Current Affairs – 14 August 2016

1. Union Government has launched the first phase of Smart Ganga City programme in 10 cities located along River Ganga on 14 August 2016. Name the Union Water Resources Minister?

Answer:  Uma Bharti

Note: 10 Cities/Towns are Haridwar, Rishikesh, Mathura, Varanasi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow, Patna, Sahibganj and Barrackpore.

2. Name India’s top squash player who recently won the prestigious PSA Australian Open held in Melbourne?

Answer: Dipika Pallikal

3. Na Muthukumar who died on 14 August 2016 was a famous?

Answer: Lyricist

Note: He won two national awards for the songs Ananda Yazhai Meetukiral in Thanga Meengal and Azhage Azhage in Saivam. He is the only Tamil writer who wrote 103 songs in single year (2012).

4. Name the Bollywood actors who bagged the best actress & best actor awards at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2016?

Answer: Sonam Kapoor & Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Note: Sonam was awarded for her performance in Neerja & Nawazuddin won for his role of psycho serial killer in Raman Raghav 2.0.

5. Who recently became India's first captain to win two Tests in West Indies?

Answer: Virat Kohli

Note: Bishen Bedi, Ajit Wadekar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni won one Test each as captain in West Indies.

6. South Indian Bank (SIB) & ____ has recently announced their collaboration to launch co-branded credit cards for the customers of South Indian Bank?

Answer: SBI Card

7. India will be celebrating its ___th Independence Day on 15 August 2016?

Answer: 70th

8. According to a recent research by NASA which planet was habitable for up to 2 billion years?

Answer: Venus

Note: NASA report suggests that the planet had a shallow water ocean & cooler surface temperatures for up to 2 billion years. The findings were obtained with a model similar to the type used to predict future climate change on Earth. Measurements by NASA’s Pioneer mission to Venus in the 1980s first suggested Venus originally may have had an ocean.

9. Name the world No. 61 women badminton player who defeated Saina Nehwal in the group stage of Olympics 2016?

Ans: Maria Ulitina of Ukraine

10. What was the theme of 2016 International Youth Day (IYD) observed on 12 August?

Answer: The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production