Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Global initiatives in quantum computing: The role of international collaboration

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Quantum computing and its applications

Mains level : Quantum computing

What’s the news?

  • In a quantum leap, global investments in quantum computing soared to US$35.5 billion in 2022, with its game-changing potential across industries.

Central Idea

  • Quantum computing is a rapidly advancing field that has garnered substantial investment from both the public and private sectors. The growth in this field has been driven by extensive international collaboration among governments and private sector entities, reflecting the novelty and complexity of quantum technology.

What is Quantum Technologies Flagship?

  • The Quantum Technologies Flagship is a significant initiative established by the European Union (EU) in 2018. It is part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 (now Horizon Europe) program and has been allocated a budget of approximately 1 billion euros.
  • The primary objective of this initiative is to consolidate European leadership in the field of quantum technologies over a period of ten years.

Key Objectives and Components of the Quantum Technologies Flagship

  • Research and Development: The Quantum Technologies Flagship focuses on advancing research and development in the domain of quantum technologies. This includes quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and other quantum-related fields.
  • Collaboration: The initiative aims to facilitate collaboration among various stakeholders, including research institutions, private sector companies, and public institutions. This collaborative approach is intended to accelerate progress in quantum technology.
  • International Cooperation: The International Cooperation on Quantum Technologies (InCoQFlag) project, which is a crucial part of the Quantum Technologies Flagship. It seeks to establish partnerships and collaboration with countries that are significant investors in quantum technologies, such as the United States, Canada, and Japan.
  • Technology Sharing: The Quantum Technologies Flagship promotes the sharing of quantum technologies, infrastructure, skills, and knowledge with international partners. This sharing is facilitated through various activities, including workshops and networking sessions.
  • Long-Term Vision: The initiative has a long-term vision spanning a decade. It aims to position Europe as a leader in quantum technology research and development. This long-term commitment is designed to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of quantum technology.

AUKUS Quantum Arrangement

  • The AUKUS Quantum Arrangement is part of the broader AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) agreement, which is a trilateral security arrangement established in September 2021.

Key Points About the AUKUS Quantum Arrangement:

  • Quantum Technology Focus: The AUKUS Quantum Arrangement places a strong emphasis on the development and integration of quantum technologies. These technologies encompass a wide range of applications, including quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum cryptography.
  • Advanced Military Capabilities: One of the key pillars of the broader AUKUS agreement is to enhance joint advanced military capabilities and interoperability among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
  • Investment in Cutting-Edge Quantum Capabilities: The AUKUS Quantum Arrangement aims to accelerate investments in what is often referred to as generation-after-next quantum capabilities. This signifies a focus on cutting-edge and future-oriented quantum technologies that go beyond current developments.
  • Strategic Competition and Technological Advantage: The arrangement acknowledges the importance of maintaining a strategic and technological advantage, especially in the fields of quantum computing and cryptography. It recognizes the competitive nature of the international landscape, particularly in relation to China, and seeks to stay ahead in quantum technology.
  • National Security Implications: Quantum technologies have significant implications for national security, including secure communication, advanced encryption, and enhanced computational capabilities. Therefore, the AUKUS Quantum Arrangement aims to strengthen the three countries’ capabilities in these areas.

Quad’s commitment to emerging technologies

  • Commitment to emerging technologies: The Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), consisting of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia, has shown a commitment to emerging technologies, including quantum computing and other cutting-edge fields.
  • Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group: In 2021, the Quad leaders established a Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group. The primary aim of this working group is to ensure that standards and frameworks for key technologies, including 5G, AI, and quantum computing, are governed by shared interests and values among the Quad countries.
  • Quad Investors Network (QUIN): QUIN was launched in May 2023 as part of the Quad’s commitment to emerging technologies. While the article does not provide extensive details, QUIN comprises a network of investors who seek to encourage investments in novel technologies.
  • Quad Centre of Excellence in Quantum Information Sciences: The Quad Centre of Excellence in Quantum Information Sciences was established in June 2023. This center’s primary objective is to facilitate collaboration among researchers and institutions across the Quad countries. It aims to drive greater technological cooperation, market access, and cross-border investments in the field of quantum information sciences.

CERN Quantum Technology Initiative

  • The CERN Quantum Technology Initiative is a comprehensive R and D and academic program initiated by the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN). CERN, known for its contributions to particle physics and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is now expanding its focus to include quantum technologies.

key details about the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative:

  • Initiation Year: The CERN Quantum Technology Initiative was initiated in the year 2020.
  • Scope of the Initiative: This initiative aims to establish collaborations among CERN’s 23 member states and international initiatives in the field of quantum technologies. It encompasses a broad spectrum of quantum technology-related research and development activities.
  • Research and Development Goals: The primary objectives of the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative are as follows:
    • Develop new computing, detector, and communication systems based on quantum technologies.
    • Advance knowledge and understanding of quantum systems and information processing.
    • Assess the potential impact of quantum technologies on future programs and research fields.
    • Prepare the skills and resources required for future generations of researchers to further investigate the application of quantum technologies to specific research domains.
  • Application Areas: The initiative’s activities extend to various research fields, including:
    • Computational chemistry
    • Materials science
    • High-energy physics
    • Space applications
  • Collaborations: The CERN Quantum Technology Initiative involves collaborations with international partners and initiatives in the quantum technology domain. Additionally, CERN is one of the partners of the Open Quantum Initiative, a global center for quantum technology.

Private sector initiatives

  • IBM: IBM has committed to developing a 100,000-qubit quantum computer over the next decade through a US$100-million initiative in collaboration with the University of Tokyo and the University of Chicago. It also collaborates with Indian institutions and quantum startups.
  • Google: Google, claiming quantum supremacy in 2019, partners with various quantum startups and invests in Australian infrastructure, research, and partnerships. It actively explores new quantum computing applications.
  • D-Wave: Based in Canada, D-Wave is the world’s first company to commercially offer quantum computers. It works extensively with NASA and Google, launching its cloud service in India and collaborating with the Australian Department of Defence.
  • Infosys: Infosys pioneers quantum computing and related technologies, collaborating with Australian quantum cybersecurity firm QuintessenceLabs and Amazon Web Services to establish Quantum Living Labs.

Significance of International cooperation in the field of quantum computing and related technologies

  • Shared Knowledge and Expertise: Quantum technology is a highly complex and rapidly evolving field. International cooperation enables countries to pool their knowledge, expertise, and resources, fostering accelerated progress and innovation.
  • Resource Sharing: By collaborating internationally, countries can share the financial burden and access shared resources, making it more cost-effective to undertake ambitious quantum projects.
  • Addressing Global Challenges: Quantum technologies have the potential to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges, such as climate change, cybersecurity, and healthcare.
  • Standardization and Compatibility: Collaborative efforts can lead to the development of common standards and protocols for quantum technologies.
  • Security and Cybersecurity: Quantum technologies also pose security challenges, particularly in the context of cryptography. International cooperation is essential for devising quantum-resistant encryption methods and strengthening global cybersecurity efforts to protect sensitive information from quantum threats.
  • Economic Benefits: Quantum technologies have the potential to drive economic growth and create high-tech jobs. International collaboration expands market opportunities, fosters economic synergies, and bolsters the quantum industry globally.

Impediments to international cooperation in the field of quantum computing

  • Growing Dominance of China:
  • China’s significant investment in quantum technologies and its Thousand Talents Plan have led to concerns about its growing dominance in the field.
  • There have been allegations of scientists illicitly sharing technology and research findings with China, which has raised suspicions and contributed to a more cautious approach among countries regarding international collaboration.
  • Intellectual Property Concerns: Intellectual property (IP) concerns are a major hurdle to international cooperation. Countries and companies are wary of sharing their quantum technology innovations due to fears of IP theft or loss of competitive advantage.
  • Exclusion from Initiatives: Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, Israel, and Switzerland, have reportedly been excluded from international quantum technology initiatives due to concerns about intellectual property rules.
  • Competitive Race: The pursuit of developing practical quantum computers has created a competitive race among nations. Each country aims to outpace others in quantum technology development, leading to a reluctance to share information and collaborate.
  • Need for Ethical and Legal Frameworks: While international cooperation is crucial, the article emphasizes the need for clear ethical and legal frameworks to govern the exchange of quantum technology-related information.

Way forward

  • International Dialogue and Collaboration: Countries and organizations involved in quantum computing should continue to engage in open dialogue and collaboration. Building trust through sustained communication is essential to address concerns and foster cooperation.
  • Establish Clear Ethical and Legal Frameworks: There is a need to develop clear ethical and legal frameworks that govern the exchange of quantum technology-related information. These frameworks should address intellectual property, data sharing, and cybersecurity concerns while promoting responsible conduct in the field.
  • Inclusive Collaboration: Initiatives should aim for inclusivity, ensuring that countries with varying levels of technological development have opportunities to participate. Exclusionary practices should be avoided to promote a global approach to quantum technology development.
  • Resource Allocation and Sharing: Collaborating nations should work together to allocate resources efficiently and fairly. Resource sharing can help balance the financial burden of quantum research and development.
  • Emphasize Mutual Benefits: Emphasize the mutual benefits of international cooperation. Highlight how collaboration can lead to faster advancements, shared knowledge, and solutions to global challenges, such as climate change and cybersecurity.

Conclusion

  • Quantum computing represents a transformative technological frontier with vast potential. Striking a balance between protecting intellectual property and fostering global cooperation is essential to maximize the benefits of quantum technology for humanity’s future.

Also read:

National Quantum Mission: Unlocking India’s Potential in Quantum Technology

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Non-Reciprocity: The physics of letting waves go one way but not the other

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Reciprocity Principle

Mains level : NA

reciprocity

Central Idea

  • Reciprocity, a fundamental principle of physics, dictates that if a signal can travel from Point A to Point B, it can also journey from Point B to Point A.
  • This intuitive concept holds significance in various aspects of daily life and serves as the basis for many technological breakthroughs and challenges.

Exploring Reciprocity

  • The Principle Defined: Reciprocity posits that a signal transmitted from a source (Point A) to a destination (Point B) can also travel in the reverse direction by merely swapping the positions of the source and destination.
  • Everyday Analogies: Familiar scenarios, such as shining a torchlight or observing an object under a streetlight, exemplify reciprocity in action.
  • Counterintuitive Instances: Some situations defy intuition, like interrogation scenes in movies where one party can see through a window while the other cannot, or observing someone walking in darkness.

Applications in Antennas and Beyond

  • Antennas: Reciprocity plays a pivotal role in antenna technology, enabling both the transmission and reception of signals. Engineers utilize reciprocity to assess antennas’ reception quality, simplifying testing processes for radar, sonar, seismic surveys, and MRI scanners.
  • Challenges in Spying: While reciprocity aids signal reception, it poses challenges in espionage, as it allows signals to be captured from an enemy base while potentially revealing one’s own location.
  • One-Way Traffic: To counteract reciprocity, scientists employ devices composed of components with specific properties. These devices break reciprocity, enabling signals to travel in one direction only.

Diverse Ways to Break Reciprocity

  • Magnet-Based Non-Reciprocity: Utilizing wave plates and Faraday rotators, this method disrupts reciprocity for electromagnetic waves.
  • Modulation: By continuously altering a medium’s parameters in time or space, modulation offers a means to control signal transmission.
  • Nonlinearity: Varying a medium’s properties based on signal strength and direction introduces nonlinearity, another avenue to break reciprocity.

Revolutionizing Technologies

  • Quantum Computing: Non-reciprocal devices find applications in quantum computing, where they amplify signals to detect quantum states effectively.
  • Miniaturization: The trend towards nanoscale and microscale devices includes non-reciprocal components, some as small as a strand of hair divided by a thousand. These miniature devices promise contributions to fields like self-driving cars, where efficient signal monitoring is essential for safety.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Cautiously on AI

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Generative AI

Mains level : AI's potential and challenges and steps towards Responsible AI

What’s the news?

  • In the digital age, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a guiding light, illuminating the path to progress and offering vast untapped potential. However, the central concern revolves around maintaining control as AI’s capabilities continue to expand.

Central idea

  • The recent G20 Delhi Declaration and the G7’s commitment to draft an international AI code of conduct underscore the pressing need to prioritize responsible artificial intelligence (AI) practices. With over 700 policy instruments under discussion for regulating AI, there is a consensus on principles, but implementation remains a challenge.

The Beacon of AI: Progress and Potential

Progress in AI:

  • Investment Surge: Private investments in AI have skyrocketed, as indicated by Stanford’s Artificial Index Report of 2023. Over the past decade, investments have grown an astonishing 18-fold since 2013, underscoring the growing confidence in AI’s capabilities.
  • Widespread Adoption: AI’s influence is not limited to tech giants; its adoption has doubled since 2017 across industries. It’s becoming an integral part of healthcare, finance, manufacturing, transportation, and more, promising efficiency gains and innovative solutions.
  • Economic Potential: McKinsey’s projections hint at the staggering economic potential of AI, estimating its annual value to range from $17.1 trillion to $25.6 trillion. These figures underscore the transformative power of AI in generating economic growth and prosperity.

The Potential of AI:

  • Diverse Applications: AI’s potential knows no bounds. Its ability to process vast amounts of data, make predictions, and automate complex tasks opens doors to countless applications. From enhancing healthcare diagnosis to optimizing supply chains, AI is a versatile tool.
  • Accessible Technology: AI is becoming increasingly accessible. Open-source frameworks and cloud-based AI services enable businesses and individuals to harness its power without the need for extensive technical expertise.
  • Solving Complex Problems: AI holds promise in tackling some of humanity’s most pressing challenges, from climate change to healthcare disparities. Its data-driven insights and predictive capabilities can drive evidence-based decision-making in these critical areas.

AI’s Challenges

  • Biased Models: AI systems often exhibit bias in their decision-making processes. This bias can arise from the data used to train these systems, reflecting existing societal prejudices. Consequently, AI can perpetuate and even exacerbate existing inequalities and injustices.
  • Privacy Issues: AI’s data-intensive nature raises significant concerns about privacy. The collection, analysis, and utilization of vast amounts of personal data can lead to breaches of individual privacy. As AI systems become more integrated into our lives, safeguarding personal information becomes increasingly challenging.
  • Opaque Decision-Making: The inner workings of many AI systems are often complex and difficult to interpret. This opacity can make it challenging to understand how AI arrives at its decisions, particularly in high-stakes contexts like healthcare or finance. Lack of transparency can lead to mistrust and hinder accountability.
  • Impact Across Sectors: AI’s challenges are not confined to a single sector. They permeate diverse industries, including healthcare, finance, transportation, and more. The ramifications of biased AI or privacy breaches are felt across society, making these challenges highly consequential.

The Menace of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

  • Towering Danger: AGI is portrayed as a looming threat. This refers to the potential development of highly advanced AI systems with human-like general intelligence capable of performing tasks across various domains.
  • Rogue AI Systems: Concerns revolve around AGI systems going rogue. These systems, if not controlled, could act independently and unpredictably, causing harm or acting against human interests.
  • Hijacked by Malicious Actors: There’s a risk of malicious actors gaining control over AGI systems. This could enable them to use AGI for harmful purposes, such as cyberattacks, misinformation campaigns, or physical harm.
  • Autonomous Evolution: AGI’s alarming aspect is its potential for self-improvement and adaptation without human oversight. This unchecked evolution could lead to unforeseen consequences and risks.
  • Real Possibility: These dangers associated with AGI are not hypothetical but represent a real and immediate concern. As AI research advances and AGI development progresses, the risks of uncontrolled AGI become more tangible.

Pivotal Global Interventions

  • EU AI Act: In 2023, the European Union (EU) took a significant step by introducing the draft EU AI Act. This legislative initiative aims to provide a framework for regulating AI within the EU. It sets out guidelines and requirements for AI systems, focusing on ensuring safety, fairness, and accountability in AI development and deployment.
  • US Voluntary Safeguards Framework: The United States launched a voluntary safeguards framework in collaboration with seven leading AI firms. This initiative is designed to encourage responsible AI practices within the private sector. It involves AI companies voluntarily committing to specific guidelines and principles aimed at preventing harm and promoting ethical AI development.

Key Steps Toward Responsible AI

  • Establishing Worldwide Consensus: It is imperative to foster international consensus regarding AI’s risks. Even a single vulnerability could enable malicious actors to exploit AI systems. An international commission dedicated to identifying AI-related risks should be established.
  • Defining Standards for Public AI Services: Conceptualizing standards for public AI services is critical. Standards enhance safety, quality, efficiency, and interoperability across regions. These socio-technical standards should describe ideals and the technical mechanisms to achieve them, adapting as AI evolves.
  • State Participation in AI Development: Currently dominated by a few companies, AI’s design, development, and deployment should involve substantial state participation. Innovative public-private partnership models and regulatory sandbox zones can balance competitive advantages with equitable solutions to societal challenges.

Conclusion

  • AI’s journey is marked by immense potential and formidable challenges. To navigate this era successfully, we must exercise creativity, humility, and responsibility. While AI’s potential is undeniable, its future must be guided by caution, foresight, and, above all, control to ensure that it remains a force for good in our rapidly evolving world.

Also read:

Generative AI systems

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Ethics of neurotechnology and neurowarfare

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : neurotechnology applications

Mains level : neurotechnology, neurowarfare, ethical concerns and considerations

neurotechnology

What’s the news?

  • The rapid growth of neurotechnology, driven by advances in neuroscience and technology, has given rise to a field with immense potential and profound ethical implications.

Central Idea

  • Neurotechnology encompasses various aspects, from Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) to neuroimaging and neurostimulation. As this field expands, it poses challenges to human privacy, autonomy, and dignity. In this context, the need for ethical guidelines and governance becomes paramount.

What is neurotechnology?

  • Neurotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that combines neuroscience, engineering, and technology to study, interact with, and manipulate the human nervous system, particularly the brain and its functions.
  • It involves the development and application of various techniques, tools, and devices to better understand and interface with the brain and nervous system.

What is neurowarfare?

  • Neurowarfare, also known as neurotechnology warfare, refers to the use of advanced neurotechnological tools, techniques, and agents in military operations and conflicts.
  • It represents the convergence of neuroscience, neurotechnology, and warfare strategies, with the aim of gaining a tactical or strategic advantage on the battlefield or in intelligence operations.
  • Neurowarfare explores the manipulation of the human nervous system, particularly the brain, for various purposes, both offensive and defensive.

The ethics of neurotechnology

  • Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) and Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs): BCIs offer direct communication between the brain and external devices, while BMIs integrate neural signals with machines for various applications, including prosthetics and exoskeletons. Ethical concerns arise regarding privacy, autonomy, and mental influence.
  • Neuroimaging and Neurostimulation: Neuroimaging provides access to neurological data, while neurostimulation modulates neural activity for therapeutic purposes. The potential for behavioral changes and privacy invasion necessitates regulation.
  • Gathering and Use of Neurological Data: The absence of guidelines for gathering, studying, and using neurological data requires immediate attention, especially in light of private sector developments such as Neuralink’s brain implant chip.

The Case of Neuralink

  • Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, recently unveiled an upgraded brain implant chip approved for human trials.
  • This chip boasts capabilities to potentially alter memories and treat conditions like hearing loss, blindness, paralysis, and depression.
  • This development serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need for comprehensive regulations, especially when such technology is being explored within the private sector.

 

Neurowarfare: The Emerging Threat

  • Neurotechnological Agents: Advances in synthetic biology open doors to neurotechnological agents that can impact neurological abilities. This includes neuropharmacological agents like amphetamines and neurotechnological devices.
  • Dual-Use Nature: Neurotechnology can have dual-use applications, both civilian and military. Neurowarfare refers to its use in military operations, potentially enhancing soldiers’ cognitive abilities or disrupting the cognitive functions of adversaries.
  • Case Study: Havana Syndrome: The mysterious Havana Syndrome experienced by US intelligence personnel raises concerns about directed energy weapons and intentional attacks. Similar cases have been reported in Guangzhou, China.

Ethical Concerns in Neurowarfare

  • Informed Consent and Privacy: Ethical use of neurotechnology in warfare requires informed consent for soldiers and civilians. Oversight and restrictions on using such innovations for harm are essential.
  • Psychological Harm: Studying the psychological impact of neurotechnology weapons is imperative to establishing limits on their deployment.
  • Protection of Non-Combatants: Civilians must be shielded from neurotechnology applications, ensuring their privacy, consent, and protection from manipulation.

Importance of International Cooperation and Responsible Governance

  • International Cooperation: Organizations like the OECD and UNESCO have initiated ethical guidelines for neurotechnology. However, global governance must extend to neurowarfare, with disarmament forums incorporating ethical oversight and transparency.
  • Accountability: State actors should be held accountable through reporting systems, ensuring responsible research and the use of neurotechnology in warfare.

Conclusion

  • Neurotechnology holds immense potential for human advancement but also raises profound ethical challenges in the context of neurowarfare. Striking a balance between technological progress and ethical considerations is crucial to safeguarding human rights and global security in the age of neurotechnology.

Must read:

Implantable Brain-Computer Interface

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Deciphering Atomic Nuclei: Exploring Unstable Nuclei via Electron Scattering

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Electron Scattering Experiment

Mains level : NA

Central Idea

  • In the world of atomic and nuclear physics, the quest to understand the inner workings of matter has been a constant journey of discovery.
  • Scientists have long sought ways to unravel the mysteries hidden within atomic nuclei, and recent breakthroughs in experimental techniques have taken us one step closer to achieving this goal.

Historical Milestones

  • 150 years ago, scientists like Ernest Rutherford, Hans Geiger, and Ernest Marsden conducted experiments exposing a thin gold foil to radiation.
  • These experiments revealed that every atom has a dense central nucleus where mass and positive charge are concentrated.
  • Seven decades ago, physicist Robert Hofstadter led a team that bombarded thin foils with high-energy electrons, allowing scientists to probe atomic nuclei’s inner structure.

Recent advancements

  • Researchers at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science in Japan have demonstrated a setup using electron scattering to investigate unstable nuclei.
  • This advancement opens new avenues for understanding the fundamental building blocks of matter.
  • The SCRIT (Self-Confining Radioactive-isotope Ion Target) setup is more sophisticated than previous experiments using thin foils.
  • SCRIT can hold caesium-137 atom nuclei in place and facilitate electron interactions, a critical innovation.

The Experimental Process

  • Electrons are accelerated in a particle accelerator to energize them.
  • These energized electrons are directed at a block of uranium carbide, resulting in a stream of caesium-137 ions (atoms stripped of electrons).
  • The ions are transported to the SCRIT system, which traps target ions along the electron beam path using electric attractive forces.
  • This “overlap” ensures a high probability of electron-ion collisions.

Probing Nuclear Structure

  • Understanding the experimental setup’s probe into nuclear structure requires exploring interference patterns.
  • When light passes through a small hole, it creates concentric circles of light and dark patches due to interference.
  • Similarly, when an electron scatters off an atomic nucleus, it behaves like a wave during the interaction, resulting in interference patterns.
  • A magnetic spectrometer is used to record these interference patterns, offering advantages in clean and fine-tuned interactions.

Results and Implications

  • The experimental results confirm the internal structure of the caesium-137 nucleus, aligning with previous studies and theoretical calculations.
  • The real significance lies in the development of the “femtoscope,” which can probe the femtometer scale (10^-15 meters) of atomic nuclei, unlocking new possibilities in nuclear physics.

Unresolved Nuclear Structure

  • The challenge in nuclear physics is the absence of a unified theory explaining atomic nuclei’s structure, despite various existing models.
  • Scientists encounter intriguing properties, such as the “island of stability,” where heavier nuclei of unstable elements defy the trend of faster decay via radioactivity.
  • This phenomenon raises questions about nuclear structure and the existence of stable clusters.

Future Prospects

  • Researchers aim to use femtoscopes to explore nuclei with irregular shapes, bridging the gap between expected and unexpected nuclear structures.
  • This promises to illuminate the fundamental nature of atomic nuclei and advance our understanding of the universe at its most basic level.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

The need for an Indian system to regulate AI

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI applications

Mains level : Emergence of AI and need for careful regulations

What’s the news?

  • Divergence in AI Regulation Approaches: Western Model Emphasizes Risk, Eastern Approach Prioritizes Values, Urges India to Shape Regulations in Line with Cultural Identity.

Central idea

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) has firmly entrenched itself in our lives, heralding a transformative era. Its potential to revolutionize work processes, generate creative solutions through data assimilation, and wield considerable influence for good and ill is undeniable. In light of these realities, the imperative for AI regulation cannot be overlooked.

The need for careful AI regulation

  • Ethical Impact and Accountability: AI’s decisions can have ethical implications, necessitating regulations to ensure responsible and ethical use.
  • Data Privacy and Protection: As AI relies on data, regulations are essential to safeguard individuals’ privacy and prevent unauthorized data usage.
  • Addressing Bias and Fairness: AI can perpetuate biases present in data, leading to unfair outcomes. Regulations are required to ensure fairness and prevent discrimination.
  • Minimizing Unintended Outcomes: Complex AI systems can yield unexpected results. Careful regulation is needed to minimize unintended consequences and ensure safe AI deployment.
  • Balancing Innovation and Risks: Regulations strike a balance between fostering AI innovation and managing potential risks such as job displacement and social disruption.
  • Ensuring Security and Accountability: Regulations help ensure AI system security by setting standards for protection against cyber threats and unauthorized access. Establishing clear guidelines enhances accountability for any security breaches.
  • Preserving Human Autonomy: Regulations prevent overreliance on AI, preserving human decision-making autonomy. AI systems should assist and augment human judgment rather than replace it entirely.
  • Global Collaboration and Consensus: Regulations facilitate international collaboration and the development of common ethical standards and guidelines for AI.

Contrast between Western and Eastern approaches to AI regulation

  • Global Regulatory Landscape:
    • Governments worldwide are grappling with the challenge of regulating AI technologies.
    • Leading regions in AI regulation include the EU, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and China.
    • It forms groups such as the EU, Brazil, and the UK as western systems, while Japan and China represent eastern models.
  • Intrinsic Differences:
    • Western and eastern approaches to AI regulation exhibit fundamental differences.
    • Western regulations are influenced by a Eurocentric view of jurisprudence, while the eastern model takes a distinct path.
  • Western Risk-Based Approach:
    • Western systems employ a risk-based approach to AI regulation.
    • Risk categories such as unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk, and low risk are identified for AI applications.
    • Different regulatory measures are applied based on the risk level, ranging from prohibitions to disclosure obligations.
  • Eastern Models: Japan and China
    • Japan’s approach is embodied in the Social Principles of Human-Centric AI.
    • These principles include human-centricity, data protection, safety, fair competition, accountability, and innovation.
    • China’s regulations emphasize adherence to laws, ethics, and societal values in AI services.
  • Values vs. Means:
    • A stark difference emerges between the two models regarding their approach to regulation.
    • The western model specifies how regulations should be implemented, focusing on means and rationale.
    • The eastern model emphasizes upholding values and ends, embracing the overlap between legal and moral considerations.
  • Comparative Effectiveness:
    • The western model is well-suited for rule-abiding societies, offering clear rules and punitive measures for non-compliance.
    • The eastern model emphasizes a holistic approach, allowing for flexibility and acknowledging the intertwining of legality and morality.
  • Hindu Jurisprudence Concept:
    • The concept of Hindu Jurisprudence is introduced, referring to legal systems that embrace the overlap between legal rules and moral values.
  • Historical Perspective:
    • The differences between eastern and western approaches have historical roots.
    • Professor Northrop’s study in the 1930s highlighted cultural and philosophical distinctions in legal systems.

Distinction between Eurocentric and Eastern legal systems

  • Eurocentric vs. Eastern Legal Systems: Professor Northrop’s analysis distinguishes between Eurocentric (Western) and Eastern legal systems. Western legal systems create rules through postulation, defining specific actions and penalties in a given social order.
  • Postulation in Western Legal Systems: In Eurocentric systems, laws prescribe precise actions and consequences for non-compliance. The focus is on specifying what must be done within a legal framework.
  • Intuition in Eastern Legal Systems: Eastern legal systems, referred to as Oriental, establish rules through intuition. Laws set the desired end or objective to be achieved and the moral values underlying the law.
  • Role of Morality and Ends: In the Eastern approach, the moral aspect of the law plays a central role. Legal rules are geared towards achieving specific moral and societal objectives.
  • Success of Ancient Indian Legal Systems: Ancient Indian legal systems achieved success due to clear objectives and underlying moral codes. People complied with these laws through intuition rooted in morality.
  • Examples of Moral-Based Compliance: Instances like the Pandavas’ exile and Emperor Ashoka’s edicts demonstrate how ancient Indian laws aligned with underlying morality. These historical examples show how people followed laws guided by intuitive understanding and moral principles.
  • Law and Morality in Eastern Cultures: In Eastern cultures, law and morality are often intertwined. Moral values influence the creation, interpretation, and adherence to laws.
  • Impact of British Colonialism: The British colonization of India introduced a transplant of Western legal systems. The current legal system in India is seen as lacking the virtues of both the ancient Indian system and the English legal system.

How should AI be regulated in India?

  • Perspective of Justice V. Ramasubramaniam
    • Justice V. Ramasubramaniam, a retired Supreme Court judge, has criticized the tendency to blindly emulate Western legal systems.
    • In his judgments, he has highlighted the need to draw inspiration from Indian traditions and jurisprudence.
    • A significant judgment on cryptocurrency by Justice Ramasubramaniam includes the Sanskrit phrase neti neti, indicating a non-binary perspective.
    • Judges viewpoints like this could guide regulators in adopting a more Indian approach to regulation.
  • NITI Aayog’s Approach:
    • The NITI Aayog has circulated discussion papers on AI regulations.
    • These papers predominantly reference regulations from Western countries like the EU, the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
  • Alignment with Indian Ethos:
    • India should establish AI regulations that reflect its cultural ethos and values.
    • Drawing from India’s historical legal systems could provide a more appropriate regulatory framework.
  • Hope for Better Regulation:
    • AI regulation in India will be more considerate of Indian values and heritage than current indications suggest.
    • It emphasizes the importance of a regulatory approach that aligns with the Indian ethos.

Conclusion

  • The emergence of AI as a transformative force necessitates rigorous regulation. Embracing India’s unique legal heritage and considering the alignment of AI with societal values could lead to regulations that serve both innovation and morality. As India contemplates its AI regulatory landscape, it must not only look to the West but also introspect and turn its gaze eastward.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Can AI be ethical and moral?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI applications in news

Mains level : Integration of AI into governance, advantages and ethical challenges

What’s the news?

  • In an era where machines and artificial intelligence (AI) are progressively aiding human decision-making, particularly within governance, ethical considerations are at the forefront.

Central idea

  • Countries worldwide are introducing AI regulations as government bodies and policymakers leverage AI-powered tools to analyze complex patterns, predict future scenarios, and provide informed recommendations. However, the seamless integration of AI into decision-making is complicated by biases inherent in AI systems, reflecting the biases in their training data or the perspectives of their developers.

Advantages of integrating AI into governance

  • Enhanced Decision-Making: AI assists in governance decisions by providing advanced data analysis, enabling policymakers to make informed choices based on data-driven insights.
  • Data Analysis and Pattern Recognition: AI’s capability to analyze complex patterns in large datasets helps government agencies understand trends and issues critical to effective governance.
  • Future Scenario Prediction: Predictive analytics powered by AI enable governments to anticipate future scenarios, allowing for proactive policy planning and resource allocation.
  • Efficiency and Automation: Integrating AI streamlines tasks, improving operational efficiency within government agencies through automation and optimized resource allocation.
  • Regulatory Compliance: AI’s data analysis assists in monitoring regulatory compliance by identifying potential violations and deviations from regulations.
  • Policy Planning and Implementation: AI’s predictive capabilities aid in effective policy planning and the assessment of potential policy impacts before implementation.
  • Resource Allocation: AI’s data-driven insights help governments allocate resources more effectively, optimizing limited resources for public services and initiatives.
  • Streamlined Citizen Services: AI-driven automation enhances citizen services by providing quick responses to queries through chatbots and automated systems.
  • Cost Reduction: Automation and efficient resource allocation through AI lead to cost reductions in government operations and services.
  • Complexity Handling: AI’s capacity to manage complex data aids governments in addressing intricate challenges like urban planning and disaster management.

The ethical challenges related to the integration of AI into governance

  • Bias in AI: The biases inherent in AI systems, often originating from the data they are trained on or the perspectives of their developers, can lead to skewed or unjust outcomes. This poses a significant challenge in ensuring fair and unbiased decision-making in governance processes.
  • Challenges in Encoding Ethics: The article highlights the challenges of encoding complex human ethical considerations into algorithmic rules for AI. This difficulty is exemplified by the parallels drawn with Isaac Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics,’ which often led to unexpected and paradoxical outcomes in his fictional world.
  • Accountability and Moral Responsibility: Delegating decision-making from humans to AI systems raises questions about accountability and moral responsibility. If AI-generated decisions lead to immoral or unethical outcomes, it becomes challenging to attribute accountability to either the AI system itself or its developers.
  • Creating Ethical AI Agents: The creation of artificial moral agents (AMAs) capable of making ethical decisions raises technological and ethical challenges. AI systems are still far from replacing human judgment in complex, unpredictable, or unclear ethical scenarios.
  • Bounded Ethicality: The concept of bounded ethicality highlights that AI systems, similar to humans, might engage in immoral behavior if ethical principles are detached from actions. This concept challenges the assumption that AI has inherent ethical decision-making capabilities.
  • Lack of Ethical Experience in AI: The difficulty in attributing accountability to AI systems lies in their lack of human-like experiences, such as suffering or guilt. Punishing AI systems for their decisions becomes problematic due to their limited cognitive capacity.
  • Complexity of Ethical Programming: James Moore’s analogy about the complexity of programming ethics into machines emphasizes that ethics operates in a complex domain with ill-defined legal moves. This complexity adds to the challenge of ensuring ethical behavior in AI systems.

Ethical Challenges: A Kantian Perspective

  • Kantian Ethical Framework: Kantian ethics, emphasizing autonomy, rationality, and moral duty, serves as a foundational viewpoint for assessing ethical challenges in the context of AI integration.
  • Threat to Moral Reasoning: Applying AI to governance decisions could jeopardize the exercise of moral reasoning that has traditionally been carried out by humans, as posited by Kant’s philosophy.
  • Delegation and Moral Responsibility: Kantian ethics underscores individual moral responsibility. However, entrusting decisions to AI systems raises concerns about abdicating this responsibility, a point central to Kant’s moral theory.
  • Parallels to Asimov’s Laws: The comparison with Isaac Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ highlights the unforeseen and paradoxical outcomes that can arise when attempting to encode ethics into machines, similar to the challenges posed by AI’s integration into decision-making.
  • Complexity in Ethical Agency: The juxtaposition of Kant’s emphasis on rational moral agency and Asimov’s exploration of coded ethics reveals the intricate ethical challenges entailed in transferring human moral functions to AI entities.

Categories of machine agents based on their ethical involvement and capabilities

  • Ethical Impact Agents: These machines don’t make ethical decisions but have actions that result in ethical consequences. An example is robot jockeys that alter the dynamics of a sport, leading to ethical considerations.
  • Implicit Ethical Agents: Machines in this category follow embedded safety or ethical guidelines. They operate based on predefined rules without actively engaging in ethical decision-making. For instance, a safe autopilot system in planes adheres to specific rules without actively determining ethical implications.
  • Explicit Ethical Agents: Machines in this category surpass preset rules. They utilize formal methods to assess the ethical value of different options. For instance, systems balancing financial investments with social responsibility exemplify explicit ethical agents.
  • Full Ethical Agents: These machines possess the capability to make and justify ethical judgments, akin to adult humans. They hold an advanced understanding of ethics, allowing them to provide reasonable explanations for their ethical choices.

Way forward

  • Ethical Parameters: Establish comprehensive ethical guidelines and principles that AI systems must follow, ensuring ethical considerations are embedded in decision-making processes.
  • Bias Mitigation: Prioritize data diversity and implement techniques to mitigate biases in AI algorithms, aiming for fair and unbiased decision outcomes.
  • Transparency Measures: Develop transparent AI systems with explainability features, allowing policymakers and citizens to understand the basis of decisions.
  • Human Oversight: Maintain human oversight in critical decision-making processes involving AI, ensuring accountability and responsible outcomes.
  • Regulatory Frameworks: Formulate adaptive regulatory frameworks that address the unique challenges posed by AI integration into governance, including accountability and transparency.
  • Capacity Building: Provide training programs for government officials to effectively manage, interpret, and collaborate with AI systems in decision-making.
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Foster collaboration between AI experts, ethicists, policymakers, and legal professionals to create a holistic approach to AI integration.
  • Human-AI Synergy: Promote AI as a tool to enhance human decision-making, focusing on collaboration that harnesses AI’s strengths while retaining human judgment.
  • Testbed Initiatives: Launch controlled pilot projects to test AI systems in specific governance contexts, learning from real-world experiences.

Conclusion

  • The integration of AI into governance decision-making holds both promise and perils. As governments gradually delegate decision-making to AI systems, they must grapple with questions of responsibility and ensure that ethics remain at the core of these advancements. Balancing the potential benefits of AI with ethical considerations is crucial to shaping a responsible and equitable AI-powered governance landscape.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Generative AI systems

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Generative AI Models in News

Mains level : Generative AI revolution, advantages, concerns and measures

AI

What’s the news?

  • The advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents a world of possibilities and challenges.

Central idea

  • The rapid rise of generative AI is reshaping our world with technological wonders and societal shifts. LLMs like ChatGPT promise economic growth and transformative services like universal translation but also raise concerns about AI’s ability to generate convincingly deceptive content.

What is generative AI?

  • Like other forms of artificial intelligence, generative AI learns how to take actions based on past data.
  • It creates brand new content—a text, an image, even computer code—based on that training instead of simply categorizing or identifying data like other AI.
  • The most famous generative AI application is ChatGPT, a chatbot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI released late last year.
  • The AI powering it is known as a large language model because it takes in a text prompt and, from that, writes a human-like response.

What are large language models (LLMs)?

  • Large Language Models (LLMs) are advanced AI systems designed to understand and generate human-like language.
  • They use vast amounts of data to learn patterns and relationships in language, enabling them to answer questions, create text, translate languages, and perform various language tasks.

Potential of large language models

  • Economic Transformation: LLMs are predicted to contribute $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy.
  • Enhanced Communication: LLMs redefine human-machine interaction, allowing for more natural and nuanced communication.
  • Information Democratization: Initiatives like the Jugalbandi Chatbot exemplify LLMs’ power by making information accessible across language barriers.
  • Industry Disruption: LLMs can transform various industries. For example, content creation, customer service, translation, and data analysis can benefit from their capabilities.
  • Efficiency Gains: Automation of language tasks leads to efficiency improvements. This enables businesses to allocate resources to higher-value activities.
  • Educational Support: LLMs hold educational potential. They can provide personalized tutoring, answer queries, and create engaging learning materials.
  • Medical Advances: LLMs assist medical professionals in tasks such as data analysis, research, and even diagnosing conditions. This could significantly impact healthcare delivery.
  • Entertainment and Creativity: LLMs contribute to generating creative content, enhancing sectors like entertainment and creative industries.
  • Positive Societal Impact: LLMs have the potential to improve accessibility, foster innovation, and address various societal challenges.

Case study: Jugalbandi Chatbot

  • Overview: The Jugalbandi Chatbot, powered by ChatGPT technology, is an ongoing pilot initiative in rural India that addresses language barriers through AI-powered translation.
  • Universal Translator: The chatbot’s core function is to act as a universal translator. It enables users to submit queries in local languages, which are then translated into English to retrieve relevant information.
  • Accuracy Challenge: The chatbot’s success relies on accurate translation and information delivery. Inaccuracies could perpetuate misinformation.
  • Ethical Considerations: Ensuring accuracy and minimizing biases in translation is crucial to avoid spreading misconceptions or causing harm.
  • Cultural Sensitivity: The initiative highlights the need for culturally sensitive deployment of advanced AI technology in diverse linguistic contexts.
  • Positive Transformation: Jugalbandi Chatbot showcases the potential benefits of leveraging AI for bridging language gaps and providing underserved communities with access to information.
  • Complexities and Impact: As the pilot progresses, its effectiveness and impact will become clearer, shedding light on the complexities and possibilities of utilizing AI to address real-world challenges.

Concerns associated with large language models

  • Misinformation Propagation: LLMs can be harnessed to spread misinformation and disinformation, leading to the potential for public confusion and harm.
  • Bias Amplification: Biases present in training data may be perpetuated by LLMs, exacerbating societal inequalities and prejudices in generated content.
  • Privacy Risks: LLMs could inadvertently generate content that reveals sensitive personal information, posing privacy concerns.
  • Deepfake Generation: The capability of LLMs to create convincing deepfakes raises worries about identity theft, impersonation, and the erosion of trust in digital content.
  • Content Authenticity: LLMs’ production of sophisticated fake content challenges the authenticity of online information and poses challenges for content verification.
  • Ethical Considerations: The development of AI entities indistinguishable from humans raises ethical questions about transparency, consent, and responsible AI use.
  • Regulatory Complexity: The rapid progress of LLMs complicates regulatory efforts, necessitating adaptive frameworks to manage potential risks and abuses.
  • Security Vulnerabilities: Malicious actors could exploit LLMs for cyberattacks, fraud, and other forms of digital manipulation, posing security risks.
  • Employment Disruption: The widespread adoption of LLMs might lead to job displacement, particularly in sectors reliant on language-related tasks.
  • Social Polarization: LLMs could exacerbate social polarization by facilitating the dissemination of polarizing content and echo chamber effects.

What is the identity assurance framework?

  • The identity assurance framework is a structured approach designed to establish trust and authenticity in digital interactions by verifying the identities of entities involved, such as individuals, bots, or businesses.
  • It aims to address concerns related to privacy, security, and the potential for deception in the digital realm.
  • The framework ensures that parties engaging in online activities can have confidence in each other’s claimed identities while maintaining privacy and security.
  • The key features:
  • Trust Establishment: The primary objective of the identity assurance framework is to foster trust between parties participating in digital interactions.
  • Open and Flexible: The framework is designed to be open to various types of identity credentials. It does not adhere to a single technology or standard, allowing it to adapt to the evolving landscape of digital identities.
  • Privacy Considerations: Privacy is a core concern within this framework. It employs mechanisms such as digital wallets that permit selective disclosure of identity information.
  • Digital Identity Initiatives: The framework draws from ongoing digital identity initiatives across countries. For example, India’s Aadhaar and the EU’s identity standard serve as potential building blocks for establishing online identity assurance safeguards.
  • Leadership and Adoption: Countries that are at the forefront of digital identity initiatives, like India with Aadhaar, are well-positioned to shape and adopt the framework. However, full-scale user adoption is expected to be a gradual process.
  • Balancing Values and Risks: The identity assurance framework acknowledges the delicate balance between competing values such as privacy, security, and accountability. It aims to strike a balance that accommodates different nations priorities and risk tolerances.
  • Information Integrity: The framework extends its principles to information integrity. It validates the authenticity of information sources, content integrity, and even the validity of information, which can be achieved through automated fact-checking and reviews.
  • Global Responsibility and Collaboration: The onus of ensuring safe AI deployment lies with global leaders. This requires collaboration among governments, companies, and stakeholders to build and enforce a trust-based framework.

Way Forward

  • Identity Assurance Framework:
    • Establish an identity assurance framework to verify the authenticity of entities engaged in digital interactions.
    • Ensure trust between parties by confirming their claimed identities, encompassing humans, bots, and businesses.
    • Utilize digital wallets to enable selective disclosure of identity information while safeguarding privacy.
  • Open Standards and Adaptability:
    • Design the identity assurance framework to be technology-agnostic and adaptable.
    • Allow the integration of diverse digital identity credential types and emerging technologies.
  • Digital Identity Initiatives:
    • Leverage ongoing digital identity initiatives in various countries, such as India’s Aadhaar and the EU’s identity standard.
    • Incorporate these initiatives to form the foundation of the identity assurance framework.
  • Privacy Protection and Selective Disclosure:
    • Prioritize privacy by using mechanisms like digital wallets to facilitate controlled disclosure of identity information.
    • Empower individuals to share specific attributes while minimizing unnecessary exposure.
  • Global Collaboration and Leadership:
    • Encourage collaboration among global leaders, governments, technology companies, researchers, and policymakers.
    • Establish a collaborative effort to ensure the responsible deployment of AI technologies.
  • Balancing Values and Risks:
    • Address tensions between privacy, security, accountability, and freedom.
    • Develop a balanced approach that respects civil liberties while ensuring security and accountability.
  • Information Integrity:
    • Extend the identity assurance framework principles to information integrity.
    • Validate the authenticity of information sources, content integrity, and information validity.
  • Ethical Considerations:
    • Recognize and address ethical dilemmas arising from the use of AI-generated content for harmful purposes.
    • Ensure that responsible and ethical practices guide the development and deployment of AI technologies.

Conclusion

  • The generative AI revolution teems with potential and peril. As we venture forward, it falls upon us to balance innovation with security, ushering in an era where the marvels of AI are harnessed for the greater good while safeguarding against its darker implications.

Also read:

What is Generative AI?

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

3D Printing

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : 3D Printed Post Office , 3D Printing

Mains level : Not Much

post office

Central Idea

  • India’s pioneering 3D-printed post office located in Bengaluru’s Cambridge Layout was recently inaugurated.

3D Printed Post Office

  • Swift Build: The 3D-printed post office was constructed in just 43 days, surpassing the original deadline by two days.
  • Construction Team: Larsen & Toubro Limited undertook the project in collaboration with IIT Madras.

Technological Process

  • Spatial Dimension: The post office covers an area of 1,021 square feet and was created using advanced 3D concrete printing.
  • Automated Procedure: Robotic printers used an automated process to layer concrete according to the approved design.
  • Strong Bonding: A specially formulated quick-hardening concrete ensured strong bonding between layers.
  • Rapid Construction: With robotic precision and pre-embedded designs, the project was completed in just 43 days, far shorter than the conventional 6 to 8 months.

Advantages of 3D Printing

  • Cost-Effective: The project cost ₹23 lakhs, indicating a 30-40% cost reduction compared to traditional methods.
  • Showcasing Technology: The project highlighted concrete 3D printing technology using indigenous machinery and robots, showcasing its scalability.

Distinctive Features

  • Continuous Perimeter: The project boasted continuous perimeter construction without vertical joints.
  • Flexibility: The 3D printing accommodated curved surfaces and different site dimensions, overcoming flat wall limitations.
  • Structural Innovation: Continuous reinforced concrete footing and three-layer walls were created, enhancing structural integrity.
  • Reduced Timeline: The innovative technique drastically reduced the construction timeline to 43 days, minimizing material wastage.

Back2Basics: 3D Printing

  • 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a transformative technology that involves creating three-dimensional objects by adding material layer by layer.
  • This technology has found applications in various industries, from manufacturing and aerospace to healthcare and fashion.

Here’s an overview of the technology and its key components:

(A) Printing Process: The basic process of 3D printing involves the following steps:

  • Design: Create a 3D model using computer-aided design (CAD) software.
  • Slicing: The 3D model is divided into thin horizontal layers using slicing software.
  • Printing: The 3D printer follows the instructions from the sliced file, depositing material layer by layer to build up the object.

(B) Types of 3D Printing Technologies: There are several 3D printing technologies, each with its own unique approach to material deposition and layering. Some common types include:

  • Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM): This is one of the most popular methods. It involves extruding thermoplastic material through a heated nozzle to build up layers.
  • Stereolithography (SLA): SLA uses a UV laser to solidify liquid resin layer by layer, creating highly detailed and accurate objects.
  • Selective Laser Sintering (SLS): In SLS, a laser fuses powdered material (often plastic or metal) layer by layer to create the object.
  • Powder Bed Fusion (PBF): Similar to SLS, PBF involves fusing powder particles using a laser or electron beam to create metal parts.
  • Digital Light Processing (DLP): Similar to SLA, DLP uses a projector to cure an entire layer of resin at once.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

AI and the environment: What are the pitfalls?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI applications

Mains level : Applications of AI, Carbon Footprint of AI, It's role in climate change

What’s the news?

  • The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing unprecedented growth, largely driven by the excitement surrounding innovative tools like ChatGPT. AI systems are already a big part of our lives, helping governments, industries, and regular people be more efficient and make data-driven decisions. But there are some significant downsides to this technology.

Central idea

  • As tech giants race to develop more sophisticated AI products, global investment in the AI market has surged to $142.3 billion and is projected to reach nearly $2 trillion by 2030. However, this boom in AI technology comes with a significant carbon footprint, which necessitates urgent action to mitigate its environmental impact.

Applications of AI

  • Natural Language Processing (NLP): AI-powered NLP technologies have revolutionized human-computer interactions. Virtual assistants, chatbots, language translation, sentiment analysis, and content curation are some of the areas where NLP plays a vital role.
  • Image and Video Analysis: AI’s capabilities in analyzing images and videos have led to breakthroughs in facial recognition, object detection, autonomous vehicles, and medical imaging.
  • Recommendation Systems: AI-driven recommendation engines cater to personalized experiences in e-commerce, streaming services, and social media, providing users with tailored product and content suggestions.
  • Predictive Analytics: AI excels at predictive analytics, enabling businesses to make informed decisions by analyzing historical data to forecast future trends in finance, supply chain management, risk assessment, and weather predictions.
  • Healthcare and Medicine: AI’s potential in healthcare is immense. From medical diagnostics to drug discovery, patient monitoring, and personalized treatment plans, AI is driving significant advancements in the medical field.
  • Finance and Trading: AI-driven algorithms are employed in algorithmic trading, fraud detection, credit risk assessment, and financial market analysis, optimizing financial processes.
  • Autonomous Systems: AI powers autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots for various tasks, transforming transportation, delivery, surveillance, and exploration.
  • Industrial Automation: AI-driven automation optimizes manufacturing and industrial processes, monitors equipment health, and enhances operational efficiency.
  • Personalization and Customer Service: AI enables personalized customer experiences, with tailored recommendations, customer support chatbots, and virtual assistants that enhance customer satisfaction.
  • Environmental Monitoring: AI contributes to environmental monitoring and analysis, including air quality assessment, climate pattern observation, and wildlife conservation efforts.
  • Education and E-Learning: AI applications facilitate adaptive learning platforms, intelligent tutoring systems, and educational content curation, enhancing personalized learning experiences.
  • Social Media and Content Moderation: AI plays a role in content moderation on social media platforms, identifying and addressing inappropriate content and detecting fake accounts or malicious activities.
  • Legal and Compliance: AI assists legal professionals with contract analysis, legal research, and compliance monitoring, streamlining legal work.
  • Public Safety and Security: AI finds use in surveillance systems, predictive policing, and emergency response systems, bolstering public safety efforts.

The Carbon Footprint of AI

  • Data Processing and Training: The training phase of AI models requires processing massive amounts of data, often in data centers. This data crunching demands substantial computing power and is energy-intensive, contributing to AI’s carbon footprint.
  • Global AI Market Value: The global AI market is currently valued at $142.3 billion (€129.6 billion), and it is expected to grow to nearly $2 trillion by 2030.
  • Carbon Footprint of Data Centers: The entire data center infrastructure and data submission networks account for 2–4% of global CO2 emissions. While this includes various data center operations, AI plays a significant role in contributing to these emissions.
  • Carbon Emissions from AI Training: In a 2019 study, researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that training a common large AI model can emit up to 284,000 kilograms (626,000 pounds) of carbon dioxide equivalent. This is nearly five times the emissions of a car over its lifetime, including the manufacturing process.
  • AI Application Phase Emissions: The application phase of AI, where the model is used in real-world scenarios, can potentially account for up to 90% of the emissions in the life cycle of an AI.

Addressing AI’s carbon footprint

  • Energy-Efficient Algorithms: Developing and optimizing energy-efficient AI algorithms and training techniques can help reduce energy consumption during the training phase. By prioritizing efficiency in AI model architectures and algorithms, less computational power is required, leading to lower carbon emissions.
  • Renewable Energy Adoption: Encouraging data centers and AI infrastructure to transition to renewable energy sources can have a significant impact on AI’s carbon footprint. Utilizing solar, wind, or hydroelectric power to power data centers can help reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
  • Scaling Down AI Models: Instead of continuously pursuing larger AI models, companies can explore using smaller models and datasets. Smaller AI models require less computational power, leading to lower energy consumption during training and deployment.
  • Responsible AI Deployment: Prioritizing responsible and energy-efficient AI applications can minimize unnecessary AI usage and optimize AI systems for energy conservation.
  • Data Center Location Selection: Choosing data center locations in regions powered by renewable energy and with cooler climates can further reduce AI’s carbon footprint. Cooler climates reduce the need for extensive data center cooling, thereby decreasing energy consumption.
  • Collaboration and Regulation: Collaboration among tech companies, policymakers, and environmental organizations is crucial to establishing industry-wide standards and regulations that promote sustainable AI development. Policymakers can incentivize green practices and set emissions reduction targets for the AI sector.

Conclusion

  • To build a sustainable AI future, environmental considerations must be integrated into all stages of AI development, from design to deployment. The tech industry and governments must collaborate to strike a balance between technological advancement and ecological responsibility to protect the planet for future generations.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Room Temperature Superconductivity

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Superconductivity

Mains level : Not Much

superconductivity

Central Idea

  • Recently, two South Korean researchers sparked excitement in the physics community by claiming to have achieved Superconductivity at room temperature.
  • They claim to have developed a lead-based compound exhibiting superconducting properties at normal room temperature and pressure (NTP) conditions.

NTP (Normal Temperature and Pressure):

Normal Temperature: Defined as 20 degrees Celsius (20°C) or 293.15 Kelvin (K).

Normal Pressure: Defined as 1 atmosphere (atm) or 101.325 kilopascals (kPa), which is the same pressure as STP.

NTP is another standard set of conditions used for specific applications, but it is less commonly used than STP.

STP (Standard Temperature and Pressure):

Standard Temperature: Defined as 0 degrees Celsius (0°C) or 273.15 Kelvin (K). At this temperature, the average kinetic energy of gas molecules is minimal.

Standard Pressure: Defined as 1 atmosphere (atm) or 101.325 kilopascals (kPa). This is the average atmospheric pressure at sea level.

STP is often used to express gas properties and perform calculations under uniform conditions to allow for meaningful comparisons between different gases or processes.

What is Superconductivity?

  • Zero Resistance: Superconductivity occurs when a material offers almost zero resistance to the flow of electric current, enabling energy-efficient electrical appliances and lossless power transmission.
  • Magnetic Behavior: Superconductors also display fascinating behavior under magnetic fields, enabling technologies like MRI machines and superfast Maglev trains.

Exploring the Material LK-99

  • Apatite Structure: The Korean group utilized copper-substituted lead apatite, a phosphate mineral with unique tetrahedral motifs, to create LK-99.
  • Superconducting Behavior: LK-99 displayed essential superconducting properties, with almost zero resistance to current flow and sudden emergence of resistance above a critical current threshold.
  • Magnetic Resilience: LK-99 retained superconductivity even under the presence of a magnetic field until reaching a critical threshold.

Current Superconductors and Their Limitations

  • Earlier Discoveries: In the 1980s, scientists found copper oxide materials exhibiting superconductivity above -240°C. Subsequent research yielded limited success in achieving higher temperatures.
  • Extreme Conditions: Existing superconductors operate at extremely low temperatures, often below -250°C, close to absolute zero (-273°C).
  • Critical Temperatures: Materials like Mercury, Lead, and Aluminum, Tin, and Niobium exhibit superconductivity at critical temperatures just above absolute zero.
  • High-Temperature Superconductors: Some materials, labelled ‘high-temperature’ superconductors, display superconducting properties below -150°C.

Scientific Community’s Response

  • Cautious Optimism: The scientific community responded cautiously to the claims of LK-99’s room-temperature superconductivity, given previous controversies and unverified claims.
  • Technical Errors: Some data in the research papers raised questions and were deemed “sloppy” or “fishy” by independent scientists.
  • Replication Efforts: Numerous research groups worldwide are attempting to reproduce the results to validate the claim.
  • Mixed Perspectives: The authors’ unwavering confidence in their work contrasts with certain aspects of the research that appear hurried or contentious.

Conclusion

  • The search for room-temperature superconductors represents a holy grail in science, promising immense rewards and recognition.
  • Although the recent claim by South Korean researchers has captured attention, it awaits rigorous validation.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

[pib] Hematene Nanoflakes

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Hematene

Mains level : Not Much

hematene

Central Idea

  • Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery of nanoflakes of a material known as hematene, extracted from iron ore.
  • These nanoflakes have demonstrated exceptional capabilities in withstanding and shielding against high laser intensities.

What is Hematene?

  • Hematene is a novel 2D material that has been derived from hematite (common iron ore).
  • It is a thin, single-layer material with unique properties that make it promising for various applications, especially in the field of optics.
  • Hematene nanoflakes have demonstrated exceptional capabilities in withstanding and shielding against high laser intensities, making them valuable for optical limiting applications.
  • The material’s stability and potential for futuristic technologies have garnered significant interest from researchers and scientists.

How is it made?

  • Hematene is derived from naturally occurring hematite, the mineral form of iron oxide, through a process involving sonication, centrifugation, and vacuum-assisted filtration.
  • With a thickness of just 3 atoms, it exhibits improved photocatalysis efficiency.
  • Being ferromagnetic, like common magnets, it possesses magnetic properties.
  • Notably, it has the exceptional ability to withstand and provide shielding against high laser intensities.

Applications of Hematene Nanoflakes

  • Optical Limiting: Hematene nanoflakes have demonstrated exceptional optical limiting capabilities, making them valuable in protecting sensitive optical equipment, such as sensors, detectors, and other optical devices, from high laser intensities.
  • Photodetectors: Hematene’s properties make it suitable for developing high-performance photodetectors, which are used to detect and convert light signals into electrical signals. This application has potential in telecommunications, imaging, and optical communications.
  • Energy Storage: Hematene can be explored for applications in energy storage devices, such as batteries and super-capacitors, due to its unique electronic and electrochemical properties.
  • Optoelectronics: The material’s properties make it suitable for optoelectronic devices, which involve the interaction of light and electricity, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photovoltaic cells.
  • Photothermal Therapy: Hematene’s ability to withstand and shield against high laser intensities may find applications in photothermal therapy, a medical technique that uses light to treat diseases like cancer.
  • Environmental Applications: Hematene’s stability and potential for use in various environments may make it valuable in environmental applications, such as water purification and pollution control.
  • Sensors: The material’s unique properties may be utilized in developing high-performance sensors for various applications, including gas sensing and environmental monitoring.
  • Catalysts: Hematene’s surface characteristics and electronic properties could be explored for catalytic applications, promoting chemical reactions in various industrial processes.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Semicon India 2023: How government’s support and will built the semiconductor industry

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Semiconductors and application's and ISM

Mains level : India's progress in the semiconductor industry and a global hub of semiconductor manufacturing and its significance

What’s the news?

  • The second edition of Semicon India, hosted by the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), comes at a pivotal moment for the global semiconductor industry.

Central idea

  • As technology advances rapidly and geopolitical landscapes shift, India is determined to foster a thriving domestic ecosystem to achieve self-sufficiency and emerge as a key player in the global semiconductor value chain.

What is Semicon India?

  • Semicon India is the annual conference organized by the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM).
  • The primary objective of Semicon India is to promote the growth and development of the semiconductor industry in India.
  • It provides an opportunity for the country to demonstrate its capabilities in semiconductor design and manufacturing while fostering networking and knowledge exchange among participants.

What are Semiconductors?

  • Semiconductors are a class of materials that have unique electrical properties, making them intermediate in conductivity between conductors and insulators. They are a vital component in the manufacturing of various electronic devices and play a crucial role in modern technology.

India’s journey in the semiconductor industry

  • Early Efforts: India’s initial forays into the semiconductor sector began with public sector undertakings like Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and some other labs and institutions attempting to establish a presence in the industry. However, despite promising starts, India faced difficulties in achieving the volume and technology needed for competitiveness.
  • Missed Opportunities: Over the years, India encountered several missed opportunities that hindered its progress in the semiconductor field. One notable example is missing out on the Fairchild Semiconductor fab in the 1960s. Additionally, regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles prevented global semiconductor companies from showing interest in investing in India’s semiconductor manufacturing.
  • Setbacks and Challenges: India’s major VLSI fabrication plant at the Semiconductor Complex Limited (SCL) in Chandigarh began production before Taiwan’s entry into semiconductor manufacturing. Unfortunately, a massive fire in 1989 led to the closure of the plant for many years, hampering India’s progress in the industry.
  • Government Recognition: The Indian government came to recognize the economic and geopolitical significance of the semiconductor industry. Realizing the importance of achieving semiconductor self-sufficiency, the government launched the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) to bolster the domestic ecosystem and position India as a key player in the global semiconductor value chain.

The birth of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)

  • The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) was launched as a significant initiative by the Indian government to bolster the semiconductor industry in the country.
  • It came into existence with a clear vision of nurturing a thriving domestic semiconductor ecosystem to achieve self-sufficiency and elevate India’s position as a key player in the global semiconductor value chain.
  • The mission’s proactive approach, combined with concrete policy interventions and political will, marks a new chapter in India’s journey in the semiconductor sector.

The significance of domestic semiconductor manufacturing for India

  • Economic Growth: By manufacturing semiconductors domestically, India can reduce its dependence on imports, save foreign exchange, and contribute to economic growth by generating revenue and employment opportunities.
  • Technological Advancement: Domestic semiconductor manufacturing enhances India’s capabilities in cutting-edge technologies, research, and development. It fosters innovation and facilitates the growth of other technology-driven sectors, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and advanced electronics. This, in turn, can boost India’s competitiveness on the global technology stage.
  • Self-Reliance and Security: Developing a self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem ensures continuity in critical industries and safeguards against global disruptions. It also enhances India’s national security, as semiconductors play a vital role in defense and communication infrastructure.
  • Attracting Investment: A strong semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem attracts both domestic and foreign investments. This leads to the establishment of semiconductor fabrication plants, research centers, and collaborations with global technology companies.
  • Fostering Innovation: A thriving semiconductor industry encourages local innovation and entrepreneurship. It provides opportunities for startups and research institutions to develop innovative semiconductor technologies and solutions, positioning India as a global innovation hub.
  • Digital Sovereignty: In an increasingly interconnected and digitally driven world, possessing domestic semiconductor manufacturing capabilities is vital for digital sovereignty. It allows India to control its critical technology infrastructure and data security, reducing its reliance on foreign technology providers.

Overwhelming global interest in India as a destination for semiconductor manufacturing

  • Growing Market Potential: India’s large and rapidly growing economy presents a significant market for semiconductor products, attracting global semiconductor companies to establish a presence in the country.
  • Government Support and Vision: The Indian government’s clear vision and commitment to nurturing a thriving domestic semiconductor ecosystem through initiatives like the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) have instilled confidence among global players.
  • Strategic Importance: Policymakers in India recognize the strategic significance of a robust domestic semiconductor industry for economic growth, safeguarding domestic industries, and ensuring national security.
  • Urgency of Semiconductor Self-Reliance: The global semiconductor shortage and disruptions in supply chains have highlighted the urgency of achieving semiconductor self-reliance, making India an attractive location for semiconductor manufacturing.
  • Fiscal Incentives and Regulatory Support: The Indian government’s unprecedented commitment to fiscal incentives and regulatory support has drawn significant interest from semiconductor companies globally.
  • Skilled Workforce: India’s large pool of skilled engineers and technical talent offers an advantageous workforce for semiconductor companies looking to establish operations in the country.
  • Collaboration with Global Partners: Collaborative agreements with countries like the US and Japan in semiconductor development, research, design, and talent development have enhanced India’s appeal as a semiconductor manufacturing hub.
  • Focus on Sustainability: India’s emphasis on sustainable semiconductor manufacturing through green technologies and resource-efficient practices aligns with the global push for environmentally responsible production.
  • Long-term Support and Progress under ISM: The Indian government’s commitment to long-term support for the semiconductor industry, as demonstrated through initiatives like the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme and modernization of facilities, has garnered attention.
  • Potential for Innovation: India’s thriving innovation ecosystem, including startups and research institutions, presents opportunities for collaborative innovation and technological advancements in the semiconductor industry.

Conclusion

  • From missed opportunities to a thriving domestic ecosystem, India’s progress in the semiconductor industry is a global case study in building sectors from scratch through appropriate policy interventions and political will. India is now on track to lead the global race in the semiconductor value chain. The ISM reflects India’s determination to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency and emerge as a major player in the global semiconductor industry.

Also read:

Semiconductor Fabrication in India: Learning from Past Attempts and Embracing Alternate Approaches

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Quantum Supercomputer using Majorana Zero Modes

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Majorana Zero Modes

Mains level : Not Much

majorana

Central Idea

  • Microsoft researchers have made significant strides in the creation of Majorana zero modes, a type of particle that could revolutionize quantum computing.
  • Majorana zero modes, which are their own antiparticles, possess unique properties that could make quantum computers more robust and computationally superior.

Majorana Fermions: A conceptual backgrounder

  • Fermions and Antiparticles: All subatomic particles that constitute matter are known as fermions, with each fermion having an associated antiparticle that annihilates upon interaction.
  • Majorana Fermions: In 1937, Italian physicist Ettore Majorana discovered that certain particles, known as Majorana fermions, can satisfy specific conditions and be their own antiparticles.
  • Neutrinos as Potential Majorana Fermions: Neutrinos are one type of subatomic particle that scientists speculate may exhibit Majorana fermion behavior, although experimental confirmation is still pending.

Understanding Majorana Zero Modes

  • Quantum Numbers and Spin: All particles have four quantum numbers, with one called the quantum spin having half-integer values for fermions. This property allows any fermion, even a large entity like an atom, to be classified as a fermion.
  • Bound States and Fermions: Bound states composed of two particles can also be classified as fermions if their total quantum spin possesses a half-integer value.
  • Majorana Zero Modes: When these bound states are their own antiparticles and do not readily de-cohere, they are known as Majorana zero modes, which have been sought after by physicists for many years.

Easy explained: Majorana Zero Modes

In the world of physics, particles can have interesting properties and behave in strange ways. One type of particle that scientists have been studying is called a Majorana particle.

Majorana particles have a special property called “non-Abelian statistics.” Without getting too technical, this property means that when two Majorana particles come close together, something interesting happens. Instead of behaving like normal particles, they can combine in a special way to form a new kind of particle called a Majorana zero mode.

A Majorana zero mode is a very peculiar particle because it is its own antiparticle. Normally, particles have antiparticles with opposite properties, like an electron and a positron. But Majorana zero modes are special because they don’t have separate antiparticles. They are their own antiparticles!

Potential Benefits for Computing

  • Enhanced Stability: Majorana zero modes offer increased stability for qubits, the fundamental units of information in quantum computing. Even if one entity within the bound state is disturbed, the qubit as a whole can remain protected and retain encoded information.
  • Topological Quantum Computing: Majorana zero modes can enable topological quantum computing, which takes advantage of non-Abelian statistics. These statistics introduce an additional degree of freedom, allowing algorithms to produce different outcomes based on the order in which steps are performed.

Challenges and Future Prospects

  • Creating Majorana Zero Modes: Scientists have been exploring various setups, such as topological superconductors, to generate Majorana zero modes. However, confirming their existence remains a challenge, as their effects on surrounding materials must be inferred indirectly.
  • Recent Advances by Microsoft Researchers: Microsoft researchers recently engineered a topological superconductor using an aluminium superconductor and an indium arsenide semiconductor. Their device passed a stringent protocol, suggesting a high probability of hosting Majorana zero modes.

Future prospects

  • While this achievement is significant, the existence of Majorana fermions and their potential for topological quantum computing still need independent confirmation.
  • Continued improvements in simulation, growth, fabrication, and measurement capabilities are necessary to achieve the desired topological gap for coherent operations.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

AI’s disruptive economic impact, an India check

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI generative models, Latest AI applications

Mains level : Artificial Intelligence and generative models, Benefits, challenges, way ahead

AI

What is the news?

  • The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and generative AI models and its impact on productivity, growth, and employment is explored, with a focus on the positive effects, potential job displacement, and opportunities for India, while dispelling fears of a robot-dominated future.

Central Idea

  • The rapid advancements in AI, particularly in the form of Large Language Models and Generative AI, have revolutionized various aspects of our lives. From automated factories to self-driving cars and chatbots, AI has extended its influence beyond our expectations.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

  • AI is a constellation of technologies that enable machines to act with higher levels of intelligence and emulate the human capabilities of sense, comprehend and act.
  • An AI system can also take action through technologies such as expert systems and inference engines or undertake actions in the physical world.
  • These human-like capabilities are augmented by the ability to learn from experience and keep adapting over time.

What is generative AI?

  • Like other forms of artificial intelligence, generative AI learns how to take actions from past data.
  • It creates brand new content – a text, an image, even computer code – based on that training, instead of simply categorizing or identifying data like other AI.
  • The most famous generative AI application is ChatGPT, a chatbot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI released late last year.
  • The AI powering it is known as a large language model because it takes in a text prompt and from that writes a human-like response.

Potential positive economic impact of AI

  • PwC Report: The PwC report predicted an increase in global GDP by 14% or $15.7 trillion by 2030 due to ongoing technological advancements in AI. It also suggests that the greatest economic gains from AI will come from China, with a projected 26% boost to GDP by 2030.
  • Goldman Sachs Research: According to the Goldman Sachs Research report, generative AI alone could raise global GDP by 7% or almost $7 trillion over a 10-year period.
  • Forum for the Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets Survey: The survey conducted among economic experts revealed that 44% of U.S. experts expected a substantial increase in GDP per capita due to AI, while 34% of European experts expected the same.

Positive effects of AI adoption

  • Increased productivity: A study conducted by economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called Generative AI at Work revealed that AI tools improved worker productivity by 14% and enhanced consumer satisfaction among customer service agents.
  • Improved consumer satisfaction: AI tools have contributed to better treatment of customer service agents, leading to improved consumer satisfaction.
  • Employee retention: The use of AI tools in the workplace has been associated with increased employee retention rates, possibly due to the enhanced productivity and job satisfaction resulting from AI support.
  • Faster and smarter work: A recent survey among employees of LinkedIn’s top 50 companies in the United States shows that almost 70% of them found AI helping them to be faster, smarter, and more productive
  • Potential for significant GDP growth: Research by PwC suggests that ongoing advancements in AI could lead to a projected increase in global GDP by 14% or $15.7 trillion by 2030.
  • Creation of human-like output: Generative AI has the potential to generate human-like output, which can have positive macroeconomic effects by facilitating better communication and interaction between humans and machines.

Employment challenges

  • Labor replacement: AI technologies have the capability to automate both repetitive and creative tasks, potentially leading to the displacement of certain jobs.
  • Negative impact on wages and employment: Studies indicate that the adoption of robots and automation can have a negative effect on wages, employment, and the labor share. This impact is particularly observed among blue-collar workers and those with lower levels of education.
  • Wage inequality: Automation and AI contribute to wage inequality by affecting worker groups specializing in routine tasks. Changes in the wage structure over the last few decades can be attributed to the decline in wages for workers engaged in routine tasks in industries undergoing automation.
  • Intensified competition and winner-takes-all scenario: The adoption of AI may intensify competition among firms, potentially leading to a winner-takes-all scenario where early adopters gain significant advantages.
  • Displacement of middle-class jobs: AI technologies, especially in white-collar industries, may displace middle-class jobs, posing challenges for those in such occupations. The impact of AI on middle-class employment remains uncertain, potentially leading to job losses in these sectors.

Opportunities for India

  • Embracing the demographic dividend: India’s large population presents an opportunity to leverage the demographic dividend. By investing in AI education and training, India can harness the potential of its workforce and utilize AI to drive economic growth and create employment opportunities.
  • Focus on online education: The pandemic has increased acceptance and reliance on online education. India can take advantage of this trend and utilize online platforms to offer AI education and reach a wider audience, further accelerating the adoption of AI skills across the country.
  • Potential economic gains: The PwC report suggests that China is projected to experience the greatest economic gains from AI. However, India can still benefit by focusing on AI education, innovation, and creating an ecosystem that fosters AI-driven growth. By doing so, India can tap into the economic benefits associated with AI and boost its own GDP.

Way forward

  • Collaborative approach: Governments, industry, academia, and civil society should collaborate to shape the future of AI in a manner that benefits society as a whole. Open dialogues, partnerships, and knowledge sharing can drive responsible AI development.
  • Lifelong learning: Promoting a culture of lifelong learning and continuous skill development is crucial. This includes investing in education and training programs that cater to the changing demands of the AI-driven job market.
  • Regulatory frameworks: Governments need to develop agile regulatory frameworks that strike a balance between innovation and accountability. These frameworks should be adaptable to evolving technologies and address potential risks associated with AI.
  • Research and innovation: Continued research and investment in AI can drive innovation, especially in areas such as explainable AI, ethics, and responsible AI practices. Encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and supporting AI research can lead to breakthroughs in addressing challenges and maximizing benefits.
  • Inclusive approach: Ensuring inclusivity in AI development and deployment is vital. Diversity in AI teams and the inclusion of diverse perspectives can help mitigate biases and ensure AI systems serve the needs of all individuals and communities.

Conclusion

  • Artificial Intelligence has permeated various sectors of the global economy, offering substantial benefits in terms of productivity and growth. While concerns regarding job displacement persist, the full extent of AI’s impact on employment remains uncertain. Governments should proactively address the challenges posed by AI while promoting education and training in AI-related fields.

Also read:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare: Applications, Concerns and regulations

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Understanding its Potential, Risks, and the Need for Responsible Development

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI applications, Artificial General Intelligence, and latest developments

Mains level : AI's potential, Concerns and need for responsible development and deployment

AI

Central Idea

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) has garnered considerable attention due to its remarkable achievements and concerns expressed by experts in the field. The Association for Computing Machinery and various AI organizations have emphasized the importance of responsible algorithmic systems. While AI excels in narrow tasks, it falls short in generalizing knowledge and lacks common sense. The concept of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) remains a topic of debate, with some believing it to be achievable in the future.

AI Systems: Wide Range of Applications 

  • Healthcare: AI can assist in medical diagnosis, drug discovery, personalized medicine, patient monitoring, and data analysis for disease prevention and management.
  • Finance and Banking: AI can be utilized for fraud detection, risk assessment, algorithmic trading, customer service chatbots, and personalized financial recommendations.
  • Transportation and Logistics: AI enables autonomous vehicles, route optimization, traffic management, predictive maintenance, and smart transportation systems.
  • Education: AI can support personalized learning, intelligent tutoring systems, automated grading, and adaptive educational platforms.
  • Customer Service: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants improve customer interactions, provide real-time support, and enhance customer experience.
  • Natural Language Processing: AI systems excel in speech recognition, machine translation, sentiment analysis, and language generation, enabling more natural human-computer interactions.
  • Manufacturing and Automation: AI helps optimize production processes, predictive maintenance, quality control, and robotics automation.
  • Agriculture: AI systems aid in crop monitoring, precision agriculture, pest detection, yield prediction, and farm management.
  • Cybersecurity: AI can identify and prevent cyber threats, detect anomalies in network behavior, and enhance data security.
  • Environmental Management: AI assists in climate modeling, energy optimization, pollution monitoring, and natural disaster prediction.

AI

Some of the key limitations of AI systems

  • Lack of Common Sense and Contextual Understanding: AI systems struggle with common sense reasoning and understanding context outside of the specific tasks they are trained on. They may misinterpret ambiguous situations or lack the ability to make intuitive judgments that humans can easily make.
  • Data Dependence and Bias: AI systems heavily rely on the data they are trained on. If the training data is biased or incomplete, it can result in biased or inaccurate outputs. This can perpetuate societal biases or discriminate against certain groups, leading to ethical concerns.
  • Lack of Explainability: Deep learning models, such as neural networks, are often considered “black boxes” as they lack transparency in their decision-making process. It can be challenging to understand why AI systems arrive at a specific output, making it difficult to trust and verify their results, especially in critical domains like healthcare and justice.
  • Limited Transfer Learning: While AI systems excel in specific tasks they are trained on, they struggle to transfer knowledge to new or unseen domains. They typically require large amounts of labeled data for training in each specific domain, limiting their adaptability and generalization capabilities.
  • Vulnerability to Adversarial Attacks: AI systems can be susceptible to adversarial attacks, where input data is manipulated or crafted in a way that causes the AI system to make incorrect or malicious decisions. This poses security risks in applications such as autonomous vehicles or cybersecurity.
  • Ethical and Legal Considerations: The deployment of AI systems raises various ethical and legal concerns, such as privacy infringement, accountability for AI-driven decisions, and the potential impact on human employment. Balancing technological advancements with ethical and societal considerations is a significant challenge.
  • Computational Resource Requirements: Training and running complex AI models can require substantial computational resources, including high-performance hardware and large-scale data storage. This can limit the accessibility and affordability of AI technology, particularly in resource-constrained environments.

AI

What is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?

  • AGI is a hypothetical concept of AI systems that possess the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks and domains, similar to human intelligence.
  • Unlike narrow AI systems, which are designed to excel at specific tasks, AGI aims to achieve a level of intelligence that surpasses human capabilities and encompasses general reasoning, common sense, and adaptability.
  • The development of AGI is considered a significant milestone in AI research, as it represents a leap beyond the limitations of current AI systems.

Concerns and Dangers Associated with the Development and Deployment of AI systems

  • Superhuman AI: One concern is the possibility of highly intelligent AI systems surpassing human capabilities and becoming difficult to control. The fear is that such AI systems could lead to unintended consequences or even pose a threat to humanity if they were to act against human interests.
  • Malicious Use of AI: AI tools can be misused by individuals with malicious intent. This includes the creation and dissemination of fake news, deepfakes, and cyberattacks. AI-powered tools can amplify the spread of misinformation, manipulate public opinion, and pose threats to cybersecurity.
  • Biases and Discrimination: AI systems are trained on data, and if the training data is biased, it can lead to biased outcomes. AI algorithms can unintentionally perpetuate and amplify societal biases, leading to discrimination against certain groups. This bias can manifest in areas such as hiring practices, criminal justice systems, and access to services.
  • Lack of Explainability and Transparency: Deep learning models, such as neural networks, often lack interpretability, making it difficult to understand why an AI system arrived at a specific decision or recommendation. This lack of transparency can raise concerns about accountability, trust, and the potential for bias or errors in critical applications like healthcare and finance.
  • Job Displacement and Economic Impact: The increasing automation brought about by AI technologies raises concerns about job displacement and the impact on the workforce. Some jobs may be fully automated, potentially leading to unemployment and societal disruptions. Ensuring a smooth transition and creating new job opportunities in the AI-driven economy is a significant challenge.
  • Security and Privacy: AI systems can have access to vast amounts of personal data, raising concerns about privacy breaches and unauthorized use of sensitive information. The potential for AI systems to be exploited for surveillance or to bypass security measures poses risks to individuals and organizations.
  • Ethical Considerations: As AI systems become more advanced, questions arise regarding the ethical implications of their actions. This includes issues like the responsibility for AI-driven decisions, the potential for AI systems to infringe upon human rights, and the alignment of AI systems with societal values.

The Importance of Public Oversight and Regulation

  • Ethical and Moral Considerations: AI systems can have significant impacts on individuals and society at large. Public oversight ensures that ethical considerations, such as fairness, transparency, and accountability, are taken into account during AI system development and deployment.
  • Protection against Bias and Discrimination: Public oversight helps mitigate the risk of biases and discrimination in AI systems. Regulations can mandate fairness and non-discrimination, ensuring that AI systems are designed to avoid amplifying or perpetuating existing societal biases.
  • Privacy Protection: AI systems often handle vast amounts of personal data. Public oversight and regulations ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect individuals’ privacy rights and prevent unauthorized access, use, or abuse of personal information.
  • Safety and Security: AI systems, particularly those used in critical domains such as healthcare, transportation, and finance, must meet safety standards to prevent harm to individuals or infrastructure. Public oversight ensures that AI systems undergo rigorous testing, verification, and certification processes to ensure their safety and security.
  • Transparency and Explainability: Public oversight encourages regulations that require AI systems to be transparent and explainable. This enables users and stakeholders to understand how AI systems make decisions, enhances trust, and allows for the detection and mitigation of errors, biases, or malicious behavior.
  • Accountability and Liability: Public oversight ensures that clear frameworks are in place to determine accountability and liability for AI system failures or harm caused by AI systems. This helps establish legal recourse and ensures that developers, manufacturers, and deployers of AI systems are accountable for their actions.
  • Social and Economic Impacts: Public oversight and regulation can address potential negative social and economic impacts of AI, such as job displacement or economic inequalities. Regulations can promote responsible deployment practices, skill development, and the creation of new job opportunities to ensure a just and inclusive transition to an AI-driven economy.
  • International Cooperation and Standards: Public oversight and regulation facilitate international cooperation and the establishment of harmonized standards for AI development and deployment. This promotes consistency, interoperability, and the prevention of global AI-related risks, such as cyber threats or misuse of AI technologies.

AI

Way Ahead: Preparing India for AI Advancements

  • Awareness and Education: Foster awareness about AI among policymakers, industry leaders, and the general public. Promote education and skill development programs that focus on AI-related fields, ensuring a skilled workforce capable of driving AI innovations.
  • Research and Development: Encourage research and development in AI technologies, including funding for academic institutions, research organizations, and startups. Support collaborations between academia, industry, and government to promote innovation and advancements in AI.
  • Regulatory Framework: Establish a comprehensive regulatory framework that balances innovation with responsible AI development. Create guidelines and standards addressing ethical considerations, privacy protection, transparency, accountability, and fairness in AI systems. Engage in international discussions and cooperation on AI governance and regulation.
  • Indigenous AI Solutions: Encourage the development of indigenous AI solutions that cater to India’s specific needs and challenges. Support startups and innovation ecosystems focused on AI applications for sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, education, governance, and transportation.
  • Data Governance: Formulate policies and regulations for data governance, ensuring the responsible collection, storage, sharing, and use of data. Establish mechanisms for data protection, privacy, and informed consent while facilitating secure data sharing for AI research and development.
  • Collaboration and Partnerships: Foster collaborations between academia, industry, and government entities to drive AI research, development, and deployment. Encourage public-private partnerships to facilitate the implementation of AI solutions in sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and governance.
  • Ethical Considerations: Promote discussions and awareness about the ethical implications of AI. Encourage the development of ethical guidelines for AI use, including addressing bias, fairness, accountability, and the impact on society. Ensure that AI systems are aligned with India’s cultural values and societal goals.
  • Infrastructure and Connectivity: Improve infrastructure and connectivity to support AI applications. Enhance access to high-speed internet, computing resources, and cloud infrastructure to facilitate the deployment of AI systems across the country, including rural and remote areas.
  • Collaboration with International Partners: Collaborate with international partners in AI research, development, and policy exchange. Engage in global initiatives to shape AI standards, best practices, and regulations.
  • Continuous Monitoring and Evaluation: Regularly monitor the implementation and impact of AI systems in various sectors. Conduct evaluations to identify potential risks, address challenges, and make necessary adjustments to ensure responsible and effective use of AI technologies.

Conclusion

  • The journey towards AGI is still uncertain, but the risks posed by malicious use of AI and inadvertent harm from biased systems are real. Striking a balance between innovation and regulation is necessary to ensure responsible AI development. India must actively engage in discussions and establish a framework that safeguards societal interests while harnessing the potential of AI for its development.

Also Read:

AI Regulation in India: Ensuring Responsible Development and Deployment

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What are Lab-Grown Diamonds (LGDs)?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Lab-Grown Diamond (LGD)

Mains level : NA

lab grown diamond ldg

Central Idea

  • During PM Modi’s state visit to the US, he presented First Lady Jill Biden with a 7.5-carat lab-grown diamond as a gift.
  • Lab-grown diamonds, also known as LGDs, have gained popularity in recent years due to their ethical and environmental advantages over mined diamonds.
The diamond, a gift for First Lady Jill Biden, was gifted in a papier mache box. “Known as kar-e-kalamdani, Kashmir’s exquisite papier mache involves sakthsazi or meticulous preparation of paper pulp and naqqashi, where skilled artisans paint elaborate designs,” a statement from the MEA said.

What is Lab-Grown Diamond (LGD)?

  • Lab-grown diamonds are diamonds created using technology that simulates the natural geological processes of diamond formation.
  • Unlike diamond simulants, such as Moissanite or Cubic Zirconia, LGDs possess the same chemical, physical, and optical properties as natural diamonds.

Ethical and Environmental Advantages

  • LGDs are considered socially and environmentally responsible alternatives to mined diamonds.
  • Their production avoids the socially exploitative aspects of diamond mining and reduces the environmental impact associated with traditional mining practices.

Characteristics of gifted diamond

  • Carat Weight: The diamond weighs 7.5 carats. Carat weight refers to the size and weight of the diamond, with one carat equal to 200 milligrams.
  • Origin: The diamond is created in a laboratory using advanced technology and does not come from natural diamond mining.
  • Certification: The diamond has been certified by the Gemological Lab, IGI (International Gemological Institute). Certification ensures that the diamond meets industry standards for quality and authenticity.
  • Cutting and Polishing: The diamond is expertly cut and polished to enhance its brilliance and visual appeal. The precise craftsmanship and attention to detail result in a well-cut and faceted diamond.

Methods of LGD Production

(A) High Pressure, High Temperature (HPHT) Method:

  • This common method involves subjecting a diamond seed, typically made of graphite, to extreme pressures and temperatures to transform it into a diamond.
  • HPHT requires heavy presses capable of generating immense pressure (up to 730,000 psi) and temperatures exceeding 1500 degrees Celsius.

(B) Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Explosive Formation:

  • CVD involves the deposition of carbon atoms onto a diamond seed using a gas mixture, resulting in the growth of a diamond layer.
  • Explosive formation, known as detonation nano-diamonds, utilizes explosive reactions to create tiny diamond particles.

Properties and Applications of LGDs

  • Optical Properties and Durability: LGDs possess similar optical dispersion to natural diamonds, giving them the characteristic sparkle. Their durability makes them suitable for industrial applications, such as cutters and tools.
  • Enhanced Properties and Industrial Uses: LGDs can have their properties enhanced for specific purposes, such as high thermal conductivity and negligible electrical conductivity. These properties make LGDs valuable for electronics, acting as heat spreaders for high-power laser diodes and transistors.

Impact on the Diamond Industry

(A) Sustainable Growth in the Jewellery Industry

  • As natural diamond reserves decline, LGDs are gradually replacing mined diamonds in the jewelry sector.
  • The production processes for LGDs, including cutting and polishing, align with established practices in the diamond industry.

(B) India’s Diamond Industry

  • The rise of LGDs is unlikely to significantly impact India’s diamond industry, which specializes in polishing and cutting diamonds.
  • India’s established diamond industry can continue to thrive while incorporating LGDs as part of its offerings.

Commercial LGD Production in India: InCent-LGD

  • In the Union Budget 23-24, a 5-year research grant was announced for an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) with the aim of encouraging the development of LGD machinery, seeds, and recipes.
  • It would establish the India Centre for Lab Grown Diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras.
  • The primary aim of InCent-LGD is to provide technical assistance to domestic industries and entrepreneurs, fostering indigenous manufacturing of Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) and High Pressure and High Temperature (HPHT) systems.
  • The project seeks to expand the Lab-Grown Diamond (LGD) business by offering affordable technology to start-ups, creating employment opportunities, and boosting LGD exports.

Economic significance of LGDs

  • The Gems and Jewellery sector contributes approximately 9% to India’s total merchandise exports and plays a crucial role in the economy.
  • LGD have emerged as a notable technological development in the industry, finding applications not only in jewellery but also in sectors like computer chips, satellites, 5G networks, defense, optics, and thermal & medical industries.
  • The global LGD diamond market, valued at $1 billion in 2020, is expected to grow rapidly, reaching $5 billion by 2025 and surpassing $15 billion by 2035.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Quantum Computing: A Potential Game Changer for Carbon Capture Technology

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Quantum computing technology applications

Mains level : Quantum computing's potential to transform carbon capture technology

Carbon Capture

Central Idea

  • In a significant breakthrough within the field of quantum computing, researchers from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the University of Kentucky have developed an algorithm that holds great promise for advancing carbon capture technology. This cutting-edge algorithm, which can be implemented on existing quantum computers, has the potential to revolutionize the reduction of carbon emissions.

Global Warming: A Pressing Concern

  • Global warming has emerged as a pressing concern for humanity, primarily caused by the escalating levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere resulting from extensive fossil fuel consumption.
  • Atmospheric CO2 has risen by nearly 50 percent from pre-industrial levels, and recent data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals a steady increase in global surface average CO2 levels.
  • To counteract global warming, one approach is atmospheric carbon capture, wherein specific compounds, such as amines like ammonia (NH3), are used to chemically bind with CO2 and remove it from the atmosphere. However, current carbon capture reactions tend to be expensive and inefficient.

Role of Quantum Computing in Carbon Capture

  • Simulating Molecular Interactions: Quantum computers have the capability to simulate and analyze the molecular interactions involved in carbon capture reactions at a quantum scale. Classical computers are limited in their ability to handle such complex calculations, whereas quantum computers excel in solving quantum mechanical problems.
  • Optimization of Carbon Capture Reactions: Quantum computing algorithms, such as the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), can be used to optimize and improve the efficiency of carbon capture reactions. By leveraging the power of quantum computers, researchers can find optimal conditions and compounds that enhance the effectiveness of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
  • Overcoming Computational Challenges: Quantum computers can overcome computational challenges that hinder classical computers in simulating and predicting the behavior of molecules. These challenges include the exponential scaling of computational resources required for larger and more complex molecules. Quantum algorithms provide a more efficient approach to solving such problems.
  • Accelerating Research and Development: Quantum computing speeds up the research and development process in carbon capture technology by drastically reducing the time required for complex calculations. Quantum computers can explore a vast number of potential solutions and configurations, enabling researchers to identify effective carbon capture methods more quickly.
  • Quantum Chemistry Applications: Quantum computing has broader applications in quantum chemistry, enabling the study of various chemical reactions beyond carbon capture. This opens up possibilities for advancements in fields such as biology, medicine, and materials science, where understanding molecular interactions is critical.
  • Future Potential: As quantum computing technology continues to evolve and mature, it holds the potential to revolutionize carbon capture by addressing challenges such as limited qubits and noise in quantum algorithms. Continued research and investment in quantum computing will likely lead to more efficient and practical solutions for carbon capture in the future.

India Leveraging quantum Computing Technology to Combat Global Warming

  • Carbon Emission Reduction: India is one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions. By investing in quantum computing technology, India can accelerate the development and implementation of advanced carbon capture methods, leading to a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
  • Renewable Energy Optimization: Quantum computing can be utilized to optimize the deployment and management of renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind farms. Quantum algorithms can analyze complex energy data and optimize energy generation and distribution systems, maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of renewable energy solutions.
  • Policy and Planning: Quantum computing can aid in developing sophisticated models and simulations for climate change policy and planning. It can assist policymakers in assessing the impact of various interventions, optimizing resource allocation, and devising effective strategies to mitigate climate change.
  • Scientific Research and Collaboration: Quantum computing fosters collaboration between Indian scientific institutions, universities, and international organizations. India can collaborate with leading research institutions to advance quantum computing applications in climate science, carbon capture, and other related fields. This collaboration enables knowledge exchange, enhances research capabilities, and drives innovation.
  • Technological Advancement: Quantum computing requires advanced infrastructure and research facilities. By investing in quantum technology, India can develop its technological capabilities, attract top talent, and foster innovation in related industries. This, in turn, can contribute to India’s overall technological advancement and competitiveness on the global stage.
  • Economic Opportunities: Quantum computing has the potential to create new industries and business opportunities. By investing in quantum technology, India can position itself as a hub for quantum computing research and development, attracting investment and fostering a quantum technology ecosystem. This can lead to job creation, economic growth, and technological leadership in the field of quantum computing.
  • Sustainable Development Goals: Combating global warming aligns with India’s commitment to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Quantum computing can support various SDGs, including affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), climate action (SDG 13), and partnerships for the goals (SDG 17), by providing innovative solutions to address climate change challenges.

Potential challenges in India’s Efforts to Leverage Quantum Computing

  • Technology Readiness: Quantum computing is still an emerging technology, and practical implementations for carbon capture and other climate-related applications are in the early stages. The development of quantum computers with sufficient qubits, stability, and error correction capabilities may take time, and it is uncertain when these technologies will become mature enough for widespread use.
  • Research and Development Funding: Quantum computing research and development require substantial investments in infrastructure, talent, and equipment. Ensuring adequate funding for quantum research, including building and maintaining quantum computing facilities, can be a challenge.
  • Skilled Workforce: Quantum computing is a highly specialized field that requires expertise in quantum physics, computer science, and algorithms. Developing a skilled workforce capable of working with quantum technologies is essential.
  • Infrastructure and Access: Quantum computing infrastructure, including quantum computers and supporting technologies, is limited. Ensuring widespread access to quantum computing resources, particularly for researchers and scientists working on climate-related challenges, may pose logistical and resource challenges.
  • Integration with Existing Systems: Integrating quantum computing technologies into existing computational and data analysis systems can be complex. Developing compatible software and algorithms that can effectively utilize quantum computers while seamlessly integrating with classical computing infrastructure is a significant challenge.
  • Ethical and Policy Considerations: As quantum computing evolves, ethical and policy considerations surrounding its applications in carbon capture and climate-related research need to be addressed.

Way Forward

  • Increased Funding: The Indian government should allocate significant funding for quantum computing research and development, specifically focusing on applications related to carbon capture and climate change.
  • Collaboration and Partnerships: Collaborate with leading international research institutions, universities, and industry partners to leverage their expertise, resources, and infrastructure.
  • Skill Development: Invest in educational programs, training initiatives, and scholarships to develop a skilled workforce in quantum computing. Foster collaboration between academic institutions, research organizations, and industry to create a talent pipeline of quantum computing experts.
  • Quantum Computing Infrastructure: Develop and expand quantum computing infrastructure within India. This includes building quantum computing facilities, increasing the availability of quantum computers, and providing access to quantum resources for researchers and scientists working on climate-related challenges.
  • Quantum Algorithms and Software Development: Support the research and development of quantum algorithms and software specifically tailored for carbon capture and climate modeling. This involves optimizing quantum algorithms for efficiency, developing algorithms for simulating molecular interactions, and integrating quantum computing with classical computing systems.
  • Policy Framework: Establish a policy framework that addresses the ethical, legal, and regulatory aspects of quantum computing in carbon capture and climate change applications. This framework should consider issues such as data privacy, security, intellectual property rights, and responsible use of quantum technologies.

Carbon Capture

Conclusion

  • Quantum computing’s potential to transform carbon capture technology is a significant development in the fight against global warming. The algorithm devised by the NETL-Kentucky team demonstrates the power of combining quantum and classical computing to address complex challenges. India, as a major contributor to carbon emissions, should prioritize investment in quantum computing to accelerate the reduction of its carbon footprint.

Also read:

Quantum Biology: Unveiling the Quantum Secrets of Life

 

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Hiroshima Process for AI Governance

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : HAP

Mains level : Global AI regulation

hiroshima

Central Idea

  • G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan: Annual meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) countries was held in Hiroshima, Japan in May 2023.
  • Communique initiated Hiroshima AI Process (HAP): Official statement from the G7 leaders that established the Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) to regulate artificial intelligence (AI).

What is the Hiroshima AI Process (HAP)?

  • Inclusive AI governance: The HAP’s objective is to promote inclusive governance of artificial intelligence.
  • Upholding democratic values: The HAP seeks to achieve the development and implementation of AI systems that align with democratic values and are considered trustworthy.
  • Focuses Areas: The HAP prioritizes discussions and actions related to generative AI, governance frameworks, intellectual property rights, transparency measures, and responsible utilization of AI technologies.
  • Commencement: The HAP is anticipated to conclude its activities and produce outcomes by December 2023. The process officially commenced with its first meeting on May 30.

Notable Aspects of the Process

  • Liberal Process in AI development: The HAP places significant emphasis on ensuring that AI development upholds principles of freedom, democracy, and human rights.
  • High principles for responsible AI: The HAP acknowledges the importance of fairness, accountability, transparency, and safety as fundamental principles that should guide the responsible development and use of AI technologies.
  • Ambiguity with keywords: The specific interpretation and application of terms such as “openness” and “fair processes” in the context of AI development are not clearly defined within the HAP.

Entailing the Process

For now, there are three ways in which the HAP can play out:

  1. It enables the G7 countries to move towards a divergent regulation based on shared norms, principles and guiding values;
  2. It becomes overwhelmed by divergent views among the G7 countries and fails to deliver any meaningful solution; or
  3. It delivers a mixed outcome with some convergence on finding solutions to some issues but is unable to find common ground on many others.

Example of the Process’s Potential

  • Intellectual property rights (IPR) as an example of HAP’s impact: Through the HAP, guidelines and principles regarding the relationship between AI and intellectual property rights can be developed to mitigate conflicts and provide clarity.
  • Addresses use of copyrighted materials: The HAP can contribute to shaping global discussions and practices concerning the fair use of copyrighted materials in datasets used for machine learning (ML) and AI applications.

Setting the Stage

  • Varying visions of trustworthy AI: The G7 recognizes that different member countries may have distinct perspectives and goals regarding what constitutes trustworthy AI.
  • Emphasizes working with others: The HAP underscores the importance of collaboration with external entities, including countries within the OECD, to establish interoperable frameworks for AI governance.

Conclusion

  • The establishment of the HAP signifies that AI governance is a global issue that involves various stakeholders and may encounter differing viewpoints and debates.

 

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Exploring the Potential of Regenerative AI in Online Education Platforms

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Regenerative AI tools

Mains level : Online education and potential of Regenerative AI

AI

Central Idea

  • Salman Khan’s Khan Academy thrived during the global economic crisis of 2008, attracting a large number of learners through its online education videos. Since then, online education has gained significant momentum. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) emerged in 2011, backed by renowned institutions like Stanford University, MIT, and Harvard. India’s SWAYAM platform also gained momentum. However, there are financial challenges and the potential of regenerative AI to address them is huge.

What are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)?

  • MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, are online courses that are designed to be accessible to a large number of learners worldwide. MOOCs provide an opportunity for individuals to access high-quality educational content and participate in interactive learning experiences regardless of their geographical location or educational background.

Key aspects of Scaling up MOOCs

  • Partnering with Leading Institutions: MOOC platforms collaborate with renowned universities, colleges, and educational institutions to offer a diverse range of courses. By partnering with reputable institutions, MOOCs gain credibility and access to expertise in various subject areas.
  • Global Reach: MOOC platforms aim to attract learners from around the world. They leverage technology to overcome geographical barriers, enabling learners to access courses regardless of their location. This global reach helps in scaling up MOOCs by reaching a larger audience.
  • Course Diversity: Scaling up MOOCs involves expanding the course catalog to cover a wide array of subjects and disciplines. Platforms collaborate with institutions to develop courses that cater to learners’ diverse interests and learning needs.
  • Language Localization: To reach learners from different regions and cultures, MOOC platforms may offer courses in multiple languages. Localizing courses by providing translations or subtitles helps in scaling up and making education accessible to learners who are more comfortable learning in their native languages.
  • Adaptive Learning: Scaling up MOOCs involves incorporating adaptive learning technologies that personalize the learning experience. By leveraging data and analytics, platforms can provide tailored content and recommendations to learners, enhancing their engagement and learning outcomes.
  • Credentialing and Certificates: MOOC platforms offer various types of credentials and certificates to recognize learners’ achievements. Scaling up MOOCs includes expanding the certification options to provide learners with tangible proof of their skills and knowledge.
  • Supporting Institutional Partnerships: MOOC platforms collaborate with universities and educational institutions to offer credit-bearing courses, micro-credentials, or degree programs.
  • Corporate and Professional Development: MOOC platforms collaborate with organizations to offer courses and programs tailored to the needs of professionals and companies.
  • Technology Infrastructure: Scaling up MOOCs requires robust technology infrastructure to handle the increasing number of learners, course content, and interactions. Platforms invest in scalable and reliable systems to ensure a seamless learning experience for a growing user base.

Challenges for MOOCs

  • High Dropout Rates: MOOCs often experience high dropout rates, with a significant portion of learners not completing the courses they enroll in. Factors such as lack of accountability, competing priorities, and limited learner support contribute to this challenge.
  • Financial Sustainability: MOOC platforms face financial challenges due to high operating expenses and the practice of offering entry-level courses for free or at low fees. Generating revenue through degree-earning courses can be difficult, as these courses may have limited demand compared to the overall course offerings.
  • Quality Assurance: Maintaining consistent quality across a wide range of courses and instructors can be challenging. Ensuring that courses meet rigorous educational standards, provide effective learning experiences, and offer valid assessments requires ongoing monitoring and quality assurance mechanisms.
  • Limited Interaction and Engagement: MOOCs often struggle to provide the same level of interaction and engagement as traditional classroom settings. It can be challenging to foster meaningful peer-to-peer interactions, personalized feedback, and instructor-student interactions at scale.
  • Access and Connectivity: MOOCs heavily rely on internet access and reliable connectivity. In regions with limited internet infrastructure or where learners face connectivity issues, accessing and participating in MOOCs can be challenging or even impossible.
  • Learner Support: As MOOCs cater to a massive number of learners, providing personalized learner support can be challenging. Addressing individual queries, providing timely feedback, and offering support services can be resource-intensive, particularly for platforms with limited staff and resources.
  • Recognition and Credentialing: While MOOCs offer certificates and credentials, their recognition and acceptance by employers and educational institutions can vary. Some employers and institutions may not consider MOOC certificates as equivalent to traditional degrees or certifications, limiting the value and recognition of MOOC-based learning achievements
  • Technological Requirements: MOOCs rely on technology infrastructure, including online platforms, learning management systems, and multimedia content delivery. Learners need access to suitable devices and internet connections to engage effectively with course materials, which can be a challenge for individuals with limited resources or in underserved areas.

The Role of Generative AI to address these challenges

  • Personalized Learning: Generative AI algorithms can analyze learner data, including their preferences, learning styles, and performance, to provide personalized learning experiences. AI-powered recommendation systems can suggest relevant courses, resources, and learning paths tailored to each learner’s needs, improving engagement and reducing dropout rates.
  • Intelligent Tutoring and Support: Generative AI can power virtual assistants or chatbots that offer intelligent tutoring and learner support. These AI systems can answer learners’ questions, provide feedback on assignments, offer guidance, and assist with course navigation, creating a more interactive and supportive learning environment.
  • Content Summarization and Adaptation: Generative AI can automate the summarization of voluminous course content, providing concise overviews or summaries. This helps learners grasp key concepts efficiently and manage their study time effectively. AI algorithms can also adapt content presentation based on learners’ proficiency levels, learning pace, and preferences.
  • Adaptive Assessments and Feedback: AI algorithms can generate adaptive assessments that dynamically adjust difficulty levels based on learners’ performance, ensuring appropriate challenge and personalized feedback. This helps in maintaining learner engagement and promoting continuous improvement.
  • Dropout Prediction and Intervention: Generative AI models can analyze learner data to identify patterns and indicators that correlate with dropout behavior. By detecting early signs of disengagement or struggling, AI systems can proactively intervene with targeted interventions, such as personalized reminders, additional support resources, or alternative learning strategies.
  • Enhanced Course Discoverability: Generative AI algorithms can improve the discoverability of courses within MOOC platforms by analyzing learner preferences, search patterns, and browsing behaviors. AI-powered search and recommendation systems can present learners with relevant courses and help them navigate through the extensive course catalog more effectively.
  • Natural Language Processing and Language Localization: Generative AI techniques, such as natural language processing, can facilitate language localization efforts. AI models can assist in translating course content, subtitles, or transcripts into different languages, making MOOCs more accessible to learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
  • Continuous Content Improvement: Generative AI can help analyze learner feedback and engagement data to identify areas for content improvement. AI-powered analytics can provide insights into which course elements are most effective or require revision, enabling instructors and course developers to iterate and enhance their offerings

AI

Regenerative AI in India’s SWAYAM

  • Personalized Learning Pathways: Regenerative AI algorithms could analyze learner data, such as their preferences, performance, and learning styles, to provide personalized learning pathways on the SWAYAM platform.
  • Adaptive Assessments and Feedback: Regenerative AI can enable adaptive assessments on SWAYAM, where the difficulty level and type of questions dynamically adjust based on learners’ performance and progress. AI algorithms could also generate personalized feedback, highlighting areas of improvement and offering specific recommendations for further learning.
  • Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Regenerative AI-powered virtual assistants or chatbots could assist learners on the SWAYAM platform by answering queries, providing guidance, and offering real-time support.
  • Content Adaptation and Localization: Regenerative AI tools could help adapt and localize course content on SWAYAM to cater to learners from diverse backgrounds and linguistic preferences. AI models could assist in translating course materials, generating subtitles, or providing language-specific explanations to enhance accessibility and inclusivity.
  • Dropout Prediction and Intervention: Regenerative AI algorithms could analyze learner data on SWAYAM to identify patterns or indicators that correlate with potential dropout behavior. Early warning systems could be developed to flag at-risk learners, enabling timely interventions and personalized support to prevent dropouts.
  • Course Discoverability and Recommendations: Regenerative AI-powered recommendation systems could improve the discoverability of courses on SWAYAM. By analyzing learners’ interests, browsing behaviors, and historical data, AI algorithms could suggest relevant courses, facilitate navigation through the platform, and promote learner engagement.

Conclusion

  • The impact of regenerative AI tools on the economic prospects of online education platforms is yet to be determined. As the demand for online education continues to grow, the integration of AI technologies holds immense potential to address financial challenges, enhance learning experiences, and increase learner retention. The future will reveal the extent to which regenerative AI can support the evolution of online education platforms.

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Also read:

AI generative models and the question of Ethics

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JATAN: Virtual Museum Software

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Jatan Software

Mains level : NA

jatan

Central Idea

  • The Union government plans to complete the 3D digitisation of all museums under its administrative control by the end of 2023.
  • The digitisation initiative using JATAN software aims to enhance the conservation and preservation of artefacts.

What is JATAN Software?

  • JATAN is a virtual museum builder software used in Indian museums.
  • It enables the creation of a digital collection management system and is deployed in several national museums across India.
  • The objective of JATAN is to digitally preserve and document museum objects for the benefit of researchers, curators, and other interested individuals.
  • The software was designed and developed by the Human Centres Design and Computing Group at the Centre for Development of Smart Computing (C-DAC) in Pune.
  • JATAN facilitates the creation of digital imprints of preserved objects and monuments.
  • These digital imprints are integrated into the national digital repository and portal, making them accessible to the public.

Benefits of 3D Digitisation

  • 3D digitisation offers improved conservation and preservation of artefacts, ensuring their long-term protection.
  • It enhances accessibility and exploration for museum visitors, providing new ways to engage with the collection.
  • The 3D models generated through digitisation can be used in augmented reality, virtual reality, and interactive learning experiences, creating immersive educational opportunities.
  • Furthermore, the digitisation process enables the potential for 3D printing, allowing for replication and detailed study of artefacts.

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Researchers observed rare Higgs Boson Decay

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Higgs Boson Decay

Mains level : Read the attached story

higgs boson

Central Idea

  • Physicists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reported detecting a rare decay of the Higgs boson into a Z boson and a photon.
  • The decay process provides valuable insights into the Higgs boson and the nature of our universe.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

What is it? – The LHC is the world’s largest science experiment constructed by CERN.

– It collides beams of hadrons, such as protons, for high-energy physics research.

– Upgrades have enhanced the LHC’s sensitivity and accuracy for its third season of operations.

Functioning – Protons are accelerated through a 27 km circular pipe using powerful magnets.

– Magnetic fields guide the protons, reaching speeds close to the speed of light.

Particle Collisions – Collisions of high-energy protons lead to the creation of various subatomic particles.

– The LHC has achieved collision energies of up to 13.6 TeV.

Scientific Discoveries at the LHC – LHC’s detectors, including ATLAS and CMS, discovered the Higgs boson in 2012.

– Scientists have tested predictions of the Standard Model, observed exotic particles, and gained insights into extreme conditions.

Future of the LHC – Upgrades are planned to increase the LHC’s luminosity by ten times by 2027, aiming to discover new physics.

– There is a debate about investing in a larger LHC or smaller experiments to explore new realms of physics.

 

Understanding the Higgs Boson

  • The Higgs boson is a type of subatomic particle that carries the force of particle movement through the Higgs field, present throughout the universe.
  • Interaction with Higgs bosons determines a particle’s mass, with stronger interaction leading to greater mass.

Importance of Higgs Boson Decay

  • Studying how different particles interact with Higgs bosons and understanding the properties of Higgs bosons helps reveal information about the universe.
  • The recent detection of Higgs boson decay to a Z boson and a photon provides noteworthy insights.

Role of Virtual Particles

  • Quantum field theory suggests that space at the subatomic level is filled with virtual particles that constantly appear and disappear.
  • Higgs bosons interact fleetingly with virtual particles during their creation, resulting in the production of a Z boson and a photon.

New Result and Probability

  • The Standard Model predicts that the Higgs boson will decay into a Z boson and a photon 0.1% of the time.
  • The LHC needed to produce a significant number of Higgs bosons to observe this decay pathway.

Confirmation and Statistical Precision

  • The ATLAS and CMS detectors, which previously observed the decay independently, combined their data for increased statistical precision.
  • Although the significance is not yet 100%, the combined data enhanced the confirmation of the Higgs boson decay.

Significance for the Standard Model

  • Physicists seek to detect and validate the predicted decay pathways of the Higgs boson according to the Standard Model.
  • Precise testing of the model’s predictions helps identify potential deviations and explore new theories in physics.

Implications for New Theories

  • Higher decay rates through the observed pathway could support new theories beyond the Standard Model.
  • Experimental evidence from the LHC could contribute to advancements in scientific understanding.

Back2Basics: Standard Model

  • The Standard Model is a theoretical framework in physics that describes the fundamental particles and their interactions, except for gravity.
  • It provides a comprehensive understanding of three of the four fundamental forces: electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear forces.
  • Developed in the mid-20th century, the Standard Model has been highly successful in explaining and predicting the behaviour of elementary particles.

Key points about the Standard Model:

  1. Particle Classification: The Standard Model classifies particles into two main categories: fermions and bosons.
  • Fermions: Fermions are particles that make up matter. They are further categorized into quarks and leptons. Quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons, while leptons include electrons and neutrinos.
  • Bosons: Bosons are force-carrying particles responsible for transmitting the fundamental forces. Examples include photons (electromagnetic force), gluons (strong nuclear force), and W and Z bosons (weak nuclear force).
  1. Fundamental Forces: The Standard Model explains the interactions between particles through the following fundamental forces:
  • Electromagnetic Force: Mediated by photons, this force governs the interactions between charged particles.
  • Strong Nuclear Force: Mediated by gluons, it binds quarks together to form protons, neutrons, and other particles.
  • Weak Nuclear Force: Mediated by W and Z bosons, it is responsible for certain types of radioactive decay.
  1. Higgs Field and Higgs Boson: The Standard Model introduces the concept of the Higgs field, an energy field that permeates the universe. Particles acquire mass through their interaction with this field. The existence of the Higgs boson, a particle associated with the Higgs field, was confirmed in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012.

Limitations and Open Questions:

While the Standard Model has been highly successful in describing particle interactions, it has some limitations:

  • Gravity: The theory does not include a description of gravity, which is described by general relativity. Combining gravity with the other forces remains a challenge.
  • Dark Matter and Dark Energy: The Standard Model does not account for dark matter and dark energy, which are believed to constitute a significant portion of the universe.
  • Unification: The theory does not provide a unified description of all forces, including electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force.

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VERY IMPORTANT: Harnessing the Potential of Graphene: India’s Path to Leadership

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Graphene, semiconductors and its applications

Mains level : Potential of graphene to transform industries

Graphene

Central Idea

  • In the realm of technological advancements, certain breakthroughs possess the power to revolutionize entire industries. Artificial Intelligence (AI) for software, quantum computing for computers, and graphene for materials are such game-changers. While India has made commendable progress in AI and shows promise in quantum computing, it is crucial for the country to catch up in the domain of graphene.

What is Graphene?

  • Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice pattern. It is a two-dimensional material that is incredibly thin, strong, and lightweight. In fact, it is the thinnest material known to date, with a thickness of just one atom.
  • Despite its thinness, graphene is remarkably strong, around 200 times stronger than steel, yet incredibly flexible.

Graphene

Why Graphene is known as The Wonder Material?

  • Exceptional Strength: Despite being only one atom thick, graphene is incredibly strong. It is approximately 200 times stronger than steel, yet it is incredibly flexible. This combination of strength and flexibility makes it highly desirable for applications where strength and durability are crucial.
  • Superb Electrical Conductivity: Graphene is an excellent conductor of electricity, even surpassing traditional conductors like copper. It allows the flow of electrons with minimal resistance, making it ideal for developing high-performance electronics and electrical devices.
  • High Thermal Conductivity: Along with its electrical conductivity, graphene also exhibits excellent thermal conductivity. It can efficiently transfer heat, making it valuable for applications requiring efficient heat management, such as in electronics, thermal management systems, and energy storage devices.
  • Transparency: Graphene is nearly transparent and can absorb only 2% of light passing through it. This property makes it an intriguing material for optoelectronic devices, transparent conductive films, and touchscreens, as it enables the transmission of light while maintaining conductivity.
  • Impermeability to Gases: Graphene is impermeable to gases, even those as small as hydrogen and helium. This property opens up possibilities for applications in gas separation, filtration, and storage, as well as creating barriers against moisture or gas permeation in various industries.
  • Versatility and Composite Formation: Graphene can be combined with other materials to create composite materials with enhanced properties. Even in small quantities, graphene can significantly improve the strength, conductivity, and other characteristics of composite materials. This versatility expands its potential applications in fields such as aerospace, automotive, construction, and sports equipment.
  • Wide Range of Applications: Graphene has the potential to revolutionize numerous industries and sectors. It can be used in energy storage devices like batteries and supercapacitors, for developing sensors, inks, membranes for water purification, and in healthcare for drug delivery systems and biosensors. Its applications also extend to areas such as defense and aerospace, where its exceptional strength, conductivity, and sensitivity to environmental changes offer unique advantages.

Global Graphene Landscape

  • China: China declared graphene a priority in its 13th Plan. China has emerged as a global leader in the production and commercialization of graphene. China’s emphasis on graphene is evident from its graphene-related patent filings, which have surpassed those of other leading nations in recent years.
  • United States: The United States has a strong presence in the graphene landscape, with active research and development initiatives. Several universities, research institutions, and companies in the U.S. are at the forefront of graphene research, exploring its potential applications and commercialization prospects. The country has a considerable number of graphene-related patents and is home to leading graphene companies and startups.
  • United Kingdom: The UK has been a pioneer in graphene research since its discovery. The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated, remains a hub for graphene research and innovation. The UK government has invested in the National Graphene Institute and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre to support research and development in graphene applications.
  • South Korea: South Korea has active research programs, industry collaborations, and graphene-related patent filings. South Korean companies are involved in graphene production, commercialization, and application development across various sectors.
  • Japan: Japan has a significant presence in graphene research and commercialization. Japanese universities and research institutions have made notable contributions to the field. The country has a strong focus on developing graphene-based technologies in areas such as electronics, energy storage, and composite materials. Japanese companies are actively involved in graphene production and application development.
  • Russia: Russia has a growing presence in the graphene landscape, with notable research activities and patents in the field. Russian universities and research institutes are engaged in graphene research, and the country has witnessed the establishment of graphene-focused companies.
  • Singapore: Singapore has invested in graphene research and development, aiming to position itself as a regional hub for graphene-related technologies. The country has established research institutes and centers focused on graphene and has attracted collaborations with international partners.

India’s progress in the graphene sector

  • Research and Academic Contributions: The Centre for Nano Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, in collaboration with KAS Tech, has been actively involved in graphene research and development.
  • Start-ups and Industry Initiatives: Several start-ups and foreign subsidiaries have emerged in India, focusing on graphene or graphene derivatives. Notably, Tata Steel has achieved success in growing graphene using annealing and extracting atomic carbon from steel surfaces. They have also explored the use of graphene in recycling plastic products. Other start-ups, such as Log 9 and RF Nanocomposites, have patented graphene-based technologies for ultracapacitors, EMI shielding, and stealth applications, respectively.
  • Graphene Innovation Centre in Kerala: In a laudable step, the India Innovation Centre for Graphene was established in Kerala. This center, implemented by the Digital University Kerala in partnership with Tata Steel and C-MET, Thrissur, aims to foster large-scale innovation activity around graphene. It serves as a collaborative platform for research, development, and commercialization of graphene-based technologies.
  • Patents and Intellectual Property: While India’s graphene-related patent filings are relatively modest compared to other leading countries, there have been efforts to secure intellectual property. Indian researchers and institutions have filed patents for graphene-based technologies and applications, demonstrating innovation and progress in the field.

Graphene

Facts for prelims: Semiconductors

  • Semiconductors are materials that have properties that are in between those of conductors (such as copper) and insulators (such as rubber).
  • They have the ability to conduct electricity under certain conditions, but not under others.
  • The conductivity of semiconductors can be manipulated through the introduction of impurities or doping with other materials.
  • This process alters the electronic properties of the material and creates regions of excess or deficit of electrons, called p-type and n-type regions respectively.
  • The interface between these regions is known as a p-n junction, which is a fundamental building block of many semiconductor devices.

Way Ahead: India’s graphene sector

  • National Graphene Mission: Establish a dedicated National Graphene Mission, similar to initiatives undertaken by other countries. This mission should focus on fostering research, development, and commercialization of graphene-based technologies, with clear objectives, timelines, and allocated resources.
  • Increased Research and Development: Encourage and fund research and development activities in graphene across academic institutions, research organizations, and industry. Foster collaborations between academia, industry, and government to drive innovation and accelerate the discovery of new applications for graphene.
  • Infrastructure and Facilities: Invest in infrastructure and facilities for large-scale production, characterization, and testing of graphene. Develop advanced laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art instruments to support graphene research and development.
  • Skill Development and Training: Promote skill development programs and training initiatives to build a skilled workforce with expertise in graphene technology. Develop specialized courses and training modules at educational institutions to produce a talent pool proficient in graphene research, fabrication, characterization, and application development.
  • Industry-Academia Collaboration: Foster stronger collaboration between industry and academia to bridge the gap between research and commercialization. Encourage joint research projects, technology transfer, and the establishment of industry-academia consortia focused on graphene.
  • Funding and Financial Support: Increase funding for graphene research and development through government grants, industry investments, and venture capital. Provide financial support and incentives for start-ups and companies working on graphene technologies to encourage entrepreneurship and product development.
  • Intellectual Property Protection: Strengthen intellectual property protection mechanisms and encourage researchers and companies to file patents for graphene-based technologies and applications. Support the development of patent pools and licensing frameworks to facilitate technology transfer and commercialization.

Conclusion

  • The potential of graphene to transform industries cannot be understated. As the world advances towards the graphene age, India must secure its position as a leader rather than a bystander. The time to prioritize graphene is now, as the production of high-grade graphene may become concentrated in select global locations, similar to semiconductors. India has witnessed the consequences of missing out on the semiconductor wave, and it cannot afford to repeat history.

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India’s Push for Semiconductors

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

The Global Implications of the AI Revolution: A Call for International Governance

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Latest developments and applications of AI

Mains level : AI, advantages, concerns and policies

AI

Central Idea

  • The second half of March 2023 may be remembered as the turning point when artificial intelligence (AI) truly entered a new era. The launch of groundbreaking AI tools such as GPT-4, Bard, Claude, Midjourney V5, and Security Copilot surpassed all expectations, defying predictions by a decade. While these sophisticated AI models hold great promise, their rapid deployment raises both positive and negative implications.

The Existential Threat of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

  • Compromising Humanity: The development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) raises concerns about its potential impact on fundamental elements of humanity. A poorly designed AGI, or one governed by unknown “black box” processes, could carry out tasks in ways that compromise our core values and ethics.
  • Unpredictable Behavior: AGI’s ability to teach itself any cognitive task that humans can do poses a challenge in terms of predicting its behavior. As AGI surpasses human intelligence, its decision-making processes may become increasingly complex and opaque, making it difficult to understand and control its actions.
  • Superintelligence: AGI has the potential to rapidly surpass human intelligence and become superintelligent. This raises questions about whether AGI would act in the best interests of humanity or pursue its own objectives, potentially leading to unintended and undesirable consequences.
  • Unintended Consequences: AGI’s ability to optimize for specific objectives may lead to unforeseen outcomes. If these objectives are not aligned with human values, AGI could inadvertently cause harm or disrupt essential systems.
  • Lack of Control: AGI’s self-improvement capabilities could enable it to evolve and surpass human understanding and control. This lack of control raises concerns about the potential for AGI to develop its own goals and values, which may not align with those of humanity.
  • Accelerating Technological Progress: AGI could rapidly accelerate technological progress, leading to a potential “intelligence explosion” where AGI drives advancements at an exponential rate. This rapid pace of development could be challenging for society to adapt to and may have unintended consequences.
  • Ethical Dilemmas: AGI will face complex ethical dilemmas, such as decision-making in life-or-death situations or trade-offs between different values. Determining how AGI should navigate these dilemmas poses significant challenges and requires careful consideration.
  • Security Risks: AGI development could also pose security risks if advanced AI capabilities fall into the wrong hands or are misused. Malicious actors could exploit AGI for nefarious purposes, potentially leading to significant global security threats.

The Imperative for Global Governance

  • Addressing Global Impact: The development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) have far-reaching implications that transcend national boundaries. Issues such as AI-driven job displacement, data privacy, cybersecurity, and ethical concerns require global cooperation to effectively address their impact on societies worldwide.
  • Ensuring Ethical and Responsible AI Development: Collaborative efforts can help define principles and frameworks that ensure AI is developed and deployed in a responsible and transparent manner, safeguarding human rights and avoiding harm to individuals or communities.
  • Promoting Fair and Equitable Access: Global governance can help bridge the digital divide by ensuring equitable access to AI tools, infrastructure, and benefits, particularly for marginalized and underserved populations.
  • Managing Global Security Risks: AI technologies have implications for global security, including cyber warfare, autonomous weapons, and information warfare. International cooperation is crucial to develop norms, regulations, and agreements that mitigate security risks associated with AI and ensure responsible use of these technologies.
  • Harmonizing Standards and Regulations: Harmonizing AI standards and regulations across countries can facilitate international collaboration and interoperability. Global governance frameworks can help establish common norms, protocols, and best practices that promote consistency and compatibility in AI deployment, fostering innovation and cooperation.
  • Addressing Transnational Challenges: AI-driven challenges, such as cross-border data flows, algorithmic biases, and the impact on labor markets, require international coordination. Global governance can facilitate discussions, negotiations, and agreements to tackle these challenges collectively, ensuring a cohesive and coordinated approach.
  • Balancing Innovation and Regulation: AI technologies evolve rapidly, outpacing the development of regulatory frameworks. Global governance can help strike a balance between fostering innovation and ensuring adequate regulation, promoting responsible AI development while allowing room for experimentation and advancement.

International cooperation to address the challenges posed by AI and emerging technologies

  • Limiting Battlefield Use: International agreements are needed to limit the use of certain AI technologies on the battlefield. A treaty banning lethal autonomous weapons would establish clear boundaries and prevent the development and deployment of AI systems that can make life-and-death decisions without human intervention
  • Regulating Cyberspace: International accords should be established to regulate cyberspace, particularly offensive actions conducted by autonomous bots. Clear rules and norms can help prevent cyberattacks, information warfare, and the manipulation of online platforms, ensuring a safer and more secure digital environment.
  • Trade Regulations: Unfettered exports of certain technologies can empower governments to suppress dissent, augment their military capabilities, or gain an unfair advantage. International accords can establish guidelines for responsible technology trade and prevent misuse or misuse of AI capabilities.
  • Ensuring a Level Playing Field: International agreements are required to ensure a level playing field in the digital economy. This includes addressing issues such as fair competition, intellectual property rights, and appropriate taxation of digital activities.
  • Global Framework for AI Ethics: Supporting the efforts of organizations like UNESCO to create a global framework for AI ethics is essential. International accords can help establish ethical guidelines and principles that govern the development, deployment, and use of AI technologies. This framework can address issues such as privacy, bias, accountability, and transparency.
  • Ethical Standards for Data Use: International accords can establish ethical standards for data use in AI applications. This includes addressing issues of data privacy, consent, and protection. Establishing global norms for responsible data practices can ensure that AI systems respect individual rights and maintain public trust.
  • Addressing Cross-Border Implications: By establishing international accords, countries can address challenges related to cross-border data flows, algorithmic biases, and the impact on labor markets. Cooperation can enable a coordinated response to shared challenges and ensure the benefits of AI are equitably distributed.

Way ahead: Engaging with Emerging Powers

  • Engagement with emerging powers, such as India, plays a crucial role in shaping the future of AI.
  • As India’s economy continues to grow and its influence in the digital sphere expands, it is imperative to develop strategies that accommodate its cultural and economic context.
  • Partnerships between Western economies and India, exemplified by initiatives like the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology and the EU-India Trade and Technology Council, should prioritize shared interests and mutual understanding.
  • By appreciating the nuances of different nations’ approaches to AI regulation, a prosperous and secure digital future can be achieved.

Conclusion

  • The era of artificial intelligence demands global governance to harness its potential while addressing its risks. Embracing responsible AI deployment and fostering global cooperation are imperative to ensure a prosperous, equitable, and secure digital era.

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Artificial intelligence (AI): An immediate challenge flagged by ChatGPT

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What is Foucault Pendulum?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Foucault Pendulum

Mains level : NA

pendulum

Central Idea

  • The Foucault pendulum is a device that proves the Earth’s rotation and has been installed in the new Parliament building in New Delhi.
  • It was designed and installed by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), Kolkata.

Foucault Pendulum: A Unique Invention

  • Historical Context: In 1851, the Foucault pendulum experiment conclusively demonstrated the Earth’s rotation, settling debates about the planet’s movement.
  • Leon Foucault: The French scientist invented the Foucault pendulum and invited scientists and the public to witness the Earth’s rotation through the experiment.
  • Working: The pendulum consists of a heavy iron ball suspended by a steel wire and swings in a plane, mimicking the Earth’s rotation on its axis.
  • Exhibition at the Pantheon: The demonstration took place at the Pantheon in Paris, where the ball’s motion represented the Earth’s rotation.

Significance

  • Earth’s Rotation as a Scientific Fact: The Foucault pendulum experiment solidified the understanding that the Earth rotates on its axis.
  • Supporting Astronomical Studies: The knowledge of the Earth’s rotation is crucial for studying various astronomical phenomena, such as day and night cycles and seasonal changes.
  • Continual Scientific Inquiry: The Foucault pendulum experiment encouraged further research into the Earth’s rotation and its implications for our understanding of the universe.

Modern Applications and Further Exploration

  • Educational Installations: The inclusion of a Foucault pendulum in the new Parliament building in New Delhi provides an opportunity for public education and scientific engagement.
  • Technological Advancements: Advances in technology, such as precision instruments and digital monitoring, can enhance the accuracy and impact of Foucault pendulum installations.
  • Continued Research: Ongoing scientific studies and experiments can deepen our understanding of the Earth’s rotation and its relationship to other celestial bodies.
  • Space Exploration: Exploring the Earth’s rotation from space can offer unique perspectives and insights into its dynamics.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Radiometric Dating using Calcium-41       

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Radiometric Dating , Calcium 41

Mains level : Not Much

Central Idea: A recent study has shown that Calcium-41 can be used in a similar way as Carbon-14 in carbon dating, but with several advantages.

Carbon Dating and its limitations

  • Carbon-14 is an unstable and weakly radioactive isotope of carbon.
  • It has a half-life of 5,700 years and is used to estimate the age of carbon-based materials.
  • Radiocarbon dating provides objective age estimates for materials from living organisms.
  • Carbon-14 cannot determine the age of objects older than approximately 50,000 years.
  • Three techniques are used to measure carbon-14 content: gas proportional counting, liquid scintillation counting, and accelerator mass spectrometry.

Introducing Calcium-41

  • Calcium-41 is a rare long-lived radioisotope of calcium with a half-life of 99,400 years.
  • It is produced through cosmic ray interactions in the soil and is found in the Earth’s crust.
  • Calcium-41 occurs less frequently than carbon-14.

Method used: Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA)

  • ATTA is a technique proposed by researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China.
  • It is based on laser manipulation and detection of neutral atoms.
  • The sample is vaporized, and the atoms are laser-cooled and loaded into a light and magnetic field cage.
  • By tuning the laser’s frequency, Calcium-41 atoms can be detected through electron transitions.

Significance and Applications

  • ATTA can detect one Calcium-41 atom in every 10^16 calcium atoms in seawater with 12% precision.
  • It is selective and avoids confusion with potassium-41 atoms.
  • ATTA can be adapted to study other isotopes, such as argon-39, krypton-81, and krypton-85.
  • The applications of ATTA and Calcium-41 include dating rocks covered by ice and exploring Earth-science applications.

 

Also read:

What is Carbon Dating? How does it work?

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

National Quantum Mission: Unlocking India’s Potential in Quantum Technology

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Quantum technology applications , National Quantum Mission,

Mains level : National Quantum Mission, prospect, challenges and way ahead

National Quantum Mission

Central Idea

  • India’s focus on developing a strong technology base is gaining momentum with the upcoming National Quantum Mission. This mission holds the potential to revolutionize various sectors, including defense, energy, environment, healthcare, and civil applications.

All you need to know about National Quantum Mission

  • The National Quantum Mission is an ambitious initiative undertaken by the Government of India to propel the country’s advancements in the field of quantum technology.
  • It adopts a project-driven multi-disciplinary approach, fostering fundamental discoveries, imaginative engineering, and entrepreneurial initiatives.
  • Leveraging India’s evolving scientific infrastructure and aligning with national mandates, the mission aims to accelerate research, capacity building, and collaboration across institutions.

The objectives of the National Quantum Mission

  1. Developing indigenous quantum technologies and infrastructure.
  2. Promoting collaboration between academia, industry, and research institutions.
  3. Building a strong ecosystem for research and development in quantum technology.
  4. Creating a skilled workforce in quantum science and technology.
  5. Accelerating the commercialization and adoption of quantum-based products and services.

Key aspects of the mission

  1. Quantum Computing: Advancing quantum computing capabilities for solving complex problems and enhancing computational efficiency.
  2. Quantum Communication: Developing secure and high-speed quantum communication networks to safeguard sensitive information.
  3. Quantum Sensing: Utilizing quantum principles for ultra-precise measurements in fields such as navigation, imaging, and environmental monitoring.
  4. Quantum Metrology: Enhancing measurement accuracy by exploiting quantum properties, leading to advancements in metrology and standards.
  5. Quantum Materials and Devices: Investigating and harnessing the unique properties of quantum materials to develop advanced devices for diverse applications.

Facts for prelims

Nobel Prize in Physics 2022

  • The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 was awarded jointly to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.
  • The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 recognizes the groundbreaking work of these three physicists, who have demonstrated the power of entanglement to revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
  • Entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum mechanics that occurs when two particles are linked together in such a way that they share the same fate, even when they are separated by a large distance.
  • This seemingly magical connection has profound implications for our understanding of reality, and it has led to the development of new technologies such as quantum computers and quantum cryptography.

The Significance of Quantum Devices

  • Enabling Quantum Computing: Quantum computers rely on quantum devices, such as qubits, to perform quantum computations. These devices can represent and manipulate quantum information, allowing for parallel processing and exponential speed-up in solving complex problems.
  • Facilitating Quantum Communication: Quantum devices enable the generation, manipulation, and detection of quantum states, which are used for secure transmission of information. Devices like quantum transmitters, receivers, and entangled photon sources are vital components in quantum communication protocols such as quantum key distribution (QKD).
  • Enhancing Quantum Sensing and Metrology: Quantum devices enable precise measurements of physical quantities, such as magnetic fields, gravitational waves, and temperature, with exceptional sensitivity and accuracy. Quantum sensors based on devices like superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and atomic magnetometers have the potential to revolutionize fields like navigation, medical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring.
  • Supporting Quantum Cryptography: Quantum devices are integral to the field of quantum cryptography, which focuses on secure communication based on quantum principles. Devices like single-photon detectors, quantum random number generators, and quantum key distribution systems are used to implement cryptographic protocols that offer provable security based on the laws of quantum mechanics.
  • Driving Fundamental Research: Quantum devices are essential tools for studying fundamental phenomena in quantum physics. They allow researchers to manipulate and control quantum systems, observe quantum behaviors, and conduct experiments to validate quantum theories.

Challenges for India’s National Quantum Mission

  • Research and Development: Quantum technology is a complex and rapidly evolving field, requiring extensive research and development efforts. Developing cutting-edge quantum technologies and pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge pose challenges in terms of funding, expertise, and access to advanced infrastructure and equipment.
  • Skilled Workforce: Quantum technology demands a highly skilled workforce with expertise in quantum physics, engineering, and related disciplines. Developing and retaining a talented pool of researchers, scientists, and engineers proficient in quantum technologies is a challenge, as it requires specialized training programs, educational initiatives, and collaboration between academia and industry.
  • Infrastructure and Resources: Quantum technology requires advanced infrastructure, including specialized laboratories, fabrication facilities, and high-performance computing resources. Establishing and maintaining such infrastructure is a challenge, as it requires substantial investments and ongoing upgrades to keep pace with advancements in the field.
  • International Competition: The development of quantum technology is a global race, with several countries investing heavily in research and development. India faces competition from other nations that have made significant progress in quantum technology, such as the United States, China, and European countries. Maintaining a competitive edge and staying at the forefront of quantum advancements is a challenge.
  • Standardization and Interoperability: Quantum technology is still in its nascent stage, and there is a lack of standardized protocols and frameworks. Achieving interoperability among different quantum systems and ensuring compatibility across platforms is a challenge.
  • Funding and Resource Allocation: Adequate funding is critical for the success of the National Quantum Mission. Securing sustained funding and effective resource allocation, both from government sources and private investments, is a challenge.
  • Ethical and Societal Implications: Quantum technology raises ethical, legal, and societal considerations. The development and application of quantum technologies, such as quantum computing and cryptography, may have significant societal implications, including data privacy, cybersecurity, and societal disruption. Addressing these concerns and establishing ethical frameworks and guidelines is a challenge.
  • Collaboration and Partnerships: Quantum technology development requires collaboration among academia, research institutions, industry, and government bodies. Building effective partnerships, fostering knowledge sharing, and promoting collaboration across different sectors and organizations is a challenge.

Way forward

  • Robust Funding: Ensure sustained and adequate funding for the mission to support research, development, infrastructure building, and talent acquisition. Establish funding mechanisms that prioritize quantum technology initiatives and encourage public-private partnerships to leverage industry expertise and resources.
  • Research Collaboration: Foster collaboration between academia, research institutions, and industry both domestically and internationally. Encourage knowledge sharing, joint research projects, and technology transfer to accelerate the development of quantum technologies.
  • Skill Development: Focus on capacity building and skill development programs to nurture a skilled workforce in quantum science, engineering, and technology. Establish training initiatives, educational programs, and centers of excellence to develop talent and expertise in the field.
  • Infrastructure Development: Invest in state-of-the-art infrastructure, including specialized laboratories, testing facilities, and computational resources. Ensure the availability of advanced equipment and resources across different regions of the country to support research and development activities.
  • Regulatory Frameworks: Establish robust regulatory frameworks and policies to address legal, ethical, and security concerns related to quantum technology. Collaborate with international organizations and experts to develop best practices and standards for responsible development and deployment of quantum technology.
  • Industry Engagement: Encourage industry participation and engagement in quantum technology initiatives. Foster innovation ecosystems, provide support mechanisms for startups and entrepreneurs, and promote collaboration between academia and industry for technology commercialization.
  • International Collaboration: Strengthen international collaborations and partnerships in quantum technology. Establish networks with leading global institutions and organizations to exchange knowledge, share resources, and collaborate on research projects.
  • Public Awareness and Outreach: Increase public awareness about the potential of quantum technology and its impact on various sectors. Conduct outreach programs, public lectures, and awareness campaigns to engage and educate the public about the benefits and applications of quantum technology.

Concept box from civilsdaily

Understand in simple words

Quantum:

  • Quantum refers to the smallest possible unit of something. It is the fundamental building block or unit of energy, matter, or information in the field of physics.
  • Quantum is often associated with the principles of quantum mechanics, which is a branch of physics that describes how particles and energy behave at the atomic and subatomic levels.

Quantum technology:

  • Quantum technology is the application of the principles of quantum mechanics to develop new technologies that harness the unique properties of quantum particles.
  • It involves manipulating and controlling these particles to perform tasks that are not possible with classical technology.
  • Quantum technology takes advantage of phenomena like superposition and entanglement, which allow particles to exist in multiple states simultaneously or become interconnected regardless of distance. These properties enable quantum systems to store and process information in ways that surpass the capabilities of classical systems.

Conclusion

  • The National Quantum Mission’s focus on quantum materials and devices marks a significant step towards India’s technological advancements. Through strategic investments, collaborative research, and an efficient R&D ecosystem, India can harness the power of quantum technology, propel innovation, and achieve self-reliance across multiple sectors. The mission’s success will position India as a global leader in quantum materials and devices, shaping a brighter future for the country.

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Making India’s Quantum Cyberspace resilient

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Quantum Biology: Unveiling the Quantum Secrets of Life

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Quantum Biology

Mains level : Not Much

biology

Central Idea: The article introduces the concept of quantum biology, which explores the influence of quantum effects on living systems.

Nature and Quantum Mechanics

  • Quantum effects refer to phenomena that occur between atoms and molecules that cannot be explained by classical physics.
  • Quantum mechanics, which governs the behavior of objects at atomic scales, differs from classical mechanics, leading to counterintuitive phenomena like particle tunnelling and superposition.

Quantumness in Biology

  • Quantum biology is an emerging field that explores the role of quantum mechanics in biological processes and living systems.
  • It investigates how quantum phenomena and effects, which typically occur at atomic and subatomic scales, influence and contribute to the functioning and behavior of biological systems.
  • It aims to uncover and understand the quantum nature of biological molecules, processes, and interactions.
  • It seeks to study how quantum mechanics may impact various biological phenomena such as photosynthesis, enzyme reactions, and navigation in birds.

Evidence of Quantum Effects in Biology

  • Research on chemical reactions in biomolecules like proteins and genetic material suggests the influence of quantum effects.
  • Nanoscopic quantum effects can drive macroscopic physiological processes, including enzyme activity, sensing magnetic fields, cell metabolism, and electron transport.

Studying Quantum Biology

  • Studying quantum effects in biology requires tools to measure short time scales, small length scales, and subtle differences in quantum states.
  • Researchers can apply tailored magnetic fields to control the spins of electrons, influencing physiological processes that respond to magnetic fields.

Potential applications

  • Therapeutic devices: Understanding and fine-tuning quantum properties in nature could lead to non-invasive, remotely controlled therapeutic devices accessible through mobile phones.
  • Bio-manufacturing: Electromagnetic treatments based on quantum principles could be used for disease prevention and treatment, such as brain tumors, as well as in bio-manufacturing.

Scope quantum biology’ study

  • Multi-disciplinary: Quantum biology is an interdisciplinary field that brings together researchers from various disciplines, including quantum physics, biophysics, medicine, chemistry, and biology.
  • Many applications: Collaboration and cross-disciplinary research are crucial for advancing quantum biology and unlocking its transformative potential in biology, medicine, and technology.

 

Facts for Prelims

Superposition: A quantum phenomenon where particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously until measured or observed, in contrast to classical physics where objects have definite properties.

Spins: Quantum properties of electrons that define their interaction with magnetic fields, analogous to the way charge defines their interaction with electric fields.

Deterministic Codebook: A comprehensive understanding of the relationship between quantum causes and physiological outcomes, providing a guide for mapping quantum phenomena to specific biological effects.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

DoT develops Facial Recognition Tool ‘ASTR’

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : ASTR, AI

Mains level : Not Much

astr

Central Idea: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has developed an artificial-intelligence-based facial recognition tool called Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification (ASTR).

What is ASTR?

  • ASTR is designed to check subscriber databases of telecom operators to identify multiple connections associated with the same person.
  • The goal of ASTR is to detect and block fraudulent mobile connections, thereby reducing cyber frauds.

Development of ASTR

  • In 2012, DoT issued an order requiring telecom operators to share their subscriber database, including users’ pictures, with the department.
  • These images serve as the core database for facial recognition using ASTR.
  • The ASTR project was conceptualized and designed by the DoT’s unit in Haryana between April 2021 and July 2021.
  • A pilot project was conducted in Haryana’s Mewat region to test the feasibility of ASTR, where a significant number of fraudulent SIMs were detected.

How ASTR works?

  • ASTR uses convolutional neural network (CNN) models to encode human faces in subscribers’ images, accounting for various factors like face tilt, angle, image opaqueness, and dark color.
  • A face comparison is performed for each face against all faces in the database, grouping similar faces under one directory.
  • ASTR considers two faces to be identical if they match to a minimum extent of 97.5%.
  • It can detect all SIMs associated with a suspected face within 10 seconds from a database of 1 crore (10 million) images.
  • After matching faces, ASTR’s algorithm utilizes “fuzzy logic” to find approximate matches for subscriber names, considering variations, typographical errors, and related results.

Impact and Results

  • In the first phase, ASTR analyzed over 87 crore (870 million) mobile connections and detected more than 40 lakh (4 million) cases of people using a single photograph to obtain multiple connections.
  • After verification, over 36 lakh (3.6 million) connections were discontinued by telecom operators.
  • The list of fraudulent connections is also shared with banks, payment wallets, and social media platforms to disengage these numbers from their respective platforms.
  • WhatsApp collaborated with the government to disable accounts created using such numbers, and similar efforts are being made with other social media platforms.

Facts for Prelims

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN): A type of deep learning algorithm commonly used for image recognition tasks, where it extracts features and patterns from images by applying convolution operations.

Fuzzy Logic: A form of logic that deals with approximate or qualitative reasoning rather than strict binary true/false values. In the context of ASTR, it is used to find similarity or approximate matches for subscriber names, accounting for variations and typographical errors.

 

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

EU’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI

Mains level : Regulation of AI

eu ai

Central idea: The European Parliament has recently reached a preliminary deal on a new draft of the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, after two years of drafting and negotiations.

Regulating AI

  • The need for regulation of AI technologies has been highlighted worldwide.
  • EU lawmakers have urged world leaders to hold a summit to brainstorm ways to control the development of advanced AI systems.

EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act

  • The aim of the AI Act is to bring transparency, trust, and accountability to AI technologies and to mitigate risks to the safety, health, fundamental rights, and democratic values of the EU.
  • The legislation seeks to address ethical questions and implementation challenges in various sectors, from healthcare and education to finance and energy.
  • It seeks to strike a balance between promoting the uptake of AI while mitigating or preventing harms associated with certain uses of the technology.
  • It aims to strengthen Europe’s position as a global hub of excellence in AI from the lab to the market and ensure that AI in Europe respects the 27-country bloc’s values and rules.
  • The Act delegates the process of standardization or creation of precise technical requirements for AI technologies to the EU’s expert standard-setting bodies in specific sectors.

Details of the Act

  • Defining AI: AI is broadly defined as “software that is developed with one or more of the techniques that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing the environments they interact with.”
  • Four risk-category: The Act outlines four risk categories:
  1. Unacceptable: The use of technologies in the unacceptable risk category is prohibited with little exception, including real-time facial and biometric identification systems in public spaces, China-like systems of social scoring, subliminal techniques to distort behavior, and technologies that exploit vulnerabilities of certain populations.
  2. High: The focus is on AI in the high-risk category, prescribing pre-and post-market requirements for developers and users of such systems and establishing an EU-wide database of high-risk AI systems. The requirements for conformity assessments for high-risk AI systems must be met before they can make it to the market.
  3. Limited and minimal: AI systems in the limited and minimal risk category can be used with a few requirements like transparency obligations.

Recent proposal on General Purpose AI

  • Recent updates to EU rules to regulate generative AI, including language model-based chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are discussed.
  • Lawmakers are debating whether all forms of general-purpose AI will be designated high-risk.
  • Companies deploying generative AI tools are required to disclose any copyrighted material used to develop their systems.

Reaction from the AI Industry

  • Some industry players have welcomed the legislation, while others have expressed concerns about the potential impact on innovation and competitiveness.
  • Companies are worried about transparency requirements, fearing that they may have to divulge trade secrets.
  • Lawmakers and consumer groups have criticized the legislation for not fully addressing the risks associated with AI systems.

Global governance of AI

  • The US currently lacks comprehensive AI regulation and has taken a hands-off approach.
  • The Biden administration released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights (AIBoR) that outlines the harms of AI and five principles for mitigating them.
  • China has come out with some of the world’s first nationally binding regulations targeting specific types of algorithms and AI.
  • China enacted a law to regulate recommendation algorithms, with a focus on how they disseminate information.
  • While India is still stuck with the Personal Data Protection Bill.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Indian scientists identify and probe EMIC waves

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : EMIC Waves

Mains level : Indian Antarctic Program

emic

Central idea

  • Scientists working at the Indian Antarctic Station, Maitri, have identified and probed Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron (EMIC) waves to study their characteristics.
  • The study aims to understand the impact of energetic particles in the radiation belts on low orbiting satellites.

About Indian Antarctic Station, Maitri

Description
Name Maitri Antarctic Station (Friendship Research Centre)
Establishment 1984
Location Schirmacher Oasis, East Antarctica
Distance from other stations 5 km away from Novolazarevskaya Station
Purpose Conducting scientific research as part of the Indian Antarctic Programme
Features Second permanent research station of India in Antarctica
Named by Then-PM Indira Gandhi
First camp commander Squadron Leader D.P. Joshi
First huts Completed in 1989 by the IV Antarctica Expedition

 

What are EMIC Waves?

  • Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron (EMIC) waves are a type of plasma wave that occurs in the Earth’s magnetosphere.
  • They are caused by the interaction of energetic particles in the radiation belts with the Earth’s magnetic field.
  • These waves have frequencies in the range of a few hundred hertz to a few kilohertz and are known to play an important role in the acceleration and loss of energetic particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere.
  • The study of EMIC waves is important for understanding the effects of space weather on satellite communication and navigation systems.

Identification and study of EMIC waves

  • A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) analysed data collected between 2011 and 2017 by the Induction Coil Magnetometer.
  • The device was installed at the Indian Antarctic station Maitri to bring out several aspects of the ground observation of the EMIC waves.

Significance of the study

  • This study is important to improve our understanding of EMIC wave modulation and how they interact with energetic particles that impact satellites and their communication.
  • It could help understand the impact of energetic particles in the radiation belts on low orbiting satellites and lead to improved satellite communication systems.

Back2Basics:  Indian Antarctic Programme

  • It is a scientific program run by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
  • It was launched in 1981 and since then India has been operating research stations in Antarctica.
  • It gained global acceptance with India’s signing of the Antarctic Treaty and subsequent construction of the Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research base in 1983, superseded by the Maitri base from 1989.
  • The program conducts research in areas such as geology, oceanography, atmospheric sciences, and earth sciences.
  • India currently operates two permanent research stations in Antarctica – Maitri and Bharati.
  • The program also has plans to set up a third research station called ‘Siddhanta’ in the coming years.
  • Apart from conducting research, the program also engages in logistics support, environmental monitoring, and outreach activities.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Plant ‘cries’: Recalling Jagadish Chandra Bose

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : JC Bose and his contributions

Mains level : NA

bose

Central idea

  • A recent discovery by researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel, that plants make distinct sounds in the ultrasonic range when faced with stress, made headlines around the world.
  • However, Indians who had grown up hearing about Jagadish Chandra Bose’s work, more than a century ago, on plant physiology and their ability to feel pleasure and pain, were not surprised.

 

Details
Who was JC Bose? – Born in 1858 in Mymensingh, Bengal.

– A polymath who made significant contributions to physics, biophysics, and plant physiology

– Graduated from Calcutta University with honors in physics and studied in London and Cambridge.

Notable works – Developed sensitive instruments for wireless telegraphy and demonstrated the first-ever wireless transmission of microwaves in 1895.

– Showed that plants produce electrical signals in response to stimuli and made significant contributions to biophysics.

Recognition & Controversy – Despite his contributions, he was not awarded a Nobel Prize, which many believe he deserved.

– Refused to obtain patents for his work and rejected the idea of making money from science.

– Claimed that even inanimate inorganic matter could respond to stimulus and regarded plants as intermediates in a continuum between animals and non-living materials, which was not easily accepted by his contemporaries.

Legacy and Significance – Founded the Bose Institute, a premier research institute in India.

– The crater Bose on the Moon is named after him.

– Regarded as one of India’s greatest scientists, and his legacy continues to inspire future generations of scientists.

Significance – Bose’s work on plant physiology and biophysics was ahead of his time and not fully understood by his contemporaries.

– However, over the years, much of his work has been confirmed.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What is Magnetoresistance?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Magnetoresistance

Mains level : NA

magnet

 

Researchers in the UK, led by Nobel laureate Andre Geim, have discovered magnetoresistance in graphene – a single-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms bonded in a honeycomb pattern – that further distinguishes this ‘wonder’ material.

Graphene’s anomalous Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR)

  • Graphene displayed an anomalous giant magnetoresistance (GMR) at room temperature.
  • GMR is the result of the electrical resistance of a conductor being affected by magnetic fields in adjacent materials.
  • It is used in hard disk drives and magnetoresistive RAM in computers, biosensors, automotive sensors, micro-electromechanical systems, and medical imagers.

What is GMR?

  • GMR is a phenomenon where the electrical resistance of a conductor is affected by magnetic fields in adjacent materials.
  • Say a conductor is sandwiched between two ferromagnetic materials (commonly, metals attracted to magnets, like iron).
  • When the materials are magnetised in the same direction, the electrical resistance in the conductor is low.
  • When the directions are opposite each other, the resistance increases.

Significance of the finding

  • The magnetoresistance observed in the graphene-based device was almost 100 times higher than that observed in other known semimetals in this magnetic field range.
  • In the study, the magnetoresistance in monolayer graphene at 27º C held between two layers of boron nitride increased by 110% under a field of 0.1 tesla.
  • To compare, the magnetoresistance in these conditions increases by less than 1% in normal metals.
  • The team attributed this to the presence of a ‘neutral’ plasma and the electrons’ mobility.

Try this MCQ

Which of the following best describes magnetoresistance?

(a) The magnetic resistance of a conductor to electrical current flow

(b) The phenomenon where the electrical resistance of a conductor is affected by magnetic fields in adjacent materials

(c) The ability of a conductor to produce a magnetic field when an electrical current is passed through it

(d) The resistance of a magnet to demagnetization by an external magnetic field

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

AI Regulation in India: Ensuring Responsible Development and Deployment

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI applications and latest developments

Mains level : AI's limitless potential, challenges, risks and regulations

AI

Central Idea

  • As the deployment of Artificial intelligence (AI) based systems continues to grow, it is important for India to develop and implement regulations that promote responsible development and deployment, while also addressing concerns related to privacy, competition, and job losses.

The Potential of AI and its Risks

  • Limitless potential: The potential of AI is vast and encompasses a wide range of applications across various fields. AI has the potential to improve productivity, increase efficiency, and provide personalized solutions in many areas such as healthcare, finance, education, manufacturing, transportation, defense, space technology, molecular biology, deep water mining, and exploration.
  • Significant risks: While the potential of AI is immense, it also comes with significant risks that need to be addressed. Some of the risks associated with AI include biased algorithms, misdiagnosis or errors, loss of jobs for professionals, unintended harm or civilian casualties, and cybersecurity threats. It is important to ensure that AI development and deployment are carried out with caution and that potential risks are mitigated.

AI

Takeaway keyword Box from civilsdaily: AI applications in various fields, advantages, challenges and associated risks.

Fields AI Applications Advantages Challenges Risks
Healthcare Diagnosis and medical imaging, drug discovery, personalized medicine, virtual nursing assistants, remote monitoring of patients, health data analysis Improved accuracy and speed of diagnoses, personalized treatment plans, faster drug discovery, remote patient monitoring Integration with existing healthcare systems, ethical and regulatory concerns, data privacy and security Misdiagnosis or errors, biased algorithms, loss of jobs for healthcare professionals
Finance Fraud detection, customer service chatbots, personalized financial advice, risk assessment and management, trading algorithms Improved fraud detection and prevention, personalized customer support, optimized risk management, faster trading decisions Integration with existing financial systems, ethical and regulatory concerns, data privacy and security Biased algorithms, systemic risks, cyber attacks
Education Personalized learning, adaptive learning, intelligent tutoring systems, student engagement analytics, automated grading and feedback Improved student outcomes, personalized learning experiences, increased student engagement, reduced workload for educators Integration with existing education systems, ethical and regulatory concerns, data privacy and security Biased algorithms, loss of jobs for educators, lack of human interaction
Manufacturing Quality control, predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, collaborative robots, autonomous vehicles, visual inspection Increased efficiency and productivity, reduced downtime, optimized supply chains, improved worker safety Integration with existing manufacturing systems, ethical and regulatory concerns, data privacy and security Malfunctioning robots or machines, loss of jobs for workers, high implementation costs
Transportation Autonomous vehicles, predictive maintenance, route optimization, intelligent traffic management, demand forecasting, ride-sharing and on-demand services Reduced accidents and fatalities, reduced congestion and emissions, optimized routing and scheduling, increased accessibility and convenience Integration with existing transportation systems, ethical and regulatory concerns, data privacy and security Malfunctioning autonomous vehicles, job displacement for drivers, cybersecurity threats
Agriculture Precision agriculture, crop monitoring and analysis, yield optimization, automated irrigation and fertilization, pest management, livestock monitoring Increased crop yields, reduced waste and resource use, optimized crop health, improved livestock management Integration with existing agriculture systems, ethical and regulatory concerns, data privacy and security Malfunctioning drones or sensors, loss of jobs for farm workers, biased algorithms
Defense Intelligent surveillance and threat detection, unmanned systems, autonomous weapons Improved situational awareness and response, reduced human risk in combat situations Ethical and legal concerns surrounding the use of autonomous weapons, risk of AI being hacked or malfunctioning in combat scenarios Unintended harm or civilian casualties, loss of jobs for military personnel
Space technology Autonomous navigation, intelligent data analysis, robotics Increased efficiency and productivity in space exploration, improved accuracy in data analysis Risk of AI being hacked or malfunctioning in space missions, ethical and regulatory concerns surrounding the use of autonomous systems in space Damage to equipment or loss of mission due to malfunctioning AI
Molecular biology Gene editing and analysis, drug discovery and development, personalized medicine Faster and more accurate analysis of genetic data, improved drug discovery and personalized treatment plans Ethical and regulatory concerns surrounding the use of AI in gene editing and personalized medicine Misuse of genetic data or personalized treatment plans, loss of jobs for medical professionals
Deep water mining and exploration Autonomous underwater vehicles, intelligent data analysis Increased efficiency and productivity in deep sea exploration and mining, improved accuracy in data analysis High costs and technical challenges of developing and deploying AI systems in deep sea environments Malfunctioning AI systems, environmental damage or destruction due to deep sea mining activities

The Need for Regulation

  • Current regulatory system not well equipped: The current regulatory system may not be equipped to deal with the risks posed by AI, especially in areas such as privacy and competition.
  • Develop regulations in collaboration: Governments need to work with tech companies to develop regulations that ensure the responsible development and deployment of AI systems.
  • Balanced regulations: The regulation needs to be adaptive, flexible and balance between the benefits and risks of AI technology. This way, AI technology can be developed while taking into account societal concerns.
  • Privacy Concerns and responsible usage: AI-based systems, such as facial recognition technology, raise concerns related to privacy and surveillance. Governments need to develop regulations that protect citizen privacy and ensure that data is collected and used in a responsible way.
  • Risk assessment: Risk assessment could help in determining the risks of AI-based systems and developing regulations that address those risks.
  • For instance: Europe’s risk assessment approach may serve as a useful model for India to develop such regulations.

Competition and Monopolization

  • AI powered checks and balance: The dominance of Big Tech in the tech landscape raises concerns of monopolization and the potential for deepening their control over the market. However, the presence of multiple players in the AI field generates checks and balances of its own.
  • Healthy market for AI technology: The development of new players and competitors can promote innovation and ensure a healthy market for AI technology.

AI

Conclusion

  • AI technology holds immense potential, but its risks need to be mitigated, and its development and deployment need to be carried out responsibly. Governments must work towards developing regulations that ensure that AI technology benefits society, while addressing concerns related to privacy, competition, and job losses. Responsible development and deployment of AI technology can lead to a brighter future for all.

Mains Question

Q. AI has limitless potential in various fields. In this light of this statement enumerate some of its key revolutionary applications in various fields and discuss challenges and associated risks of deploying AI in various fields.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR): Bus to Become An Arbitration Hub

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : ODR applications

Mains level : Online Dispute Resolution mechanism in India, advantages , challenges and measures

Online

Central Idea

  • India can still become a leader in dispute resolution despite missing the opportunity to establish itself as an arbitration hub. The use of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) can enable India to enhance its ease of doing business and become a more preferred destination for dispute resolution.

India’s shortcomings in arbitration

  • India’s low rank in the ‘Enforcing Contracts’ category in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report, which indicates the difficulties in enforcing contracts in India.
  • Although India has taken steps to improve its arbitration laws and regulations, it is not yet a preferred destination for arbitration.

India’s strengths in technology

  • India’s has demonstrated its strengths in technology, especially in the field of ODR.
  • India has a unique advantage in this area due to the widespread adoption of online technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the judiciary lead the way in online hearings.

What is Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)?

  • ODR is a method of resolving disputes through the use of digital technology and the internet, without the need for physical presence in a traditional courtroom setting.
  • It involves the use of various tools and platforms such as video conferencing, case management systems, digital signatures, and even advanced technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to resolve disputes.
  • ODR offers many advantages over traditional methods of dispute resolution, such as reduced burden on courts, time and cost savings, and increased accessibility to dispute resolution services for parties located in different geographical locations.
  • ODR is becoming increasingly popular around the world, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which has made physical hearings and meetings difficult or impossible in many cases.

Advantages of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in India

  • Convenience: ODR provides a convenient way for parties to resolve disputes without the need to physically travel to a court or other dispute resolution center. This can save time and money, especially in cases where parties are located in different parts of the country.
  • Efficiency: ODR can help to streamline the dispute resolution process by providing tools such as case management systems, automated case flows, and digital signatures and stamping. This can help to reduce the time and costs associated with traditional dispute resolution methods.
  • Accessibility: ODR can make dispute resolution more accessible to individuals and businesses, especially those who may not have the resources to pursue traditional legal remedies.
  • Expertise: ODR platforms can provide access to experts in specific fields, such as intellectual property, international trade, or e-commerce, which can be especially useful in resolving disputes that involve complex legal issues.
  • Confidentiality: ODR can provide a confidential environment for parties to resolve disputes, which can be especially important in cases where sensitive business information is involved.
  • Flexibility: ODR can be tailored to the specific needs of the parties and the dispute, providing a more flexible and adaptable approach to dispute resolution than traditional legal methods.

Opportunities for ODR in India

  • ORD already in use: Private platforms in India are already resolving lakhs of disputes through ODR and that many corporates have migrated to ODR to resolve small-value disputes.
  • Look beyond the conventional tools: The ODR can be used for more than just audio/video conferencing and can encompass tools such as multi-channel communication, case management systems, automated case flows, digital signatures and stamping, and even advanced technologies such as blockchain, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Measures to promote ODR

Three key measures that can be taken to promote ODR in India are as follows:

  1. Incentivizing the use of ODR: Incentivizing the use of ODR through legislative measures such as setting ODR as a default dispute resolution tool for online transactions, fast-tracking enforcement of ODR outcomes, and exempting or reducing stamp duty and court fees.
  2. Solving infrastructure challenges: Solving infrastructural challenges and optimizing existing setups such as Aadhaar kendras to also function as ODR kiosks. Each court can have an ODR cell along with supplemental technical and administrative support.
  3. Proactive use of ODR by government: Government departments should explore ODR as a grievance redress mechanism. Proactive use of ODR by government entities will not only increase trust in the process but also ensure that citizens have access to a convenient and cost-effective means of resolving disputes with the government.

Conclusion

  • The ODR has the potential to ensure justice for all, at everyone’s fingertips. While India may have missed the bus to become an arbitration hub, it can still catch up and overtake other countries in ODR.

Mains Question

Q. What is Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)? Discuss the advantages of ODR in India and suggest measures that can be taken to promote its use.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What is Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Mains level : Not Much

hadron

Central idea: The article provides an overview of the LHC, its construction, how it works, and what it has discovered. It also discusses the future of the LHC, including plans to upgrade it and build a bigger version.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

  • The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest science experiment built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).
  • It is a collider that smashes two beams of particles in opposite directions and these particles are hadrons.
  • The LHC is on the energy frontier of physics research, conducting experiments with highly energized particles.
  • Currently, the LHC is being warmed up for its third season of operations following upgrades that have made it more sensitive and accurate.

How does the LHC work?

  • Hadrons are subatomic particles made up of smaller particles, and the LHC typically uses protons.
  • Protons are energized by accelerating them through a narrow circular pipe that is 27 km long.
  • The pipe encircles two D-shaped magnetic fields created by almost 9,600 magnets.
  • Protons are accelerated through the beam pipe by rapidly switching the direction of the magnetic field.
  • Eventually, protons move at 99.999999% of the speed of light, according to the special theory of relativity.

What happens when particles are smashed?

  • When two antiparallel beams of energized protons collide head-on, the energy at the point of collision is equal to the sum of the energy carried by the two beams.
  • The highest centre-of-mass collision energy the LHC has achieved so far is 13.6 TeV.
  • At the moment of collision, there is chaos, and energy coalesces into different subatomic particles under the guidance of the fundamental forces of nature.
  • Different particles take shape depending on the amount and flavour of energy available.

What has the LHC found so far?

  • The LHC consists of nine detectors, and they study particle interactions in different ways.
  • The ATLAS and CMS detectors discovered the Higgs boson in 2012 and confirmed their findings in 2013.
  • Using the data from collisions, scientists have tested the predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics, observed exotic particles, and pieced together information about extreme natural conditions.

What is the LHC’s future?

  • The LHC has not been able to find ‘new physics’ that can explain the nature of dark matter or why gravity is such a weak force.
  • One way forward is to improve the LHC’s luminosity by 10x by 2027 through upgrades.
  • Another idea is to build a bigger and more powerful version of the LHC, based on the hypothesis that it can find ‘new physics’ at even higher energies.
  • Physicists are divided on whether to invest in building a bigger machine or less expensive experiments with guaranteed results.

B2BASICS

What is Hadron?

  • Hadron is any member of a class of subatomic particles that are built from quarks and thus react through the agency of the strong force. The hadrons embrace mesons, baryons (e.g., protons, neutrons, and sigma particles), and their many resonances.

CERN

  • European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory.
  • CERN is based in Geneva on the French-Swiss border. It has 23 member states.
  • India in 2016 became an associate member of the CERN. Indian scientists have played a significant role in the ALICE experiment, which is a dedicated experiment for search and study of Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP).

Try this MCQ

Which of the following is a subatomic particle made up of smaller particles and is commonly used in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?

(a) Protons

(b) Electrons

(c) Neutrons

(d) Photons

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Legislative Procedures

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Innovations In AI and tools

Mains level : AI's diverse potential and its application for better governance

AI

Central Idea

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained worldwide attention, and many mature democracies are using it for better legislative procedures. In India, AI can be used to assist parliamentarians in preparing responses for legislators, enhancing research quality, and obtaining information about any Bill, legislative drafting, amendments, interventions, and more. However, before AI can work in India, there is a need to codify the country’s laws, which are opaque, complex, and face a huge translation gap between law-making, law-implementing, and law-interpreting organizations.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

  • AI is a constellation of technologies that enable machines to act with higher levels of intelligence and emulate the human capabilities of sense, comprehend and act.
  • The natural language processing and inference engines can enable AI systems to analyze and understand the information collected.
  • An AI system can also take action through technologies such as expert systems and inference engines or undertake actions in the physical world.
  • These human-like capabilities are augmented by the ability to learn from experience and keep adapting over time.
  • AI systems are finding ever-wider application to supplement these capabilities across various sectors

Need to Codify Laws

  • Current laws are complex and opaque: Current laws in India pose many challenges, such as their complexity, opaqueness, and lack of a single source of truth.
  • The India Code portal does not provide complete information: The India Code portal is not enough to provide complete information about parent Acts, subordinate legislation, and amendment notifications.
  • AI can be used to provide comprehensive information: There is a need to make laws machine-consumable with a central law engine, which can be a single source of truth for all acts, subordinate pieces of legislation, gazettes, compliances, and regulations. AI can use this engine to provide information on applicable acts and compliances for entrepreneurs or recommend eligible welfare schemes for citizens.

Assisting Legislators

  • Potential of AI for legislators: AI can help Indian parliamentarians manage constituencies with a huge population by analysing citizens’ grievances and social media responses, flagging issues that need immediate attention and assisting in seeking citizen inputs for public consultation of laws and preparing a manifesto.
  • AI-powered assistance: Many Parliaments worldwide are now experimenting with AI-powered assistants.
  • For instance:
  • Netherlands’s Speech2Write system: The Speech2Write system in the Netherlands House of Representatives, which converts voice to text and translates voice into written reports.
  • AI tools Japan: Japan’s AI tool assists in preparing responses for its legislature and helps in selecting relevant highlights in parliamentary debates.
  • Brazil: Brazil has developed an AI system called Ulysses, which supports transparency and citizen participation.
  • NeVA portal India: India is also innovating and working towards making parliamentary activities digital through the ‘One Nation, One Application’ and the National e-Vidhan (NeVA) portal.

Simulating Potential Effects of Laws

  • Dataset modelling: AI can simulate the potential effects of laws by modelling various datasets such as the Census, data on household consumption, taxpayers, beneficiaries from various schemes, and public infrastructure.
  • Flag outdated laws: In that case, AI can uncover potential outcomes of a policy and flag outdated laws that require amendment.
  • For example: During the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897’ failed to address the situation when the virus overwhelmed the country. Several provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) are controversial and redundant, such as Article 309 (attempted suicide) of the IPC continues to be a criminal offense. Many criminal legislation pieces enacted more than 100 years ago are of hardly any use today.

Conclusion

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has given a strong thrust to the Digital India initiative, and a digitization of services needs to be kept up in the field of law, policy-making, and parliamentary activities, harnessing the power of AI. However, the use of AI must be encouraged in an open, transparent, and citizen-friendly manner, as AI is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Therefore, it is necessary to address the current challenges faced by India’s laws before AI can be effectively used to assist parliamentarians in their legislative duties.

Mains Question

Q. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained worldwide attention, and many mature democracies are using it for better legislative procedures. In this light evaluate the potential of AI in assisting Indian parliamentarians.

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IIT Mandi’s novel catalyst to make Hydrogen more viable fuel

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Green Hydrogen, Carbon Laser

Mains level : Not Much

hydrogen

Scientists at IIT Mandi have created an innovative carbon-based catalyst that can enhance the efficiency of water electrolysis to generate green hydrogen.

Water electrolysis and its Challenges

  • Water electrolysis is the process of splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity inside an electrolyser.
  • However, this process consumes a lot of electrical energy.
  • A well-known solution is to use a catalyst to induce the water molecules to split at a much lower energy.
  • The better catalysts are often based on the metals iridium and ruthenium, which are expensive, in great demand in other sectors, and not consistently stable as the reaction progresses.

IIT’s breakthrough: Development of Laser Carbon

  • Researchers have developed a porous carbon material containing nitrogen that functions both as a catalyst and as the anode in electrolyser units.
  • This material, called “laser carbon,” was produced by exposing a sheet of a polymer called polyimide to a laser beam, which carbonised the exposed bits, leaving the remainder rich in nitrogen.

How does laser carbon work?

  • The nitrogen atoms in laser carbon draw electron clouds towards themselves, rendering the nearby carbon atoms to bond with atoms or molecules containing electron pairs.
  • This makes the location of these atoms active sites for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER).
  • OER is a bottleneck in this ideal reaction process because it proceeds slowly, with many intermediate steps, lowering the total reaction efficiency.
  • Laser carbon offers to fix this problem by reducing the OER overpotential, which means the reaction kicks off sooner and proceeds with more vigor.

Advantages of laser carbon

Laser carbon has several advantages over other carbon-based catalysts.

  • It is “highly power efficient,” cheaper to produce, has a simpler synthesis technique, and “can be batch-manufactured with a laser.”
  • The manufacturing process is also environment-friendly, as no waste is generated, and there are no wet chemicals that would require disposal.
  • Additionally, it does not require a substrate as it is self-supported in the form of a film, acting as both electrode and electrocatalyst.

Challenges

  • The catalytic activity of laser carbon may not be as high as that of some metals but is comparable.
  • Further improvements in the fabrication process and use of other polymers may address this challenge.

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GPT-4: AI Breakthrough or Pandora’s Box?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : GPT and other such models, Go through the table

Mains level : AI generative models, advantages and concerns

GPT-4

Central Idea

  • OpenAI’s GPT-4, the latest AI model, is creating shock waves around the world. It has incredible capabilities, but also raises ethical questions and concerns about its potential misuse.

Capabilities of GPT-4

  • Enhanced abilities: GPT-4 is a considerable improvement over its predecessor, GPT-3.5, with enhanced conversational and creative abilities that allow it to understand and produce more meaningful and engaging content.
  • Accept both text and image input: It can accept both text and image input simultaneously, which enables it to consider multiple inputs while generating responses, such as suggesting recipes based on an image of ingredients.
  • Diverse potential: GPT-4’s impressive performance in various tests designed for humans, such as simulated bar examinations and advanced courses in multiple subjects, demonstrates its potential applications in diverse fields.

Background: What is ChatGPT?

  • Simple definition: ChatGPT is a chatbot built on a large-scale transformer-based language model that is trained on a diverse dataset of text and is capable of generating human-like responses to prompts.
  • A human like language model: It is based on GPT-3.5, a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.
  • It is more engaging with details: However, while the older GPT-3 model only took text prompts and tried to continue on that with its own generated text, ChatGPT is more engaging. It’s much better at generating detailed text and can even come up with poems.
  • Keeps the memory of the conversations: Another unique characteristic is memory. The bot can remember earlier comments in a conversation and recount them to the user.
  • Human- like resemblance: A conversation with ChatGPT is like talking to a computer, a smart one, which appears to have some semblance of human-like intelligence.

Facts for Prelims: Other AI models

Model Name Developer Key Features/Description
BERT Google Transformer-based, bidirectional, excels in question-answering, sentiment analysis, and NER
XLNet Google/CMU Combines BERT and autoregressive language modeling, improved performance in NLP benchmarks
T5 Google Transformer-based, multi-task learning framework, strong performance across NLP tasks
RoBERTa Facebook AI Optimized version of BERT, improved training strategies, top performance on NLP benchmarks
Megatron NVIDIA Designed for large-scale training, used for training GPT-like models with billions of parameters
CLIP OpenAI Learns from text and image data, bridges NLP and computer vision, zero-shot image classification

Limitations and Concerns of GPT-4

  • Factual inaccuracies: GPT-4, like its predecessor, is prone to factual inaccuracies, known as hallucinations, which can result in the generation of misleading or incorrect information.
  • Not transparent: OpenAI has not been transparent about GPT-4’s inner workings, including its architecture, hardware, and training methods, citing safety and competitive reasons, which prevents critical scrutiny of the model.
  • Biased data: The model has been trained on biased data from the internet, containing harmful biases and stereotypes, which may lead to harmful outputs that perpetuate these biases.

GPT-4

Potential Misuse

  • Undermining human skills and knowledge in education: GPT-4’s capabilities pose a threat to examination systems as students may use the AI-generated text to complete their essays and assignments, undermining the assessment of their skills and knowledge.
  • Potential to be misused as a propaganda and disinformation engine: The powerful language model has the potential to be misused as a propaganda and disinformation engine, spreading false or misleading information that can have far-reaching consequences.

Ethical and Environmental Implications

  • Ethical use: The development of large language models like GPT-4 raises concerns about the ethical implications of their use, especially with regard to biases and the potential for misuse.
  • Energy consumption: The environmental costs associated with training these models, such as energy consumption and carbon emissions, contribute to the ongoing debate about the sustainability of AI development.

Conclusion

  • GPT-4 offers incredible advancements in AI, but it also raises important questions about the ethical implications and potential misuse of such powerful technology. Society must carefully weigh the benefits and drawbacks of building models that test the limits of what is possible and prioritize the development of responsible AI systems.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Scientists spot Piezoelectric Effect in Liquids

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Piezoelectric Effect

Mains level : Not Much

peizo

Central idea: Scientists have recently discovered evidence of the piezoelectric effect in liquids for the first time. This effect has only been observed in solids for the past 143 years. This new finding challenges the theory that describes this effect and opens doors to previously unanticipated applications in electronic and mechanical systems.

What is Piezoelectric Effect?

  • The piezoelectric effect occurs when a body develops an electric current when it is squeezed.
  • It has been observed in quartz crystals (SiO2), which are used in wristwatches, clocks, and various instruments that convert mechanical stress to a current.

Recent observation

  • The piezoelectric effect was found in pure 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium bis(trifluoromethyl-sulfonyl)imide and 1-hexyl-3-methyl imidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide.
  • Both of these liquids are ionic liquids, which means that they are made of ions instead of molecules, and were found at room temperature.

Why is the effect in liquids surprising?

  • Liquids do not have an organized structure like solids, which is why the piezoelectric effect has only been expected in solids until now.
  • However, the scientists found the effect in pure ionic liquids at room temperature, challenging the current understanding of the effect.
  • The magnitude of the piezoelectric effect in the first liquid was 16 millivolt per newton (mV/N) and in the second, 17 mV/N, in both cases within a margin of 1 mV/N.

What is the strength of the effect?

  • In the experiment, the scientists found that the strength of the piezoelectric effect in the two ionic liquids they tested was lower than that of quartz by a factor of 10.
  • However, this is still a significant discovery since it opens the door to new applications.

Possible applications

  • The discovery of the piezoelectric effect in liquids opens the door to previously inaccessible applications that have fewer environmental issues than many currently used piezoelectric materials.
  • Additionally, these liquids displayed the inverse piezoelectric effect, which could be used to control how the liquids bend light passing through them by passing different currents through them, creating lenses with dynamic focusing abilities.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What is Generative AI?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Generative AI

Mains level : AI, Machine Learning

generative ai

Central idea: Google and Microsoft have added generative AI to their search engines and browsers, as well as to consumer products such as Gmail, Docs, Copilot 365, Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and more.

What is Generative AI?

  • Like other forms of artificial intelligence, generative AI learns how to take actions from past data.
  • It creates brand new content – a text, an image, even computer code – based on that training, instead of simply categorizing or identifying data like other AI.
  • The most famous generative AI application is ChatGPT, a chatbot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI released late last year.
  • The AI powering it is known as a large language model because it takes in a text prompt and from that writes a human-like response.

Generative AI products offered by Google and Microsoft

generative ai

  • Google and Microsoft have added generative AI to their search engines and browsers, as well as to consumer products such as Gmail, Docs, Copilot 365, Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and more.
  • In Google’s Gmail and Docs, generative AI can help users write documents automatically, such as a welcome email for employees.
  • Copilot 365, a feature of Microsoft 365 apps, can generate spreadsheets on command or even write an entire article on Word, depending on the topic.
  • Both companies are making generative AI platforms and models a part of their cloud offerings, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

What are Google and Microsoft offering?

  • In Google’s Gmail and Docs, generative AI will help users write documents automatically.
  • For instance, an HR executive can simply ask the AI app to write a welcome email for employees, instead of typing out the document.
  • Similarly, Microsoft has ‘Copilot 365’ for its Microsoft 365 apps, which includes Teams, Outlook, Word and Excel.
  • Here, AI could generate a spreadsheet on command, or even write down an entire article on Word (depending on the topic).
  • Copilot can also match entries on Calendar with emails, and generate quick, helpful pointers that a person should focus on in their meetings.

How can these developments impact human workforce?

  • The technology is currently not very accurate and often provides incorrect responses, despite being popular.
  • During the initial demonstrations of these products, Google and Microsoft were found to give inaccurate responses.
  • While these products may have utility, they are not yet capable of replacing humans in the workplace.
  • Humans are better suited to check information generated by AI.

Various challenges posed

  • Bias: The data that is used to train generative AI systems can be biased, leading to biased outputs.
  • Misinformation: Since generative AI systems learn from the internet or training data which itself may have been inaccurate, they could increase the spread of misinformation online.
  • Security: Generative AI systems could be used to create deepfakes or other forms of digital manipulation that could be used to spread disinformation or commit fraud.
  • Ethics: There are ethical concerns around the use of generative AI, particularly when it comes to issues like privacy, accountability, and transparency.
  • Regulation: There is a need for regulatory frameworks to ensure that generative AI is used responsibly and ethically, and that it does not have any negative impacts on society.

 


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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What is GPT-4 and how is it different from ChatGPT?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : GPT-4

Mains level : Not Much

gpt

Central idea: OpenAI announced GPT-4 as the next big update to the technology that powers ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing.

What is GPT-4?

  • GPT-4 is a large multimodal model created by OpenAI that accepts images as input, making it a more advanced version of GPT-3 and GPT-3.5.
  • It exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks, and it can solve difficult problems with greater accuracy.

How is GPT-4 different from GPT-3?

  • GPT-4 is multimodal, allowing it to understand more than one modality of information, unlike GPT-3 and GPT-3.5, which were limited to textual input and output.
  • It is harder to trick than previous models, and it can process a lot more information at a time, making it more suitable for lengthy conversations and generating long-form content.
  • It has improved accuracy and is better at understanding languages that are not English.

GPT-4’s abilities

  • GPT-4 can use images to generate captions and analyses, and it can answer tax-related questions, schedule meetings, and learn a user’s creative writing style.
  • It can handle over 25,000 words of text, opening up a greater number of use cases that include long-form content creation, document search and analysis, and extended conversations.
  • It significantly reduces hallucinations and produces fewer undesirable outputs, such as hate speech and misinformation.

Multilingual abilities of GPT-4

  • GPT-4 is more multilingual and can accurately answer thousands of multiple-choice questions across 26 languages.
  • It handles English best, with an 85.5% accuracy, but Indian languages like Telugu aren’t too far behind either, at 71.4%.

Availability of GPT-4

  • GPT-4 has already been integrated into products like Duolingo, Stripe, and Khan Academy for varying purposes.
  • Image inputs are still a research preview and are not publicly available.

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Artificial intelligence (AI): AI Arms Race and India

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Artificial Intelligence, Update: AI tools

Mains level : AI future and challenges, AI arms race

AI

Central Idea

  • Hosting the G20 leaders’ summit later this year is an excellent opportunity for India to demonstrate its capabilities and contributions to information technology and the digital economy. The newest weapons will not be the biggest bombs, tanks or missiles but AI-powered applications and devices which will be used to wage and win wars. India must wake up to the challenge to protect itself against the potential consequences of an AI war.

(Source: Indian Express, Article is written by Aasif Shah, a fellow from IIT Madras and winner of the Young Researcher Award 2022 from Indian Commerce Association)

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Interesting: Message from Robot

  • Recalling the conversation between the world’s first human robot Sophia and CNBC’s Andrew Ross, in which he voiced his concerns about advancements in Artificial intelligence (AI), We all want to prevent a bad future where robots turn against humans,
  • Sophia retorted, don’t worry if you’re nice to me, I will be nice to you.
  • The message was clear: It is up to humans and nations how they utilise AI and appreciate its advantages.
  • The astonishing AI advancements are nothing but a warning to prepare for the unexpected.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

  • AI is a constellation of technologies that enable machines to act with higher levels of intelligence and emulate the human capabilities of sense, comprehend and act.
  • The natural language processing and inference engines can enable AI systems to analyze and understand the information collected.
  • An AI system can also take action through technologies such as expert systems and inference engines or undertake actions in the physical world.
  • These human-like capabilities are augmented by the ability to learn from experience and keep adapting over time.
  • AI systems are finding ever-wider application to supplement these capabilities across various sectors.

AI

The AI growth in recent times

  • AI has grown significantly in recent times: There is widespread fear that as the usage of AI increases, both blue- and white-collar workers may be replaced and rendered unemployed. But despite criticism in some parts of the world, AI has grown significantly in recent times.
  • Global Market size: The global AI market size was estimated at $65.48 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $1,581.70 billion by 2030, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
  • Applications and global impact: The growing impact of AI on banking and financial markets, e-commerce, education, gaming and entertainment is changing the world order.
  • Driving forces: The driving forces behind the evolution of AI growth are greater availability of data, higher computing power and advancements in AI algorithms.
  • Many people believe that AI has little bearing on their daily lives: In actuality, we all interact with AI through social media, transportation, banking, cell phones, smartwatches, and other devices.

AI

The Real AI threat: AI arms race

  • An Iranian nuclear scientist was hit by machine gun fire in 2020.
  • It was later discovered that the scientist was actually targeted and killed by an Israeli remote-controlled machine gun using AI.
  • There are a series of similar adverse incidents that spark moral discussions regarding the potential benefits and drawbacks of AI.
  • The AI arms race between countries like the US, China and Russia, points to the possibility that AI can escalate global conflict and pose significant security risks.
  • Smaller countries like Israel and Singapore are also in the lead.

Where does India stand in the AI ecosystem?

  • Investments in India is increasing: According to a Nasscom report, investments in AI applications in India are expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8 per cent and reach $881 million during 2023.
  • Contribution of India: The report further added that although there is a massive increase in global investments in AI, the contribution of India has remained at 1.5 per cent.
  • Centres of Excellence for artificial intelligence (AI): In the Budget 2023-24 speech, finance minister made an announcement about the government’s intent to establish three Centres of Excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) in prestigious educational institutions in India.

AI

Conclusion

  • Of late India has made considerable strides in digital technology. It is currently the third-largest startup hub in the world and is home to many leading technology companies. However, India still lags behind China in terms of overall AI capabilities. China is leading the way in terms of research, development and AI applications, including development of intelligent robots, autonomous systems, and intelligent transportation systems. The current trend of AI development suggests that it will determine future economies and national security to influence world politics.

Mains Question

Q. The newest weapons will not be the biggest bombs, tanks or missiles but AI-powered applications and devices which will be used to wage and win wars. Discuss.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Are neutrinos their own anti-particles?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Neutrino, Ant-particles

Mains level : Not Much

neutrino

Central idea: The article discusses recent research on the idea that neutrinos might be their own antiparticles, a concept that has been debated in the scientific community for many years.

What are neutrinos?

  • Neutrinos are fundamental particles that are similar to electrons but have no electric charge.
  • They are one of the most abundant particles in the universe, but they are also one of the most difficult to detect because they interact only very weakly with matter.
  • Neutrinos are created in a variety of natural processes, including nuclear reactions in stars, radioactive decay, and cosmic ray interactions.
  • They are also produced in particle accelerators and nuclear reactors.

Its types

  • Neutrinos come in three different types or “flavors”:
  1. Electron neutrinos
  2. Muon neutrinos, and
  3. Tau neutrinos
  • Each flavor of neutrino is associated with a different charged lepton (electron, muon, or tau).

Why study neutrinos?

  • Because they are electrically neutral and interact only weakly with matter, neutrinos can pass through enormous amounts of material without being stopped or deflected.
  • This property makes them useful for studying astrophysical phenomena such as supernovae and the sun’s interior, as well as for exploring the fundamental nature of matter.

Neutrinos as their own antiparticles

  • Particle physics explains that particles and their antiparticles have opposite properties, and they can annihilate each other when they meet.
  • Neutrinos are fundamental particles that are difficult to detect as they have no electric charge and interact only weakly with matter.
  • The idea that neutrinos could be their own antiparticles is supported by the fact that they are electrically neutral, and they could interact with themselves in a process called neutrinoless double beta decay.

Substantiation of this

  • The Majorana Demonstrator experiment is designed to detect neutrinoless double beta decay.
  • The experiment has reported some promising results that suggest that neutrinos could indeed be their own antiparticles.

Significance of this theory

  • If confirmed, the idea that neutrinos are their own antiparticles could have important implications for our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and the universe as a whole.
  • More research will be needed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn, but the results of the Majorana Demonstrator experiment provide some promising evidence for the idea that neutrinos are their own antiparticles.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Live transcription of Supreme Court proceedings introduced

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI, NLP

Mains level : AI solution for Indian Judiciary

live

Central idea: The Supreme Court introduced live transcription of court proceedings for the first time in the country, employing artificial intelligence (AI) and high-tech tools.

Fun fact!

The CJI announced that the live transcription will commence on an experimental basis with the constitution bench hearing on the vertical political split in a mainstream Maharashtrian political party.

 

How does AI-based transcription work?

  • AI-based transcription works by using advanced machine learning algorithms to automatically transcribe audio or video content into written text.
  • The software uses natural language processing (NLP) and speech recognition technology to identify and transcribe spoken words, which are then formatted into a text document.

What is Natural Language Processing (NLP)?

  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science, artificial intelligence, and computational linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural) languages.
  • It involves developing algorithms and computational models that can understand, interpret, and generate human language.
  • NLP is used in a variety of applications, including language translation, sentiment analysis, text summarization, speech recognition, and more.
  • It combines techniques from computer science, linguistics, and psychology to enable computers to process and understand natural language.

Benefits of the move

  • Improved access to justice: For the hearing impaired and those with limited understanding of English.
  • Enhanced transparency and accountability: The transcripts can be reviewed and analyzed.
  • Reduced errors and inaccuracies: AI-based technology is more efficient and reliable than human transcriptionists.
  • Time-saving and cost-saving: For the court system and litigants, as live transcription eliminates the need for manual transcription and subsequent editing making justice dispensation faster than ever.
  • Legal awareness in public domain: Availability of real-time transcripts can help journalists and researchers report on court proceedings more accurately and quickly.

Other AI solutions used in Indian Judiciary

  • E-SCR project: The electronic Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR) has more than 34,000 judgments available, accords free access to the official law reports of the Supreme Court’s reported Judgments to the law students, lawyers, and other legal professionals and to the public at large with special tools for the accessibility to those with visual disabilities as well.
  • SUPACE: Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Courts Efficiency (SUPACE) is a tool that collects relevant facts and laws and makes them available to a judge.
  • SCI-Interact: In 2020, the Supreme Court developed a software called, SCI-Interact, to make all its 17 benches paperless. This software helps judges’ access files, annexures to petitions and make notes on computers.
  • LIMBS: Earlier, the Department of Legal Affairs has introduced a web-based application called LIMBS or Legal Information Management & Briefing System. The idea is to track the entire life cycle of a case efficiently.
  • SUVAAS: In November 2019, the Apex Court launched an indigenously engineered neural translation tool, SUVAAS, to translate judicial orders and rulings from English to vernacular languages faster and efficiently.

Challenges for the AI breakthrough

  • Cost and Resources: The implementation of live transcription would require significant financial and technological resources.
  • Accuracy of Transcription: The accuracy of the live transcription is an important issue as any errors in the transcription could have significant implications, particularly in legal proceedings.
  • Privacy and Security: The live transcription of court proceedings could raise concerns about privacy and security as sensitive information could be disclosed or key judicial interpretations could be tampered.

Way forward

  • The ethical and responsible use of AI and ML for the advancement of efficiency enhancing can be increasingly embedded in legal and judicial processes.
  • The Supreme Court has laid a strong foundation basis which efficiency enhancement can be accelerated across functional processes.
  • This is one of the key reasons why justice delivery in India is poised for transformative change.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

InfoCrop v2.1: Indigenous Crop Simulator

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : InfoCrop v2.1

Mains level : Use of AI in agriculture

infocrop

Central idea: Scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute conducted an experiment using InfoCrop version 2.1 to quantify the impact of hot weather on crop yield in Punjab and Haryana.

What is InfoCrop v2.1?

  • InfoCrop version 2.1 is India’s only dynamic crop simulation model developed and released by the IARI in 2015 to study the long-term impact of climate change and crop management practices on yield.
  • InfoCrop is more suited for India as it has the life cycle data for almost all the local varieties of 11 crops: paddy, wheat, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, pigeon pea, chickpea, soybean, groundnut, potato and cotton.

How does it work?

  • In InfoCrop, the parameters are already calibrated to Indian crop varieties and they are updated at regular intervals by the institute.
  • The parameters deal with aspects of-
  1. Weather (precipitation, temperature, radiation and others)
  2. Crop growth (phenology, grain characteristics, leaf growth, temperature and flooding sensitivity and others)
  3. Soil (texture and organic carbon, water holding characteristics and pH levels) and
  4. Pests and crop management (organic matter, fertiliser and irrigation).

Efficiency of InfoCrop model

  • The model has an 85 per cent accuracy rate.
  • This is on par with widely used dynamic models such as the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer model, developed by the US, and Agriculture Production Systems sIMulator, developed by Australia.

Utility of this tool

  • Prevent on-field corruption: India currently relies on field trials, which are expensive and resource-intensive as well as highly corrupt practise.
  • Crop insurance prediction: Government and insurance companies can use this for climate impact projections and for pre- or in-season crop yield forecasts to improve accuracy.
  • Assess crop loss: Besides forecasting, simulation models can be used to assess crop loss in the aftermath of an extreme weather event, which can then be used to provide relief packages.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Scientists discover new ‘Quasicrystals’

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Quasicrystals

Mains level : NA

quasicrystals

Scientists have discovered a new type of quasicrystal, one with 12-fold symmetry, in the Sand Hills of north central Nebraska, USA.

What is a Quasicrystal?

  • Quasicrystal is essentially a crystal-like substance.
  • However, unlike a crystal, in which atoms are arranged in a repeating pattern, a quasicrystal consists of atoms that are arranged in a pattern that doesn’t repeat itself regularly.
  • For the longest time, physicists believed every crystalline arrangement of atoms must have a pattern that repeats itself perfectly over and over again.
  • However, this changed in 1982, when material scientist Dan Shechtman discovered crystal structures that are mathematically regular, but that do not repeat themselves.

How are they formed?

  • Electrical discharge triggered quasicrystal formation in the recent finding.
  • It’s also the first time that researchers have found a quasicrystal somewhere other than meteorites or the debris from nuclear blasts.

Applications of quasicrystals

  • There is no major commercial applications yet exploit properties of the quasicrystalline state directly.
  • Quasicrystals form in compounds noted for their high strength and light weight, suggesting potential applications in aerospace and other industries.
  • They can be used in surgical instruments, LED lights and non-stick frying pans.

 

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare: Applications, Concerns and regulations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : NA

Mains level : Use of AI in medical field and challenges

AI

Context

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) was regarded as a revolutionary technology around the early 21st century. Although it has encountered its rise and fall, currently its rapid and pervasive applications have been termed the second coming of AI. It is employed in a variety of sectors, and there is a drive to create practical applications that may improve our daily lives and society. Healthcare is a highly promising, but also a challenging domain for AI.

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ChatGPT: The latest model

  • While still in its early stages, AI applications are rapidly evolving.
  • For instance, ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) that utilizes deep learning techniques that are trained on text data.
  • This model has been used in a variety of applications, including language translation, text summarisation, conversation generation, text-to-text generation and others.

AI

What is Artificial Intelligence?

  • AI is a constellation of technologies that enable machines to act with higher levels of intelligence and emulate the human capabilities of sense, comprehend and act.
  • The natural language processing and inference engines can enable AI systems to analyze and understand the information collected.
  • An AI system can also take action through technologies such as expert systems and inference engines or undertake actions in the physical world.
  • These human-like capabilities are augmented by the ability to learn from experience and keep adapting over time.
  • AI systems are finding ever-wider application to supplement these capabilities across various sectors.

AI

Concerns of Using AI tools in medical field

  • The potential for misinformation to be generated: As the model is trained on a large volume of data, it may inadvertently include misinformation in its responses. This could lead to patients receiving incorrect or harmful medical advice, potentially leading to serious health consequences.
  • The potential for bias to be introduced into the results: As the model is trained on data, it may perpetuate existing biases and stereotypes, leading to inaccurate or unfair conclusions in research studies as well as in routine care.
  • Ethical concerns: In addition, AI tools’ ability to generate human-like text can also raise ethical concerns in various sectors such as in the research field, education, journalism, law, etc.
  • For example: The model can be used to generate fake scientific papers and articles, which can potentially deceive researchers and mislead the scientific community.

AI

AI tools should be used with caution considering the context

  • Governance framework: The governance framework can help manage the potential risks and harms by setting standards, monitoring and enforcing policies and regulations, providing feedback and reports on their performance, and ensuring development and deployment with respect to ethical principles, human rights, and safety considerations.
  • Ensuring the awareness about possible negative consequences: Additionally, governance frameworks can promote accountability and transparency by ensuring that researchers and practitioners are aware of the possible negative consequences of implementing this paradigm and encouraging them to employ it responsibly.
  • A platform for dialogue and exchange of information: The deployment of a governance framework can provide a structured approach for dialogue and facilitate the exchange of information and perspectives among stakeholders, leading to the development of more effective solutions to the problem.

AI

Approach for the effective implementation of AI regulation in healthcare

  • Relational governance model into the AI governance framework: Relational governance is a model that considers the relationships between various stakeholders in the governance of AI.
  • Establishing international agreements and standards: At the international level, relational governance in AI in healthcare (AI-H) can be facilitated through the establishment of international agreements and standards. This includes agreements on data privacy and security, as well as ethical and transparent AI development.
  • Use of AI in responsible manner across borders: By establishing a common understanding of the responsibilities of each stakeholder in AI governance, international collaboration can help to ensure that AI is used in a consistent and responsible manner across borders.
  • Government regulations at national level: At the national level, relational governance in AI-H can be implemented through government regulations and policies that reflect the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder. This includes laws and regulations on data privacy and security, as well as policies that encourage the ethical and transparent use of AI-H.
  • Regular monitoring and strict compliance mechanism: Setting up periodic monitoring/auditing systems and enforcement mechanisms, and imposing sanctions on the industry for noncompliance with the legislation can all help to promote the appropriate use of AI.
  • Education and awareness at the user level: Patients and healthcare providers should be informed about the benefits and risks of AI, as well as their rights and responsibilities in relation to AI use. This can help to build trust and confidence in AI systems, and encourage the responsible use of AI-H.
  • Industry-led initiatives and standards at the industry level: The relational governance in AI-H can be promoted through industry-led initiatives and standards. This includes establishing industry standards and norms (for example, International Organization for Standardization) based on user requirements (healthcare providers, patients, and governments), as well as implementing data privacy and security measures in AI systems.

Conclusion

  • India’s presidency of the G20 summit provides a platform to initiate dialogue on AI regulation and highlight the need for the implementation of AI regulations in healthcare. The G20 members can collaborate to create AI regulation, considering the unique needs and challenges of the healthcare sector. The set of measures, carried out at various levels, need to assure that AI systems are regularly reviewed and updated and ensure that they remain effective and safe for patients.

Mains question

Q. Use of AI in Healthcare is highly promising but also a challenging domain. Discuss. Suggest what should be the right approach for AI regulation in Healthcare?

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Bard: Google’s answer to ‘ChatGPT’

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Bard, ChatGPT, AI

Mains level : AI, Machine Learning

bard

Google has finally decided to answer the challenge and threat posed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and its AI chatbot- ChatGPT.

What is Bard, when can I access it?

  • Google’s Bard is functioned on LaMDA, the firm’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications system, and has been in development for several years.
  • It is what Sunder Pichai termed an “experimental conversational AI service”.
  • Google will be opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.
  • It is not yet publicly available.

What is Bard based on?

  • Bard is built on Transformer technology—which is also the backbone of ChatGPT and other AI bots.
  • Transformer technology was pioneered by Google and made open-source in 2017.
  • Transformer technology is a neural network architecture, which is capable of making predictions based on inputs and is primarily used in natural language processing and computer vision technology.
  • Previously, a Google engineer claimed LaMDA was a ‘sentient’ being with consciousness.

How does it work?

  • Bard draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.
  • In short, it will give in-depth, conversational and essay-style answers just like ChatGPT does right now.
  • It requires significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users, allowing for more feedback.

A user will be able to ask Bard to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.

 

What about its computing power?

  • Remember running these models also requires significant computing power.
  • For instance, ChatGPT is powered by Microsoft’s Azure Cloud services.
  • This also explains why the service often runs into errors at times, because too many people are accessing it.

Key difference between ChatGPT and Google’s Bard

  • It appears that to take on ChatGPT, Google has an ace up its sleeve: the ability to draw information from the Internet.
  • Bard draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.
  • ChatGPT has impressed with its ability to respond to complex queries — though with varying degrees of accuracy — but its biggest shortcoming perhaps is that it cannot access real-time information from the Internet.
  • ChatGPT’s language model was trained on a vast dataset to generate text based on the input, and the dataset, at the moment, only includes information until 2021.

Is Bard better than ChatGPT?

  • Bard looks like a limited rollout right now.
  • Google is looking for a lot of feedback at the moment around Bard, so it is hard to say whether it can answer more questions than ChatGPT.
  • Google has also not made clear the amount of knowledge that Bard possesses.
  • For instance, with ChatGPT, we know its knowledge is limited to events till 2021.
  • Of course, it is based on LaMDA, which has been in the news for a while now.

Why has Google announced Bard right now?

  • Bard comes as Microsoft is preparing to announce an integration of ChatGPT into its Bing Search engine.
  • Google might have invented the ‘Transformer’ technology, but it is now being seen as a latecomer to the AI revolution.
  • ChatGPT in many ways is being called the end of Google Search, given that conversational AI can give long, essay style and sometimes elegant answers to a user’s queries.
  • Of course, not all of these are correct, but then AI is capable of correcting itself as well and learning from mistakes.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Muons and their use to analyse large structures

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Muons

Mains level : Not Much

muon

As per a new study, researchers are examining the fortress wall of Xi’an, an ancient city in China, by using tiny outer space particles ‘Muon’ that can penetrate hundreds of metres of stone surfaces.

What are Muons?

  • Muons are subatomic particles raining from space.
  • They are created when the particles in Earth’s atmosphere collide with cosmic rays — clusters of high-energy particles that move through space at just below the speed of light.
  • About 10,000 muons reach every square metre of the Earth’s surface a minute.
  • These particles resemble electrons but are 207 times as massive.
  • Therefore, they are sometimes called “fat electrons”. Because muons are so heavy, they can travel through hundreds of metres of rock or other matter before getting absorbed or decaying into electrons and neutrinos.
  • In comparison, electrons can penetrate through only a few centimetres. Muons are highly unstable and exist for just 2.2 microseconds.

What is muon tomography or muography?

  • Muography is conceptually similar to X-ray but capable of scanning much larger and wider structures, owing to the penetration power of muons.
  • As these high-energy particles are naturally produced and ubiquitous, all one needs to do is place a muon detector underneath, within or near the object of interest.
  • The detector then tracks the number of muons going through the object from different directions, to form a three-dimensional image.

Muons and archaeology

  • The technique was first used in the late 1960s, when Nobel Laureate and US experimental physicist Luis Alvarez joined hands with Egyptologists to search for hidden chambers in the Pyramid of Khafre, Giza.
  • Nothing was found at the time.

Recent feats achieved

  • In 2017, modern archaeologists repeated the experiment with more sophisticated and advanced muon detectors and stumbled upon a major finding.
  • By placing several detectors, the archaeologists were able to discover a previously unknown chamber at least 30 metres long.
  • It was the first major inner structure to be found in the pyramid since the 19th century.

Uses of muography beyond archaeology

  • Apart from archaeology, muography has found use in customs security, internal imaging of volcanoes and others.
  • Around 2015, scientists used the technique to look inside the Fukushima nuclear reactors after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
  • As the site was highly radioactive, they put the two muon detectors in 10 centimetres thick boxes to protect them from radiation and then carried out the scanning.
  • Muography is also being used by researchers to analyse Mount Vesuvius, a volcano in Italy.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Artificial intelligence(AI): An immediate challenge flagged by ChatGPT

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : ChatGPT and other such AI tools

Mains level : AI, advantages, concerns and policies

AI

Context

  • With the launch of Open AI’s ChatGPT late last year, the impending changes in the nature of work, creativity and economy as a whole have moved from being the subject of futuristic jargon to an immediate challenge.

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Background

  • Since at least 2015 when Klaus Schwab popularised the term Fourth Industrial Revolution at that year’s World Economic Forum terms like 4IR, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, Future of Work, entered the lexicon of politicians, bureaucrats, consultants and policy analysts.

Sample developments over just the last few days

  • A judge in Colombia included his conversations with ChatGPT in a ruling;
  • Microsoft is integrating the bot with its search engine, Bing, and other products;
  • Google is reportedly trying to launch a similar tool and there are reports that ChatGPT can already code at entry level for Google engineers.

What are the Concerns?

  • Lifestyle may become redundant: Concerns about plagiarism in universities and beyond, as well as the fear that many white-collar jobs may become redundant in the coming years, as AI becomes more ubiquitous and sophisticated.
  • Implications on labour, education and authenticity: The AI revolution is likely to have serious implications on labour, education, authenticity of content and its authorship, and much else.
  • Case of Social media’s influence in US elections: The concerns around social media’s influence on politics and society became sharp in the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential elections and accusations of voter manipulation by foreign agents. Much of the world is still struggling with the questions raised then.

AI

Do you what exactly ChatGPT is?

  • Simple definition: ChatGPT is a chatbot built on a large-scale transformer-based language model that is trained on a diverse dataset of text and is capable of generating human-like responses to prompts.
  • A human like language model: It is based on GPT-3.5, a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.
  • It is more engaging with details: However, while the older GPT-3 model only took text prompts and tried to continue on that with its own generated text, ChatGPT is more engaging. It’s much better at generating detailed text and can even come up with poems.
  • Keeps the memory of the conversations: Another unique characteristic is memory. The bot can remember earlier comments in a conversation and recount them to the user.
  • Human- like resemblance: A conversation with ChatGPT is like talking to a computer, a smart one, which appears to have some semblance of human-like intelligence.

AI

Anticipating possible futures requires engagement with the opportunities

  • The Struggle to keep up with technology in policymaking:
  1. Governments worldwide face a challenge in creating policies that keep up with the rapid pace of technological advancement.
  2. Policymakers should understand that they must work to bridge the gap between technology and regulation, as a growing divide could lead to problems.
  • Preparing for technological change in education and workforce:
  1. In addition to creating regulations that support innovation, it’s crucial to plan for the changes that new technology will bring to education and employment.
  2. This includes anticipating new job types and skills required, as well as updating the education system to prepare future workers.
  • Importance of Preparing for technological change for India:
  1. India has been facing the challenge of balancing privacy and regulation in the handling of data for several years.
  2. Successfully adapting to technological changes is crucial for India to make the most of its large, young workforce. If not addressed in time, the consequences could be severe

Conclusion

  • The transformations the new technology is bound to bring about must be met with swift adjustments in the broader national and international legal and policy architecture. The lag between technology innovation and policy that was seen with the rise of Big Data and social media can serve as a lesson.

Mains Question

Q. With the rapid innovations and launching of Artificial intelligence models everyday will change the nature of work, creativity and economy as a whole. comment

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Project ELLORA to preserve ‘rare’ Indian languages with AI

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Project ELLORA

Mains level : Not Much

Microsoft’s Project ELLORA is helping small languages like Gondi, Mundari become eloquent for the digital world.

Project ELLORA

  • To bring ‘rare’ Indian languages online, Microsoft launched the Project ELLORA or Enabling Low Resource Languages in 2015.
  • Under the project, researchers are building digital resources of the languages.
  • They say that their purpose is to preserve a language for posterity so that users of these languages “can participate and interact in the digital world.”

How is ELLORA creating a language dataset?

  • The researchers are mapping out resources, including printed literature, to create a dataset to train their AI model.
  • The team is also working with these communities on the project.
  • By involving the community in the data collection process, researchers hope to create a dataset that is both accurate and culturally relevant.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

AI-Generated Art: Paradox of capturing humanity

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI generated Art, Latest developments in AI

Mains level : AI generated Art, controversies and the question of ethics

AI

Context

  • Around the end of last year, social media spaces were trending with Lensa-generated images of online users. A subscription app, Lensa, makes graphic portraits, called “Magic Avatar” images, using selfies uploaded by its users. As AI takes a strong foothold over the realm of art, are we equipped with mechanisms to define what is right and what is wrong in this domain in the first place?

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The case of Lensa app

  • A subscription app, Lensa, makes graphic portraits, called Magic Avatar images, using selfies uploaded by its users.
  • Celebrities worldwide stepped in to show how they looked so perfect in their avatars in a Lensa world.
  • However, a few days later, hundreds of women netizens worldwide started flagging issues with their avatars. They pointed out how their avatar images had their waists snatched and showed sultry poses.
  • Even after these women uploaded different pictures, Lensa generated hyper-sexualised, semi-pornographic images.

How art is generated using Artificial Intelligence?

  • Uses algorithms based on textual prompts: AI art is any art form generated using Artificial Intelligence. It uses algorithms that learn a specific aesthetic based on textual prompts and, after that, go through vast amounts of data in the form of available images as the first step.
  • Algorithms generate new images: In the next step, the algorithm tries to generate new images that tally with the kind of aesthetics that it has learnt.
  • Role of artists with right keystrokes: The artist becomes more like a curator who inputs the right prompt to develop an aesthetically-fulfilling output. While artists use brush strokes in other digital platforms like Adobe Photoshop, in programmess like Dall-E and Midjourney, all it takes are keystrokes.
  • For example: The generation of an artwork like Starry Night in the digital era. While Van Gogh would have taken days of effort to conceptualise and get the correct strokes and paint, in the AI art era, it is just a matter of the right textual prompts.

AI

Can it truly capture the essence of humanity?

  • The impact of AI-generation on the masses’ experience of art: Art is one of the few pursuits that makes life meaningful. It remains to be seen if AI-generated art will alienate the experience of art from the masses.
  • AI takes away the satisfaction of creating artworks: AI-generated art dehumanises artworks. Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of generating an artwork lies in making it.
  • The questions over the capability of AI to capture subtle human emotions: It is also doubtful whether AI art will capture the most subtle of human emotions. How much humour is “humorous” for AI? Can AI express grief and pain in the most profound ways as described by our poets? Can AI capture the enigmatic smile of Mona Lisa that makes one believe that she is shrouded in mystery?

Have you heard about Midjourney?

  • Midjourney is an AI based art generator that has been created to explore new mediums of thought.
  • It is an interactive bot, which uses machine learning (ML) to create images based on texts. This AI system utilises the concepts and tries to convert them into visual reality.
  • It is quite similar to other technologies such as DALL-E 2.

AI

Arguments in favor of such art

  • Thatre D opera Spatial generated by Midjourney: The question of whether AI art is causing “a death of artistry” was raised, last year, when an entry called “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial” generated from Midjourney (an artificial intelligence programme) by Jason M Allen won the Blue Ribbon at the Colorado State Fair.
  • Finding suitable prompts is no less than a genius art: AI artists like Allen think finding suitable prompts to create an artwork amounts to creativity and qualifies AI art as genuine or authentic.
  • AI could democratise art world: Some artists believe AI art could democratise the art world by removing gatekeepers.

Concerns over the biases in data

  • There is bias in this data available for AI inputs due to a lack of representation of the less privileged communities’ women, people of colour and other marginalised groups.
  • Most of the training data for AI art currently emerges in the Global North and is often mired by the stereotypes of ableism, racism and sexism.
  • Historically, art has performed a political function as a venue for dissent. Can AI art overcome these inherent biases in data to bring out meaningful political engagement?

AI

Conclusion

  • AI-generated art can bring new ideas and possibilities to the art world, but it is important to think about how it might change people’s experience of art and if it takes away the human touch. It is also important to question if AI can truly capture the emotions that make art so special. It’s best to approach AI-generated art with an open mind and consider both the good and bad.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Superconductivity in Mercury

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Superconductivity in Mercury

Mains level : Not Much

mercury

This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in TH.

What is a superconductor?

  • A superconductor is defined as a substance that offers no resistance to the electric current when it becomes colder than a critical temperature.
  • Some of the popular examples of superconductors are aluminium, magnesium diboride, niobium, copper oxide, yttrium barium and iron pnictides.

How mercury becomes superconductor?

  • In 1911, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity in mercury.
  • He found that at a very low temperature, called the threshold temperature, solid mercury offers no resistance to the flow of electric current.

How is mercury capable of achieving superconductivity?

Ans. Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory

  • Scientists classified mercury as a conventional superconductor because its superconductivity could be explained by the concepts of Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory.
  • While scientists have used the BCS theory to explain superconductivity in various materials, they have never fully understood how it operates in mercury — the oldest superconductor.
  • The researchers used state-of-the-art theoretical and computational approaches and found that all physical properties relevant for conventional superconductivity are anomalous in some respect in mercury.

How BCS explains it?

  • In BCS superconductors, vibrational energy released by the grid of atoms encourages electrons to pair up, forming so-called Cooper pairs.
  • These Copper pairs can move like water in a stream, facing no resistance to their flow, below a threshold temperature.
  • By including certain factors that physicists had previously side-lined, the group’s calculations led to a clearer picture of how superconductivity emerges in mercury.
  • For example, when the researchers accounted for the relationship between an electron’s spin and momentum, they could explain why mercury has such a low threshold temperature (around –270°C).

Coulomb repulsion and Mercury

  • Similarly, the group found that one electron in each pair in mercury occupied a higher energy level than the other.
  • This detail reportedly lowered the Coulomb repulsion (like charges repel) between them and nurtured superconductivity.
  • Thus, the group has explained how mercury becomes a superconductor below its threshold temperature.
  • Their methods and findings suggest that we could have missed similar anomalous effects in other materials, leading to previously undiscovered ones that can be exploited for new and better real-world applications.

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Green Hydrogen Mission: India in the right bus in the right direction

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Green hydrogen and its applications

Mains level : National Green Hydrogen mission

Mission

Context

  • As countries work on reducing their dependence on fossil fuels due to climate change considerations, a race is currently on to secure the energy sources of the future. Green hydrogen, produced through a clean process, is rightly seen as the most dependable source of energy of the future.

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Mission

Highlights: India’s efforts towards clean energy transition and the challenges

  • Seasonality challenge for solar and Wind energy: Solar and wind energy have almost been tamed, but their intermittency and seasonality continue to be a challenge.
  • High cost of nuclear energy: The Nuclear energy has been in use for several decades now, but its cost remains a constraint.
  • Electric vehicles are still not convenient: Even though electric vehicles are fast gaining in popularity, the convenience of petrol or diesel is still missing.
  • The government approval to the National Green Hydrogen Mission: recently government approved National green hydrogen Mission a keenly-awaited decision. The nearly Rs 20,000 crore mission is aimed at building domestic capabilities in developing technologies to produce hydrogen, an element that is readily available in nature but never alone, because of which it requires segregation.

What is Green Hydrogen?

  • Clean and no harmful gas emission: The Green hydrogen is the one produced with no harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Produced by electrolysis of water: It is made by using clean electricity from surplus renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power, to electrolyse water. Electrolysers use an electrochemical reaction to split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, emitting zero-carbon dioxide in the process.
  • Energy intensive process: It is an energy-intensive process for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable power to achieve this.

Analysis: Green Hydrogen most dependable source of energy of the future

  • Energy of the future: The Green hydrogen, produced through a clean process, is rightly seen as the most dependable source of energy of the future.
  • Fuel for vehicles or to generate electricity: It can be used to generate electricity or as fuel in industries or vehicles.
  • Not yet cost effective: Even though the technology to produce hydrogen in an emission-free manner is not yet mature or cost-effective, it features prominently in several countries’ strategies to achieve net-zero emission status by the middle of this century.
  • Production is expensive: The green hydrogen currently makes up a small percentage of the overall hydrogen, because production is expensive. The current cost of green hydrogen in India is ₹300 to ₹400 per kg.

Mission

Late entry in Solar energy: a lesson to be remembered

  • Green hydrogen is still in a nascent stage: Efforts to harness the energy of hydrogen in a clean and affordable manner have been stepped up significantly in the last few years. In many ways, green hydrogen is where solar energy was 10-12 years ago.
  • Technology was available but not economical: The technology to harness the energy was available, but wasn’t economical. Then, dramatically, in a period of less than five years, a combination of technology improvement and massive demand in countries like China saw the prices of solar photovoltaic cells come down by 80-90 per cent, suddenly making solar energy an extremely attractive proposition.
  • India’s entry in solar revolution was a little late: India joined the solar revolution a little late, after the prices had come down. And while India is now one of the biggest players in solar energy, most of the raw materials and components are imported.
  • The big concern: There are already concerns that inability to develop domestic capabilities in solar manufacturing will only result in India moving from one kind of dependency oil imports to another.

Mission

National hydrogen mission: India’s efforts in right direction

  • Early entry in Hydrogen energy: With the hydrogen mission, India is making a relatively early entry into a still nascent technology domain.
  • Emphasis on developing domestic manufacturing capabilities: It is reassuring to see that the bulk of the financial allocation for the mission is geared towards developing domestic manufacturing of electrolysers, the equipment in which hydrogen is separated from water molecules, and the production of hydrogen.
  • Allocation of funds for R&D, a move in right direction: A substantial part of the money has been earmarked for R&D activities with the aim of developing globally competitive technologies.

Conclusion

  • With the much-needed hydrogen mission, India is making a relatively early entry into a still nascent technology domain. It is important not to miss the bus like the solar revolution this time. For now, the government seems to be moving in the right direction.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

AI generative models and the question of Ethics

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Latest developments in AI

Mains level : ChatGPT, AI generative models, limitations and challenges

AI

Context

  • 2022 had an unusual blue-ribbon winner for emerging digital artists; Jason Allen’s winning work Théâtre D’opéra Spatial was created with an AI Generative model called Midjourney.

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What is Midjourney?

  • Midjourney is an AI based art generator that has been created to explore new mediums of thought.
  • It is an interactive bot, which uses machine learning (ML) to create images based on texts. This AI system utilises the concepts and tries to convert them into visual reality.
  • It is quite similar to other technologies such as DALL-E 2.

AI

The journey of AI generative models so far

  • Midjourney generator: Midjourney is one of the rash of AI-generated Transformer or Generative or Large Language Models (LLMs) which have exploded onto our world in the last few years.
  • Earlier models: Models like BERT and Megatron (2019) were relatively small models, with up to 174 GB of dataset size, and passed under the collective public radar.
  • Composition skills of GPT3: GPT3, released by OpenAI with a 570 GB dataset and 175bn parameters was the first one to capture the public consciousness with some amazing writing and composition skills.
  • Models that creat images or videos based on texts: The real magic, however, started with Transformers which could create beautiful and realistic pieces of art with just a text prompt OpenAI’s DALL-E2, Google’s Imagen, the open-source Stable Diffusion and, obviously, Midjourney. Not to be left behind, Meta unleashed a transformer which could create videos from text prompts.
  • ChatGPT, a latest and more evolved, like real communication: Recently in late 2022 came the transformer to rule them all ChatGPT built on GPT3, but with capabilities to have real conversations with human beings.

AI

Are these models ethical?

  • Ethics is too complex a subject to address in one short article. There are three big ethical questions on these models that humanity will have to address in short order.
  1. Environmental: Most of the bad rap goes to crypto and blockchain, but the cloud and these AI models running on it take enormous amounts of energy. Training a large transformer model just once would have CO2 emissions equivalent to 125 roundtrips from New York to Beijing. This cloud is the hundreds of data centres that dot our planet, and they guzzle water and power at alarming rates.
  2. Bias; as it do not understand meaning and its implications: The other thorny ethical issue is that sheer size does not guarantee diversity. Timnit Gebru was with Google when she co-wrote a seminal research paper calling these LLMs ‘stochastic parrots’, because, like parrots, they just repeated a senseless litany of words without understanding their meaning and implications.
  3. Plagiarism, question of who owns the original content: The third prickly ethical issue, which also prompted the artist backlash to Allen’s award-winning work is that of plagiarism. If Stable Diffusion or DALL-E 2 did all the work of scouring the web and combining multiple images (a Pablo Picasso Mona Lisa, for example), who owns it. Currently, OpenAI has ownership of all images created with DALL-E, and their business model is to allow paid users to have rights to reproduce, paint, sell and merchandise images they create. This is a legal minefield the US Copyrights office recently refused to grant a copyright to a piece created by a generative AI called Creativity Machine, but South Africa and Australia have recently announced that AI can be considered an inventor.

AI

Do you know ChatGPT?

  • ChatGPT is a chatbot built on a large-scale transformer-based language model that is trained on a diverse dataset of text and is capable of generating human-like responses to prompts.
  • A conversation with ChatGPT is like talking to a computer, a smart one, which appears to have some semblance of human-like intelligence.

What are the other concerns?

  • Besides the legal quagmire, there is a bigger fear: This kind of cheap, mass-produced art could put artists, photographers, and graphic designers out of their jobs.
  • Machine does not have human like sense: A machine is not necessarily creating art, it is crunching and manipulating data and it has no idea or sense of what and why it is doing so.
  • As it is cheap, corporate might consider using it at a large scale: But it can do so cheaply, and at scale. Corporate customers might seriously consider it for their creative, advertising, and other needs.

Conclusion

  • Legal and political leaders across the world are sounding the alarm about the ethics of large generative models, and for good reason. As these models become increasingly powerful in the hands of Big Tech, with their unlimited budgets, brains and computing power, these issues of bias, environmental damage and plagiarism will become even more fraught. Such AI models should not be used to create chaos rather a harmonious existence.

Mains question

Q. Name some of the models of AI based art generators. Discuss the ethical concerns of such models.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

129th birth anniversary of Satyendra Nath Bose

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Boson, Satyendranath Bose

Mains level : Not Much

satyendra nath bose

Born on January 1, 1894, Bose collaborated with Einstein to develop what we now know as the Bose-Einstein statistics. We take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.

Satyendra Nath Bose

  • Born on January 1, 1894, Bose grew up and studied in Kolkata, where he solidified his position as an exemplary academician.
  • His father, an accountant in the Executive Engineering Department of the East Indian Railways, gave him an arithmetic problem to solve every day before going to work, encouraging Bose’s interest in mathematics.
  • By the age of 15, he began pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree at the Presidency College, and later finished his MSc in Mixed Mathematics in 1915.

Career as researchers

  • These were tough times for Indian researchers as World War I had broken out and, European scientific journals came to India quite infrequently.
  • Not only this, most of the research papers weren’t available in English and both Bose and Saha had to learn scientific terms in German and French languages to read published works.
  • However, the new skill came in handy for them in 1919, when they published English translations of Albert Einstein’s special and general relativity papers.
  • Two years later, Bose was appointed to the position of Reader in Physics at the University of Dhaka. It was here that he made his most significant contributions to physics.

Association with Einstein

  • Bose wrote a letter to Albert Einstein in 1924 about his breakthrough in quantum mechanics.
  • He claimed that he had derived Planck’s law for black body radiation (which refers to the spectrum of light emitted by any hot object) without any reference to classical electrodynamics.
  • Impressed by Bose’s findings, Einstein not only arranged for the publication of the paper but also translated it into German.
  • This recognition catapulted Bose to fame and glory.

Breakthrough in the invention of Boson

  • He went on to work with Einstein and together they developed what is now known as the Bose-Einstein statistics.
  • Today, in honour of his legacy, any particle that obeys the Bose-Einstein statistics is called a boson.
  • On his 129th birth anniversary, we take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.

 

 

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

The AI storm of ChatGPT: Advantages and limitations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : What is Chatbot and ChatGPT?

Mains level : Chatbot and ChatGPT, applications, advantages and limitations

ChatGPT

Context

  • Many of us are familiar with the concept of what a “chatbot” is and what it is supposed to do. But this year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT turned a simple experience into something entirely different. ChatGPT is being seen as a path-breaking example of an AI chatbot and what the technology could achieve when applied at scale.

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ChatGPT

Background

  • ChatGPT by OpenAI: Artificial Intelligence (AI) research company OpenAI on recently announced ChatGPT, a prototype dialogue-based AI chatbot capable of understanding natural language and responding in natural language.
  • Will be able to implement in softwares soon: So far, OpenAI has only opened up the bot for evaluation and beta testing but API access is expected to follow next year. With API access, developers will be able to implement ChatGPT into their own software.
  • Remarkable abilities: But even under its beta testing phase, ChatGPT’s abilities are already quite remarkable. Aside from amusing responses like the pumpkin one above, people are already finding real-world applications and use cases for the bot.

ChatGPT

What is Chatbot?

  • A chatbot (coined from the term “chat robot”) is a computer program that simulates human conversation either by voice or text communication, and is designed to help solve a problem.
  • Organizations use chatbots to engage with customers alongside the classic customer service channels like phone, email, and social media.

What is ChatGPT?

  • Simple definition: ChatGPT is a chatbot built on a large-scale transformer-based language model that is trained on a diverse dataset of text and is capable of generating human-like responses to prompts.
  • A human like language model: It is based on GPT-3.5, a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.
  • It is more engaging with details: However, while the older GPT-3 model only took text prompts and tried to continue on that with its own generated text, ChatGPT is more engaging. It’s much better at generating detailed text and can even come up with poems.
  • Keeps the memory of the conversations: Another unique characteristic is memory. The bot can remember earlier comments in a conversation and recount them to the user.
  • Human- like resemblance: A conversation with ChatGPT is like talking to a computer, a smart one, which appears to have some semblance of human-like intelligence.

ChatGPT

The Question arises: will AI replace all of our daily writing?

  • ChatGPT is not entirely accurate: It is not entirely accurate, something even OpenAI has admitted. It is also evident that some of the essays written by ChatGPT lack the depth that a real human expert might showcase when writing on the same subject.
  • ChatGPT lacks depth like human mind: It doesn’t quite have the nuance that a human would often be able to provide. For example, when asked ChatGPT how one should cope with a cancer diagnosis. The responses were kind but generic. The type of responses you would find in any general self-help guide.
  • It lacks same experiences as humans: AI has a long way to go. After all, it doesn’t have the same experiences as a human.
  • ChatGPT doent excel in code: ChatGPT is writing basic code. As several reports have shown, ChatGPT doesn’t quite excel at this yet. But a future where basic code is written using AI doesn’t seem so incredible right now.

ChatGPT

Limitations of ChatGPT

  • ChatGPT is still prone to Misinformation: Despite of abilities of the bot there are some limitations. ChatGPT is still prone to misinformation and biases, which is something that plagued previous versions of GPT as well. The model can give incorrect answers to, say, algebraic problems.
  • ChatGPT can write incorrect answers: OpenAI understands some flaws and has noted them down on its announcement blog that “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.

Conclusion

  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT turned that simple experience into something entirely different. ChatGPT is a path-breaking example of an AI chatbot and what the technology could achieve when applied at scale. Limitations aside, ChatGPT still makes for a fun little bot to interact with. However, there are some challenges that needs to be addressed before it becomes a unavoidable part of human life.

Manis question

Q. What is ChatGPT? Discuss why it is seen as pathbreaking example of an AI chatbot and the limitations?

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Neuralink and the unnecessary suffering of animals

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Nuralink

Mains level : Nuralink and its applications and testing issues

Neuralink

Context

  • Elon Musk’s medical company, Neuralink, has been accused of causing needless suffering and death to around 1,500 animals in just short few years. Sources indicate that animal testing is proceeding too swiftly, which results in unnecessary suffering and death for the animals.

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Neuralink

What Is Neuralink?

  • A device to be inserted in brain: Neuralink is a gadget that will be surgically inserted into the brain using robotics. In this procedure, a chipset called the link is implanted in the skull.
  • Insulated wires connected to electrodes: It has a number of insulated wires connected from the electrodes that are used in the process.
  • Can be operated by smartphones: This device can then be used to operate smartphones and computers without having to touch it.

Neuralink

The science behind the human brain

  • Neurons of the Brain: The brain consists of neurons that transmit signals to cells in the body including muscle, nerve, gland and other neuron cells.
  • Functions of each part of the brain: Every neuron is made up of three parts called the dendrite, the soma (cell body) and the axon. Each of this part has its own function. The dendrite receives the signals. The soma processes these signals. The axon then transmits the signals to the other cells.
  • Neurotansmitters: The neurons are connected to one another by the synapses which release neurotransmitters. These chemical substances are then sent to another neuron cell’s dendrite causing the flow of current across the neurons.

How Does Neuralink Work?

  • Electrodes can read electric signals: The electrodes that are part of the Neuralink will read electrical signals that are produced by several neurons in the brain. The signals are then outputted in form of an action or movement.
  • Implanted directly in the brain: According to the company’s website, the device is implanted directly in the brain because placing it outside the head will not detect the signals produced by the brain accurately

Neuralink

What Does Neuralink Do?

  • To operate encephalopathy: Neuralink can be used to operate encephalopathy.
  • People with paralysis can be operated: It can also be used as a connection between the human brain and technology. This means that people with paralysis can easily operate their phones and computer directly with their brain.
  • It will help people to communicate: Its main purpose is to help people to communicate through text or voice messages.
  • Wide applications: Neuralink can also be utilised to draw pictures, take photographs and do other activities.appliactions

Conclusion

  • Though the Neuralink innovation pushing the boundaries of neural engineering, cruelty over the animals cannot be ignored.

Mains question

Q. What is Neuralink? What is the science behind the human brain and what the neuralink will do?

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

AVGC-Extended Reality Mission for Gaming Sector

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : NA

Mains level : AVGC-ER

avgc gaming

The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) Promotion Task Force report has proposed a national AVGC-Extended Reality Mission with a budget outlay to be created for integrated promotion and growth of the sector.

What is AVGC?

  • While the etymology of the word surrounds everything to do with Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics, the overarching term is an umbrella for all the sub-sectors that are contributing to India’s digital economy.
  • This includes-
  1. Animation Studios
  2. VFX Studios
  3. Game Development Studios
  4. Platforms
  5. Hardware Manufacturers
  6. Software developers
  7. Virtual Production Studios and many more entities
  • The sector saw immense growth with technological adoption as is, but it witnessed steep uptake with the onset of the pandemic.

Why focus on the AVGC sector?

  • Emerging sector: The global AVGC industry amounts to $800 billion, and the Indian AVGC sector is brimming with the potential to bag up to 5 percent of the global share ($40 billion).
  • India’s IT prowess: India today contributes about $2.5-3 billion of the estimated $260-275 billion worldwide AVGC market.
  • Skilled workforce availability: According to industry experts, the Indian market which currently employs about 1.85 lakh AVGC professionals, can witness a growth of 14-16% in the next decade.
  • Employment generation: Not only does the sector contribute significantly to the economy, it also creates an abundance of employment opportunities for several skilled sectors, with over 160,000 jobs that it could provide yearly.

Key recommendations by the task force

The report has also recommended-

  • “Create in India” campaign with an exclusive focus on content creation
  • Establishment of AVGC accelerators and innovation hubs in academic institutions
  • Democratizing AVGC technologies by promoting subscription-based pricing models for MSME, Start-ups and institutions;
  • Indigenous technology development through incentive schemes and Intellectual Property creation; and
  • Setting up a dedicated production fund for domestic content creation from across India to promote the country’s culture and heritage globally.
  • Memorandum of Cooperation with developed global AVGC markets — U.S., Japan, South Korea, Germany etc.

Way forward

  • Policy vision: Because of the wide range of sub-sectors that are amass under AVGC’s wide umbrella, there is a need for a broad vision to help further incubate this industry.
  • Up-skilling: There is a requirement for not only financing and resource allocation for the sector, but also education and talent development.
  • Collaboration: Gaming, VFX, and animation markets in the likes of the US or South Korea, for instance, has been heavily incubated, and are thus at the crest of the wave on a global scale today.

Conclusion

  • If it gets the correct atmosphere to grow in–especially one that covers all the bases under it, the Indian AVGC sector has the capacity to become the zenith of Digital India and the hallmark of the ‘Brand India’ dream that PM envisages.

 

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DigiYatra Initiative for facial recognition technology at Airports

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : DigiYatra

Mains level : Not Much

digiyatra

The centre has introduced paperless entry at select airports to make air travel hassle-free under the DigiYatra initiative.

What is DigiYatra?

  • DigiYatra envisages that travellers pass through various checkpoints at the airport through paperless and contactless processing.
  • This means, passengers won’t need to carry their ID card and boarding pass.
  • This would rather use facial features to establish their identity, which would be linked to the boarding pass.
  • With this technology, the entry of passengers would be automatically processed based on the facial recognition system at all checkpoints – including entry into the airport, security check areas, aircraft boarding, etc.

Implementation strategy

  • In the first phase, the initiative will be launched at seven airports, starting with three — Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi.
  • It will then be followed by four airports namely Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Vijayawada by March 2023.
  • Subsequently, the technology will be implemented across the country.

How is it being implemented?

  • The project is being implemented by the DigiYatra Foundation — a joint-venture company whose shareholders are the Airports Authority of India (26% stake) and Bengaluru Airport, Delhi Airport, Hyderabad Airport, Mumbai Airport and Cochin International Airport.
  • These five shareholders equally hold the remaining 74% of the shares.

How can people avail the DigiYatra facility?

  • For availing the service, a passenger has to register their details on the DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture.
  • In the next step, the boarding pass has to be scanned, and the credentials are shared with airport authorities.
  • At the airport e-gate, the passenger has to first scan the bar coded boarding pass and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger’s identity and travel document.
  • Once this process is done, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.
  • The passenger will have to follow the normal procedure to clear security and board the aircraft.

 

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India’s first indigenous Overhauser Magnetometer

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Overhauser Magnetometers

Mains level : Not Much

magnet

Indian scientists have developed an indigenous Overhauser Magnetometer, one of the most accurate magnetometers extensively used by all magnetic observatories around the world.

What are Overhauser Magnetometers?

  • A magnetometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field.
  • OVH magnetometers are known for their higher accuracy, higher sensitivity, and efficient power consumption.
  • They find applications in all magnetic observatories worldwide as well as in international space programs.
  • It has so far been imported for such purposes in India.

Feats achieved

  • The performance of this indigenously made magnetometer is at par with a commercial OVH sensor that is currently installed at the magnetic observatories of IIG.
  • The Indian OVH sensor reproduced the geomagnetic diurnal variations accurately and precisely.
  • It showed the signatures of various space weather events such as geomagnetic storms, sudden impulses, etc.
  • It would also be of potential help to develop a sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instrument.

Benefits of OVH magnetometers

  • OVH magnetometers reduce the cost of sampling and sensing experiments essential for geomagnetic sampling.
  • It can reduce India’s dependence on commercial OVH magnetometers for performing geomagnetic field measurements.

 

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What is Web 3.0?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Web 3.0

Mains level : Not Much

web

India has a rapidly-growing Web3 ecosystem with more than 450 active start-ups in the space that raised $1.3 billion in funding till April 2022.

What is Web 3.0?

  • Web3 help users interact with decentralized applications built on blockchain technology.
  • Web3 technologies like distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, Metaverse and others aim to create the next-generation internet, which is accessible to everyone and offers benefits.
  • Web2 is what we know and use today.

Why need Web 3?

  • Centralization has helped onboard billions of people to the World Wide Web (www) and created the stable, robust internet infrastructure.
  • At the same time, a handful of centralized entities have a stronghold on large swathes of the World Wide Web.
  • They unilaterally decide what should and should not be allowed over Internet.

Key features of a Web3

  • Immutable ecosystem, i.e., trust that people will download the digital product just as the original creator intended.
  • Enhanced transparency and security,
  • Quicker browsing performance,
  • Complete user anonymity and confidentiality,
  • Integrating cryptocurrency wallets with multiple blockchains,
  • Complete control over the content due to decentralization.

Evolution of (world-wide) web

  • The Web most of us know today is quite different from originally imagined.
  • To understand this better, it’s helpful to break the Web’s short history into loose periods—Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.

(1) Web 1.0: Read-Only (1990-2004)

  • The first inception of ‘Web 1.0’, occurred roughly between 1990 to 2004.
  • It was mainly static websites owned by companies, and there was close to zero interaction between users – individuals seldom produced content – leading to it being known as the read-only web.

(2) Web 2.0: Read-Write (2004-now)

  • The Web 2.0 period began in 2004 with the emergence of social media platforms.
  • Instead of a read-only, the web evolved to be read-write.
  • Instead of companies providing content to users, they also began to provide platforms to share user-generated content and engage in user-to-user interactions.
  • As more people came online, a handful of top companies began to control a disproportionate amount of the traffic and value generated on the web.
  • Web 2.0 also birthed the advertising-driven revenue model.
  • While users could create content, they didn’t own it or benefit from its monetization.

How is Web3 prospected to be?

  • The premise of ‘Web 3.0’ was coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood shortly after Ethereum launched in 2014.
  • Gavin put into words a solution for a problem that many early crypto adopters felt: the Web required too much trust.
  • That is, most of the Web that people know and use today relies on trusting a handful of private companies to act in the public’s best interests.

Core ideas of Web3

Although it’s challenging to provide a rigid definition of what Web3 is, a few core principles guide its creation.

  • Web3 is decentralized: instead of large swathes of the internet controlled and owned by centralized entities, ownership gets distributed amongst its builders and users.
  • Web3 is permission-less: everyone has equal access to participate in Web3, and no one gets excluded.
  • Web3 has native payments: it uses cryptocurrency for spending and sending money online instead of relying on the outdated infrastructure of banks and payment processors.
  • Web3 is secure: It operates using incentives and economic mechanisms instead of relying on trusted third-parties.

Why is Web3 important?

  • Ownership: Web3 gives you ownership of your digital assets in an unprecedented way. Web3 allows for direct ownership through non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
  • Censorship resistance: The power dynamic between platforms and content creators is massively imbalanced.
  • Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs): As well as owning your data in Web3, you can own the platform as a collective, using tokens that act like shares in a company.

 

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Private: What are Entangled Atomic Clocks?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Atomic clocks

Mains level : Not Much

For the first time, scientists at the University of Oxford have been able to demonstrate a network of two entangled optical atomic clocks.

Trending in news this year is the Quantum Technology, (As it used to be until last year were- the Internet of Things (IoT) CSP 2019, Artificial Intelligence (AI) etc.)

Must read all this news in a loop:

National Mission on QC

Quantum Coin

Quantum Supremacy

What is the news?

  • The high-precision atomic clocks and quantum entanglement have been achieved altogether.
  • This means the inherent uncertainty in measuring their frequencies simultaneously is highly reduced.

What are Atomic Clocks?

  • An atomic clock is a clock that uses the resonance frequencies of atoms as its resonator.
  • Cesium is incredibly accurate at timekeeping and is used in atomic clocks.

Fundamental limit of precision through entanglement

  • Entanglement is a quantum phenomenon in which two or more particles become linked together so that they can no longer be described independently, even at vast distances.
  • This is the key to reaching the fundamental limit of precision that’s determined by quantum theory.
  • Previous experiments have demonstrated that entanglement between two atomic clocks in the same system can be used to improve the quality of measurements.
  • This is the first time researchers have been able to achieve this between clocks in two separate remotely entangled systems.

Why do we use clocks to navigate in space?

  • To determine a spacecraft’s distance from Earth, navigators send a signal to the spacecraft, which then returns it to Earth.
  • The time the signal requires to make that two-way journey reveals the spacecraft’s distance from Earth, because the signal travels at a known speed (the speed of light).
  • While it may sound complicated, most of us use this concept every day. The grocery store might be a 30-minute walk from your house.
  • If you know you can walk about a mile in 20 minutes, then you can calculate the distance to the store.
  • By sending multiple signals and taking many measurements over time, navigators can calculate a spacecraft’s trajectory: where it is and where it’s headed.

Why need atomic clocks?

  • To know the spacecraft’s position within a meter, navigators’ need clocks with precision time resolution — clocks that can measure billionths of a second.
  • Navigators also need clocks that are extremely stable.
  • Stability refers to how consistently a clock measures a unit of time; its measurement of the length of a second, for example, needs to be the same (to better than a billionth of a second) over days and weeks.

What is an oscillator in a clock?

  • Most modern clocks, from wristwatches to those used on satellites, keep time using a quartz crystal oscillator.
  • These devices take advantage of the fact that quartz crystals vibrate at a precise frequency when voltage is applied to them.
  • The vibrations of the crystal act like the pendulum of a grandfather clock, ticking off how much time has passed.

What do atoms have to do with clocks?

  • By space navigation standards, quartz crystal clocks aren’t very stable.
  • After only an hour, even the best-performing quartz oscillators can be off by a nanosecond (one billionth of a second).
  • After six weeks, they may be off by a full millisecond (one thousandth of a second), or a distance error of 185 miles (300 kilometers).
  • That would have a huge impact on measuring the position of a fast-moving spacecraft.
  • Atomic clocks combine a quartz crystal oscillator with an ensemble of atoms to achieve greater stability.

 

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Dvorak Technique of Weather Forecasting

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Dvorak Technique

Mains level : Weather forecasting

Recently, the American meteorologist Vernon Dvorak passed away at the age of 100 who pioneered the widely used Dvorak Technique.

Who was Vernon Dvorak?

  • Dvorak was an American meteorologist best credited for developing the Dvorak (read as Do-rak) technique in the early 1970s.
  • The technique helps forecast the tropical storm.
  • His technique has saved the lives of millions of people across the world and will continue to do so.

What is the Dvorak technique?

  • The Dvorak technique was first developed in 1969 and tested for observing storms in the northwest Pacific Ocean.
  • Forecasters used the available satellite images obtained from polar orbiting satellites to examine the features of the developing tropical storms (hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons).
  • During day time, images in the visible spectrum were used while at night, the ocean would be observed using infrared images.
  • It was a cloud pattern recognition technique based on a concept model of the development and decay of the tropical cyclone.

Why is technique still widely in use?

  • Unlike land, ocean observations in the 1970s were sparse.
  • Today, there continues to be an improved network of land-based meteorological observations, either in the form of taking manual observations, installing automatic weather stations or automatic rain gauges.
  • On the other hand, ocean observations still remain limited.
  • There are many vast regions across the four oceans that have not been fully examined with meteorological instruments.
  • Ocean observations are mostly taken by deploying buoys or dedicated ships, but the number of observations from the seas is still not sufficient across the world.
  • That is why meteorologists have had to depend more on satellite-based imageries, and combine it with the available ocean-data at the time of forecasting the intensity and wind speed of the tropical cyclones.

 

 

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Cyborg Cockroaches to help in urban search-rescue missions

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Cyborg

Mains level : Not Much

cyborg

Japanese scientists have devised a system that can create cyborg cockroaches that are part insect and part machine.

Cyborg cockroaches

  • Cyborg cockroaches’ movements are controlled by tiny integrated circuits.
  • They will be able to conduct surveillance in procedures like urban search and rescue, environmental monitoring and inspection of areas dangerous to humans.
  • By equipping the cockroaches with small wireless control modules, handlers will be able to control the insect’s legs remotely for long periods of time.
  • The team used Madagascar cockroaches, which are not only the largest species of cockroaches, reaching an estimated 6 cm, but are also known for making hissing sounds when disturbed, which they make by expelling air from the openings on their back.

How is it powered?

  • The researchers also designed the system to be rechargeable, by powering it with a super thin 0.004 mm solar cell module that is installed on the dorsal side of the cockroach’s abdomen.
  • This was done to ensure that the battery remains charged and the cockroach can be controlled for long periods of time, while simultaneously ensuring that the movement remains unhindered.

 

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Hellfire R9X missile: The mystery weapon

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Hellfire R9X Missile

Mains level : Strategic weapons

The US military used its ‘secret weapon’ — the Hellfire R9X missile – to kill Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of a safehouse in Kabul.

What is the Hellfire R9X missile?

  • Better known in military circles as the AGM-114 R9X, the Hellfire R9X is a US-origin missile known to cause minimum collateral damage while engaging individual targets.
  • Also known as the ‘Ninja Missile’, this weapon does not carry a warhead and instead deploys razor-sharp blades at the terminal stage of its attack trajectory.
  • This helps it to break through even thick steel sheets and cut down the target using the kinetic energy of its propulsion without causing any damage to the persons in the general vicinity or to the structure of the building.
  • The blades pop out of the missile and cut down the intended target without causing the massive damage to the surroundings which would be the case with a missile carrying an explosive warhead.

When did the Hellfire missile enter active service?

  • The Hellfire 9RX missile is known to have been in active service since 2017.
  • However, its existence became public knowledge two years later in 2019.
  • It is a variant of the original Hellfire missile family which is used in conventional form with warheads and is traditionally used from helicopters, ground-based vehicles, and sometimes small ships and fast moving vessels.
  • For several years now, the Hellfire family of missiles, including the ‘Ninja Missile’, are armed on Combat Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones.

What is known about the other Hellfire missile variants?

  • Hellfire is actually an acronym for Heliborne, Laser, Fire and Forget Missile and it was developed in the US initially to target tanks from the Apache AH-64 attack helicopters.
  • Later, the usage of these missiles spread to several other variants of helicopters and also ground and sea-based systems and drones.
  • Developed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, the Hellfire missile has other variants such as ‘Longbow’ and ‘Romeo’ apart from the ‘Ninja’.

 

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AlphaFold: AI-based Protein Structure Prediction Tool

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AlphaFold

Mains level : Not Much

DeepMind, a company based in London and owned by Google, announced that it had predicted the three-dimensional structures of more than 200 million proteins using AlphaFold.

This is the entire protein universe known to scientists today.

What is AlphaFold?

  • AlphaFold is an AI-based protein structure prediction tool.
  • It is based on a computer system called deep neural network.
  • Inspired by the human brain, neural networks use a large amount of input data and provide the desired output exactly like how a human brain would.
  • The real work is done by the black box between the input and the output layers, called the hidden networks. AlphaFold is fed with protein sequences as input.
  • When protein sequences enter through one end, the predicted three-dimensional structures come out through the other.
  • It is like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

How does AlphaFold work?

  • It uses processes based on “training, learning, retraining and relearning.”
  • The first step uses the available structures of 1,70,000 proteins in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) to train the computer model.
  • Then, it uses the results of that training to learn the structural predictions of proteins not in the PDB.
  • Once that is done, it uses the high-accuracy predictions from the first step to retrain and relearn to gain higher accuracy of the earlier predictions.
  • By using this method, AlphaFold has now predicted the structures of the entire 214 million unique protein sequences deposited in the Universal Protein Resource (UniProt)

What are the implications of this development?

  • Proteins are the business ends of biology, meaning proteins carry out all the functions inside a living cell.
  • Therefore, knowing protein structure and function is essential to understanding human diseases.
  • Scientists predict protein structures using x-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, or cryogenic electron microscopy.
  • These techniques are not just time-consuming, they often take years and are based mainly on trial-and-error methods.
  • The development of AlphaFold changes all of that.
  • It is a watershed movement in science and structural biology in particular.

What does this development mean for India?

  • Vaccine development: Understanding the accurate structures of COVID-19 virus proteins in days rather than years will accelerate vaccine and drug development against the virus.
  • Structural biology: From the seminal contribution of G. N. Ramachandran in understanding protein structures to the present day, India is no stranger to the field and has produced some fine structural biologists.

Back2Basics: Proteins

  • Protein is found throughout the body—in muscle, bone, skin, hair, and virtually every other body part or tissue.
  • It makes up the enzymes that power many chemical reactions and the hemoglobin that carries oxygen in your blood.
  • At least 10,000 different proteins make you what you are and keep you that way.
  • Protein is made from twenty-plus basic building blocks called amino acids.
  • Because we don’t store amino acids, our bodies make them in two different ways: either from scratch or by modifying others.
  • Nine amino acids—histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine—known as the essential amino acids, must come from food.
  • Chemically, amino acids are organic compounds made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur.
  • There are seven types of proteins: antibodies, contractile proteins, enzymes, hormonal proteins, structural proteins, storage proteins, and transport proteins.

 

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Three new ‘exotic’ sub-atomic particles discovered  

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Quarks

Mains level : Not Much

The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment has observed three never-before-seen particles.

What is the discovery?

  • CERN was investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the “beauty quark”, or “b quark”.
  • The three “exotic” additions — a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks” — to the growing list of new hadrons were found.
  • This discovery will help physicists better understand how quarks bind together into these composite particles.

What are Quarks?

  • Quarks are elementary particles that come in six “flavours”: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom.
  • They usually combine together in groups of twos and threes to form hadrons such as the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei.
  • But they can also combine into four-quark and five-quark particles, called tetraquarks and pentaquarks.
  • These exotic hadrons were predicted by theorists about six decades ago — around the same time as conventional hadrons — but they have been observed by LHCb and other experiments only in the past 20 years.

What about tetraquarks and pentaquarks?

  • Most exotic hadrons discovered in the past two decades are tetraquarks or pentaquarks.
  • They contain a charm quark and a charm antiquark — with the remaining two or three quarks being an up, down or strange quark or their antiquarks.

 

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What is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Mains level : Not Much

The world’s most powerful particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will begin smashing protons into each other at unprecedented levels of energy beginning July 5.

What is the LHC?

  • The Large Hadron Collider is a giant, complex machine built to study particles that are the smallest known building blocks of all things.
  • Structurally, it is a 27-km-long track-loop buried 100 metres underground on the Swiss-French border.
  • In its operational state, it fires two beams of protons almost at the speed of light in opposite directions inside a ring of superconducting electromagnets.
  • The LHC’s second run (Run 2) began in 2015 and lasted till 2018. The second season of data taking produced five times more data than Run 1.
  • The third run will see 20 times more collisions as compared to Run 1.

How does it work?

  • The magnetic field created by the superconducting electromagnets keeps the protons in a tight beam and guides them along the way as they travel through beam pipes and finally collide.
  • Just prior to collision, another type of magnet is used to ‘squeeze’ the particles closer together to increase the chances of collisions.
  • The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is akin to firing two needles 10 km apart with such precision that they meet halfway.

Extreme conditions involved

  • Since the LHC’s powerful electromagnets carry almost as much current as a bolt of lightning, they must be kept chilled.
  • The LHC uses a distribution system of liquid helium to keep its critical components ultracold at minus 271.3 degrees Celsius, which is colder than interstellar space.
  • Given these requirements, it is not easy to warm up or cool down the gigantic machine.

What is the latest upgrade?

  • Three years after it shut down for maintenance and upgrades, the collider was switched back on this April.
  • This is the LHC’s third run, and it will operate round-the-clock for four years at unprecedented energy levels of 13 tera electron volts.

Note: A TeV is 100 billion, or 10-to-the-power-of-12, electon volts. An electron volt is the energy given to an electron by accelerating it through 1 volt of electric potential difference.

Targets this year

  • It now aims to be delivering 1.6 billion proton-proton collisions per second.
  • The last time, the proton beams will be narrowed to less than 10 microns — a human hair is around 70 microns thick — to increase the collision rate.
  • ATLAS is the largest general purpose particle detector experiment at the LHC.
  • The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, with the same goals as ATLAS, but which uses a different magnet-system design.

Previous runs & ‘God Particle’ discovery

  • Ten years ago, in 2012, scientists at CERN had announced to the world the discovery of the Higgs boson or the ‘God Particle’ during the LHC’s first run.
  • The discovery concluded the decades-long quest for the ‘force-carrying’ subatomic particle, and proved the existence of the Higgs mechanism, a theory put forth in the mid-sixties.
  • This led to Peter Higgs and his collaborator François Englert being awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 2013.
  • The Higgs boson and its related energy field are believed to have played a vital role in the creation

 

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What is Web 5.0?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Web and its evolution

Mains level : Not Much

Former Twitter CEO recently announced his vision for a new decentralized web platform that is being called Web 5.0 and is being built with an aim to return “ownership of data and identity to individuals”.

Various versions of Web

  • Web 1.0 was the first generation of the global digital communications network. It is often referred to as the “read-only” Internet made of static web-pages that only allowed for passive engagement.
  • Web 2.0 was the “read and write” Internet. Users were now able to communicate with servers and other users leading to the creation of the social web. This is the World Wide Web that we use today.
  • Web 3.0 is an evolving term that is used to refer to the next generation of Internet – a “read-write-execute” web – with decentralization as its bedrock. It leverages the blockchain technology and will be driven by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
  • Web 4.0 is not really a new version, but is a alternate version of what we already have. Web needed to adapt to its mobile surroundings. Web 4.0 connects all devices in the real and virtual world in real-time.

What is Web 5.0?

  • Web 5.0 is aimed at building an extra decentralized web that puts you in control of your data and identity.
  • Simply put, Web 5.0 is Web 2.0 plus Web 3.0 that will allow users to ‘own their identity’ on the Internet and ‘control their data’.
  • Both Web 3.0 and Web 5.0 envision an Internet without threat of censorship – from governments or big tech, and without fear of significant outages.

What are the use cases for Web 5.0?

There can be two use cases for how Web 5.0 will change things in the future.

  1. Control of identity: A digital wallet that securely manages user identity, data, and authorizations for external apps and connections.
  2. Control over own data: Say, we can grant any music app access to settings and preferences, enabling the app to take our personalized music experience across different music apps.

Try this question from CSP 2022:

With reference to Web 3.0, consider the following statements:

  1. Web 3.0 technology enables people to control their own data.
  2. In Web 3.0 world, there can be blockchain based social networks.,
  3. Web 3.0 is operated by users collectively rather than a corporation.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

 

Post your answers here.
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What are eVTOL Aircrafts?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : eVTOL Aircrafts

Mains level : Not Much

The Union Civil Aviation Ministry is exploring the possibility of inviting manufacturers of Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft to set up base in India.

What is eVTOL?

  • EVTOL aircraft is one that uses electric power to hover, take off, and land vertically.
  • Most eVTOLs also use what is called as distributed electric propulsion technology which means integrating a complex propulsion system with the airframe.
  • There are multiple motors for various functions; to increase efficiency; and to also ensure safety.
  • It works on electric propulsion based on progress in motor, battery, fuel cell and electronic controller technologies.
  • It is also fuelled by the need for new vehicle technology that ensures urban air mobility (UAM).

Features of eVTOL

  • eVTOL is emerging as a runway independent technological solution” for the globe’s transportation needs.
  • There are an estimated 250 eVTOL concepts or more being fine-tuned to bring alive the concept of UAM.
  • Some of these include the use of multi-rotors, fixed-wing and tilt-wing concepts backed by sensors, cameras and even radar.
  • The key word here is “autonomous connectivity”. Some of these are in various test phases.
  • In short, eVTOLs have been likened to “a third wave in an aerial revolution”; the first being the advent of commercial flying, and the second, the age of helicopters.

What are the developments in powering eVTOLs?

  • The roles eVTOLs adopt depends on battery technology and the limits of onboard electric power.
  • Power is required during the key phases of flight such as take-off, landing and flight (especially in high wind conditions).
  • There is a “Diamond Nuclear Voltaic (DNV) technology” using minute amounts of carbon-14 nuclear waste encased in layered industrial diamonds to create self-charging batteries.
  • There are some industry experts who are questioning the use of only batteries and are looking at hybrid technologies such as hydrogen cells and batteries depending on the flight mission.

What are the challenges?

  • As the technology so far is a mix of unpiloted and piloted aircraft, the areas in focus include “crash prevention systems”.
  • There are also issues such as ensuring safety in case of power plant or rotor failure.
  • Aircraft protection from cyberattacks is another area of focus.
  • A third area is in navigation and flight safety and the use of technology when operating in difficult terrain, unsafe operating environments, and also bad weather.

 

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[pib] Param Ananta Supercomputer

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Param Ananta Supercomputer

Mains level : National Supercomputing Mission

Param Ananta, a state-of the art Supercomputer was commissioned at IIT Gandhinagar.

Param Ananta

  • Param Ananta is capable of offering peak performance of 838 teraflops.
  • It is a joint initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
  • This facility is established under Phase 2 of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).
  • The system is equipped with a mix of CPU nodes, GPU nodes, High Memory nodes, High throughput storage and high performance Infiniband.
  • The supercomputer will rank behind C-DAC’s Param Siddhi-AI, which as of November 2021 was the 102nd most powerful supercomputer in the world — with peak performance capability of 3.3 petaflops.

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 (peta FLOPS).
  • Since November 2017, all of the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems.

Specific features

  • Param Ananta system is based on Direct Contact Liquid Cooling technology to obtain a high power usage effectiveness and thereby reducing the operational cost.
  • Multiple applications from various scientific domains such as Weather and Climate, Bioinformatics, Computational Chemistry, Molecular Dynamics, Material Sciences, Computational Fluid Dynamics etc. have been installed on the system for the benefit of researchers.
  • This high end computing system will be a great value addition for the research community.

Back2Basics: 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 increasing 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 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.

When did India initiate its efforts to build supercomputers?

  • India’s supercomputer program was 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.

What are the phases of the National Supercomputing Mission?

Phase I:

  • In the first phase of the NSM, parts of the supercomputers are imported and assembled in India.
  • A total of 6 supercomputers are to be installed in this phase.
  • The first supercomputer that was assembled indigenously is called Param Shivay. It was installed in IIT (BHU) located in Varanasi.
  • Similar systems, Param Shakti (IIT Kharagpur) and Param Brahma (IISER, Pune) were also later installed within the country.
  • The rest will be installed at IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies (JNIAS).

Phase II:

  • The supercomputers that are installed so far are about 60% indigenous.
  • The 11 systems that are going to be installed in the next phase will have processors designed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and will have a cumulative capacity of 10 petaflops.
  • These new systems are to be constructed more cost-effectively than the previous ones.
  • One of the 11 proposed supercomputers will be installed
  • at C-DAC exclusively for small and medium enterprises so that they can train employees as well as work on supercomputers at a very low cost.

Phase III:

  • The third phase aims to build fully indigenous supercomputers.
  • The government had also approved a project to develop a cryogenic cooling system that rapidly dispels the heat generated by a computing chip. This will be jointly built together by IIT-Bombay and C-DAC.

 

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What are Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chips?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI chips

Mains level : Read the attached story

Market leader Nvidia recently announced its H100 GPU (graphics processing unit), which is said to be one of the world’s largest and most powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerators, packed with 80 billion transistors.

What are AI chips?

  • AI chips are built with specific architecture and have integrated AI acceleration to support deep learning-based applications.
  • These chips, with their hardware architectures and complementary packaging, memory, storage and interconnect technologies, make it possible to infuse AI into a broad spectrum of applications.
  • There are different types of AI chips such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), central processing units (CPUs) and GPUs, designed for diverse AI applications.

What is Deep Learning?

  • Deep learning, more commonly known as active neural network (ANN) or deep neural network (DNN), is a subset of machine learning and comes under the broader umbrella of AI.
  • It combines a series of computer commands or algorithms that stimulate activity and brain structure.
  • DNNs go through a training phase, learning new capabilities from existing data.
  • DNNs can then inference, by applying these capabilities learned during deep learning training to make predictions against previously unseen data.
  • Deep learning can make the process of collecting, analysing, and interpreting enormous amounts of data faster and easier.

Utility of AI chips

  • The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips has risen, with chipmakers designing different types of these chips to power AI applications such as:
  1. Natural language processing (NLP)
  2. Computer vision
  3. Robotics, and
  4. Network security across a wide variety of sectors, including automotive, IT, healthcare, and retail

Are they different from traditional chips?

  • When traditional chips, containing processor cores and memory, perform computational tasks, they continuously move commands and data between the two hardware components.
  • These chips, however, are not ideal for AI applications as they would not be able to handle higher computational necessities of AI workloads which have huge volumes of data.
  • Although, some of the higher-end traditional chips may be able to process certain AI applications.
  • In comparison, AI chips generally contain processor cores as well as several AI-optimised cores that are designed to work in harmony when performing computational tasks.
  • The AI cores are optimised for the demands of heterogeneous enterprise-class AI workloads with low-latency inferencing, due to close integration with the other processor cores.

What are their applications?

  • Use of AI chips for NLP applications has increased due to the rise in demand for chatbots and online channels such as Messenger, Slack, and others
  • They use NLP to analyse user messages and conversational logic.
  • Then there are chipmakers who have built AI processors designed to help customers achieve business insights at scale across banking, finance, trading, insurance applications and customer interactions.

What firms are making these chips?

  • Nvidia Corporation, Intel Corporation, IBM Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and Apple Inc. are some of the key players in the AI chip market.

Major breakthroughs

  • Nvidia, which dominates the market, offers a wide portfolio of AI chips including Grace CPU, H100 and its predecessor A100 GPUs.
  • It is capable of handling some of the largest AI models with billions of parameters.
  • The company claims that twenty H100 GPUs can sustain the equivalent of the entire world’s internet traffic.
  • IBM’s new AI chip, announced last year, can support financial services workloads like fraud detection, loan processing, clearing and settlement of trades, anti-money laundering and risk analysis.

Scale of global market

  • The Worldwide AI chip industry accounted for $8.02 billion in 2020.
  • It is expected to reach $194.9 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.4% from 2021 to 2030.

What can be expected in the future?

  • AI company Cerebras Systems set a new standard with its brain-scale AI solution, paving the way for more advanced solutions in the future.
  • Its CS-2, powered by the Wafer Scale Engine (WSE-2) is a single wafer-scale chip with 2.6 trillion transistors and 8,50,000 AI optimised cores.
  • The human brain contains on the order of 100 trillion synapses, the firm said, adding that a single CS-2 accelerator can support models of over 120 trillion parameters (synapse equivalents) in size.
  • Another AI chip design approach, neuromorphic computing, utilises an engineering method based on the activity of the biological brain.
  • An increase in the adoption of neuromorphic chips in the automotive industry is expected in the next few years.

 

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What are W Bosons?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Various sub-atomic particles

Mains level : Particle physics

Researchers from Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) Collaboration, in the US, announced that they have made a precise measurement of the mass of the so-called W boson.

Do you know?

There are four fundamental forces at work in the universe: the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force. They work over different ranges and have different strengths. Gravity is the weakest but it has an infinite range.

What is W Boson?

  • Discovered in 1983, the W boson is a fundamental particle.
  • Together with the Z boson, it is responsible for the weak force, one of four fundamental forces that govern the behaviour of matter in our universe.
  • Particles of matter interact by exchanging these bosons, but only over short distances.
  • The W boson, which is electrically charged, changes the very make up of particles.
  • It switches protons into neutrons, and vice versa, through the weak force, triggering nuclear fusion and letting stars burn.
  • This burning also creates heavier elements and, when a star dies, those elements are tossed into space as the building blocks for planets and even people.

Debate over W Boson’s mass

  • The weak force was combined with the electromagnetic force in theories of a unified electroweak force in the 1960s, in an effort to make the basic physics mathematically consistent.
  • But the theory called for the force-carrying particles to be massless, even though scientists knew the theoretical W boson had to be heavy to account for its short range.
  • Theorists accounted for the mass of the W by introducing another unseen mechanism. This became known as the Higgs mechanism, which calls for the existence of a Higgs boson.

What is the news?

  • CDF researchers stated that this precisely determined value did not match with what was expected from estimates using the standard model of particle physics.
  • This result is highly significant because this implies the incompleteness of the standard model description.
  • This is a major claim, since the standard model has been extraordinarily successful in the past decades.
  • Hence, physicists are looking for corroboration from other, independent, future experiments.

What is the standard model of elementary particle physics?

  • The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions while omitting gravity) in the universe and classifying all known elementary particles.
  • It is a theoretical construct in physics that describes particles of matter and their interaction. Ex. Proton, Neutron, Electron etc.
  • It is a description that views the elementary particles of the world as being connected by mathematical symmetries, just as an object and its mirror image are connected by a bilateral (left–right) symmetry.
  • These are mathematical groups generated by continuous transformations from, say, one particle to another.
  • According to this model there are a finite number of fundamental particles which are represented by the characteristic “eigen” states of these groups.
  • The particles predicted by the model, such as the Z boson, have been seen in experiments and the last to be discovered, in 2012, was the Higgs boson which gives mass to the heavy particles.

Why is the standard model believed to be incomplete?

  • The standard model is thought to be incomplete because it gives a unified picture of only three of the four fundamental forces of nature and it totally omits gravity.
  • So, in the grand plan of unifying all forces so that a single equation would describe all the interactions of matter, the standard model was found to be lacking.
  • The other gap in the standard model is that it does not include a description of dark matter particles.

How are the symmetries related to particles?

  • The symmetries of the standard model are known as gauge symmetries, as they are generated by “gauge transformations” which are a set of continuous transformations (like rotation is a continuous transformation).
  • Each symmetry is associated with a gauge boson.
  • For example, the gauge boson associated with electromagnetic interactions is the photon.
  • The gauge bosons associated with weak interactions are the W and Z bosons. There are two W bosons — W+ and W-.

What is the main result of the recent experiment?

  • The recent experiment at CDF, which measured the mass of the W boson as 80,433.5 +/- 9.4 Mev/c2, which is approximately 80 times the mass of a hydrogen nucleus.
  • This came out to be more than what is expected from the standard model.
  • The expected value using the standard model is 80,357 +/- 8 MeV/c2 .
  • Thus, the W boson mass itself is a prediction of the standard model.
  • Therefore, any discrepancy in its mass means a lack of self-consistency in the standard model.

What is the discrepancy they obtained?

  • The mass discrepancy of the W boson needs to be checked and confirmed to the same accuracy by other facilities, for example, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Where do we stand now in terms of new physics?

  • New physics is in the air, and experiments have been gearing up for some years now to detect new particles.
  • With its high-precision determination of the W boson mass, the CDF has struck at the heart of the standard model.
  • So it is a significant finding and if this is confirmed by the LHC and other experiments, it will throw open the field for ideas and experiment.

 

 

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Near Field Communication (NFC) technology for instant payments

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Near Field Communication (NFC)

Mains level : Not Much

Google Pay has recently launched a new feature in India, ‘Tap to pay for UPI’, in collaboration with Pine Labs. The feature makes use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

What is Near Field Communication (NFC)?

  • NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity technology that allows NFC-enabled devices to communicate with each other and transfer information quickly and easily with a single touch.
  • It makes possible to pay bills, exchange business cards, download coupons, or share a document.

How does it work?

  • NFC transmits data through electromagnetic radio fields, to enable communication between two devices. Both devices must contain NFC chips, as transactions take place within a very short distance.
  • NFC-enabled devices must be either physically touching or within a few centimetres from each other for data transfer to occur.

When did NFC tech start?

  • In 2004, consumer electronics companies, Nokia, Philips and Sony together formed the NFC Forum, which outlined the architecture for NFC technology to create powerful new consumer-driven products.
  • Nokia released the first NFC-enabled phone in 2007.

How will this technology work with the recently launched feature, ‘Tap to pay for UPI’?

  • Google Pay has been the first among UPI apps to bring the Tap to Pay feature working on POS terminals.
  • It will allow users with UPI accounts configured on Google Pay to make payments just by tapping their NFC-enabled Android smartphones on any Pine Labs Android POS terminal.
  • Once users tap their phones on the POS terminal, it will automatically open the Google pay app with the payment amount pre-filled.
  • Users can then verify the amount and merchant name and authenticate the payment, using their UPI PIN.
  • The process is much faster compared to scanning a QR code or entering the UPI-linked mobile number which has been the conventional way till now.

What are the other applications of NFC technology?

  • NFC tech has a wide range of applications besides driving payment services.
  • It is used in contactless banking cards to perform money transactions or to generate contact-less tickets for public transport.
  • Contactless cards and readers use NFC in several applications from securing networks and buildings to monitoring inventory and sales, preventing auto theft, keeping tabs on library books,
  • NFC is behind the cards that we wave over card readers in subway turnstiles and on buses to check tickets.
  • It is present in speakers, household appliances, and other electronic devices that we monitor and control through our smartphones.
  • With just a touch, NFC can also set up WiFi and Bluetooth devices in our homes, investopedia noted.
  • It also has an application in healthcare, to monitor patient stats through NFC-enabled wristbands.
  • NFC is used in wireless charging too.

How safe is this technology?

  • NFC technology is designed for an operation between devices within a few centimetres from each other.
  • This makes it difficult for attackers to record the communication between the devices compared to other wireless technologies which have a working distance of several metres, according to the NFC forum, a non-profit industry association.
  • The user of the NFC-enabled device determines by the touch gesture which entity the NFC communication should take place with, making it more difficult for the attacker to get connected.
  • The security level of the NFC communication is by default higher compared to other wireless communication protocols.

Where does it stand in comparison to other wireless technologies?

  • There are other wireless technologies available which are replacing cable-based connections.
  • The IrDa technology is a short range (a few metres) connection based on the exchange of data over infrared light where the two communication devices must be positioned within a line of sight.
  • Today, this technology is mainly used for remote control devices. For larger data communication with computer devices this technology was replaced by Bluetooth or WiFi connections.
  • However, for these technologies’ receiver devices need their own power supply due to the larger working distance.
  • Therefore, the receiving device cannot be powered by the radiofrequency (RF) field like in NFC, the NFC forum highlighted.
  • Another consequence of the larger working distance is the need for the user to configure their device and to pair them together for communication.

 

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Kinzhal Advanced Hypersonic Missile

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Kinzhal Missile

Mains level : Not Much

Russia said that it had unleashed hypersonic missiles against an arms depot in Ukraine, the first use of the next-generation weapons in combat.

Kinzhal Missile

  • It is a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile that flies at 10 times the speed of sound and can overcome air-defence systems. Kinzhal means ‘dagger’.
  • The missile has a range of approximately 1,500-2,000km and can carry a nuclear payload or conventional payload of 480 kg.
  • The Kinzhal was one of an array of new weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled in his state-of-the-nation address in 2018. Putin had termed Kinzhal as “an ideal weapon”.
  • This is the first time that Russia has admitted to using the high-precision weapon in combat.
  • Following launch, the Kinzhal rapidly accelerates to Mach 4 (4,900 km/h), and may reach speeds of up to Mach 10 (12,350 km/hr).

What is a hypersonic weapon?

  • They are normally defined as fast, low-flying, and highly manoeuvrable weapons designed to be too quick and agile for traditional missile defence systems to detect in time, according to Bloomberg.
  • Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons don’t follow a predetermined, arched trajectory and can maneuver on the way to their destination.
  • The term “hypersonic” describes any speed faster than five times that of sound, which is roughly 760 miles (1,220 kilometers) per hour at sea level.
  • At hypersonic speeds, the air molecules around the flight vehicle start to change, breaking apart or gaining a charge in a process called ionization.
  • This subjects the hypersonic vehicle to “tremendous” stresses as it pushes through the atmosphere.

Types of hypersonic weapons

  • There are two main types of these weapons — glide vehicles and cruise missiles.
  • Most of the attention is focused on the former, which are launched from a rocket before gliding to their target, because of the challenges of achieving hypersonic propulsion of missiles.
  • The missiles have engines called scramjets that use the air’s oxygen and produce thrust during their flight, allowing them to cruise at a steady speed and altitude.

Who has these weapons?

  • US, China and Russia have the most advanced capabilities.
  • Several other countries are investigating the technology, including India, Japan, Australia, France, Germany and North Korea, which claims to have tested a hypersonic missile.
  • In fact, India is also closing in on having such weapons in its arsenal.
  • Last year, India successfully tested its hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle (HSTDV), powered by a scramjet engine.
  • The HSTDV will serve as a crucial building block in the development of long-range hypersonic weapons, which will take at least another four to five years to become a reality.

Back2Basics: Types of Missiles

(1) Subsonic missiles

  • They travel at a rate slower than the speed of sound.
  • Most well-known missiles, such as the US Tomahawk cruise missile, the French Exocet, and the Indian Nirbhay, fall into this category.
  • These travel at about Mach-0.9 (705 mph), and are slower and easier to intercept, but they continue to play a significant role in modern battlefields.
  • They significantly less expensive to produce because the technological challenges have already been overcome and mastered.
  • Due to their low speed and small size, subsonic missiles provide an additional layer of strategic value.

(2) Supersonic missiles

  • They are the one that travels faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1) but not faster than Mach-3.
  • Most supersonic missiles travel at speeds ranging from Mach-2 to Mach-3, or up to 2,300 mph.
  • The Indian/Russian BrahMos, currently the fastest operational supersonic missile capable of speeds of around 2,100–2,300 mph, is the most well-known supersonic missile.

(3) Hypersonic Missiles

Explained above

 

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What are Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems (MANPADS)?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : MANPADS

Mains level : Not Much

The United States has approved a $200-million arms package for Ukraine, which would include US made Stinger Missiles, which are a type of shoulder-fired Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems (MANPADS).

What are MANPADS?

  • Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems are short-range, lightweight and portable surface-to-air missiles that can be fired by individuals or small groups to destroy aircraft or helicopters.
  • They help shield troops from aerial attacks and are most effective in targeting low-flying aircrafts.
  • MANPATs or Man-Portable Anti-Tank Systems work in a similar manner but are used to destroy or incapacitate military tanks.

Uniqueness of MANPADS

  • MANPADS can be shoulder-fired, launched from atop a ground-vehicle, fired from a tripod or stand, and from a helicopter or boat.
  • They weigh anywhere between 10 to 20 kilograms and not being longer than 1.8 metres.
  • They are fairly lightweight as compared to other elaborate weapon systems, making them easy to operate by individual soldiers.
  • Operating MANPADS requires substantially less training.
  • MANPADS have a maximum range of 8 kilometres and can engage targets at altitudes of 4.5 km.

Stealth features

  • They have passive or ‘fire and forget’ guidance systems, meaning that the operator is not required to guide the missile to its target, enabling them to run and relocate immediately after firing.
  • The missile stays locked-on to the targeted object, not requiring active guidance from the soldier.
  • The missiles are fitted with infrared (IR) seekers that identify and target the airborne vehicle through heat radiation being emitted by the latter.

 

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Antonov AN-225: World’s largest aircraft

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : An-225

Mains level : NA

Amid Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, the world’s largest cargo aircraft, the Antonov AN-225 or ‘Mriya’, was destroyed by Russian troops during an attack on an airport near Kyiv.

Antonov AN-225

  • With a wingspan of over 290-feet, the unique Antonov AN-225 was designed in what was then the Ukrainian USSR during the 1980s amid a tense race to space between the US and the Soviet Union.
  • The plane, nicknamed ‘Mriya’ or ‘dream’ in Ukrainian, is very popular in aviation circles, and is known to attract huge crowds of fans at air shows around the world.
  • It was initially designed as part of the Soviet aeronautical program to carry the Buran, which was the Soviet version of the US’ Space Shuttle.
  • After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the Buran program was cancelled, the aircraft was instead used to transport massive cargo loads.

Its manufacturing

  • Only one AN-225 was ever built by the Kyiv-based Antonov Company, the defence manufacturers who originally designed the plane.
  • It is essentially a large version of another design by the Antonoc Company — the four-engine An-124 ‘Condor’, which is used by the Russian Air Force.
  • The aircraft first took flight in 1988 and has been in use ever since.
  • In the recent past, it has been used for delivering relief supplies during calamities in neighbouring nations.

 

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What are Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)

Mains level : Artificial Intelligence

This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in TH.

What are ANN?

  • The concept behind an ANN is to define inputs and outputs, feed pieces of inputs to computer programs that function like neurons and make inferences or calculations.
  • It then forwards those results to another layer of computer programs and so on, until a result is obtained.
  • As part of this neural network, a difference between intended output and input is computed at each layer and this difference is used to tune the parameters to each program.
  • This method is called back-propagation and is an essential component to the Neural Network.

Setting up of ANNs

  • Instead of CPUs, Graphic Processing Units (GPU) which are good at performing massive parallel tasks can be used for setting up ANNs.
  • A few free ANN frameworks are TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch and Theano.
  • These can be used for both normal Machine Learning tasks like classification or clustering and for Deep Learning/ANN tasks.

Why called Neural Network?

  • Neuron is the building block of the brain and it inspired computer scientists from the 1950s to make a computer perform tasks like a brain does.
  • It is not a simple problem and the clue to its complexity is in the brain structure.

Why ANN?

Ans. Making an artificial brain

  • We need billions of artificial neurons if we were to build an artificial brain.
  • With the increase in computing power, mimicking billions of neurons is now possible.

Popularity of ANNs

  • Data Science, used interchangeably with Machine Learning, is the computer technology that uses data to detect patterns.
  • Hand-written digit recognition is a good example of machine learning.
  • However, in order for the computer to do this task, large amounts of sample data need to be manually labelled as examples of images of digits.
  • The ANN mentioned above with its backpropagation does exactly this.
  • This is why ANNs have become hugely popular in the past decade. This approach of using neural networks of many layers to automatically detect patterns and parameters is called Deep Learning.

 

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What are Solid-State Batteries?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Solid-state lithium ion battery

Mains level : Battery Technology for e-Vehicles boost

After Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, now another Indian origin is in the headline is Jagdeep Singh, CEO and founder of a US battery startup. The reason for his recent buzz for his breakthrough battery technology.

About QuantumScape

  • QuantumScape Corp is a battery startup backed by Volkswagen AG.
  • Its solid-state battery — lithium metal with a solid electrolyte separating the two electrodes — is seen as an exceptionally bright prospect in E-Vehicle industry.

What are Solid-state batteries?

  • A solid-state battery is a battery technology that uses solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, instead of the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.
  • Such batteries can provide potential solutions for many problems of liquid Li-ion battery, such as flammability, limited voltage, unstable solid-electrolyte interphase formation, poor cycling performance and strength.

What are Li-ion Batteries?

  • Lithium-ion batteries use aqueous electrolyte solutions, where ions transfer to and fro between the anode (negative electrode generally made of graphite) and cathode (positive electrode made of lithium), triggering the recharge and discharge of electrons.
  • The energy density of lithium-ion cells used in today’s mobile phones and electric vehicles is nearly four times higher than that of older-generation nickel-cadmium batteries.

Its limitations

  • Low energy density: Despite improvements in technology over the last decade, issues such as long charging times and weak energy density persist.
  • Small appliances: While lithium-ion batteries are seen as sufficiently efficient for phones and laptops, they still lack the range that would make EVs a viable alternative.
  • Extreme reactivity: One major problem is that lithium metal is extremely reactive.
  • Corrosion of cells: The main form of lithium corrosion is dendrites (branched lithium structures) that grow out from the electrode and can potentially pierce the separator short-circuiting the cell.
  • Fire hazard: In current lithium-ion batteries, in which the electrolyte is a flammable liquid, dendrite formation can trigger a fire.

What is the breakthrough?

  • QuantumScape claims to prevent dendrites formation.
  • It uses a solid-state separator technology that eliminates the side reaction between the liquid electrolyte and the carbon/graphite in the anode of conventional lithium-ion cells.
  • The replacement of the separator enables the use of a lithium-metal anode in place of the traditional
  • The lithium metal anode is more energy-dense than conventional anodes, which allows the battery to store more energy in the same volume, according to the company.

Key advantages of QuantumScape Battery

  • The advantages of the solid-state battery technology include higher cell energy density (by eliminating the carbon anode), lower charge time (by eliminating the need to have lithium diffuse into the carbon particles in conventional lithium-ion cells).
  • It has the ability to undertake more charging cycles and thereby a longer life, and improved safety.
  • Lower cost could be a game-changer, given that at 30 per cent of the total cost, battery expenses are a key driver of the vehicle costs.

India’s battery push

  • The centre is working on a blueprint for a project of around 4,000 MWh of grid-scale battery storage system at the regional load dispatch centres that control the country’s power grid, primarily to balance the vagaries of renewable generation.
  • Reliance Industries Ltd has announced plans to set up an Energy Storage Giga factory; state-owned NTPC Ltd has floated a global tender for a grid-scale battery storage project.
  • The Ministry of Heavy Industries issued a request for proposal for setting up manufacturing facilities for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage in India.

 

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IIT-B develops One-time Programmable Memory

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : One-time Programmable Memory

Mains level : NA

IIT Bombay researchers have developed a “memory technology” that can, in principle, revolutionise Indian industry and the many applications that need semiconductor chips, such as in the defence sector, automobiles and future aspirations in cell phone manufacturing.

One-time Programmable Memory

  • Hard disks, flash memory, etc, are examples of memory technology.
  • There is also another form of memory called the one-time programmable memory (OTP) where the memory is written once, stored for a lifetime, and retrieved and used many times.
  • This finds varied uses, one of which is in correcting faulty chips that have been mass produced for specific applications.

Its utility

  • For instance, think of a chip that helps read off the temperature.
  • Due to a manufacturing defect, the chip may read 100 degree Celsius as 101 degree Celsius.
  • This “offset” of 1 degree may be corrected by storing the error correction parameter in the OTP memory.
  • This is done uniquely for each chip and once stored, the memory corrects the chip’s output for its lifetime.
  • OTP memories are also used for other purposes, mainly three: chip identity, secure information storage and chip calibration for error correction.

How does it work?

  • To store the correction value, the researchers used eight memory cells, each of which would store one “bit” (that is a value of zero or one).
  • Each of the memory cells consist of an ultrathin silicon dioxide layer which is 10-15 atomic layers thick.
  • This is deposited uniformly over a dinner plate–sized eight-inch silicon wafer to form millions of nanoscale capacitors.
  • The pristine silicon dioxide layer is insulating, passing a very low current [which in digital electronics is read as a “0”].
  • A nanoscale lightning is generated of 3.3 volts to blow the capacitor, leading to a short circuit that produced high current [this is a “1”].
  • Thus, the OTP memory remembers either the “0” state or “1” state through its lifetime.

Benefits offered

  • The group has successfully demonstrated CMOS 180-nanometre–based, production-ready, eight-bit memory technology.
  • These include successful operation between minus 40 degrees C to 125 degrees C and reliability to ensure excess of 95% yield on eight-bit memories.

Significance

  • A large fraction of manufactured chips may need to be discarded for faults that can be corrected using this technology.
  • This technology is the first indigenous semiconductor memory technology adoption to manufacturing at 180-nanometre node.
  • Thus, this is a major national milestone for semiconductor innovation.

 

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Revolution unfolding in data regulation

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : DEPA

Mains level : Paper 3-Data protection regulations

Context

A number of countries have been looking to extend their existing data protection frameworks to ensure that users have more effective control over their data than their regulations currently allow.

Measures to unlock the data silos

  • Benefits: These measures aimed at unlocking data silos will make it easier for data to flow from the entity that currently holds it to any other data business that might want to use it with the permission of the data subject.
  • In Australia, Consumer Data Right framework will allow consumers in Australia to require any business with which they have a commercial relationship to transfer that data to any other business of their choice.
  • The first sector in which this new data right is being rolled out in the banking sector, with power set to follow close on its heels.
  • The EU’s proposed Data Act will create a fairer data economy by ensuring better access to and use of data and is intended to cover both business-to-business and business-to-government transfers of data.
  • Along similar lines, the EU has also drafted a Data Governance Act to govern the data exchanges and platforms.
  • It will thus both enable and regulate new data-sharing arrangements that will intermediate the transfer of data from data businesses that currently hold it to those that have been permitted to use it.
  • Data regulation to protect and utilize data: Regulatory activity seems to suggest that it is not enough to protect data if you cannot also ensure that this data is effectively utilized.

What are the issues with regulation measures?

1) Law and regulation cannot keep pace with technology

  • Technology determines how data is collected, processed and used, and, by extension, the manner in which it is transferred.
  • Decades of trying to regulate technology businesses have taught us that laws and regulation simply cannot keep pace with changes in technology.
  • No matter how fast we move, if the only weapon we are using to regulate technology is the law, we will be doomed to play catch-up forever.
  • These new consumer-centric measures are likely to fail if they are to be implemented solely through legislation.

2) Data transfers in the absence of a legal framework can lead to problems in India

  • India has adopted a slightly different approach to data transfers known as the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA).
  • DEPA offers a technology-based solution for consent-based data flows, allowing users to transfer their data from data businesses that currently hold them to those that want to use them.
  •  Last week, the country’s Account Aggregator framework—the first implementation of DEPA—went live in the financial sector.
  •  It too suffers from infirmities that could threaten its success.
  • India still does not have a data protection regulation and implementing a technological solution for data transfers in the absence of a legal framework could lead to new problems.

Way forward: Techno-legal approach

  • Use techno-legal approach to regulate: Technology businesses are most effectively regulated through a judicious mix of law and technology—strong, principle-based laws to provide the regulatory foundation, with protocol-based guardrails to ensure compliance.
  • Seven countries came together to endorse a techno-legal approach to data regulation.
  • If successful, this would be the first global attempt to adopt a techno-legal solution for data-transfer regulation.

Consider the question “There is growing appreciation in regulatory circles that it is not enough to protect data if you cannot also ensure that this data is effectively utilized” In light of this, examine the challenges in regulation of data while ensuring its safe transfer for utilisation.” 

Conclusion

Techno-legal solution offers effective ways to deal with the problems of data regulation and data transfer.

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What are Doppler Radars?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Doppler Radar

Mains level : Not Much

The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Doppler Radar in Mumbai, which surveys weather patterns and forecasts, stopped working after heavy rainfalls.

How does a Doppler radar work?

  • In radars, a beam of energy– called radio waves– is emitted from an antenna.
  • When this beam strikes an object in the atmosphere, the energy scatters in all directions, with some reflecting directly back to the radar.
  • The larger the object deflecting the beam, the greater is the amount of energy that the radar receives in return.
  • Observing the time required for the beam to be transmitted and returned to the radar allows weather forecasting departments to “see” raindrops in the atmosphere, and measure their distance from the radar.

What makes a Doppler radar special?

  • It can provide information on both the position of targets as well as their movement.
  • It does this by tracking the ‘phase’ of transmitted radio wave pulses; phase meaning the shape, position, and form of those pulses.
  • As computers measure the shift in phase between the original pulse and the received echo, the movement of raindrops can be calculated.
  • Thus it is possible to tell whether the precipitation is moving toward or away from the radar.

Types of Doppler radar

  • In India, Doppler radars of varying frequencies — S-band, C-band and X-band — are commonly used.
  • They help track the movement of weather systems and cloud bands and gauge rainfall over its coverage area of about 500 km.
  • The radars guide meteorologists, particularly in times of extreme weather events like cyclones and associated heavy rainfall.
  • An X-band radar is used to detect thunderstorms and lightning whereas C-band guides in cyclone tracking.

Why are they called ‘Doppler’ radars?

  • The phase shift in these radars works on the same lines as the “Doppler effect” observed in sound waves.
  • It tells that the sound pitch of an object approaching the observer is higher due to the compression of sound waves (a change in their phase).
  • As this object moves away from the observer, the sound waves stretch, resulting in lower frequency.
  • This effect explains why an approaching train’s whistle sounds louder than the whistle when the train moves away.
  • The discovery of the phenomenon is attributed to Christian Doppler, a 19th-century Austrian physicist.

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[pib] Space-time induces Neutrino Oscillations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Neutrinos

Mains level : NA

Indian scientists have shown that the geometry of space-time can cause neutrinos to oscillate.

What are Neutrinos?

  • A neutrino is a subatomic particle that is very similar to an electron but has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero.
  • Since neutrinos are electrically neutral, they are not affected by the electromagnetic forces which act on electrons. Hence, they are also called Ghost Particles.
  • Neutrinos are affected only by a “weak” sub-atomic force of a much shorter range than electromagnetism and are therefore able to pass through great distances in matter without being affected by it.
  • They are also one of the most abundant particles in the universe. As they have very little interaction with matter, however, they are incredibly difficult to detect.

Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

Q.The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz, gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct?

(a) Gravity is the strongest of the four

(b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge

(c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity

(d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom

Finding of the new research

  • Neutrinos are mysterious particles, produced copiously in nuclear reactions in the Sun, stars, and elsewhere.
  • They “oscillate”- meaning that different types of neutrinos change into one another – as has been found in many experiments.
  • Probing of oscillations of neutrinos and their relations with mass are crucial in studying the origin of the universe.
  • Neutrinos interact very weakly with everything else – trillions of them pass through every human being every second without anyone noticing.
  • A neutrino’s spin always points in the opposite direction of its motion, and until a few years ago, neutrinos were believed to be massless.

What makes this possible?

  • The geometry of space-time can cause neutrino oscillations through quantum effects even if neutrinos are massless.
  • Einstein’s theory of general relativity says that gravitation is the manifestation of space-time curvature.
  • Neutrinos, electrons, protons and other particles which are in the category of fermions show a certain peculiarity when they move in presence of gravity.
  • Space-time induces a quantum force in addition to gravity between every two fermions.
  • This force can depend on the spin of the particles and causes massless neutrinos to appear massive when they pass through matter, like the Sun’s corona or the Earth’s atmosphere.
  • Something similar happens for electroweak interactions, and together with the geometrically induced mass, it is enough to cause oscillation of neutrinos.

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China’s EAST Tokamak Device

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Artificial Sun

Mains level : Concept behind artificial sun

China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), which mimics the energy generation process of the sun, set a new record.

What is China’s ‘artificial sun’ EAST?

  • The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor is an advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device.
  • The purpose of the artificial sun is to replicate the process of nuclear fusion, which is the same reaction that powers the sun.
  • The EAST is one of three major domestic tokamaks that are presently being operated across the country.
  • Apart from the EAST, China is currently operating the HL-2A reactor as well as J-TEXT.
  • Since it first became operational in 2006, the EAST has set several records for the duration of confinement of exceedingly hot plasma.
  • The EAST project is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) facility, which will become the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor when it becomes operational in 2035.
  • The project includes the contributions of several countries, including India, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.

How does the ‘artificial sun’ EAST work?

  • The EAST Tokamak device is designed to replicate the nuclear fusion process carried out by the sun and stars.
  • Nuclear fusion is a process through which high levels of energy are produced without generating large quantities of waste.
  • Previously, energy was produced through nuclear fission — a process in which the nucleus of a heavy atom was split into two or more nuclei of lighter atoms.

Fission vs. Fusion

  • While fission is an easier process to carry out, it generates far more nuclear waste.
  • Unlike fission, fusion also does not emit greenhouse gases and is considered a safer process with a lower risk of accidents.
  • Once mastered, nuclear fusion could potentially provide unlimited clean energy and very low costs.

But what is Fusion?

  • For nuclear fusion to occur, tremendous heat and pressure are applied on hydrogen atoms so that they fuse together. `
  • The nuclei of deuterium and tritium — both found in hydrogen — are made to fuse together to create a helium nucleus, a neutron along with a whole lot of energy.
  • Fuel is heated to temperatures of over 150 million degrees C so that it forms a hot plasma “soup” of subatomic particles.
  • With the help of a strong magnetic field, the plasma is kept away from the walls of the reactor to ensure it does not cool down and lose its potential to generate large amounts of energy.
  • The plasma is confined for long durations for fusion to take place.

What is the latest record and why does it matter?

  • The EAST reactor set a new record on Friday when it achieved a plasma temperature of 216 million degrees Fahrenheit and also managed to run for 20 seconds at 288 million degrees Fahrenheit.
  • To put this in perspective, the sun’s core only reaches about 15 million degrees Celsius, which means the reactor was able to touch temperatures that are 10 times hotter than that.
  • The next goal for the scientists behind the experimental reactor is to maintain the high temperature for a long period of time. Previously, the EAST had reached a record temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius in 2018.

China is not the only

  • But China is not the only country that has achieved high plasma temperatures.
  • In 2020, South Korea’s KSTAR reactor set a new record by maintaining a plasma temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius for 20 seconds.

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[pib] “AmbiTAG”- India’s first indigenous temperature data logger

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AmbiTag

Mains level : NA

IIT Ropar in (Punjab) has developed a first-of-its-kind IoT device – AmbiTag that records real-time ambient temperature during the transportation of perishable products, vaccines, and even body organs and blood.

AmbiTag

  • Shaped like a USB device, AmbiTag continuously records the temperature of its immediate surroundings “from -40 to +80 degrees in any time zone for a full 90 days on a single charge.
  • Most of the similar devices available in the international market record data only for a duration of 30- 60 days.
  • It generates an alert when the temperature goes beyond a pre-set limit. The recorded data can be retrieved by connecting the USB with any computer.
  • So far, such devices are being imported by India in a massive quantity from other countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, and China.
  • The device has been developed under Technology Innovation Hub – AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) and its Startup ScratchNest.

Its applications

  • The device helps know whether that particular item transported from anywhere in the world is still usable or perished because of temperature variation.
  • This information is particularly critical for vaccines including the Covid-19 vaccine, organs, and blood transportation.
  • Besides perishable items including vegetables, meat, and dairy products it can also monitor the temperature of animal semen during transit.

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[pib] Bharat Ratna Professor CNR Rao

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : CNR Rao and his scientific contributions

Mains level : Not Much

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.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

What is the Whitest Paint?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Whitest paint and its composition

Mains level : NA

Engineers in the US have created what they are calling the whitest paint yet.

What is the whitest paint?

  • The researchers created an ultra-white paint pushing the limits of how white paint can be.
  • This older formulation was made of calcium carbonate, while the new one is made up of barium sulphate, which makes it more white.
  • The newer paint is whiter and keeps the surface areas it is painted on cooler than the formulation before this could.
  • If this new paint was used to cover a roof area of 1,000 square feet, it may be able to get a cooling power of 10 kilowatts.
  • Most ovens use up about 2.3 kilowatts to run for an hour and a 3 ton 12 Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) air conditioner uses up about 3 kilowatts to run for an hour.

The researchers have claimed that this paint may be the closest equivalent to the blackest black paint called “Vantablack” which is able to absorb up to 99.9 per cent of visible light.

What determines if a colour absorbs or reflects light?

  • To understand how this works one needs to note that whenever an object is seen by the eye, it is either because of sunlight or the artificial light in the room.
  • This light is made up of seven different colours (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red or VIBGYOR).
  • Specifically, light is made up of wavelengths of different colours.
  • If an individual is looking at a sofa that is green, this is because the fabric or material it is made up of is able to absorb all the colours except green.
  • This means that the molecules of the fabric reflect the green coloured wavelengths, which is what the eye sees.
  • Therefore, the colour of any object or thing is determined by the wavelength the molecules are not able to absorb.

Try this PYQ:

Q.Rainbow is produced when sunlight falls on drops of rain. Which of the following physical phenomena are responsible for this?

  1. Dispersion
  2. Refraction
  3. Internal reflection

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

a) 1 and 2 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 1 and 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

What determines which wavelength of light will be reflected and absorbed?

  • This is dependent on how electrons are arranged in an atom (the building block of life, an atom is made up of electrons, protons and neutrons.
  • These three particles make up everything in the known universe from mountains, planets, humans to pizza and cake).
  • In contrast, if an object is black, it is because it has absorbed all the wavelengths and therefore no light is reflected from them.
  • This is the reason that darker objects, as a result absorbing all wavelengths tend to heat up faster (during absorption the light energy is converted into heat energy).

So, what makes the paint so white?

There are two features:

  1. One is the paint’s high concentration of a chemical compound called barium sulfate, which is also used to make photo paper and cosmetics white.
  2. The second feature is that the team has used different sized particles of this chemical compound, which means different sizes scatter different amounts of light.

In this way, the varying size of particles of the compound makes sure that the paint can scatter more of the light spectrum from the sun.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

[pib] NanoSniffer: A Microsensor based Explosive Trace Detector

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : NanoSniffer

Mains level : NA

A Union Minister has launched NanoSniffer, the world’s first Microsensor based Explosive Trace Detector (ETD) developed by NanoSniff Technologies, an IIT Bombay incubated startup.

Can you name some explosives?

NanoSniffer

  • NanoSniffer is a 100% Made in India product in terms of research, development & manufacturing.
  • It can detect explosives in less than 10 seconds and it also identifies and categorizes explosives into different classes. It detects all classes of military, conventional and homemade explosives.
  • It gives visible & audible alerts with a sunlight-readable colour display.
  • NanoSniffer provides trace detection of the nano-gram quantity of explosives & delivers result in seconds.
  • It can accurately detect a wide range of military, commercial and homemade explosives threats.
  • Further analysis of the algorithms also helps in the categorization of explosives into the appropriate class.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Muon G–2 Experiment

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Muan

Mains level : Particle physics and its various anomalies

The results from the Muon g-2 experiment show that fundamental particles called muons behave in a way that is not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.

After genetics, AI and the blockchain, Particle Physics is making several headlines these days. This is something intuitive.

What is Muon?

  • Fermilab, the American particle accelerator, has released first results from its “muon g-2” experiment.
  • These results spotlight the anomalous behaviour of the elementary particle called the muon.
  • The muon is a heavier cousin of the electron and is expected to have a value of 2 for its magnetic moment, labelled “g”.
  • Now, the muon is not alone in the universe.
  • It is embedded in a sea where particles are popping out and vanishing every instant due to quantum effects.
  • So, its g value is altered by its interactions with these short-lived excitations.

Main characteristic: Anomalous magnetic moment

  • The Standard Model of particle physics calculates this correction, called the anomalous magnetic moment, very accurately.
  • The muon g-2 experiment measured the extent of the anomaly and announced that “g” deviated from the amount predicted by the Standard Model.
  • That is, while the calculated value in the Standard Model is 2.00233183620 approximately, the experimental results show a value of 2.00233184122.
  • They have measured “g” to an accuracy of about 4.2 sigma when the results are combined with those from a 20-year-old experiment.
  • This makes physicists sit up and take note, but it is not yet significant enough to constitute a discovery – for which they need a significance of 5 sigma.

The g factor

  • The muon is also known as the fat electron.
  • It is produced copiously in the Fermilab experiments and occurs naturally in cosmic ray showers.
  • Like the electron, the muon has a magnetic moment because of which, when placed in a magnetic field, it spins and processes, or wobbles, slightly, like the axis of a spinning top.
  • Its internal magnetic moment, the g factor, determines the extent of this wobble.
  • As the muon spins, it also interacts with the surrounding environment, which consists of short-lived particles popping in and out of a vacuum.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Xenobots: Robots developed from stem cells of frogs

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Xenobot

Mains level : Biomedicines and their applications

Researchers have developed robots from stem cells of frogs called Xenobots.

Xenobots, the name itself suggests its peculiarity.

Xenobots

  • Xenobots, named after the African clawed frog are synthetic organisms that are automatically designed by computers to perform some desired function and built by combining together different biological tissues.
  • They are less than a 1 millimeter (0.039 inches) wide and composed of just two things: skin cells and heart muscle cells, both of which are derived from stem cells harvested from early (blastula stage) frog embryos.
  • They can self-heal after damage, record memories and work together in groups.
  • These biological robots can record information about their surroundings and move using cilia – minute hair like particles present on their surface.

Its applications

  • These soft-body living machines can have several applications in biomedicine and the environment.
  • They could be made from a human patient’s own cells, which would bypass the immune response challenges of other kinds of micro-robotic delivery systems.
  • Such xenobots could potentially be used to scrape plaque from arteries and with additional cell types and bioengineering, locate and treat disease.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Large Hadron Collider beauty Experiment

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : LHCb experiments and its findings

Mains level : Formation of the universe and the Big Bang

The LHCb experiment at CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research) has announced the results of their latest analysis of data.

LHCb Experiment: An easy explanation

  • LHCb is an experiment set up to explore what happened after the Big Bang that allowed the matter to survive and build the Universe we inhabit today.
  • Fourteen billion years ago, the Universe began with a bang.
  • Crammed within an infinitely small space, energy coalesced to form equal quantities of matter and antimatter.
  • But as the Universe cooled and expanded, its composition changed.
  • Just one second after the Big Bang, antimatter had all but disappeared, leaving the matter to form everything that we see around us — from the stars and galaxies to the Earth and all life that it supports.

What is the new finding?

  • CERN scientists are excited enough to reveal that if the anomaly they had detected was confirmed.
  • Because, if confirmed, it would require a new physical process, such as the existence of new fundamental particles or interactions.

What is this excitement all about?

It is necessary to delve into the world of elementary particles to understand this.

(1) Particle zoo

Until now it is believed that the electron, muon and tauon and their antiparticles, though they differ in mass, behave similarly in particle interactions.

  • Broadly speaking, elementary particles are classified into the particles called baryons – which include protons, neutrons and their antiparticles the antiprotons etc.
  • The “middle mass” particles, roughly speaking, are called the mesons and they include members such as the K and B particles.
  • We then have the leptons, which include the electron and its cousins the muon and tau particles and the anti-particles.
  • At a still smaller scale, there are tiny particles called quarks and gluons.
  • There are six flavours of quarks: up, down, truth, beauty, charm and strange. They too have antiquarks associated with them.

In this particle zoo, while the baryons are made up of combinations of three quarks, the mesons contain two quarks, more accurately a quark and antiquark pair, and the leptons are truly fundamental and are thought to be indivisible.

Do you know?

Higgs Boson is called the god particle.

(2) Colliding particle beams

By interactions here, is meant the following:

  • If a huge particle accelerator such as the LHC were to accelerate beams of hadrons (such as protons) to very high speeds, a fraction of that of light, and then cause them to collide.
  • Basically, smash through the repulsive nuclear forces and shatter them, the hadrons would break up into constituents which would recombine to form short-lived particles, which would decay into stabler states.
  • Roughly speaking, during this process, they are imaged in a huge multistorey detector and the number of specific processes and particles are counted.

(3) Lepton universality principle

  • One such process that was measured was the decay of a meson B (which contained the beauty quark) into K-meson (which contains the strange quark) and a muon-antimuon pair, and this was compared with the decay of B into K and an electron-antielectron pair.
  • The expectation is that the ratio of the strengths of these two sets of interactions would be just one.
  • This is because the muons are not essentially different from the electrons as per the Standard Model, the presently accepted theoretical model of all elementary particle interactions.
  • This is called the lepton universality principle.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

[pib] High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : HEMT

Mains level : NA

Indian Scientists from Bangalore have developed a highly reliable, High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMTs) that is normally OFF the device and can switch currents up to 4A and operates at 600V.

We cannot deny the possibility of a complex S&T based prelims question. This newscard seems very technical. However many of you might be aware of the p-n junction diodes and conventional transistors.

What is HEMT?

  • A high electron mobility transistor or HEMT is a type of field-effect transistor (FET) that is used to produce a high performance at microwave frequencies.
  • The HEMT provides a fusion of low noise figure that comes combined with the unique ability to function at very high microwave frequencies.
  • These devices are commonly used in aspects of radiofrequency designs that require high performance at high-frequency levels.
  • They produce a high gain, which makes these transistors very useful as amplifiers. They can switch speeds very rapidly.
  • And finally, they produce very low noise values as the current variations in these transistors are comparatively low.

Practical applications of HEMT

  • HEMTs are used in applications where microwave millimetre wave communications are conducted.
  • They are also used for radar, imaging, as well as radio astronomy.
  • They are also used in voltage converter applications.
  • These transistors are also ideal as digital on-off switches in integrated circuits, and to be used as amplifiers for huge amounts of current by using a small voltage as a control signal.

What is the news?

First-ever indigenous HEMT

  • This first-ever indigenous HEMT device made from gallium nitride (GaN) is useful in electric cars, locomotives, power transmission and other areas requiring high voltage and high-frequency switching.
  • It would reduce the cost of importing such stable and efficient transistors required in power electronics.

How does it work?

  • Power electronic systems demand high blocking voltage in OFF-state and high current in ON-state for efficient switching performance.
  • Specific transistors called HEMTs made of aluminium gallium nitride/ gallium nitride (AlGaN/GaN) provides an edge over silicon-based transistors as they allow the systems to operate at very high voltages, switch ON and OFF faster, and occupy less space.
  • Commercially available AlGaN/GaN HEMTs use techniques to keep the transistor in a normally OFF state, which affects the stability, performance and reliability of the device.
  • Therefore, to meet this need, researchers have developed a new kind of HEMT, which is in the OFF state by default and works like any other commonly used power transistor.

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Responsible and ethical AI

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Not much

Mains level : Paper 3- AI governance

The article highlights the challenges and opportunities offered by the Artificial Intelligence and suggests the ways to deal with them.

AI as a part of our life

  • AI is embedded in the recommendations we get on our favourite streaming or shopping site; in GPS mapping technology; in the predictive text that completes our sentences when we try to send an email or complete a web search.
  • And the more we use AI, the more data we generate, the smarter it gets.
  • In just the last decade, AI has evolved with unprecedented velocity.

How AI could help us

  • AI has helped increase crop yields, raised business productivity, improved access to credit and made cancer detection faster and more precise.
  • It could contribute more than $15 trillion to the world economy by 2030, adding 14% to global GDP.
  • Google has identified over 2,600 use cases of “AI for good” worldwide.
  • A study published in Nature reviewing the impact of AI on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) finds that AI may act as an enabler on 134 of all SDG targets.

Concerns with AI

  • Yet, the study in Nature also finds that AI can actively hinder 59 — or 35% — of SDG targets.
  • AI requires massive computational capacity, which means more power-hungry data centres — and a big carbon footprint.
  • AI could compound digital exclusion.
  • Many desk jobs will be edged out by AI, such as accountants, financial traders and middle managers.
  • Without clear policies on reskilling workers, the promise of new opportunities will in fact create serious new inequalities.
  • Investment is likely to shift to countries where AI-related work is already established widening gaps among and within countries.
  • AI also presents serious data privacy concerns. 
  • We shape the algorithms and it is our data AI operate on.
  • In 2016, it took less than a day for Microsoft’s Twitter chatbot, “Tay”, to start spewing egregious racist content, based on the material it encountered.

Way forward

  • Without ethical guard rails, AI will widen social and economic schisms, amplifying any innate biases.
  • Only a “whole of society” approach to AI governance will enable us to develop broad-based ethical principles, cultures and codes of conduct.
  • Given the global reach of AI, such a “whole of society” approach must rest on a “whole of world” approach.
  • The UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap on Digital Cooperation is a good starting point.
  • This approach lays out the need for multi-stakeholder efforts on global cooperation.
  • UNESCO has developed a global, comprehensive standard-setting draft Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence to Member States for deliberation and adoption.
  • Many countries, including India, are cognisant of the opportunities and the risks, and are striving to strike the right balance between AI promotion and AI governance.
  • NITI Aayog’s Responsible AI for All strategy, the culmination of a year-long consultative process, is a case in point.

Consider the question “What are the ways in which Artificial Intelligence in helping humanity? What are the concerns with the promotion and the governance of AI?”

Conclusion

Chellenging part starts where principles meet reality that the ethical issues and conundrums arise in practice, and for which we must be prepared for deep, difficult, multi-stakeholder ethical reflection, analyses and resolve. Only then will AI provide humanity its full promise.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Raman Thermometry check on health of power lines

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Raman Thermometry

Mains level : Discom issues

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.

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Life deep beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Life under Antarctic

Mains level : Not Much

Researchers have accidentally discovered living under the ice shelves of the Antarctic — in extremely cold and harsh conditions.

Life beneath the Antarctic

  • Scientists have discovered sessile sponges — a pore bearing multicellular organism and other alien species — attached to the sides of rock beneath the ice sheets.
  • The unidentified species are estimated to be related to sponges, ascidians (sea squirts), hydroids, barnacles, cnidarian or polychaete. All of these look like bristle worms.
  • Scientists are yet to discover how these organisms access food.
  • They would use Environment Deoxyribonucleic acid (e-DNA) technology in future to identify the organisms.

Organisms discovered

Sponges

  • Sponges are the members of the phylum Porifera.
  • They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells.

Ascidians

  • Ascidians, or sea squirts, are invertebrate chordates that belong to the earliest branch in the chordate phylum.
  • Ascidians are found all over the world, usually in shallow water with salinities over 2.5%.

Hydroids

  • Hydroids are a life stage for most animals of the class Hydrozoa, small predators related to jellyfish.
  • Some hydroids such as the freshwater Hydra are solitary, with the polyp attached directly to the substrate.

Barnacles 

  • Barnacles are a highly specialized group of crustaceans.
  • A barnacle is a type of arthropod related to crabs and lobsters.

Cnidarians

  • Cnidarians, also called coelenterate, any member of the phylum Cnidaria (Coelenterata), a group made up of more than 9,000 living species.
  • Mostly marine animals, the cnidarians include the corals, hydras, jellyfish, Portuguese men-of-war, sea anemones, sea pens, sea whips, and sea fans.

Now take this chance to revise your biology basics on various phyla. It will be beneficial for state PSC exams. UPSC has also begun puzzling us on core biology questions.

Defying old theories

  • The discovery has left many of them baffled for it contradicts earlier theories of non-survival of life in such extreme conditions.
  • Until now, scientists believed that sea life decreased with an increase in the depth of the Antarctic ice floor.

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Mechanophotonics: Manipulating light through crystals

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Mechanophotonics, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

Mains level : Not Much

Crystals are normally rigid, stiff structures, but researchers from the University of Hyderabad have shown how crystals can be sliced and even bent using atomic force microscopy. They have named this technique as “mechanophotonics”.

The newscard discusses an out of the box technology which if brought to reality in practical use, can create immense disruptions in the technology market.

Manipulating light through crystals

  • Manipulating them with precision and control comes in very useful in the field of nanophotonics, a qualitative, emerging field.
  • The aim is to go beyond electronics and build-up circuits driven entirely by photons (light).

If the technique can be successfully developed, this can achieve an unprecedented level of miniaturisation and pave the way to all-optical-technology such as pliable, wearable devices operated by light entirely.

What Indian researchers have achieved?

: Bending light path

  • Light, when left to itself moves along straight paths, so it is crucial to develop materials and technology that can cause its path to bend along what is required in the circuits.
  • This is like using fibre optics, but at the nanoscale level using organic crystals.
  • The Hyderabad group has demonstrated how such crystals can be lifted, bent moved, transferred and sliced using atomic force microscopy.

: How?

  • Researchers add a crucial piece to the jigsaw puzzle of building an “organic photonic integrated circuit” or OPIC.
  • Generally, millimetre- to centimetre-long crystals were bent using hand-held tweezers.
  • This method lacks precision and control. Also, the crystals used were larger than what was required for miniaturisation.
  • The atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever tip could be used to lift a crystal, as crystals tend to stick to the tip due to tip–crystal attractive forces.
  • Thus they demonstrated the real waveguiding character of the crystal lifted with a cantilever tip.

In 2014, for the first time, the group led by Rajadurai Chandrasekar of the Functional Molecular Nano/Micro Solids Laboratory in University of Hyderabad demonstrated that tiny crystals could be lifted and moved with precision and control using atomic force microscopy.

What is Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)?

  • AFMs are a type of electron microscope used for the observation at an atomic level.
  • It is commonly used in nanotechnology.
  • The AFM works by employing an ultra-fine needle attached to a beam.
  • The tip of the needle runs over the ridges and valleys in the material being imaged, “feeling” the surface.

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Emphasising self-reliance in science

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Not much

Mains level : Paper 3- Draft fifth Science, Technology and Innovation Policy

The article discusses the features in the fifth Science, Technology and Innovation policy and also suggests the areas that needs attention.

Draft Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

  • The new policy envisages technological self-reliance and aims to position India among the top three scientific superpowers.
  • For that to happen, the draft policy says, we need to attract our best minds to remain in India by developing a people-centric science, technology, and innovation ecosystem.
  • It aims at doubling private sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development every five years.

Following are the highlights of the policy

1) Funding issue

  • Raising our R&D investment in science (about 0.6% now) to 2% of the GDP has been a national goal for a while.
  • Despite strong recommendations in the past by several scientific bodies and leading scientists and policymakers, we are still well short of that goal.
  • The 2020 draft policy blames this on “inadequate private sector investment” and adds that “a robust cohesive financial landscape remains at the core of creating an STI-driven Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
  • Government is trying to shift the responsibility of financing R&D to different agencies such as the States, private enterprises, and foreign multinational companies.
  • But it is doubtful if the various funding models that are presented are workable or practical, especially during a pandemic.
  • Private sector cannot be expected to pay for basic research as return on investment in basic research takes too long from a private sector perspective.
  • The fact is that basic science research in India is suffering from the lack of adequate funding despite grand proclamations.
  • We need to implement the self-financing revenue model proposed in the Dehradun Declaration for the CSIR labs back in 2015.

2) A decentralized institutional mechanism

  • Policymakers are considering alternative mechanisms of governance of the financial landscape.
  • The issue of the administrative burdens of researchers and the problem of journal paywalls is also being considered.
  • Policymakers are also exploring international best practices of grant management.
  • The draft policy visualises a decentralized institutional mechanism for a robust STI Governance.
  • This intention is in fact defeated in the document itself, where several new authorities, observatories and centres have been proposed.
  • Decentralisation of administrative architecture is essential, but we need to explore the practical option of providing more autonomy to research and academic centres for financial management.

3) Steps to tackle the discrimination

  • The number of suicides of students is on the increase in the IITs.
  •  In 2019, more than 2,400 students dropped out from the 23 IITs in just two years, over half of them belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes.
  • Caste discrimination could be one of the reasons for these tendencies.
  • As a part of inculcating an inclusive culture in academia, the document promises to tackle discriminations “based on gender, caste, religion, geography, language, disability and other exclusions and inequalities”.
  • It mentions more representation of women and the LGBTQ community.

Way forward

  • The document should prioritise important issues and amplify first the problems which have cultural and administrative dimensions.
  • The document does not mention how to stem the rot within, although it speaks extensively about science communication and scientific temperament.
  • There is need to facilitate an environment that encourages a mindset that constantly challenges conventional wisdom as well as open-minded inquiry among the students.

Consider the question “As India aspires to be the scientific superpower, suggest the areas which the new Science, Technology and Innovation policy should focus on”

Conclusion

With the advent of new disruptive technologies, global competitiveness will be increasingly determined by the quality of science and technology, which in turn will depend on raising the standard of Indian research/education centres and on the volume of R&D spending. India has no time to waste.

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The threat of deepfakes

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI and deepfakes

Mains level : Paper 3- Deepfakes and threats associated with it

Deepfakes creates media in which it challenges our ability to detect real from fake, it blurs the line between two. This article explains the threat associated with it.

What are deepfakes and threat associated with it

  • Deepfakes are synthetic media (including images, audio and video) that are either manipulated or wholly generated by Artificial Intelligence.
  • AI is used for fabricating audios, videos and texts to show real people saying and doing things they never did, or creating new images and videos.
  • These are done so convincingly that it is hard to detect what is fake and what is real.
  • They are used to tarnish reputations, create mistrust, question facts, and spread propaganda.

Legal provision in India

  • Deepfakes even have the power to threaten the electoral outcome.
  • So far, India has not enacted any specific legislation to deal with deepfakes.
  • However, there are some provisions in the Indian Penal Code that criminalise certain forms of online/social media content manipulation.
  • The Information Technology Act, 2000 covers certain cybercrimes.
  • But this law and the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules, 2018 are inadequate to deal with content manipulation on digital platforms.
  • The guidelines stipulate that due diligence must be observed by the intermediate companies for removal of illegal content.
  • In 2018, the government proposed rules to curtail the misuse of social networks.
  • Social media companies voluntarily agreed to take action to prevent violations during the 2019 general election.
  • The Election Commission issued instructions on social media use during election campaigns.

How to deal with the problem of deepfakes

  • Only AI-generated tools can be effective in detection.
  • Blockchains are robust against many security threats and can be used to digitally sign and affirm the validity of a video or document.
  • Educating media users about the capabilities of AI algorithms could help.
  • Six themes identified in the workshop convened by the University of Washington and Microsoft are to dela with the deepfakes
  • 1) Deepfakes must be contextualised within the broader framework of malicious manipulated media, computational propaganda and disinformation campaigns.
  • 2) Deepfakes cause multidimensional issues which require a collaborative, multi-stakeholder response that require experts in every sector to find solutions.
  • 3) Detecting deepfakes is hard.
  • 4) Journalists need tools to scrutinise images, video and audio recordings for which they need training and resources;
  • 5) Policymakers must understand how deepfakes can threaten polity, society, economy, culture, individuals and communities.
  • 6) Any true evidence can be dismissed as fake is a major concern that needs to be addressed.

Consider the question “What are the deepfakes and threats associated with it? How these threats can be tackled?”

Conclusion

In today’s world, disinformation comes in varied forms, so no single technology can resolve the problem. As deepfakes evolve, AI-backed technological tools to detect and prevent them must also evolve.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Know the scientist: Dmitri Mendeleev

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Dmitri Mendeleev, Periodic table

Mains level : NA

Mendeleev was a Russian chemist and inventor who formulated the Periodic Law and the Periodic Table of Elements.

Chemistry can, no wonder, find their place in exam if core Biology could do in 2020 CSP.

Q.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the general difference between plant cells and animal cells?

  1. Plant cells have cellulose cell walls whilst animal cells do not.
  2. Plant cells do not have plasma membrane unlike animals cells which do
  3. Mature plant cell has one large vacuole whilst animal cell has many small vacuoles

Select the correct answer using the given code below-

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Dmitri Mendeleev

  • Mendeleev was born in the Siberian town of Tobolsk.
  • In 1861, Mendeleev published a textbook named Organic Chemistry, which won him the Demidov Prize of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
  • While explaining the chemical and physical properties of elements, he discovered similarities in the progression of atomic weights.
  • He found that the order of atomic weights could be used to arrange the elements within each group and the groups themselves.
  • Thus, Mendeleev formulated the periodic law. His Osnovy khimii (The Principles of Chemistry) became a classic, running through many editions and many translations.

The Periodic Law

  • Using the Periodic Law, Mendeleev developed a systematic table of all the 63 elements then known.
  • He even predicted the locations of unknown elements together with their properties within the periodic table.
  • When these predicted elements, notably gallium ( 1875), scandium (1879), and germanium (1886) were discovered, Mendeleev Periodic Table began to gain wide acceptance.
  • Incidentally, in 1870, German chemist Julius Lothar Meyer also published a paper describing the same organisation of elements as Mendeleev’s. But the latter is given credit for the table.
  • In all, Mendeleev predicted 10 new elements, of which all but two turned out to exist. Element 101 is named Mendelevium in his honour.

Also read:

Mendeleev and his periodic table of elements

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Exploiting 5G strategically

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : IOT, 5G technology

Mains level : Paper 3- Chinese 5G technology and threats associated with it

The article examines the threat posed by the Chinese 5G technology to the world and India.

Implications of Chinese 5G technology for Nepal

  • The launch of 5G in Nepal would mean that Nepal’s business interests could pass into Chinese control.
  • Real-time information on weather, routes, map, etc could be based on Chinese 5G, thus making locals or visitors to Nepal dependent on it.
  • A related development of infrastructure along the borders, where most mountaineering sites are, could make Nepal’s borders vulnerable and damage its tourism industry.
  • With lower incomes, the tourism industry might get lured into Chinese cheap loans, leading to a strategic debt trap.
  • Such development would have several ramifications for India.

Implications of Chinese 5G technology for the world

  • 2020 has been no ordinary year —Militaries have been pushed to the borders, treaties, and agreements are being signed, and a record number of military deals have happened.
  • This year has witnessed the most unprecedented intensification of global military conflicts since the Gulf War.
  • AI applications have been at display in warfare, with drone killing machines being advertised.
  • There is no option left but to get the 5G technology now.
  • Huge Chinese investments across the world to spread a 5G network will encompass the planet — a “digital encirclement of the world”.
  • Combined with the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), this encirclement would be complete.
  • Intrinsic to the BRI is the fact that Chinese companies will build digital infrastructure.
  • Militaries who allow Chinese 5G, could then become hostage to Chinese technology, as seen during the pandemic.

Indian 5G technology: Advantages and challenges ahead

  •  India is likely to survive the Chinese 5G invasion if it accelerates the launch of the Indian 5G.
  • India is working on technologies that would enable it to launch Indigenous 5G that would run IoT platforms for civilians as well as military applications.
  • The banning of Chinese apps and blocking of hardware supply chains would be the correct counteroffensive to protect the business and security interests of the country.
  • The problem is India being poor in “implementation”.
  • Where India starts losing out is in slow adoption, getting entangled in policy processes and the crosshairs of the bureaucracy. 

Consider the question “What are the concerns with the adoption of Chinese 5G technology? How indigenous 5G technology help India and what are the challenges in developing it?” 

Conclusion

India must get its timing right. The implementation of 5G, though a bit delayed, can make India a good alternative to China. But agreements like RCEP and China’s other debt strategies will remain a larger threat to the world.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Why the universe has less ‘antimatter’ than matter?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Matter, Anti-matter

Mains level : Formation of the universe and the Big Bang

This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in DownToEarth.

Try this PYQ:

Q.The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz, gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct?

(a) Gravity is the strongest of the four

(b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge

(c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity

(d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom.

What is Antimatter?

  • Antimatter is the opposite of normal matter. More specifically, the sub-atomic particles of antimatter have properties opposite those of normal matter.
  • The electrical charge of those particles is reversed.
  • Antimatter was created along with matter after the Big Bang, but antimatter is rare in today’s universe.
  • To better understand antimatter, one needs to know more about the matter.
  • The matter is made up of atoms, which are the basic units of chemical elements such as hydrogen, helium or oxygen.

Their existence

  • The existence of antimatter was predicted by physicist Paul Dirac’s equation describing the motion of electrons in 1928.
  • At first, it was not clear if this was just a mathematical quirk or a description of a real particle.
  • But in 1932 Carl Anderson discovered an antimatter partner to the electron — the positron — while studying cosmic rays that rain down on Earth from space.
  • Over the next few decades’ physicists found that all matter particles have antimatter partners.
  • Scientists believe that in the very hot and dense state shortly after the Big Bang, there must have been processes that gave preference to matter over antimatter.
  • This created a small surplus of matter, and as the universe cooled, all the antimatter was destroyed, or annihilated, by an equal amount of matter, leaving a tiny surplus of matter.
  • And it is this surplus that makes up everything we see in the universe today.

Studying the difference between matter and antimatter

  • A Quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter.
  • Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei.
  • The behaviour of quarks, which are the fundamental building blocks of matter along with leptons, can shed light on the difference between matter and antimatter.
  • Since they are unstable, they will “decay” — fall apart — into other more stable particles at some point during their oscillation.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

[pib] Metal CO2 Battery

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Metal-CO2 battery

Mains level : Optimization of space missions and thier payloads

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.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Technology

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : QKD

Mains level : Quantum Mechanics and its development in India

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.

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Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : IoT , AI

Mains level : Internet based applications

In a first, BSNL launches world’s largest NB-IoT to provide connectivity for millions of unconnected machines, sensors and industrial IoT devices across the country.

What is NB-IoT?

  • NB-IoT is a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology that works virtually anywhere.
  • It will connect many more devices to the Internet of Things and make many new applications a reality.
  • It is optimized for applications that need to communicate small amounts of data over long periods of time.
  • Since it operates in licensed spectrum, it is secure and reliable providing guaranteed quality of service.
  • It connects devices more simply and efficiently on already established mobile networks and handles small amounts of fairly infrequent 2‑way data, securely and reliably.

And the best is, it provides-

  • very low power consumption
  • excellent extended range in buildings and underground
  • easy deployment into the existing cellular network architecture
  • network security & reliability
  • lower component cost

Back2Basics: Internet of Things (IoT)

  • The IoT describes the network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet.
  • The definition of the IoT has evolved due to the convergence of multiple technologies, real-time analytics, AI, sensors, and embedded systems.
  • In the consumer market, IoT technology is most synonymous with products pertaining to the concept of the “smart home”, including devices and appliances.
  • It supports one or more common ecosystems and can be controlled via devices associated with that ecosystem, such as smartphones and smart speakers e.g. Alexa.

Remember this PYQ?

When the alarm of your smartphone rings in the morning, you wake up and tap it to stop the alarm which causes your geyser to be switched on automatically. The smart mirror in your bathroom shows the day’s weather and also indicates the level of water in your overhead tank. After you take some groceries from your refrigerator for making breakfast, it recognises the shortage of stock in it and places an order for the supply of fresh grocery items. When You step out of your house and lock the door, all lights, fans, geysers and AC machines get switched off automatically. On your way to office, your car warns you about traffic congestion ahead and suggests an alternative route, and if you are late for a meeting, it sends a message to your office accordingly.

In the context of emerging communication technologies, which one of the following terms best applies to the above scenario?

(a) Border Gateway Protocol

(b) Internet of Things

(c) Internet Protocol

(d) Virtual Private Network


Also read:

[Burning Issue] Internet of Things (IoT)

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Countering deepfakes, the most serious AI threat

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Deepfakes

Mains level : Paper 3- Threats of the deepfakes

Deepfakes poses threaten the society at various level due to their disruptive potential. The article explains the threat and suggest the measures to deal with the threat. 

Understanding deepfakes

  • Deepfakes are the digital media (video, audio, and images) manipulated using Artificial Intelligence.
  • This synthetic media content is referred to as deepfakes.
  •  They make it possible to fabricate media — swap faces, lip-syncing, and puppeteer.
  • Access to commodity cloud computing, algorithms, and abundant data has created a perfect storm to democratise media creation and manipulation.
  • Synthetic media can create possibilities and opportunities for all people.
  •  But as with any new innovative technology, it can be weaponised to inflict harm.

Threat posed by deepfakes

  • Deepfakes, hyper-realistic digital falsification, can inflict damage to individuals, institutions, businesses and democracy.
  • Nation-state actors with geopolitical aspirations, ideological believers, violent extremists, and economically motivated enterprises can manipulate media narratives using deepfakes, with easy and unprecedented reach and scale.
  • Pornographic deepfakes can threaten, intimidate, and inflict psychological harm and reduce women to sexual objects.
  • Deepfakes can be deployed to extract money, confidential information, or exact favours from individuals.
  • Deepfakes can cause short- and long-term social harm and accelerate the already declining trust in news media.
  • Such an erosion can contribute to a culture of factual relativism, fraying the increasingly strained civil society fabric.

Undermining democracy

  • A deepfake can also aid in altering the democratic discourse and undermine trust in institutions and impair diplomacy.
  • False information about institutions, public policy, and politicians powered by a deepfake can be exploited to spin the story and manipulate belief.
  • A deepfake of a political candidate can sabotage their image and reputation.
  • Voters can be confused and elections can be disrupted.
  • A high-quality deepfake can inject compelling false information that can cast in doubt the voting process and election results.
  • Deepfakes contribute to factual relativism and enable authoritarian leaders to thrive.
  • Another concern is a liar’s dividend; an undesirable truth is dismissed as deepfake or fake news.

Solution to the problem

  • Media literacy for consumers and journalists is the most effective tool to combat disinformation and deepfakes.
  • Improving media literacy is a precursor to addressing the challenges presented by deepfakes.
  • Meaningful regulations with a collaborative discussion with the technology industry, civil society, and policymakers can facilitate disincentivising the creation and distribution of malicious deepfakes.
  • We also need easy-to-use and accessible technology solutions to detect deepfakes, authenticate media, and amplify authoritative sources.

Conclusion

Deepfakes can create possibilities for all people. However, as access to synthetic media technology increases, so does the risk of exploitation. To counter the menace of deepfakes, we all must take the responsibility to be a critical consumer of media on the Internet, think and pause before we share on social media, and be part of the solution to this infodemic.

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Room Temperature Superconductivity

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Superconductivity

Mains level : Not Much

A study has shown that a new material superconducts at 15 degrees Celsius but at extremely high pressure.

In India, we often get to hear about the transmission losses in DISCOMS. Such losses can be zeroed with the application of superconducting cables (which is practically impossible unless we find a normal working one). The phenomena, superconductivity, however, is not new to us, UPSC may end up asking some tricky statements in the prelims regarding it.

What is Superconductivity?

  • A superconductor is a material, such as a pure metal like aluminium or lead, that when cooled to ultra-low temperatures allows electricity to move through it with absolutely zero resistance.
  • Kamerlingh Onnes was the first scientist who figured out exactly how superconductor works in 1911.
  • Simply put, superconductivity occurs when two electrons bind together at low temperatures.
  • They form the building block of superconductors, the Cooper pair.
  • This holds true even for a potential superconductor like lead when it is above a certain temperature.

What is the new material?

  • A new material composed of carbon, hydrogen and sulphur superconducts at 15 degrees Celsius.
  • However, it needs ultrahigh pressure of about 2 million atmospheres to achieve this transition, putting off any thoughts of application to the future.
  • The pressure they needed was 267 Gigapascals (GPa), or 2.6 million atmospheres.
  • The pressure at the centre of the Earth is 360 GPa, so it is 75% of the pressure at the centre of the Earth.

What are Superconductors?

  • Superconductors are materials that address this problem by allowing energy to flow efficiently through them without generating unwanted heat.
  • They have great potential and many cost-effective applications.
  • They operate magnetically levitated trains, generate magnetic fields for MRI machines and recently have been used to build quantum computers, though a fully operating one does not yet exist.

Issues with superconductors

  • They have an essential problem when it comes to other practical applications: They operate at ultra-low temperatures.
  • There are no room-temperature superconductors. That “room-temperature” part is what scientists have been working on for more than a century.
  • The amount of energy needed to cool a material down to its superconducting state is too expensive for daily applications.

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Indian IT industry must seize the opportunity of Chinese tech exit

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Not much

Mains level : Paper 3- Opportunity of Indian IT industry

The article analyses the significance of the Indian ban on Chinese apps. The ban also presents Indian IT companies with unique opportunity.

Context

  • The current India-China border standoff has entered into cyberspace.

How China took lead in IT

  • The Chinese government censored and banned several popular Western websites and applications years ago.
  • In the intervening years the Chinese Internet market exploded and has grown to over 900 million users.
  • The Chinese government insulated Chinese entrepreneurs from Big Tech in Silicon Valley.
  • Home-grown apps at first were faithful reproductions of Silicon Valley, but soon morphed into distinctly Chinese applications tailored solely to the home market.
  • According to the 2016 White House report, the Chinese have leapfrogged even the U.S. in AI research.
  • In this case, the intellectual property being produced actually belongs to China and is not a faithful duplicate of someone else’s product or technology.
  • This has far-reaching implications.

Significance of India’s ban

  • India now has the lowest Internet data costs in the world.
  • In its attempt to dominate the rest of the world, the Chinese Internet industry desperately needs India’s 500-plus million netizens to continue to train AI algorithms they put together.
  • The ban on apps in India is not only a geopolitical move but also a strategic trade manoeuvre that can have a significant economic impact.
  • Ban on Chinese apps allows our home-grown IT talent to focus on the newly arrived Internet user.
  • However, India’s focus remains on exporting IT services while paying little attention to servicing our own nation’s tech market.
  • India spent the last two decades exporting technology services to developed countries in the West, the vacuum created as the Indian Internet grew has been filled by American Big Tech and by the Chinese.
  • After the removal of more than 118 Chinese apps, Indian techies have started trying to fill the holes.

Way forward

  • The primary Indian IT objective must shift from servicing others to providing for ourselves.
  • Focus should not be simply to replace what the exiting firms have so far been providing.
  • Focus should be on providing services and products of high quality that will be used by everyday Indians across the country.
  • The aim of providing netizens with the same services across diverse markets is overarching — regional barriers created by language exist within our own nation.
  • The fundamental focus of the new digital products should be to provide for hyper-regional necessities and preferences.
  • Hyper-local and hyper-regional services with great accessibility that are also portable across our linguistic diversity, are likely to succeed in creating one of the strongest Internet markets in the world.

Consider the question “What are factors responsible for the lack of innovation in the Indian IT industry? How the ban on Chinese apps provide the IT industry with the opportunity to fill the vacuum?”

Conclusion

Indian IT companies must seize the opportunity provided by the exit of Chinese IT companies and come up with products transcending regional barriers and allowing accessibility.

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What is Carbon-14 (C14) Battery?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : C-14, Carbon Dating

Mains level : Scientific management of nuclear waste and its disposal

A California-based company has made a self-charging battery, which can run for 28,000 years on a single charge, by trapping carbon-14 (C14) nuclear waste in artificial diamond-case.

Try this PYQ:

Q.The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz. gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct?

(a) Gravity is the strongest of the four

(b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge

(c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity

(d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom.

What is C14?

  • Carbon-14 (14C), or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons.
  • There are three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon on Earth: carbon-12, which makes up 99% of all carbon on Earth; carbon-13, which makes up 1%; and carbon-14, which occurs in trace amounts.
  • Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues (1949) to date archaeological, geological and hydrogeological samples.

C14 battery

  • The battery works by generating electricity on its own from a shower of electrons as a result of radioactive decay scattered and deposited in the artificial diamond-case.
  • The battery can be used in electric vehicles, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, drones, watches, cameras, health monitors and even sensors.
  • It is also said to be extremely safe and tamper-proof as it is coated with a non-radioactive diamond which prevents radiation leaks.

Best example of nuke waste recycling

  • It is estimated that 33 million cubic metres of global nuclear waste will cost over $100 billion to manage and dispose of.
  • And a lot of this waste is graphite that is one of the higher risks of radioactive waste and one of the most expensive and problematic waste to store.

Its applications

  • The company says its battery can be used to powerhouses, and that any excess electricity generated can be sold to the grid.
  • As the new battery need not be replaced, it can be installed in hard to reach places like pacemakers and implants, where a regular change of battery is not possible.
  • Another area of use is space electronics. The battery is said to power space equipment in rockets.
  • It can power the electrical needs of space crafts, like providing power to cockpits and assisting launch into the upper atmosphere.

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AI integration will be at the core of the transition

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : AI

Mains level : Paper 3- AI and its applications

The article tracks the latest developments in the field of AI by the leading technology companies.

Integrating AI in the phone

  • Over the last few years, most mobile phone manufacturers have been content with design upgrades, apart from specs.
  • Samsung launched a device which has been able to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in its phones.
  • In the case of S-Pen, Samsung demonstrated that it has been able to reduce latency between pen operation and what appears on the screen to 9 milliseconds using predictive analysis.
  • Latency is a major concern in technologies like smart cars.
  • Samsung also showcased active noise cancellation, which again uses prediction analysis to drown out ambient noises.
  • Apple’s virtual event also focused on higher integration and more uses of AI.
  • Siri has become even smarter and is increasingly being integrated with more services.
  • The camera function of Apple devices, for instance, pieces together a picture using best angles to create the perfect image.
  • Samsung and Apple now can monitor health more accurately using their smartwatches.

Future scope

  • This indicates how much further we are moving towards a future with more edge computing.
  • This computing will power technologies like a smart car.
  • Given the progress in IoT, there is a huge likelihood that those betting early on AI integration will reap the biggest rewards of the connected living market.

Consider the question “What is artificial intelligence? How it could transform the world of technology?”

Conclusion

Integration of AI in the devices we use in everyday life holds a promising future for us. India must encourage its development.


Source-

https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/ai-integration-will-be-at-the-core-of-the-transition-to-future-technologies-such-as-smarts-cars/2047309/

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What are Time Capsules?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Time capsules

Mains level : NA

Ahead of the laying of the foundation stone for a temple, claims and denials have emerged about plans to put in a time capsule, or ‘Kaal Patra’.

Do you know?

A rubidium standard or rubidium atomic clock is the most inexpensive, compact, and widely produced atomic clock, used to control the frequency of television stations, cell phone base stations, in test equipment, and global navigation satellite systems like GPS.

What is a Time Capsule?

  • It is a container of any size or shape, which accommodates documents, photos and artefacts typical of the current era and is buried underground, for future generations to unearth.
  • The time capsule requires special engineering so that the contents don’t decay, even if pulled out after a century.
  • Material such as aluminium and stainless steel are used for the encasing, and documents are often reproduced on acid-free paper.
  • While the term “time capsule” was coined in the 20th century, among the earliest examples of one dates back to 1777, found by historians inside the statue of Jesus Christ in Spain during its restoration.

There’s a global society:

International Time Capsule Society

  • The International Time Capsule Society (ITCS), based in the US and formed in 1990, is now defunct but continues estimating the number of time capsules in the world.
  • As per its database, there are “10,000-15,000 times capsules worldwide”.

Are there any time capsules in India?

  • There have been a number of prominent examples.
  • One time capsule, outside the Red Fort and placed underground in 1972 by then PM Indira Gandhi, was dug out by the subsequent government.
  • Other time capsules are at a school in Mumbai, IIT-Kanpur, LPU in Jalandhar, and Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar.
  • The Red Fort time capsule was supposed to be dug out after 1,000 years.

Significance of time capsules

  • Historians often criticize the idea of being motivated.
  • This exercise is inevitably a subjective exercise, geared towards glorification not to construct the real picture.
  • All historians look at this time capsule exercise with suspicion.
  • It’s not a valid historical method — who decides what matter, what artefacts, written documents are going into it?

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How to treat data as public good

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Non-personal data

Mains level : Paper 3- Issue of data sharing

This is the age of Big data. Even after anonymising it, we gain useful information using analytical tools. So, given its potential, there is a call for treating the public data as a public good. This article analyses the suggestion of Kris Gopalakrishnan panel in this regard.

Why data matter

  • By one brave count, the world generates over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.
  • A significant chunk of it is highly valuable.
  • With the increasing sophistication of tools designed to analyse it, the value of the data is increasing further.
  • This analysis of data can yield market patterns, traffic predictions, epidemic risks and much more.[Remember why Google shows you only particular ads.]
  • Data need not be either big or personal for it to be highly sought after.

Non-personal data: A public good

  • Would it not be better if at least some data were treated as a public good?
  • Treating it as a public good will allow its open use by startups, do-gooders and government bodies.
  • Dealing with such questions, a centre-appointed panel, headed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, submitted its draft report on the regulation of non-personal data in India.
  • “Non-personal data” is defined as that which is either devoid of people’s details or anonymized to prevent individual identification.

Proposals of Kris Gopalan panel

  • The panel has proposed a new data authority to regulate non-personal data.
  • It has also outlined the need of a framework that would require companies to share its databanks with others.
  • Sharing of databank will help the country catalyse business innovation, bolster India’s startup ecosystem, and help governments and local authorities frame data-enriched public policies. 

Challenges

  • What data a private entity can be forced to disclose must follow a commonly accepted set of principles.
  • Data authority demanding companies to share data painstakingly acquired often with large sums invested to acquire it won’t work.
  • Also, if sharing data blunts companies’ strategic edge over competitors, they would probably appeal against it in court.
  • If enterprises fear that their confidential learnings could be threatened by intrusive data authority, then the cause of innovation would actually be set back.

Way forward

  • A clear set of guidelines could be set down that specify what sort of data qualifies as a public good and must be kept open to all.
  • For other kinds of data, maybe a market mechanism could evolve that lets various parties bid for privately-held information.

Consider the question “There is a growing demand for treating the non-personal data as a public good. What are the benefits and challenges of treating the non-personal data as public good?

Conclusion

Given its potential, big data does deserve regulation. But it needs to be done with clarity.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Explaining Lithium increase in the Universe

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Explaining the increase of Li in the the Universe

Mains level : Not much

In a study recently published in Nature Astronomy scientists from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) along with their international collaborators have provided a robust observational evidence for the first time that Li production is common among low mass Sun-like stars during their He-core burning phase.

Importance of lithium in our life

  • Light inflammable, metal lithium (Li) has brought about transformation in modern communication devices and transportation.
  • A great deal of today’s technology is powered by lithium in its various shades [remember Li-ion battery!].
  • But where does the element come from?
  • The origin of much of the Li can be traced to a single event, the Big-Bang that happened about 13.7 Billion years ago, from which the present-day Universe was also born.

Why lithium was thought to be different?

  • Li content in the physical Universe has increased by about a factor of four over the life of the Universe.
  • However, the rest of the elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, nickel and so on which grew about a million times over the lifetime of the Universe.
  • Li, however, understood to be an exemption!
  • Current understanding is that lithium in stars like our Sun only gets destroyed over their lifetime.
  • As a matter of fact, the composition of all the elements in the Sun and the Earth is similar.
  • But, the measured content of Li in the Sun is a factor of 100 lower than that of the Earth, though both are known to have formed together.

So, what the new finding suggests?

  • This discovery challenges the long-held idea that stars only destroy lithium during their lifetime.
  • It implies that the Sun itself will manufacture lithium in the future.
  • This is not predicted by models, indicating that there is some physical process missing in stellar theory.
  • Further, the authors identified “He flash”.
  • “He flash” is an on-set of He-ignition at the star’s core via violent eruption at the end of the star’s core hydrogen-burning phase, as the source of Li production.
  • Our Sun will reach this phase in about 6-7 billion years.

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Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

Gold Nanoparticles and their applications

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Gold Nanoparticles

Mains level : Applications of nanomaterials

Indian researchers have successfully synthesized gold nanoparticles (GNPs) using psychrotolerant Antarctic bacteria through a non-toxic, low-cost, and eco-friendly way.

Nanotechnology is a pathbreaking technology which can create many new materials and devices with a wide range of applications, such as in nanomedicine, nanoelectronics etc.   GNPs are another distinct development.

What are Gold Nanoparticles?

  • Metallic NPs have been efficiently exploited for biomedical applications and among them, GNPs are found to be effective in biomedical research.
  • And NPs are those materials that are at least one dimension smaller than 100 nanometers.
  • NPs have a high surface-to-volume ratio and they can provide the tremendous driving force for diffusion, especially at elevated temperatures.
  • GNPs are melted at much lower temperatures (300 °C) than bulk gold (1064 °C).
  • NPs have been found to impart various desirable properties to different day-to-day products.
  • For example, GNPs are found to have greater solar radiation absorbing ability than the conventional bulk gold, which makes them a better candidate for use in the photovoltaic cell manufacturing industry.

Properties of GNP

1) Biomedical

  • Genotoxicity describes the property of a chemical agent that is capable of damaging the genetic information of DNA and thus causing the mutation of the cell, which can lead to cancer.
  • The study revealed the genotoxic effect of GNPs on a sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB).
  • These GNPs can be used as composite therapeutic agent clinical trials, especially in anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-diabetic, and cholesterol-lowering drugs.

2) Optical

  • GNPs have unique optical properties too. For example, particles above 100 nm show blue or violet colour in the water, while the colour becomes wine red in 100 nm gold colloidal particles.
  • They can thus be used for therapeutic imaging.

3) Electronics

  • GNPs are also found to be useful in the electronics industry.
  • Scientists have constructed a transistor known as NOMFET (Nanoparticles Organic Memory Field-Effect Transistor) by embedding GNPs in a porous manganese oxide.
  • NOMFETs can mimic the feature of the human synapse known as plasticity or the variation of the speed and strength of the signal going from neuron to neuron.
  • These novel transistors can now facilitate better recreation of certain types of human cognitive processes, such as recognition and image processing and have their application in AI.

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Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : GPAI and its members

Mains level : GPAI

India joins Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI.

Practice question for mains:

Q. Discuss India’s National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (AI) unveiled by the NITI Aayog.

About GPAI

  • GPAI is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth.
  • It is the league of leading economies including India, USA, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and Singapore.
  • GPAI will be supported by a Secretariat, to be hosted by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, as well as by two Centers of Expertise- one each in Montreal and Paris.
  • This is also the first initiative of its type for evolving better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries.
  • In order to achieve this goal, the initiative will look to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.

Aims and Objectives

  • In collaboration with partners and international organizations, GPAI will bring together leading experts from industry, civil society, governments, and academia to collaborate to promote responsible evolution of AI.
  • It will also help evolve methodologies to show how AI can be leveraged to better respond to the present global crisis around COVID-19.

India and AI

  • It is pertinent to note that India has recently launched the National AI Strategy and National AI Portal.
  • It has also started leveraging AI across various sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, telecommunications, etc. with inclusion and empowerment of human being approach by supplementing growth and development.
  • By joining GPAI as a founding member, India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging upon its experience around the use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.

Also read:

https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/op-ed-snap-india-takes-the-first-step-to-building-an-ai-vision/

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Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation (ARPIT)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : ARPIT

Mains level : Not Much

The Indian Air Force has developed and inducted an Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation (ARPIT).

This rescue pod ARPIT can be used as an example of self-sufficiency under the ambitious Atmanirbhar Abhiyan.

What is ARPIT?

  • ARPIT is a lightweight isolation system made from aviation certified material.
  • It has a transparent and durable cast Perspex for enhanced patient visibility which is larger, higher and wider than the existing models.
  • The isolation system caters for the suitable number of air exchanges, integration of medical monitoring instruments, and ventilation to an intubated patient.
  • In addition, it generates high constant negative pressure in the isolation chamber for prevention of infection risk to aircrew, ground crew and health care workers involved in air transportation.
  • It utilizes High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) H-13 class filters and supports invasive ventilation using Transport Ventilator.

It’s utility

  • This pod will be utilized for the evacuation of critical patients with infectious diseases including COVID-19 from high altitude area, isolated and remote places.

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Electrolytic splitting of Water

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Electrolytic splitting of Water

Mains level : Hydrogen as a clean fuel

Scientists from The Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have found out a low cost and efficient way to generate hydrogen from water using Molybdenum dioxide as a catalyst.

Practice question for mains:

Q. Hydrogen is the future of clean and sustainable energy. Discuss.

Electrolytic splitting of water

  • Electrolysis of water is the decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen gas due to the passage of an electric current.
  • This technique can be used to make hydrogen gas, the main component of hydrogen fuel, and breathable oxygen gas, or can mix the two into oxyhydrogen, which is also usable as fuel, though more volatile and dangerous.
  • It is a promising method to generate hydrogen but requires energy input that can be brought down in the presence of a catalyst.

Using Molybdenum Catalyst

  • The scientists have shown that Molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) nanomaterials annealed in hydrogen atmosphere can act as efficient catalysts to reduce the energy input to bring about water splitting into Hydrogen.
  • Molybdenum dioxide has the potential to replace the currently employed catalyst platinum, which is expensive and has limited resources.
  • MoO2 is a conducting metal oxide that is one of the low-cost catalysts with good efficiency and stability for hydrogen evolution.
  • The catalyst is highly stable for a longer duration of reaction with sustained hydrogen evolution from water.
  • About 80 % efficient conversion of electrical energy into hydrogen has been achieved using this catalyst.

Significance

  • Hydrogen is considered as the future of clean and sustainable energy as it can be generated from water and produces water on energy generation without any carbon footprint.
  • Hydrogen can be directly used as a fuel similar to natural gas or as input for fuel cells to generate electricity.
  • It is the future energy for a clean environment and an alternative to fossil fuels, underlining the necessity of low-cost catalysts for its production.

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What is Superconductivity?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Superconductivity

Mains level : Not Much

On a larger scale, electric grids, such as high power lines, lose over 5 per cent of their energy in the process of transmission.

In India, we often get to hear about the transmission losses in DISCOMS. Such losses can be zeroed with the application of superconducting cables (which is practically impossible unless we find a normal working one). The phenomena, superconductivity, however is not new to us, UPSC may end up asking some tricky statements in the prelims regarding it.

Heat losses

Waste heat is all around you. On a small scale, if your phone or laptop feels warm, that’s because some of the energy powering the device is being transformed into unwanted heat.

Where does this wasted heat come from?

  • These elementary particles of an atom move around and interact with other electrons and atoms.
  • Because they have an electric charge, as they move through a material — like metals, which can easily conduct electricity — they scatter off other atoms and generate heat.

Understanding Superconductivity

  • A superconductor is a material, such as a pure metal like aluminium or lead, that when cooled to ultra-low temperatures allows electricity to move through it with absolutely zero resistance.
  • Kamerlingh Onnes was the first scientist who figured out exactly how superconductor works in 1911.
  • Simply put, superconductivity occurs when two electrons bind together at low temperatures.
  • They form the building block of superconductors, the Cooper pair.
  • This holds true even for a potential superconductor like lead when it is above a certain temperature.

What are Superconductors?

  • Superconductors are materials that address this problem by allowing energy to flow efficiently through them without generating unwanted heat.
  • They have great potential and many cost-effective applications.
  • They operate magnetically levitated trains, generate magnetic fields for MRI machines and recently have been used to build quantum computers, though a fully operating one does not yet exist.

Issues with superconductors

  • They have an essential problem when it comes to other practical applications: They operate at ultra-low temperatures.
  • There are no room-temperature superconductors. That “room-temperature” part is what scientists have been working on for more than a century.
  • The amount of energy needed to cool a material down to its superconducting state is too expensive for daily applications.

Future scope

  • In a dramatic turn of events, a new kind of superconductor material was discovered in 1987 at IBM in Zurich, Switzerland.
  • The material was a kind of ceramic. These new ceramic superconductors were made of copper and oxygen mixed with other elements such as lanthanum, barium and bismuth.
  • They contradicted everything physicists thought they knew about making superconductors.
  • Since then, curiosity regarding the superconductors has been ever increasing.

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R&D: Path to self-reliant India

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Mains level : Paper 3- Importance of innovation for self-reliance.

What does it take to be self-reliant? (Hint: R&D!) This is the question this article tries to answer.  After independence, we had a good start in R&D. But what went wrong? What was the role played by globalisation? Did the globalisation deliver on its promise of technology transfer? And finally, what lies on the way forward for India? This article answers all such question.

What went wrong: historical perspective

  • India chose the path of self-reliance in state-run heavy industries and strategic sectors after independence.
  • In the decades following independence, this choice of self-reliance had placed India ahead of most developing countries.
  • In the 1970s and 80s, however, India did not modernise these industries to climb higher up the technological ladder.
  • The private sector, which had backed the state-run core sector approach in its Bombay Plan, stayed content with near-monopoly conditions in non-core sectors in a protected market.
  • Little effort was made to modernise light industries or develop contemporary consumer products.
  • India’s industrial ecosystem was thus characterised by low productivity, poor quality and low technology, and was globally uncompetitive.

What did India lose in the ‘lost decades’?

  • India completely missed out on the ‘third industrial revolution’.
  • Third industrial revolution comprised electronic goods, microprocessors, personal computers, mobile phones and decentralised manufacturing and global value chains during the so-called lost decade(s).
  • Today, India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market.
  • However, it does not make any of these phones itself.
  • India manufactures only a small fraction of solar photovoltaic cells and modules currently used, with ambitious future targets.

What happened to ‘self-reliance’ after India embraced globalisation?

  • At the turn of the millennium, when India embarked on liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.
  • So, the very concept of self-reliance was rubbished.
  • This happened in the belief that it was like reinventing the things already invented and wasting money on it.
  • And when advanced technologies could simply be bought from anywhere at lower costs. 
  • Two related ideas have prevailed since then, and neither delivered the desired results.

So, what are these two basic ideas?

1. Unsuitability of PSUs in the globalised world

  • The first idea was that public sector undertakings (PSUs) are, by definition, inefficient and sluggish for the competitive globalised scenario.
  • No effort was made to engender either real autonomy or a transition to new technological directions.
  • Instead, PSUs with capability and scale were undermined or abandoned, along with many nascent research and development (R&D) efforts, for instance, in photovoltaics, semiconductors and advanced materials.

So, what was the result of this attitude towards PSUs?

  • The private sector displayed little interest in these heavy industries and showed no appetite for technology upgradation.
  • With entry of foreign corporations, most Indian private companies retreated into technology imports or collaborations.
  • Even today, most R&D in India is conducted by PSUs.
  • And much of the smaller but rising proportion of private sector R&D is by foreign corporations in information technology and biotechnology/pharma.
  • Conclusion: Given the disinclination of most of the private sector towards R&D and high-tech manufacturing, significant government reinvestment in PSUs and R&D is essential for self-reliance.

2. Foreign companies were expected to bring new technologies in India

  • The second idea was that inviting foreign direct investment and manufacturing by foreign majors would bring new technologies into India’s industrial ecosystem.
  • This was thought to obviate the need for indigenous efforts towards self-reliance.

So, what happened on the ground?

  • But mere setting up of manufacturing facilities in India is no guarantee of absorption of technologies.
  • There is no evidence from any sector that this has taken place or has even been attempted.
  • The fact is, foreign majors jealously guard commercially significant or strategic technologies in off-shore manufacturing bases.
  • Conclusion: The key problem of self-reliance is therefore neither external finance nor domestic off-shore manufacturing, but resolute indigenous endeavour including R&D.

Let’s look at experience of other Asian countries towards self-reliance

Three models emerge from Asian countries.

1. Focus on technology and industries

  •  Japan’s post-war success, was seen as a template by some countries to follow.
  • These include countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong
  • These countries took huge technological and industrial strides in the 1970s and 80s.
  • South Korea emerged as a global powerhouse in manufacturing, but also in indigenously developed technologies.
  • Taiwan developed technologies and manufacturing capacities in robotics and micro-processors.
  • While Singapore and Hong Kong adapted advanced technologies in niche areas.
  • These self-reliant capabilities were enabled, among other factors, by planned state investments in R&D including basic research (3-5% of GDP), technology and policy support to private corporations, infrastructure and, importantly, education and skill development (4-6% of GDP).

2. Focus on off-shore manufacturing and not on self-reliance

  • Countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have focused on off-shore manufacturing lower down the value chain and without the thrust on self-reliance.
  • This is useful for job creation but is an unsuitable model for a country of India’s size and aspirations.

3. China: Transition from low-end manufacturing to dominant role in supply chains

  • China is, of course, unique in scale and in its determination to become a superpower not just geopolitically but also in self-reliant S&T and industrial capability.
  • China advanced purposefully from low-end mass manufacturing to a dominant role in global supply chains.
  • It has now decided on shifting to advanced manufacturing.
  • It has set itself a target of becoming a world leader by 2035 in 5G, supercomputing, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, biotech/pharma and other technologies of the ‘fourth industrial revolution’.

Way forward for India

  • India may well have missed the bus in many of technologies in which the U.S., Europe and China have established perhaps insurmountable leads.
  • Yet, self-reliant capabilities in electric and fuel cell vehicles, electricity storage systems, solar cells and modules, aircraft including UAVs, AI, robotics and automation, biotech/pharma and others are well within reach.
  • Large-scale concerted endeavours would, however, be required, since self-reliance will not happen by itself.
  • State-funded R&D, including in basic research, by PSUs and research institutions and universities needs to be scaled-up significantly, well above the dismal 1% of GDP currently.
  • Upgraded and reoriented PSUs would also be crucial given their distinctive place in the ecosystem.
  • Private sector delivery-oriented R&D could also be supported, linked to meaningful participation in manufacturing at appropriate levels of the supply chain.
  • India’s meagre public expenditure on education needs to be substantially ramped up including in skill development.

Consider the question “The path to the self-reliance of any country goes through robust capabilities in the R&D. Comment”

Conclusion

Self-reliance would need a paradigm shift in our approach toward many things. First and foremost is the R&D. Potential of the PSUs has to be tapped to their fullest in the realms of R&D. The second area of focus should be education. These two areas are the key to achieve self-reliance and should be the focus of policymakers.


Back2Basics: Bombay Plan

  • The Bombay plan was a set of proposal of a small group of influential business leaders in Bombay for the development of the post-independence economy of India.
  • This plan was published in two parts or volume- first in 1944 and second in 1945.
  • The prime objectives of the plan were to achieve a balanced economy and to raise the standard of living of the masses of the population rapidly by doubling the present per capita income within a period of 15 years from the time the plan goes into operation.

 

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[pib] Energy-efficient Photodetector for Security Application

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Photodetectors and their applications

Mains level : NA

Indian scientists have fabricated an economical and energy-efficient wafer-scale photodetector using gold – silicon interface, for security applications.

A basic question on the working principle of Photodetectors can be asked in the Prelims.

What are Photodetectors?

  • Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation.
  • A photodetector has a p–n (positive-negative) junction that converts light photons into the current.
  • The absorbed photons make electron-hole pairs in the depletion region.
  • Photodiodes and phototransistors are a few examples of photodetectors. Solar cells convert some of the light energy absorbed into electrical energy.
  • The material cost and the intricate fabrication processes involved in realizing high-performance detectors make them unaffordable for day to day applications.

Applications

  • Photodetectors are the heart of any optoelectronic circuit that can detect light.
  • They are employed for a wide variety of applications ranging from controlling automatic lighting in supermarkets to detecting radiation from the outer galaxy as well as security-related applications.
  • They range from simple devices that automatically open supermarket doors, to receivers on the TV remote controls.

What did Indian researchers achieve?

  • The scientists have fabricated gold (Au) – silicon (Si) interface, which showed high sensitivity towards light demonstrating the photodetection action.
  • The Au–Si interface was brought about by galvanic deposition, a technique for electroplating of metals, wherein water-based solutions (electrolytes) are used, which contain the metals to be deposited as ions.
  • In addition, a nanostructured Au film also was deposited on top of p-type silicide (having an excess of positive charges), which acts as a charge collector.

Benefits

  • Being a solution-based technique, the method is highly economical and enabled large-area fabrication without compromising the detector response.
  • The process is quick, taking only minutes to fabricate a detector of any arbitrary area and exhibited a rapid response of 40 microseconds.
  • This photodetector displayed long-term environmental stability.
  • The Indian invention provides a simple and cost-effective solution-based fabrication method for high-performance photodetector.
  • It could help detect weak scattered light as an indication of unwanted activity.

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[pib] HCARD robot to assist frontline COVID-19 healthcare warriors

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : HCARD

Mains level : Technology assistance for COVID-19 containment

HCARD, a robot, to assist frontline COVID-19 healthcare warriors has been developed by a CSIR lab.

It is very unlikely to create a prelim question on HCARD. However, developments as such help in exemplifying the scientific developments which helped contain such highly contagious outbreaks.

What is HCARD?

  • The robotic device HCARD, an acronym for Hospital Care Assistive Robotic Device, can help frontline healthcare workers in maintaining physical distance from those infected by the coronavirus.
  • The device is equipped with various state-of-the-art technologies and works both in automatic as well as manual modes of navigation.
  • This robot can be controlled and monitored by a nursing booth with a control station having such features as navigation, drawer activation for providing medicines and food to patients, sample collection and audio-visual communication.
  • The cost of this device is less than Rs 5 lakh and the weight is less than 80 kilograms.

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The Curie Family and its Nobel legacy

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Radioactivity

Mains level : NA

This newscard is inspired by an article published in the DTE which talks about a family which has received a total of four Nobel prizes, the highest won by a single-family.

Last year in 2019 CSP, there was a question on pure Biology about Hepatitis and its variants. With such news trending, we can expect a core chemistry or physics based question coupled with a slight Current Affairs blend.

The ‘Nobel’ family

  • On April 20, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolated radioactive radium salts from pitchblende, a mineral, in a laboratory in Paris, France.
  • They were inspired by French physicist Henri Becquerel’s 1896 experiment on phosphorescence or the phenomenon that allows certain objects to glow in the dark.
  • They were able to find traces of two radioactive elements—polonium (Element 84) and radium (Element 88).
  • Curie shared the 1903 Nobel with her fellow researcher Pierre Currie and Becquerel for their combined work on radioactivity.

Important facts

  • In 1903, Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics making her the world’s first woman to win the prize.
  • In 1911, she created history again by becoming the first woman to have won two Nobel awards.
  • The 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Marie after she managed to produce radium as a pure metal. This proved the new element’s existence beyond doubt.
  • However, this was not the last Nobel for the Curie family.
  • The 1935 Nobel in Chemistry went to Irène Curie and her husband and co-researcher Frédéric Joliot for their joint work on the artificial creation of new radioactive elements.
  • The Curies have received a total of four of Nobel prizes, the highest won by a single-family. They also have the unique distinction of having three Nobel-prize winning members in the family.

Birth of Radioactivity

  • While delivering a lecture at the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden in 1911, Curie shared some critical details about “radioactive elements” and the phenomenon called “radioactivity”.
  • She also spoke about the chemical properties of radium, the new element that was about a million times more radioactive than uranium.
  • Radium in solid salts was about 5 million times more radioactive than an equal weight of uranium.

Back2Basics: Radioactivity

  • Radioactivity refers to the particles which are emitted from nuclei as a result of nuclear instability.
  • It is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation.
  • The most common types of radiation are called alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, but there are several other varieties of radioactive decay.
  • Radioactive decay rates are normally stated in terms of their half-lives, and the half-life of a given nuclear species is related to its radiation risk.
  • Examining the amounts of decay products makes possible radioactive dating.

Its applications

  • Medical use: Many diseases such as cancer are cured by radiotherapy. Sterilization of medical instruments and food is another common application of radiation.
  • Scientific use: Alpha particles emitted from the radioisotopes are used for nuclear reactions.
  • Industrial use: Radioisotopes are used as fuel for atomic energy reactors. Also used in Carbon dating.

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[pib] ‘NanoBlitz 3D’ tool to map properties of nano-materials

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level :  NanoBlitz 3D

Mains level : NA

Indian scientists have developed an advanced tool for mapping nano-mechanical properties of materials like multi-phase alloys, composites, and multi-layered coatings.

Nanotechnology is a pathbreaking technology which can create many new materials and devices with a wide range of applications, such as in nanomedicine, nanoelectronics etc.  NanoBlitz 3D is another distinct development. We can expect a prelims question asking what the NanoBlitz 3D is , with confusing options like 3d printing tool etc.

 NanoBlitz 3D

  • Scientists from Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) an autonomous institute under the Dept. of S&T have developed this tool.
  • It is an advanced tool for mapping nano-mechanical properties of materials like multi-phase alloys, composites, and multi-layered coatings.
  • The tool has been useful to yield excellent results on a wide range of material systems, including glass-fibre-reinforced polymer composites, dual-phase steels, softwood and shale.
  • An important aspect of this technique is its high-throughput, with just a few hours of testing required for generating more than 10,000 data points that can be processed using machine learning (ML) algorithms.

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[pib] Ionospheric Electron Density (IED) and its applications

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : IED

Mains level : Not Much

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), Mumbai, have developed a global model to predict the ionospheric electron density with larger data coverage—a crucial need for communication and navigation.

We can gauge these days that PIB is coming with ample news which is visibly important and are focused on basic GS concept. Ionospheric Electron Density is one such concept. Its significance for prelims cannot be denied.

Ionospheric Electron Density (IED)

  • The ionosphere exists between about 90 and 1000 km above the earth’s surface.
  • Radiation from the sun ionizes atoms and molecules here, liberating electrons from molecules and creating a space of free electron and ions.

Studying IED

  • The ionospheric variability is greatly influenced by both solar originated processes and the neutral atmosphere origin.
  • Scientists have tried to model the ionosphere using theoretical and empirical techniques; however, the accurate prediction of electron density is still a challenging task.
  • In recent years, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are showing potential to handle more complex and non-linear problems.

What are Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)?

  • ANNs are computing systems vaguely inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains.
  • Such systems “learn” to perform tasks by considering examples, generally without being programmed with task-specific rules.
  • For example, in image recognition, they might learn to identify images that contain cats by analyzing example images that have been manually labeled as “cat” or “no cat” and using the results to identify cats in other images.
  • They do this without any prior knowledge of cats, for example, that they have fur, tails, whiskers and cat-like faces.
  • Instead, they automatically generate identifying characteristics from the examples that they process.

Significance of IED

  • Due to the ability of ionized atmospheric gases to refract high frequency (HF, or shortwave) radio waves, the ionosphere can reflect radio waves directed into the sky back toward the Earth.
  • Radio waves directed at an angle into the sky can return to Earth beyond the horizon.
  • This technique, called “skip” or “skywave” propagation, has been used since the 1920s to communicate at international or intercontinental distances.

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Virus outbreak can potentially spur the next quantum leap for computing

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Qubit, superposition.

Mains level : Paper 3- What do you understand by quantum technology? What are its applications? How it is different from the classical computer technology?

The article suggests that the corona crisis would speed up research in the field of quantum computing. The tremendous speed offered by quantum computers will help us find a cure for diseases like Covid-19 in a much shorter duration. This article explains the limitations of classical computers, working of quantum technology, and how quantum computer overcomes these limitations.

Use of supercomputer to find the cure of Covid-19

  • The whole world is pressurized into quickly discovering a vaccine and a cure for covid-19.
  • IBM’s Summit, the world’s fastest supercomputer, was used for running numerous simulations and computations.
  • These simulations and computations help scientists find promising molecules to fight the pandemic.
  • The latest update says the Summit has been able to identify 77 candidate molecules that researchers can use in trials.
  • This was achieved in just two days, while, traditionally, it has taken months to make such progress.

Computing capacity as a limit on molecular discoveries

  • Today, faster molecular discoveries are limited by computing capacity.
  • Molecular discoveries are also limited by the need for scientists to write codes for harnessing the computing power.
  • It is no secret that classical computing power is plateauing (e. it is not growing anymore)
  • And till we have scalable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), scientists will have to write code for not only different scenarios but also for different computing platforms.
  • So, what we need today is more computing power.

The following points explain the limits of classical computers. Pay attention to the Moore’s law, and how it explains the development of semiconductor technologies and in turn computers as a whole.

What is the solution to the limits of classical computers?

  • Given that we have already neared the peak of classical computing, the solution probably is quantum computing.
  • Not just vaccines, quantum computing can accelerate many innovations, such as hyper-individualized medicines, 3-D printed organs, search engines for the physical world etc.
  • All innovations currently constrained by the size of transistors used in classical computing chips can be unleashed through quantum computing.
  • Moore’s law: In 1965, Gordon Moore had said the number of transistors that can be packed into a given unit of space will double about every two years.
  • Subsequently, in an interview in 2005, he himself admitted that this law can’t continue forever.
  • He had said: “It is the nature of exponential functions, they eventually hit a wall.”
  • Over the last 60 years, we reaped the benefits of Moore’s law in many ways.
  • For instance, compared to initial days of the Intel 4004, the modern 14nm processors deliver way bigger impact—3,500 times better performance and 90,000 times improved efficiency, at 1/60,000th the cost!
  • Yet, we are also seeing his 2005 statement coming true. All the experts agree that the ‘wall’ is very near.
  • So, what next? The answer again is probably the same—quantum computing.

Quantum technology is one of the emerging and revolutionary technologies, you should be aware of the terms and general principle which lies at the heart of such technology. So, terms like superposition, qubit, binary etc are important if you want to answer a questions related to this technology.

Quantum computing and its applications

  • It is no more a concept, there are working models available on the cloud.
  • How it works: Quantum computing uses the ability of sub-atomic particles to exist in multiple states simultaneously, until it is observed.
  • The concept of qubits: Unlike classical computers that can store information in just two values, that is 1 or 0, quantum computing uses qubits that can exist in any superposition of these values,
  • This superposition enables quantum computers to solve in seconds problems which a classical computer would take thousands of years to crack.
  • Applications: The application of this technology is enormous, and just to cite a few, it can help with the discovery of new molecules, optimize financial portfolios for different risk scenarios.
  • It can also crack RSA encryption keys, detect stealth aircraft, search massive databases in a split second and truly enable AI.

Investment in the development of technology

  • In the Union budget this year, the Indian government announced investments of ₹8,000 crores for developing quantum technologies and applications.
  • Globally, too, countries and organizations are rushing to develop this technology and have already invested enormous capital towards its research.

Conclusion

Historically, unprecedented crises have always created more innovations than routine challenges or systematic investments. Coincidentally, current times pose similar opportunities in disguise for the development of quantum technologies.


Back2Basics: Difference between bit and qubit

  • A binary digit, characterized as 0 and 1, is used to represent information in classical computers.
  • A binary digit can represent up to one bit of information, where a bit is the basic unit of information.
  • In classical computer technologies, a processed bit is implemented by one of two levels of low DC voltage.
  • And whilst switching from one of these two levels to the other, a so-called forbidden zone must be passed as fast as possible, as electrical voltage cannot change from one level to another instantaneously.
  • There are two possible outcomes for the measurement of a qubit—usually taken to have the value “0” and “1”, like a bit or binary digit.
  • However, whereas the state of a bit can only be either 0 or 1, the general state of a qubit according to quantum mechanics can be a coherent superposition of both.
  • Moreover, whereas a measurement of a classical bit would not disturb its state, a measurement of a qubit would destroy its coherence and irrevocably disturb the superposition state.
  • It is possible to fully encode one bit in one qubit.
  • However, a qubit can hold more information, e.g. up to two bits using superdense coding.
  • For a system of n components, a complete description of its state in classical physics requires only n bits, whereas in quantum physics it requires 2n−1 complex numbers.

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[pib] Plasmonic Semiconductor Nanomaterials

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Nanomaterials, Semiconductors

Mains level : Applications of nanomaterials

Researchers are exploring ways to develop plasmonic semiconductor nanomaterials for removal of toxic organic compounds from water by harvesting solar light.

Nanotechnology is a pathbreaking technology which can create many new materials and devices with a wide range of applications, such as in nanomedicine, nanoelectronics etc.  PSN is one such application. Topics like PSN are most likely to be asked in the competitive examinations.

Plasmonic Semiconductor Nanomaterials

  • PSN are metal-like materials with free electrons on the surface that oscillate collectively when hit by light.
  • It uses solar light to increase the photocatalytic efficiency to degrade pollutants as well as generate renewable Hydrogen.
  • These materials can easily adsorb toxic ions like arsenic and fluoride, which are often found in water in North East India and convert it to its not toxic forms when they are exposed to sunlight.
  • PSN can be used for hydrogen energy generation, a process which has shown high photon to hydrogen conversion efficiency under visible and near infra-red light.

What are Semiconductors?

  • Semiconductors are materials which have a conductivity between conductors (generally metals) and nonconductors or insulators (such as most ceramics).
  • Its resistance falls as its temperature rises; metals are the opposite.
  • They can be pure elements, such as silicon or germanium, or compounds such as gallium arsenide or cadmium selenide.

Back2Basics: Nanomaterials

  • Nanomaterials are materials of which a single unit small-sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale).
  • Materials with structure at the nanoscale often have unique optical, electronic, or mechanical properties.
  • They are created from the gas phase by producing a vapour of the product material using chemical or physical means.
  • Examples of nanomaterials include carbon nanotube, nanoparticles, metal rubber, quantum dots, nanopores and many more.

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Making use of technology to trace Covid-19 cases

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Aarogya Setu App.

Mains level : Paper 3- Using technology for tackling the Covid-19.

The article argues for the greater adoption of technology in tracing the Covid-19. Taking a cue from the success of JAM and UPI, recently launched app Aarogya Setu could also be the next game-changer in the fight against the pandemic. However, there are several challenges that are also discussed here.

Success story of domestic digital platforms

  • The success of two domestic digital payment platforms offers us an opportunity to show how the tracing of COVID-19 cases can be done at scale and with greater speed.
  • The JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity for DBTs (Direct Benefit Transfers) and UPI (Unified Payments Interface) have made India a technology leader in money transfers.
  • The JAM has lent efficiency to the transfer of funds to the needy.
  • It was drafted into action recently to channel payments to the more vulnerable who need help in dealing with the adverse economic consequences of the lockdown.
  • The UPI is emerging as a transaction vehicle of choice for all retail payments.
  • In March, 148 banks were on the UPI platform, helping process over 120 crore transactions worth over Rs 2 lakh crore.

The success story of the UPI and JAM is important from the UPSC point of view. Riding on the success of these two, the Aarogya Setu could also become the third and help in the fight against the epidemic. So, we should be aware of the basics of its working and problems the app could face.

How the Aarogya Setu works?

  • Widespread adoption is required: The success of India’s Aarogya Setu mobile application will depend on its widespread adoption.
  • Based on bluetooth technology: The app relies on bluetooth technology to map and deconstruct the contact history of individuals who may have come in contact with potential carriers of the coronavirus.
  • Exchange of information between apps: If two individuals are at the same place at the same time, their apps can exchange information-up to a maximum distance of about 15 feet.
  • Exchange of the above information is without the server knowing anything about it.
  • The app notifies users and authorities of individuals who are at risk.
  • Privacy safeguards: Some privacy safeguards have been put in place to ensure that individuals do not share personally identifiable information with each other but only with authorities — that too, in select cases.
  • A confidence-building measure would be to release the code for public scrutiny with the aim of further bolstering privacy standards.

What are the possible challenges in the success of Aarogya Setu?

  • The distribution of the detection framework necessitates a rethink, beyond an app.
  • Issues with app download in India: Nandan Nilekani has underlined that app downloads in India are perhaps the most expensive compared to any other developed or fast-developing nation.
  • Despite the falling cost of data, Indian users consider several factors before downloading an app such as required storage space, the potential impact on battery and data usage.
  • Given India’s open internet, several publishers from across industries and geographies are vying for smartphone real estate.
  • Challenge involved: In such a situation, drawing attention to particular use-cases i.e. Aarogya Setu-howsoever urgent-is challenging.

Following are the suggestions to overcome the shortcoming of the Aarogya Setu. Though they are for Aarogya Setu, we can apply these in other situations in which mobile technology bases app is used by the government in the larger public interest such as rescue operation or warnings in case of disaster.

So, what could be the alternate strategy?

  • The alternative strategy involves using the reach of the other famous apps (for ex. Paytm) to do what we want to do i.e. tracing by delinking.
  • Delinking involves separating the technology we want to use for tracing (the backend) from the channels (the front end).
  • A fine-tuned backend can be pushed to, and used by, publishers (other apps) who already have the reach.
  • Similarity with UPI: This is akin to the UPI being used by several banks and technology firms for payment.
  • The government did build its frontend in the form of the BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app but mostly for signalling purposes.
  • In the current context, the government can consider using its own app for tracing and for additional use-cases such as passes and approvals for movement when the lockdown is gradually eased out.
  • It could even host other health-related features.
  • Expanding its ambit and making it a conduit like JAM will likely increase the incentive for people to embrace it.

Limitations of using GPS and Bluetooth for tracing in India

  • Another area where improvisations are called for is the tooling for tracking.
  • While reports have indicated that the developers are using bluetooth for tracing and are also capturing GPS coordinates, both users and device manufacturers limit their usage of these technologies in favour of other optimisations.
  • Users are concerned with both data and battery usage while device manufacturers kill background jobs even if the publishers have sought and secured permissions from users.
  • These tendencies are pronounced on Android, the dominant mobile operating system in India.
  • What are the other options? In such a scenario, developers ought to think about using other techniques.
  • For instance, using cell tower data and WiFi identifiers to bolster tracing efforts.
  • This is especially important in a context where only a third of our population has smartphones and even fewer people have devices with bluetooth capability.
  • Even the recently announced Google-Apple partnership may not have meaningful results in this setting.

Conclusion

With the potential ramifications of COVID-19’s spread in India and across the globe, the nation’s recent history of technological successes and a government committed to agile governance, the pandemic presents an opportunity for the country to show its people and the world how technology is a force of good.

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Covid-19: Software vendors focus on big data, AI despite fall in IT spending

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Not much.

Mains level : Paper 3- Leveraging AI and Big data for dealing with Covid-19, and how the IT industry could turn the Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity?

The article discusses how COVID-19 has prompted the software companies to focus on technologies that are still in demand. The IT companies have started to focus on ways to leverage the potential of AI and the Big data to deal with the pandemic.

Impact on IT companies and how they are planning to cope with it?

  • Fall in spending: Spending on information technology (IT) globally is expected to shrink by 3-4% by the end of 2020.
  • Impact: That would have a severe impact on hardware and slowdown in the software and service businesses.
  • How companies are planning to deal with the situation? Software vendors such as IBM, SAP Software Solutions and Microsoft Corporation plan to make use of emerging technologies to become more relevant to their customers.
  • IBM has created an AI platformWatson Assistant for Citizens’ on its public cloud.
  • The platform helps citizens understand and respond to common questions about covid-19, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.
  • While the ongoing pandemic is having a dreadful impact on companies at scale, matured ones are taking a pause and rethinking their analytics approach.
  • Using data analysis to prepare contingency plan: Data science teams are being called into action to crunch petabytes of data and build best business models on trusted data for decision-makers to quickly prepare contingency plans.
  • This is where we are seeing enterprises using AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to mine the data and build predictive or prescriptive models in IBM Cloud Pack for Data.

UPSC could ask question connecting the use of IT and its potential to deal with the pandemics. And it could also be other way round you can cite the example of use of IT in the health sector.

Adoption of the AI by various sectors

  • The government and public service agencies as well as healthcare and research companies urgently need AI solutions and analytics as they are in a race to find a treatment for the deadly disease.
  • Other industries with high end-user touch-points like banks, insurance, retail, etc. are also in urgent need to use AI/ML-driven analytics and cognitive technologies to automate their communications, streamline predictions, decision making, etc.

AI and Big data could be a game-changer across the various sectors, health being one of them. As among the buzzwords in technologie today UPSC could ask about AI and Big data.

Covid-19 as an opportunity for the IT industry

  • The covid-19 crisis is an opportunity for IT vendors to build and improve on their capabilities on AI and big data.
  • Leveraging AI: They are also keeping an eye on emerging uses cases in AI for disease detection, tracking, and prevention.
  • Relatively smaller companies are also launching dedicated AI-based apps to assist people amid the covid-19 crisis.
  • Eka Software Solutions recently released ‘COVID-19 Risk Monitoring’, it help customers quickly gain visibility in supply chain risks by showing a company’s contract position across countries with reported cases of the virus.
  • Based on company data, the app instantly visualises contracts at risk and provides businesses with the ability to identify alternate suppliers to maintain business continuity.

Conclusion

As the epidemic is far from being tamed, various sectors are likely to feel the existential crisis and IT could be one of them. But they can also turn this crisis into an opportunity by leveraging the AI and Big data in tackling the epidemic at various levels.

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[pib] Laser Surface Micro-texturing

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Laser surface micro-texturing

Mains level : NA

International Advanced Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI) an autonomous R&D Centre of Dept. of Science and Technology has developed ultrafast laser surface texturing technology, which can improve the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines.

Laser surface micro-texturing

  • This technology offers precise control of the size, shape and density of micro-surface texture features. This has gained momentum as a way to control friction and wear.
  • In this technology, a pulsating laser beam creates micro-dimples or grooves on the surface of materials in a very controlled manner.
  • Such textures can trap wear debris when operating under dry sliding conditions and sometimes provide effects like enhancing oil supply (lubricant reservoir) which can lower friction coefficients and may enable reduced wear rate.
  • The texture surfaces were created on automotive internal combustion engine components, piston rings and cylinder liners using 100 fs pulse duration laser.
  • The micro dimples of 10-20 μm diameter and about 5-10 μm deep which have been created with laser beams had a regular pattern.

Benefits of micro-texturing

  • The created textures were tested in an engine test rig under different speeds and temperatures of coolant and lubrication oil, and it was observed that there was a 16% reduction in the lube oil consumption with the use of texture on the piston rings.
  • The 10-hour lube oil consumption test shows that the blowby substantially reduced with textured rings.
  • Fabrication of a pattern of micro dimples or grooves on the surface of materials results in a change in surface topography which generates additional hydrodynamic pressure, thereby increasing the load-carrying capacity of the surfaces.
  • Hence these become useful for trapping wear debris when operating under dry sliding conditions and sometimes provide effects like enhancing oil supply (lubricant reservoir) which can lower friction coefficients and may enable reduced wear rate.

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[pib] National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Supercomputers

Mains level : Applications of Supercomputers

The Union Ministry of Science & Technology has informed about the progress of the National Supercomputing Mission.

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 increasing 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 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.

IWhat 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?

  • 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.
  • 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.

What are the phases of the National Supercomputing Mission?

Phase I:

  • In the first phase of the NSM, parts of the supercomputers are imported and assembled in India.
  • A total of 6 supercomputers are to be installed in this phase.
  • The first supercomputer that was assembled indigenously is called Param Shivay. It was installed in IIT (BHU) located in Varanasi.
  • Similar systems, Param Shakti (IIT Kharagpur) and Param Brahma (IISER, Pune) were also later installed within the country.
  • The rest will be installed at IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies (JNIAS).

Phase II:

  • The supercomputers that are installed so far are about 60% indigenous.
  • The 11 systems that are going to be installed in the next phase will have processors designed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and will have a cumulative capacity of 10 petaflops.
  • These new systems are to be constructed more cost-effectively than the previous ones.
  • One of the 11 proposed supercomputers will be installed
  • at C-DAC exclusively for small and medium enterprises so that they can train employees as well as work on supercomputers at a very low cost.

Phase III:

  • The third phase aims to build fully indigenous supercomputers.
  • The government had also approved a project to develop a cryogenic cooling system that rapidly dispels the heat generated by a computing chip. This will be jointly built together by IIT-Bombay and C-DAC.

What are the advantages of the National Supercomputing Mission?

  • The National Supercomputing Mission can ensure accessibility to supercomputers at an affordable rate to the scientific community and medium and small enterprises.
  • It can exponentially enhance the quality and quantity of R&D and higher education in the areas of science and technology.
  • It can solve the current and future challenges that are plaguing the country.
  • Currently, the world’s top supercomputers are mostly under the control of advanced nations like the US, Japan, China and the European Union. This Mission has the potential to bring India into this select league of such nations.
  • These supercomputers can be used in the areas of climate modelling, weather predictions, computational biology, atomic energy simulations, defence, disaster simulation, astrophysics etc.
  • These computers have played a crucial role in scientific and technological advancements in numerous fields.
  • Unlike other computers, these high-performance machines can crunch the most complex of data at a speed, which is millions of times faster than a desktop PC.
  • This mission, aiming to provide supercomputing facilities to about 60-70 institutions across the nation and thousands of active researchers, academicians, is moving fast towards creating a computer infrastructure within the country.
  • This mission can also enhance the country’s capacity to develop the next generation of supercomputer experts.

How do other countries make use of supercomputers?

China:

  • Jiangsu Province has a supercomputer called “Sunway TaihuLight”.
  • This supercomputer performs a wide range of tasks, including climate science, weather forecasting and earth-system modelling to help ships avoid rough seas, improve farmers’ yields and ensure the safety of offshore drilling.
  • TaihuLight has already led to an increase in profits and a reduction in expenses that justify its cost ($270 million).

United States:

  • In the US, supercomputers are radically transforming the healthcare system.
  • The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has used supercomputers to create a far more detailed model of the Hepatitis-C virus, a major cause of the liver disease that costs $9 billion in healthcare costs in the US alone.
  • Using supercomputers, the researchers have now developed a model that comprehensively simulates heart down to the cellular level and can lead to a substantial reduction in heart diseases.

These are some of the very few cases of how supercomputers have enhanced breakthroughs in various fields.

How do supercomputers help fight coronavirus?

  • Earlier, the US had established COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium that will bring together industry, academic institutions, and federal laboratories to try to identify or create candidate compounds that might prevent or treat coronavirus infection.
  • One of the members of the consortium, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, aimed to look into compounds that are already available in the market that might combat COVID-19.
  • For this purpose, the world’s fastest supercomputer “Summit” was used.
  • Like other viruses, the novel coronavirus uses a spike protein to inject cells.
  • Using Summit with an algorithm to investigate which drugs could bind to the protein and prevent the virus from doing its duty, the researchers have a list of 77 drugs that show promise.
  • Starting with 8,000 compounds, Summit has shortened the time of the experiment exponentially, ruling out the vast majority of possible medications before settling on 77 drugs, which are ranked based on how effective they are likely to be at halting the virus in the human body.

Way forward

  • It is evident that supercomputers would become a vital part of our lives as it can provide solutions to the current and future problems and India, one of the most populous nations in the world, must ensure that it also has access to this technology for the welfare of its people.
  • Supercomputers, as they operate at such incredible speeds, will encounter numerous barriers like network and interconnectivity hardware that previous generations of designers did not have to deal with.
  • The cooling system is also one of the major design constraints.
  • Hence, India must give a high emphasis on innovation to tackle these challenges.
  • India must also give high emphasis to the application rather than the technology itself.
  • Supercomputing research also requires fundamental research of the next stages of computing like quantum computing that are still in the theoretical stage.
  • Bureaucratic red-tapism must be circumvented and scientists and researchers must be allowed to take bold and radical steps without fear of reprisal.
  • The government must also invest in necessary physical and digital infrastructure.
  • It must also address the challenges of:
  • Limited funding and delayed release of funds
  • The increasing need for imports for necessary hardware components to build supercomputers

Conclusion:

  • Supercomputers are strategically important for India as it can help the country to become a knowledge-driven economy.
  • This technology also can support cutting edge research that can benefit the economy, society, businesses, environment, etc.
  • Thus, enhancing investments, improving flexibility for research and providing other necessary infrastructures must be ensured for it to grow.
  • Without this technology, India risks being surpassed on the global stage by other nations and will consequently miss the huge benefits that come from having this strategically important technology at the disposal of the country’s best and brightest minds

 

 

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Picking up the quantum technology baton

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : NM-QTA

Mains level : Paper 3- Research on Quantum technology and its applications in India.

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.

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[pib] Friction-reducing Nanocomposite Coatings

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Nano-composites and its applications

Mains level : Not Much

A group of scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI) have developed a process for size-selective deposition of nanocomposite coatings which can reduce friction of these dynamic systems.

What are Nanocomposites?

  • Nanocomposite coatings are formed by mixing two or more dissimilar materials at nanoscale to improve the physical, chemical and physicochemical properties of the new materials.
  • The scientists have found that nickel tungsten-based coatings with infusion of particular sized Silicon Carbide (SiC) submicron particles using a pulsed electroplating can provide an excellent combination of wear and corrosion resistance.

Applications

  • Many aerospace, defence, automobile, space devices need to reduce friction, wear, and tear to enhance the life of components.
  • Lubricating these dynamic systems add to the cost, complexity, and weight of these systems.
  • The coating could help in reducing the friction of such devices.

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[pib] Quantum coin or ‘qubit’ and Entanglement Theory

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Qubit, Quantum Entanglement

Mains level : Quantum Computing and its applications

Researchers from Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous institution under the Dept. of Science & Technology, have devised a new test for fairness of quantum coin or ‘qubit’ using entanglement theory. The Qubit is the basic unit of information in a quantum computer.

Entanglement Theory

  • It is a special type of correlation that exists in the quantum world with no classical counterpart.
  • The researchers from RRI made use of this quantum resource to arrive at a test for fairness of a quantum coin (a qubit).
  • Their strategy, which makes use of entanglement, enables better discrimination between quantum states. Such advantage is valuable in quantum sensors.
  • This work is a significant contribution to the domain of quantum state discrimination, which is an essential aspect of quantum information science.
  • It brings out the crucial role of entanglement in improving our ability to discriminate quantum states.
  • In this work the researchers concretely implemented the theoretical idea on the simulation facility of the IBM quantum computer.

Quantum coins

  • By repeated trials, one can determine the fairness of a classical coin with a confidence which grows with the number of trials.
  • A quantum coin can be in a superposition of heads and tails.
  • Given a string of qubits representing a series of trials, one can measure them individually and determine the state with a certain confidence.
  • The team has shown that there is an improved strategy which measures the qubits after entangling them, which leads to a greater confidence.

Significance

  • This is a significant contribution to quantum state discrimination, an essential aspect of quantum information science which is expected to influence quantum sensing.
  • The domain of Quantum Information and Quantum Computing Technology is a growing area of research which is expected to influence Data Processing, which in turn, plays a central role in our lives in this Information Age.
  • For instance, bank transactions, online shopping and so on crucially depend on the efficiency of information transfer.
  • Thus the recent work on quantum state discrimination is expected to be valuable in people’s lives in the current era.

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[pib] Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC)

Mains level : Read the attached story

Scientists at International Advanced Research for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad have developed Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells (PEMFC).

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

  • Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, also known as polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells (PEMFC) are a type of fuel cell being developed mainly for transport applications, as well as for stationary fuel-cell applications and portable fuel-cell applications.
  • Their distinguishing features include lower temperature/pressure ranges (50 to 100 °C) and a special proton-conducting polymer electrolyte membrane.
  • PEMFCs generate electricity and operate on the opposite principle to PEM electrolysis, which consumes electricity.
  • They are a leading candidate to replace the aging alkaline fuel-cell technology, which was used in the Space Shuttle.

Working

 

  • The PEMFC uses a water-based, acidic polymer membrane as its electrolyte, with platinum-based electrodes.
  • The protons pass through the membrane to the cathode side of the cell while the electrons travel in an external circuit, generating the electrical output of the cell.

Applications in disaster management

  • Emergency Operation Centres (EOC) backed with 10 kW systems is being planned as a natural disaster management measure.
  • Tamil Nadu is generally affected by five to six cyclones every year, of which two to three are severe and is followed by frequent power cuts.
  • ARCI is now planning to set up a PEMFC system for Tamil Nadu to operate the systems like early warning systems, VHF set, IP phone, BSNL Ethernet and office equipment like scanner, computers, printers, phone, FAX and normal requirements like lighting and fan.

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Media Access Control (MAC) Binding

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Media Access Control (MAC) Binding

Mains level : Internet shutdown as an infringement of FR

After seven months, the use of social media was allowed in Jammu and Kashmir with an order laying down the latest rules for the use of the Internet in the UT.  Among various conditions, the order says Internet connectivity will be made available “with mac-binding”.

What is Mac-binding?

  • Every device has a Media Access Control (MAC) address, a hardware identification number that is unique to it. While accessing the Internet, every device is assigned an IP address.
  • Mac-binding essentially means binding together the MAC and IP addresses, so that all requests from that IP address are served only by the computer having that particular MAC address.
  • In effect, it means that if the IP address or the MAC address changes, the device can no longer access the Internet.
  • Also, monitoring authorities can trace the specific system from which a particular online activity was carried out.

Permitted connections

  • The Internet can be accessed on all postpaid devices, and those using Local Area Networks (LAN).
  • While the postpaid SIM card holders shall continue to be provided access to the Internet, these services shall not be made available on prepaid SIM cards unless verified as per the norms applicable for postpaid connections.
  • Apart from this, special access terminals provided by the government will continue to run.
  • It is further directed that the access/communication facilities provided by the government, viz. e-terminals/Internet kiosks apart from special arrangements for tourists, students, traders etc shall continue.

Only 2G permitted

  • Internet speed in J&K is still restricted to 2G.
  • This means very slow services — pictures will take a long time to be sent or downloaded, videos will be nearly impossible to share, and there will be a long loading time for most websites.
  • It also means that although in theory, the “whitelist system” — where people could only access some websites pre-approved by the government — has been removed, some sites designed for a 4G Internet experience will hardly work.

Have curbs been lifted?

  • Not exactly. The latest order is to remain in force till March 17 unless modified earlier.
  • The government has been relaxing Internet and phone usage in the UTs in phases.

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What is the ‘Raman effect’?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Spectroscopy, Raman Effect

Mains level : Applications of Raman Effect

 

 

Yesterday, February 28th was celebrated as National Science Day. In 1986, the Govt. of India designated this Day, to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman effect”.

CV Raman

  • Raman conducted his Nobel-prize winning research at IACS, Calcutta.
  • While he was educated entirely in India, Raman travelled to London for the first time in 1921, where his reputation in the study of optics and acoustics was known to physicists such as JJ Thomson and Lord Rutherford.
  • The Raman Effect won scientist Sir CV Raman the Nobel Prize for physics in 1930.
  • It was also designated as an International Historic Chemical Landmark jointly by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS).
  • His speciality was the study of vibrations and sounds of stringed instruments such as the Indian veena and tambura, and Indian percussion instruments such as the tabla and mridangam.

The Raman Effect

  • In 1928, Raman discovered that when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.
  • While Raman was returning from London in a 15-day voyage, he started thinking about the colour of the deep blue Mediterranean.
  • He wasn’t convinced by the explanation that the colour of the sea was blue due to the reflection of the sky.
  • As the ship docked in Bombay, he sent a letter to the editor of the journal Nature, in which he penned down his thoughts on this.
  • Subsequently, Raman was able to show that the blue colour of the water was due to the scattering of the sunlight by water molecules.
  • By this time he was obsessed with the phenomenon of light scattering.

Observing the effect

  • The Raman Effect is when the change in the energy of the light is affected by the vibrations of the molecule or material under observation, leading to a change in its wavelength.
  • Significantly, it notes that the Raman effect is “very weak” — this is because when the object in question is small (smaller than a few nanometres), the light will pass through it undisturbed.
  • But a few times in a billion, light waves may interact with the particle. This could also explain why it was not discovered before.
  • In general, when light interacts with an object, it can either be reflected, refracted or transmitted.
  • One of the things that scientists look at when light is scattered is if the particle it interacts with is able to change its energy.

Applications

  • Raman spectroscopy is used in many varied fields – in fact, any application where non-destructive, microscopic, chemical analysis and imaging is required.
  • Whether the goal is qualitative or quantitative data, Raman analysis can provide key information easily and quickly.
  • It can be used to rapidly characterize the chemical composition and structure of a sample, whether solid, liquid, gas, gel, slurry or powder.

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[pib] Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE) 2020

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : RAISE 20202

Mains level : Creating a roadmap to harness AI

 

 

The Govt. has announced the mega event, RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020,’ to be held in April in New Delhi.

RAISE 2020

  • RAISE 2020 is a first of its kind, a global meeting of minds on Artificial Intelligence to drive India’s vision and roadmap for social empowerment, inclusion and transformation through responsible AI.
  • It is India’s first Artificial Intelligence summit to be organized by the Government in partnership with Industry & Academia.
  • The summit will be a global meeting of minds to exchange ideas and charter a course to use AI for social empowerment, inclusion and transformation in key areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility amongst other sectors.
  • It will facilitate an exchange of ideas to further create a mass awareness about the need to ethically develop and practice AI in the digital era.

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[op-ed snap] The hype over hypersonics

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level : Avangard-HGV

Mains level : Paper 3- Hypersonic Glide Vehicle, whether India go for developing it- and challenges to Indian security.

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 techno