Biz Quizzard 195

Presenting the current affairs quiz for the week December 17 - 22. Hope you enjoy it.

1. Starting this edition with what may not be a pure business question. According to a news snippet last week, Italian film and opera legend Franco Zeffirelli has agreed to become the image consultant for which very important and well known personality?

2. Tata Group’s $11.3 billion acquisition of Corus Group Plc has been ranked among the ten best business deals of 2007 by Time magazine. Which deal has been ranked the best?

3. Which MNC last week announced that it has received the first-ever Frost & Sullivan 2007 market leadership award in storage solutions in India?

4. One more question which I was not sure on including in this quiz. Which word, an interjection often used in online gaming, has been selected as “word of the year” by Merriam-Webster, a publisher of dictionaries and reference books?

5. Which Japanese automaker last week introduced a new boxy compact wagon ‘Tanto’, equipped with a 660cc normal and turbo-charged engine?

6. In a $10.1 billion deal that would create one of the world’s largest makers of air conditioners, which MNC will acquire Trane Inc?

7. Which campaign is presently being run in the print mediium with the baseline ‘Building blocks of a new freedom’?

8. According to a report last week, Sonal Dabral will replace Mohammed Khan as the chairman of which advertising agency?

9. Seagram India has been rechristened. What is it now known as?

10. Which company has become the only one from India to enter the list of world’s most admired firms compiled by the Fortune magazine and global consulting firm Hay Group?

11. According to a news report last week, Dubai-based Afras Projects India has signed up with Technopark, Kerala, to venture into a finishing school for techies. Which well known Indian personality is the chairman of Afras Projects? (hint: non-business, international personality)

12. Hero-Honda has forayed into the used two-wheeler trading business. What has the venture been branded as?

13. Which Indian company has acquired a 76% stake in Portugal-based bath rugs maker Sorema at an enterprise value of Rs 60 crore?

14. Not sure whether I have already covered this. Tennis player Leander Paes and athlete Anju Bobby George last week unveiled “Cloud of Promise”, the torch of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, in India. Which MNC has designed the torch?

15. Mahindra Gesco, the real estate and infrastructure arm of the Mahindra Group has been renamed. What is it now known as?

16. Which MNC bank, in association with designer Rohit Bal, last week launched India’s first designer credit cards?

17. According to a news report last week, Reliance Entertainment, the entertainment arm of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is looking at picking up a minority stake in Chennai-based animation firm Ocher Studios owned by Ms Soundarya. Ms Soundarya is related to which celebrity?

18. Reliance Retail has launched a new format that will provide virtually all kinds of services, including consumer goods, healthcare products, groceries, footwear and readymade clothes under one roof. What has it been branded as?

19. A new series of which automobile brand has been launched with a new engine named mHawk? (print ads were released last week)

20. Which business personality last week bought a 20% stake, worth 1.6 million pounds, in Britain’s Championship football club Queens Park Rangers?

21. The Xiang Feng meaning “Flying Phoenix” rolled out in China last week. What is it?

22. Which MNC is buying US medical products company Respironics for 3.6 billion euro ($5.2 billion)?

23. The Malayalam Manorama Group has launched Kerala’s first private FM station. What has it been branded as?

24. Which celebrity has been appointed brand ambassador by Anne French, the well known depilatory cream?

25. Which celebrity has been roped in by Nokia India to promote its products?

Please mail your answers on or before Sunday to rajeevkondapalli@gmail.com with Biz Quizzard 195 as the subject.

Happy learning!
rajeev kondapalli