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- Person of Indian Origin (PIO) Keshav Raghvan has been chosen to lead the team CubeSat to be sent to space by NASA. CubeSat is a mini research satellite to detect cosmic rays, flown into space on future missions. The team’s CubeSat BLAST (Bouchet Low-Earth Alpha/Beta Space Telescope) will contribute to the ongoing search for the origins and nature of cosmic rays, which will provide an insight into the origins of the universe.
- The winners of the 2019 Pulitzer Prizes have been announced. The Pulitzer Prize is awarded for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. Established in 1917, prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories.
Mithali Raj - Cricketer Mithali Raj has been named as the goodwill ambassador of the Indian team for the Street Child Cricket World Cup. She will join former captain Saurav Ganguly and IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals in supporting the team India for the Street Child Cricket World Cup. The first ever Cricket World Cup for street children will take place ahead of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.
- April 17 is observed as World Haemophilia Day to commemorate the birthday of Frank Schnabel who established the World Federation of Haemophilia in 1963. The Day is aimed at reaching out and identifying new members of the bleeding disorders community. Haemophilia is a medical condition in which the ability of blood to clot is severely reduced. As a result, even a minor injury can cause severe bleeding.
- Google and Apple on April 16, 2019 blocked the access to highly popular Chinese video app ‘TikTok’ on their app stores following the refusal of the Madras High Court to lift the ban imposed on the app on April 3, 2019. Earlier on April 3, 2019, the high court had asked the Central Government to ban TikTok, claiming it encouraged pornography and made child users vulnerable to sexual offenders. The ruling came after an individual filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) calling for a ban. Following the court’s ruling, the Central Government had sent a letter to Apple and Google to abide by the order.
- Indonesia on April 17, 2019 kicked off one of the world’s biggest one-day elections to pick a new president and parliament after a six-month campaign. The polls have pitted incumbent President Joko Widodo against ex-general Prabowo Subianto in a race to lead the nation. The election is considered as one of the most complicated, with voters contending with five paper ballots for president, vice president, and national and regional legislative candidates.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised an alarm over a 300 percent increase in the number of cases of measles globally in the first quarter of 2019. This year, 170 countries have reported 112,163 measles cases to WHO, as against 28,124 cases by 163 countries in 2018. There has also been a rise in case numbers in countries with high overall vaccination coverage, including the United States. Measles is a highly contagious airborne viral disease that causes fever, coughing and rashes, which can be deadly in rare cases.
- In Bangladesh, the historic Mujibnagar day was observed on 17 April, 2019. The day marks the oath taking ceremony of Bangladesh’s first government in 1971 at Baidyanathtala in Meherpur. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was declared the President in absentia as he was arrested and flown to Pakistan after the Pakistan military crackdown on the then ‘East Pakistan’ on the night of March 25, 1971.
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