General Knowledge(GK) (or) General Awareness

Welcome to the General Knowledge Section of Free Time Learning. As we are aware General Knowledge (GK) is a very important area in all the competitive exams held in the country. Nowadays, a good knowledge of general awareness is very important in clearing any competitive and government recruitment examinations.

These General Knowledge Question are very important and usefull to UPSC, IAS/PCS, UPPSC, IBPS, SBI, RBI, SSC, CGL, Railway, APPSC, TSPSC, KPSC, TNPSC, TPSC, UPPSC, MPSC, RPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, UKPSC, MPSC, and other competitive exams.

1 .

Who has won the Men's Single Title of the Australian Open Championship 2023?

Carlos Alcaraz

Rafael Nadal

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Novak Djokovic

Correct Answer : Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the Australian Open 2023 men's singles match. Djokovic wins the Australian Open for the tenth time and the 22nd grand slam. With his 22nd Grand Slam championship, he equals Rafael Nadal.

Aryna Sabalenka won the women's singles tennis championship at the 2023 Australian Open by defeating Elena Rybakina in the final, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 2023 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis event held in Melbourne Park from January 16 to 29, 2023.

Grand Slam titles : 22 (Australian Open 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023; French Open 2016, 2021; Wimbledon 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022; U.S. Open 2011, 2015, 2018)...

Source : Reuters

Published On : January 30, 2023

2 .

Reserve Bank of India release, India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by ______to ______ in the week ended January 20, 2023.

$1.275 billion to $513.364 billion

$1.421 billion to $524.32 billion

$1.575 billion to $501.52 billion

$1.727 billion to $573.727 billion

Correct Answer : $1.727 billion to $573.727 billion

India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $1.727 billion to $573.727 billion in the week ended 20 January 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday (27th January 2023).

* India’s forex reserves stood at $561.583 billion as on January 13, 2023.

* The Foreign Currency Assets stood at $503.65 billion. FCA is a major component of the overall reserves. Expressed in dollar terms, FCA includes the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

* At the start of 2022, the overall forex reserves were at $633.61 billion and dropped to a two-year low in October.

* Much of the decline can be attributed to RBI's intervention and a rise in the cost of imported goods. It is still down sharply from a peak of over $642 billion touched in September last year (2022)...

Source : Economic Times

Published On : January 29, 2023

3 .

Which Team won the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2023 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India on 29th Jan 2023?

Belgium

Australia

Germany

India

Correct Answer : Germany

Germany beat Belgium 5-4 in the penalty shootout to win the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India on Sunday (29th Jan 2023).

The scores were level at the end of regulation time at 3-3. This is Germany’s third Hockey World Cup title after they won it in 2002 and 2006.

With this, they draw level with Netherlands and Australia. Germany also became the fourth team to register a come-from-behind win in a World Cup final. From a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 to lead and ultimately a shootout, they eventually became champions.

Earlier in the day, the Netherlands beat Australia 3-1 to claim the bronze medal. It was the first time since 1998 that Australia failed to finish on podium at the FIH World Cup.

FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 standings – all teams

1. Germany

2. Belgium

3. Netherlands

4. Australia

5. England

6. Spain

7. New Zealand

8. Korea

9. Argentina

9. India

11. South Africa

11. Wales

13. France

13. Malaysia

15. Chile

15. Japan...

Source : Olympics

Published On : January 29, 2023

4 .

Which team Won the first-ever ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup 2023?

England

Australia

South Africa

India

Correct Answer : India

India beat England in the first-ever ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 final in Potchefstroom, South Africa. India bowled out England for a paltry 68 and won by 7 wkts.

This is the first ICC trophy India has won in women’s cricket. The Indian women’s cricket team has never won a World Cup at any level. The seniors reached the World Cup final on three occasions across formats but failed to go the distance. Bowling first, India cleaned up the English side for mere 68 runs in 17.1 overs.

England captain and stellar all-rounder Grace Scrivens has been named Player of the Tournament after a run of outstanding performances with bat and ball.

Titas Sadhu of India poses after being named Player of the Match following the ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup 2023 Final match.

ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup Scores :

* India Women Under-19s: 69/3 (14 ov); India won by seven wickets, with 36 balls to spare.

India 69 for three in 14 overs (Soumya Tiwari 24 not out, Gongadi Trisha 24, Shafali Verma 15, Alexa Stonehouse one for 8, Hannah Baker one for 13)

* England Women Under-19s: 68/10 (17.1 ov)

England 68 all out in 17.1 overs (Ryana Macdonald-Gay 19, Sophia Smale 11, Titas Sadhu two for 6, Parshavi Chopra two for 13, Archana two for 17)

Playing XI of Both teams :

* India U19s Women XI : SS Sehrawat, Shafali Verma (Captain), SM Tiwari, G Trisha, RM Ghosh, HN Basu, TR Sadhu, MS Kashyap, Archana, P Chopra, SM Yadav

* England U19s Women XI : G Scrivens, L Heap, N Holland, Seren Smale, CR Pavely, RL Macdonald-Gay, A Stonehouse, J Groves, EJ Anderson, Sophia Smale, HL Baker...

Source : Cricbuzz

Published On : January 29, 2023

5 .

Which company Invests $10 Billion in ChatGPT Maker OpenAI?

Google

Meta

Microsoft

Apple

Correct Answer : Microsoft

Microsoft said on Monday (23rd January 2023) that it was making a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar” investment in OpenAI, the San Francisco artificial intelligence lab behind the experimental online chatbot ChatGPT.

The companies did not disclose the specific financial terms of the deal, but a person familiar with the matter said Microsoft would invest $10 billion in OpenAI.

Microsoft had already invested more than $3 billion in OpenAI, and the new deal is a clear indication of the importance of OpenAI’s technology to the future of Microsoft and its competition with other big tech companies like Google, Meta and Apple.

With Microsoft’s deep pockets and OpenAI’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence, the companies hope to remain at the forefront of generative artificial intelligence — technologies that can generate text, images and other media in response to short prompts. After its surprise release at the end of November, ChatGPT — a chatbot that answers questions in clear, well-punctuated prose — became the symbol of a new and more powerful wave of A.I.

The fruit of more than a decade of research inside companies like OpenAI, Google and Meta, these technologies are poised to remake everything from online search engines like Google Search and Microsoft Bing to photo and graphics editors like Photoshop.

The deal follows Microsoft’s announcement last week that it had begun laying off employees as part of an effort to cull 10,000 positions. The changes, including severance, ending leases and what it called “changes to our hardware portfolio” would cost $1.2 billion, it said.

Satya Nadella, the company’s chief executive, said last week that the cuts would let the company refocus on priorities such as artificial intelligence, which he called “the next major wave of computing.”..

Source : NY Times

Published On : January 28, 2023

6 .

For the Aditya L1 project of ISRO, who has made the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VLEC) payload?

HAL

DRDO

IIT Mumbai

Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) Bengaluru

Correct Answer : Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) Bengaluru

Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru handed over Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC) payload for Aditya-L1 mission to ISRO in a ceremony held on January 26, 2023 at the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) Campus, Hosakote, near Bengaluru.

VELC payload was designed and realised at CREST campus. The payload was handed over to Director, U R Rao Satellite Centre (USRC) by Director, IIA in the presence of Chairman, ISRO/ Secretary, DOS Shri S Somanth.

Project Director of Aditya-L1 Smt. NigarShaji, and Principal Investigator of VELC Dr. B Raghavendra Prasad were present on the occasion. The payload would be integrated to the satellite at URSC.

VELC has a mechanism to occult the solar disc to separate and discards the light from the disk.The light from the Corona is captured by the coronagraph for further processing. VELC aims to collect the data for solving how the temperature of the corona can reach about a million degrees while the Sun’s surface itself stays just over 6000 degrees Centigrade.

For this, the payload targets at the continuous observations of the Corona, right from its lowermost boundary upwards after having discarded the bright light from the solar disc.

VELC weighs 90 kg and is 1.7 m x 1.1 m x 0.7 m in dimension...

Source : ISRO

Published On : January 27, 2023

7 .

How many people have been selected for Padma Vibhusan award 2023?

Correct Answer : 6

On the occasion of Republic Day 2023, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced the winners of Padma Awards on Wednesday (25th January 2023).

06 Padma Vibhushans, 09 Padma Bhushan, and 91 Padma Shris were among the 106 Padma awards.

19 of the honorees are female. Former Samajwadi Party chairman Mulayam Singh Yadav will be awarded the Padma Vibhushan in the category of public affairs posthumously. The President bestows these honors during ceremonial festivities held in Rashtrapati Bhawan in March and April of each year.

Padma Awards is the highest civilian awards of India. The award is presented in three categories including Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri to honour people for their notable work in different disciplines and fields like art, social work, literature and education, public affairs,etc.

Know the complete list of Padma awardees of 2023.

1. Shri Balkrishna Doshi (Poshumous)

2. Shri Dilip Mahalanabis (Posthumous)

3. Mulayam Singh Yadav(Posthumous)

4. Shri Zakir Hussain

5. Shri S M Krishna

6. Shri Srinivas Varadhan..

Source : Mint

Published On : January 27, 2023

8 .

Who has been selected for the ICC Men's Cricketer of the year 2022?

Virat Kohli

Babar Azam

Ben Strokes

Rohit Sharma

Correct Answer : Babar Azam

In the 2022 ICC Awards, Babar Azam won both the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and the Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year, beating out tough fields in both categories.

A year after being named 'ODI Cricketer of the Year' in 2021, the flamboyant hitter continued to dominate international cricket, being the first player to score 2000 runs in all forms in 2022. Babar easily surpassed that mark, accumulating 2,598 runs at an impressive average of 54.12.

Published On : January 27, 2023

9 .

The United Nations has slashed India's growth forecast by 20 basis points to ____percent for the 2023 calendar year.

6.7 percent

6.2 percent

5.8 percent

5.3 percent

Correct Answer : 5.8 percent

The United Nations (UN) has cut its GDP growth forecast for India for calendar year 2023 to 5.8 percent, citing the effect of tighter monetary policy and weak global demand.

"Growth in India is expected to remain strong at 5.8 percent, albeit slightly lower than the estimated 6.4 percent in 2022, as higher interest rates and a global slowdown weigh on investment and exports," the UN's World Economic Situation and Prospects 2023 report, published on January 25,2023.

The report is written by the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and the regional economic commissions for Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and Western Asia.

Like several other central banks around the world, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reacted to elevated inflation and hiked the policy repo rate by 225 basis points in 2022 to 6.25 percent...

Source : CNBC

Published On : January 27, 2023

10 .

Which Indian movie has been nominated for the Best Documentary Short in Oscar Awards 2023?

RRR

All that Breathe

The Elephant Whisperers

Tell it like a women

Correct Answer : The Elephant Whisperers

The Oscar nominations were announced on January 24, 2023, and India received three nominations for the 95th Academy Awards.

The Elephant Whisperers, a 41-minute short by Kartiki Gonsalves, was also nominated for Best Documentary Short.

SS Rajamouli's RRR received only one nomination in the Best Original Song category for "Naatu Naatu," despite the fact that it has a big fan base in the United States.

The film did not receive nominations for Best Picture or Best Director. All That Breathes by Shaunak Sen was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film...

Source :Money Control