FUNDAMENTALS
The brazenness of the Nirav Modi scam has shocked the nation. However, the country has been rocked by several scams since independence. Here we look at some of the biggest scams in history.
SCAMS AND MORE
1. Richard Cruddas, Smith Stanistreet, Osler Electric Lamps, Angelo Brothers and British India Corporation were six companies involved in which scam of 1950s? 2. The 2006 film Gafla directed by Sameer Hanchate starred Vinod Sherawat and Shruti Ulfat as Vinod’s love interest. The movie failed to evoke any interest at the box office. Which real life scam was the plot based on? 3. Pawan Sachdeva made headlines and magazine covers in 1995 with his shoe company and hotel projects, before being exposed as a fraud. What was the name of his flagship company? 4. Some scams get manufactured to implicate people. In which case were documents forged to allege that ex PM V.P. Singh was a beneficial of his son Ajeya Singh’s account in a bank in a tax haven? 5. One of the biggest stock market manipulation scams involved Ketan Parekh who artificially rigged prices of certain stocks using money borrowed from banks. What was the collective name given to his favourite group of stocks? 6. The investigating officer D.K. Kashyap died in a mysterious car accident and the alleged perpetrator died in prison. Which famous scam of 1970s are we talking about? 7. The Mundhra Scandal, Independent India’s first financial scam, came to light when a politician dug up the dirt on the scam. Name this unlikely crusader. 8. Ottavia Quatrocchi’s name will be forever associated with the Bofors scam. Quatrocchi was in India as the representative of an Italian oil and gas firm Eni and its engineering arm. He won several government contracts in India for the engineering firm. Name the firm whose name became prominent in the 1980s.
ANYTHING GOES
1. When you are watching TV, sometimes you will find random numbers displayed on the TV screen. What is the significance of the number? (U.N. Murthy, Secunderabad) 2. Aurora Airlines is a subsidiary of Aeroflot and one of Russia’s largest airlines. Its name is intimately connected to Russian history. How? (Dee Surendranath, Hyderabad) 3. Which is the special art form of Odisha where the painters first add tamarind paste, chalk powder and gum to a cloth and later draw pictures related to Ramayana, Mahabharata or those of Lord Jagannath using natural dyes? (Adithya Jeevan, Thiruvananthapuram) 4. Charles Bannerman is famous for scoring the first run in Test cricket and also making the first Test century. There is one record that he made in that Test match that has not been surpassed even now. What? (Philip Joshua, Secunderabad) 5. In the record books, Donald Bradman has the highest Test average (99.94) among all batsmen. But one cricketer has a better average (112) but is not part of the record books as he played only one Test. Who? (Rajiv Pillai, Kochi) 6. We know why Berlin wall was built. Munich Wall which is taller than the Berlin wall was built in 2016. What was the purpose of this wall? (Aadisht Grover, Kolkata) 7. The word svaha is chanted in every fire sacrifice like a yagna. Who is Svaha? (Commander G.R. Balakrishnan (Retd), Chennai)