13.15 — Awards, Organisations and Abbreviations

The category with the highest ratio of marks to effort, because the facts are short and they never change.

The Nobel Prizes

Who was Alfred Nobel, and why did he create the prizes? The inventor of dynamite. A French newspaper mistakenly printed his obituary while he was alive, calling him the merchant of death — and he rewrote his will.

Which categories did his will name? Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. Economics is not one of them.

When were the first prizes awarded, and where? 1901. All are awarded in Stockholm except Peace, which is awarded in Oslo by a Norwegian committee.

Why is there no Nobel Prize in mathematics? Nobel simply did not name it. The story that a mathematician stole his wife is impossible — he never married.

How many people can share a prize, and can it be awarded posthumously? At most three, and not posthumously since a 1974 rule change. Both constraints have excluded people who deserved it.

Who has won two Nobel Prizes? Marie Curie in Physics and Chemistry; Linus Pauling in Chemistry and Peace — the only person with two unshared prizes; John Bardeen twice in Physics; and Frederick Sanger twice in Chemistry.

Who is the youngest and oldest laureate? Malala Yousafzai at 17, in 2014; John B. Goodenough at 97, in 2019.

Which organisations have won the Peace Prize more than once? The International Committee of the Red Cross, three times, and the UNHCR twice.

Which Indians have won Nobel Prizes? Rabindranath Tagore (Literature 1913), C. V. Raman (Physics 1930), Mother Teresa (Peace 1979), Amartya Sen (Economics 1998), Kailash Satyarthi (Peace 2014). Of Indian origin but other citizenships: Hargobind Khorana, S. Chandrasekhar, V. S. Naipaul, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Abhijit Banerjee.

Who declined the Nobel Prize? Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964, on principle; and Le Duc Tho in 1973, declining a Peace Prize for Vietnam. Boris Pasternak was forced to decline by the Soviet government.

Which prize does not come with the others, and why? Economics, established in 1968 by Sweden's central bank in Nobel's memory — which is why some of Nobel's descendants object to it.

Other major awards

What is the Fields Medal? Mathematics' most prestigious prize, awarded every four years to up to four mathematicians under 40. The age limit is why it is not simply a mathematics Nobel.

Which Indian-origin mathematician won the Fields Medal? Manjul Bhargava, in 2014.

What is the Abel Prize? An annual mathematics prize from Norway, from 2003, deliberately closer in scale and spirit to a Nobel.

What is the Turing Award? Computing's highest honour, from 1966, often called the Nobel of computing.

Which Indian has won the Turing Award? Raj Reddy, in 1994, for work in artificial intelligence.

What is the Pulitzer Prize? American awards in journalism, letters, drama and music, from 1917, administered by Columbia University.

What is the Booker Prize, and how did it change? For a novel in English published in the UK and Ireland; opened to any English-language novel in 2014, which remains contentious. The International Booker is for translated fiction and splits the money equally with the translator.

What is the Magsaysay Award? Often called Asia's Nobel, named after a Philippine president, for public service in Asia.

What is the Right Livelihood Award? Founded 1980 as an alternative Nobel, for practical work on urgent problems.

Which are India's civilian honours, in order? Bharat Ratna, then Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

Who were the first Bharat Ratna recipients? C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman, all in 1954.

Which non-Indians have received the Bharat Ratna? Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Nelson Mandela.

Which are India's gallantry awards in wartime and peacetime? Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra in war; Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra in peace.

Which Indian awards go to which field? Jnanpith for literature, Dadasaheb Phalke for cinema, Khel Ratna for sport, Bhatnagar Prize for science, Sangeet Natak Akademi for performing arts, Sahitya Akademi for literature per language, Lalit Kala Akademi for visual art.

The United Nations and its agencies

When was the UN founded, and how many members does it have? 24 October 1945, with 193 member states. Headquarters in New York, with major offices in Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.

What are the six principal organs? General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council (suspended), International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat.

Who are the permanent members of the Security Council? China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — the P5, each with a veto. Ten non-permanent members serve two-year terms.

Where is the International Court of Justice? The Hague, Netherlands — as is the separate International Criminal Court, which is not a UN organ.

Match the agency to its job. WHO — health, Geneva. UNESCO — education, science, culture and World Heritage, Paris. UNICEF — children, New York. FAO — food and agriculture, Rome. ILO — labour, Geneva. IMF and World Bank — Washington. WTO — trade, Geneva. IAEA — atomic energy, Vienna. WMO — meteorology, Geneva. ICAO — civil aviation, Montreal. IMO — maritime, London. UNHCR — refugees, Geneva. UNEP — environment, Nairobi. WIPO — intellectual property, Geneva.

Who is the UN's chief administrative officer, and what is the term? The Secretary-General, appointed for five years, renewable. There has never been a woman in the post.

What is UNESCO World Heritage status, and what does it actually do? Recognition for sites of outstanding universal value. It obliges the state to protect them and gives access to funds — but UNESCO has no authority over the site, only publicity and, ultimately, delisting.

Which sites have been delisted? Dresden's Elbe Valley, an Oman oryx sanctuary, and Liverpool's waterfront.

What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Adopted by the General Assembly on 10 December 1948, which is why that date is Human Rights Day. Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the drafting committee.

Other organisations

What is NATO, and when was it founded? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949, a collective defence alliance in which an attack on one is treated as an attack on all. Headquarters in Brussels.

What is the Commonwealth? A voluntary association of 56 countries, mostly former British territories, though several members — Rwanda, Mozambique, Gabon and Togo — never were.

What is the Red Cross, and who founded it? Henry Dunant, after the Battle of Solferino in 1859. He received the first Nobel Peace Prize. The Red Crescent is the equivalent emblem in many Muslim countries.

What is Interpol, and what is it not? An international police cooperation organisation based in Lyon. It has no officers with powers of arrest — it coordinates and circulates notices.

What is the WEF, and what is Davos? The World Economic Forum, and its annual meeting in the Swiss town of Davos.

What is Amnesty International, and Greenpeace? A human rights organisation founded 1961 after an article about two Portuguese students jailed for a toast to freedom; and an environmental campaign group founded in 1971.

What is CERN, and what is famous about it beyond physics? The European nuclear research organisation near Geneva, home of the Large Hadron Collider — and the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

What is ISRO, DRDO, BARC and CSIR? India's space agency; defence research; atomic research at Trombay; and the council of scientific and industrial research laboratories.

What is IUCN, and what is the Red List? The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which publishes the Red List of species by threat level — from Least Concern up to Extinct.

What is IPCC, and what does it do? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which does not conduct research but assesses and synthesises published science for governments. It shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Abbreviations everybody uses

What do these stand for? LASER — Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. RADAR — Radio Detection and Ranging. SONAR — Sound Navigation and Ranging. SCUBA — Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. PIN — Personal Identification Number. ATM — Automated Teller Machine. GPS — Global Positioning System.

Computing and internet. HTTP — Hypertext Transfer Protocol. HTML — Hypertext Markup Language. URL — Uniform Resource Locator. IP — Internet Protocol. USB — Universal Serial Bus. Wi-Fi — nothing at all. PDF — Portable Document Format. GIF — Graphics Interchange Format. JPEG — Joint Photographic Experts Group. RAM — Random Access Memory. SIM — Subscriber Identity Module. LED — Light Emitting Diode. LCD — Liquid Crystal Display. OTP — One Time Password.

Indian administration. IAS, IPS, IFS — Indian Administrative, Police and Foreign Service. UPSC — Union Public Service Commission. RTI — Right to Information. PAN — Permanent Account Number. GST — Goods and Services Tax. UPI — Unified Payments Interface. NREGA — National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. CBI — Central Bureau of Investigation. NDRF — National Disaster Response Force. CRPF, BSF, ITBP — Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

Medicine and science. DNA — Deoxyribonucleic Acid. RNA — Ribonucleic Acid. ATP — Adenosine Triphosphate. MRI — Magnetic Resonance Imaging. CT — Computed Tomography. ECG — Electrocardiogram. EEG — Electroencephalogram. ICU — Intensive Care Unit. ORS — Oral Rehydration Solution. BMI — Body Mass Index. HIV and AIDS — Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. PCR — Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Business and finance. CEO, CFO, COO, CTO — Chief Executive, Financial, Operating and Technology Officer. IPO — Initial Public Offering. GDP — Gross Domestic Product. ROI — Return on Investment. B2B and B2C — business to business, business to consumer. EMI — Equated Monthly Instalment. NEFT and RTGS — National Electronic Funds Transfer and Real Time Gross Settlement.

Everyday oddities. SOS stands for nothing — it was chosen in Morse because three dots, three dashes, three dots is unmistakable. AM and PM — ante meridiem and post meridiem. AD and BC — Anno Domini and Before Christ; BCE and CE are the same years relabelled. RIP — requiescat in pace. e.g. and i.e. — exempli gratia, for example, and id est, that is. etc. — et cetera. AKA — also known as. RSVP — répondez s'il vous plaît.

Which "acronym" origins are false? Posh does not stand for port out starboard home; golf stands for nothing; news is not north-east-west-south; and tips does not stand for to insure prompt service. Acronym-based etymologies for words predating the twentieth century are almost always invented.

Days, years and observances

Which international days should you know? 8 March Women's Day. 22 March World Water Day. 7 April World Health Day. 22 April Earth Day. 1 May Labour Day. 5 June World Environment Day. 21 June International Yoga Day, proposed by India and adopted in 2014. 11 July World Population Day. 8 September Literacy Day. 5 October Teachers' Day globally. 16 October World Food Day. 24 October United Nations Day. 10 December Human Rights Day.

Which Indian national days should you know? 26 January Republic Day. 15 August Independence Day. 2 October Gandhi Jayanti, also the International Day of Non-Violence. 5 September Teachers' Day, for Radhakrishnan. 14 November Children's Day, for Nehru. 28 February National Science Day, for the Raman effect. 15 September Engineers' Day, for Visvesvaraya. 29 August National Sports Day, for Dhyan Chand. 26 November Constitution Day. 22 December National Mathematics Day, for Ramanujan.

Which country's national day is which? 4 July — United States. 14 July — France, Bastille Day. 1 October — China. 26 January and 15 August — India. 23 March and 14 August — Pakistan.

Miscellaneous but asked

What are the seven wonders of the ancient world, and how many survive? The Great Pyramid, Hanging Gardens, Statue of Zeus, Temple of Artemis, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes and Lighthouse of Alexandria. Only the pyramid survives.

What are the New Seven Wonders, and who chose them? The Great Wall, Petra, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu, Chichén Itzá, the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal — chosen by a private foundation's public vote in 2007, with no official status.

What are the seven continents and five oceans? Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, Australia. Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic.

What are the primary and secondary colours? In light: red, green and blue mix to white. In pigment: cyan, magenta and yellow, which is why printers use CMYK.

What are the Big Five in Africa? Lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo — originally the five hardest to hunt on foot, not the five largest.

What are the branches of government? Legislature, executive and judiciary. The press is often called the fourth estate.

What are the seven notes and the seven colours? Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni; and violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.

What comes next

The next page is mythology, religion and culture — the shared reference points that quizzes assume everybody has.