11th March 2017 Important Daily Current Affairs

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (11th March 2017) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Daily Current Affairs of 11th March 2017

International Current Affairs

• Foreign and defense ministers of European Union members reached a deal today to create a headquarters for military training operations.
• France and Germany support the proposal and have pressed the European Union to do more to ensure its own defense and counter the threat of terrorism.
• The creation of the union’s headquarters is specifically intended not to undermine NATO’s role.
• Iceland became the first country in the world to force companies to prove they pay all employees the same, regardless of gender, sexuality or nationality. 
• The country's government announced a new law that will require every company with 25 or more staff to get a certificate demonstrating pay equality. 
• Note : Iceland has pledged to eradicate gender pay gap by 2022.

National Current Affairs

• The BJP scripted a historic victory in Uttar Pradesh where it emerged as the single largest party with win in over 300 seats. 
• In Uttarakhand, the party defeated Congress led by Harish Rawat, winning 55 seats. 
• In Punjab, the Congress made a comeback with Captain Amrinder Singh at the helm. 
• In Goa and Manipur, the Congress has emerged as the single largest party. 
• Highlights :
• Cricketer-turned-politician and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu won from the Amritsar (East) constituency by over 42,000 votes. 
• Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has submitted his resignation to Governor Ram Naik following his party's loss in the state Assembly elections. 
• Congress leader Harish Rawat tendered his resignation as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand after losing elections from both the constituencies he had contested from. 
• Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is all set to resign from the post tomorrow. 
• India's first air-conditioned rail ambulance was unveiled in Mumbai today. 
• The Central Railway ambulance aims to provide victims of train accidents emergency treatment within the first hour, when chances of survival are highest. 
• Rajya Sabha today passed a bill to amend the Enemy Property Act, 1968, by voice vote. 
• The 49-year-old law allows the government to takeover properties owned by people who migrated to China or Pakistan. 
• Following Tamil Nadu, traders in Kerala have decided to stop sale of drinks produced by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, to promote local beverages like lime soda. 
• The boycott is in protest against exploitation of groundwater by the companies amid threats of a drought. 
• For the first time in India, 4 states (Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand) have decided to conduct a synchronised elephant census.
• These four states together have the maximum number of human-elephant conflict-prone regions in India. 
• These states will conduct the census based on an identical set of rules using the direct and indirect counting methods.
• This census will be held during May 2017.

Business & Economic Affairs

• The government today apprised the Parliament that defence equipment worth over ₹2.42 lakh crore was bought in last four years. 
• Expenditure on a purchase of defence equipment for the three armed forces was ₹66,821 crore in 2013-14 fiscal, ₹65,583 crore in 2014-15, ₹62,341 crore in 2015-16 and ₹47,494 for the ongoing 2016-17 fiscal.

New Appointments

• The Chief Justices of Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand were appointed today.
• New Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court - Justice Navniti Prasad
• New Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court - Justice T B Radhakrishnan
• New Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court - Hemant Gupta
• New Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court - P K Mohanty
• EU leaders have re-elected Donald Tusk as President of the European Council despite a bid to oust him by his home country, Poland. 
• Former Argentina captain Diego Maradona will become the ambassador of the Chinese Super League.

Science & Technology

• India today successfully test-fired the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which is capable of carrying a warhead of 300 kg, from a test range along the Odisha coast. 
• The missile has already been inducted into the Army and Navy, while the Air Force version is in the final stage of its trial.
• State-run NTPC today announced that it has installed India's largest floating solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant at Kayamkulam in Kerala. 
• Note : The 100 kWp (kilowatt peak) plant has been indigenously developed as a part of 'Make In India' initiative.

Awards & Honors

• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras has won the 2017 IEEE Spectrum Technology in the Service of Society Award for its solar-direct current (DC) inverter system. 
• The system was developed by Centre for Decentralised Power Systems at IIT-M using micro grid technology.

Sports Current Affairs

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has awarded ₹1 crore to the Indian blind cricket team that won the Twenty20 World Cup last month by beating arch-rivals Pakistan in the title clash in Bengaluru.

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