Current Affairs December 2014 - First Week

1) Who was appointed as the new CBI Director on 2 December 2014?

Ans. Anil Kumar Sinha

2) 26th World AIDS Day was observed across the world on 1 December 2014 with the theme?

Ans. Focus, Partner, Achieve: An AIDS-free generation

3) Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was on 5 December 2014 named as the Asian of the Year 2014 by The Straits Times. 'The Straits Times' is the leading newspaper in which country?

Ans. Singapore

4) Mahaparinirwan Diwas was observed across India on 6 December 2014 on the death anniversary of?

Ans. Dr B R Ambedkar

5) Who became the first Indian Footballer to be conferred with Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Hall of Fame Award on 30 November 2014?

Ans. Baichung Bhutia

6) Which film won the Golden Peacock Award at the 45th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) which concluded in Goa recently?

Ans. Leviathan, Russian Film

7) Name the mascot for the 2016 European football championship announced recently?

Ans. Super Victor

8) As decided recently, the birthday of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the 25 December will be observed as?

Ans. National Good Governance Day

9) United Nations General Assembly on 5 December 2014 declared which year as the International Year of Soils?

Ans. 2015

10) Who was nominated as the next defence secretary of US Department of Defence by the President Barack Obama on 5 December 2014?

Ans. Ashton Carter

Note: He will replace Chuck Hagel as US Defence Secretary, who resigned in November 2014.

11) Recently American geologists discovered the most abundant mineral on earth's lower mantle known as?

Ans. Bridgmanite

12) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 29 November 2014 flagged off first passenger train to which north-eastern state?

Ans. Meghalaya

Note: The move has put Meghalaya on India's railway map for the first time.

13) Which country on 30 November 2014 launched National Day song in Tamil language to celebrate 50 years of its independence in 2015?

Ans. Singapore

Note: Tamil is the fourth official language of Singapore.

14) Who became the oldest player to score a century in the One-Day International (ODI) on 30 November 2014?

Ans. Khurram Khan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) captain

Note: He scored the century against Afghanistan in Dubai. He achieved the feat at an age of 43 years and 162 days thus breaking the record held in the name of Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka.

15) Which country launched the new generation navigation satellite GLONASS-K on 30 November 2014?

Ans. Russia

16) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 2 December 2014 announced ...... bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement?

Ans. fifth

Note: The rates have been kept unchanged. (Repo rate: 8 percent, Reverse repo rate: 7 percent)

17) Nuclear capable missile Agni-IV was test fired on 2 December 2014 from?

Ans. Integrated Test Range in Wheeler Island, Odisha.

18) Nation on 3 December 2014 remembered the Bhopal gas tragedy that happened 30 years back on?

Ans. 3 December 1984

19) UN observed International Volunteer Day (IVD) on?

Ans. 5 December

20) International Criminal Court (ICC) on 5 December 2014 withdrew the case against President of which African country?

Ans. Kenya President, Uhuru Kenyatta

21) Which state government on 5 December 2014 decided to ban health camps without prior approval of district civil surgeons?

Ans. Punjab

22) Name the multi-level global campaign to highlight importance of girls’ education  launched by Bollywood actresses Priyanka Chopra and Freida Pinto in New Delhi on 29 November 2014?

Ans. Girl Rising

23) Who won the 2014 presidential elections of Uruguay on 30 November 2014?

Ans. Tabare Ramon Vazquez Rosas

24) Maoists killed more than dozen CRPF personnel in an attack in Chintagufa area of Sukma district of which state on 1 December 2014?

Ans. Chhattisgarh

25) Border Security Force (BSF) celebrated its .....th Raising day on 1 December 2014?

Ans. 49^th

26) State Government of Gujarat on 5 December 2014 declared 353 villages of which district as completely or partially scarcity-affected?

Ans. Kutch

27) Who won the 2014 US Player of the Year award on 5 December 2014?

Ans. US football team goalkeeper Tim Howard

28) Who was appointed as the Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on 1 December 2014?

Ans. OP Singh

29) Credit Rating Agency ICRA Limited on 5 December 2014 appointed whom as non-executive Chairman after he was elected unilaterally by the ICRA Board?

Ans. Arun Duggal

30) First World Soil Day was observed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on?

Ans. 5 December 2014

31) Egypt court on 29 November 2014 dropped charges against its former President?

Ans. Hosni Mubarak

32) The book "2014: The Election That Changed India" that was released on 1 November 2014 was penned by?

Ans. Rajdeep Sardesai

33) India recently joined the elite group of countries to build the largest telescope in the world at?

Ans. Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

34) International Day for the Abolition of Slavery was observed by the United Nations on?

Ans. December 2

35) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 30 November 2014 coined the acronym SMART for police forces across the country in the 49th annual conference of India DGPs and IGPs. What does SMART stands for?

Ans. S for strict but sensitive, M for modern and mobile, A for alert and accountable, R for reliable and responsive, T for techno-savvy and trained

36) Researchers led by Professor Gene K Beare recently developed world’s fastest 2D camera at which University?

Ans. National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Washington University.