Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 January 2021

::NATIONAL::

According to Central Pollution Control BoardIndia report, India has collected just 10 per cent of the electronic waste (e-waste) estimated to have been generated in the country 2018-19 and 3.5 per cent of that in the generated in 2017-18.
India generated 708,445 tonne e-waste in 2017-18 and 771,215 tonne the following fiscal, the report estimated. In 2019-20, the figure rose 32 per cent to 1,014,961 tonne.
The figures have taken into account the 21 types of electrical and electronic equipments listed in the E-Waste Management Rules, 2016.
These include discarded computer monitors, mobile phones, chargers, motherboards, headphones, television sets, among other appliances.
The report also states that the volume of e-waste that a dismantler or recycler was handling increased over time but the shed area of these units remained the same.

Jallikattu is a bull-taming sport of Tamil Nadu that has traditionally been part of the festival of Pongal.
The festival is a celebration of nature, and thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest, of which cattle-worship ispart.
There are references to Jallikattu in Sangam literature too. Also, a reference to bull taming is found in a sealdiscovered at Mohenjodaro, which is dated between 2,500 BC and 1,800 BC.
It is popular in Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Theni, Pudukkottai and Dindigul districts — known as the Jallikattubelt.

India and Japan signed a pact to enhance cooperation in the field of information and communications technology (ICT).
Major focus areas are like 5G, telecom security and submarine optical fibre cable.

The two countries will also cooperate on smart cities, high altitude platform for broadband in unconnected areas, disaster management and public safety, the release added.
It has been agreed that apart from the ministry-level cooperation, Government of India organisations such as C-DOT and ITI Ltd along with industry partners from Japan would also be part of this cooperation.
Government said, Japanese electronics industry to invest in India and avail the benefits of the new technologies.
The minister further highlighted the huge potential India holds for Japanese investors in the field of 5G and 5G-based services, internet of things, and digital health technologies.

Russia announced that it was leaving the Open Skies Treaty (OST), an accord between over 30 countries that allows participants to fly unarmed reconnaissance flights over any part of their fellow member states.
In November, the United States left the OST first after accusing Russia of violating the pact– allegations that Russia denied.
Moscow has now blamed Washington for its own decision of leaving the treaty.
The OST aims at building confidence among members through mutual openness, thus reducing the chances of accidental war.
Under the treaty, a member state can “spy” on any part of the host nation, with the latter’s consent.
A country can undertake aerial imaging over the host state after giving notice 72 hours before, and sharing its exact flight path 24 hours before.

Retailers Association of India (RAI) has urged Centre to accelerate the formulation of the National RetailPolicy.
RAI urged centre to allow retailers to be registered as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) toavail benefits to given these enterprises.
Earlier, Centre had identified five areas in its proposed national retail policy: ease of doing business,rationalisation of the licence process, digitisation of retail, focus on reforms, an open network for digitalcommerce.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought inputs from telcos and other industry experts on the sale and use of radio frequency spectrum over the next 10 years, including the 5G bands.

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5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
5G mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
5G, have indicated that this band may be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
The high-band spectrum offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (giga bits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.