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GS Paper: GS3-17.Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

  • [pib] National Mission on Quantum Technologies & Applications

    The Finance Minister in budget 2020 has announced a National Mission on Quantum Technologies & Applications (NM-QTA).

    What is Quantum Technology?

    • Quantum Technology is based on the principles of quantum theory, which explains the nature of energy and matter on the atomic and subatomic level.
    • It concerns the control and manipulation of quantum systems, with the goal of achieving information processing beyond the limits of the classical world.
    • Its principles will be used for engineering solutions to extremely complex problems in computing, communications, sensing, chemistry, cryptography, imaging and mechanics.
    • This key ability makes quantum computers extremely powerful compared to conventional computers when solving certain kinds of problems like finding prime factors of large numbers and searching large databases.

    What is Quantum Mechanics?

    • It is a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest – including atomic and subatomic – scales.
    • At the scale of atoms and electrons, many of the equations of classical mechanics, which describe how things move at everyday sizes and speeds, cease to be useful.
    • In classical mechanics, objects exist in a specific place at a specific time.
    • However, in quantum mechanics, objects instead exist in a haze of probability; they have a certain chance of being at point A, another chance of being at point B and so on.

    About NM-QTA

    • The mission will function under the Department of Science & Technology (DST).
    • It will be able address the ever increasing technological requirements of the society, and take into account the international technology trends.
    • The mission will help prepare next generation skilled manpower, boost translational research and also encourage entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem development.

    Why such mission?

    • Quantum technologies are rapidly developing globally with a huge disruptive potential.
    • The range of quantum technologies is expected to be one of the major technology disruptions that will change entire paradigm of computation, communication and encryption.
    • It is perceived that the countries who achieve an edge in this emerging field will have a greater advantage in garnering multifold economic growth and dominant leadership role.
    • It has become imperative both for government and industries to be prepared to develop these emerging and disruptive changes.
    • It will establish standards to be applied to all research and help stimulate a pipeline to support research and applications well into the future.

    Also read: https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/quantum-supremacy/

  • [op-ed of the day] A sneeze, a global cold and testing times for China

    Context

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global emergency, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.

    Coronavirus outbreak and Chinese response

    • What is coronavirus? Normally, coronavirus is a large family of viruses that are often the source of respiratory infections, including the common cold.
      • A small number of common infecting virus: Most of the viruses are common among animals and only a small number of them infect humans.
      • Mutation of animal base virus: Sometimes, an animal-based coronavirus mutates and successfully finds a human host.
    • Dangers of rapid urbanisation: Rapid urbanisation that forces animals and humans into closer proximity (as in the “wet market” in Wuhan) creates a perfect petri dish from where such zoonotic outbreaks can originate.

    Concern for India

    • Reported case in Nepal and cause of concern for India: For India, the most critical is cases being reported in Nepal since India and Nepal share an open border though so far.
    • All tests undertaken in India have been negative.
    • A tweet by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on January 30 said that one positive case of a novel coronavirus patient

    Understanding the new virus

    • The possible mode of transmission: According to the World Health Organization, during previous outbreaks due to other coronavirus, human-to-human transmission occurred through droplets, contact and fomites (objects or materials which are likely to carry infection, such as clothes, utensils, and furniture).
    • This suggests that the transmission mode of the 2019-nCoV can be identical.
    • The transmission even in incubation period: More significant is the new understanding that the virus is contagious even during incubation, that is even before a patient exhibits any symptoms.
      • This characteristic amplifies

    Experience from the past outbreaks

    • Comparison with SARS: Comparisons are being drawn the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03.
      • Zoonotic case: SARS is also a zoonotic case, part of the coronavirus family with clues pointing to horseshoe bats in China as the likely source.
      • Late reporting by China in SARS:
      • The first incidents were reported in Guangdong province in November 2002 but WHO was officially informed only after three months.
    • Different response this time: Comparison with SARS: Comparisons are being drawn the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03.
      • Zoonotic case: SARS is also a zoonotic case, part of the coronavirus family with clues pointing to horseshoe bats in China as the likely source.
      • Late reporting by China in SARS: The first incidents were reported in Guangdong province in November 2002 but WHO was officially informed only after three months.
      • Different response this time: This time around, the Chinese government has been more open but the question being asked is whether it has been open enough?
      • The difference in time to develop vaccine: For SARS, it took 20 months from the genome sequencing to the first human vaccine trials; for the 2019-nCoV, authorities in the U.S. are working on a deadline of 90 days.

    Lessons from Kerala in Nipah outbreak

    • Managing an outbreak with few casualties: Kerala managed to curtail the Nipah outbreak with few casualties.
      • Nipah is also zoonotic and made the jump from fruit bats to humans.
      • Though there were 17 deaths in India, effective quarantine measures by local authorities prevented the spread.
    • Infectious disease on the rise: Infectious diseases including those of the zoonotic variety are on the rise in India.
      • In addition, regions in India suffer from seasonal outbreaks of dengue, malaria and influenza strains.
      • The nation-wide disease surveillance programme needs to be strengthened.

    Conclusion

    India should brace itself for the possible outbreak of infectious diseases and frame policies to deal with such outbreaks in fast and effective ways.

  • Yellow Rust

     

    Yellow Rust was detected in wheat crops in parts of Punjab and Haryana.

    Yellow Rust

    • Yellow Rust disease appears as yellow stripes of powder or dust on leaves and leaf sheaths of the wheat crop. This yellow powder comes out on clothing or fingers when touched.
    • This occurs when the rust colonies in the leaves drain the carbohydrates from the plant and reduce the green leaf area.
    • In India, it is a major disease in the Northern Hill Zone and the North-Western Plain Zone and spreads easily during the onset of cool weather and when wind conditions are favourable.
    • Rain, dew and fog favour the disease’s development.

    Impact of the disease

    • The disease can spread rapidly under congenial conditions and affects crop development, and eventually the yield.
    • Yield due to the disease can affected by between 5 and 30 per cent.
    • According to the IIWBR advisory, if farmers observe yellow rust in patches in their wheat fields, they should spray fungicides.

    Other facts: Pusa Yashasvi

    • Last year, a new variety of wheat called HD-3226 or Pusa Yashasvi was released by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
    • It had higher levels of resistance against major rust fungi such as the yellow/stripe, brown/leaf and black/stem.

  • Spitzer Space Telescope

     

    NASA’s Spitzer Mission, which studied the universe in infrared light for more than 16 years, will come to an end since it is low on fuel and has been drifting away from Earth for a few years now.

    Spitzer Space Telescope

    • The Spitzer Space Telescope is a space-borne observatory, one of the elements of NASA’s Great Observatories that include the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray.
    • Using different infrared wavelengths, Spitzer was able to see and reveal features of the universe including objects that were too cold to emit visible light.
    • Apart from enabling researchers to see distant cold objects, Spitzer could also see through large amounts of gas using infrared wavelengths to find objects that may otherwise have been invisible to human beings.
    • These included exoplanets, brown dwarfs and cold matter found in the space between stars.
    • Spitzer was originally built to last for a minimum of 2.5 years, but it lasted in the “cold” phase for over 5.5 years. On May 15, 2009 the coolant was finally depleted and the “warm mission” began.

    Major discoveries

    • Spitzer also studied some of the most distant galaxies ever detected.
    • The light from these galaxies reached us after traveling for billions of years, enabling scientists “to see those objects as they were long, long ago”.
    • Hubble and Spitzer in 2016 identified and studied the most distant galaxy ever observed.
    • Using these two telescopes, scientists were able to see a bright infant galaxy as it was over 13.4 billion years ago, roughly 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was less than 5% of its current age.
    • It assisted in the discovery of planets beyond our solar system, including the detection of seven Earth-size exo-planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1.
    • Three of its seven planets were located in the “habitable zone,” where the temperature might be right for liquid water to exist on the planets’ surfaces.

    Other landmarks

    • Spitzer has logged over 106,000 hours of observation time.
    • Thousands of scientists around the world have utilized Spitzer data in their studies, and Spitzer data is cited in more than 8,000 published papers.
    • Spitzer’s primary mission ended up lasting 5.5 years, during which time the spacecraft operated in a “cold phase,” with a supply of liquid helium cooling three onboard instruments to just above absolute zero.
    • The cooling system reduced excess heat from the instruments themselves that could contaminate their observations.
    • This gave Spitzer very high sensitivity for “cold” objects.
    • In July 2009, after Spitzer’s helium supply ran out, the spacecraft entered a so-called “warm phase.”
    • Spitzer’s main instrument, called the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), has four cameras, two of which continue to operate in the warm phase with the same sensitivity they maintained during the cold phase.

  • [op-ed snap] Here’s looking at you

    Context

    Face recognition technology calls for a more comprehensive domestic framework that promotes the use of new technologies for the public good as well as imposes necessary constraints against their abuse.

    Debate on finding the balance between regulation and promotion

    • Google calls for partial ban: TheGoogle CEO’s recent support for a temporary ban on facial recognition technologies seems uncharacteristic.
      • It is not often that companies developing a technology call for its ban.
      • Their interest is in promoting the use of technology, not proscribing it.
      • Not every one of the leading tech companies agrees with Google on facial recognition.
    • Microsoft against the ban: Microsoft has questioned the idea of a ban. Calling facial recognition a “young technology”, it said “it will get better.
      • To get better the technology has to be used: The only way to make it better is actually to continue developing it.
      • And the only way to continue developing it actually is to have more people using it.
    • IBM’s precision regulation: IBM has taken a step forward in developing the policies for the use of technology by setting up a “lab”.
      • The lab will generate actionable ideas for policymakers to manage the emergence of new technologies like facial recognition that are shaping our digital future.
      • Precision regulation vs. complete ban: The idea is to develop “precision regulation” rather than enforce “blunt” instruments like the ban.
    • The EU’s plans for temporary ban: The debate on finding the right balance between regulation and promotion of emerging technologies comes in the wake of leaked plans of the EU to issue a temporary ban.
      • The ban could be up to five years.
      • Ban on use in public places only: The proposed ban is not a comprehensive one and will be applicable to the use of facial recognition in public spaces.
    • India’s own plans for law enforcement agencies: The intensifying global debate also coincides with India’s own plans to roll out a massive project on deploying facial recognition technologies, essentially for law enforcement.
      • The international discourse provides the context for developing a broad and effective Indian policy framework for the use of facial recognition.

    Background of the backlash against the tech companies

    • Techlash: Well before the EU had begun to discuss a temporary ban on facial recognition, there has been a “techlash” against the companies.
      • The companies faced backlash because they have so dramatically altered our lives in the last few years.
    • The idea of “digital is different”: For nearly two decades, the idea that “digital is different” and does not need public oversight had triumphed in most capitals of the world.
    • Problems with regulations: The main argument was that regulation constrains technological innovation and retards progress.
    • AI and Big data:  The urge to regulate has triggered widespread concerns about the dangers of digitalisation, especially the use of big data and AI by private companies as well as governments.

    Major concerns against facial recognition

    • Surveillance capitalism and surveillance state: The companies were seen as monetising the data generated by the widespread use of digital platforms like Google and Facebook.
      • Surveillance state:  China became the prime example of states using data and information to exercise ever more control over its citizens.
    • Accuracy: At the other end are concerns that facial recognition is not entirely accurate and could lead to punitive actions against innocent people.
    • Racial bias misogyny: There is also a concern in the US that the algorithms behind facial recognition carry the baggage of racism and misogyny.
    • Concerns in India: It also remains a fact that the Indian state has always been tempted to empower itself against its citizens in the name of collective security.
      • It has also tended to weaponise information against political opponents and dissidents.

    Potential Advantages

    • In the control of crime.
    • Better border controls and countering terrorism.
    • Aid the Police: In India, a severely under-policed nation, facial recognition surely offers many benefits.

    Conclusion

    The foreign office must reclaim India’s place in the international discourse on AI and facial recognition and develop a productive alignment between India’s national interests and the development of new digital norms.

     

  • Why China has emerged as the epicentre of global outbreaks of disease?

    Several deadly new viruses in recent years have emerged in China — Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bird flu, and now the novel Coronavirus (nCOV).

    Zoonotic infections

    • Closely packed stalls in busy marketplaces, the Chinese taste for exotic meats, and the high population density of cities create the conditions for the spread of zoonotic infections.
    • The reason could lie in the busy food markets dotting cities across the country — where fruits, vegetables, hairy crabs and butchered meat are often sold next to bamboo rats, snakes, turtles, and palm civets.
    • The relationship between zoonotic pathogens and global pandemics are not new.
    • The WHO estimates that globally, about a billion cases of illness and millions of deaths occur every year from zoonoses, i.e, diseases and infections naturally transmitted between people and vertebrate animals.
    • Some 60% of emerging infectious diseases globally are zoonoses. Of the over 30 new human pathogens detected over the last three decades, 75% originated in animals.

    Major cause: Animal markets

    • In animal markets, there are greater chances of transmission of a virus from animals to humans, and its mutation to adapt to the human body.
    • It has happened wherever in the world there is unregulated mixing of humans and animals, either wild or domesticated.
    • The official referred to the Ebola outbreak in Africa there it was wild chimpanzees who had the disease. It came into humans after these were killed and consumed.

  • [op-ed snap] The hype over hypersonics

    Context

    Russia announced that its new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), Avangard, had been made operational.

    What HGV is and where the US and China stand

    • What is HGV and what is it capable of?
      • Speed over 5 Mach: A hypersonic delivery system is essentially a ballistic or cruise missile that can fly for long distances and at speeds higher than 5 Mach at lower altitudes.
      • Invulnerable to interception: This allows it to evade interception from current Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD).
      • High manoeuvrability: It can also execute a high degree of manoeuvres.
      • Avangard-Developed by Russia: Russia claims that this HGV can fly at over 20 times the speed of sound.
      • Invulnerable to interception: and is capable of such manoeuvring as to be invulnerable to interception by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary.
    • China and the U.S. are also close on the heels: The U.S. has moved from the research to the development stage.
      • Where China stands: China demonstrated the DF-17, a medium-range missile with the HGV, at the military parade in October 2019.
    • What were the reasons for the development: The U.S. walked out of anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002, prompted by the U.S. exit from the treaty and fear of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile defence system.

    How would hypersonics complicate the security concerns?

    • First complication-Increase in the possibility of miscalculation: These missiles are being added to the military capabilities of countries that possess nuclear weapons.
      • For these nations, the concern is always an attack on nuclear assets to degrade retaliation
      • Destination ambiguities: Another layer of complication is added by the fact that these missiles bring in warhead and destination ambiguities.
      • Increasing tendency to assume worst: In both cases, when an adversary’s early warning detects such missiles headed in its direction, but cannot be sure whether they are conventional or nuclear-armed, nor ascertain the target they are headed towards, the tendency would be to assume the worst.
      • For an adversary that faces a country with a BMD but itself has a small nuclear arsenal, it would fear that even conventionally armed hypersonic missiles could destroy a portion of its nuclear assets.
      • The tendency to shift to trigger-ready postures: The tendency could then be to shift to more trigger-ready postures such as launch on warning or launch under attack to ostensibly enhance deterrence.
      • Risk of miscalculation: But such shifts would also bring risks of misperception and miscalculation in moments of crisis.
    • Second complication-Offence defence spiral: According to reports, the U.S. has begun finding ways of either strengthening its BMD or looking for countermeasures to defeat hypersonics, besides having an arsenal of its own of the same kind.
      • Possibility of arms race: The stage appears set for an arms race instability given that the three major players in this game have the financial wherewithal and technological capability to play along.
      • This looks particularly imminent in the absence of any strategic dialogue or arms control.
    • Third complication-Possibility of the arms race into outer space: A third implication would be to take offence-defence developments into outer space.
      • Sensors are already placed into space: Counter-measures to hypersonics have been envisaged through the placement of sensors and interceptors in outer space.
      • While none of this is going to be weaponisation of outer space would, nevertheless, be a distinct possibility once hypersonic inductions become the norm.

    Conclusion

    The induction of this technology would likely prove to be a transitory advantage eventually leading nations into a strategic trap. India needs to make a cool-headed assessment of its own deterrence requirements and choose its pathways wisely.

  • [op-ed snap] Frame rules to govern how devices identify us

    Context

    Facial recognition technology is set to become an integral part of the law enforcement toolkit, but we should regulate this technology before it pervades our public spaces.

    What are the issues with the use of facial recognition?

    • Enormous possibilities for law enforcement agencies:
      • Detectives have been using facial recognition to solve crimes for almost as long as the camera has been in existence.
      • Use of AI for facial recognition: It is but a logical extension of the modern crime solver’s toolkit to use artificial intelligence (AI) on the most identifiable physical feature of people, their face.
      • Screening faces within hours: An image captured at the scene of a crime can now be screened against photographs of entire populations for a match within a matter of hours.
    • Uneasiness with being watched: The idea of being watched by devices linked to vast databases far out of sight makes liberal societies uneasy.
    • Invasion of privacy:  The intrusion that is causing alarm, however, has nothing to do with the technology itself, and everything to do with the all-pervasive surveillance it enables.

    Should there be no rules governing it?

    • Issue of accuracy: How accurately faces are identified by machines is a major point of concern. Deployed in law enforcement, false matches could possibly result in a miscarriage of justice.
      • Judicial scrutiny: Even a low rate of error could mean evidence faces judicial rejection. It is in the judiciary’s interest, all the same, to let technology aid police-work.
    • Racial bias: First up for addressal is the criticism that facial recognition is still not smart enough to read emotions or work equally well for all racial groups.
      • With iterative use, it will improve.
    • Mala fide use: Since such tools can be put to mala fide use as-rogue drones equipped with the technology, for example, should never be in a position to carry out an assassination.
      • Nor should an unauthorized agent be able to spy on or stalk anyone.
      • Caution in the developed countries:  Apart from California, the European Union has also decided to exercise some caution before exposing people to it.
    • Privacy as fundamental rights in India: India, which has recently accepted privacy as a fundamental right, would do well to tilt the Western way on this.

    Conclusion

    • We need regulations that restrict the use of facial recognition to the minimum required to serve justice and ease commercial operations. For the latter, customer consent should be mandatory.
    • There will be some overlaps. Its use at an aerobridge to board an aircraft, for example, could serve the interests of both state security and the airline, but data-sharing could risk leakage.

     

     

  • NavIC navigation system

     

    Qualcomm Technologies has released chipsets, supporting India’s own GPS system ‘Navigation with Indian Constellation’ (NavIC).

    New androids to be equipped with NavIC

    • The Qualcomm chipsets now supports up to 7 satellite constellations at the same time, including the use of all of NavIC’s operating satellites.
    • These enhancements will enable select mobile, automotive and IoT platforms to better serve key industries and technology ecosystems in the region.
    • It will help improve user experience for location-based applications especially in dense urban environments where geolocation accuracy tends to degrade, said the company earlier.

    About NavIC

    • The name NavIC was given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after successful launch of the seventh navigation satellite, in April, 2016.
    • To date, ISRO has built a total of nine satellites in the IRNSS series, of which eight are currently in orbit.
    • The constellation is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.
    • It is designed to provide two types of services – Standard Positioning Service (SPS), which is provided to all users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users.
    • The system is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.

    For more readings about NAVIC, navigate to the page:

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/navic-navigation-in-indian-constellation/

  • Species in news: Natrialba Swarupiae

    • Scientists at the National Centre for Microbial Resource — National Centre for Cell Science (NCMR-NCCS) in Pune have reported a new archaeon (a kind of microorganism), which they discovered in Sambhar Salt Lake in Rajasthan.
    • The new archaeon has been named Natrialba swarupiae, after Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, for her initiative in supporting microbial diversity studies in the country.

    Archaea

    • Archaea (singular archaeon) are a primitive group of microorganisms that thrive in extreme habitats such as hot springs, cold deserts and hypersaline lakes.
    • These slow-growing organisms are also present in the human gut, and have a potential relationship with human health.
    • They are known for producing antimicrobial molecules, and for anti-oxidant activity with applications in eco-friendly waste-water treatment.
    • Archaea are extremely difficult to culture due to challenges in providing natural conditions in a laboratory setting.
    • As archaea are relatively poorly studied, very little is known about how archaea behave in the human body.
    • The organism has potential gene clusters that helps maintain the metabolism of the archaea to survive in extreme harsh conditions.

    Search and discovery

    • Sambhar Lake has been poorly studied for microbial ecology studies.
    • With a salt production of 0.2 million tonnes per annum, it is also a hypersaline ecosystem which provides an opportunity for microbial ecologists to understand organisms that thrive in such concentrations.