Static GK GK Questions with Answers – Page 12

ASEAN came first in 1967, then SAARC in 1985, APEC in 1989 and the SCO last, in 2001. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations was set up on 8 August 1967 by the Bangkok Declaration, signed by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The Universal Declaration came in 1948, the Refugee Convention in 1951, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966 and the Convention on women (CEDAW) in 1979.

Bhabha persuaded the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust to fund an institute for fundamental research in physics and mathematics, which began in 1945 at Bombay, and he went on to head the atomic energy programme, which is why he is called the father of the Indian nuclear programme.

Baden-Powell, a British army officer, held the first experimental camp in 1907 and published Scouting for Boys, from which the movement grew; in India the Bharat Scouts and Guides was formed in 1950 by the merger of the earlier bodies.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity at Calcutta in 1950 for the care of the destitute, the sick and the dying; she received the Bharat Ratna and the Nobel Peace Prize, and the order spread to many countries.

The Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, moved by what he saw after the battle of Solferino, led the founding of the Red Cross at Geneva in 1863 and the drafting of the first Geneva Convention; he was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, and World Red Cross Day is…

The Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research at Bombay was set up by the Reserve Bank of India as an advanced research and teaching centre in development economics and was inaugurated in 1987; it is a deemed university that works on energy, environment and macroeconomic policy.

Sircar, a physician of Calcutta, founded the association in 1876 so that Indians could do original research in science rather than only learn it, and it was in its laboratory that C. V. Raman did the work that won the Nobel Prize.

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis founded the Indian Statistical Institute in 1931, devised the Mahalanobis distance and the method of large scale sample surveys, and shaped the Second Five Year Plan; National Statistics Day is observed on his birthday, 29 June.

Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, the society of truth seekers, at Pune in 1873 to work against caste oppression and priestly domination; he and Savitribai Phule had already opened schools for girls and for the depressed classes.

Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society at Pune in 1905 to train men who would give their lives to public service in a disciplined, constitutional way, and Gandhi called him his political teacher.

Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, after his return from the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, and its headquarters came up at Belur near Calcutta; it combines spiritual teaching with service in education, health and relief.

Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj at Bombay in 1875 with the call to go back to the Vedas; it opposed idol worship and caste by birth, supported widow remarriage and women education, and ran the shuddhi movement, and his book Satyarth Prakash states its doctrine.

Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj at Calcutta in 1828, growing out of his earlier Atmiya Sabha and Brahmo Sabha; it preached worship of one formless God, rejected idol worship and caste rigidity, and campaigned against sati, which was banned in 1829.

The Nizam of Hyderabad refused to join either dominion, and after the breakdown of talks and the activity of the Razakar militia the Government of India launched a police action codenamed Operation Polo in September 1948, after which the state joined the Indian Union.

On the night of 4 December 1971 Indian missile boats struck ships and fuel installations at Karachi harbour in an operation named Trident, and a follow-up raid on 8 December was named Operation Python.

On that date in 1999 the Army announced the successful conclusion of Operation Vijay, by which the intruders were cleared from the heights of the Kargil sector, supported by Operation Safed Sagar of the Air Force and Operation Talwar of the Navy.

He commanded a company of 13 Kumaon at Rezang La in Ladakh in November 1962 and his men held the post against a far larger Chinese force; he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously.

On 13 April 1984 Indian troops were airlifted on to the heights of the Karakoram to forestall a Pakistani move, and the glacier has since been held as the highest battlefield in the world.

As the commander of the Eastern Command he accepted the surrender of the Pakistani forces at the Ramna Race Course in Dhaka on 16 December 1971, the day observed every year as Vijay Diwas.