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March 21, 2018

21st March 2018 Events - Important Daily Current Affairs

Wednesday, March 21, 2018 , Leave a Comment

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (21st March 2018) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Daily Current Affairs of 21st March 2018

International Current Affairs
  • Today (21st March) is 'International Day of Forests'.
    • This day was initiated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests and trees. 
    • As per the UN, around 1.6 billion people, including over 2,000 indigenous cultures, depend on forests for their livelihood.
    • Theme for 2018 : "Forests and Sustainable Cities"
  • World Poetry Day is being observed today.
    • This day was declared by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999.
    • The purpose of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world.
  • World Down Syndrome Day is being observed today.
  • International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is being observed across the world today.
    • On this day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid pass laws.
    • Proclaiming the day in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.
    • 2018 Theme : "Promoting tolerance, inclusion, unity and respect for diversity in the context of combating racial discrimination"
  • World Puppetry Day is being observed today.  
  • Oklahoma is going to become the 1st US state to use Nitrogen gas for executions.
    • The state is turning to nitrogen after it and other states became unable to acquire drugs required for lethal injections because of opposition from manufacturers to their products being used for capital punishment.
    • Note : Nitrogen is an odorless and tasteless gas that makes up about 78 per cent of the air humans breathe but causes death when inhaled without any oxygen.
  • Austria's capital city Vienna has been rated the world's most liveable city for the ninth consecutive year by Mercer in its annual Quality of Living survey. 
    • Top 3 in the List :
      • Vienna (Austria)
      • Zurich (Switzerland)
      • Auckland (New Zealand) & Munich (Germany)
    • Important Points to Note :
      • Iraq's capital city Baghdad has been rated the least liveable city for the tenth consecutive year. 
      • Hyderabad and Pune have been rated India's most liveable cities in the list. 
National Current Affairs
  • The Supreme Court today ruled that government authorities cannot charge more than ₹50 as application fee for those seeking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. 
    • The apex court also said authorities cannot charge more than ₹5 per page for photocopy and the applicants do not have to mention the "motive" in the RTI application.
  • The Union Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers has approved proposal of setting up of Plastic Park in Deoghar District, Jharkhand. 
    • The project will be set up at cost of Rs.120 crores in an area of 150 acres.
  • West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has banned the display of arms during Ram Navami celebrations on Sunday.  
  • The Telangana government has decided to make Telugu a mandatory subject till Class 10 in all public and private schools. 
Banking, Business & Economic Affairs
  • Investment bank Goldman Sachs has downgraded its forecast for the Indian economy in the wake of the alleged $2-billion PNB fraud. 
    • It lowered its real GDP forecast on India for 2018-19 to 7.6% from 8% earlier. 
  • With a market capitalisation of $768 billion, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon today overtook Alphabet for the first time to become the world's second most valuable company.  
  • To enable Indian enterprises to efficiently manage their business travel expenditure, Happay, a business expense management solution provider, in collaboration with HDFC bank, introduced a new prepaid card-linked Travel and Entertainment (T&E) expense management solution.
    • With Happay-HDFC Bank prepaid cards and Happay mobile app in their pockets, business travellers will be able to easily seek trip advances, get trip itineraries pre-approved by management, do trip bookings and file trip expenses digitally and on the move.
Science & Technology
  • US-based company Nimbus Data has unveiled world's largest solid state drive (SSD) ExaDrive DC100 with 100 TB of storage. 
    • Note : This comes a month after Samsung unveiled an SSD offering around 30 TB of storage.
  • The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology celebrated its 6th foundation day with the theme ‘Sustaining Innovation: A market driven pathway’.
MOUs & Agreements
  • India and Hong Kong today signed a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) that seeks to improve transparency in tax matters and help curb tax evasion and avoidance.
  • NITI Aayog and Piramal Foundation have inked Statement of Intent (SoI) to work closely with District Collectors and key officers of ‘Aspirational Districts’ to support their transformation in terms of healthcare, education and nutrition. 
    • The collaboration is for four years with the option to continue, based on mutual agreement.
  • The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship have signed MoU to conduct skill development training programmes for agriculture and allied sector. 
    • These skill development training programmes will be conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs).
People in News
  • Htin Kyaw, who became Myanmar's first democratically elected President in 2016, has resigned from the position with immediate effect.
    • Note : Kyaw is believed to have been holding the post only for ceremonial purposes, with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi acting as the country's de facto leader.
Sports Current Affairs
  • Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and former tennis player Somdev Devvarman received the country's fourth-highest civilian award, Padma Shri, from President Ram Nath Kovind.
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