Up-to-the-Minute: Current Affairs for the Inquisitive Mind
 

XPoSat: 

• XPoSat stands for X-ray Polarimeter Satellite. 

• It is India's pioneering polarimetry mission aimed at studying various dynamics of astronomical sources in extreme conditions.

• It is only the world’s second polarimetry mission using X-ray after NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) that was launched in 2021. 

Scientific Payloads of XPoSat: 

XPoSat will carry two scientific payloads: 

• Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays (POLIX) and X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing (SPECT) in a low Earth orbit. 

• POLIX payload will enable the measurement of polarimetry parameters such as the degree and angle of polarization in the medium X-ray energy range of 8-30 KeV photons originating from astronomical sources. 

• SPECT payload will provide valuable timing and spectroscopic information within the energy range of 0.8-15 keV of X-ray photons. 

Importance in Understanding Astronomical Sources: 

• Polarimetry measurements offer an excellent diagnostic tool for comprehending the emission processes from various astronomical sources. 

• Astronomical sources, including black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and pulsar wind nebulae, present complex emission mechanisms that challenge the current understanding. 

• By combining polarimetric observations with spectroscopic and timing measurements, researchers anticipate overcoming the limitations of the present understanding of astronomical emission processes.

Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities: India-Pakistan 

• India and Pakistan have exchanged a list of their nuclear installations. 

• The exchange was under Article II of the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India. 

• The two countries also exchanged lists of prisoners held in each other’s prisons under the provisions of the Agreement on Consular Access signed in May 2008. 

• Under this pact, the two countries should exchange comprehensive lists on 1st January and 1st July every year.

Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities: 

About:

• According to this agreement, both countries have to inform each other of the nuclear facilities. 

• The agreement was signed in 1988 and ratified in 1991. 

• This was the 31st consecutive exchange of the list between the two neighboring countries. 

Coverage: 

• Nuclear power and research reactors, fuel fabrication, uranium enrichment, isotopes separation, and reprocessing facilities, as well as any other installations with fresh or irradiated nuclear fuel and materials in any form and establishments storing significant quantities of radioactive materials, are all included under the umbrella term “nuclear installations and facilities”. 

Significance of the Agreement: 

• The need for the agreement had been felt against the backdrop of Israel’s 1981 bombing of Iraq’s Osirak reactor near Baghdad. The strike, carried out by Israeli fighter jets over hostile airspace, had set Iraq’s nuclear weapons program significantly. The agreement had also come at a time of deep anxiety for Pakistan.

• Islamabad had been rattled by the memory of the 1972 defeat which dismembered the country, and military developments in India, such as Operation Brass-tacks in 1987, which was a war game exercise to prepare for deep strike offensive capabilities. Pakistan had at the time responded by putting its nuclear installations and assets on ‘high alert’.

Current Issues in India-Pakistan Relations Cross Border Terrorism: 

• Terrorism emanating from territories under Pakistan's control remains a core concern in bilateral relations. 

• India has consistently stressed the need for Pakistan to take credible, irreversible, and verifiable action to end cross-border terrorism against India. 

Indus Water Treaty:

• Now and then, there is an uproar in India for abrogating the Indus Water Treaty as a response to Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism and tenacity.

• It is a treaty brokered by the World Bank, which administers how the waters of the Indus and its tributaries that flow in both countries will be utilized. 

Siachen Glacier: 

• Siachen is regarded as the world’s highest, deadliest, and costliest battlefield. 

• Decades of military operations have damaged the glacier and the surrounding environment. 

• However, due to the complex nature of Indo-Pak relations and the distrust between the two countries, there has been no decision on the matter yet. 

Reorganization of Jammu & Kashmir: 

• It also created a crisis in Kashmir-centric Pakistan as at one go, the large territory of Ladakh was disassociated from the Kashmir dispute. 

• Pakistan’s frustration showed in its desperate attempts to push terrorism and failed effort to gather international support against this move by India.

Red Sea and Panama Canal

Context: 

• Recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea trade route and the ongoing drought problem at the Panama Canal have raised worries about global trade disruptions. 

Key Issues in the Red Sea and Panama Canal Presently the Red Sea: 

Issue: 

• Chemical tanker MV Chem Pluto was struck by a drone attack, approximately 200 nautical miles off Gujarat's coast. MV Chem Pluto is a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker. It had started its journey carrying crude from Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, and was expected to arrive in New Mangalore, India. Alleged Involved Entity: 

• It is believed to have been carried out by Houthi rebels based in Yemen, citing protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Houthi rebels are also engaged in a decade-long civil conflict with Yemen's government. 

Impact on India: 

• Concerns arise for Indian oil importers and exporters of key commodities like basmati and tea due to disruptions in this critical trade route. 

• Disruption in the Red Sea route could increase Indian agricultural product prices by 10-20% as shipments reroute through the Cape of Good Hope.

Panama Canal: 

Issue: 

• Due to drought conditions, shipping through the 51-mile stretch of the Panama Canal has decreased by over 50%.

• A naturally occurring El Nino climate pattern associated with warmer-than-usual water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is contributing to Panama's drought. 

Impact: 

• This shortage of water is compelling vessels traveling from Asia to the US to opt for the Suez Canal, adding six extra days compared to the Panama Canal route. 

• While the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait that leads to the Suez Canal in the Red Sea region connects Asia to Europe, the 100-year-old Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

• Both these routes are among the busiest in the world.

PMLA Notice to Offshore Crypto Firms

Context: 

• The Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIUIND) has issued show cause notices to 9 offshore cryptocurrency and virtual digital assets service providers (VDA SPs) including Binance Kucoin, Huobi for not being compliant with the requisite provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 About: 

• PMLA is an Indian law enacted in 2002 to prevent money laundering and related offenses. Money laundering involves making illegally obtained funds appear legitimate or "clean" by integrating them into the financial system. 

• It was enacted in a 2002 response to India’s global commitment (including the Vienna Convention) to combat the menace of money laundering. 

Regulating Authorities: 

• The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is the primary authority responsible for investigating and prosecuting money laundering. 

• It functions under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance. 

• Recently, the Supreme Court has ruled that the ED cannot arrest someone under the PMLA simply for not responding to their queries and summons. 

• FIU-IND is the national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing, and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies and foreign FIUs. 

• The agency works under the Finance Ministry.

Radiocarbon Dating

Context: -

• Archaeologists have recently used radiocarbon dating to analyse the oldest true wooden frame saddle in East Asia, revealing how the rise of Mongolian steppe cultures was likely aided by advances in equestrian technology. 

Radiocarbon Dating: 

• Radiocarbon dating, or carbon-14 dating, is a scientific method that can accurately determine the age of organic materials as old as approximately 60,000 years. 

• First developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, the technique is based on the decay of the carbon-14 isotope (Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon). 

• It has been used for historical studies and atmospheric science. 

• It can be used on any object that used to be alive. That includes pieces of animals, people, and plants, but also paper that was made from reeds, leather made from animal hides, logs that were used to build houses, and so forth.

Working:

• Carbon 14 is continually being formed in the upper atmosphere by the effect of cosmic ray neutrons on nitrogen 14 atoms. It is rapidly oxidized in air to form carbon dioxide and enters the global carbon cycle. 

• Plants and animals assimilate carbon 14 from carbon dioxide throughout their lifetimes into their tissues. 

• When they die, the carbon-14 starts to change into other atoms over time. 

• Scientists can estimate how long the organism has been dead by counting the remaining carbon-14 atoms. 

• Carbon-14 has a half-life of about 5,730 years. That means half the atoms in a sample will change into other atoms, a process known as “decay,” in that amount of time. 

Half-Life:

• Plants get their carbon through photosynthesis; animals get it mainly through food. Because plants and animals get their carbon from the atmosphere, they too acquire C-12 and C-14 in roughly the same proportion as is available in the atmosphere. 

• When they die, their interactions with the atmosphere stop. While C-12 is stable, the radioactive C-14 reduces to one-half of itself in about 5,730 years — known as its ‘half-life’. 

• The changing ratio of C-12 to C-14 in the remains of a plant or animal after it dies can be measured and can be used to deduce the approximate time when the organism died.