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  • Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling (BEOSP)

    A brain electrical oscillation signature profiling (BEOSP) test will be conducted on the convicts of the alleged rape and murder in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh.

    Note: According to Article 20(3) of the Indian constitution, no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. The privilege against self-incrimination is a fundamental canon of common criminal law jurisprudence.

    What is the BEOSP test?

    • BEOSP also known as brain fingerprinting is a neuro-psychological method of interrogation in which the accuser’s participation in the crime is investigated by studying their brain’s response.
    • The BEOSP test is carried out via a process known as an electroencephalogram, conducted to study the electrical behaviour of the human brain.
    • Under this test, the consent of the accused is first taken and they are then made to wear caps with dozens of electrodes attached to them.
    • The accused are then shown visuals or played audio clips related to the crime to check if there is any triggering of neurons in their brains which then generate brainwaves.
    • The test results are then studied to determine the participation of the accused in a crime.

    What differentiates a BEOSP test from a polygraph or a lie detector?

    • The BEOSP procedure does not involve a question-answer session with the accused and is rather a neuro psychological study of their brain.
    • In a polygraph test, the accused person’s physiological indicators are taken into account which includes blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration and skin conductivity.
    • While a person might be able to control their pulse rate and BP even in times of distress, a BEOSP test

    Can these tests be admitted as evidence?

    • Not as a standalone, a/c to the 2010 Supreme Court judgment in the Selvi v. State of Karnataka case.
    • The bench observed that narco analysis, polygraph and brain mapping tests cannot be forced upon any individual without their consent and the test results cannot be admitted solely as evidence.
    • However, any information or material discovered during the tests can be made part of the evidence, observed the bench.

  • BrahMos Missiles and their significance for Armed Forces

    India’s Armed forces are conducting back-to-back tests of various versions of BrahMos missile.

    Take a quick look at India’s missile arsenal:

    [Prelims Spotlight] Missiles

    The BrahMos Missiles

    • A combination of the names of Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, BrahMos missiles are designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture company set up by DRDO and Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
    • It is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster as the first stage and liquid ramjet as the second stage.
    • The cruise missiles like BrahMos are a type of systems known as the ‘standoff range weapons’ which are fired from a range sufficient to allow the attacker to evade defensive fire from the adversary.
    • These weapons are in the arsenal of most major militaries in the world.
    • The versions of the BrahMos that are being tested have an extended range of around 400 km, as compared to its initial range of 290 km, with more versions of higher ranges currently under development.

    Various versions

    • Various versions of the BrahMos, including those which can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets have already been developed and successfully tested in the past.
    • The earliest versions of the ship launched BrahMos and land-based system are in service of the Indian Navy and the Indian Army since 2005 and 2007 respectively.

  • What is Federated Learning?

    An improvement in a Machine Learning (ML) model, called ‘federated learning’, is said to enable companies to develop new ways of collecting anonymous data without compromising their privacy.

    Data privacy is the right of a citizen to have control over how personal information is collected and used. Data protection is a subset Right of Privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

    What is ‘federated learning’?

    • Federated learning is an ML method used to train an algorithm across multiple decentralised devices or servers holding data samples.
    • It doesn’t exchange data with the devices, meaning there is no central dataset or server that stores the information.
    • Standard ML models require all data to be centralised in a single server. Implementation of federated learning eliminates the need for maintaining a storage hub.
    • The term was first introduced in a 2016 Google study titled ‘Communication-efficient learning of deep networks from decentralized data.’
    • Google emphasised mobile phones and tablets, stating that modern devices contain special features like speech recognition and image models that can store large amounts of data.
    • Since then, Google has used the technique is various products, including Gboard, which provides text and phrase suggestions to the keyboard.

    How this works

    • Federated learning aims to train an algorithm, like deep neural networks, on multiple local datasets contained in local nodes, without explicitly exchanging data.
    • The general principle involves simply exchanging parameters between these nodes. Parameters include a number of federated learning rounds, the total number of nodes, and learning rate.
    • The distinct advantage of the model is its ability to reduce privacy and security risks by limiting the attack surface to only the device, rather than the device and the cloud, Google stated in the study.

    Why need such technology?

    • Smart home devices like speakers and smartwatches collect and share data with other devices and systems over the network.
    • These Internet of Things (IoT) devices are equipped with sensors and software that store a user’s private information like body measurements and location.
    • This large chunk of stored data is used by the device makers to improve their products and services.

    Applications

    • Federated learning is said to have application in healthcare, where hospitals and pharmaceutical companies can exchange data for treating diseases without sharing private clinical information.

  • Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)

    The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) has been selected as a ‘Milestone’ facility by the U.S.-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

    Note: GMRT is not an ISRO mission.

    About GMRT

    • The GMRT located near Pune is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45-metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths.
    • It is operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
    • It was conceived and built under the direction of Late Prof. Govind Swarup from 1984 to 1996.
    • At the time it was built, it was the world’s largest interferometric array offering a baseline of up to 25 kilometres (16 mi).
    • Astronomers from all over the world regularly use this telescope to observe many different astronomical objects such as HII regions (interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized), galaxies, pulsars, supernovae, and Sun and solar winds.

    A significant feat

    • IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology in all areas related to electrical and electronics engineering.
    • The IEEE Milestones programme honours significant technical achievements which have a global or regional impact. This is only the third such IEEE ‘Milestone’ recognition for an Indian contribution.
    • The previous two Indian IEEE Milestones were for the pioneering work done by Sir J.C. Bose to demonstrate the generation and reception of radio waves in 1895 (recognised in 2012), and for the Nobel Prize-winning (in 1930) ‘scattering of light’ phenomenon observed by Sir C.V. Raman in 1928.

  • Peatlands and their importance

    Sustainably managing peatlands — peat-swamp forests found around the tropics — can protect humans from future pandemics, according to a new study.

    What are Peatlands?

    • Peatlands are terrestrial wetland ecosystems in which waterlogged conditions prevent plant material from fully decomposing.
    • Consequently, the production of organic matter exceeds its decomposition, which results in a net accumulation of peat.
    • Over millennia this material builds up and becomes several metres thick.
    • They occur in almost every country on Earth, currently covering 3% of the global land surface.
    • Peatland landscapes are varied – from blanket bog landscapes with open, treeless vegetation in the Flow Country of Scotland – a tentative World Heritage site – to swamp forests in Southeast Asia.

    Their importance

    • Peatlands are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store. This area sequesters 0.37 gigatonnes of CO2 a year.
    • In their natural, wet state peatlands provide vital ecosystem services.
    • By regulating water flows, they help minimise the risk of flooding and drought and prevent seawater intrusion.
    • In many parts of the world, peatlands supply food, fibre and other local products that sustain local economies.
    • They also preserve important ecological and archaeological information such as pollen records and human artefacts.

    Try this PYQ now:

    In the context of mitigating the impending global warming due to anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide, which of the following can be the potential sites for carbon sequestration?

    1. Abandoned and Uneconomic coal seams
    2. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs
    3. Subterranean deep saline formations

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 1 and 3 only

    (c) 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    Why conserve peatlands?

    • The protection and restoration of peatlands are vital in the transition towards a low-carbon and circular economy.
    • Damaged peatlands contribute about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector.
    • CO2 emissions from drained peatlands are estimated at 1.3 gigatonnes of CO2 annually.
    • This is equivalent to 5.6% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
    • Draining peatlands reduces the quality of drinking water due to pollution from dissolved compounds.

    What is the new study?

    • Peatlands were rich in biodiversity, including many potential vertebrate and invertebrate vectors, or carriers of disease, the study said.
    • These included numerous vertebrates known to represent a risk of spreading zoonotic diseases, such as bats, rodents, pangolins and primates.
    • These areas also faced high levels of habitat disruption such as wild or human-made fires and wildlife harvesting that was perfect conditions for potential emerging zoonotic diseases.
    • The first reported case of Ebola in 1976 was from a peatland area.
    • The cradle of the HIV/AIDS pandemic was believed to be around Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, another area with extensive peatlands.

  • Putting India-U.S. trade ties on new footing

    After tumultuous years of Trump administration in trade policies, the article examines the new possibilities under the next U.S. President in trade ties with India.

    Approach towards WTO and India

    • The new U.S. administration will have more constructive stance on multilateral issues in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
    • The Trump administration went out of its way in seriously undermining WTO institutions when the organisation was already in need of reform and new direction.
    • The Biden administration is less likely to engage in unilateral tariff increases and more likely to pursue remedies in the WTO.
    • In case of India, the Trump administration it pursued an aggressive approach to resolve market access concerns through threats to eliminate India’s benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences programme.
    • However, the follow-through was weak.
    • The administration was on the brink of concluding a historic bilateral trade deal, yet it lost focus.

    5 likely developements

    • 1) It is clear that Mr. Biden plans to focus on domestic concerns first.
    • There may be trade aspects to some of these efforts, but they may have limited early relevance for a future U.S.-India trade policy.
    • 2) Two, as it turns to trade policy, the Biden administration is not likely to place India among its top few priorities.
    • Among top priorities will include formulating its approach with China, such as finding alternatives to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to set new global standards that address China’s practices.
    • That said, India should be among the priorities at the next level down.
    • 3) The trade deal still pending with the Trump administration remains compelling.
    • There could be an early opportunity to conclude these negotiations and for the Biden administration to get credit.
    • A bilateral deal will not lead to serious consideration of FTA negotiations any time soon.
    • But this first trade agreement could pave the way for later additional small agreements.
    • 4) The existing Trade Policy Forum (TPF) met only once over the last four years.
    • It seems likely that the Biden administration will see the TPF’s value as a venue for more regular discussions on a range of trade issues.
    • 5) A reinvigorated TPF will present new opportunities for the two countries to take up a range of cutting-edge trade issues that will be critical in determining whether the U.S. and India can converge more over time or will drift further apart.
    • These include digital trade issues, intellectual property rights and approaches to nurturing innovation, better health sector alignment, and more regular regulatory work on science-based agricultural policies.

    Conclusion

    The future looks bright for U.S.-India trade under a Biden administration, but that does not mean it will be any easier. It will be critical for leadership on both sides to commit to strong efforts to put the trade relationship on a new footing, which will have to involve a ‘can-do’ attitude to solving problems.

    Back2Basics: Trade Policy Forum

    • It was established in 2005.
    • The Forum is part of the overall United States-India Economic Dialogue, replacing the Trade Policy Working Group pillar.
    • It  convenes on a regular basis.
    • The Forum provides an opportunity to work together to expand trade between the two countries.
    • The agenda could cover the following subjects: tariff and non-tariff trade barriers; foreign direct investment; subsidies; customs procedures; standards, testing, labeling and certification intellectual property rights protection; sanitary and phytosanitary measures; government procurement; and services.

  • Mistake in allowing industrial houses to own banks

    The article analyses the risks involved in allowing the corporate houses to own and operate the banks.

    Context

    • An internal working group of the RBI has recently made a recommendation to permit industrial houses to own and control banks.

    Encourage bank but not owned by banks

    • According to the report, the main benefit is that industry-owned banks would increase the supply of credit, which is low and growing slowly.
    • Credit constraints are indeed a real problem, and creating more banks is certainly one way of addressing the issue.
    • But this is an argument for encouraging more banks but it is not an argument for creating banks specifically owned by industry.
    • The other powerful way to promote more good quality credit is to undertake serious reforms of the public sector banks.

    Problems in allowing industrial houses in banking

    • The problem with banks owned by corporate houses is that they tend to engage in connected lending.
    • This can lead to three main adverse outcomes:

    1) Over-financing of risky activities

    • Lending to firms that are part of the corporate group allows them to undertake risky activities that are not easily financeable through regular channels.
    • Precisely because these activities are risky, they often do not work out.
    • And when that happens, it is typically taxpayers who end up footing the bill.
    • In principle, connected lending can be contained by the regulatory authority.
    • However, experiences in other nations show that regulating connected lending is impossible convincing most advanced countries that regulating connected lending is impossible.
    • Indonesia tried to regulate the practice: It banned the practice.
    • The only solution is to ban corporate-owned banks.
    • Regulation and supervision need to be strengthened considerably to deal with the current problems in the banking system before they are burdened with new regulatory tasks.

    2) Lack of exit

    • The economic landscape is littered with failed firms, kept alive on life support, making it impossible for more efficient firms to grow and replace them.
    • While some progress was initially made under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), this had stalled even before the pandemic, largely because existing promoters and owners mounted a stiff resistance.
    • If industrial houses get direct access to financial resources, their capacity to delay or prevent exit altogether will only increase.

    3) Increasing dominance

    • The Indian economy already suffers from over-concentration.
    • We not only have concentration within industries, but in some cases the dominance of a few industrial houses spans multiple sectors.
    • If large industrial houses get banking licences, they will become even more powerful, not just relative to other firms in one industry, but firms in another industry.

    Impact on regulator and government

    • The power acquired by getting banking licences will not just make them stronger than commercial rivals, but even relative to the regulators and government itself.
    • This will aggravate imbalances, leading to a vicious cycle of dominance breeding more dominance.

    Impact on quality of credit

    • Indian financial sector reforms have aimed at improving not just the quantity, but also the quality of credit.
    • The goal has been to ensure that credit flows to the most economically efficient users, since this is the key to securing rapid growth.
    • If India now starts granting banking licences to powerful, politically connected industrial houses we will effectively be abandoning that long-held objective.

    Impact on economy and democracy

    • Indian capitalism has suffered because of the murky two-way relationship between the state and industrial capital.
    • If the line between industrial and financial capital is erased, this stigma will only become worse.
    • Corporate houses that are already big will be enabled to become even bigger allowing them to dominate the economic and political landscape.
    • A rules-based, well-regulated market economy, as well as democracy itself — will be undermined, perhaps critically.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges and opportunities in allowing the industrial houses to own and operate the banks.”

    Conclusion

    The conclusion is clear. Mixing industry and finance will set us on a road full of dangers — for growth, public finances, and the future of the country itself.

  • National Maritime Domain Awareness Centre (NMDAC)

    The Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nodal agency for maritime data fusion will soon become a National Maritime Domain Awareness (NMDA) centre.

    Try this question:

    Q“To be secure on Land, we must be Supreme at Sea”. In this context, discuss why India is primarily a Maritime Nation?

    What is IMAC?

    • The IMAC monitors movement of more than 120,000 ships a year passing through the Indian Ocean.
    • The cargo carried by these ships account for 66 per cent of world crude oil, 50 per cent of container traffic and 33 per cent of bulk cargo.
    • Thus, IMAC performs a very crucial role in collecting shipping information, analysing traffic patterns and sharing the inputs with the user agencies.
    • It tracks vessels on the high seas and gets data from the coastal radars, white shipping agreements, Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) transponders fitted on merchant ships, air and traffic management system and global shipping databases.

    Transforming to NDMAC

    • The IMAC will soon transform into a national NMDA centre, wherein it will be a multi-agency centre.
    • The NMDA project was launched in accordance with the vision of PM on SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).
    • Approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in 2012, the IMAC became operational in 2014 and is located in Gurugram.
    • It is the nodal centre of the National Command Control Communication and Intelligence System (NC3I), which was established to link the Navy and the Coast Guard.

    Why such a move?

    • India has a coast line of about 7500 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) of over 2 million sq kms.
    • In addition, we are endowed with abundant oceanic wealth comprising a large number of island territories and vast sea bed area, over 97 % of our national trade is carried by sea routes.
    • It is therefore, imperative that we modernize the Navy which always has to be in a high state of preparedness.

  • [pib] SDG Investor Map for India

    Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

    UNDP and Invest India have launched the SDG Investor Map for India, laying out 18 Investment Opportunities Areas (IOAs) in six critical SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) enabling sectors.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), a UN mechanism to assist countries transition towards greener and more inclusive economies, emerged at:

    (a) The Earth Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, Johannesburg

    (b) The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, Rio de Janeiro

    (c) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2015, Paris

    (d) The World Sustainable Development Summit 2016, New Delhi

    SDG Investor Map for India

    • SDG Finance Facility platform at UNDP in partnership with Invest India, the investment promotion arm of the Government of India has developed this Map.
    • The map will help public and private sector stake-holders direct capital towards IOAs, and White Spaces (Areas of Potential) that can contribute to the sustainable development needs of the country.
    • The map has identified 18 IOAs and 8 White Spaces across 6 Priority Sectors including Education, Healthcare, Agriculture and Allied Services, Financial Services, Renewable Energy and Alternatives, and Sustainable Environment.

    Utility of this map

    • Investing in the SDGs at this point is crucial to ‘Building Back Better’ and making the economy and our societies more resilient and sustainable.
    • With the COVID-19 pandemic, the financing gap for the SDGs in India has only widened further and decades of development progress is nearly on the verge of reversal.
    • Enhanced productivity, technology adoption and increased inclusion are all critical factors that this map uses to identify the most attractive sectors for investors.

    Back2Basics: What are SDGs?

    • The SDGs or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.
    • They were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.
    • They are included in a UN Resolution called the 2030 Agenda or what is known as Agenda 2030.
    • Countries are expected to take ownership and establish a national framework for achieving these Goals.
    • Implementation and success will rely on countries’ own sustainable development policies, plans and programmes.

  • Steps needed to achieve Comparative advantage in Manufacturing

    The article suggests the policy approach to achieve industrial growth while avoiding the isolationist approach in pursuit of AtmaNirbharBharat.

    Issue of policy binary

    • The goals of the Make in India initiative and now the AatmaNirbharBharat Abhiyan are driving a major shift in policy.
    • Import duties are being raised.
    • Production-linked incentives are being offered to firms across a wide canvas of 10 priority sectors.
    • At the same time, there is considerable unease at the rolling back of trade liberalisation.
    • This binary is not very useful.

    Steps needed to gain competitive advantage

    1) Infrastructure

    • It would still take India many years to develop its physical infrastructure to the levels required for international competitiveness.
    • Until then, large industrial parks for textiles, electronics, toys or shipbuilding need to be developed by state agencies with soft financing.
    • Competitive logistics are essential.
    • This was critical for the success of the information technology (IT) industry where world-class infrastructure was created within the software parks.
    • High-speed broadband real-time connectivity to the US market was provided through public investment.
    • This was done well before general telecom modernisation began.

    2) Closing the financing gap

    • Long-term financing for world-class infrastructure is still a gap.
    • The central government can either use one of its existing financial institutions or create a new development financial institution to provide long-term low-interest rate debt.
    • The sovereign needs to provide risk-mitigation through an implicit guarantee. It can afford to do so.

    3)  Prevent real exchange rate appreciation

    • Before considering specific increases in import duties, real exchange appreciation should be undone.
    • This would have the effect of raising tariffs across the board.
    • It is high time the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) agreed on this objective.

    4) Change the regime for SEZ

    • Allow SEZ to sell into the domestic area with import duties at the lowest applicable rate with any trading partner and the same value-addition norms.
    • Tax exemption on profits could be dispensed with while continuing to provide a duty-free import regime.
    • This would create a level-playing field for production vis-à-vis competitive locations overseas.
    • Large zones would have to be developed by the state.
    • The private sector can be partners in the process, but achievement of scale is only possible by the state.
    • Production for the domestic as well as the global market would become easier.

    5) Encourage domestic value addition

    • Domestic value-addition can be incentivised by-
    • 1) Reducing duties to zero for all primary raw materials and inputs.
    • 2) then progressively higher rates for intermediates with the highest rate for the finished product.
    • In short, have just the opposite of the inverted duty structure we have had for computers.
    • This would change investment and production decisions if other costs of production in India have been made competitive.

    6) Commitment of procurement of full production

    • In some industries, commitment of procurement of full production for a few years would suffice to get investment.
    • Bids could be invited for solar panels, or for battery storage for the grid, for annual supply for, say, five years with the condition that full value-addition has to be done in India.
    • Such commitment would provide for amortisation of the capital investment and make it a risk-free investment.
    • If the bid size is large enough, the best global firms would come and invest.
    • If the bids are repeated, prices would come down and a competitive industry structure would be created.

    7) Encourage public investment

    • Public investment in firms should not be ruled out altogether.
    • In some cases, it may be the best way to create competitive capacity.
    • Maruti Suzuki is a good example in India.
    • Volkswagen was set up by a state government in Germany, which is still a substantial shareholder.
    • This is a policy instrument that can be used to create competitive advantage.

    8) Creation of fund

    • There should also be willingness to create a fund that looks at modest returns, but aims at creating national and global champions through start-ups.

    Conclusion

    The foundation of China’s incredible success was laid by Deng Xiaoping with the maxim on economic policy that one should not bother about the colour of the cat as long as it caught mice. India’s policies have tended to be doctrinaire. We need a heavy dose of pragmatism to achieve our full potential.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/industrial-growth-the-right-policy-mix-for-success/2136735/