1) Which Indian dug company launched in India the first bio-similar version of the anti-inflammatory medicine Adalimumab, the world’s top-selling drug, at a fifth of its U.S. price on 9 December 2014? – Cadila Healthcare Ltd
Note: Adalimumab’s branded version is sold under the name ‘Humira’ by U.S. firm AbbVie Inc, and costs $1,000 for a vial in the United States. Cadila Healthcare launched cheaper copy of this drug at a price of
$200 a vial in India and named it ‘Exemptia’. Adalimumab is used for treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. Biosimilars are cheaper copies of biotech drugs – medicines made from proteins and other large molecules. Several hundred companies around the world are chasing the biosimilars market, including Indian generic drugmakers Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Cipla Ltd and Lupin Ltd.
2) Which ally of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced quitting the alliance on 8 December 2014? – Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK)
Note: MDMK a regional party of Tamil Nadu and is and is led by pro-Tamil leader Vaiko. It joined the six-party grand alliance led by BJP in Tamil Nadu ahead of Lok Sabha elections held in May 2014. Though the party contested seven seats out of 39, it could not win any. BJP and PMK, another partner of the NDA alliance, managed to win a seat each. MDMK alleged that the BJP government at the Centre was acting against Tamils and betrayed the people of the state.
3) Union Govt. on 9 December 2014 put out an official list of six radio cab services that have the requisite licenses to operate in the national capital Delhi. Which are these six radio cab services? – Easy Cab, Mega Cab, Meru Cab, Chanson Cab, Yo Cab and Air Cab
Note: These 6 radio cab services are licensed with the Delhi Transport Department for operating
radio taxis in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi and apart from these all other radio cab services have been banned. The Delhi government on 8 December banned Uber taxi services, after a 27- year-old MNC executive, who used its mobile app to book a cab on 5 December, was raped allegedly by the driver.
4) Which Southeast Asian country on 8 December 2014 ordered U.S. online taxi booking company Uber
to cease operations, on the same day taxi apps were banned in Delhi where an Uber driver is under arrest for suspected rape? – Thailand
Note: Thailand’s Department of Land Transport said drivers picking up fare-paying passengers via Uber’s app were neither registered nor insured to drive commercial vehicles, and that Uber’s credit-card payment system did not comply with regulations. Taxi booking apps have irked drivers at traditional taxi firms across the globe. Consumers are increasingly using the smartphone software to find people willing to drive them, rather than booking a cab by phone.
5) Jet Airways joined hands with which international banking entity to launch a first-of-its-kind airline co-branded corporate card for owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their employees, as announced by Jet on 9 December 2014? – American Express
Note: The card is named ‘Jet Airways American Express Corporate Card’ and will help SMEs and their executives to drive substantial savings on business travel and associated expenses. Any SME with an annual turnover of Rs. 5 crore or more can apply for the card, which allows them to make the most of every business expense they incur on either travel, hotel stays or dining with business associates. It allows SMEs to get accelerated rewards and discounts on purchasing tickets from Jet Airways and also on Taj Group of hotels.
6) The Competition Commission of India (CCI) during December 2014 approved the Sun Pharma-Ranbaxy
merger with some conditions. What is the main condition applied for this? – The merged entity will have to divest seven drug formulations in which its combined market share goes up to 95%, resulting in a monopoly
Note: Acknowledging that the CCI approval was a step ahead, the companies said these products
constitute less than 1% of the combined entity’s revenues in India. The CCI had received a notice
from Sun Pharmaceuticals and Ranbaxy Laboratories for the proposed merger of Ranbaxy with Sun Pharma on 6 May 2014. It then sought opinion from the public on this mega-merger which is the largest merger in India’s corporate history. This $4-billion agreement is the first merger deal where CCI had sought opinion from the public. According to the terms inked between Ranbaxy and Sun Pharmaceuticals in April 2014, each Ranbaxy shareholder will get 0.8 shares of Sun Pharmaceuticals for every share of Ranbaxy.
7) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who did not make it to the final eight selected by TIME magazine for the annual ‘Person of the Year’ title, has secured No 1 rank by its readers in an online poll conducted by the magazine. He has been named winner of the readers’ poll for TIME ‘Person of the Year’, after receiving more than 16% votes from total five million votes. Protesters in Ferguson, who were demonstrating against a grand jury’s decision not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August ranked second with 9% of the votes. Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong, Nobel Peace Prize- winner Malala Yousafzai and the doctors and nurses treating Ebola secured third, fourth and fifth position respectively in the list.
8) The International Enterprise Singapore, has signed an MoU with Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh to design master plan of Andhra Pradesh’s new capital around Vijayawada. It will submit its ‘total vision’ report within six weeks. Andhra Pradesh and Singapore governments signed an MoU last night in the presence of Naidu and Singapore’s second minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran, to cooperate in the master-planning, development and construction of the new capital as a modern, vibrant, sustainable and smart capital city.
9) Bollywood star Aamir Khan has been signed by the road transport ministry as its safety ambassador with the aim of reducing number of accidents and increase awareness about safety rules on Indian roads. He’s also engaged in the ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ campaign with the tourism ministry.
10) Domestic passenger car sales were increased by 9.52% to 1,56,445 units in November compared with
1,42,849 units sold in the same month last year while Motorcycle sales were declined by 3.05% to 8,53,254 units in November compared to 8,80,078 units in the same month last year, as per data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Vehicle sales across categories were increased by 5.03% to 16,03,292 units in November compared to 15,26,514 units in same month last year.
11) Indian player Dev Shah has become the world champion in the Under-7 category in the World Schools Chess Championships held recently at Juiz de Fora in Brazil. With this he has become the youngest rated chess player from India.