27th April 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (27th April 2016) is International Guide Dogs Day.
• President Pranab Mukherjee embarks on a 5 day state visit to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand from 28th April to 2nd May.
• This is the first ever state visit of the President of India to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand which is expected to open a new era in bilateral relations of india with these countries.
• The five day visit is aimed at energising and upgrading bilateral relations.
• The Cabinet of Saudi Arabia kingdom has approved the Vision 2030, a broad-based economic reform plan.
• The Vision charts out the roadmap for diversifying the Saudi economy in next 14 years and to ensure that Saudi Arabia can live without oil by 2020.

National Affairs

• The Supreme Court today ruled that President’s rule would continue in Uttarakhand till further order, staying the Uttarakhand High Court order which earlier quashed President’s Rule. 
• One of India's largest hospital chains Fortis Healthcare has launched the first pasteurised human milk bank, “Amaara”, in Delhi and the National Capital Region.
  
• The milk bank is a result of a collaboration between Fortis La Femme, a specialised hospital for women and newborns in New Delhi, and the non-profit organisation Breast Milk Foundation (BMF).
• This initiative is aimed at curbing infant mortality rate by providing pre-term babies the best food that they need for survival.
• Union Minister Jitendra Singh today announced that the Government is planning to set up Nuclear Power Plants in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.
• The Union Railway Ministry has decided to create a 1 lakh crore rupees safety fund named Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh to strengthen safety measures on the rail network to prevent accidents.
• The Heart of Asia (HoA) conference began in New Delhi with the Objective of bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan. T
• he conference was attended by officials of a number of countries and is likely to deliberate on a host of issues like combating challenge of extremism and terrorism.

Awards & Honors

• A Burundian activist Marguerite Barankitse awarded First Humanitarian Prize with saving thousands of children during a 12-year civil war.
• Important Note : She is the first recipient of a new humanitarian prize.
• Four women, including actors Kirsten Dunst, Vanessa Paradis, Valeria Golino, and Iranian producer Katayoon Shahabi are part of the Cannes Film Festival jury, making it the most feminine jury of the 69-year-old festival. 
• Note : 'Mad Max' director George Miller will be presiding over the nine-member jury. 
• A food engineering research scholar K Ashok Kumar from IIT Kharagpur wins prestigious International Plant Nutrition Scholar Award on Plant Nutrition.
• The Mumbai Press Club bestowed the RedInk Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism on T N Ninan, Chairman of Business Standard.

Deaths

• The founder of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Amanullah Khan (82) died in Pakistan. 
• He was considered to be the architect of Kashmir’s armed insurgency.
• He was one of the founders of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front that led a violent campaign for independent Kashmir, including the killing of an Indian diplomat in the UK in the mid-80s and hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Lahore.

New Appointments

• Tibetan people living in asylum at Dharmshala in Himachal Pradesh reelected its incumbent Prime Minister Dr. Lobsang Sangay for another five year term.
• He defeated speaker of Tibetan Parliament Penpa Tsering.

Business & Economy

• The International Bank Note Society has named New Zealand's $5 note as the Banknote of the Year 2015. 
• The $5 note, part of New Zealand's Brighter Money range, features mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary.
• DBS Bank, which is Singapore’s largest, unveiled Digibank, India’s first mobile-only bank, targeting five million retail customers. 
• The customer authentication would be done solely using the Aadhaar card, as there is no paperwork involved. 
• The government today imposed an anti-dumping duty on the import of a certain kind of telecom equipment manufactured by Chinese firms ZTE Corp, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. 
• Note : The Revenue Department had imposed the anti-dumping duty on import of such equipment from China and Israel in December 2010 for five years, which was further extended today till April 2021.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India has increased 37%, after the launch of ‘Make in India’, (till February 2016), Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today. 
• Note : The initiative was launched on September 25, 2014, to make the country a global manufacturing hub.
• Maharashtra cabinet approved the draft of ‘Maharashtra Pulses Price Regulatory Act’, whereby traders will have to sell the pulses at the government-approved prices for a period of six months after it comes into operation.

Sports

• Indian archer Deepika Kumari, with a tally of 686 out of 720 in the qualifying round of the Archery World Cup in Shanghai, equaled the World record in the Women’s Recurve event today. 
• She equaled the record which was previously held solely by Ki Boe Bae of South Korea. 
• Mumbai Indians have signed West Indies fast bowler Jerome Taylor as a replacement for Lasith Malinga, who was ruled out of IPL 2016 due to a knee injury. 
• Note : Taylor was earlier a part the Kings XI Punjab and now-defunct Pune Warriors. 
• Riyad Mahrez (Algerian origin) became the first African footballer to win the Professional Footballers Association’s (PFA) Player of the Year award. 
• He was presented the award for the 2015–16 season at the Professional Footballers’ Association awards ceremony organised in London.

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