Heavy metals contaminating India’s rivers
Why in news?
- Central Water Commission (CWC) has published a report on river pollution by Heavy metals. The study was conducted from May 2014 to April 2018 and spanned 67 rivers in 20 river basins.
Key highlights:
- Samples taken from 65% of the water quality stations spanning India’s major rivers showed contamination by one or more heavy metals, exceeding safe limits set by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
- Iron emerged as the most common contaminant with 156 of the sampled sites registering levels of the metal above safe limits. The other major contaminants found in the samples were lead, nickel, chromium, cadmium and copper. None of the sites registered arsenic levels above the safe limit.
- The main sources of heavy metal pollution are mining, milling, plating and surface finishing industries that discharge a variety of toxic metals into the environment.
ISRO begins preparations for setting up third rocket launchpad
Why in news?
- Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has begun preparatory works for setting up a third rocket launchpad in the small coastal hamlet of Kulashekhrapattinam in the Thuthukudi district of Tamil Nadu.
Key highlights:
- At present, the ISRO has two launch pads at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
- The demand for additional launch pads has arisen as a result of the increase in the number of satellite launches from India, both for domestic and international customers. ISRO says that it had launched as many as 17 missions in 2018 alone.
- Recently, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office informed Rajya Sabha that the government had a proposal to set up a rocket launching pad near Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu.
Cabinet clears social security pact with Brazil
Why in news?
- The Union Cabinet has given its approval for signing the Agreement on Social Security between the India and Brazil.
Key highlights:
- India has been entering into bilateral Social Security Agreements (SSAs) with other countries in order to protect the interests of Indian professionals / skilled workers working abroad for short durations and enhance the competitiveness of Indian companies.
- SSAs broadly provide the following benefits:
- Avoiding making of double social security contributions by the workers (detachment);
- Easy remittance of benefits (Exportability);
- Aggregating the contribution periods (in two countries) to prevent loss of benefits (Totalization).
- Disability insurance benefits to the Indian nationals working abroad.
- As on date, India has signed SSAs with 18 countries.
US, Mexico, Canada sign USMCA trade deal
Why in news?
- The US, Mexico and Canada have finalised the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that will replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The USMCA will now go to the countries’ legislatures for final approval.
Background: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
- NAFTA is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.
- The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994.
- According to Donald trump, NAFTA is the “worst trade deal ever made by United States”. Thus, he initiated negotiations to replace it.
U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA): Salient Features
- USMCA is intended to last 16 years and will be reviewed every 6 years.
- USMCA gives the U.S. greater access to the dairy markets of Canada. Tariffs of up to 275% have kept most foreign milk out of the Canadian market.
- If the U.S. imposes a 25% global tariff on car imports, Canada and Mexico will have a quota of 2.6 million cars they can export to the U.S. as a protection for their car industry.
- Canada managed to preserve the dispute-settlement mechanism as a protection for its wood industry.
- It also includes stronger protections for workers, tough environmental rules, updates the trade relationship to cover the digital economy and provides tougher intellectual property protections.
- It also adds provisions to prevent “manipulation” of the trade rules, including covering currency values, and controls over outside countries trying to take advantage of the duty-free market.
PSLV-C48/RISAT-2BR1 mission
Why in news?
- PSLV-C48 / RISAT-2BR1PSLV-C48 successfully launched RISAT-2BR1 and nine commercial satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
Key highlights:
- India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 50th flight (PSLV-C48), successfully launched RISAT-2BR1, an earth observation satellite, along with nine commercial satellites of Israel, Italy, Japan and USA from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.
- These satellites were launched under commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
RISAT-2BR1:
- RISAT-2BR1 is a radar imaging earth observation satellite carrying an X-band synthetic aperture radar, an Indian version of Israel’s TecSAR satellite, with radial rib reflector 3.6 metre mesh antenna.
- The satellite weighs about 628 kg. The mission life of RISAT-2BR1 is 5 years.
- The satellite will provide services in the field of Agriculture, Forestry and Disaster Management. It is believed that RISAT-2BR1 along with Cartosat-3, a remote sensing satellite which was launched on November 27, 2019, will also be used for military reconnaissance.
What is Wi-Fi Calling?
Why in news?
- Bharti Airtel has introduced Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi), a first for India.
Key highlights:
- It uses high speed Internet connection, available via broadband, to make and receive high definition (HD) voice calls. Users don’t have to pay extra for these calls as it is using a Wi-Fi network.
- Wi-Fi Calling can be configured on compatible smartphones by upgrading operating systems to the version that supports Wi-Fi Calling, and enabling this in Settings. Keeping VoLTE switched on will help in seamless voice calling, but this is not essential.
- This is not much different from a voice call using WhatsApp or any other over-the-top messaging platform, but here the call is from one number to another, and not using an app.
- Airtel Wi-Fi calling claims to enhance indoor voice calling experience for smartphone customers. Since these calls use stable Wi-Fi connections, call drops are not expected to be a problem. Wi-Fi Calling is aimed especially for areas where cellular networks are not strong.
- At the moment the service is limited to Delhi-NCR users with compatible devices. For now, it will work only for users who have Wi-Fi on Airtel Xstream Fiber home broadband.
- Airtel says it will soon be compatible with all broadband services and Wi-Fi hotspots, and rolled out in other locations. Reliance Jio can be expected to roll out its own VoWiFi service soon.