bhutan are the responsibility of India.
QUESTION 15: Over 400 titles and 85 million copies, this series was one of the most successful ventures in Indian publishing history. There were attempts to televise this in the last decade, but due to budgetary constraints, it had (arguably not well-known) actors playing the roles in 15-minute or segments or so, rather than what its televised form should ideally have been. What is being referring to?
QUESTION 18: I entered business at the age of 18 in 1976. My latest interest is export business based on horticulture. I am on the board of governors of one of the IITs as well as one of the IIMs. Who am I?
QUESTION 19: Legend has it that this actor on landing at the Gateway of India in 1928, offered the following prayer to the almighty: "Mr. God, if you don't make me an actor and a star here, I will swim the seven seas and go to Hollywood". Who is being talked about?
(2) ISI with Jadavpur University developed India's first indigenous computer — ISIJU.
(3) The commonality is both URAL and ISIJU are supposed to have been donated to Birla Industrial and Technological Museum.
QUESTION 21: This Indian cricketer of the yesteryears was nicknamed "Rhubarb" by his western counterparts as his real name was difficult to pronounce. Who is being referred to?
QUESTION 23: His name is Prem Behari Narain Raizada (Saxena), son of Brij Behari Narain Raizada and hails from Delhi. Although he is not himself well-known, he wrote something in his own hand, using a flowing italic style in the best calligraphic traditions. What did he write?
QUESTION 25: A place falling undisputedly under the dominion of India was "formally" annexed by India more than five years after the Independence of India due to an "unusual" reason.
Name the place.
Give the year in which we annexed it.
State the reason for the delay
ANSWER 25: Minicoy island in 1956. The reason was that the information about the Independence of India had not reached them. Nehru noticed the Union Jack flying on a lighthouse during his visit. The Union Jack was formally unhoisted by a representative of the UK.
