Important Current Affairs 21st February 2017 With PDF

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We bring you the Latest  (Gk)General Knowledge, Daily Current Affairs news, Events, General awareness Today  21st February 2017 Section in FREE PDF (English & Hindi), a section which outlines the latest important news, Events headlines which are hardly covered elsewhere.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

 Sri Lankan Drought : India to Donate Eight Water Bowsers, 100 Tonnes of Rice

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar visited Sri Lanka from February 18 to 20 for bilateral discussions with its leaders, as part of the continued high level engagement between the two countries. 

●    During his visit, Jaishankar called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
●    The Foreign Secretary reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations, particularly Indian assisted economic projects and development particularly with Sri Lanka.
●    In response to the drought situation in Sri Lanka, Jaishankar conveyed on behalf of Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera, that India would donate eight water bowsers and 100 metric tonnes of rice as immediate assistance, and was ready to provide further assistance as required.

ECONOMY

World Bank Unit to Invest $ 47.5 million in Granules India

World Bank's private sector lending arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) is going to make a debt investment worth USD 47.5 million in Indian pharma company Granules India, to partly fund its expansion plans. 

●    Granules India's expansion plans include the installation of a greenfield facility for the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. 
●    The investment will also be used for expanding capacity and R&D. 
●    The R&D will help in improving the company's product mix to facilitate production of higher value addition. 
●    With the investment, the company will also expand capacities of existing facilities. It will be constructing an entirely new block in its facility in Bonthapally. 
●    The company plans to invest a total of around USD 84 million. Of this, USD 68.5 million will be raised by debt, which includes IFC's loan. 
●    It had first made a debt and equity investment in 2007. It exited the equity investment in 2014. 
●    Following this, it had also provided a Cleaner Production Lending Facility loan in 2009 and in 2011 another debt investment had been made which was also to facilitate expansion.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

 India, Rwanda Sign 3 MoUs

India and Rwanda on 20 February 2017 signed three agreements including innovation and aviation. 

●    The agreements were inked in Kigali in the presence of Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari and Rwandan Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi during a business forum meet.
●    Vice President Ansari was in Rwanda on the first leg of his 2-nation visit to East Africa. He was in Rwanda from 19 February to 21 February 2017.
●    The three agreements signed between the two nations, that is, India and Rwanda includes
●    Establishment of a bilateral air service agreement between the two nations.
●    An agreement for exemption of visa requirements for diplomatic and service passports.
●    Establishment of an Entrepreneurship Development Centre in Rwanda duly financed by Union Government.

GLOBAL NEWS

 HR McMaster Selected US NSA

The President of United States, Donald Trump appointed Lieutenant General Herbert Raymond McMaster as his new National Security Advisor on 20 February 2017. 

●    The announcement was made by Trump himself at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. 
●    He described McMaster as a man of tremendous talent and experience, who is highly respected by those in the military and added that the US government is honoured to have him in its service.
●    The acting National Security Advisor, retired general, Keith Kellogg, will now serve as Trump’s National Security Council Chief of Staff.
●    Born in Philadelphia in 1962, McMaster graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1984. 
●    He did his masters and Ph.D degrees in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
●    His Ph.D thesis, which criticised US military officers of the Vietnam War for not challenging the war strategies of the then President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, was further detailed into a 1997 book titled ‘Dereliction of Duty’ 

NATIONAL NEWS

Standard Operating Procedure for protection and care of children in street situations launched

A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Care and Protection of Children in Street Situations for their rehabilitation and safeguarding was released by Minister for Women & Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi in New Delhi today. 

●    Earlier the SOP was launched at a function attended by Delhi High Court Judge, Hon’ble Justice Mukta Gupta; NCPCR Chairperson, Ms. Stuti Kacker; Noted Bollywood actor and Ambassador, Save the Children, Ms. Dia Mirza, Chairperson Save the Children in India, Mr. Harpal Singh and CEO, Save the Children International, Mr. Thomas Chandy were present during the launch. NCPCR collaborated with the Civil Society Organization (CSO), Save the Children to develop this much needed strategy for street children.
●    The NCPCR decided to outline a detailed intervention framework for care and protection of children living in street situation as the problems faced by these children are multi-dimensional and complex. The SOP aims at streamlining the interventions within the current legal and policy framework. 
●    The purpose of the SOP is to identify processes that should be set in motion once a child on the street has been identified as a child in need. These processes would be within the existing framework of rules and policies and would create a convergence of the various agencies. Besides it also provides a step-by-step guideline for all the stakeholders for care, protection and rehabilitation of these children.
●    The SOP was drafted after taking into consideration a detailed field research study with inputs received from regional consultations held at Patna, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Mumbai from 35 NGOs. Children who survived from the street were also consulted in Delhi at NCPCR before drafting of the SOP.

NATIONAL NEWS

Defence Minister Presents best Marching Contingent Trophies

The Defence Minister, Shri Manohar Parrikar today presented the Best Marching Contingent Trophies to the Madras Sappers and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) who participated at the Republic Day Parade 2017 at the historic Rajpath, New Delhi. 

●    Commandant Madras Engineer Group Brigadier RK Sachdeva received the Trophy on behalf of the Madras Sappers while Director General CISF Shri OP Singh received the trophy on behalf of CISF.
●    The function was attended by the Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba, the Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, Defence Secretary Shri G Mohan Kumar and other senior officers from the Ministry of Defence, the three Services and Ministry of Home Affairs. 
●    True to their motto of ‘SARVATRA’, the Madras Engineer Group has always distinguished themselves in full spectrum of professional activities ranging from operations to ceremonial events throughout the glorious history of 236 years, be it supporting fighting troops during operations or claiming the Best Marching Contingent every time they participated.
●    Keeping their rich traditions alive, Madras Sappers once again claimed the ‘Best Marching Contingent Trophy’ both in Army Day and Republic Day Parades 2017.
 

NATIONAL NEWS

 Tata Sons Chairman-designate N Chandrasekaran to act as TCS Chairman too 

 Tata Sons Chairman-designate Natarajan Chandrasekaran will also hold the chairmanship of the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from 21 February 2017.

●    Chandrasekaran, who is currently serving as the Chief Executive and Managing Director of TCS, will now take charge as the Non-Executive Chairman of the board of directors of TCS.
●    TCS also announced that the Chief Operating Officer (COO) N Ganapathy Subramaniam will be on the board of the company as Executive Director.
●    Natarajan Chandrasekaran took over as the CEO of TCS on 6 October 2009.
●    Prior to that, he served as the COO and Executive Director of TCS.
●    He is one of the youngest CEOs of the Tata Group.
●    In January 2017, he was selected to become the next chairman of Tata Sons, a role he will assume on 21 February 2017. Soon, he was also announced as the chairman of Tata Motors.
●    Tata Consultancy Services is an Indian multinational information technology service, consulting and business solutions company.