24th April 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

sponsored links

International Affairs

Today is World Day for Laboratory Animals.
- Theme of 2016 : Funeral
Today is Pinhole Photography day.
Nepal has observed the first anniversary of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that claimed the lives of around 9,000 people last year.
- Several people gathered at the Durbar Square in Nepal's capital Kathmandu and released around 9,000 balloons, the same number as the earthquake victims, to remember them.
- The balloons were released at the exact time the earthquake had struck.
US Air Force (USAF) invites the Indian Air Force to take part in the Air Exercise, “Ex-Red Flag-16-1” which is scheduled from 28th April 2016 to 13th May 2016 at Eielson AFB Alaska.
- The Exercise Red Flag is a multinational air exercise, originally conceived in 1975 by USAF to provide operational exposure and mutual exchange of Op capability of friendly Air Forces.
US President Barack Obama is on a visit to Hanover, Germany today.
- During this visit, he will hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of his closest allies.

National Affairs

The conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts today adopted a resolution to appoint retired judicial officers as ad hoc judges to reduce the pendency of cases.
- Chief Justice of India TS Thakur announced that Article 224A of the Constitution will be invoked to accomplish this.
- Note : Nearly 3 crore cases are pending before the judiciary.
Delhi-based researcher Sudha Gopalakrishnan today launched a free online encyclopedia on Indian culture called Sahapedia.
- The website, supported by information technology company TCS, features 5,000 pages on topics like heritage monuments, dance forms, poetry, philosophy, film and theatre, religious festivals and wildlife parks.
- The portal also provides access to digital books and pictures.

Awards & Honors

Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan, who was martyred in the counter-terror operations during the Pathankot attack, has been recommended for military gallantry award 'Shaurya Chakra'.
- Note : Expert assault dog Rocket has been recommended for the 'Sena medal’.
Three eminent Odiya artists Prafulla Kar, Aloka Kanungo and Sadasiv Pradhan have been selected for the prestigious Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi Samman from Odisha.

New Appointments

Bishwadip Dey was appointed as the High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Bhupendra Kainthola, an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer of 1989 batch, has been appointed as the new Director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
Nagaland Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar has become the first Ambassador for Girl Child (AFGC) under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Project.

Science & Technology

ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar has said that the space agency will test its reusable launch vehicle in May.
- Called RLV-TD, the vehicle will be released from a height of over 70 kilometre for its re-entry into the atmosphere.
- It will act as a flying test bed to evaluate technologies like hypersonic flight and autonomous landing.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, has released 300 TB of data of its Large Hadron Collider – world's largest and most powerful particle collider.
- CERN is also providing a Linux-based virtual machine to access the datasets and tools to simplify the data.
- Note : Particle colliders are generally used to study the nature of particles that constitute matter.

Business & Economy

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has cleared the insurance policy for all 21 nuclear reactors in India.
China's proportion of global exports rose to 13.8% in 2015 from 12.3% in 2014, the highest share by a country since the US's quota in 1968, data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment showed.
Bottled water brand 'Bisleri' registered a Guinness World Record as well as a record in the Limca Book of Records by collecting 1.1 million bottles, the maximum number of plastic bottles collected for recycling.
- The initiative was in collaboration with 150 schools in Mumbai to contribute towards the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.
India and France have launched a programme with $1 trillion Potential Solar Programme under the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
- It is a solar Finance Programme that aims at helping developing countries to fully harness their solar resources for a clean energy future.

A street in Switzerland has been named after tennis star Roger Federer, which the 17-time Grand Slam champion inaugurated himself.
- Note : The street leads to the national centre for Swiss Tennis at the Tissot Arena sports complex where Federer trained as a junior.
British astronaut Tim Peake today ran the 36th London Marathon from Space.
- He ran the distance of the marathon (about 42 kilometers) on a treadmill aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and wore a harness to counteract weightlessness.
- Note : Peake had also run the London Marathon in 1999, finishing it in three hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds.
Indian wrestler, Sandeep Tomar has qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics in the men's 57 kg freestyle wrestling category.
- Tomar became the fourth Indian wrestler to qualify for the Olympics.
- Remaining wrestlers who qualified for the tournament are,
- - Hardeep Singh in 49 kg Greco-Roman,
  - Yogeshwar Dutt in 65 kg freestyle,
  - Narsingh Pancham Yadav in 74 kg freestyle