17th February 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• External Affairs and Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is on Two Day Visit to Oman.
• She has arrived in Muscat and will meet top leadership in Oman and hold talks on security and defence.
• In her first public engagement, she will interact with expatriate Indian community at the Indian Embassy in Muscat today.
• Tomorrow she will meet her Omani counterpart, Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister of Oman and the Royal court.
• Important points to note
• India and Oman enjoy excellent ties and have worked together in anti-piracy operations and cyber-crime.
• Joint military exercises have been held recently by the two countries.
• India - Oman bilateral trade is on the upswing and crossed $5.7 billion in 2013-2014.
• Egypt's military carried out a series of airstrikes against ISIS militants in Libya yesterday in retaliation for the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Christians by the jihadist group.
• The bombing raids pulled Egypt deeper into the widening international fight against ISIS and highlighted the extremists' growing presence in North Africa.
• At least 64 IS militants killed in these ‎Egyptian‬ airstrikes.

National Affairs

• The nation celebrates the most auspicious day of Mahashivratri today.
• Maha Shivratri is observed on the 13th night/14th day of the 11 Hindu month of Phalguna or Maagh every year.
• Haryana government has decided to run a special taxi service for women passengers in Gurgaon.
• These special taxis will be driven by woman drivers.
• Officials said they intend to start the service in the next 100 days, with a fleet of 50 Tata Nano cars.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed concern over the increasing division and hostility on religious lines. 
• He said this has become a global concern and his government will ensure that there is complete freedom of faith. 
• Appealing to all religious groups to act with mutual respect and tolerance, he said government will not allow any groups to incite hatred against each other and violence against any religion.
• Death toll from ‪Swineflu‬ this year has soared to 585 with 100 more casualties reported across the country in three days since 12 February.
• So far eight thousand 423 people have contracted swine flu this year in the country. 
• Rajasthan‬, ‪‎Gujarat‬, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are the worst-affected states.
• ‪Delhi‬ and ‪TamilNadu‬ have reported a high incidence of swine flu cases but the death toll in the two states is relatively low due to high level of awareness and better health infrastructure.
• The Arvind Kejriwal government has decided not to terminate the services of contractual employees till further instructions.
• There are around one lakh contractual employees working in various departments of the government who were promised regularization ahead of the Delhi polls Feb 7 by the AAP.
• Aero India 2015
• Asia's premier air show, "Aero India", will start in Bengaluru tomorrow with global armament majors eyeing the multi-billion dollar Indian defence market, seeking to align with the "Make in India" campaign of the Narendra Modi government.
• To be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Modi will be the second Prime Minister to inaugurate the event after H D Deve Gowda in 1996. 
• This is said to be the largest ever air show to be hosted so far in India.
• Over 300 foreign firms along with 54 ministerial and other high-level delegations from several countries will be taking part in this year's event.
• The US with 64 companies will have the largest presence at the show in which 33 other countries are taking part.
• Behind the US is France with 58 companies, UK 48, Russia 41, Israel 25 and Germany 17.

Business & Economy

• Infosys has announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to fully acquire U.S.-based automation technology provider Panaya for an enterprise value of $200 million.
• This is the company’s second largest acquisition after it acquired Zurich-based consulting company in 2012 for around $350 million.

New Appointments

• Former IAS officer Jawed Usmani today took oath as new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of Uttar Pradesh.
• Usmani, a 1978-batch IAS officer, had taken voluntary retirement from service before taking over as the CIC.
• India-born Punit Renjen was appointed the next CEO of U.S.-based accounting giant Deloitte’s global operations.
• He became the first Indian-origin person to head a ‘Big-Four’ audit firm.

Deaths

• National School of Drama graduate and talented actor Ashraful Haque (45) Passed away due to bone marrow related disease.
• He has played pivotal characters in films like Company, Jungle, Ravan, Deewar, Black Friday,  Paan Singh Tomar, Delhi Belly, Fukrey and the recently released movie The Lost Beharupiya.

Sport

• World Cup 2015
• New Zealand beat Scotland by 3 wickets.
• Afghanistan to take on Bangladesh tomorrow.
• Reliance Communications (RCom), part of the Anil Ambani-led group, which is the global telecom sponsor of the ICC World Cup 2015, has partnered with Twitter to provide its customers with a platform to follow the global commentary as the world’s 14 best cricketing nations compete for the tag of the champion team, with no data charges.
• Customers who do not have a Twitter account can also access cricket-related Tweets by logging on to www.rcom.co.in/cricket on their mobile phones throughout the duration of this global event - from 13th February 2015 to 31st March 2015.

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