CURRENT AFFAIRS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MAY-2010

1. Who became the first Indian batsman and third overall to crack a Twenty20 international century after making a breezy 60-ball 101 against South Africa in a World Cup match in St. Lucia?
Suresh Raina.
West Indies captain Chris Gayle (117 from 57 balls against South Africa) and Brendon McCullum of New Zealand (116 from 56 balls against Australia) are the other two batsmen to have scored a century in the shortest format of the game.

2. Who has been appointed the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India?
Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia.
He will be taking over from incumbent Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan on May 12.

3. Name of the fourth woman judge of Supreme Court of India?
Gyan Sudha Mishra, Former Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice.

4. Name of the bill passed by the Lok Sabha on April 30, 2010 which provides for setting up a special court for speedy disposal of environmental cases?
The National Green Tribunal Bill.
The Tribunal will be located in Bhopal and will have at least 10 judicial members. The Tribunal will have four benches across the country.

5. The 48-year-old Football club of India which will be disbanded at the end of current I-League season with focus of the parent company shifting towards developing talent at school level.
Mahindra United Football Club.

6. Which communist country marked the 35th anniversary of the end of its war with a grand military parade through the former Saigon, with the government basking more in its economic achievements than its historic military defeat of the United States?
Vietnam.
The cost of the Vietnam War was huge for the United States. More than fifty eight thousand Americans died in combat, and it damaged the United States economy.

7. Name the nine Indians who figured in Time magazine’s annual list of 100 most influential people?
1. Manmohan Singh: Manmohan Singh is placed at 19th spot in the Leaders list headed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
2. Sachin Tendulkar: Sachin Tendulkar gets the 13th place among 25 'Heroes' headed by former US president Bill Clinton who is recognised for his work as a fund-raiser and anti-poverty activist.
3. Amartya Sen: Economist Amartya Sen is 20th on the 'Thinkers' list.
4.Perumalsamy Namperumalsamy : Sixth placed among heroes, Perumalsamy Namperumalsamy, 70, was recognised for performing cataract surgery at the Aravind Eye Care Hospitals since 1976 and having treated 3.6 million surgeries to date - a new one every 15 minutes.
5. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: He gets the 16th spot among 'heroes' for donating $2 million to support health insurance coverage for 100,000 Indian villagers and another $10 million for creating the 1,400-bed Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre in Bangalore.
6. Atul Gwande: Indian-American doctor and Harvard professor Atul Gwande is fifth on the list of 'thinkers' for his contribution to medicine.
7. Chetan Bhagat: Chetan Bhagat, author of bestsellers, 'One Night @ the Call Centre' and 'Five Point Someone' is the lone Indian in the list of artists headed by extravagantly outfitted singer Lady Gaga.
8. Rahul Singh. He in 22nd place is recognised for his relief work in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit on Jan 12.
9. Sanjit Bunker Roy: Humanitarian worker, Sanjit Bunker Roy's Barefoot College has trained more than three million people for jobs in the modern world.

8. Who is appointed as the fourth woman judge in the history of the Supreme Court of India since its inception in 1959?
Justice Syan Sudha Misra.
She is the first Supreme Court woman judge since Justice Ruma Pal retired in June 2006.
Justice Fathima Beevi, was the first woman judge of the Supreme Court from Oct 10, 1989, to April 29, 1992
Justice Sujata Manohar became an apex court judge Nov 8, 1994. She retired Aug 27, 1999.
Justice Ruma Pal was the third woman Supreme Court judge, from Jan 28, 2000, to June 6, 2006.

9. Which High Court of India has the highest representation of women in the judiciary, with 8 women judges?
Delhi High Court.
The Bombay High Court comes a close second with 7 women judges.

10. Which player won the Football Writers Association Footballer of the Year 2010 award?
Wayne Rooney.

11. Karnataka food and civil supplies minister who resigned from the cabinet on 02-05-10, charged with raping his friend's wife five months ago in Shimoga?
Haratal Halappa.

12. Which country has been ranked first in the list of "dirty dozen" spam relaying countries, accounting for over more than 13 per cent of world's total junk mails, sent during the first quarter of the year, according to a new study?
U.S.A.
India has been ranked second in the list while China has successfully pulled itself out of the list.

13. Name of the veteran Indian diplomat who has been appointed Assistant Secretary-General for UN's Peacekeeping Operations?
Atul Khare

14. Name of the Special Court Judge who handed death sentence to the Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab for the Mumbai terror attacks?
M L Tahaliyani. He has been promoted as the Principal Sessions Judge of the City civil and sessions Court in Mumbai.

15. Euro-region ministers recently agreed to a 110 billion-Euro ($146 billion) rescue package for which country to prevent a default and stop the worst crisis in the currency’s 11-year history?
Greece.

16. The leader of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta group in Jerusalem, noted for serving as Minister for Jewish Affairs in Yasser Arafat's Palestinian government who died on May 2, 2010, aged 86?
Moshe Hirsch.

17. Who has won the Rome Masters Tennis title for the fourth time?
Rafael Nadal.
He defeated the Serbian player Novak Djokovic 7-6, 6-2 in the final.

18. Name of the world's oldest person who has died a week before her 115th birthday?
Kama Chinen. She is a Japanese woman on the southern island of Okinawa who witnessed three centuries, born on May 10, 1895, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks individuals of extremely old age.

19. First Indian-origin Sikh to be knighted this year by the Queen for his services to the administration of justice in the United Kingdom, has been chosen for the Pride of Sikh Community Award?
Sir Mota Singh QC

20. The Indian Company which has been barred from doing any business with World Bank for violating "procurement guidelines", for a period of three years, beginning January 11, 2010?
Videocon Industries Ltd.
World Bank has blacklisted this Indian company for three years, ending January 11, 2013.

21. Who resigned as India's chief football coach following his differences with All India Football Federation (AIFF) secretary general Alberto Colaco?
Bob Houghton

22. Which state won the overall title of National senior Federation Cup Athletic Championship held in Ranchi?
Kerala.
Kerala won the overall title with 11 gold medals (1 silver, 3 bronze) followed by Haryana (6) and Uttar Pradesh (5).

23. Which developing country offers the best conditions for maternity in the world, according to a report entitled "The State of the World Mothers 2010," released by the Save the Children NGO?
Cuba.

24. Name of the 1932 Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress which has sold for $106.5 million US, a world record price for any work of art at auction?
“Nude, Green Leaves and Bust”
Nude Green Leaves, and Bust, a 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso, sold for more than $100 million US at Christie's auction house. (Christie's, New York/Associated Press)

25. Indian-born business administration scholar who is set to become the tenth Dean of Harvard Business School (HBS)?
Dr Nitin Nohria.

26. Which team clinched the I-League title for the fourth time after beating Lajong FC 1-0, with one round of the country's premier football league still to go?
Dempo Sports Club.

27. Which club won the Coppa Italia (Italian FA Cup beating Roma in the final (1-0)?
Inter Milan.
Diego Milito hit the goal for Inter Milan.

28. Which club clinched their ninth French League title beating Rennes (3-1)?
Olympique de Marseille.
Olympique de Marseille is a French professional football club which became the first and only French club to win the UEFA Champions League in 1993.

29. Name of the American weekly news magazine hard hit by the internet and the recession, has been put up for sale by its owner, the Washington Post Company?

Newsweek.
This weekly is the second largest news weekly magazine in the U.S published in four English language editions and 12 global editions written in the language of the circulation region.

30. President of Nigeria died on May 5, 2010 at the age of 58 after more than five months of battling with a heart ailment?
Umaru Yar'Adua.
He is the first university-educated president of Nigeria. He was declared the winner of the controversial Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007. He was a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has been sworn in as President in a ceremony in the capital Abuja.

31. Who won a landmark ruling in the country’s highest court in a dispute with his brother over how to split the riches from the family’s gas business?
Mukesh Ambani.
India's Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Mukesh Ambani in his long-running feud with his brother Anil Ambani over supplies from a huge natural gas discovery.

32. Who is sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Britain?
David Cameron. (Conservative Party)
He will head the government which is formed by the coalition between the Conservative Party and the left-leaning Liberal Democrats.

33. Who is the Deputy Prime Minister of Britain?
Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats)

34. For the first time in the history of UK elections, two Indian-origin women have been elected to the House of Commons. Who are they?
Priti Patel and Valerie Vaz.
Priti Patel of Conservative party was elected from the Witham constituency and she has become the first Asian Woman MP (Member of Parliament) in Britain. Valerie Vaz of Labour party was elected from Walsall South constituency.

35. Largest Beaver Dam recently discovered in Canada using Google satellite technology located in?
Northern Alberta's Wood Buffalo National Park.
Ecologist Jean Thie located the 2,788-foot (850-meter) dam using Google Earth and NASA technology and the dam stretches more than eight football fields long.

36. Which are the first countries to have country codes in Arabic scripts using a system that will also allow web addresses in Chinese, Thai and Tamil scripts?
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Internet regulator ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) recently enabled full web addresses in non-Latin characters.

37. A ban on which African country competing at the next two African Nations Cup finals was formally lifted by the Confederation of African Football recently, ratifying an agreement brokered by FIFA in Zurich?
Togo

38. Which country has recently initiated steps to build its first indigenous civilian transport aircraft?
India.
Government has set up a 15-member high-power committee (HPC) on National Civil Aircraft Development with former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair as its Chairman for management and development of the key project.

39. Which club won English soccer’s Premier League after an 8-0 home win over Wigan Athletic in the final round of games?
Chelsea.
Manchester United finishes second.

40. Who is sworn in as Costa Rica's first female president?
Laura Chinchilla. She has become the third female president in Central America.

41. Who is named as Captain of the Indian Cricket Team on the tour to Zimbabwe from May 28 for the tri series involving Sri Lanka?
Suresh Raina

42. Who retained World Chess Championship title by winning a thrilling 12th and final game, beating Veselin Topalov of Russia?
Viswanathan Anand
Besides being the first Asian to win the World Championship in 2000, Anand now has the distinction of creating a hat trick with three World Championship titles in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

43. Which country became the fifth major emitter of Green House Gases after the US, China, the European Union and Russia?
India.
India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increased by 41.66 percent between 1994 and 2007 making it the fifth major emitter to contribute to global warming.

44. BSNL, the state-owned telecom operator in India, recently has banned the Chinese telecom equipment makers from the bidding for the GSM projects in the northern and eastern zones in India. Name those companies.
Huawei and ZTE.
According to security assessments of Huawei Technologies put together by RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) of India, the Chinese firm not only shares ties with the Chinese security establishment but is also suspected to be a part of its intelligence set-up. RAW clearly point out that PLA (People Liberation Army) remains a customer of that company and has become more involved with it.

45. The first Hindi film which has been selected to be screened in the ‘Un Certain Regard Section’ of the Cannes film festival?
Udan.
The film is debut film of director Vikramaditya Motwane. The last Indian film to make it to the Golden Palm Award category was Swam (Malayalam). Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection.

46. Who was declared the winner of the Philippine presidential elections?
Benigno Aquino.
Former president Joseph Estrada finished in second place.

47. The Central Government of India recently appointed five independent directors for Air India. Who are they?
M.A. Yousafali, prominent Malayalee industrialist in Gulf countries.
Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and MD of Mahindra group.
Fali Major, former Air Force head.
Harshvardhan Niyothiya, Ambuja reality chairman.
Amith Mithra, FiCCI secretary general.

48. Who has been selected J.C Daniel award for the year 2009?
K.S Sethumadhavan.
He is the renowned film director from early 60s to late 80s. The J.C Daniel award has been instituted by the State government as a part of Kerala State Film awards, since 1992.

49. Indian Government has given in principle approval for the setting-up of the Indian National Defence University in Haryana. The university is to be set up in which district of Haryana?
Binola in Gurgaon district of Haryana

50. Who is the first Muslim woman to serve in a British cabinet?

Sayeeda Warsi.

51. Which dealer of Maruti Cars ranked first in the country in Maruti sales?
Indus Motors, a Maruti dealer based in Kerala and Chennai.

52. The World Newspaper Conference from June 7-10 scheduled in Beirut (Lebanon) has been called off because?
The Lebanese host organization could not meet its financial commitments.

53. Which country recently announced that it has successfully carried out a nuclear fusion experiment in a further development of cutting-edge nuclear technology?
North Korea.

54. Who is the new Chief Justice of Delhi High Court?
Justice Dipak Misra

55. The Chief of Shri Ram Sena who was caught on camera for accepting bribe to hold riots in Karnataka?

Pramod Muthalik.
A sting operation carried out by TV channel Headlines Today and Tehelka magazine reveals that the Sena and its leader Muthalik are willing to stage riots for a price of Rs.60 Lakh in Bangalore or Mangalore.

56. New Zealand cricketer who has retired from all forms of cricket recently?
Shane Bond
Shane Bond played only 18 tests and took 87 wickets. However, Bond represented New Zealand in 82 ODI matches and bagged 147 wickets at an impressive average of 20.88 maintaining an economy rate of 4.28 which is enviable for a pacer today. He achieved his career-best figure 6 for 21 against Australia in 2003 world cup.

57. The former Vice-President of India and three-time Chief Minister of Rajasthan in the past who died at the age of 86 following cardiac arrest?
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
He was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and completed his tenure as 11th Vice-President. (August 2002-July 2007). He served as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan state three times, from 1977 to 1980, 1990 to 1992, and 1993 to 1998.

58. Which club won the F.A. Cup title defeating Portsmouth 1-0 in the final at Wembley Stadium, England?
Chelsea.
Didier Drogba scored his 37th goal of the season to give Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Portsmouth in the F.A. Cup final.

59. Which country won the twenty 20 World Cup Cricket-2010 beating Australia by seven wickets in the final?
England.
This is their first victory at an ICC limited-overs tournament.
Player of the match: Kieswetter (England).
Player of the series: Kevin Pietersen (England).

60. Which countries were named joint champions of the 19th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup after the final was abandoned because of heavy rain in northern Malaysia?
India and South Korea.

61. Which club beat Siena 1-0 to seal its fifth consecutive “Serie A title”?
Inter Milan.

62. In a brazen attack, Maoists on 17th May, 2010, blew up a bus killing at least 50 people, including 20 Special Police Officers. The attack took place in?
Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.

63. Name of the nuclear capable intermediate range missile successfully test fired by India on 17-05-2010 with a range of over 2,000 km, from a launch site in Orissa?
Agni-II

64. Which country took over the G15 group’s rotating presidency from Iran in the 14th summit of the G15 developing countries ended in Tehran?
Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is the new president of G15 Groups.

65. Underworld don and India's most wanted fugitive, who figures third on Forbes' Most Wanted list that has been topped by Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden?
Dawood Ibrahim.
He is the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts

66. Which country won ICC Women’s twenty 20 World Cup Cricket-2010 beating New Zealand in the final?
Australia.
Player of the match: A Perry (Australia Women)
Player of the series: NJ Browne (New Zealand Women)

67. First Arab-American to Claim Miss USA Title?
Rima Fakih

68. A French court has ordered the release of an Iranian man convicted of killing exiled former Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar nearly two decades ago. Name that Iranian murderer?
Ali Vakili Rad.
Vakili was convicted in 1994 of the bloody stabbing death of Bakhtiar and his personal secretary at Bakhtiar's suburban Paris villa in August 1991.

69. Bank of Rajasthan, one of the oldest private sector banks in the country, recently announced that it would merge with a private sector bank. Which is that Private sector Bank?
ICICI.

70. Veteran Indian film director who is to be honored with the Jaeger-LeCoultre 'Glory to the Filmmaker' award at the 67th Venice International Film Festival to be held in September, 2010?
Mani Ratnam.

71. Indian students who won the Third Place Grand Award for Team Projects in Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical, at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the United States?
Manosij Ghosh Dastidar and Anarta Roy.
The needle designed by the two Kolkata students is a low cost single-shot hypodermic syringe aimed at preventing re-use of disposable syringes-- especially in poor nations without much regulation.

72. Which country has recently banned Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter and YouTube?
Pakistan

73. Top Indian American attorney who ascended to the post of acting solicitor general May 17, as Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan vacated the post?
Neal Katyal.

74. The cyclonic storm developed on 17th May, 2010 in the Bay of Bengal from a persistent area of convection killing many people in South India?
Laila.
The cyclone caused heavy destruction in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka.
Laila is an Urdu name, meaning Night.

75. Man of the match winners of 20-20 Cricket Series between West Indies and South Africa held in West Indies.
First 20-20 played at Antigua 0n 19-05-2010- Ryan McLaren (South Africa). He took 5 wickets for 19 runs. South Africa won the match by 13 runs.
Second 20-20 played at Antigua 0n 20-05-2010- Johan Botha (South Africa). He took 3 wickets and scored 23 runs. South Africa won the match by 1 run.
Series: South Africa won the 2-match series 2-0

76. Which club won their fifth Spanish King's Cup title by beating Atletico Madrid 2-0 in the final?
Sevilla.

77. Gorkha leader and president of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) who was stabbed to death by unidentified men during clashes by rival Gorkha groups in the hill town of Darjeeling?
Madan Tamang.

78. The official anthem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is?
Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) sung by Shakira and Freshlyground.

79. The US Director of National Intelligence has announced his resignation after frequent clashes with White House officials?
Dennis Blair.

80. Which Asian country launched a new spacecraft recently on a two-year mission to study the planet Venus and its climate?
Japan.
A rocket carrying the Venus climate orbiter called "Akatsuki" blasted off from a Japanese space center in Kagoshima, southern Japan.

81. Who becomes the first male Indian Player in 13 years to qualify for the main draw at French Open Tennis-2010?
Somdev Devvarman.

82. An Air India Express flight flying on the Dubai-Mangalore route burst in to flames when it missed a safe landing on a table top runway in Mangalore airport killing 166 passengers on 22-05-2010. Name of that airliner?
Boing 737-800.
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such planes are owned by airlines.
Mangalore airport was opened on 25 December 1951 and it is formerly known as Bajpe Airport.

83. Name of the American mountain climber who, on May 22, 2010, became the youngest person to climb Mount Everest?
Jordan Romero.
He was 13 years 10 months 10 days old when he reached the summit.

84. Who is the youngest Indian to conquer the Mount Everest?
Arjun Vajpai.
He achieved this feat at an age of 16 years, 11 months and 18 days. He broke the record set by the Krishna Patil of Maharashtra who climbed the summit at the age of 19.

85. Name of the Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer who holds the record for reaching the summit of Mount Everest more times than any other person?
Apa Sherpa
He has climbed the mountain twenty times as of May 2010.

86. Which football club won the Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the final?
Inter Milan

87. Man of the Match winners of ODI Cricket Series between West Indies and South Africa held in West Indies.
First ODI played on 22 May 2010:
Man of the match: Hashim Amla. (South Africa) He scored 102 runs.
South Africa won the match by 66 runs (D/L method)
Second ODI played on 24 May 2010:
Man of the match: Hashim Amla. (South Africa).He scored 92 runs.
South Africa won the match by 17 runs.
Third ODI played on 28 May 2010:
Man of the match: AB de Villiers (South Africa).He scored 70 runs.
Fourth ODI played on 30 May 2010:
Man of the match: Hashim Amla. (South Africa)He scored 129 runs.
South Africa won the match by 7 wickets.

88. Which film won the coveted Golden Palm award at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival?
“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.”
This Thai film about a man dying of kidney failure that left many puzzling over its meaning, won the Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

89. Man of the Match winners of 20-20 Cricket Series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka held in U.S.A.
First 20-20 played on 22 May 2010:
Man of the match: Scott Styris. (New Zealand) He took 3 wickets for 10 runs.
New Zealand won the match by 28 runs.
Second 20-20 played on 23 May 2010:
Man of the match: Nuwan Kulasekhara. (Sri Lanka) He took 3 wickets for just 4 runs.
Sri Lanka won the match by 7 wickets.
Series 2-match series drawn 1-1.
Man of the Series: Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)

90. Who has been elected the first woman prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago after her five-party coalition swept to victory in snap elections in the former British colony?
Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

91. Who is the third woman ever and the first Indian after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to become a tenured professor at Harvard University’s high-brow economics department?
Gita Gopinath.

92. Who has been named Pakistan's Test and ODI cricket captain ahead of a busy summer which takes in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and then six Tests, five ODIs, as well as four T20Is, in England against Australia and the hosts?
Shahid Afridi.

93. Who won the man of the match award in the first test cricket match between Bangladesh and England held in Lords from May 27-31, 2010?
Steven Finn. (England).
He took 4 wickets in the first innings and 5 wickets in the second.
England won the match by 8 wickets.

94. Who won the man of the match award in the ODI cricket match between India and Zimbabwe in the Triangular series held in Zimbabwe on May 28, 2010?
Brendan Taylor. (Zimbabwe). He scored 81 runs.
Result: Zimbabwe won the match by 6 wickets.

95. Who won the man of the match award in the ODI cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in the Triangular series held in Zimbabwe on May 30, 2010?
Rohit Sarma. (India). He scored 101 runs.
Result: India won the match by 7 wickets.

96. At least 120 passengers are feared killed and 160 injured after suspected Maoists derailed 13 coaches of Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express leading to a collision with a goods train in a state in eastern India. Which is that state?
West Bengal.
The incident took place in West Midnapore district of West Bengal.

97. Suspected Islamist militants attacked two mosques packed with hundreds of worshippers in an Islamic country on 28-05-2010 killing at least 80 people while attending salatul-jumah (Friday Prayer) at their local mosques. Which is that Islamic nation?
Pakistan.
The mosques were located in the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. Pakistan, a Muslim-majority nation whose longtime struggle with sectarianism has been exacerbated by the violent rise of the Sunni extremist Taliban and al-Qaida movements.

98. State of emergency has been declared in a country in Central America after a powerful eruption at the southern Pacaya volcano killed a television journalist and forced the international airport to close. Which is that country?
Guatemala

99. The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2016, will be held in?
France.

100. Who resigned as Jharkhand chief minister after failing to get the support of Congress and its ally JVM (P) ahead of trust vote in the assembly?
Shibu Soren

101. The British chief secretary to the Treasury resigned recently after revelations about his parliamentary expenses allegedly passed on to his long-term partner?
David Laws.

102. Name of the social networking site which is temporarily blocked by Bangladesh on 29-05-2010 after a man was arrested for uploading content onto it deemed offensive?
Facebook

Disclaimer: The author claims full ownership of all articles herein but doesn't claim ownership of all photos posted on this site. If the respective copyright owners wish for their photos to be taken down, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment and these will be taken down immediately.