11th October Current Affairs

• MoU between India & Romania approved
  • The Union Cabinet has approved the Memorandum of Understanding signed between India and Romania in the field of tourism.
  • The MoU was signed in September, 2018 during the visit of the Vice-President of India to Romania.
  • The main objectives of the MoU is to expand bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector between the two countries and to promote safe, honourable and sustainable tourism.

  
• IOC creates refugee team for Tokyo 2020
  • The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced there will be an Olympic team made up of refugees at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
  • In the 2016 Rio Olympics, a refugee team was created which comprised ten refugee athletes from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • The 32nd Summer Olympic Games will take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020 in Tokyo.

  
• ‘Workshop on Int Arbitration’ inaugurated
  • In an effort to strengthen dispute resolution mechanisms, a workshop was organised on ‘Best Practices in International Arbitration’ in New Delhi on 10 October 2018.
  • The workshop was organised by NITI Aayog in collaboration with the International Court of Arbitration.
  • The workshop covered basic concepts of international arbitration, selection of arbitrators, and enforcement of arbitral award.
• BPCL to commission 2G ethanol plant
  • Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) plans to commission its second generation (2G) ethanol bio-refinery at Odisha’s Bargarh district by December 2020.

  

  • The Bargarh bio-refinery will utilize about 0.2 million tonnes of rice straw annually as feedstock.
  • The plant is based on a zero-liquid discharge plant (ZLD) technology where all the water will be recycled back into the plant.
• ‘Conference on Medical Products’ inaugurated
  • ‘2nd World Conference on Access to Medical Products – Achieving the SDGs 2030’ was inaugurated on 9 October 2018 in New Delhi.
  • The conference was organized by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare with the support of the World Health Organization.
  • The main objective of the 2nd World Conference 2018 is to take forward the recommendations from the 1st World Conference 2017.
• Senegal will host the youth Olympics in 2022
  • In 2022, Senegal will host the fourth summer youth Olympic games.
  • Senegal has thus become the first African country to host an Olympic event.
  • The International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously made the decision in Buenos Aires.
  • The 2022 Youth Olympics will take place in Senegal between May and June.
• ‘Oldest flying squirrel fossil found’
  • Scientists have discovered the oldest flying squirrel fossil ever.
  • The 11.6-million-year-old fossil was discovered in Spain.
  • The discovery of the fossil has unearthed new insight into the origin and evolution of these airborne animals.
  • Flying squirrels are the most successful group of mammals that adopted the ability to glide.