General knowledge

IndeX:
1. History of Taxation in india:
2.List of popular awards and winners
3.books and authors
4. PADMA VIBHUSHAN (2013)
5. PADMA BHUSHAN(2013)
6. Current  positions of post and people: 
7 Countries and Parliaments 

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(Also see list of good novels to read:

English Grammar material)

History in taxation in india:
In India, the tradition of taxation has been in force from ancient times. It finds its references in many ancient books like 'Manu Smriti' and 'Arthasastra'. There was a perfect admixture of direct taxes with indirect taxes and they were varied in nature. India's history of taxation suggests existence of a large and composite taxable population. With the advent of the moguls in India the country witnessed a sea of change in the taxation system of India. Although, they also practiced the same norm of taxation but it was more homogeneous in structure and collection. The Islamic rulers imposed jizya. It was later on abolished by Akbar. However, Aurangzeb, the last prominent Mughal Emperor,
levied jizya on his mostly Hindu subjects in 1679. Reasons for this are cited to be financial
stringency and personal inclination on the part of the emperor, and a petition by the ulema. His
subjects were taxed in accordance with the property they owned. Government servants were exempt, as were the blind, the paralyzed, and the indigent. Its introduction encountered much opposition,
which was, however, abolished. Jizya is a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's
non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria. From the point of view of the Muslim rulers, jizya
was a material proof of the non-Muslims' acceptance of subjection to the state and its laws, "just as for the inhabitants it was a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes." In return, non-Muslim citizens were permitted to practice their faith, to enjoy a measure of communal
autonomy, to be entitled to Muslim state's protection from outside aggression, to be exempted from military service and the Zakat as obligatory upon Muslim citizens. The period of British rule in India witnessed some remarkable change in the whole taxation system of India. Although, it was highly in favor of the British government and its exchequer but it incorporated modern and scientific method of taxation tools and systems. In 1922, the country witnessed a paradigm shift in the overall Indian
taxation system. Setting up of administrative system and taxation system was first done by the

Britishers.
1.To know about Tax in India: Taxation in india(download in pdf format)

2.List of popular awards and winners:
download below list in excel format:

Awards
Award Name	Year	Winner	Field
Abel Prize	2011	John Milnor	Mathematics
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive achievment awards	2010	Mass Effect 2	Best Video Game overall
Ashok Chakra	2011	Major. Laishram Jyotin Singh	Armed Forces
Cannes Lions	2011	JWT Shanghai	Advertising (Print) Grand Prix
Cannes Lions	2011	Weiden + Kennedy Amsterdam	Advertising (film) Grand Prix
Dada Saheb Phalke Award	2010	K. Balachander	Cinema
Dronacharya Award	2011	Rajinder Singh	Hockey
Dronacharya Award	2011	Devender Kumar Rathore	Gymnastics
Dronacharya Award	2011	Ramphal	Athletics
Dronacharya Award	2011	Kuntal Roy	Athletics
Dronacharya Award	2011	Inukurthi Venkateshwara Rao	Boxing
Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival)	2011	Faust	Best Film
Grammy Award	2011	Muse	Best Rock Album
Grammy Award	2011	Arcade Fire	Best Album
Jnanpith Award	2010	Chandrashekhara Kambara	Literature
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor	2011	Will Ferrell	Humour
Max Planck Medal	2011	Giorgio Parisi	Physics
Miss India	2011	Kanishtha Dhankhar	Beauty Contest
Miss Universe	2011	Leila Lopes(Angola)	Beauty Contest
Miss World	2011	Ivian Sarcos (Venezuela)	Beauty Contest
National Film Award	2011	Adaminte Makan Abu	Best Feature film
National Film Award	2011	Dhanush, Salim Kumar	Best Actor
National Film Award	2011	Rekha Bhardwaj	Best Playback singer (Female)
National Film Award	2011	Suresh Wadkar	Best Playback singer (male)
Padma Vibhushan	2011	Azim Premji	Trade and Industry
Primetime Emmy Award	2011	Modern Family	Best Comedy TV series
Primetime Emmy Award	2011	Mad Men	Best Drama TV series
Primetime Emmy Award	2011	The Daily Show	Best Variety TV series
Pulitzer Prize	2011	Los Angeles Times	Public Service
Pulitzer Prize	2011	Paige St. John	Investigative Reporting
Pulitzer Prize	2011	Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry	International reporting
Pulitzer Prize	2011	Joseph Rago	Editorial Writing
Rajeev Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards	2010-11	Gagan Narang	Shooting
Stockholm Prize in Criminology	2011	John Laub (National Institute of Justice) Robert Sampson (Harvard University)	Criminology
Templeton Prize	2011	Martin John Rees	Spiritual Work
Time Man of the year	2010	Mark Zukerberg	Personal achievment
Turing Award	2011	Leslie. G Valiant	Computing
Webby Award	2011	www.lego.com	Best website home page

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3.books and authors

download below list in excel format: 

Books & Authors
Question	Answer
A Tale of Two Cities	Charles Dickens
The Lord of the Rings	J. R. R. Tolkien
The Da Vinci Code	Dan Brown
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows	J. K. Rowling
Angels and Demons	Dan Brown
In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?	Charles M. Sheldon
To Kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee
Gone with the Wind	Margaret Mitchell
Who Moved My Cheese?	Spencer Johnson
The Godfather	Mario Puzo
Love Story	Erich Segal
The Secret	Rhonda Byrne
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People	Stephen R. Covey
How to Win Friends and Influence People	Dale Carnegie
Tuesdays with Morrie	Mitch Albom
The Prophet	Khalil Gibran
The Exorcist	William Peter Blatty
A Brief History of Time	Stephen Hawking
The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini
Robinson Crusoe	Daniel Defoe
Gulliver's Travels	Jonathan Swift
David Copperfield	Charles Dickens
Wuthering Heights	Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre	Charlotte Bronte
Vanity Fair	William Makepeace Thackeray
Moby-Dick	Herman Melville
Madame Bovary	Gustave Flaubert
Huckleberry Finn	Mark Twain
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde	Robert Louis Stevenson
A Passage to India	E. M. Forster
One Hundred Years of Solitude	Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Don Quixote	Miguel De Cervantes
Mein Kampf	Adolf Hitler
Far From the Madding Crowd	Thomas Hardy
The Fountainhead	Ayn Rand

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4. PADMA VIBHUSHAN (2013)

1. Raghunath Mohapatra, Art, Orissa
2. S Haider Raza, Art, Delhi
3. Prof Yash Pal, Science and Engineering, Uttar Pradesh
4. Prof Roddam Narasimha, Science and Engineering, Karnataka 

5. PADMA BHUSHAN(2013) 

1. Dr Ramanaidu Daggubati, Art, Andhra Pradesh
2. Sreeramamurthy Janaki, Art, Tamil Nadu
3. Dr (Smt) Kanak Rele, Art, Maharashtra
4. Sharmila Tagore, Art, Delhi
5. Dr (Smt) Saroja Vaidyanathan, Art, Delhi
6. Abdul Rashid Khan, Art, West Bengal
7. Late Rajesh Khanna, Art, Maharashtra
8. Late Jaspal Singh Bhatti, Art, Punjab
9. Shivajirao Girdhar Patil, Public Affairs, Maharashtra 
10. Dr Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai, Science, Engineering Delhi 
11. Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Science and Engineering, Delhi
12. Dr Ashoke Sen Science and Engineering Uttar Pradesh
13. B N Suresh, Science and Engineering, Karnataka
14. Prof Satya N Atluri, Science and Engineering, USA
15. Prof Jogesh Chandra Pati, Science and Engineering, USA
16. Ramamurthy Thyagarajan, Trade and Industry, Tamil Nadu
17. Adi Burjor Godrej, Trade and Industry, Maharashtra
18. Dr Nandkishore Shamrao Laud, Medicine, Maharashtra 
19. Mangesh Padgaonkar, Literature and Education, Maharashtra
20. Prof Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Literature & Education USA
21. Hemendra Singh Panwar, Civil Service, Madhya Pradesh
22. Maharaj Kishan Bhan, Civil Service, Delhi
23. Rahul Dravid, Sports, Karnataka
24. H Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, Sports, Manipur

6 PADMA SHRI (2013)

1. Gajam Anjaiah, Art, Andhra Pradesh
2. Swami G C D Bharti alias Bharati Bandhu, Art, Chhattisgarh
3. B Jayashree, Art, Karnataka
4. Sridevi Kapoor, Art, Maharashtra
5. Kailash Chandra Meher, Art, Orissa
6. Brahmdeo Ram Pandit, Art, Maharashtra
7. Vishwanath D Patekar alias Nana Patekar, Art, Maharashtra
8. R Nageswara Rao alias Surabhi Babji, Art, Andhra Pradesh
9. Lakshmi Narayana Sathiraju, Art, Tamil Nadu
10. Jaymala Shiledar, Art, Maharashtra
11. Suresh Dattatray Talwalkar, Art, Maharashtra
12. P Madhavan Nair alias Madhu, Art, Kerala
13. Apurba Kishore Bir, Art, Maharashtra
14. Ghanakanta Bora Borbayan, Art, Assam
15. Hilda Mit Lepcha, Art, Sikkim
16. Sudha Malhotra, Art, Maharashtra 
17. Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz, Art, Jammu and Kashmir
18. Ramesh Gopaldas Sippy, Art, Maharashtra
19. Mahrukh Tarapor, Art, Maharashtra
20. Balwant Thakur, Art, Jammu and Kashmir
21. Puran Das Baul, Art, West Bengal
22. Rajendra Tikku, Art, Jammu and Kashmir
23. Pablo Bartholomew, Art, Delhi
24. Shri S Shakir Ali, Art, Rajasthan
25. S K M Maeilanandhan, Social Work, Tamil Nadu
26. Nileema Mishra, Social Work, Maharashtra
27. Reema Nanavati, Social Work, Gujarat
28. Jharna Dhara Chowdhury, Social Work, Bangladesh
29. Late Dr Ram Krishan, Social Work, Uttar Pradesh
30. Late Manju Bharat Ram, Social Work, Delhi
31. Prof Mustansir Barma, Science and Engineering, Maharashtra
32. Avinash Chander, Science and Engineering, Delhi
33. Sanjay Govind Dhande, Science and Engineering, Uttar Pradesh
34. Prof (Dr) Sankar Kumar Pal, Science, Engineering, West Bengal
35. Deepak B Phatak, Science and Engineering, Maharashtra
36. Dr Mudundi Ramakrishna Raju, Science and Engg, Andhra Pradesh
37. Prof Ajay K Sood, Science and Engineering, Karnataka
38. Prof Krishnaswamy Vijayraghavan, Science & Engg, Karnataka
39. Dr Manindra Agrawal, Science and Engineering, Uttar Pradesh
40. Dr Jayaraman Gowrishankar, Science & Engineering, Andhra Pradesh
41. Prof Sharad Pandurang Kale, Science & Engineering, Maharashtra
42. Vandana Luthra, Trade and Industry, Delhi
43. Rajshree Pathy, Trade and Industry, Tamil Nadu
44. Hemendra Prasad Barooah, Trade and Industry, Assam 
45. Milind Kamble, Trade and Industry, Maharashtra
46. Kalpana Saroj, Trade and Industry, Maharashtra
47. Dr Sudarshan K Aggarwal, Medicine, Delhi
48. Dr C Venkata S Ram alias Chitta, Venkata Sundara Ram, Medicine, Andhra Pradesh
49. Dr Rajendra Achyut Badwe, Medicine, Maharashtra
50. Dr Taraprasad Das, Medicine, Orissa
51. Prof (Dr) T V Devarajan, Medicine, Tamil Nadu
52. Prof (Dr) Saroj Chooramani Gopal, Medicine, Uttar Pradesh
53. Dr Pramod Kumar Julka, Medicine, Delhi
54. Dr Gulshan Rai Khatri, Medicine, Delhi
55. Dr Ganesh Kumar Mani, Medicine, Delhi
56. Dr Amit Prabhakar Maydeo, Medicine, Maharashtra
57. Dr Sundaram Natarajan, Medicine, Maharashtra
58. Prof Krishna Chandra Chunekar, Medicine, Uttar Pradesh
59. Dr Vishwa Kumar Gupta, Medicine, Delhi 
60. Prof (Capt) Dr M Sharaf-eAlam, Literature & Education, Bihar
61. Dr Radhika Herzberger, Literature & Education, Andhra Pradesh
62. J Malsawma, Literature and Education, Mizoram
63. Devendra Patel, Literature & Education, Gujarat
64. Dr Rama Kant Shukla, Literature & Education, Delhi
65. Prof Akhtarul Wasey, Literature & Education, Delhi
66. Prof Anvita Abbi, Literature & Education, Delhi
67. Nida Fazli, Literature & Education, Madhya Pradesh
68. Surender Kumar Sharma, Literature & Education, Delhi
69. Dr Jagdish Prasad Singh, Literature & Education, Bihar
70. Late Shaukat Riaz Kapoor Alias Salik Lakhnawi, Literature & Education, WB
71. Prof Noboru Karashima, Literature & Education, Japan
72. Christopher Pinney, Literature & Education, UK
73. Premlata Agrawal, Sports, Jharkhand
74. Yogeshwar Dutt, Sports, Haryana
75. Hosanagara Nagarajegowda Girisha, Sports, Karnataka
76. Subedar Major Vijay Kumar, Sports, Himachal Pradesh
77. Ngangom Dingko Singh, Sports, Maharashtra
78. Naib Subedar Bajrang Lal Takhar, Sports, Rajasthan
79. Ritu Kumar, Fashion Designing, Delhi
80. Dr Ravindra Singh Bisht, Archaeology, Uttar Pradesh. 

Also see list of good novels to read:

English Grammar material English Grammar material

Click to see: our page about "Snap-iift Specific G.K."
6. Current positions: 

Attorney General of India Goolam Essaji Vahanvati

Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar

Chairman, ISRO K Radhakrishnan

Chairman, LIC S K Roy

Chairman, NABARD Prakash Bakshi

Chairman, NASSCOM Krishnakumar Natarajan

Chairman, National Knowledge Commission Sam Pitroda

Chairman, Planning Commission Manmohan Singh

Chairman, Press Council of India Markandey Katju

Chairman, Press Trust of India R Lakshmipathy

Chairman, SEBI U K Sinha

Chairman, TRAI Rahul Kullar

Chairman, UIDAI Nandan Nilekani

Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath

Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam

Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshall N A K Browne

Chief of the Army Staff General Bikram Singh

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral D K Joshi

Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma

Defence Secretary R K Mathur

Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Director, BARC Sekhar Basu

Director of the Enforcement Directorate Rajan Katoch

Director, Intelligence Bureau S. A. Ibrahim

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh

Governor, RBI Raghuram Rajan

National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon

President, CII S. Gopalakrishnan

President, FICCI Naina Lal Kidwai

Principal Scientific Adviser R Chidambaram
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 7. countries and parliament

Countries	Name of Parliament
Afghanistan	Shora
Albania	People's Assembly
Algeria	National Popular Assembly
Angola	National Popular Assembly
Argentina	National Congress
Australia	Federal Parliament
Austria	National Assembly-Bundesversammlung
Bahamas	General Assembly
Bangladesh	Jatiya Sangshad
Balize	National Assembly
Benin	National Revolutionary Assembly
Bhutan	Tsongdu
Bolivia	National Congress
Botswana	National Assembly
Brazil	National Congress
Britain	Parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords)
Bulgaria	Narodna Subranie (National Assembly)
Burma (Myanmar)	Pyithu Hluttaw
Cambodia	National, Assembly
Canada	Parliament (House of Commons and Senate)
Cape Verde	People's National Assembly
China, Mainland	National People Congress
China, National	Yuan (National Assembly)
Columbia	Congress
Cuba	National Assembly of People's Power

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