April 22, poisoning and injuring marine life to presence of plastics in food to disrupting human

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1 April 22, 2018 International Mother Earth Day: 22nd April Earth Day is observed every year on April 22. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is significant as it's a day of political action and civic participation towards preserving the planet. People march, sign petitions, meet their elected officials, plant trees, clean up their towns and roads. Earth Day Network is the organisation that leads Earth Day worldwide. From poisoning and injuring marine life to presence of plastics in food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet's survival, notes the Earth Day Network. Earth Day 2018 theme is 'End Plastic Pollution'. Cabinet approves promulgation of Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance The Union Cabinet on 21st April approved the promulgation of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance 2018, which would empower the government to seize the domestic assets of those deemed by a relevant court to be fugitive economic offenders. The Ordinance would lay down the measures to empower Indian authorities to attach and confiscate proceeds of crime associated with economic offenders and the 1

2 properties of the economic offenders and thereby deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, the government said in a release. Union Cabinet clears ordinance on death penalty to child rapists In the wake of outrage over the brutal rape and murder of a minor in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21st April approved an ordinance to allow courts to pronounce the death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age. This ordinance approved by the Cabinet also prescribes the minimum punishment in case of rape of women to increase from rigorous imprisonment of 7 years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment. In case of rape of a girl under 16 years, minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which means imprisonment till that person s natural life. Delhi hosts third annual 5G India Congress Third edition of the Annual 5G India Congress 2018 was held on April 20 in New Delhi. It was organised by Nexgen Conferences, one of India s leading conferences and B2B event organizers and was supported by well-known brands and industry bodies including Huawei, Nokia, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and 5G India Forum. The event served as a 2

3 platform for all stakeholders, including network operators, Government & technology providers to come together and discuss about the 5G development for next generation communications in India. Vijay Goel launches Central Project Monitoring Unit for e-vidhan project at Parliament House Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri Vijay Goel inaugurated the new office of Central Project Monitoring Unit for the e-vidhan project of the Government at the Parliament House Annexe. e- Vidhan is a mission mode project to digitize and make the functioning of State Legislatures in India paperless. It is a part of the broader Digital India Programme of the Government and is likely to contribute to the cleanliness & environment by reducing the use of papers to a great extent. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is the Nodal Ministry for the project. It is taking all the necessary steps for rolling out the Project in all the States at an early date. One of the key component of the strategy devised for implementation of the project is to create Project Monitoring Units both at Central as well as State levels. 3

4 Cuba's Raul Castro hands over power to Miguel Díaz-Canel It is the first time since the revolution in 1959 that a Castro is not at the helm of the government. Mr Díaz-Canel had been serving as first vice-president for the past five years. Even though Mr Diaz-Canel was born after the revolution, he is a staunch ally of Raúl Castro and is not expected to make any radical changes. There was "no room in Cuba for those who strive for the restoration of capitalism" he said in his inaugural address. Capital: Havana Currency: Cuban peso Swaziland king renames country 'the Kingdom of eswatini' King Mswati III of Swaziland announced recently that he was renaming the country "the Kingdom of eswatini". The monarch announced the official change in a stadium during celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence. The celebrations also marked the king's 50th birthday. The new name, eswatini, means "land of the Swazis". The change was unexpected, but King Mswati has been referring to Swaziland for years as eswatini. Swaziland Capitals: Mbabane is the Administrative capital, while Lobamba is the Legislative and Royal capital Currency: Swazi Lilangeni, South African Rand 4

5 Kyrgyzstan's parliament names new prime minister Kyrgyzstan s parliament named Mukhammedkaliy Abylgaziyev prime minister on Friday after his nomination by the Social Democratic party which leads the ruling coalition. Abylgaziyev, previously chief of staff in President Sooronbai Jeenbekov s office, replaced Sapar Isakov whose cabinet lost a no-confidence vote this week. Capital: Bishkek Currency: Kyrgyzstani som Trump s next NASA administrator is a Republican congressman with no background in science The US Senate confirmed Jim Bridenstine, a Republican Congress member from Oklahoma, to be the next administrator of NASA. The post has remained vacant since January 2017, when Charles Bolden, the space agency s leader under President Barack Obama, stepped down. Bridenstine, 42, brings some odd qualifications to the job, and some controversy. Typically, NASA administrators are chosen from within NASA s ranks, come up through the military, or have a background in science. Bridenstine has none of that. His qualifications: He s former Navy pilot who once ran the Air and Space Museum in Tulsa. He 5

6 also sits on the House Committee that oversees NASA. The third-term representative is now the first member of Congress to hold the administrator job. Nadal brushes aside Dimitrov to reach 12th Monte Carlo final World number one Rafael Nadal swept aside Grigor Dimitrov to ease into his 12th Monte Carlo Masters final with a 6-4, 6-1 victory on Saturday. The 31-year-old, who needs to win an 11th Monaco title to retain the number one ranking ahead of Roger Federer, will face either Kei Nishikori or Alexander Zverev in Sunday's final. Learn Two a Day: Tehri dam: across Bhagirathi river (The Ganges) in Uttarakharnd Hogenakkal waterfalls: on Cauvery river in Tamil Nadu 6