IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF
MARCH 21th, 2018
1. (21st March) is 'International Day of Forests'.
a. This day was
initiated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests and
trees.
b. As per the UN,
around 1.6 billion people, including over 2,000 indigenous cultures, depend on
forests for their livelihood.
c. Theme for 2018 : "Forests and Sustainable Cities"
2. World Poetry Day is being observed today.
a. This day was
declared by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) in 1999.
b. The purpose of the
day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry
throughout the world.
3. World Down Syndrome
Day is being observed.
4. International Day
for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is being observed across the world.
a. On this day, in
1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in
Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid pass laws.
b. Proclaiming the day
in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly called on the international
community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial
discrimination.
c. 2018 Theme : "Promoting tolerance, inclusion, unity and respect for
diversity in the context of combating racial discrimination"
5. World Puppetry Day is being observed.
6. Oklahoma is going to become the 1st US state to use
Nitrogen gas for executions.
a. The state is
turning to nitrogen after it and other states became unable to acquire drugs
required for lethal injections because of opposition from manufacturers to
their products being used for capital punishment.
b. Note : Nitrogen is an odorless and tasteless gas that makes up about
78 per cent of the air humans breathe but causes death when inhaled without any
oxygen.
7. Austria's capital
city Vienna has been rated the world's most liveable city for the ninth consecutive year by Mercer in its annual Quality of Living survey.
a. Top 3 in the List :
i. Vienna (Austria)
ii. Zurich
(Switzerland)
iii. Auckland (New
Zealand) & Munich (Germany)
b. Important Points to
Note :
i. Iraq's capital
city Baghdad has been rated the least liveable city for the tenth consecutive
year.
ii. Hyderabad and Pune have been rated India's most
liveable cities in the list.
8. The Supreme
Court today ruled that government authorities
cannot charge more than₹50 as application fee for those seeking
information under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act.
a. The apex court
also said authorities cannot charge more than ₹5 per page for photocopy and the
applicants do not have to mention the "motive" in the RTI
application.
9. The Union
Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers has approved proposal of setting up ofPlastic
Park in Deoghar
District, Jharkhand.
a. The project will
be set up at cost of Rs.120 crores in an area of 150 acres.
10. West Bengal
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has banned the display
of arms during Ram Navami celebrations on
Sunday.
11. The Telangana government has
decided to make Telugu a mandatory subject till Class 10 in all public and
private schools.
12. Investment bank Goldman Sachs has downgraded its
forecast for the Indian economy in the wake of the alleged $2-billion PNB
fraud.
a. It lowered its
real GDP forecast on India for 2018-19 to 7.6% from 8% earlier.
13. With a market
capitalisation of $768 billion, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon today overtook Alphabet for the first time to become the world's second most valuable company.
14. To enable
Indian enterprises to efficiently manage their business travel expenditure,Happay,
a business expense management solution provider, in collaboration with HDFC bank, introduced a new prepaid card-linked Travel and
Entertainment (T&E) expense management solution.
15. With Happay-HDFC Bank prepaid cards and Happay mobile app in their pockets, business travellers will be able to easily
seek trip advances, get trip itineraries pre-approved by management, do trip
bookings and file trip expenses digitally and on the move.
16. US-based
company Nimbus Data has unveiled world's largest
solid state drive (SSD) ExaDrive DC100 with 100 TB of storage.
a. Note : This comes a month after Samsung unveiled an SSD offering
around 30 TB of storage.
17. The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology celebrated its 6th
foundation day with the theme ‘Sustaining Innovation: A market driven
pathway’.
18. India and Hong Kong today signed a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) that
seeks to improve transparency in tax matters and help curb tax
evasion and avoidance.
19. NITI Aayog and Piramal Foundation have inked Statement of Intent (SoI) to work closely with
District Collectors and key officers of ‘Aspirational Districts’ to support their transformation in terms of healthcare,
education and nutrition.
a. The collaboration
is for four years with the option to continue, based on mutual agreement.
20. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Ministry of Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship have signed MoU to
conduct skill development training programmes for agriculture and allied
sector.
a. These skill
development training programmes will be conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra
(KVKs).
21. Htin Kyaw, who became Myanmar's first democratically elected President in 2016, has resigned from the position with immediate effect.
a.
Note : Kyaw is believed
to have been holding the post only for ceremonial purposes, with State
Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi acting as the country's de facto leader.
22. Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and former tennis
player Somdev Devvarman received the country's fourth-highest civilian award, Padma Shri, from President Ram Nath 
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