Current Affairs - April 25, 2017 Current Affairs

Newton has won the Jury Prize for Best Film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The film won the Art Cinema award for the Forum section. The film also went to 16th Annual Tribeca Film Festival.

Indian shot putter Manpreet Kaur has recently clinched Gold in the first leg of the at the 2017 Asian Grand Prix Meet in Jinhua, China. Manpreet came up with a best throw of 18.86 metre, which was nearly one meter more than her earlier national record of 17.96 metre that she had set in 2015. With the performance, Manpreet also qualified for the IAAF World Championships to be held in August 2017 in London, United Kingdom (UK).

The National Health Mission (NHM) in Haryana has recently launched a mobile-based application "Kilkari" to create awareness among pregnant women, parents and health workers on the importance of ante and post natal care, institutional delivery and immunisation. From the second trimester of pregnancy, till the child is one-year-old, the app will deliver 72 times appropriate audio messages to registered mobile numbers on pregnancy, child and childbirth care every week.

Morocco and Cuba have restored diplomatic ties after 37-year hiatus. To this effect ambassadors of the two countries to the United Nations (UN) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in New York.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has made a provision enabling people to apply online for passports in Hindi. It comes after President Pranab Mukherjee recently accepted recommendations made in this regard by the Committee of Parliament on Official Language via its 9th report. The report was submitted in 2011. People can download the application form available in Hindi, fill it in and upload it while applying for the passport.

The theme od World Malaria Day (WMD) 2017 is "End malaria for good". According to World Health Organisation (WHO), nearly four lakh people die of malaria every year in the world. Tackling malaria is improving with a 29% drop in mortality rates between 2010 and 2015 and a 21% global decrease in cases. In India, every year close to one million people suffer from this diseases. Malaria caused by the falciparum parasite is the most serious, and can lead to breathing problems, liver failure, coma and eventual death.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has become the India's First public hospital to start plaque brachytherapy facility for the treatment of eye tumours. The facility is a form of local radiation delivered to the eye through a radioactive device which is attached to the eye for a temporary period of time. The Rajendra Prasad Centre for Opthalmic Sciences will treat children suffering from a type of cancer called Retinoblastoma and adults who suffer from melanoma.

Renowned filmmaker and actor Kasinadhuni Viswanath has won the Dadasaheb Phalke award for the year 2016 for his outstanding contribution to the film industry. The award consists of a golden lotus, a cash prize of Rs.10 lakh and a shawl. President Pranab Mukherjee will confer the award on him at a ceremony on May 3 at Vigyan Bhawan.

A bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) headed by Justice Ateeq Hussain Shah permitted Hindus to worship at the Shiv Jee temple of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under section 20 of the Constitution.

Man Kaur, a 101-year-old athlete from India, won the 100 metres sprint at the World Masters Games in Auckland. Kaur already has a swag of gold medals that would rival Michael Phelps'haul and also plans to compete in the 200m sprint, two kilogramme shot put and 400-gram javelin in Auckland, taking her tally to 20.

Social activist Prafulla Samantra was one of six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, in San Francisco. He was one of the key leaders responsible for rallying tribes, indigenous to Odisha's Niyamgiri region.

The World Ocean Festival is a public event on June 4 timed to support The Ocean Conference at UN Headquarters in New York City (June 5-9). They will also commemorate World Ocean Day on June 8.

The Government of India decided in consultation with the States to celebrate 24th April as National Panchayati Raj Day. This date marks a defining moment in the history of decentralization of political power to the grassroots level.

The Maharashtra government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Railways, under which trees will be planted on the land adjacent to the railway tracks in the state. The government is committed to planting 4 crore trees on July 1, 2017.

Etihad Aviation Group (EAG) appointed Robin Kamark as the Chief Executive Officer for airline equity partners. Kamark will take up his new position in October 2017, and responsible for leading and developing the group's minority equity investment strategy, which includes stakes in airberlin, Alitalia, Jet Airways, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Etihad Regional and Virgin Australia.

Haryana has won the 2017 National Youth Athletics Championships by defeating Kerala at G.M.C. Balayogi Stadium in Hyderabad. Haryana emerged champions with overall 166.5 points including girls and boys performance. Kerala, finished as runners-up managing 134.75 points.

Kasinadhuni Viswanath has been named for the prestigious 2016 Dada Saheb Phalke award for his outstanding contribution to the film industry. He is icon in the film industry and known for classical and traditional art, music and dance. The award will be conferred by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function on May 3 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The award carries a golden lotus, a cash prize of Rs 10 lakhs and a shawl.

Donald Trump wants humans on Mars and to get humans on the Red Planet in the 2030s and wants people on Mars by the end of his first term, in three-and-a-half years.

As per SIPRI military expenditure database, the United States is the largest military spender in the world with an expenditure of $611 billion, followed by China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. India has acquired the 5th position as largest military spender in 2016 with expenditure of $55.9 billion for 2016-17.

China is the world's largest importer of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), where as India toppled Japan to acquire second position. It is because of Indian government's drive to provide free cooking connections to women from extremely poor households resulted in 32.5 million new LPG connections being added in FY17. The government's efforts have pushed up India's active LPG user count to about 200 million. It aims to increase the households using LPG to 80% of total households in India by FY19 from 72.8% as on April 1, 2017.

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). The country garnered the most number of votes in the Asian group,with 49 out of 50 members of ECOSOC voting in its favour.