25th February 2017 Important Daily Current Affairs

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (25th February 2017) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Daily Current Affairs of 25th February 2017

International Current Affairs

• Indonesian President Joko Widodo has arrived in Sydney on his first visit to Australia as his nation’s leader.
  • Improving trade and investment will be a key focus of Jokowi’s two-day state visit with plans to finalize a bilateral free trade agreement this year.
• Germany's Environment Ministry has banned meat and fish products at official functions, calling it a "matter of credibility" and citing a need to "to practise what we preach". 
• US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to curb regulations and help businesses. 
• The measure directs federal agencies to create "regulatory reform" task forces which will evaluate federal rules and recommend whether to keep, repeal or change them. 
• Arizona Senate has approved a bill that expands police power to arrest anyone involved in a protest that is likely to turn bad. 
• The measure would allow prosecutors to seize a person's assets while imposing additional criminal charges. 
  
• Under the law, participating in or helping organise a demonstration that turns into a riot will be seen as an offence.

National Current Affairs

• Sikkim became 22nd state in the country to join Union Government’s Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY). 
• In this regard, Central Government and the state government have signed MoU for operational improvement of Sikkim’s Power Distribution Department.
• A hill station cycle path, believed to be the first in India, recently opened in Darjeeling.
• The 20-kilometre mountain biking path runs through the Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary to reach Chatakpur, a small eco-village resort. 
• PM Narendra Modi yesterday unveiled a 112-foot tall Lord Shiva statue in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on the occasion of Mahashivratri. 
• The statue, dedicated to Shiva's Adiyogi form, has been funded by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's Isha Foundation.
• Centre permits Tamil Nadu to increase the number of workdays under MGNREGA scheme from 100 to 150 days.
• In Tamil Nadu, the rural job scheme is being implemented in 12,524 villages. 
• This financial year, 33.43 man-days of employment have been generated so far under the scheme and Rs 4655 crore has been disbursed. 
• Due to the enhancement of the work days, three crore more man-days are to be generated. 
• Indian Railways has unveiled Antyodaya Express, a new train for the unreserved passengers. 
• The first Antyodaya Express is slated to start between Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Tatanagar (Jharkhand) and second between Ernakulam and Howrah.

Business & Economic Affairs

• The Delhi government today approved around 37% hike in the minimum wages for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled persons. 
• As per the decision, the minimum wage for unskilled labour will be ₹13,350 per month, and for semi-skilled and skilled persons will be ₹14,698 and ₹16,182 respectively. Notably, this is the second time the government has approved such an increase.
• The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has launched a mobile application for Goods and Services Tax (GST) to inform the taxpayers of the latest updates on GST. 
• The app has been launched inline Union Government’s flagship Digital India initiative.
•  It enables taxpayers to be well informed of the latest updates on GST.
• The Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in Goods of World Trade Organisation (WTO) came into effect with its ratification by two-thirds members of WTO including India. 
• The TFA in Goods was adopted by the WTO Members in 2014.
•  It aims to streamline, simplify, standardise and ease customs procedures and norms. It will help to cut trade costs around the world.

Science & Technology

• US-based scientists have developed a method that uses ultraviolet light and rhodium nanoparticles to convert carbon dioxide into methane, a key ingredient for fuel. 
• Scientists first passed carbon dioxide and hydrogen through the particles heated to 300ºC, yielding equal parts of methane and a poisonous gas. 
• They then used ultraviolet light to heat the particles, resulting in mostly methane output.

New Appointments

• Former Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang was today appointed as Finance Advisor to the state government by Governor PB Acharya. 
• He resigned from the CM post on February 19 amid protests in the state against reservation for women in the local body elections.

MOUs & Agreements

• The Indian government has cleared a ₹17,000-crore deal with Israel to jointly develop a Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MR-SAM) for the Army. 
• The MR-SAM, a land-based version of the long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) for the navy, will have a strike range of up to 70 km. 
• The deal envisages 40 firing units and around 200 missiles.

Sports Current Affairs

• South Africa's AB de Villiers scored his 9,000th ODI run in his 205th innings, breaking an all-time record of least matches played to reach the milestone. 
• He broke former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly's record of 228 innings, set in 2004. 

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