(Current Affairs questions are from November 1st to 15th. Questions 11 to 20 pertain to Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)

1. The 20th anniversary of which historic breach was observed in Berlin on November 9th?

2. Name the town in Arunachal Pradesh that the Dalai Lama visited recently amidst Chinese objections.

3. The genome of which common domestic herbivore was successfully sequenced by an international team of researchers recently?

4. Which global phone-maker recalled 14 million phone chargers recently because they might cause electric shocks?

5. Name the ousted Premier of an Asian country who has taken up a new role as the economic adviser to the Cambodian government?

6. Name the head of the Sri Lankan armed forces who resigned recently after reports that he might contest the next presidential election.

7. Name the Oscar-winning U.S. director and actor, known for his Westerns, who was recently awarded the French Legion of Honour.

8. The U.S.’s first café which permits smoking of this banned drug was opened in Portland, Oregon, recently. Name the drug.

9. Name the U.S. Navy’s new assault ship, partly built with World Trade Center steel, that recently visited New York.

10. Which Indian actress has been appointed the first Goodwill Ambassador of the ‘Smile Train’, an international charity that provides free cleft lip and palate surgery to children in need?

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11. Sir Alexander MacDougall, W.W. Ladden, P. Reid and S. Anantharamakrishnan were the only shareholders/directors of which company set up in the 1930s?

12. The wrought-iron gate to which edifice in Chennai still has the monogram ‘MSMR’ on it?

13. Which tribe, known for its major contribution to herpetology, gets its name from the Tamil word meaning darkness?

14. How is the Bauhinia purpurea, a tree which also has names like Butterfly Wings or Camel Foot Tree, commonly referred to in Tamil?

15. Which school on Mint Street, Sowcarpet, was established in 1854?

16. Which medical institution in George Town is named after that area’s first water supply initiative?

17. Which ‘musical’ group that was initially formed in 1969, then disbanded in 1988, has once again started performing and been part of the soundtrack of A.R. Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire?

18. What popular attraction, the first of its kind in Madras, functioned from October 21, 1909, thanks to the effort of Dr. Thurston, the then Superintendent of the Museum, till 1942 when it ceased to exist because of World War II?

19. In which year was ELCOT, the Government’s nodal agency for IT and communication projects in the State, registered?

20. From where were the first Madrasian Paleoliths recovered by Foote and King in 1863?