21st April 2017 Important Daily Current Affairs

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (21st April 2017) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Daily Current Affairs of 21st April 2017

International Current Affairs

• India has won elections to two subsidiary bodies of a UN organ focussed on social and economic issues. 
• India, along with 12 other members, was elected to the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC), a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). 
• India, along with 19 other nations, was also elected by acclamation to the International Narcotics Control Board for a four-year term beginning January next year.
• Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made sweeping changes to Citizenship laws unveiling tighter requirements for new applicants.
• This announcement follows the recent scrapping of the 457 visa program for foreign workers, which was used majorly by the Indians. 
• Iran's former two-term president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been disqualified from re-running in Iran's presidential elections in May.
• The list has approved six politicians to run, including the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani and excluded over 1,600 other nominees who had applied to run for president, including all 137 female candidates.
• Saudi Arabia's Labour Ministry issued an order to restrict employment in shopping malls only to Saudi nationals. 
• Note : Currently, Saudi's retail sector employs 15 lakh workers, of whom only 3 lakh are Saudis. 
  

National Current Affairs

• Today (21st April 2017) is Civil Service Day. 
• It is observed by all Civil Services.  
• Purpose of this day : To rededicate and recommit themselves to the cause of the people.
• The day provides an unique opportunity for introspection as also for working out future strategies to deal with the challenges being posed by the ever changing times.
• All polling booths for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections have been declared tobacco-free by the Delhi State Election Commission, in a first in the country. 
• The Supreme Court has observed that it cannot pass orders to bring back the Kohinoor diamond from the UK as it is a property outside the country. 
• The apex court also said it cannot restrain the UK from auctioning the property which is there. 
• The Supreme Court in its latest ruling has set 25% of the net salary as the maintenance to be paid by a husband to his estranged wife. 
• The Court has observed that the alimony paid to a woman must be “just and proper” and must be sufficient enough to ensure that a woman lived with dignity after separating from her husband.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

• American financial services corporation Mastercard has created a credit card with a built-in fingerprint scanner, allowing its users to make payments by scanning their fingerprint instead of providing a PIN or a signature. 
• The card is no thicker than a normal credit card. 
• It works with all existing chip-and-PIN readers and is currently being trialled in South Africa.
• The government is considering a plan for the home delivery of petroleum products to consumers if they make a pre-booking, Petroleum Ministry announced today. 
• Union Petroleum Minister : Dharmendra Pradhan

Science & Technology

• China successfully launched its first unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft today. 
• The launch provides an "important technological basis" for developing a permanently manned Chinese space station by 2022.

Awards & Honors

• PM Narendra Modi and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma are the only Indians named in TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People list for 2017. 
• Modi achieved this feat for the third time in the last four years, having featured on the list in 2014 and 2015. 
• Sharma was featured in this year's 'Titans' list which includes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Sports Current Affairs

• Cricket is among the 62 sports excluded from the 2018 Asian Games to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia. 
• The Olympic Council of Asia said it was reducing the number of events from 493 to 431 to lessen the burden on organisers. 
• Note : Skateboarding and surfing are among other eliminated sports, while there would be lesser events in others.
• Barcelona's Brazilian forward Neymar Jr and US' four-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles have been named in TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2017.
• The list also features American football player Colin Kaepernick, widely known for protesting US national anthem during NFL games.

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

Note : Current Affairs of 22nd, 23rd and 24th will be available soon. 

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