Thursday, September 23, 2010




Norman Borlaug                M.S.Swaminathan



Q1. Identify the beautiful actress in the picture.

Answer: Jayalalithaa Jayaram or J. Jayalalitha (as commonly referred), (born February 24, 1948), is a former Chief Minister and current leader of the opposition of the Government of Tamil Nadu, India. She is the incumbent general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a Dravidian party in the state. She is popularly called Amma (mother) and Puratchi Thalaivi (Revolutionary Leader) by her followers. She was a popular film star in Tamil cinema before her entry into politics.

Q2. A man earned a sobriquet after contesting and being defeated in over 300 elections. Who was this person and what was the sobriquet?

Answer: Kaka Joginder Singh (1918 in Gujranwala - December 23, 1998 in Bareilly) (alias Dharti Pakad meaning "one who clings to the ground") was a textile owner who contested and lost over 300 elections in India. His nomination papers were usually disregarded by the election commission and he earned the nickname Dharti Pakad (one who clings) after several unsuccessful runs for the President of India. The most prolific year for him was during the 1992 10th Presidential elections where he earned fourth place in the polling with 1135 votes, losing to Shankar Dayal Sharma. He also tried elections from 14 states of India in the 1990s, mostly for state assemblies.

Q3. What is common to these three leaders?

Answer: They, Mayawati, H.D. Deve Gowda and Prakash Karat are the leaders of the Third Front.

Q4. Identify the symbol.

Answer: This is the Election Symbol of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI(M).

Q5. What is common to these Prime Ministers?

Answer: They were all Rajya Sabha Members.

Q6. A minister was referred to by the first name of this girl in the picture whose rape and murder by the son of a Police Inspector-General created quite a conspiracy. Name the minister.

Answer: Indira Gandhi also known as Priyadarshini (bearing the same first name as the girl in the picture, Priyadarshini Matoo).
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (19 November 1917 - 31 October 1984) was the Prime Minister of the Republic of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, a total of fifteen years. She was India's first and, to date, only female Prime Minister.

Q7. A certain word has not been defined in the Indian constitution. Name it.

Answer: Backward.

Q8. Identify the person the the picture.

Answer: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Pakistan's twice sacked chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhury is returning to his old post after the government reinstated him to stave off a huge rally planned by lawyers and the opposition. His return is being hailed as a victory for an independent judiciary.

Q9. What is common to these two women?

Answer: Both these women (Annie Besant and Sonia Gandhi) have been Presidents of the Congress.

Q10. Who recently described the economic strategy of a prominent leader by using a phrase that is also the name of a Chris Rea album.

Answer: Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, the head of the European Union, slammed President Barack Obama's plan to spend nearly $2 trillion to push the U.S. economy out of recession as "the road to hell" that EU governments must avoid. Incidentally, "The Road to Hell" is a 1989 album by Chris Rea, and is one of Rea's most famous albums.

Q11. Identify the person in the picture.

Answer: Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is an Indian diplomat, politician, and writer who has been known mostly for his having worked as an Indian diplomat at the United Nations. In 2006, he was the official candidate of India for the office of United Nations Secretary-General, and came second out of seven official candidates in the race. Tharoor served as the UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information between June 2002 and February 2007, during the term of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is an author, journalist, and fellow of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

Q12. A certain Vice-President is a keen environmentalist who also won a Nobel Prize and is also an author and former journalist. Name the President of his country at the time when he as Vice-President?

Answer: Bill Clinton.
Al Gore Biography (Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.): 45th Vice President of the United States of America (Democratic Party)
Famous for : being the 45th vice president of the USA under President Bill Clinton, for losing the presidential election in 2000 to George W Bush in a controversial election, and for the environmental film "An Inconvenient Truth".

Q13. What is this woman famous for?

Answer: Sirimavo Bandaranaike was the world's first female Prime Minister.
Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (April 17, 1916 - October 10, 2000) was a politician from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). She was Prime Minister of Ceylon and Sri Lanka three times, 1960-1965, 1970-1977 and 1994-2000, and was the world's first female prime minister. She was a leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. She was the wife of a previous Sri Lankan prime minister, Solomon Bandaranaike and the mother of Sri Lanka's third president, Chandrika Kumaratunga. She was also mother of the late Anura Bandaranaike, former speaker and minister and Sunethra Bandaranaike, philanthropist.

Q14. What event does this picture represent?

Answer: The Boston Tea Party.
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action protest by colonists in Boston, a city in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and has often been referenced in other political protests.

Q15. A former Prime Minister who is "weak in the knees" had been imprisoned by a prior Prime Minister during an emergency. Name him.

Answer: Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born December 25, 1924) served as the thirteenth and sixteenth Prime Minister of India. After a brief stint as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from October 13, 1999 until May 19, 2004. He has since retired from active politics, though as a Member of Parliament, he has at times commented on various issues. When Indira Gandhi declared state of emergency in 1975, the RSS and BJS joined a wide-array of parties in opposing the suspension of elections and civil liberties. Vajpayee, along with many of his colleagues, was briefly jailed during that period.

Q16. A certain word had been coined by Shiv Sena and BJP during the assembly elections in 2004. The word referred to a manifesto.

Answer: Vachan Nama.
The Shiv Sena and the BJP had famously coined the word Vachan Nama for manifesto during the 2004 assembly elections.

Q17. The two men in the picture were responsible for a certain movement being launched in India. What was it?

Answer: The Naxal Movement.
In 1967, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) consented to contesting elections and forming a coalition government in West Bengal. Disillusioned by this, a group of party activists, led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal, staged a violent uprising against the party leadership. The uprising was triggered off in Naxalbari village in West Bengal when hired goons attacked a tribal who had been granted a piece of land by the court. In retaliation, the local farmers and the rebelling party activists attacked the landlords. The term “Naxal” has its origins in the name of this village.

Q18. A certain contemporary actress recently held a special screening of her directorial debut while snubbing another leader in the process. Name the actress.

Answer: Nandita Das.
Nandita Das had a special screening of her directorial debut 'Firaaq' for Congress General Secretary, Rahul Gandhi while seeing "no reason" in doing the same for Narendra Modi.

Q19. A certain journalist-turned-politician was well-known for publishing explicit pictures of the son of a defence minister in a magazine in Order to discredit him, running the risk of violation of obscenity laws. Name her.

Answer: Maneka Gandhi.
As a journalist, Maneka Gandhi made headlines for her shocking publication in Surya Magazine of photos showing sexual intercourse between Suresh Ram (son of the then Defence Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram) and Sushma Chaudhury, a University of Delhi student. Her daring publication of the photos ran the risk of violation of obscenity laws. The revealing pictures[11] were published apparently to discredit Jagjivan Ram, who defected from the Indira Gandhi government and helped bring Janata Party to power in 1977. He was one of the contenders for the post of Prime Minister of India.

Q20. A certain actress, well known for her close association with a famous cricketer, is wooing the wooing the Congress for a ticket to the Mumbai North-west constituency. Name this actress.

Answer: Nagma.
Rumours have been rife that Nagma will not be getting the Congress ticket for the Mumbai North-West constituency, yet the former actress refuses to give up and is parked in New Delhi allegedly trying to get a ticket. She has been photographed coming out from Congress president Sonia Gandhi's residence.

Q21. Identify this politician.

Answer: Fidel Castro.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008.

Answer: Fidel Castro.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008.





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