17th March 2021 Current affairs

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic call with the Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic António Luis Santos da Costa on March 16, 2021. During the phone call, the two leaders reviewed the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the two countries.
2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Bangladesh at the invitation of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on March 26 & 27, 2021. This will be his first visit to a foreign country since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and it highlights the priority India attaches to Bangladesh.
3. The Election Commission on March 16, 2021, announced bye-elections to two Lok Sabha Parliamentary Constituencies- Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh and Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka and 14 assembly constituencies of different states. The election will be held in these constituencies on April 17 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2nd.
4. The India-Bangladesh Water Resources Secretary-level meeting took place on March 16, 2021, under the framework of the Joint Rivers Commission. During the meeting, the officials of the water resources ministries noted that both the countries share 54 common rivers which have a direct impact on the livelihood of people of the two neighbouring countries.
5. Moderna has started testing its Coronavirus vaccine on infants and children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years in a study. The testing has been started by the pharmaceutical company as it seeks to expand approval for its vaccine on children.
6. Russia on March 17, 2021 threatened to together block the social networking site, Twitter next month unless the company complies with demands to remove certain content. The Russian authorities have cited instances of Twitter promoting child pornography, drug use and tweets encouraging children to attempt suicide.
7. Youth Affairs & Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju informed that the central government is working to set up a Winter Sports Institute in Gulmarg, Kashmir. The centre has a specific roadmap to work towards promoting and training Kashmiri youth in all major sports domains.
8. The country’s first centralized air-conditioned railway terminal in Bengaluru would be operational soon. It will be named after one of the foremost civil engineers, Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said.