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  • Picking up the quantum technology baton

    Context

    With the Budget announcement providing direction for the development in quantum technology, the stakeholders need to roll-out the national mission quickly.

    Pushing India into second quantum revolution

    • Budgetary allocation for NM-QTA: In the Budget 2020 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a welcome announcement for Indian science — over the next five years she proposed spending ₹8,000 crores (~ $1.2 billion) on a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications.
    • This promises to catapult India into the midst of the second quantum revolution, a major scientific effort that is being pursued by the United States, Europe, China and others.

    Timeline of the development of Quantum Mechanics

    • Science to describe nature on atomic-scale: Quantum mechanics was developed in the early 20th century to describe nature in the small — at the scale of atoms and elementary particles.
    • Foundation for understanding: For over a century it has provided the foundations of our understanding of the physical world, including the interaction of light and matter.
      • It also led to ubiquitous inventions such as lasers and semiconductor transistors.
      • Despite a century of research, the quantum world still remains mysterious and far removed from our experiences based on everyday life.
    • Second revolution: A second revolution is currently underway with the goal of putting our growing understanding of these mysteries to use by actually controlling nature and harnessing the benefits of the weird and wondrous properties of quantum mechanics.
    • Challenge of experimental realisation: One of the most striking of these is the tremendous computing power of quantum computers, whose actual experimental realisation is one of the great challenges of our times.
    • Quantum supremacy: The announcement by Google, in October 2019, where they claimed to have demonstrated the so-called “quantum supremacy”, is one of the first steps towards this goal.

    Applications and challenges

    • Applications: Besides computing, exploring the quantum world promises other dramatic applications including the creation of novel materials, enhanced metrology, secure communication, to name just a few.
      • Some of these are already around the corner.
      • Application in communication: China recently demonstrated secure quantum communication links between terrestrial stations and satellites.
      • Applications in cryptography: Computer scientists are working towards deploying schemes for post-quantum cryptography — clever schemes by which existing computers can keep communication secure even against quantum computers of the future.
      • Exploring fundamental questions: Beyond these applications, some of the deepest foundational questions in physics and computer science are being driven by quantum information science. This includes subjects such as quantum gravity and black holes.
    • The need for collaboration: Pursuing these challenges will require unprecedented collaboration between physicists (both experimentalists and theorists), computer scientists, material scientists and engineers.
    • Challenges on the experimental front: On the experimental front, the challenge lies in harnessing the weird and wonderful properties of quantum superposition and entanglement in a highly controlled manner by building a system composed of carefully designed building blocks called quantum bits or qubits.
      • These qubits tend to be very fragile and lose their “quantumness” if not controlled properly, and a careful choice of materials, design and engineering is required to get them to work.
    • Challenges on the theoretical front: On the theoretical front lies the challenge of creating the algorithms and applications for quantum computers.
      • These projects will also place new demands on classical control hardware as well as software platforms.

    Where India stands

    • India late in starting work on technology: Globally, research in this area is about two decades old, but in India, serious experimental work has been underway for only about five years, and in a handful of locations.
    • What are the constraints on Indian progress in this field? So far we have been plagued by a lack of sufficient resources, high-quality manpower, timeliness and flexibility.
      • Resource and quality manpower problem: The new announcement in the Budget would greatly help fix the resource problem but high-quality manpower is in global demand.
      • In a fast-moving field like this, timeliness is everything — delayed funding by even one year is an enormous hit.
    • A previous programme called Quantum Enabled Science and Technology has just been fully rolled out, more than two years after the call for proposals.
    • Laudable announcement: One has to laud the government’s announcement of this new mission on a massive scale and on a par with similar programmes announced recently by the United States and Europe.

    Limits and way forward

    • But there are some limits that come from how the government must do business with public funds.
    • Role of the private sector: Here, private funding, both via industry and philanthropy, can play an outsized role even with much smaller amounts.
    • For example, unrestricted funds that can be used to attract and retain high-quality manpower and to build international networks — all at short notice — can and will make an enormous difference to the success of this enterprise.
    • Private participation is the effective way: This is the most effective way (as China and Singapore discovered) to catch up scientifically with the international community, while quickly creating a vibrant intellectual environment to help attract top researchers.
    • Connection with industry: Further, connections with the Indian industry from the start would also help quantum technologies become commercialised successfully, allowing the Indian industry to benefit from the quantum revolution.
    • We must encourage industrial houses and strategic philanthropists to take an interest and reach out to Indian institutions with an existing presence in this emerging field.
    • For example, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), home to India’s first superconducting quantum computing lab, would be delighted to engage.

  • AYUSH Health-Wellness Centres

    What is the news: The Union Cabinet has approved the inclusion of AYUSH Health and Wellness Centre (AYUSH HWC) component of Ayushman Bharat in the National AYUSH Mission (NAM).

    • A total of 12,500 Ayush health and wellness centres throughout the country will be operationalised within a period of five years.
    • The implementation of the proposal will establish a holistic wellness model based on Ayush principles and practices focusing on preventive promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative healthcare by integration with the existing public health care system.

    Why such a move?

    • The move is aimed at establishing a holistic wellness model based on AYUSH principles and practices focusing on preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative healthcare by integration with the existing public health care system.
    • The National Health Policy 2017 has advocated mainstreaming the potential of AYUSH systems (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sows-rigpa and Homoeopathy) within a pluralistic system of Integrative healthcare.
    • The vision of the proposal is to establish a holistic wellness model based on AYUSH principles and practices, to empower masses for ‘self care’ to reduce the disease burden and out of pocket expenditure and to provide informed choice of the needy public.

    What is National AYUSH Mission (NAM)?

    • Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has launched National AYUSH Mission (NAM) during 12th Plan for im­plementing through States/UTs.
    • The basic objective of NAM is to promote AYUSH medical systems through cost effective AYUSH services, strengthening of educational systems, facilitate the enforcement of quality control of ASU &H drugs and sustainable availability of ASU & H raw-materials.
    • It envisages flexibility of implementation of the programmes which will lead to substantial participation of the State Governments/UT.
    • The NAM contemplates establishment of a National Mission as well as corresponding Missions in the State level.

  • Can Vitamin C prevent or cure novel Coronavirus infection?

  • The strategy of ‘Shelter in Place’

    What is the news: As India observed a “janata curfew” from 7 am to 9 pm on 22nd March refraining from making any non-essential movements, they are implementing a version of what is referred to, most commonly in the United States, as a “shelter in place” order.

    What exactly is a “Shelter in Place”?

    • In the context of the US, it is not a precise legal term, and its meaning and implications vary.
    • It conveys the broad idea of a set of restrictions being put into place, but follows not set definition.
    • Broadly, “shelter in place” orders everywhere social distancing, which is the key to “flattening the curve”, that is, spreading out the incidence of infection over a longer time so that healthcare systems are not overwhelmed.
    • Ultimately, the intent of the protocols is to decide what people should and shouldn’t do based on a particular threat to the public.

    Indian concept of self-imposed curfew

    • There is no exact definition of a “Janata curfew” — the PM has laid down guidelines for what Indians should not do, and authorities have taken steps to ensure compliance through appeals, advisories, and executive action such as invoking prohibitory orders.
    • In the cities, traders’ associations and housing societies have voluntarily put curbs on themselves in response to the PM’s call.

  • Need for re-orientation

    Context

    State universities will have to deliver more to the State where they are located

    Status of the state universities in India

    • Significance of state universities: Out of about a thousand higher education institutions (HEIs) that are authorised to award degrees in India, about 400 are state public universities.
      • These state universities produce over 90% of our graduates (including those from the colleges affiliated to them) and contribute to about one-third of the research publications from this country.
    • Poor quality: That their quality and performance is poor in most cases is accepted as a given today.
      • It is evidenced by their poor performance in institutional rankings,
      • the poor employment status of their students,
      • rather poor quality of their publications,
      • negligible presence in national-level policy/decision-making bodies,
      • poor track record in receiving national awards and recognition, poor share in research funding and so on.
    • Stated reasons for poor performance– Commonly stated reasons for these observations include government/political interference in the management of the university, lack of autonomy, poor governance structures, corruption, poor quality of teachers, outdated curricula, plagiarism, poor infrastructure and facilities, overcrowding, evils of the “affiliation” system and poor linkages with alumni and industry.
      • Symptoms of the problem: While many of these observations are no doubt valid, they appear to be only the symptoms and consequences of some deeper malaise and not the underlying cause.

    Core causative factors for the poor state of state universities

    • Lack of support: State universities are not supported the way Central universities are supported by the Central government as well as given patronage by the section of society.
      • It is as though State-level players do not have much stake in the stability and performance of the State university system.
      • What could be the reason for lack of support? One reason why State-level players do not feel compelled to back the State university system more strongly could be that the latter does not commit itself to anything that may be of particular interest and value to the State where the university is located.
    • What could be the solution? In order to receive much more funding and support from the State system then, State universities would have to commit to delivering lots more to the State and its people where they are located.
      • New vision and programmes: They must come up with a new vision and programmes specifically addressing the needs of the State, its industry, economy and society, and on the basis of it make the State-level players commit to providing full ownership and support to them.

    Conclusion

    The initiative to start a larger dialogue on the future of our State universities would have to be taken primarily by the academic community of these institutions.

  • Get a step ahead of the virus

    Context

    The COVID-19 pandemic has repercussions beyond the biomedical sector — it impinges on industry, transport, finance, banking and education sectors. All of them must act in unison.

    Virus different from its nearest relative

    • Comparison with SARS and MERS: The rapid spread of the zoonotic (transmitted from animal-to-human) coronavirus infection in Wuhan in China — several hundreds every day — in December 2019 and January 2020 was a clear signal that COVID-19 is drastically different from its nearest relative viz.-
      • the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus,
      • and its distant relative, the Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus.
      • The former spread slowly among humans in 2002-2003. It was checked globally within nine months by screening passengers and quarantining travellers from infected countries.
      • There have been no cases since July 2003. MERS coronavirus is, by and large, an inefficient spreader — it has been confined to the Middle-East.
    • How COVID-19 is different? COVID-19 has assumed a pandemic form.
      • In less than three months, it has reached more than 180 countries and claimed more than 10,000 lives.
      • The disease has claimed more people in Italy than in the country of its origin.
      • Travel bans, screening travellers and quarantines are necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19.
      • However, there is a limit to the utility of these measures.
    • Community transmission: When the infection becomes widespread, screening procedures will become inefficient — the virus will spread stealthily.
      • Indigenous transmission — the virus spreading within communities — has begun in many countries.
      • This is typical of viruses that spread from human to human through the respiratory system.

    How India’s health management systems deals with the disease burden?

    • Medicine consists of three components —
      • universal healthcare,
      • public health, and
      • research to constantly contextualise solutions to local problems.
    • Reaction after falling ill: Many of us in India believe that disease is a matter of fate or karma and disease prevention is not always in human hands — we only react after falling ill.
    • No focus on prevention and control: Therapeutics and surgeries — healthcare interventions — are valued much, but not disease prevention and control.
    • Cultural beliefs matter: Attitudes and cultural beliefs do matter. If victims are somehow regarded as responsible for their maladies, universal healthcare is perceived as an optional service — not mandatory.

    Good reasons to change the attitude

    • There are good reasons for such thinking to change.
    • Every person who contracts a communicable disease stands the risk of spreading it to others.
    • Prevention of disease is states’ duty: At the same time, the state, too, is responsible for the spread of diseases by not mitigating the environmental and social risk factors or determinants. Prevention of disease is the state’s duty.
    • Investment in health and its implications: Healthy people create wealth. For example, every year, uncontrolled tuberculosis drains India’s economy of the equivalent of the GDP of roughly 2 million people.
      • Investment in health, therefore, can have implications for the country’s economy.
      • But Indians have never really demanded an effective public health system.
      • Healthcare has never become a political slogan. That’s one reason for the sorry state of India’s public health system.
    • Absence of effective public health system: The country does have international obligations to control TB, malaria and leprosy, and eliminate polio.
      • Ad hoc measures: In the absence of an effective public health system, the country has depended on fulfilling these obligations through ad hoc measures that are targeted towards one disease.
      • Need for robust health system: Robust public health systems are needed to prevent typhoid, cholera, dysentery, leptospirosis, brucellosis, water-born hepatitis and influenza.
    • Overburdened healthcare system with communicable disease: The absence of an effective preventive element means that healthcare services in the public sector are over-burdened with uncontrolled communicable diseases.
      • The entry of the private sector: This encourages private sector healthcare providers to step in, which brings in problems related to unregulated profits.
      • Questions are often raised over the quality of service.
      • COVID-19 could compound the systems problems: Moreover, uncontrolled communicable diseases vie with the non-communicable ones for the healthcare provider’s attention. The COVID-19 outbreak could compound the system’s problems.

    One step ahead of the virus

    • SARS and Nipah in Kerala: The SARS and Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala in 2018 were crises that required short bursts of professional activity. Our healthcare systems coped with them.
      • But endemic diseases, even influenza, that has a vaccine, require sustained interventions.
    • Test for the country’s healthcare system: Herein lies the test for the country’s healthcare system.
      • It has often been seen that the system is not able to sustain its initial momentum.
      • There is a possibility that COVID-19 could follow the path taken by the HINI influenza – after the epidemic died down, the disease became endemic.
      • The country’s healthcare system has to prepare for that. In other words, it has to be one step ahead of the virus.

    Way forward

    • Equipping district hospitals: Every district hospital must be equipped to diagnose infections caused by serious communicable diseases — these affect the lungs, brain, liver and kidneys.
      • The system should also ensure that healthcare personnel do not get infected.
    • Allocate 5% of GDP to health budget: The country needs to allocate 5 per cent of the GDP to the health budget to have a health management system that can take care of public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 outbreak — and its aftermath.
    • Unified control machinery: A unified command and control machinery, under the prime minister’s guidance, to control the spread of COVID-19 is overdue by at least six weeks in the country.
    • Define the tasks of various authorities: The tasks of the Directorate-General of Health Services, National Centre for Disease Control, Indian Council of Medical Research, National Health Mission and state health ministries must be clearly defined.
    • The mechanism for coordination: Most importantly, a mechanism for coordination between these agencies should be set up to deal with the COVID-19 threat.

    Conclusion

    The COVID-19 pandemic has repercussions beyond the biomedical sector — it impinges on industry, transport, finance, banking and education sectors. All of them must act in unison.

  • [pib] Scheme for Promotion of manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS)

    The Union Cabinet has approved Scheme for Promotion of manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors.

    About SPECS

    • The scheme aims to offer the financial incentive of 25% of capital expenditure for the manufacturing of goods that constitute the supply chain of electronic products.
    • The scheme will help offset the disability for domestic manufacturing of electronic components and semiconductors in order to strengthen the electronic manufacturing ecosystem in the country.

    Benefits

    The proposal, when implemented, will lead to the development of electronic components manufacturing ecosystem in the country. Following are the expected outputs/outcomes in terms of measurable indicators for the scheme:

    • Development of electronic components manufacturing ecosystem in the country and deepening of Electronics value chain
    • New investments in Electronics Sector to the tune of at least Rs. 20,000 crore
    • Total employment potential of the scheme is approximately 6,00,000
    • Reducing dependence on import of components by large scale domestic manufacturing that will also enhance the digital security of the nation

  • [pib] Defence Procurement Procedure, 2020

    Raksha Mantri unveiled the draft Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2020 that aims at further increasing indigenous manufacturing and reducing timelines for procurement of defence equipment.

    Defence Procurement Procedure

    • The draft of DPP 2020 has been prepared by a Review Committee headed by Director General (Acquisition) based on the recommendations of all stakeholders, including private industry.
    • The first DPP was promulgated in 2002 and has since been revised a number of times to provide impetus to the growing domestic industry and achieve enhanced self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

    Features:

    • The government is constantly striving to formulate policies to empower the private industry including MSMEs in order to develop the eco-system for indigenous defence production.
    • The major changes proposed in the new DPP are:

     1) Indigenous Content ratio hiked

    • The draft proposes increasing the Indigenous Content (IC) stipulated in various categories of procurement by about 10% to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
    • A simple and realistic methodology has been incorporated for verification of indigenous content for the first time.

    2) New Category: “Buy Global” Manufacture in India

    • It has been introduced with minimum 50% indigenous content on cost basis of total contract value.
    • Only the minimum necessary will be bought from abroad while the balance quantities will be manufactured in India.
    • This would be in preference to the ‘Buy Global’ category as manufacturing will happen in India and jobs will be created in the country.

    3) Leasing introduced as a new category

    • Leasing has been introduced as a new category for acquisition in addition to existing ‘Buy’ & ‘Make’ categories to substitute huge initial capital outlays with periodical rental payments.
    • Leasing is permitted under two categories e, Lease (Indian) where Lessor is an Indian entity and is the owner of the assets and Lease (Global) where Lessor is a Global entity.
    • This will be useful for military equipment not used in actual warfare like transport fleets, trainers, simulators, etc.

    4) Product support

    • The scope and options for Product Support have been widened to include contemporary concepts in vogue, namely Performance Based Logistics (PBL), Life Cycle Support Contract (LCSC), Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC), etc to optimize life cycle support for equipment.
    • The capital acquisition contract would normally also include support for five years beyond the warranty period.

  • [pib] Production Linked Incentive Scheme

    The Union Cabinet has approved the Production Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing.

    Production Incentive Scheme (PLI)

    • The scheme proposes production linked incentive to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in mobile phone manufacturing and specified electronic components including Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) units.
    • The scheme shall extend an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales (over a base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered under target segments, to eligible companies, for a period of five (5) years subsequent to the base year as defined.
    • The proposed scheme is likely to benefit 5-6 major global players and few domestic champions, in the field of mobile manufacturing and Specified Electronics Components and bring in large scale electronics manufacturing in India.

    Benefits

    • The scheme has a direct employment generation potential of over 2,00,000 jobs over 5 years.
    • It would lead to large scale electronics manufacturing in the country and open tremendous employment opportunities.  Indirect employment will be about 3 times of direct employment as per industry estimates.
    • Thus, the total employment potential of the scheme is approximately 8,00,000.

  • Schemes for Electronic Manufacturing

    The Union Cabinet has approved financial assistance to the Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC2.0) Scheme

    Background

    • To build and create requisite infrastructure ecosystem for electronics manufacturing; Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) Scheme which was open for receipt of applications upto October, 2017.
    • A period of 5 years is available for disbursement of funds for the approved projects.
    • There was a need for continuation of such scheme in modified form for further strengthening the infrastructure base for electronics industry in the country and deepening the electronics value chain.

    EMC 2.0 Scheme

    • The Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme would support setting up of both Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) and Common Facility Centers (CFCs).
    • For the purpose of this Scheme an EMC would set up in geographical areas of certain minimum extent, preferably contiguous, where the focus is on development of basic infrastructure, amenities and other common facilities for the ESDM units.
    • For Common Facility Centre (CFC) there should be a significant number of existing ESDM units located in the area and the focus is on upgrading common technical infrastructure and providing common facilities for the ESDM units in such EMCs, Industrial Areas/Parks/industrial corridors.

    Aims and objectives

    • The scheme aims for development of world class infrastructure along with common facilities and amenities through Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs).
    • It is expected that these EMCs would aid the growth of the ESDM sector, help development of entrepreneurial ecosystem, drive innovation and catalyze the economic growth of the region by attracting investments in the sector, increasing employment opportunities and tax revenues.

    Benefits

    The Scheme will create a robust infrastructure base for electronic industry to attract flow of investment in ESDM sector and lead to greater employment opportunities.  Following are the expected outputs/outcomes for the Scheme:

    • Availability of ready infrastructure and Plug & Play facility for attracting investment in the electronics sector:
    • New investment in electronics sector
    • Jobs created by the manufacturing units;
    • Revenue in the form of taxes paid by the manufacturing units