General Knowledge(GK) (or) General Awareness

Correct Answer :   Ben Stokes

---

England Test captain Ben Stokes became the player to hit the most number of sixes in the history of Test cricket, surpassing England coach and former New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum in the match against New Zealand.

* Stokes holds the world record for hitting two sixes in the second innings of the first Test between England and New Zealand at Mount Maunganui (New Zealand).

* Stokes played an innings of 31 runs in 33 balls, which included three fours and two sixes.

* In 90 Test matches, Stokes scored a total of 5,652 runsat an average of 36.00 with 109 sixes and 12 centuries and 28 fifties. His individual best score in Tests is 258.

* McCullum has 107 sixes in 101 Tests. He scored 6,453 runs at an average of 38.64. He has 12 centuries and 31 fifties in Tests with a best score of 302. Batsman who hit most sixes in test cricket.

* Australia’s Adam Gilchrist is third after Stokes (109) and McCullum (107) to hit 100 sixes in Test cricket. Chris Gayle of West Indies is fourth in the list with 98 sixes and Jacques Kallis of South Africa is fifth with 97 sixes.

* India’s Virender Sehwag is in sixth place, he has hit 91 sixes. Sehwag is the Indian to hit the most sixes in Tests..

Correct Answer :   Saurashtra

---

Saurashtra defeated Bengal by 9 wickets at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, to lift the Ranji Trophy title on Sunday (19th Feb 2023) for the second time in their history.

Bengal, who were overnight 169 runs for 4 in their second innings, were all out for 241, handing the visitors a mere 12 runs target to win the final.

Saurashtra lost their opening batsman Jay Gohil without scoring off the bowling of Akash Deep but eventually went past the target, reaching 14 for 1 in 2.4 overs. The winners wrapped up the match with one day and two full sessions to spare.

Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat was the pick of the bowlers in the second innings claiming a 6-wicket haul.

Scores :

Bengal : 174 for 10 and 241 all out.

Saurashtra :  404 all out and 14 for one.

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   Bronze Medal

---

Team India won the bronze medal at the Asia Mixed Team Championships 2023, held at the Dubai Exhibition Centre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 14 to 19 February 2023.

* P.V. Sindhu-led side faced a 2-3 defeat against China in the semifinals and settled for the bronze medal.

* Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won the Women’s Doubles.

* While team China won the Gold medal, South Korea won the Silver medal..

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   Martin Foundation

---

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation and Space Zone India in association with Martin Foundation launched the APJ Abdul Kalam Satellite launch vehicle mission 2023 in Pattipolam Village, Chengalpattu near Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

* The launch of the sounding rocket was scheduled for 7.45 AM (19th Feb 2023). The Chief Guest of the event was Telengana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Former ISRO Director Mayilsamy Annadurai and Dr. Anand Mehalingam, Founder and CEO of Space India private limited were present at the event.

* More than 5000 students from grade 6 to 12 from different parts of the Country including 200 students from the fishermen's community designed and constructed the rocket and 150 PICO satellite research experiment cubes that contained different payloads in today's (19th Feb 2023) launch.

* The reusable rocket was made by the selected top 100 students of which 60 are from Tamilnadu. The rocket can be used for research in weather, and to assess atmospheric conditions and radiation.

* Martin Foundation did a total of 85 per cent of the funding for this project. The selected students have been taught about satellite technology through virtual classes, which have been followed by hands-on sessions to help them explore the project domain...

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   Bank of Maharashtra (BoM)

---

Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has emerged as the top performer among state-owned lenders in terms of loan growth percentage during the third quarter of 2022-23.

* The Pune-based lender recorded a 21.67% increase in gross advances on a year-on-year basis, according to the latest quarterly numbers of the public sector bank (PSB).

* The bank has maintained the top slot in credit growth in percentage terms consistently for the past 10 quarters despite COVID-19 pressures.

* BoM was followed by the Union Bank of India with 19.80 per cent growth. Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) stood at fourth spot with 16.91 per cent rise in advances growth.

* However, SBI's total loans were about 17 times higher at Rs 26,47,205 crore as compared to Rs 1,56,962 crore of BoM in absolute terms.

* In terms of Retail-Agriculture-MSME (RAM) loans, BoM has recorded the highest growth of 19.18 per cent, followed by Punjab & Sind Bank with 19.07 per cent and Bank of Baroda with 18.85 per cent on an annual basis.

* Gross NPAs reported by BoM and SBI were 2.94 per cent and 3.14 per cent of their total advances, respectively, as on December 31, 2022. Net NPAs for these two banks came down to 0.47 per cent and 0.77 per cent.

* With regard to Capital Adequacy Ratio, BoM recorded 17.53 per cent, the highest among PSBs, followed by Canara Bank at 16.72 per cent and Indian Bank at 15.74 per cent as on December 31, 2022..

Source : The Hindu Businessline

Correct Answer :   K.K. Shailaja

---

Former Health Minister K.K. Shailaja has been selected for the 32nd Ramashramam Unneerikkutty Award.

* This is an annual award, which is given to individuals who have made a mark in the fields of art, literature, culture, politics, or social service by Kozhikode-based Ramashramam Trust.

* Ramashramam Trust chairman and writer M. Mukundan told reporters here on Friday (17th Feb 2023) that Ms. Shailaja was selected for the award based on her services as a minister during the times of Nipah outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic, besides her services to the State in various other capacities.

* The Ramashramam Award has earlier been given to noted personalities such as A.P. Udayabhanu, V.R. Krishna Iyer, Ponkunnam Varkey, Balan K. Nair, Moorkkoth Ramunni, K.V. Rabiya, P. Bhaskaran, M.V. Devan and O.N.V. Kurup. Actor Indrans was the recipient of the award in 2022 when it resumed after a three-year gap.

* Ms. Shailaja is the fourth woman to win the award ever since its inception in 1985..

Source : The Hindu

Correct Answer :   Ramesh Krishnan

---

Former India Davis Cup tennis player "Ramesh Krishnan" was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual awards night function organised by the Rotary Club of Madras, T. Nagar (RCMT), in Chennai on Thursday (16th Feb 2023).  

Tamil Nadu Tennis Association president and ace tennis player "Vijay Amritraj" presented the award and a citation to Mr. Krishnan. Mr. Vijay Amritraj was the recipient of the first award in 2010.

Golf player Uttam Singh Mundy was awarded for vocational excellence and K.V. Rangaswami, former Executive Director and Member of the Board of L&T, was honoured with the Living Legend Award.

Meenakshi Periakaruppan, president of the RCMT, spoke about the social welfare activities of the club, including purchasing of medical equipment and improving education amenities in schools.

N. Nandakumar, District Governor, Rotary International 3232, and Mohan Rajan, Chairman (Fundraising) of the club, participated...

Source : The Hindu

Correct Answer :   6.2%

---

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 6.2% in FY24 as drivers of domestic demand remain intact amid fears of an impending slowdown, Morgan Stanley said in a research report released on Thursday (16th February 2023).

The report said that as the economy fully reopened in 2022 leading to a cyclical recovery in consumption, pickup in private capex with healthy balance sheets in the private corporate and financial sector, and acceleration in government capital spending, the world’s fifth largest economy will breach the consensus GDP growth figure of 6%.

“We believe that the key for sustained domestic demand is a pickup in capex, which will help create more jobs, thus leading to a virtuous cycle of more jobs leading to higher income, which will lead to higher saving, resulting in higher investment”, the report notes.

Earlier, the Union Budget for FY24 had projected nominal GDP growth at 10.5%, as the centre increased the capital investment outlay steeply for the third year in a row by 33% to Rs 10 trillion.

The Economic Survey for 2022-23 projected that India would witness a growth between 6-6.8% in FY24, depending on the trajectory of economic and geo-political developments globally.

The report also mentioned that the incoming high-frequency data on indicators like private consumption and investment reflected a moderation in the December quarter driven by base effect and shift in the festival calendar rather than a slowdown.

“Indeed, incoming data on high-frequency indicators have gained momentum both in YoY (year-on-year) and MoM (month-on-month) terms in January. The trend is thus encouraging after these indicators exhibited mixed signs, with some of them slowing in YoY terms in Q3 after peaking in Q2, driven by the impact of shift in festival dates on growth rates”, the report notes...

Source : Business Standard

Correct Answer :   $8.31 Billion

---

India's foreign exchange reserves experienced its biggest decline in over 11 months, dropping by 8.3% in the week ending 10th February 2023, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) statistical supplement released on Friday (17th Feb 2023).

As of the end of last week, India's foreign exchange reserves were recorded at a one-month low of $566.95 billion, reflecting a decline of 8.3% from the previous week's figure of $575.27 billion, during which it fell 1.5%.

The Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI revealed that, for the week ending February 10, the foreign currency assets - a significant component of India's foreign exchange reserves - decreased by $7.108 billion to $500.587 billion.

According to the Reserve Bank of India, gold reserves have decreased for the second consecutive week, dropping by $919 million to reach a total of $42.862 billion.

Additionally, the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) also decreased by $190 million to $18.354 billion. The country's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also declined by $102 million to $5.145 billion during the reporting week, as per data from the apex bank..

Source : CNBC

Correct Answer :   Intel

---

Intel has launched the new Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), which are built for professional creators to provide massive performance for media and entertainment, engineering, and data science professionals.

* According to Intel, the new workstation processors are available for pre-order from industry partners, with system availability beginning in March.

Intel Launched ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Processors for Professional Creators :

* The new Intel Xeon desktop workstation platform is uniquely designed to unleash the innovation and creativity of professional creators, artists, engineers, designers, data scientists, and power users.

* Intel vice president and general manager Roger Chandler informed that it is built to tackle both the most demanding workloads as well as the professional workloads of the future.

* Moreover, the company informed that the Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 processor series enable unprecedented scalability for increased performance with a breakthrough new compute architecture, faster cores, and new embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) packaging.

* The new processors also provide the high-end computing foundation that professionals these days require for the future of computing.

* The chip-making company, Intel, mentioned that with DDR5 RDIMM memory, PCIe Gen 5.0, and Wi-Fi 6E, the new processors give professionals the cutting-edge platform technologies they require for the compute workloads of the future..

Source : Business Standard