Current Affairs - February 19, 2018 Current Affairs

Indian Oil Corp will invest Rs 70,000 crore to raise its oil refining capacity by about a quarter by 2030. IOC will expand its refining capacity to 116.55 MTPA by 2030 from the current 80.7 MTPA. The investment planned by IOC also includes in upgradation of major units at existing refineries to help produce cleaner Euro-VI or BS-VI grade petrol & diesel by April 2020.

On February 13, 2018, United Nations (UN) General Assembly spokesman Brenden Varma stated that Venezuela and Libya have been suspended from voting in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly because of millions of dollars in unpaid dues. This is for the third time in three years that Venezuela and Libya have been suspended from voting in the UN General Assembly. In order to restore their voting rights, Venezuela and Libya must pay at least $25200296 and $6594842 respectively. Central African Republic, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Surinam, Marshall Islands, Yemen and Equatorial Guinea are the other countries that have lost voting rights for the same reason.

Kerala govt is gearing up to geotag the houses & farms of over 10 lakh livestock & poultry farmers in the state as part of its massive digitisation drive. The objective is to compile a comprehensive digital repository of information of animal husbandry & dairying in the state. The data would be useful during the time of the outbreak of any diseases among domestic animals and birds.

Lok Sabha Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan inaugurated the 6th India region Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference at Patna in Bihar. The conference focused on the objectives and role of the Parliamentary Association body. The conference holds discussions mainly on two topics namely. 'Parliament's role in the development agenda' and 'Legislature and Judiciary - Two important Pillars of Democracy'. The Speaker stressed upon the need to strengthen the legislature, executive, and the judiciary in order to make democracy strong.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Fourth Container Terminal (FCT) of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai, Maharashtra. With this, JNPT doubled its container handling capacity. The new FCT will add capacity of 24 lakh containers per year in Phase-I and after completion of Phase-II in 2022, the capacity of JNPT will be 100 lakh containers per year. The new FCT of JNPT has been developed on Design, Built, Fund, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis for a concession period of 30 years at estimated cost of Rs. 7915 crore. The project was implemented in two Phases. i.e. Phase I and Phase II.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced that is has prepared area development plans worth Rs 1918 crore for farmers of Punjab. Announcement in this regard was made by NABARD Chief General Manager (Punjab), Deepak Kumar at the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) meeting in Chandigarh. The plan envisages to promote activities like dairy, vegetable cultivation, mushroom growing and bee keeping to provide income to farmers on sustainable basis. Mr. Kumar has raised concerns over the shortage of investment credit in Punjab, and has urged banks to focus on the area.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suspended Romania's drug-testing laboratory for 6 months, quoting that the laboratory was not up to the required standards. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has said that, it has suspended the Romanian drug-testing laboratory in Bucharest for 6 months due to a lot of non-conformities. But it did not mention the problems in detail. The laboratory is now banned from testing samples. The laboratory has been urged to hand over its possessions to another laboratory. The ban on this laboratory is backdated to 29 November 2017. WADA has tightened laboratory check-ups after finding violations at the Moscow laboratory.

The Virgin Group led by Richard Branson has signed an intent agreement with Maharashtra Government to build world's first hyperloop transportation system between Mumbai and Pune. The foundation stone for the project was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on first day of Magnetic Maharashtra investor summit held in Mumbai.

Haruhiko Kuroda was reappointed the Governor of Bank of Japan for a second term by Japan government. Haruhiko Kuroda's current term as Bank of Japan Governor ends in April 2018. He is the first person to get a second term as governor of Bank of Japan since 1961. The Japan government has also nominated Masazumi Wakatabe, professor at Waseda University, as deputy governor of Bank of Japan. Another deputy governor position went to Bank of Japan Executive Director Masayoshi Amamiya.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had recently organized Youth Exchange Programme- Watan Ko Jano programme. Under it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh met youth of Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi. Around 200 youth from state visited different places of country as part of the programme. The programme is sponsored jointly by Ministry of Home Affairs, Central Government (Kashmir Cell) and J&K State Rehabilitation Council Social Welfare Department. It aims to give exposure to youth and children of J&K about the cultural and socio-economic development taking place in other parts of country. Youth and children hit by militancy and from weaker sections from J&K are selected for the programme.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the 2018 edition of the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS 2018) at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. This Summit has been organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). The three-day Summit will serve as a common platform for global leaders and thinkers in the fields of sustainable development, energy and environment sectors to come together and deliberate on contemporary issues. Theme of World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS 2018) is 'Partnerships for a Resilient Planet'. 'Greenovation Exhibition', showcasing the latest technological advancements to meet Sustainable Development Goals is also a part of WSDS 2018. Over 2000 delegates including policy makers, think tanks, researchers, diplomats and corporates from 41 countries will be participating in this event.

Scientists have confirmed discovery of nearly 100 new exoplanets outside our solar system based on data from second mission of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope (K2 mission) released in 2014. With this total number of exoplanets found using NASA's K2 mission has reached almost 300. The discovery had started out by analysing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets. In turn, 95 of these planets have proved to be new discoveries. One of planets detected was orbiting a very bright star called HD 212657 with 10-day orbit period. HD 212657, is now the brightest star found by either the Kepler or K2 missions to host validated planet.

Women in Saudi Arabia can now open their own businesses without the consent of a husband or male relative. The policy change, announced by the Saudi government also marks a major step away from the strict guardianship system that has ruled the country for decades. The Country's Ministry of Commerce and investment said on its website that women can now launch their own businesses and benefit from governmental e-services without having to prove consent from a guardian.