General Awareness Questions

The IT ministry launched a desktop software e-Aksharayan in a conference for Indian Languages Technology Industry 'Bhashantara', in New Delhi. The objective is to enable editing and printing of text in scanned documents. The software e-Aksharayan was launched in 7 Indian languages.

The technology giant Apple has been named as the most innovative company of 2016, as per Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 2016 analysis. In the list of world’s 50 most innovative companies, Google has been ranked second, followed by Tesla Motors, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Samsung, Toyota, Facebook and IBM. 

Belgium has become the first country to open an honorary consulate office in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).

India's nominee to International Court of Justice (ICJ) Dalveer Bhandari (70) was re-elected to fifth and the last seat of World court. Bhandari received 183-193 votes in United Nations General Assembly and secured all 15 votes in UN Security Council (UNSC). He was elected after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election. This is the first time since the ICJ was established in 1945 that there will be no British judge in ICJ. Bhandari is fourth Indian judge to be elected to ICJ after B.N. Rau, Nagendra Singh and RS Pathak.

GDPR stands for the General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR is a piece of EU legislation passed by the European Parliament in 2016.

It aims to make it simpler for people to control how companies use their personal details.

Companies will not be allowed to collect and use personal information without the person's consent.

Data includes things like a person's name, email address and phone number, and also internet browsing habits collected by website cookies.

The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, which is an essential component of geology.

1. In the latest Global 500 rankings of most valuable and powerful brands across the globe, Sundar Pichai’s Google has surpassed Apple to achieve the top position.
2. The Brand Finance Global 500 list published on February 2, 2017 had featured Apple as the top brand for continuous five years.
3. However, for 2017, the ranking revealed that Google’s brand value rose by 24 percent to $109.5bn in 2016. The brand value of Apple on the other hand dropped 27 percent to $107bn.
4. This is for the first time since 2011 that Google has been placed at the top spot. The third place has been occupied by Amazon.
5. The ranking is based upon factors such as marketing investment, familiarity, loyalty, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation.

The act of formally approving something is known as Ratification.