Current Affairs 11th April 2017

Current Affairs 11th April 2017 - Important Points

• Colson Whitehead's “Underground Railroad” wins - Pulitzer
• Who has been designated youngest-ever UN Messenger of Peace ? - Malala Yousafzai
• Two day Convention on World Homoeopathy Day concludes in - India
• New acquistion of Flipkart to fight Amazon -  eBay India business
• Six agreements including cooperation in civil aviation security signed between - India-Australia 
• Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death in - Pakistan
• Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017 bill passed by - Lok Sabha

Current Affairs 11th April 2017 - Details

Colson Whitehead's “Underground Railroad” wins - Pulitzer

Pulitzer Prize Administrator Mike Pride announced 2017 Pulitzer Prizes on 10th April 2017 in at Columbia University in New York. The awards were announced in 21 categories including include Letters, Drama & Music and Journalism.

Interesting Highlights

• The novel titled The Underground Railroad authored by Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize in the fiction segment. In 2016, the same novel had received the National Book Award of the US.
• It is for the first time in more than 20 years that the same work won the Pulitzer and National Book Award for fiction.
• The novel Underground Railroad is about an escaped slave who combined liberating imagination and brutal reality.
• The Prize is awarded for achievements in newspaper,online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
• It was established by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer in 1917 who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher and is administered by Columbia University in New York City.
• Prizes are awarded every year in twenty-one categories of which 20 winners are awarded a certificate and a cash award.
• The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded with a gold medal.

Who has been designated youngest-ever UN Messenger of Peace ? - Malala Yousafzai

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres designated Malala Yousafzai as a UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls’ education on 10th April 2017. Nobel Laureate Malala is the youngest-ever UN Messenger of Peace.

Key Highlights

• Born on 12th July 1997, Malala Yousafzai is known mainly for human rights advocacy for women education in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
• On 9th October 2012, she was injured after a Taliban gunman attempted to murder her. The murder attempt sparked a national and international outpouring to support her.
• The 2013, 2014 and 2015 issues of Time magazine featured her as one of the most Influential persons globally.
• She was honoured with Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize in 2012.
• She was announced as the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Kailash Satyarthi. This honour made her the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.

Two day Convention on World Homoeopathy Day concludes in - India

A two day National Convention on World Homoeopathy Day was successfully concluded in New Delhi on 10th April 2017 with a theme 'Enhancing Quality of Research in Homoeopathy'. As per the Ministry of AYUSH, this convention aims to deliberate on the existing scenario of Homeopathy in India and other countries and develop strategies for formulating national policies. The convention was organised by an autonomous research organization of Ministry of AYUSH, Central Council for Research in Homeopathy (CCRH). The event was organised to celebrate the 262nd birth anniversary of the founder of Homoeopathy Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann on the occasion of World Homoeopathy Day 2017.

Interesting Highlights

• National Commission for Homoeopathy will have four boards, one each for regulation of undergraduate education; postgraduate education; accreditation and assessment of institutions and regulations of the practice of the profession. 
• Every year, 10th April is celebrated all over the world as ‘World Homeopathy Day' as a tribute to Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann. 
• The week following the birth date of Hahnemann, that is, 10th April- 16th April is observed as the World Homeopathic Awareness Week.
• Samuel Hahnemann is best known as the Father of Homeopathy,Human Pharmacology ,Nano Medicine and Infinite Dilution concept in Chemistry.

New acquistion of Flipkart to fight Amazon -  eBay India business

 India’s largest online retailer Flipkart raised a total fund of USD 1.4 billion from China’s Tencent, US-based e-commerce firm eBay and software maker Microsoft on 10th April 2017.

It also acquired eBay’s Indian operations in a move to build a ‘mahagathbandhan’ of global tech giants to counter Amazon. 

Key Highlights

• Tencent will be a strategic investor of the company, bringing experience in linking social networking and e-commerce. 
• Tencent will lend significant expertise to Flipkart as it seeks to improve its leadership position in India’s e-commerce market.
• Microsoft had announced a strategic partnership with Flipkart earlier in February 2017 where Flipkart adopted the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.
• Flipkart and eBay also entered into an exclusive pact in which they will jointly pursue trade opportunities cross-border.

Do you know?

Flipkart has already bought rivals Myntra, Jabong earlier. 

Six agreements including cooperation in civil aviation security signed between - India-Australia 

India and Australia signed 6 agreements to boost the bilateral cooperation between the two nations on 10th April 2017. The signed agreements include cooperation in combating international terrorism and trans-national organised crime. These agreements were signed during Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s four-day visit to India from 9th April to 12th April 2017.

The six agreements are below - 

• MoU on cooperation in combatting international terrorism and trans-national organised crime.
• MoU to promote and develop cooperation in civil aviation security.
• MoU on cooperation in the fields of environment, climate and wildlife.
• MoU on cooperation in sports.
• MoU on cooperation in the field of health and medicines.

Key Highlights

• The two nations also welcomed a decision of holding the first bilateral Army-to-Army exercise, which will take place in 2018.

• Also, lack of a commercial contract between the two countries has not allowed Australia to supply uranium to India, even after the two nations signed a civil nuclear cooperation three-year ago.
• PM Turnbull also announced that his country has decided to join the International Solar Alliance together at PM Modi’s initiative.

•  The two leaders also remotely inaugurated a Nano-technology research center which was jointly established by TERI Institute and the Deakin University of Australia.

Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death in - Pakistan

Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a military court of Pakistan on 10th April 2017. He was accused of espionage and sabotage activities in Balochistan and Karachi of Pakistan.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of Pakistan in a release said Jadhav was arrested on 3rd March 2016 in Balochistan’s Mashkel area for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against the country.

Important Highlights

• Jadhav was an Indian Navy official, commissioned as the naval officer in 1991 and retired from the services in 2013.
• He was arrested by the Pakistani authorities allegedly for being associated with the freedom fighters in Balochistan.
• Allegations were that he was an active Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent. However, India denied such charges against him.
• Reports showed that Union Government says that Jadhav was a small businessman and owns a cargo business in Chabahar, Iran. He has nothing to do with RAW and was abducted from Iran.
• It seems that the decision of the military court of Pakistan would escalate the tensions between India and Pakistan.
• Also, the Amnesty International also blasted Pak military court system for awarding of death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav, in Pakistan on the charge of spying.
• Biraj Patnaik, South Asia Director of Amnesty International, in a strongly stated that military courts are an inherently abusive system that is best left to deal with issues of military discipline, not any other crime.

Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017 bill passed by - Lok Sabha

 The Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Third Amendment) Bill, 2017 on 10th April 2017. It was passed by the house with 360 MPs voting in favour and only 2 against the bill. The Bill seeks to give constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes.