Current Affairs in short : 21 April 22020

China has accused India of violating the World Trade Organization WTO’s “principle of non-discrimination” after the India tweaked its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy to make its approval mandatory for firms in neighbouring countries to invest in Indian companies.

Every year, 21st April is celebrated as the Civil Services Day by the Government of India. It is celebrated as an occasion for the civil servants to rededicate themselves to the causes of citizens and renew their commitments to public service and excellence in work.

World Creativity and Innovation Day is observed on 21 April. The day aims to encourage people to generate new ideas to make the world a better place to live in. The day aims to inspire people to live a more creative life.

Secretary's day or Administrative Professionals Day is observed on 21 April in India. The day aims to celebrate the administrative professionals who work as the glue in keeping a business together. The Secretary's week is observed on the last full week in April of each year.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) constructed the Daporijo bridge over Subansiri river in Arunachal Pradesh in a record span of just 27 days.

Chandigarh city uses Vehicle tracking applications and GPS (Global Positioning System) enabled smartwatches for waste collection drivers in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

Waste Collection.

A high-speed magnetic Random Access Memory (RAM) has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.

Himachal Pradesh government has rolled out “e-sanjeevani-opd” for free online medical consultation to sick people who were feeling uncomfortable to visit hospitals in view of COVID-19 pandemic.

ICICI bank has rolled out a new feature of voice banking services on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for its customers. It will enable customers to BankWithTheirVoice and get answers to banking queries, check account balance & transactions, credit card due date and more.

Due to Covid-19 lockdown hospitals across India are facing acute shortage of blood and have started contacting individual blood donors to meet the demand.

According to a report by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), the quality of water in the river Yamuna has improved along the Delhi stretch, compared to April 2019. DPCC, along with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) carried out the study after being asked by a National Green Tribunal (NGT) appointed monitoring committee.

The Union Health Minister has recently asserted that lockdowns and social distancing are the most effective “social vaccines” available to fight the pandemic (Covid-19).

The Union Minister of Finance attended the 5th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of New Development Bank (NDB) through video-conference in New Delhi.

Veteran author Sudha Murty’s first book in an audio format titled “How the Onion Got Its Layers” is released.This is the second book of the chapter series by Murty, the first being “How the Sea Became Salty”.

Kapil Dev Tripathi was appointed as the Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind on 20 April. His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Private sector lender City Union Bank reappointed N Kamakodi as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bank. The appointment was approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Former Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has passed away. He was the sixth Prime Minister of Fiji and served from 2000 to 2006.

BMW Group President and CEO Rudratej Singh has passed away. He was the first Indian to lead the BMW India operations and was appointed as the head of India operations from August 1, 2019.