Daily Current Affairs 21 February 2018

Daily Current Affairs 21 February 2018: Your guide for daily General Knowledge Preparation

Dear Readers,

This post contains important current affairs of 21 February 2018. It includes all Major National, International, Business and Sports related current affairs of 21 February 2018. A brief explanation of every current affair is provided to further enhance your general knowledge. Once you have gone through these current affairs we would recommend to you to try 21 February 2018 Current affairs test.

National News

1.WCIT and Nasscom ILF held concurrently in Hyderabad.

• 22nd edition of the World Congress on Information Technology(WCIT) in Hyderabad was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi through a video conference. The WCIT is held for the first time in India.
• The 26th edition of Nasscom India Leadership Forum(ILF) was also held in the same venue later on. Nasscom is the host of the WCIT. Telangana is the state partner for both the events.

2.Maharashtra Government to launch Asmita Yojana.

• ‘Asmita Yojana’ will be rolled out on the International Women’s Day by Maharashtra govt to provide subsidized sanitary pads to school girls and women.
• Under this scheme, school girls studying in Zilla Parishad schools will get sanitary napkin packet at Rs.5 while rural women can avail it at subsidized rate of Rs.24 and Rs.29.

3.Vaccination made compulsory for school admissions in Kerala.

• Kerala govt has made vaccination compulsory for school admissions from next academic year onwards. Parents will have to show details of shots given to children at the time of enrolment in schools.
• KK Shailaja, the Health Minister of Kerala, has released the new health policy draft.

4.NITI Aayog Budget allocation increased by more than 20%.

• Allocations for the Ministry of Planning have increased by more than 20% over last year i.e. to Rs.339.65 crore in 2018-19 from Rs.279.79 crore in 2017-18, according to the Minister of State for Planning Shri Rao Inderjit Singh.
• CEO of NITI Aayog is Amitabh Kant.

International News

1.Cobra Gold Military Exercise held in Thailand.

• This was the 37th edition of the exercise. Cobra Gold is an annual military exercise for Marines and one of the largest in the Indo-Pacific region.
• This year 7 countries are participating in Cobra Gold- the US, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore.

2.UNICEF released the rankings of countries on the basis of NMR.

• This is the first time that UNICEF has come out with rankings based on their newborn mortality rate(NMR). Japan with an NMR of 0.9 deaths per 1,000 live births has been ranked as the world’s safest country in which to be born followed by Iceland and Singapore.
• India has ranked 12th worst among 52 low-middle income countries while Pakistan is the worst with 45.6 newborn deaths per 1,000 live births.

3.‘Garuda Shakti’ joint military exercise begins.

• The sixth edition of annual exercise named ‘Garuda Shakti’ between Indian and Indonesian armies began in Bandung, Indonesia.
• This exercise will include experience sharing in counter-terrorism operations, close quarter combat, and other areas of special operations.

4.Meeting with US VP was cancelled last minute by N Korea: White House.

• White House has said that US Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet the N Korean delegation during the winter Olympics opening in S Korea earlier this month.
• But the meeting was cancelled by N Korea at the last minute after Pence condemned N Korea’s human rights violations and announced the toughest economic sanctions against it, White House added.

Business News
1.Pre-sale of oil-backed crypto-currency launched by Venezuela.

• Venezuela formally launched a pre-sale of its state-backed crypto-currency ‘Petro’ in a bid to recover from its worst financial crisis.
• Venezuela claims ‘Petro’ as the world’s first state-issued crypto-asset.

2.Small businesses benefit from GST on sanitary pads: Maneka Gandhi.

• Maneka Gandhi, Women and Child Development Minister, said that 12% GST on sanitary napkins benefits small indigenous manufacturers as businesses with less than Rs.20 lakh turnover are not taxed.
• Gandhi said that the taxation policy allows NGOs and women groups to establish businesses by selling sanitary napkins.

3.IT Dept attaches 7 properties of Choksi, Gitanjali Gems.

• The IT dept has attached 7 properties of the Gitanjali Group and its promoter Mehul Choksi in Mumbai over a tax evasion probe against them.
• It had earlier attacked 9 bank accounts of the Gitanjali group and Choksi.

Sports News
1.Pietersen announces retirement from cricket.

• England’s cricketer Kevin Pietersen has announced that he will retire from cricket once the Pakistan Super League comes to an end.
• The PSL will begin in Dubai on Feb 22.

2.Skater wins race by just 0.01 seconds to set Olympic record.

• Norway’s Havard Lorentzen won the men’s 500-meter speed skating by a margin of just 0.01 seconds to set a Winter Olympics record .
• Lorentzen finished the race in a time 34.41, surpassing the previous record of 34.42 set by USA’s Casey Fitzrandolph in 2002.

3.Indian athletes will not wear sarees at CWG opening ceremony.

• Indian women athletes will wear trousers and blazers instead of the traditional combination of the sarees and blazers at the Commonwealth Games.
• The decision to have same dress code for men and women athletes was taken after the Indian Olympic Association received feedback from women athletes that wearing sarees for 4-5 hours was not convenient.

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