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GS Paper: GS3-16.Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology

  • [pib] Bharat Ratna Professor CNR Rao

    Bharat Ratna Professor C.N.R. Rao has received the International Eni Award 2020 for research into renewable energy sources and energy storage, also called the Energy Frontier award.

    Who is CNR Rao?

    • Rao is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry.
    • Rao is one of the world’s foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has contributed to the development of the field over five decades.

    His scientific contributions

    His work on transition metal oxides has led to a basic understanding of novel phenomena and the relationship between materials properties and the structural chemistry of these materials.

    • Rao was one of the earliest to synthesize two-dimensional oxide materials such as La2CuO4.
    • He was one of the first to synthesize 123 cuprates, the first liquid nitrogen-temperature superconductor in 1987. He was also the first to synthesis Y junction carbon nanotubes in the mid-1990s.
    • His work has led to a systematic study of compositionally controlled metal-insulator transitions.
    • Such studies have had a profound impact in application fields such as colossal magnetoresistance and high-temperature superconductivity.
    • He has made immense contributions to nanomaterials over the last two decades, besides his work on hybrid materials.

    Answer this PYQ from CSP 2020 in the comment box:

    Q. With reference to carbon nanotubes, consider the following statements:

    1. They can be used as carriers of drugs and antigens in the human body.
    2. They can be made into artificial blood capillaries for an injured part of the human body.
    3. They can be used in biochemical sensors.
    4. Carbon nanotubes are biodegradable.
    Which of the statements given above are correct?
    (a) 1 and 2 only
    (b) 2, 3, and 4 only
    (c) 1, 3, and 4 only
    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    Citations for the Energy Frontiers award

    • Professor Rao has been working on hydrogen energy as the only source of energy for the benefit of all mankind.
    • Hydrogen storage, photochemical and electrochemical production of hydrogen, solar production of hydrogen, and non-metallic catalysis were the highlights of his work.
    • The EF award has been conferred for his work on metal oxides, carbon nanotubes, and other materials and two-dimensional systems, including graphene, boron-nitrogen-carbon hybrid materials, and molybdenum sulfide (Molybdenite – MoS2) for energy applications and green hydrogen production.
    • Green hydrogen production can be achieved through various processes, including the photodissociation of water, thermal dissociation, and electrolysis activated by electricity produced from solar or wind energy.

    Significance of this award

    • This is considered to be the Nobel Prize in Energy Research.

  • [pib] Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

    Indian Scientists have developed a theory that helps understand the complicated nature of Sun-Earth interaction’s happening in the magnetosphere

    Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission

    • The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission is a NASA robotic space mission to study the Earth’s magnetosphere, using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation.
    • The mission is designed to gather information about the microphysics of magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence⁠—processes that occur in many astrophysical plasma.
    • Indian researchers have developed a theory that solves every bit of uncertainty regarding the conflict between the observations from MMS Mission.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. The Earth’s magnetic field has reversed every few hundred thousand years.
    2. When the Earth was created more than 4000 million years ago, there was 54% oxygen and no carbon dioxide.
    3. When living organisms originated, they modified the early atmosphere of the Earth.

    Which of the statements given above is/ are correct? (CSP 2018)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    What is the Magnetosphere?

    • The magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the magnetic field of Earth, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary space.
    • It is formed by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth’s magnetic field.

    Findings of the Indian Researchers

    • The MMS spacecraft observed negative monopolar potential (electric field potentials which can be visualized in the form of single-humped pulse-type structures).
    • The scientific community suddenly recognized its importance, and publications were presented.
    • However, none of the available theories could explain the characteristics of these structures due to the exotic background conditions.
    • Indian theory provides a better understanding of their characteristics and sheds light on the generation of these structures.
    • This has lead to the unraveling of nature’s greatest mystery that causes phenomena -plasma transport and heating of plasma- the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid, and gas.

  • Raman Thermometry check on health of power lines

    Researchers at IIT Madras have demonstrated that by using Raman thermometry on fibre optic cables, they can achieve the monitoring of power transmission cables.

    What is Raman Thermometry?

    • Raman spectroscopy is well known as an analytical method for identifying chemical compounds and characterizing the chemical bonding and solid-state structure of materials.
    • Perhaps less well known is the fact that one can use Raman spectroscopy to determine the temperature of the material being analyzed.

    For that, we need to get familiarized with Raman Effect

    • India’s first and so far only Nobel laureate in physics, C.V. Raman, won the prize for his discovery of the Raman Effect.
    • This consisted of experimental observations on the scattering of light.
    • In the Raman Effect, when light is scattered off an object, say a molecule, two bands are observed, with a higher and lower frequency than the original light, called the Stokes and anti-Stokes bands, respectively.
    • By studying the relative intensity of the two bands, it is possible to estimate the temperature of the object that scattered the light.
    • The anti-Stokes component of Raman scattering is strongly dependent on the temperature that the material is subjected to.

    Thus, by measuring the intensity of the anti-Stokes scattered light we can estimate the temperature. This is Raman thermometry.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which Indian astrophysicist and Nobel laureate predicted rapidly rotating stars emit polarized light?

    (a) Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

    (b) CV Raman

    (c) Ramanujan

    (d) Amartya Sen

    What has IITM achieved?

    • The temperature measurement was performed in not just one location, but in a distributed manner using an optical fibre.
    • To achieve this, a pulse of light was launched into the optical fibre and the backscattered radiation was observed.
    • The time of flight of the backscattered radiation provided an estimate of the distance from which the light is backscattered.
    • This can go up to tens of kilometres. This technique is married to Raman thermometry to get the results for actual measurements over tens of kilometres.

    What makes this experiment special?

    • The distribution Sector considered the weakest link in the entire power sector.
    • We are much aware of Transmission and Distribution loss that is incurred to our DISCOMS.
    • This IITM technology helps analyze transmission efficiencies in a better way.
    • The present method devised by the team is both economical and provides real-time information.

  • Explained: National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHEM)

    Recently, the Finance Minister in her budget speech formally announced the National Hydrogen Energy Mission which aims for generation of hydrogen from green power resources.

    Background

    • With this announcement, India has made an uncharacteristically early entry in the race to tap the energy potential of the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen.
    • The proposal in the Budget will be followed up with a mission draft over the next couple of months — a roadmap for using hydrogen as an energy source.
    • The mission would have a specific focus on green hydrogen, dovetailing India’s growing renewable capacity with the hydrogen economy.

    Hydrogen as an element

    • The most common element in nature is not found freely.
    • Hydrogen exists only combined with other elements and has to be extracted from naturally occurring compounds like water (which is a combination of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom).
    • Although hydrogen is a clean molecule, the process of extracting it is energy-intensive.
    • The sources and processes, by which hydrogen is derived, are categorised by colour tabs.

    Its types as fuel

    • Hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is called grey hydrogen; this constitutes the bulk of the hydrogen produced today.
    • Hydrogen generated from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage options is called blue hydrogen; hydrogen generated entirely from renewable power sources is called green hydrogen.
    • In the last process, electricity generated from renewable energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

    Hydrogen for mobility

    • While proposed end-use sectors include steel and chemicals, the major industry that hydrogen has the potential of transforming is transportation.
    • This sector contributes a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, and where hydrogen is being seen as a direct replacement of fossil fuels, with specific advantages over traditional EVs.
    • Hydrogen fuel cell cars have a near-zero carbon footprint.
    • Hydrogen is about two to three times as efficient as burning petrol because an electric chemical reaction is much more efficient than combustion.

    We already had H-CNG!

    • In October 2020, Delhi became the first Indian city to operate buses running on hydrogen spiked compressed natural gas (H-CNG) in a six-month pilot project.
    • The buses will run on a new technology patented by Indian Oil Corp for producing H-CNG — 18 per cent hydrogen in CNG — directly from natural gas, without resorting to conventional blending.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2019:

    In the context of proposals to the use of hydrogen-enriched CNG (H-CNG) as fuel for buses in public transport, consider the following statements :
    1. The main advantage of the use of H-CNG is the elimination of carbon monoxide emissions.
    2. H-CNG as a fuel reduces carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon emissions.
    3. Hydrogen up to one-fifth by volume can be blended with CNG as fuel for buses.
    4. H-CNG makes the fuel less expensive than CNG.
    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
    (a) 1 only
    (b) 2 and 3 only
    (c) 4 only
    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    Green hydrogen has specific advantages

    1. One, it is a clean-burning molecule, which can decarbonize a range of sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and transportation.
    2. Two, renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channelled to produce hydrogen.
    • This is what the government’s Hydrogen Energy Mission, to be launched in 2021-22, aims for.

    Philosophy behind NHEM

    • India’s electricity grid is predominantly coal-based and will continue to be so.
    • In several countries that have gone in for an EV push, much of the electricity is generated from renewables — in Norway for example, it is 99 per cent from hydroelectric power.
    • Experts believe hydrogen vehicles can be especially effective in long-haul trucking and other hard-to-electrify sectors such as shipping and long-haul air travel.
    • Using heavy batteries in these applications would be counterproductive, especially for countries such as India, where the electricity grid is predominantly coal-fired.

    Back2Basics: How hydrogen fuel cells work?

    • Hydrogen is an energy carrier, not a source of energy.
    • Hydrogen fuel must be transformed into electricity by a device called a fuel cell stack before it can be used to power a car or truck.
    • A fuel cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy using oxidizing agents through an oxidation-reduction reaction.
    • Inside each individual fuel cell, hydrogen is drawn from an onboard pressurized tank and made to react with a catalyst, usually made from platinum.
    • As the hydrogen passes through the catalyst, it is stripped of its electrons, which are forced to move along an external circuit, producing an electrical current.
    • This current is used by the electric motor to power the vehicle, with the only byproduct being water vapour.

      Issues with H-Fuel cells

    • A big barrier to the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has been a lack of fuelling station infrastructure.
    • There are fewer than 500 operational hydrogen stations in the world today, mostly in Europe, followed by Japan and South Korea.
    • Safety is seen as a concern. Hydrogen is pressurized and stored in a cryogenic tank, from there it is fed to a lower-pressure cell and put through an electrochemical reaction to generate electricity.
    • Scaling up the technology and achieving critical mass remains the big challenge.
    • More vehicles on the road and more supporting infrastructure can lower costs. India’s proposed mission is seen as a step in that direction.

  • [pib] Metal CO2 Battery

    India’s planetary missions like Mars Mission may soon be able to reduce payload mass and launch costs with the help of an indigenously developed Metal- CO2 battery with CO2 as an Energy Carrier.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles produce one of the following as “exhaust”:

    (a) NH3

    (b) CH4

    (c) H2O

    (d) H2O2

    Metal CO2 Battery

    • An IIT professor recently demonstrated the technical feasibility of Lithium- CO2 battery in simulated Mars atmosphere for the first time.
    • The development of Metal-CO2 batteries will provide highly specific energy density with the reduction in mass and volume, which will reduce payload mass and launch cost of planetary missions.
    • Metal-CO2 batteries have a great potential to offer significantly high energy density than the currently used Li-ion batteries.
    • They provide a useful solution to fix CO2 emissions, which is better than energy-intensive traditional CO2 fixation methods.

    It’s working

    • A primary Li-CO2 battery uses pure carbon dioxide as a cathode.
    • According to chemical knowledge, Lithium metal can react with CO2 to form lithium oxalate at room temperature.
    • While at high temperatures, lithium oxalate decomposes to form lithium carbonate and carbon monoxide gas.

  • Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Technology

    The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully demonstrated communication between its two labs using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology.

    Q. What is Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Technology? Discuss how it enables secure communication networks. (150W)

    What is QKD Technology?

    • Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication method which implements a cryptographic protocol involving components of quantum mechanics.
    • It enables two parties to produce a shared random secret key known only to them, which can then be used to encrypt and decrypt messages.
    • It gives the ability of the two communicating users to detect the presence of any third party trying to gain knowledge of the key.
    • This is a result of a fundamental aspect of quantum mechanics: the process of measuring a quantum system, in general, disturbs the system.
    • By using quantum superposition or quantum entanglement and transmitting information in quantum states, a communication system can be implemented that detects data leak.

    How does it work?

    • In the QKD, encryption keys are sent as qubits in a fibre optic cable. Time-bin encoding is used to encode qubit on a photon.
    • Quantum computing uses qubits as basic resources, similar to how bits are used as basic resources in classical computing.
    • The QKD is designed in a way that if an illegitimate entity tries to read the transmission, it will disturb the qubits – which are encoded on photons.
    • This will generate transmission errors, leading to legitimate end-users being immediately informed.

    Advantages of using QKD

    • It allows the detection of data leak or hacking because it can detect any such attempt.
    • It also allows the process of setting the error level between the intercepted data in dependence.

  • [pib] XP100: The premium grade Petrol

    The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched world-class premium-grade Petrol (with Octane number 100) in the country.

    What is XP100?

    • It is petrol developed by Indian Oil with octane number 100.
    • The availability of XP100 puts India in an elite group of countries, having access to such high-quality oil. It will provide high quality and power to the engine.
    • It will be rolled out in 15 identified cities across the country in two phases.
    • Worldwide, 100 Octane petrol has a niche market for luxury vehicles that demand high performance and is available only in six countries like Germany, USA, etc.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Lead, ingested or inhaled, is a health hazard. After the addition of lead to petrol has been banned, what still are the sources of lead poisoning?

    1. Smelting units
    2. Pens pencils
    3. Paints
    4. Hair oils and cosmetics

    Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

    (a) 1, 2 and 3 only

    (b) 1 and 3 only

    (c) 2 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    What is Octane numbering of Petrol?

    • Octane number, also called Antiknock Rating, a measure of the ability of a fuel to resist knocking when ignited in a mixture with air in the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine.
    • Engine knock is a tapping, pinging sound that gets louder and more obnoxious as we accelerate.
    • The octane number is determined by comparing, under standard conditions, the knock intensity of the fuel with that of blends of two reference fuels: iso-octane, which resists knocking, and heptane, which knocks readily.
    • The octane number is the percentage by volume of iso-octane in the iso-octane–heptane mixture that matches the fuel being tested in a standard test engine.

  • [pib] India’s AI supercomputer PARAM Siddhi

    India’s newest and fastest supercomputer, PARAM-Siddhi AI, has been ranked 63rd in the Top500 list of most powerful supercomputers in the world.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The terms Mihir, Param Siddhi and Pratyush are sometimes seen in news are actually:

    a)Indigenous Submarines

    b)Supercomputers

    c)Missiles

    d)Satellites

    Param Siddhi

    • It is a high-performance computing-artificial intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer established under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) at C-DAC.
    • It was commissioned by the C-DAC earlier and has been developed in association with chipmaker Nvidia and French IT consulting firm Atos.
    • It will help deep learning, visual computing, virtual reality, accelerated computing, as well as graphics virtualization.
    • The computer is expected to be used as a platform for academia, scientific research, startups and more.

    Other Indian supercomputers

    • PARAM-Siddhi is the second Indian supercomputer to be entered in the top 100 on the Top500 list.
    • Pratyush, a supercomputer used for weather forecasting at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, ranked 78th on the November edition of the list.
    • It was ranked 66th in the June rankings announced by the project.
    • Another Indian supercomputer, Mihir (146th on the list), clubs with Pratyush to generate enough computing power to match PARAM-Siddhi.

    Who topped the rankings?

    • The Top500 project tracks the most powerful supercomputers in the world and is published twice a year.
    • Japanese supercomputer Fugaku (442 petaflops) and IBM’s Summit (148.8 petaflops) are the two most powerful supercomputers in the world, according to the list.
    • Chinese Sunway TaihuLight is number four on the list (93 petaflops), developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC) in China.

    Back2Basics:

    National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

    Petaflop

    • A petaflop is a measure of a computer’s processing speed and can be expressed as A thousand trillion floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) A thousand teraflops.
    • In computing, floating-point operations per second is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations.
    • For such cases, it is a more accurate measure than measuring instructions per second.

  • Needed, a policy framework in step with technology

    The changing realm of technology requires a change in the policy framework. The article discusses the issue of the impact of technology and the required changes in the policy framework.

    Adoption of information-based technologies

    • The expansion of computing power has driven the pace of information gathering and analysis.
    • The new currency drives processes and decision-making across a wide array of products and services, making them more efficient and value accretive for consumers.
    • These information-based technologies have been widely adopted across a broad range of industries and products that traditionally have not been perceived as electronic or software based.
    •  A modern automobile has 40% of its component value from electronic-based products.
    • This is a paradigm shift as the amount of “value add” from intangible technology services as opposed to physical objects, even in traditional goods, is being transformed by information.
    • Information and electronics are becoming all-pervasive, ensuring that we set boundaries to control quality or the uptime of the equipment.
    • Information availability drives efficiency and creates value for customers by providing greater control over the product
    • There is increasing digitisation and electronification of industrial activities, products and services, influencing the evolving skill sets in industry.

    Need for holistic views in policies

    • To address the needs of various stakeholders, governments have tended to build specialised departments and designed policies that govern those areas.
    • Over time, as each of these departments grew, they have tended to operate in silos.
    • The recent developments in technology have, however, blurred standard boundaries that dictate policy framework in most governments.
    • As technology is driving an increasing share of the value add coming from digitisation and data analytics, there needs to be a way of encouraging capital formation by way of intangibles in traditionally tangible industries.
    • There is a need to have a holistic view of policies for economic development as technology is becoming a significant enabler in most industries.
    • A change in policy framework regarding economic development that enables various ministries to work together is essential.

    Way forward

    • A nourishing ecosystem for industry, including the hard infrastructure and softer areas such as education, skilling, technical institutions, laboratories, testing centres, etc., has to be cultivated.
    • The creation of clusters of companies in adjacent but complementary areas could constitute such an ecosystem that encourages multi and cross-disciplinary learning and spur innovation and economic development.
    • Moreover, this type of ecosphere could also attract investment and capital formation.
    • There is also the larger issue of a shift of value between manufacturing and services as technology changes.
    • The policy, by and large, promotes and gives incentives for manufacturing, whereas the share of intangibles are not adequately covered in industrial policies.
    • It is important to include these to encourage innovation and technological development.
    • It is important that there is close cooperation and alignment between the Centre and State to ensure effective implementation on the ground.

    Conclusion

    Some of these thoughts could help us navigate through an ecosystem that is changing with technology.

  • National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

    The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has launched the second phase of the ambitious National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).

    Tap to read more about National Supercomputing Mission (NSM):

    [pib] National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

    National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

    • NSM is a proposed plan by GoI to create a cluster of seventy supercomputers connecting various academic and research institutions across India.
    • In April 2015 the government approved the NSM with a total outlay of Rs.4500 crore for a period of 7 years.
    • The mission was set up to provide the country with supercomputing infrastructure to meet the increased computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups by creating the capability design, manufacturing, of supercomputers indigenously in India.
    • Currently, there are four supercomputers from India in the Top 500 list of supercomputers in the world.

    Aims and objectives

    • The target of the mission was set to establish a network of supercomputers ranging from a few Tera Flops (TF) to Hundreds of Tera Flops (TF) and three systems with greater than or equal to 3 Peta Flops (PF) in academic and research institutions of National importance across the country by 2022.
    • This network of Supercomputers envisaging a total of 15-20 PF was approved in 2015 and was later revised to a total of 45 PF (45000 TFs), a jump of 6 times more compute power within the same cost and capable of solving large and complex computational problems.

    What is a Supercomputer?

    • A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer.
    • The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS).
    • Since 2017, there are supercomputers which can perform over a hundred quadrillion FLOPS (petaFLOPS).
    • Since November 2017, all of the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems.

    Why do we need supercomputers?

    • Tackle problems: Developed and almost-developed countries have begun ensuring high investments in supercomputers to boost their economies and tackle new social problems.
    • These high-performance computers can simulate the real world, by processing massive amounts of data, making cars and planes safer, and more fuel-efficient and environment-friendly.
    • They also aid in the extraction of new sources of oil and gas, development of alternative energy sources, and advancement in medical sciences.
    • Disaster Management: Supercomputers have also helped weather forecasters to accurately predict severe storms, enable better mitigation planning and warning systems.
    • They are also used by financial services, manufacturing and internet companies and infrastructure systems like water-supply networks, energy grids, and transportation.
    • Future applications of artificial intelligence (AI) also depend on supercomputing.
    • Due to the potential of this technology, countries like the US, China, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia have created national-level supercomputing strategies and are investing substantially in these programmes.

    When did India initiate its efforts to build supercomputers?

    • India’s supercomputer programme initiated in the late 1980s, when the United States ceased the export of a Cray Supercomputer due to technology embargos.
    • This resulted in India setting up C-DAC in 1988, which in 1991, unveiled the prototype of PARAM 800, benchmarked at 5 Gflops. This supercomputer was the second-fastest in the world at that time.
    • Since June 2018, the USA’s Summit is the fastest supercomputer in the world, taking away this position from China.
    • As of January 2018, Pratyush and Mihir are the fastest supercomputers in India with a maximum speed of Peta Flops.