22nd April 2017 Important Daily Current Affairs

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (22nd April 2017) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Daily Current Affairs of 22nd April 2017

International Current Affairs

• 47th International Earth Day is being observed today.
• The world's first ever Earth Day was celebrated on 22nd April 1970, in the United States of America to increase public awareness about environmental problems. 
• It was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson.  
• The aim of the day is to bring attention to environmental issues to spark changes that will result in a healthy, sustainable environment. 
• Theme of 2017 : “Environmental and Climate Literacy”.
  
• For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, Britain witnessed a full day powered by energy generated without the use of coal. 
• Note : Britain will shut its last coal power station by 2025 to meet its climate change commitments.

National Current Affairs

• The Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation in Kerala has started an initiative wherein cloth sanitary napkin vending machines will be set up in public spaces such as public toilets, railway stations and schools. 
• The first 1,620 pads will be available for free and thereafter people will be charged ₹10 for three sanitary pads. 
• The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, which regulates sale and distribution of drugs in India, has reportedly found medicines like Combiflam, a pain reliever, and D Cold Total, a cold medicine, to be substandard.
• Along with these drugs, the organisation issued an alert for 55 other drugs, all of which failed different tests in March, the report stated.
• Indian Army soldiers who are more than 10% over the ideal body weight will not be considered for promotions and transfers, according to a new order effective May 1. 
• All personnel will also have to undergo an annual "obesity evaluation examination". 
• Further, the annual confidential reports (ACRs) of officers will have a full-size photograph instead of the passport-size one.
• The Punjab government today slashed the VIP security, including that of the Chief Minister, by withdrawing nearly 2,000 personnel. 
• The government, the security has been cut down to create the necessary infrastructure for better policing.
• Andhra Pradesh today established a welfare board for transgender persons at the Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati. 
• The welfare board will be run by the community, with voting rights for the minorities.

New Appointments

• Sulkhan Singh, the 1980-batch Indian Police Service officer, took charge as the new Director General of Police of Uttar Pradesh. 
• He has replaced outgoing Uttar Pradesh Police chief Javeed Ahmed. 

MOUs & Agreements

• A MoU has been signed between India and South Korea for defence industry cooperation in shipbuilding. 
• Under the MoU, the two countries would recommend the organisations for collaborating in the implementation of specific projects. 
• Note : While South Korea is yet to name its recommended organisation, India has nominated Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), Visakhapatnam for the collaboration.
• Cuba and Morocco has signed an agreement to re-establish diplomatic ties after a time period of 37 years. 
• The two governments have also agreed to forge political, economic and cultural cooperation. 

Science & Technology

• Indian Navy today successfully conducted the first test fire of the land-attack variant of the BrahMos supersonic missile. 
• The missile, with a 400 km range, was launched at sea off the Andaman and Nicobar islands. 
• Note : This is the first sea-to-land missile test in the country and also the first time the land-attack variant was fired from a ship.

Awards & Honors

• Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award in the best actress category for her performance in 2016 film 'Sarbjit'. 
• Veteran actress Zeenat Aman was given the Lifetime Achievement Award while actress Hema Malini won an award in the Kala Shree category.
• Meanwhile, Shoojit Sircar won the Creative Director Award for the 2016 film 'Pink'.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

• The World Bank has approved $37.5 crore loan for capacity augmentation of National Waterway-1 (NW-1) on the river Ganga under the Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). 
• The project will enable commercial navigation of vessels with a capacity of 1,500-2,000 deadweight tonnes along a 1,390-km stretch. 
• The NW-1 passes through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
• The government today announced that the declarations made by black money holders about tax payment and deposits under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana can be made until May 10. 
• The government earlier extended the date for deposits under the scheme to April 30. 
• This is the last chance to undisclosed wealth holders to come clean by paying tax and penalty.
• Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs has approved the ‘Guidelines on Fair Trade Practices Related to Charging of Service Charge from Consumers by Hotels and Restaurants’. 
• As a part of the guidelines which has been issued in public interest to protect the rights of consumers, the government has said that Service charge on hotel and restaurant bills is “totally voluntary”, adding that mandatory levy of service charge amounts to unfair trade practice.
• India's second-largest private sector lender HDFC Bank cut as many as 6,096 jobs in the January-March quarter owing to increased digitisation. 
• This is the second straight quarter of job cuts by HDFC, which had cut over 4,500 jobs in the last quarter. 

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

Note : Current Affairs of 23rd and 24th will be available soon. 

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