25thNovember 2016 Important Daily Current Affairs

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (25th November 2016) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Daily Current Affairs of 25th November 2016

International Current Affairs

• Today (25th November) is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
• Aim of this Day : to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence
• Theme of the year 2016 : “Orange the World - raise funds to end violence against women”
  
• The 6th India China Joint Training Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2016 was culminated after 13 days in Pune today.
• Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos is going to sign a new peace deal with FARC rebels ending 52 years of conflict, despite objections by people who rejected the original accord in October. 
• India has been ranked 138th in the ICT Development Index 2016.
• Top 5 Countries in the List
• South Korea
• Iceland
• Denmark
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

National Current Affairs

• The Supreme Court today banned the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and NCR due to growing pollution in the region.
• It also ordered the pollution board to study harmful effects of materials used in firecrackers in three months. 
• Note : Air pollution in Delhi had increased significantly after Diwali, with smog reducing visibility to less than 50 metres at certain places.
• The Pune Underwater Festival, considered the first of its kind in India, will be held in Pune on Sunday. 
• The festival will feature an underwater playground, an underwater photo booth and an underwater obstacle course. 
• The Council of School Certificate Examination that decides ICSE syllabus has prescribed books like Harry Potter, Tintin and Amar Chitra Katha to be included in class III-VIII syllabus in all schools from 2017-18 session. 
• JRR Tolkien's 'The Hobbit', PG  Wodehouse's works and autobiographies will also be included. 
• Note : ICSE's school syllabus relied heavily on William Shakespeare's works till now.
• ICSE - Indian Certificate of Secondary Education
• Kerala's Sabarimala Temple board has issued an order to change the temple's name to 'Sabarimala Sree Ayyappaswamy Temple'. 
• Note : In official records, the temple is listed as 'Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple'. 
• Andhra Pradesh government is going to distribute free mobile phones to allow economically-backward people to undertake digital transactions. 
• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu introduced the proposal during a review meeting with RBI officials and bankers today. 

Business & Economic Affairs

• Haryana government is going to give ₹10,000 in cash to Group-C and D category government employees from part of their salary.
• This comes amid a cash crunch across the country post note ban, following which over 1,000 Group-C employees of the Home Ministry were given ₹10,000 each in cash as part of their salary.
• The Cabinet is considering to levy close to 60% income tax on unaccounted deposits in banks above a threshold post demonetisation. 
• This is against earlier reports that suggested the penalty would be 200%. 
• This follows banks reporting over ₹21,000 crore being deposited in zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts following demonetisation, which is apprehended to be laundered black money.
• The government is planning to impose a limit on people's domestic gold holdings.
• Gold premiums jumped to two-year high last week as jewellers increased purchases amid speculations that the government might restrict imports after withdrawing higher-denomination notes from circulation. 
• Important Note : India is the world’s second-biggest purchaser of gold.
• Two variants of the new ₹500 notes have been mistakenly printed owing to the current rush, Reserve Bank of India spokesperson Alpana Killawala said today. 
• However, people can freely accept both the notes in a transaction or return it to the RBI, she added. 
• Mahatma Gandhi's shadow, alignment of national emblem and other features are slightly different in the two variants.
• The government today announced that old ₹1,000 notes will no longer be accepted for transactions under exempted categories including electricity and water bill payments. 
• Only ₹500 notes will be accepted for these transactions. 
• This comes after the government announced that banks will not exchange old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes after midnight on November 24.
• The government also announced that old ₹500 notes can be used at petrol pumps, and to pay water and electricity bills until December 15.
• The government also allowed the use of old ₹500 notes to pay fees up to ₹2,000 in government schools and full fees in government colleges.
• It also banned the exchange of old notes at banks.
• The central bank of Nepal has banned the use and exchange of India's new ₹500 and ₹2,000 notes. 
• The new notes are "illegal" and cannot be exchanged until the RBI issues a notification under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, the bank said. 
• Note : Indian currency is widely accepted in Nepal, where people have been facing problems exchanging old notes.
• The Union Cabinet has approved introduction of the Merchant Shipping Bill, 2016 in the Parliament. 
• The bill is a revamped version of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958. 
• It seeks to repeal Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 as well the Coasting Vessels Act, 1838.

Awards & Honors

• Bengaluru-based Vishnu Raj Menon was today selected as 'Peter England Mr India' at the grand finale of the pageant at Playboy Club Mumbai. 
• Tessa le Conge of the Netherlands was crowned Miss Asia Pacific International 2016, while the Philippines' Ganiel Krishnan placed second runner-up in a pageant held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. 
• Actor Manoj Bajpayee was named the Best Actor for his film 'Aligarh' at the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards held in Brisbane, Australia today. 
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui won a special mention in the Best Actor category for the film 'Raman Raghav 2.0'. 
• Miami has been named the world's most inspiring city, in a survey by travel company TravelBird. 
• It has been followed by Bruges and San Francisco.
•  TravelBird ranked a total of 85 cities, placing Jodhpur at 76th and Mumbai at 83rd place. 
• The cities were ranked based on the number of performing arts companies, art schools, galleries and museums present there.
• Margaret Hamilton, the lead software engineer of the world's first successful manned lunar mission, Apollo 11, has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, US' highest civilian award. 
• She headed the MIT department tasked with developing the guidance and navigation system software for the NASA project. 
• Note : Hamilton is often credited with coining the term 'software engineering'.

Science & Techology Affairs

• Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is going to spend ₹1,184 crore ($173 million) to build the fastest supercomputer in the world. 
• The computer will be able to make 130 quadrillion calculations per second or 'petaflops'. 
• Important Note : China's Sunway TaihuLight, which is capable of 93 petaflops, is considered to be the world's fastest supercomputer currently.
• China has successfully launched its fourth data satellite named Tianlian I-04. 
• The satellite will join its three predecessors to achieve global network operation. 
• The satellite was launched on board of Long March-3C carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest Sichuan province.

New Appointments

• The Union Government has appointed Yudhvir Singh Malik as the Chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). 
• He is going to replace Raghav Chandra who has been moved as secretary to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.

Sports Current Affairs

• PV Sindhu has surpassed Saina Nehwal for the first time in the Badminton World Federation rankings to become the highest-ranked Indian shuttler. 
• Sindhu jumped two spots to be ranked 9th, while Saina dropped five places to the 11th spot, which is her lowest ranking in seven years. 
• Former Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard today announced his retirement from professional football, ending his 19-year long career. 
• Gerrard made 710 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 186 goals and winning eight major trophies.

This is the end of today's Daily Current Affairs session friends. Good Day :)

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