General Awareness for Bank Exams : IBPS PO Interview : Series 34

Yingluck Shinawatra: Thailand's first woman Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was the chief guest at Republic Day parade celebrations on January 26, 2012.

Amadou Toumani : President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali, the landlocked mineral-rich West African country, visited India recently. to improve bilateral ties across the spectrum, including the intensification of economic ties and developmental cooperation between the two countries.

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Sheikh Hasina: Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina was conferred an honorary doctorate of Tripura University by Vice President Hamid Ansari.

Red Ribbon Express: Name of a train for awareness on AIDS, the third phase of National AIDS Control Organisation's Red Ribbon Express was launched recently.

Soumitra Dutta: IIT-Delhi alumnus Soumitra Dutta has been named the new Dean of the Ivy league Cornell University's business school, joining a growing list of noted Indian-origin academicians assuming leaderships roles at prestigious global universities.

Interbrand's list: US beverage maker Coca Cola retained its top position in Interbrand's list of the top 100 global brands in 2011. Coca Cola was followed by another US based company, IBM. Software company Microsoft was placed third. The company held on to the position it stood at in the previous year despite a three per cent drop in brand value.

New Editor of "The Hindu" : N. Ram stepped down as Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The Hindu , Business Line , Frontline , and Sportstar. Siddharth Varadarajan succeeded Ram, with effect from 19 January 2012, as Editor of The Hindu responsible for the selection of news under the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act of 1867.

Most Innovative Countries: India was ranked the sixth most innovative country in the world in multinational conglomerate GE's second Annual Global Innovation Barometer published on 18 January 2012. The report is based on a survey of 2800 senior business executives in 22 countries including Algeria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan. US topped the list.

Kamla Persad Bissessar: Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago Kamla Persad Bissessar visited India from 5 January 2012 to 14 January 2012. She was the chief guest during the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas held in Jaipur on 7-9 January 2012. The visit was the first one by any Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister in nearly 15 years.

CRR Cut: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 24 January 2012 cut the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points from 6 per cent to 5.5 per cent with effect from 28 January 2012. RBI thus released Rs 32000 crore to banks through a half percentage point cut in the cash reserve ratio.

The RBI also kept the repo rate unchanged at 8.50 per cent for the second consecutive time. It lowered its growth forecast to 7% from 7.6% earlier.

Cash Reserve Ratio

CRR is the percentage of deposits that commercial banks must keep with the central bank. Repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow from the central bank.