A Handout of

ELECTRICAL &
ELECTRONICS
ENGINEERING

CONCEPTS

Students Appearing for

CSE 2023
PERSONALITY TEST

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 Current Based Topics
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Electrical & Electronics Engineering

New Low Cost ‘Powerless Heating System’ Activated with Water can
Heat Food in Remote Areas
A new low-cost heating system which can be activated by plain water anytime anywhere
and does not require any fuel or electricity to heat or power it, can act as a heating solution
in any location.

Lack of heating sources at remote places with no access or uncertain access to power
sources is an inconvenience faced by many, especially in remote areas like the North
East. Dr. Sumer Singh, Associate Professor, Department of Design, IIT Delhi along with
his research team addressed this with a technology that works on chemical energy. It is
called ‘Powerless Heating Technology’. The active heating element consists of a mixture
of ecofriendly minerals and salts, which generates exothermic energy resulting in heat
on contact with water. This provides enough energy to raise the temperature of any food
or beverage by 60 to 70 degree Celsius. The weight of the heater is only 50 grams, and
after every heating, the by-product (natural mineral rock) inside the heating pad can be
disposed of. The rock helps in improving the fertility of the soil and is 100 % biodegradable.

3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope

The 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope is a clear-aperture Ritchey–Chrétien telescope
built by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) and is located at
the Devasthal Observatory site near Nainital, Kumaon, India. ARIES operates another 1.3m
telescope at the same location. The telescope was activated remotely on 31st March 2016
by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel from
Brussels. The telescope optics were built in collaboration with the Belgian firm Advanced
Mechanical and Optical System (AMOS). The 3.6m DOT is currently the largest reflecting
telescope in Asia. The telescope intends to fill a large longitudinal gap in the 4m class
of telescopes in the Asia region. The telescope features an optical spectrograph, a CCD
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imager and a near-infrared spectrograph. The telescope is also the first of its kind in
India that features an active optics system, featuring a wavefront sensor and pneumatic
actuators which compensates for small distortions in the shape of the 4.3 tonne mirror due
to gravity or atmospheric aberrations.

5 Categories of e-waste
E-waste is used as a generic term embracing all types of waste containing electrically
powered components. e-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
categories are
1. Large house hold appliances are (refrigerators / freezers, washing machines, dis-
washers).
2. Small household appliances (Toasters, coffee makers, irons, hairdryers).
3. Information technology (IT) and telecommunications equipment (personal computers,
telephones, mobile phones, laptops, printers, Scanners and Photo copiers).
4. Consumer equipment (TV, stereo equipment, electric tooth brushes).
5. Lighting equipment (fluorescent lamps).
6. Electrical & Electronic tools (handheld drills, saws, screwdrivers)
7. Toys, leisure and sports equipment.
8. Medical equipment systems (with the exception of all implanted and infected products).
9. Monitoring & control instrument.
10. Automatic dispensers.

What are major environmental effects of e-waste?

Disposing of electronics like regular garbage is extremely harmful to our environment. The
major environmental effects of e-waste are
1. Toxins Contaminate Soil: When toxins from improperly processed e-waste leach into
soil, they can pollute ground water which can cause neurological damage to animal
who drink that water.
2. Water Pollution: The toxins can contaminate the water. e-waste contain toxic metals
such as lead, Cadmium and mercury which end up in the water supply through a
process called bioleaching.
3. Drain on Resources: When e-waste tossed away are not recycled, these valuable
resources are completely wasted when they could have been reused.

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Use of GIS in Solid Waste Management

In waste disposal planning, a Geographic Information System (GIS) plays an important
role. GIS is used in waste disposal for a variety of reasons including decision support for
locating suitable landfills and temporal monitoring of disposal locations, including landfills.

Use of GIS solid waste management supports in capturing, handling and transmitting the
required information in a prompt proper manner.

How GIS is helpful during disaster and its management?

GIS helps with the primary responsibilities of disaster management.

1. Know about the disaster prone area.
2. Planning safety measures
 Creation the maps for different disasters.
 Planning the pre-disaster things.
 Identifying the medicals and hospitals for treatment nearby.
3. Planning rescue and evacuation.
4. Rehabilitation & Post disaster management.

What is Geospatial infrastructure? Why Geospatial technologies are

necessary for disaster resilient India?
Geospatial infrastructure is a "systems of system" that interconnects people, processes,
data and technology.

Geospatial infrastructure leverages the fundamental principles of web GIS. The internet
and cloud computing are transforming the way organizations manage, analyze, and share
data and collaborate through an interconnected network of systems and portals.

Geospatial technologies can provide accurate & current location based data for use in
disaster management. Remotely sensed data can be used very efficiently to assess the
severity and impact of damage due to these disasters. Geospatial technologies allow us to
make informed decisions based on the importance and priority of resources, environmental
understanding strategic decision making, monitoring of climate change impact. Hence
Geospatial technologies are necessary for disaster resilient India.

Importance of Geospatial Technology for India

• A Potential Sector: The sector has potential to grow to Rs 63,100 crore at 12.8% by the
end of 2025 as per India Geospatial Artha Report 2021.

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• Employment: Private Companies like Amazon, Zomato etc. use this technology to
smoothly conduct their delivery operations which supports livelihood generation.

• Implementation of Schemes: The schemes like the Gati Shakti program can be smoothly
implemented using geospatial technology.

• Make in India: Focusing on the sector allows Indian companies to develop indigenous
apps like an Indian version of google maps.

• Management of Land records: Using the technology, the data related to a large number
of landholdings can be appropriately tagged and digitised. It will not only help better
targeting but also reduce the quantum of land disputes in courts.

• Crisis Management: Technology and logistics were perfectly supported through the
use of geospatial technology during the COVID-19 vaccination drive.

• Intelligent Maps and Models: Geospatial technology may be used to create intelligent
maps and models that may be interactively queried to get the desired results in a
STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) application or may be
used to advocate social investigations and policy-based research.

Organic Solar Cells Developed on Steel Substrates can Convert a

Steel Roof into an Energy-Producing Device
An organic solar cells consisting of a combination of an organic polymer and PCBM
(an organic semiconductor) developed on steel substrates can potentially convert a
steel roof into an energy-producing device with greater efficiency than those currently
available in the market. The potential of third-generation solar cell technologies lies in
their integration with flexible and conformal surfaces. However, this integration requires
developing new top transparent conducting electrodes as alternatives to indium tin oxide,
an optoelectronic material currently in use and poses limitations because of its brittleness
and as its optoelectronic efficiency varies with temperature. Researchers at IIT Kanpur
have developed organic solar cell devices consisting of a blend of organic polymer
PTB7 as a donor and PCBM as an acceptor. The devices were fabricated on opaque
steel substrates with a MoO3/Au/MoO3 top electrode. The research carried out at the
laboratory of Prof. Ashish Garg at IIT Kanpur demonstrated the integration of multi-layered
electrodes of configuration MoO3/Au/MoO3 with the organic solar cells. It was published
in the journal ‘Energy Technology’. These electrodes offer higher optical transmission as
compared to only metallic electrodes. The devices with multilayer electrodes showed a
clear improvement in the photovoltaic performance by 1.5 times, as compared with those
obtained with single-layer top metal electrodes of gold.

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Why India is lagging in telecom field? What are various ways to

leverage our resources in order to boost in this field?
• Due to variable and complex legal procedures across states, non-uniformity in levies,
and approvals from the Forest Department, Railways, and National Highway Authority,
the Right of Way has been a contentious issue for the Indian telecoms sector. The delay
in this process has affected several tower and fiber planning and rollout processes
across the country.

• Insufficient Fixed-Line Penetration: The Indian network does not have very much
fixed-line coverage, while most developed countries have a high penetration of fixed
lines (telephone lines connected to a nationwide telephone network via metal wires
or optical fibers).5G Networks require towers to be connected to very high-speed
systems. These high speeds cannot be achieved by the current radio systems.
• Lack of Efficient Disposal of E-waste: The telecom industry impacts the environment in
multiple ways, including by generating e-waste.

• Lack of Rural Connectivity: In India, adequate tele density has been achieved, but there
is large discrepancy between penetration in urban (55.42%) and rural (44.58%) areas.
Getting into semi-rural and rural areas is challenging for service providers due to the
huge initial fixed costs.

To boost this sector following factor can be taken into consideration:

• Digital Infrastructure with Digital Skills: The creation of digital infrastructure and the
development of digital skills must go hand in hand, and internet access and digital
literacy are interdependent. To educate and empower young students and the working
population, especially women, Digital Foundation Centres can be established in rural
areas.

• Sector Specific Data Management and Grievance Redressal: To ensure seamlessness and
security of digital communication across India, sector-specific data management and
grievance redressal standards (including OTT platforms) are needed while keeping
citizen's interests at the forefront while also ensuring their autonomy and choice.

• Harnessing Technology, Sharing Capacities: It is important for telecom operators to

harness the talent pool in the country, which is bringing about many new innovations
in artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, etc.

Also, there is a need for new infrastructure on a shareable basis, just like telecom
service providers share tower costs.

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• Enabling Environment for Exports: It is important that the government invests more
in R&D and creates an environment that makes India capable of manufacturing and
exporting hardware components such as mobile phones, CCTV cameras, touch screen
monitors, etc.

• Linking BharatNet with Bhashini: BharatNet aims to ensure highly scalable network
infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis. On demand, affordable
broadband connectivity can be ensured with Bharatnet alongside integrating e-citizens
from different parts of the nation curbing the language barrier through Bhashini Platform
which is an artificial intelligence (AI) led language translation platform.

Problems Related to Rolling Out 5G in India

Hurdles in Rolling Out 5G Technology:

• Enabling critical infrastructures: 5G will require a fundamental change to the core

architecture of the communication system. The major flaw of data transfer using 5G is
that it can't carry data over longer distances. Hence, even 5G technology needs to be
augmented to enable infrastructure.

• Financial liability on consumers: For transition from 4G to 5G technology, one has

to upgrade to the latest cellular technology, thereby creating financial liability on
consumers.

• Capital Inadequacy: Lack of flow of cash and adequate capital with the suitable
telecom companies (like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea) is delaying the 5G spectrum
allocation.

Various modes and features of 5G

Some of the features of 5G technology are as follows:

• Better flexibility in data delivery.

• Capacity: 100 times increase in traffic capacity and network efficiency.

• Speed: More than 1gbps.

• Spectrum usage: Usage of every bit of spectrum.

• Capability: Faster broadband, Internet of Things.

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An Innovative, Green, Novel Antimicrobial Air Filtration Technology

A newly developed air filter can deactivate the germs ‘self-cleaning’ them out of the system
using ingredients commonly found in green tea. Impure air might make our life shorter,
to the extent that Indians lose 5-10 years of their lives because of air-borne contaminants
leading to respiratory diseases, adversely affecting physical health as well as mental
health according to a report by University of Chigaco. A research team led by Prof
Suryasarathi Bose and Prof Kaushik Chatterjee at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
(IISc), Bangalore, developed germ-destroying air filters that can inactivate germs using
ingredients like polyphenols and polycationic polymers commonly found in green tea. These
‘green’ ingredients rupture the microbes through site-specific binding. The research was
supported by special grants from Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) during
the challenging COVID-19 pandemic and SERB Technology Translation Awards (SERB-
TETRA) funds and a patent has been filed on this. Over continuous usage, the existing air
filters become a breeding ground for captured germs. The growth of these germs clog
the pores of the filter, reducing the life of the filters. Resuspension of these germs can
infect people in the vicinity. The novel antimicrobial air filters were tested at the NABL
Accredited Laboratory and were found to deactivate SARS-CoV-2 (delta variant) with an
efficiency of 99.24%. This technology was transferred to AIRTH, a startup that is replacing
the existing germ-growing air filters with germ-destroying air filters for commercialization.
As this innovation holds promise to develop antimicrobial filters that can prevent endemics
caused by air-borne pathogens, a patent was granted in 2022. These novel antimicrobial
filters in our ACs, central ducts and air purifiers can play a crucial role in our fight against
air pollution and mitigate the spread of air-borne pathogens like coronaviruses.

New Electrolyte Found can Help better Ammonia Synthesis

A new aqueous electrolyte that can help make electrochemical ammonia synthesis
more efficient will be useful for industries producing green energy or hydrogen. The
electrochemical ammonia synthesis is largely limited by the poor solubility of nitrogen
(N2) in the aqueous electrolyte environment as well as the competitive hydrogen evolution
reaction. The obstacle faced was that reduction of N2 has actually occurred in the aqueous
medium. In an attempt to solve these issues, the “ambient” conditions are mostly overseen.
Researchers mostly work on catalyst development, while electrolyte improvisation still
remains in infancy. According to a recent report, 90.7 % of the research works related to:
Nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) have focused on the suitable catalyst development,
while only 4.7 % have been devoted to work on the electrolytes.

Scientists from Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali an autonomous
institute of Department of Science and Technology (DST), have introduced a new electrolyte
called (NaBF), which not only acts as an N-carrier in the medium but also works as a full-
fledged "co-catalyst" along with active material.

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Scientists Fabricated Optically Active Flexible Biodegradable

Polymer-Nanocomposite Films
Researchers have fabricated an optically active biodegradable nanocomposite film with
excellent mechanical properties that can be used as a stretchable optical devices like
flexible display, flexible organic LED, etc. Polymers have become an indispensable part of
our daily life. However, different engineering applications demand highly flexible and optically
active polymers. In this regard, numerous methodologies have been adopted to improve
the properties of polymeric materials by using suitable nanomaterials. The nanomaterials
are known to enhance the properties of the polymers keeping the inherent properties of the
polymers intact. Scientists have reported that polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is one of the most widely
studied synthetic biodegradable polymers having good film-forming and excellent mechanical
properties. Moreover, its optical and mechanical properties can be tuned by incorporating
suitable nanomaterials. A research group from physical sciences division of the Institute of
Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, an autonomous institute
of North-East India under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), fabricated a
biodegradable PVA-CuO nanocomposite film using a facile solution casting technique, where
Cu salt used as a precursor for the in-situ CuO nanoparticles formation under different heat
treatment. This research group is led by Dr. Sarathi Kundu, Associate Professor, along with Mr.
Saiyad Akhirul Ali, working as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF). Their tests have proved superior
optical, mechanical, and antimicrobial properties of the nanocomposite films under different
heat treatments. The formation of the CuO nanoparticles inside the polymer matrix under heat
treatment is confirmed by different spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The evaluation
of mechanical properties validated the formation of a highly flexible and robust nanocomposite
film with tensile strength as high as 39 MPa and flexibility of 169% with copper chloride loading.
The PVA-CuO nanocomposite film fabricated by the simple solution casting technique followed
by the heat treatment method recently published in the journal of Colloids and Surfaces A:
Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, can be used as a stretchable optical device.

Low-Energy-Consuming Switchable Smart Windows Developed

Based on Novel Architecture for Confining Liquid Crystals
A novel protocol for confinement of liquid crystals in an architecture called hierarchical
double networks of polymers can give next-generation solutions for low-energy consuming
on-demand switchable smart windows operating between low and high transmittance.
Interpenetrating polymer networks are soft matter systems that innovatively optimise
different functionalities such as mechanical, optical, and electrical properties to provide
novel solutions in engineering and biomedical applications. A specific class of these
architectures, labelled hierarchical double networks, synergistically combining rigid and
soft networks to realize thermal, electrical, and optical properties are currently attracting
much attention. The research team of Dr. D S Shankar Rao, Dr. S Krishna Prasad, and Dr.
Varshini G V, at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Science, Bengaluru have added a
new dimension to this field by introducing double networks which are superimposed on

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liquid crystals. These networks are realized by two different and independently controlled
& on-demand stimuli-- light and temperature. While the former creates an orientationally
self-assembled polymer network, the organogelation (converting to semi-solid material
composed of gelling molecules organized in the presence of an appropriate organic
solvent) of the second active component driven by temperature provides the second
network which effectively traps the first one. The overall result is a well-controlled porous
hierarchical network that confines the liquid crystal while allowing it to be electrically
switched between its direction-dependent states and governing the dynamics through the
created virtual surfaces of polymeric and gel nature.

Novel Bi-Metallic Joining Process can Create a Composite from

Copper and Steel for Engineering Applications Which Need High
Thermal & Electrical Conductivity
Researchers have developed a novel bi-metallic joining process to create a bimetallic
composite made from copper and steel, which has high thermal and electrical conductivity
for engineering applications, such as heat exchangers, hydraulic pump components,
cooling staves, guide plates, and hot-work tooling applications. In the world of technological
advancements, high-performing and multifunctional structures and components are in
great demand. To cater to this demand, the development of bimetallic structures has
gained significant attention. These structures offer a unique combination of individual
material properties, making them highly customizable for a range of applications.
Research in this area has significant implications for various engineering applications
where the thermal conductivity and strength of the components play a critical role. One
such bimetallic composite, made from copper and steel, has high thermal and electrical
conductivity, exceptional corrosion resistance, and mechanical properties. However,
welding copper and steel together can be challenging due to the differences in their
melting points, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion properties. This has made it
difficult to join copper and stainless-steel bimetallic structures without defects. To address
this challenge, researchers at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder
Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous R&D Centre of the Department of
Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, have developed a novel bi-metallic joining
process using a technique called laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) or selective laser
melting (SLM) technique of metal 3D printing. This technique involves layer deposition
by metal powder melting, which creates a small melt pool of stainless-steel powder with
subsequent high cooling rates, limiting the intermixing of the stainless-steel melt on copper
surface. The laser beam interaction with metal during the L-PBF process creates an impact
on the degree of intermixing of both copper and steel. The researchers have successfully
demonstrated the formation of the interfacial microstructure and bonding mechanism and
investigated the reason for achieving a strong interfacial bond.

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About Solar Energy Corporation of India

• Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) is a company of the Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy, Government of India, established to facilitate the implementation
of the National Solar Mission (NSM).
• It is the only Central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) dedicated to the solar energy sector.
The company's mandate has been broadened to cover the entire renewable energy domain
and the company will be renamed to Renewable Energy Corporation of India (RECI).
• The company is responsible for implementation of a number of government schemes,
major ones being the VGF schemes for large-scale grid-connected projects under
NSM, solar park scheme and grid-connected solar rooftop scheme, along with a host
of other specialised schemes such as defence scheme, solar canals, and Indo-Pak
border scheme.
• In addition, SECI has ventured into solar project development on turnkey basis for several
PSUs. The company also has a power-trading licence and is active in this domain through
trading of solar power from projects set up under the schemes being implemented by it.

What is energy security?

• Energy security is defined as the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an
affordable price. Energy security includes availability, affordability and accessibility.
• Long-term energy security deals with timely investments to supply energy in line with
economic developments and environmental needs.
• Short-term energy security focuses on the ability of the energy system to respond
promptly to sudden changes in the supply-demand balance.

Various Challenges and Constraints Faced by the Power Sector and

their Solutions

Challenges faced by the Power Sector:

1. Fuel Security Concerns: Thermal capacity addition is plagued by the growing fuel
availability concerns faced by the Industry. A significant natural gas based capacity
of more than 20,000 MW is idle due to non-availability of natural gas. Coal supply is
restricted, leading to increased dependence on imported coal with the cascading
result of high power generation costs.
2 Transmission & Distribution Losses: High distribution-line losses are among the
most vexing problems in the Indian power sector. India’s aggregate technical and
commercial losses average about 32% of electricity which is very high as compared to
those of the developed countries (6-11%).

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3. Financial Health of State Discoms: Years of populist tariff schemes, mounting losses
and operational inefficiencies have adversely affected the financial health of State
Discoms which are currently plagued with humongous out-standing debts.
4. Aging Power Plants and Transmission network: Since most of the power plants and
transmission lines have been installed immediately after independence, they have
become old and inefficient. This is the main reason for low growth and transmission
rate in electricity generation and transmission during the recent years. About half of
the power plants need to be upgraded or shut down as quickly as possible.
5. Under-procurement of Power by States: Increasing power generation costs due to
limited fuel availability, poor financial health of State Discoms, have contributed in
suppressed demand projections by State Discoms.
6. Interstate Disputes: India is a federal democracy, and because rivers cross state
boundaries, constructing efficient and equitable mechanisms for allocating river flows
has long been an important legal and constitutional issues. Due to this there is not
availability of water all the time to operate hydro plants. Inter- state disputes also
restrict the excess power exchange between the states. For example, Mahanadi water
dispute.
7. Coordination Issues: Multiple ministries and agencies are currently involved in managing
energy-related issues, presenting challenges of coordination and optimal resource
utilisation, hence undermining efforts to increase energy security, as reported by the
Kelkar Committee in 2013.

What is Solar off grid?

• Off-grid solar is designed to bring power to remote locations where there is no grid
access.
• Off-grid systems require a battery bank to store the energy produced by the panels. They
are often paired with a generator to provide backup during long stretches without sunlight.
• A backup power system connects to the grid, but also includes batteries. Backup
power systems (also called “hybrid systems” or "energy storage systems") provide
backup power in case the grid goes down.

Solar Energy in India: Status, Challenges and Way Forward

India has undertaken ambitious targets under the Paris Agreement. India’s climate action
is dependent upon energy transition (in the electricity sector) by betting large on shift to
solar energy. In 2014-15, the Government had set a target of producing 175 Gigawatt
(GW) of renewable energy by 2022, with 100 GW of solar energy. The present installed
capacity of solar energy is only 60% of the target. While, the Government is set to miss the

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ambitious target, nevertheless the progress in expansion of renewable and solar energy
has been commendable. The installed renewable energy capacity has trebled from 38GW
in 2014. The Government should take steps to address the challenges facing the sector
and further enhance the pace of transition to clean energy.

What are the potential, targets and status of solar energy in India?

Potential
India is endowed with vast solar energy potential. India receives nearly 3000 hours of
sunshine every year. About 5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is incident over India’s land
area with most parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq. m per day. Solar photovoltaics power can
effectively be harnessed providing huge scalability in India.

National Institute of Solar Energy has assessed India’s solar potential to be about 750 GW
assuming 3% of the waste land area to be covered by Solar PV modules.

Targets
In 2014, the Government had set an ambitious target of 175 GW of installed capacity of
renewable energy. The target for Solar Energy was set to be 100 GW by 2022.
At COP26 in Glasgow (2021) India updated its Nationally Determined Contributions
(NDCs). India set a target of 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity and half of energy
from renewables. Of this, ~300 GW is expected to be contributed by Solar Energy.
A 25-year vision document by the Government has targeted 85% of the power generation
from renewable and green sources of energy. This enables India to be one of the key
markets for solar energy and also a huge customer base for solar applications.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) estimates in its NEO 2018 report, that India will
generate 75% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050.

Status

India’s current installed capacity stands at ~408 GW, of which renewable energy (Wind, Solar
and other renewable energy) is ~118GW. This is ~67% of the 175 GW target set in 2014. In
terms of Solar Energy, the installed capacity is ~60 GW which is ~60% of the 100 GW target
(2014). This has been a remarkable growth from just 2.6 GW of solar energy capacity in 2014.

What are the challenges in scaling up solar energy?

Higher per-unit Production Costs: Solar power costs have come down considerably but the
costs of small solar power projects is higher than other sources. The Union Government is
facilitating establishment of large solar parks.

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Basic Challenges: Large Solar Parks face hurdles in acquiring large tracts of land. Other
challenges include high transmission and distribution losses, grid integration etc. Grid
integration is a challenge due to intermittent nature of solar energy and the problem of
load balancing (e.g., high load during night but non-availability of solar power at night).

Environmental Issues: Establishment of large solar parks has led to conflict with the local
communities and issues in bio-diversity protection e.g., in Rajasthan and Gujarat, some
projects have been halted because the transmission lines encroach upon the habitat of
the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard.

Slow pace of growth: Despite significant growth in the installed solar capacity, the
contribution of solar energy to the country’s power generation has not grown at the same
pace. The capacity expansion of rooftop solar projects has particularly low (< 20% of
target by October 2022).

Financial Constraints: Residential consumers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
who want to install solar rooftop projects face financial constraints as initial investments
are generally high. A critical issue is an absence of innovative financing options offering
higher sums at lower interest and longer durations.

Reliance on Imports for Solar Equipment: India at present lacks the capability to produce
solar wafers or polysilicon. During the fiscal year 2021-22, India imported solar cells and
modules worth about US$ 76.62 billion from China alone. This accounted for 78.6% of
India’s total imports (2021-22).
Waste Management: India’s solar waste is estimated to grow to 1.8 million tonnes by 2050.
However, India’s e-waste rules do not mandate solar cell manufacturers to recycle or
dispose of waste from this sector.
WTO Constraints: India’s Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) clause has faced legal
challenges at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). DCR mandates the use of both
solar cells and modules manufactured domestically as per specifications and testing
requirements fixed by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

What steps have been taken to enhance Solar Energy generation in India?

The MNRE launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in 2010 to achieve 20 GW
of grid connected solar power by 2022 in three phases through several steps including Solar
Park Scheme, Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) scheme for grid connected solar PV
power projects, and Viability Gap Funding (VGF). The target was revised to 100 GW in 2014-15.

What is 5 Generation Technology and its application in Various Field?

5G (Fifth-generation) wireless is the latest iteration of cellular technology, engineered to
greatly increase speed and responsiveness of wireless networks. With 5G, data transmitted

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over wireless broad band connections can travel at multigigabit speed, with potential
peak speed as high as 20 Gbps or more. These Speeds exceed wire line network speeds
and offer latency of below 5 milliseconds (ms) or lower, which is useful for applications
that require real-time feedback.

5G will enable a sharp increase in the amount of data transmitted over wireless systems
due to more available bandwidth and advanced antenna technology.

Applications
1. High Speed mobile network.
2. Self driving vehicles.
3. IOT- (Smart City, Smart Homes).
4. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
5. Artificial intelligence.

Advantages of 5G Considering Different Sectors

1. Enhanced Mobile Broad band: In addition to make our smartphones better. 5G can
usher new immersive experiences such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality
(AR) with faster, more uniform data rates, lower latency and lower cost per bit.
2. High Speed technology: 5G will increase the downloading and uploading speeds over
the mobile network. 5G will also reduce the latency.
3. Machine-to-machine interaction: 5G technology will facilitate machine-to-machine
communication the foundation of Internet of Things (IOT).
4. Boost to the economic: It will give a huge amount of economic boost to India by increased
connectivity between machines and various sectors which will in turn increase efficiency.
Production will also increase which would lead to huge revenue collection.
5. Collaborative Network Deployment: Earlier, the telecommunications used to discuss
internally and deploy networks, but now, the businesses, technology companies and
cyber experts will be coming together for deploying networks.

Spectrum for 5G and Bands

5G mainly work in 3 bands namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum – all of which
have their own uses as well as limitation.

1. Low band spectrum: It show great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet
and data exchange with a maximum speed limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).

It may not be optimal for the specialized needs of the industry.

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2. Mid-Band spectrum: It offers higher speeds compared to the low band but has limitations
in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.

It may be used for industries and specialized factory units for buckling captive networks
that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.

3. High-Band spectrum: It offers the highest speed of all three bands, but has extremely
limited coverage and signal penetration strength. Internet speeds have been tested to
be as high as 20 Gbps.

Comparison between 4G and 5G:

Comparison 4G 5G

Technology LTE, WiMAX MIMO, mm Waves

Access system CDMA OFDMA, BDMA

Switching type Packet switching Packet switching

Internet service Ultra broadband Wireless World Wide Web

Bandwidth 100 MHz 30 GHz to 300 GHz

Speed, high speed, handoffs, Extremely high speeds,

Advantage
global mobility low latency

Latency 10 ms 1 ms

AI for India 2.0

The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship has launched an innovative AI

training program called AI for India 2.0. This free online training program aims to equip the
youth with essential skills in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The launch of this program on World
Youth Skills’ Day (15th July) marks a significant step towards empowering the youth and
fostering technological advancement. AI for India 2.0 initiative aims to reach every part
of the country, ensuring that youth from all backgrounds have the opportunity to acquire
frontier skills in AI. By providing technology courses in Indian languages, language barriers
in technology education can be dismantled, empowering the youth and future-proofing
their skills.

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How AI is beneficial in disaster management?

AI can support each stage of disaster management:

• Phase 1: Mitigation is about prevention to reduce the severe impact on humans, lives,
and properties. One of the significant functions of AI is the predictive analytic in
which AI could support forecasting hazard and risk assessment analysis. The output
of forecasting and risk assessment can support decision-makers or stakeholders to
make a proper decision before a disaster happens. Additionally, evaluating possible
impacts on the potential area of disaster would support authorities in better preparing
and managing disaster strikes.

• Phase 2: Preparedness comes after mitigation in which authorities and people in the
community are ready for the response during a disaster. In this phase, AI could play
roles such as real-time monitoring and early warning systems, real-time prediction,
and hazard detection. For example, at certain places where humans cannot access
the observation, AI is capable of assisting.

• Phase 3: Response is when the disaster strike. Immediate response and action are vital
to assist and rescue affected people or communities. AI application for the support
of search and rescue activities such as robots that can access the building to search
for humans. Additionally, understanding people’s emotions and reactions during
disasters would help public authorities and humanitarian assistance agencies to assist
accordingly.

• Phase 4: Recovery is the final stage in which damages are fixed. However, AI can be
used to support impact assessment and the evaluation of losses.

Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition Powered Solution for

Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification (ASTR)

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has developed a groundbreaking

artificial intelligence-based facial recognition tool known as Artificial Intelligence and
Facial Recognition powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification (ASTR).
This innovative technology aims to detect and prevent fraudulent mobile connections,
significantly reducing cyber fraud.

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China’s Baidu may Launch ChatGPT – Style AI Bot

The BAIDU is a Chinese-based technology company. It offers a popular search engine
in China called BAIDU. (Major search engines like Google are banned in China) The
company works on artificial intelligence and internet-related products. The headquarters
of the company is in Beijing. The company is one of the largest AI companies in the world.
The TECH giant is now planning to develop a chatbot similar to that of ChatGPT.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a search tool that provides information on any world matter. Today it is at the
peak of its success. Apart from BAIDU, other Chinese investors are also looking for ways
to develop an AI chatbot just like ChatGPT.

Artificial Synapse Developed for Brain-Like Computing with Industry-

Compatible Nitride Semiconductors
Scientists have used scandium nitride (ScN), a semiconducting material with supreme
stability and Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) compatibility, to
develop brain-like computing. This invention can provide a new material for stable, CMOS-
compatible optoelectronic synaptic functionalities at a relatively lower energy cost and
hence has the potential to be translated into an industrial product.

AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’ puts India Among Top Supercomputing

League
The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune has been ranked 75th in
the world. It was declared so in the 61st edition of Top 500 Global Supercomputing List
yesterday at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany. It puts
India on top of AI Supercomputing nations worldwide. The system is installed under National
Program on AI by Government of India. “We need to make Artificial Intelligence in India
and Artificial Intelligence work for India” – Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision “AI
FOR ALL”. Speaking on this achievement, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology
(MeitY) Secretary Shri Alkesh Sharma said, “Artificial Intelligence is the most promising
technology in the digital age. India has a strong ecosystem and competitive advantage for
AI due to its massive data availability, strong digital economy and skilled workforce. India
has been working in the Applied AI with focus on Natural Language Processing, Image
Procession, Pattern Recognition, Agriculture, Medical Imaging, Education, Health Care,
Audio assistance, Robotics and developing solutions for the strategic sectors.” India will
pursue AI technology to empower citizens and organisation to solve the most pressing
problems of society and economy to make the world a better place.

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Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative Artificial Intelligence refers to the capability of artificial intelligence-enabled
machines to use existing text, audio files, or images to create new content. The use of
Generative AI is still in its early stages, and its impact is likely to grow as technology
continues to evolve and improve. The Government is cognizant of the emergence of
these technologies and their rapid proliferation in sectors like education, manufacturing,
healthcare, finance, and others. The Government considers Artificial Intelligence (AI)
to be a kinetic enabler for the growth of our digital economy, investments, and jobs.
The Government has published the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence with
the objective of developing an ecosystem for the research and adoption of Artificial
Intelligence. Subsequently with a vision to ‘Make AI in India and Make AI work for India’,
MeitY has approved the implementation of ‘National Program on Artificial Intelligence’ for
development of AI based solutions and ensure responsible and transformational use of AI
for All. Also, the Department of Science & Technology is implementing the National Mission
on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS). Under this Mission, Technology
Innovation Hubs (TIH) has been established on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, which aims to provide the state-of-the-
art training and capacity building for the creation of nextgeneration scientists, engineers,
technicians, and technocrats in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

There is no data available on Generative AI employment. However, as per NASSCOM data,

the overall AI employment in India is estimated at about 416,000 professionals. The growth rate
for the sector is estimated at about 20-25%. Further, AI is expected to contribute an additional
USD 957 billion to India’s economy, by 2035. The technologies related to Generative Artificial
Intelligence are still evolving currently, there is no specific regulation for Generative Artificial
Intelligence (AI). However, the development and deployment of AI is governed through laws
and policies related to privacy, data protection, intellectual property, and cyber security.

What are the different types of cyber attacks?

1. Malware Attack: This is one of the most common types of cyberattacks. “Malware”
refers to malicious software viruses including worms, spyware, ransomware, adware,
and trojans.
2. Phishing Attack: Phishing attacks are one of the most prominent widespread types of
cyber attacks. It is a type of social engineering attack wherein an attacker impersonates
to be a trusted contact and sends the victim fake mails.
3. Password Attack: It is a form of attack wherein a hacker cracks your password with
various programs and password cracking tools like Aircrack, Cain, Abel, John the
Ripper, Hashcat, etc. There are different types of password attacks like brute force
attacks, dictionary attacks, and keylogger attacks.

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4. Man-in-the-Middle Attack: A Man-in-the-Middle Attack (MITM) is also known as

an eavesdropping attack. In this attack, an attacker comes in between a two-party
communication i.e. the attacker hijacks the session between a client and host. By
doing so, hackers steal and manipulate data.
5. SQL Injection Attack: A Structured Query Language (SQL) injection attack occurs on
a database-driven website when the hacker manipulates a standard SQL query. It is
carried by injecting a malicious code into a vulnerable website search box, thereby
making the server reveal crucial information.
6. Denial-of-Service Attack: A Denial-of-Service Attack is a significant threat to companies.
Here, attackers target systems, servers, or networks and flood them with traffic to
exhaust their resources and bandwidth.
7. Insider Threat: As the name suggests, an insider threat does not involve a third party
but an insider. In such a case, it could be an individual from within the organization
who knows everything about the organization. Insider threats have the potential to
cause tremendous damages.
8. Cryptojacking: The term Cryptojacking is closely related to cryptocurrency.
Cryptojacking takes place when attackers access someone else’s computer for mining
cryptocurrency.
9. Zero-Day Exploit: A Zero-Day Exploit happens after the announcement of a network
vulnerability, there is no solution for the vulnerability in most cases. Hence the vendor
notifies the vulnerability so that the users are aware. However, this news also reaches
the attackers.
10. Watering Hole Attack: The victim here is a particular group of an organization, region,
etc. In such an attack, the attacker targets websites which are frequently used by the
targeted group. Websites are identified either by closely monitoring the group or by
guessing.

Digital India Innovation

The Government has announced thematic funds in the Budget of 2022-23 to promote
sunrise sectors, including deep-tech. Moreover, Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology (MeitY) has initiated several schemes/programmes to support technology
startups, including deep tech startups.
As per NASSCOM strategic report 2023, total number of technology startups is 27,000 out
of which 3,200+ are deep tech startups (~12%). As the capital-intensive growth is required
in deep tech startups, several challenges are also being faced, including tax incentive(s),
investor connect, consumer and supplier connect, global outreach with soft landing and
long-term sustainability. The MeitY has undertaken a slew of proactive, preemptive and

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graded measures to spur the technology led startup-innovation ecosystem in the country
and giving an impetus to the new and emerging technologies. This proactive approach
builds from established best practices designed to strengthen the overall tech startup
development infrastructure by overcoming persistent bottlenecks to work grounds up
seamlessly. Some of the major initiatives have been elucidated below:
TIDE 2.0 Scheme: Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE
2.0) Scheme was initiated in the year 2019 to promote tech entrepreneurship through
financial and technical support to incubators engaged in supporting ICT startups using
emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, Block-chain, Robotics, etc. The Scheme is being
implemented through 51 incubators through a three-tiered structure with an overarching
objective to promote incubation activities at institutes of higher learning and premier R&D
organisations. The scheme is expected to provide incubation support to approximately
2,000 tech startups with an overall outlay of Rs 264 crore over a period of five years.
Domain specific Centres of Excellence: The MeitY has envisaged and operationalised 26
Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in diverse areas of national interest for driving self-sufficiency
and creating capabilities to capture new and emerging technology areas. These domain
specific CoEs are act as enablers and aid in making India an innovation hub in emerging
through democratisation of innovation and realisation of prototypes.
SAMRIDH Scheme: The Government has launched the ‘Startup Accelerator Programme of
MeitY for Product Innovation, Development and Growth (SAMRIDH)’ in August 2021 with an
aim to support existing and upcoming accelerators to further select and accelerate potential
software product-based startups to scale. The total cost of the scheme is Rs 99 crore for a
duration of 3 years. A total of 300 startups are to be supported under the SAMRIDH Scheme.
Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS): The NGIS has been approved to support
software product ecosystem and to address a significant portion of National Policy on
Software Product (NPSP) 2019. The Scheme is proposed to be launched from 12 locations
i.e., Agartala, Bhilai, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Dehradun, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow,
Prayagraj, Mohali/ Chandigarh, Patna and Vijayawada. The Scheme has solution-oriented
architecture and aims to handhold 300 Tech startups in tier-2/3 cities over the period of 3
years with total budget outlay of Rs 95.03 crore.

Support for International Patent Protection in E&IT (SIP-EIT) Scheme: The Government had
initiated a scheme titled “Support for International Patent Protection in E&IT (SIP-EIT)
that encourages international patent filing by Indian MSMEs and start-ups to encourage
innovation and recognise the value and capabilities of global IP. Reimbursement provided
under the scheme is up to a maximum of Rs15 lakhs per invention or 50 per cent of
the total expenses incurred in filing and processing of patent application up to grant
whichever is lesser.

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GENESIS (Gen-Next Support for Innovative Startups): Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology (MeitY) has launched an umbrella program Digital India- GENESIS to discover,
support, grow and make successful startups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities with emphasis
on collaborative engagement among startups, government and corporates for promoting
digitisation based on the principles of inclusivity, accessibility, affordability, leading to
growth in employment and economic outputs.

UIDAI - IIT Bombay Join Hands to Develop Touchless Biometric

Capture System

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has joined hands with Indian Institute
of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay) to develop a robust touchless biometric capture
system for easier usage by people anytime, anywhere. As part of the memorandum
of understanding, UIDAI and IIT Bombay will carry out joint research to build a mobile
capture system for fingerprints along with liveness model integrated with the capture
system. The touchless biometric capture system, once developed and operational, will
allow fingerprint authentication from home alike face authentication. The new system is
expected to capture multiple fingerprints at one go and aid authentication success rate
further. The new system once in place will be an addition to the existing facilities available
in the Aadhaar ecosystem. Such a system will use an intelligent combination of signal/
image processing and machine learning/deep learning with a common mobile phone
available to most citizens with a good user experience. This will be a step forward in
making Universal authenticator a reality. The collaboration between UIDAI and IIT Bombay
through its National Centre of Excellence in Technology for Internal Security (NCETIS) will
lead to joint engagement in research and development (R&D) for development of a system
for UIDAI. The NCETIS is a joint initiative by IIT Bombay and the Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology (MeitY), under its flagship Digital India Programme. The NCETIS is
aimed at developing indigenous technology solutions for Internal Security forces in broad
areas of Electronic System Design and Manufacturing.

How does DigiLocker cloud work and its services?

DigiLocker is a cloud based document storage and issuance system initiated by
Government of India under Digital India. It eliminates the usage of physical documents as
you can carry all the important documents on the DigiLocker mobile app. The ecopies of
the documents will be considered valid on par with the original documents. Organisations
registered with DigiLocker or government authorities can access the scanned copies of
the documents for the verification.

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Working of DigiLocker: Citizens can scan and store the documents digitally. Each citizen
will be given 1 GB (gigabyte) of cloud storage. You can also store signed copies of the
documents using the eSign facility. Signing up for DigiLocker is easy and straightforward.
Download the app on your mobile phone. Your mobile number or Aadhaar number will
be authenticated by an OTP that you will receive. You will be required to set your PIN for
security purpose. Once the sign up is completed, you can get the documents from the
issuers or simply store it in your digital locker.

Benefits of DigiLocker

The initiative is aimed at developing paperless governance. DigiLocker offers the following
benefits to the users:
• Users can access their documents anytime, anywhere and share it within seconds.
• This will save a lot of time and efforts.
• It also cuts down the administrative overhead of government departments by reducing
the use of paper.
• As the documents are directly issued by the registered issuers, the process of validating
the authenticity of the documents become easier.
• It is environment-friendly, as users do not have to print the copies for verification of
their documents.
• Due to the digitalization of documents, the probability of financial frauds will also be
low as the documents will be stored in a secure manner.

What is the purpose of masked Aadhaar and virtual Aadhaar?

Masked Aadhaar: The main objective of introducing this masked Aadhaar card is to
provide more security and privacy to cardholders. By providing a mask for the Aadhaar
card, the user is encouraged to easily use the Aadhaar card on other platforms without
fear of misuse.

Benefits :
• Hiding all the information on the masked Aadhaar card or hiding the Aadhaar number
has become extremely necessary now. Significant improvement in user security and
privacy as a direct result of masking will be generated through the Aadhaar card.
Which is the most important advantage of technology.
• We warn the user that the use of photo state copies of the original document may result
in the disclosure of the Aadhaar number. Through which danger can also arise.

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• Under the masked Aadhaar card, his numbers are hidden, and the last four digits are
displayed. UIDAI Aadhaar card should be used with caution. Because in today’s time
more harm is being done than Aadhaar cards. To eliminate this the government has
decided to issue Aadhaar cards.
• Virtual ID (Aadhaar) VID is a temporary, revocable 16-digit random number mapped
with the Aadhaar number. VID can be used in lieu of Aadhaar number whenever
authentication or e-KYC services are performed. Authentication may be performed
using VID in a manner similar to using Aadhaar number. It is not possible to derive
Aadhaar number from VID.

What are the benefits of Bigdata, business intelligence and

secured data?
Bigdata: The definition of big data is the compilation of a humongous pile of data and
running an IT-based analysis to give an easily comprehensible pattern in it. And please
don’t forget that it is all done for interpreting the right human behavior connections with
the prevailing marketing conditions. For doing so a range of resources are used such as
smartphones, smart devices, wireless networks, social media, etc.

1. Cost effective with the implementation of big data collection in the data warehouse,
we can see it reduces the cost of the companies. For example, the use of big data
can reduce invoicemaking errors and improves processing execution timings.

2. Save time with the use of big data the real-time analysis reports can be saved which
ultimately helps the companies to collect the data from multiple sources at a point
in time. And the inbuilt tools in software helps to quickly analyze the lump sum data
and give the prices conclusion. Using the conclusion and information collected in a
precise manner, companies further strategize their future policies or actions for the
benefit of the company.

3. Better understanding of market conditions with the right approach and thorough
analysis of software, we can have a near-perfect image of the prevailing market
conditions. With the imaginary picturesque view of the existing market conditions, we
can find the right kind of opportunities and take benefits out of it.

For e.g – by analyzing the consumer purchasing data, company's management teams
can come to a conclusion setting discounts and improving the overall sales of the
company. This ultimately helps to target and grow the profit margin of the companies
in a huge way.

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4. Social media filter: The big based companies are very sharp and keen on using the
data collected through social media platforms. This raw data is the biggest source of
income. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, etc have inbuilt
tools that can read the user’s behavior on these platforms. They get to know the data
about the liking and disliking patterns of the user.

With partnering brands, they target the user with the preferred line of products on their
social media timeline. This overall increases the engagement and penetration of the
user from using social media to a loyal consumer of brands available online. Thus the
raw data collected by the social media companies act as the most resourceful tools to
earn the money in a long-term way.

5. Beat big competitors the potential of big data is a boon for small companies or companies
who have just started their journey in the market. With the use of sophisticated tools
based on business intelligence, we can get the right pattern of customer engagement
strategies. By doing this a small or new company can compete with the existing players
of the market very well and ultimately lands up with a greater scale of engagement of
customers with better retention.

6. Loyal customers: It is an evident fact that loyal customers are the golden goose for
any company or enterprise. The longevity of the customers and the retaining capacity
increase with the right approach by using big data. The services that are backed by
data analysis result in a loyal customer and everyone knows that loyalty is anytime a
better deal. Therefore with the right approach of data analysis, a company can earn
loyal customers and expect a sale from the consumer in the long term.

Business Intelligence
Businesses are moving at neck-breaking speeds and so is their competition. For these
businesses to have an edge in the market, every decision they make must be informed.
Irrespective of the industry, every business has access to a lot of data that they can
leverage to their advantage. But unfortunately, very few do. Business Intelligence (BI)
helps these businesses to use their data to their advantage by presenting the otherwise
unusable pile of data into an understandable and interpretable form. BI enables us to
combine the power of technology and business expertise to make fully informed decisions
and stay ahead of the competition.
1. Ability to gain customer insights: With effective business intelligence, businesses can
better understand their customers by analyzing their buying patterns and creating user
profiles. This helps them to create better products and product experiences for their
customers. One example where a business can leverage the power of BI to understand

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their customers is customer segmentation. Based on the types of products a customer

buys, when they buy, and how often they buy, customers could be classified into
different segments. These segments are used to give the customer an overall better
experience through custom tailored product offers or custom reminders and many
more. This creates a win-win situation for both parties, as both the customer and the
business are benefitted from it.
2. Improved business operations visibility: Organizations that leverage business
intelligence will have better control over their business processes. They have better
visibility of what’s going on in the organization. Having an active vigilance over the
processes and standard procedures helps to rectify any error rather quickly. This also
helps the business to become prepared and not reactive. For example, for a logistics
company struggling with delayed deliveries, knowing where and why the delays
are happening, could prove quite valuable. This kind of insight into their business
operations could help the business to largely improve their services.
3. Get actionable insights: The most important thing while taking any business decision
is to have enough data to back the decision. With traditional reporting, it’s not as easy
and convenient to get actionable insights as it is with business intelligence. Actionable
insights are those metrics that actually enable you to take any action, rather than
just a ‘feels good to hear’ number. One example of an actionable metric is the % of
customers who abandon their carts rather than the number of transactions metric.
This metric gives us an idea of where the customers are dropping off and enables the
business to take the necessary action to try and reduce the cart abandonment rate.
4. Improved efficiency across the organization: Having a proper business intelligence
system in place considerably improves the efficiency of the overall organization. This
in turn positively impacts the overall revenue of the organization. By making meaningful
data accessible across various teams in the organization reduces the waiting time on
the report requests and increases the productivity of all teams in the company. Data
should be accessible by everyone and not be limited to a few privileged teams. This
helps everyone in the company to stay informed and make knowledgeable decisions.
5. Real-time data availability: A business intelligence system provides real-time data at
all times. This in turn reduces the risk of any possible human error while preparing
any critical data reports. Having access to real-time data enables the business to stay
informed about the health of the company at all times. This helps the organization to
take data-backed decisions every time they need to make one. No more waiting till the
report from the analytics team arrives.

6. Better marketing efforts: A business intelligence system enables the marketing team
of the organization to create better marketing campaigns that provide better return on

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investment (ROI) by providing them a convenient way to access data regarding the
current and past campaigns. It also provides key metrics such as customer acquisition
cost (CAC), cost per lead (CPL), click-through rates of the campaigns (CTR), and
many other crucial metrics required for a successful marketing campaign.
7. Gives the business a competitive advantage: Apart from all the benefits of using
business intelligence, another great benefit of using BI is a competitive advantage.
Business Intelligence enables businesses to have insight into what their competitors
are doing and enables them to make informed and educated decisions for plans.
Also, a company that keeps an eye on its internal systems at all times, stays ahead of
a company that doesn’t encoding. In the Encoding method, data is transformed from
one form to another. The main aim of encoding is to transform data into a form that is
readable by most of the systems or that can be used by any external process. It can’t
be used for securing data, various publicly available algorithms are used for encoding.

How does online transaction through bank use SSL? Where does
AES256 use?
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology protects transactions between your Web site and
visitors. The protocol uses a third party, a Certificate Authority (CA), to identify one end or
both end of the transactions. This is in short how it works.
• A browser requests a secure page (usually https://).
• Once secure transaction is initiated. The web server sends its public key with its certificate.
• The browser checks that the certificate was issued by a trusted party (usually a trusted
CA such as COMODO), that the certificate is still valid and that the certificate is related
to the site contacted.
• The browser then uses the public key, to encrypt a random symmetric encryption key
and sends it to the server with the encrypted URL required as well as other encrypted
http data.
• The web server decrypts the symmetric encryption key using its private key and uses
the symmetric key to decrypt the URL and http data.
• The web server sends back the requested html document and http data encrypted
with the symmetric key.
• The browser decrypts the http data and html document using the symmetric key and
displays the information.

In addition to encryption security, SSL certificates gives important visual cues to website
visitor that they are in secure environment.

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AES256 Application:

Advanced Encryption Standard is one of the ways of encrypting information. AES is one of
the most trusted systems in the world. It's been widely adopted in multiple industries that
need extremely high levels of security.

AES-256, which has a key length of 256 bits, supports the largest bit size and is practically
unbreakable by brute force based on current computing power, making it the strongest
encryption standard.

Do you think Electrical vehicles will generate hazardous e-waste in

near future?
By choosing to drive an EV you are helping to reduce harmful air pollution from exhaust
emissions. An EV has zero exhaust emissions. Better for the environment. Electric vehicles
will play a pivotal role in meeting global targets to reduce carbon emissions, however
the world is unprepared to deal with the e-Waste that come from these electric vehicles
once they reach the end of their useful life span. Electronic waste or e-Waste describes
discarded electrical or electronic devices. Used electronics which are destined for reuse,
resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal are also considered e-Waste.

India is emerging as one of the world's major electronic waste generators, posing
grave concerns to public health and environment alike. E-Waste is likely to increase
by nearly three times, from the existing 18 lakh metric tons to 55 lakh MT per annum
by 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of about 30% in our country. Unlike any
other solid waste, e-Waste is hazardous in nature and needs to be disposed off
scientifically. Informal processing of e-Waste can lead to adverse human health effects
and environmental pollution. Recycling raw materials from end-of-life electronics
through Pollution Control Board authorized Recyclers is the most effective solution to
the growing e-Waste problem.

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India's stand on e-waste management compared to other major

countries

India is the "Third largest electronic waste producer in the world"; approximately 2 million
tons of e-waste are generated annually and an undisclosed amount of e-waste is imported
from other countries around the world.

Explain different types of e-waste and what is e-waste management

rules 2016?
As India is the third largest E-waste producing country in the world, we should know that
E-waste is a term used for those electronic products which are near to the end of their
useful life.

Some examples of E-waste are:

• Computers • Televisions • VCRs
• Stereos • Copiers, and • Fax machines

Electronic scrap materials like CPUs consist of possibly harmful substances like lead,
beryllium, cadmium, or brominated flame retardants. The recycling and disposal of such
electronic waste involve great risk to the workers and communities. A lot of care must be
taken to prevent hazardous exposure in recycling operations. Care must also be taken to
prevent the leaking of harmful materials such as heavy metals from incinerator ashes and
landfills.

E-waste Management Rules in India

The Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ministry (MoEF&CC) have announced
the E-Waste Management Rules 2016. These new rules replaced the earlier E-Waste
(Management and Handling) Rules of 2011.
The new Rules make for stricter norms and are a part of the government’s increased
commitment towards environmental governance.
Highlights of the new E-waste Management Rules 2016:
1. It includes CFLs or Compact Fluorescent Lamps as well as other lamps with mercury,
and similar equipment.
2. The Rules for the first time, bring producers under the ambit of the Extended Producer
Responsibility or EPR, together with the targets.
3. Producers have been made accountable for e-waste collection and e-waste exchange
as well.

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4. Additional stakeholders included are:

 Manufacturers
 Dealers
 Refurbishers and Producer Responsibility Organizations.
5. Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) and other mercury-containing lamps have been
brought under the purview of the rules.

India’s Environment Ministry has notified rules targeting the wide range of groups like
hotels, residential colonies, bulk producers of consumer goods, ports, railway stations,
airports, and pilgrimage spots. This is to ensure that the solid waste generated in their
facilities is treated and recycled.

Key Points of E-waste Management Rules 2016:

• Local bodies with a population of one lakh or above were supposed to establish solid
waste processing facilities within two years.
• Census towns below a lakh would be given three years to establish solid waste
processing facilities.
• Old and discarded dump sites would have to be shut-down or bio-remedied within five years.
• The rules on solid waste management have been amended after 16 years.
• Garbage management is the responsibility of municipal bodies, they would have the
rights to charge user fees and levy spot fines for littering and non-segregation.
• A transition period of two to five years would be in place beyond which fines would be
imposed as per the country’s Environment Minister.

What are the different steps taken by government to recycle e-waste?

Six Steps of the e-waste Processing Chain

1. Sanitising the Storage Device:
 No one wants their sensitive data to end up in the hands of strangers. That’s why
sanitising the storage device is the first step of e-waste recycling.
 Depending on the type of device in question, there are several methods you can
use for data sanitisation.
 Many believe that physical destruction is the best way to sanitise a storage media.
But physically destroying a device may make recyclable material retrieval difficult.
 That’s why sanitising your device with data erasure software is the safest. But this
can’t be any data erasure software. You need a data erasure software that support
all major data sanitisation standards like NIST 800-88. BitRaser complies with NIST
800-88, and all other standards.

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2. Collecting and transport:

 In India, 95% of e-waste is processed by the informal sector, aka kabadiwalas.
Because of this, it is difficult to have a systematic collection process. The remaining
5% is what ends up in legal e-waste recycling facilities.
 Ideally, you’re contributing to the 5% that gets recycled. You can find e-waste
collection centres in all major Indian cities. Once the recyclers collect the waste, it
gets transported to a recycling facility.
3. Shredding and Sorting:
 We know that e-waste has multiple useful materials that can be harvested from it.
That’s why the third e-waste recycling step is to shred the waste.
 Shredding breaks down the device into its separate components. Different materials
require different processes to retrieve and recycle. So then, the components are
sorted based on the core material.
4. Extraction and Separation:
After this beings the process where the core materials are separated from the larger
components. Widely, there are three processes the components go through.
 Dust Extraction: Dust is separated from the component by a shaking process.
This process also breaks down the component further. So the next step becomes
easier.
 Magnetic Separation: A strong magnet separates iron from the component. These
metals are then taken to a different place to recycle.
 After magnetic separation, materials like plastic, aluminium, and copper are left
behind. These materials are what move on to the next step.
 Water Separation: This E-waste recycling step helps separate glass from plastic.
The glass is then transported to smelting units where it’s used to produce other
goods. Any remaining fragments are handpicked.
5. Material Recovery:
 The separated fragments are sorted according to the material type. The core
material then goes on to be treated and recovered from the fragment.
The components that can be recovered: E-waste contains many precious metals

and other elements that can be recycled. Here’s a list of the materials that can be
recovered from e-waste.
Glass - from Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT). CRTs are present in computer monitors
and TVs.
Mercury - this element is present in flat-screen monitors, fluorescent tubes, and tilt
switches.
Precious metals - Metals like gold, copper, tin, and silver are found in circuit boards.
Only accredited processing centres are allowed to recover these metals.
Aluminium - Hard disks contain aluminium ingots. These can be used in automobile
manufacturing.

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Metals - A host of metals can be recovered from e-waste. Cadmium, nickel, and
cobalt are present in batteries. They can be reused to make batteries. Other metals
like steel and iron are also recovered from e-waste.
Plastic - Toners, ink cartridges and many other e-waste contain plastic in them. The
recovered plastic can be used to make trays, fence posts, and insulators amongst
many other things.
6. Preparing recycled material for sale:
The raw materials recovered at stage 5 of the recycling process get prepared for sale.
It usually goes out at raw materials. And specific plants treat them the way they need.
Most of the raw materials get converted back into electronics. But materials like plastic
or mercury often get used in other items as well.

After Effects of Technology on Health, Kids and Old People Life

Negative impacts of technology on health. Some of the health problems caused by
technology include:
• Musculoskeletal issues: Looking down at an electronic gadget for long periods can
lead to neck and back pain, as well as pains in elbows, wrists, and hands. In addition,
laptop and smartphone usage can involve people sitting in positions consistent with
poor ergonomic function and poor ergonomic positioning. As well as back pain from
computer use, often caused by poor gaming posture or computer posture, there have
also been reports of “selfie elbow” or “texting thumb” caused by technology overuse.
• Digital eye strain: Constant exposure to digital devices can be harmful to our eyes. Digital eye
strain, sometimes called Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), is one of the most commonly
reported symptoms of too much screen time. For example, one study suggested over 60%
of Americans were affected by it. Symptoms of digital eye strain include dry eyes, redness
around the eyes, headaches, blurred vision, plus neck and shoulder pain.
• Disrupted sleep: Getting enough sleep is vital for almost every bodily function. But using
a laptop, tablet, or smartphone shortly before going to bed can affect your ability to fall
asleep. This is because the so-called blue light from devices can lead to heightened
alertness and disrupt your body clock. In addition, activities on digital devices can be
stimulating and make us much less ready for sleep. As a result, people can become
absorbed and continue using the technology past their bedtime.
It’s important to distinguish between interactive and passive technological devices.
Passive devices are those which require little or no input from users. Examples include
listening to music, reading an e-book, or watching TV or a movie. With interactive
devices, what is viewed on-screen changes with input from the user. For example,
playing a video game is interactive, as is chatting on social media. Interactive activities
are more likely to disrupt sleep than passive activities.

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• Physical inactivity: Excessive use of smartphones, laptops, and tablets can lead to
physical inactivity. For example, according to one study, 38% of parents worried that
their children weren’t getting enough physical exercise due to excessive screen time.
Too much sedentary time has been linked to an increased risk of a range of health
conditions, including obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. The Covid-19
pandemic – which kept people at home, increased reliance on digital technology, and
saw sporting events around the world canceled – didn't help. Still, even before Covid,
it’s estimated that physical inactivity was costing 5.3 million lives a year globally.
• Psychological issues: Excessive screen time can negatively affect mental and emotional
wellbeing. For example, by inducing anxiety because someone hasn’t replied quickly
enough to your WhatsApp or text message, or constantly checking your social media
feeds to see how many likes your last post received. It’s easy for both adults and
children to compare themselves unfavorably to others on social media, which in turn
can lead to feelings of anxiety.
Then there’s ‘doom scrolling’ – 1 in 5 Americans now obtain their news from social
media, which is a more significant proportion than those who read traditional print
media. Social media users who log in multiple times a day can be exposed to non-stop
news, typically bad news such as natural disasters, terrorist events, political division,
high-profile crimes, etc. Bingeing on bad news via social media or other online sources
is known as doom scrolling, which can adversely affect mental health.
• Negative effects on kids: Technology overuse can have a significant impact on children
and teenagers. This is because children’s brains are still developing, which means they
can be more sensitive to the effects of technology overuse than adults. For example,
some studies suggest that excessive screen time and social media use among kids
and teens can impact social skills, creativity, attention spans, and language and
emotional development delays. In addition, the same issues described above – poor
posture, eye strain, disrupted sleep, and lack of physical activity leading to obesity –
also apply to children.
• Impact on hearing: Prolonged use of earphones, headphones, or earbuds at high
volumes can cause hearing loss. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.1
billion young people worldwide are at risk of hearing loss due to unsafe listening
practices, in part from listening to music via headphones or earbuds. Noise exposure
is one of the most common causes of hearing loss.

What are the potential applications of NaVIC?

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its commercial arm Antrix
Corporation Ltd. are set to commercialize India’s regional navigation satellite system -
Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC).

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• Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) is an Indian Regional Navigation Satellite

System (IRNSS), developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
• IRNSS consists of seven satellites, three satellites in geostationary orbit and four
satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
• The main objective is to provide reliable position, navigation and timing services over
India and its neighbourhood. It works just like the established and popular U.S. Global
Positioning System (GPS) but within a 1,500-km radius over the sub-continent.
• It has been certified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a global body
for coordinating mobile telephony standards.
• Potential Applications:
 Terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation.
 Disaster management.
 Vehicle tracking and fleet management (especially for mining and transportation sector).
 Integration with mobile phones.
 Precise timing (as for ATMs and power grids).
 Mapping and geodesy data capture.

What are differences between NavIC and GPS?

Some of the major differences between NavIC and GPS are:
• Both GPS and NavIC are navigation satellite systems. However, Global Positioning
System tracks the entire globe while NavIC is limited to India.
• Thanks to India’s Geostationary satellites that are situated in a much higher orbit and
use dual frequency bands (L5-band and S-band) the accuracy of NavIC is better than
that of GPS. Additionally, the signal on NavIC is less prone to obstructions.
• GPS relies on 31 operational satellites for its proper functioning. On the other hand,
NavIC relies on just 7 satellites in earth’s orbit.
• NavIC satellites use dual frequency bands (L5-band and S-band) while GPS still uses
single frequency band.
• GPS is supported on every single smartphone in existence while NavIC is a newly
developed technology.

What are distress alerts by NavIC?

Space Applications Centre (ISRO) has developed the Distress Alert Transmitter-Second
Generation (DAT-SG) which is a UHF transmitter based on NavIC receiver module. This
NavIC receiver module supports position determination as well as broadcast messages

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reception called NavIC messaging service. The end users are mainly fishermen of small
boats who can use this device for emergency messages reporting with position information
and the unit can also help them receive useful information like Potential Fishing Zone,
weather alerts etc. as supported by NavIC messaging service.

How SMS, TV, social media can be use for warning dissemination of
disaster?
1. Multiple media such as TV/ Radio (including FM radio)/ Social Media/local media/SMS
and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) message may be used for publicizing the early
warning and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material.

2. Special Radio talks and TV shows may be organised by state and India Meteorological
Department (IMD) Officials during the season. IEC material should be publicized
to eradicate the myth through Folk/music programme at public places like market
playground religious places, fishing harbours etc.

3. WhatsApp has emerged as a very effective and fast medium of communication. State
Health and Disaster Management Departments may form WhatsApp groups of specific
states/districts/blocks/cluster of villages for dissemination of messages with following
broad flow scheme.

(a) State level groups may have the minister/s, Chief Secretary, Secretaries &other
officers of concerned departments, DMs & District Health Officers of all the districts
and Red Cross and state functionaries of Indian Medical Association (IMA).

(b) The DMs & District Health Officers may have district specific groups with officials
of all concerned departments of the districts. Municipal corporations/Committees,
IMD, Red Cross, IMS, NGOS and hospitals at the district level and officials of all
concerned departments of the tehsils/talukas/blocks in the district.

(c) Tehsils/talukas/block level groups may have officials of all concerned departments
of the tehsils/talukas/blocks. Gram Pradhans/Panchayat Secretaries, doctors of
primary, secondary & private hospitals and NGOs, Red Cross, IMA and other
active/progressive individuals in the block, Village level self- help groups, Village
level women societies such as Anganwadis etc.

Entire Country will be Covered by Doppler Weather Radar Network

by 2025 to Predict Extreme Weather Events More Accurately
The entire country will be covered by Doppler Weather Radar Network by 2025 to help
predict extreme weather events more accurately. Four new radars were added recently

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taking the number from 33 to 37. They include two at Murari Devi and Jot in Himachal
Pradesh, and one each at Banihal Top in Jammu and Kashmir and Surkandaji in Uttarakhand
covering a radius of 100 km.

Radars Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging): It is a device which uses electromagnetic
waves in the microwaves region to detect location (range & direction), altitude, intensity
and movement of moving and non-moving objects.

Doppler radar : It is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity
data about objects at a distance

Doppler effect: When the source and the signal are in relative motion to each other there is
a change in the frequency observed by the observer. If they are moving closer, frequency
increases and vice versa.

• It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the
object’s motion has altered the frequency of the returned signal.
• This variation gives direct and highly accurate measurements of the radial component
of a target’s velocity relative to the radar.

Doppler Weather Radar:

• Based on Doppler principle the radar is designed to improve precision in long-range
weather forecasting and surveillance using a parabolic dish antenna and a foam
sandwich spherical radome.
• DWR has the equipment to measure rainfall intensity, wind shear and velocity and
locate a storm centre and the direction of a tornado or gust front.

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What are elements of Early Warning?

1. Disaster risk knowledge based on the systematic collection of data and disaster risk
assessments.
2. Detection, monitoring, analysis and forecasting of the hazards and possible
consequences.
3. Dissemination and communication, by an official source, of authoritative, timely,
accurate and actionable warnings and associated information on likelihood and impact.
4. Preparedness at all levels to respond to the warnings received.

These four interrelated components need to be coordinated within and across sectors and
multiple levels for the system to work effectively and to include a feedback mechanism for
continuous improvement.

Status of SpaceX/Starlink in India

As widely-speculated, Elon Musk owned SpaceX has joined the satellite internet race
in the country. According to a report, the company has applied to the Department of
Telecommunication(DOT) for a global mobile personal communication by satellite
services(GMPCS) license to launch broadband from space services in India under its
starlink brand. As per the report, the US based satcom company had earlier applied for
an experimental license but withdrew it later.

SpaceX is the third company to seek GMPCS permit in the country. The other two companies
that have been granted GMPCS licences are Bharti Group backed OneWeb and (Reliance
Jio Infocomm's satellite arm) Jio Satellite Communications. The licence is offered to the
companies by the government allowing them to offer satellite communication services in
licensed service areas.

Benefit of starlink

This would supplement terrestrial connectivity and besides become the primary means of
accessing the Internet in large parts of India that are difficult to reach via terrestrial cables
or microwave links hopping across towers.

Use of NavIC/IRNSS in Disaster Management

• Natural Disaster Monitoring: NavIC plays a crucial role in monitoring and tracking
natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, and earthquakes. The system can provide
real-time data on the movement and intensity of these events.
• Timely Warnings: NavIC data allows authorities to issue timely warnings to communities
in the path of natural disasters. Early warnings can save lives and help people prepare
for impending emergencies.

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• Coordinated Relief Efforts: During and after disasters, NavIC aids in coordinating relief
efforts by providing accurate location information for affected areas. This ensures that
assistance reaches the right places promptly.

Asia’s Largest 4-Metre International Liquid Mirror Telescope at

Devasthal in Uttarakhand
Dr. Jitendra Singh said, it is primarily the patronage, promotion and prioritization from
Prime Minister Narendra Modi that has enabled and emboldened the scientific fraternity
to successfully try new initiatives, one after the other, in the field of science, technology
and innovation, which are being rated as world class. Not only PM Modi has given us the
motivation to move ahead but also given the freedom to explore hitherto lesser explored
areas like Space which has been opened up for private players or India's oceans whose
vast resources are waiting to be unfolded. Today's landmark event, said the Minister,
places India at a different and a much higher level of capabilities to study the mysteries
of the skies and astronomy, and to share the same with the rest of the world. Aryabhatta
Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) announced that the world-class
4-metre International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is now ready to explore the deep
celestial sky. It achieved its first light in the 2nd week of May 2022. The telescope is located
at an altitude of 2450 metre at the Devasthal Observatory campus of ARIES, an autonomous
institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India in Nainital
district, Uttarakhand.

Seven Mega Missions by ISRO

Chandrayaan-2, XPoSat (to study cosmic radiation in 2020) and Aditya-L1 (to the Sun in 2023).

Mangalyaan-2 (or Mars Orbiter Mission-2 in 2022), Lunar Polar Exploration (or Chandrayaan-3
in 2024), Venus mission (in 2023), Exoworlds (exploration outside the solar system in 2028).

XPoSat: X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) is India's maiden mission dedicated to

analysing the polarisation of X-rays emanating from bright celestial sources in the medium
frequency band.

Aditya L1 shall be the first space based Indian mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft
shall be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system,
which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the
L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/
eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its
effect on space weather in real time.

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NASA and ISRO have Jointly Manufactured an Earth Science Satellite

Named, NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) at a Cost of
about Rs. 470 Crore
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State
(Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions,
Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh today informed the Rajya Sabha that
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) have jointly manufactured an earth science satellite named, NISAR
(NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar). In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha,
Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the mission objectives of the satellite are- Design, Develop and
launch Dual Frequency (L and S band) Radar Imaging Satellite and to Explore newer
applications areas using L & S Band microwave data especially in surface deformation
studies, terrestrial biomass structure, natural resource mapping and monitoring and
studies related to dynamics of ice-sheets, glaciers, forests, oil slick etc. The Minister said,
the satellite is configured with I-3K bus and the instrument identified for SAR is based
on the innovative Sweep SAR technique configured in both L and S band in polarimetric
configuration for wide swath and high resolution. The spacecraft will orbit the Earth in a sun
synchronous orbit of 747 Km with an inclination of 98.4 degree for a 12-day repeat cycle.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said, while NASA is delivering the L-Band SAR payload, high precision
GPS and 12m unfurlable antenna, ISRO is delivering S-band SAR payload, spacecraft bus
and facilitating launch. The total expenditure incurred on realization of NISAR satellite by
ISRO as on February, 2023 is Rs. 469.40 Crore, excluding launch cost.

What is OTT and why do we need?

An OTT app, or over-the-top app, is a video content delivery app that uses the internet
instead of traditional distribution methods like cable or satellite to deliver video content to
your smartphone, tablet, or smart TV.
These apps let you watch videos on your favorite devices without having to download
them. You can watch whatever you want, whenever you want, whether it's a movie, a yoga
session with your favorite instructor, or an e-Learning course on cave diving.
The OTT app or over-the-top application, is a video content delivery app that uses the
internet rather than traditional distribution methods like cable or satellite to provide video
content to your smartphone, tablet, or smart TV.
These apps allow you to watch your favorite films and live broadcasts on your favorite
devices right now. You may view it anywhere you choose, whether it's a movie, a session
with your favorite yoga instructor, or an e-Learning program on cave diving.
The future of television and online streaming services is OTT apps. It's a multibillion-dollar
industry that's causing a significant shift in how people consume material, OTT Web, TV, and

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mobile apps will undoubtedly play a role in your business if you're joining the online streaming
industry in any form. One of the most effective and efficient ways to expand your video website
audience is to launch an OTT video streaming app for the Web. TV, and mob.

One Nation One Ration Card Concept

The ONORC scheme is being implemented by the Department for the nation-wide portability of
ration cards under National Food Security Act (NFSA). Through this all eligible ration card holders/
beneficiaries covered under NFSA can access their entitlements from anywhere in the country.

Benefits:
• This system allows all NFSA beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, to claim
either full or part foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country through
existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar authentication in a seamless manner.
• The system also allows their family members back home, if any, to claim the balance
foodgrains on same the ration card.

Implementation Plan:
Under this plan, the distribution of highly subsidized food grains is enabled through
nation-wide portability of ration cards through the implementation of IT-driven system by
installation of ePoS devices at FPSS, seeding of Aadhaar number of beneficiaries with
their ration cards and operationalisation of biometrically authenticated EPoS transactions
in the State/UTS. Beneficiaries can quote either their ration card number or the Aadhaar
number to any Fair Price Shop's dealer across the country.

Anyone in the family, who have seeded Aadhaar in the ration card can undergo authentication
and lift the ration. There is no need to share or carry the ration card or Aadhaar card with
ration dealer to avail the benefit. Beneficiaries can undergo Aadhaar authentication by
using their finger prints or iris based identification.

The One Nation One Ration Card facility was started as inter- State portability of ration cards
in 4 States w.e.f. August 2019. As on February 2022. 35 states/UTs have implemented the
scheme. Assam has become the 36th State/UT to implement One Nation One Ration Card
(ONORC).

New Technology Developed to Transport of Radio Frequency (RF) through

Optical Methods could Improve Digital & Satellite Communication
A newly designed prototypes in the Next-Generation Photonic Analog-to-Digital Converters
(NG-PADC) project which can carry out instantaneous frequency measurement, generation
and transport of Radio Frequency (RF) through optical methods could revolutionize various

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sectors, enabling faster digital communication, improved satellite communication, better

medical imaging, and Photonic radars. Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are critical
components for developing the next generation of advanced digital receivers. The limitation of
electronic ADCs (EADCs) is that their vertical resolution is compromised at high bandwidths.
There are two possible approaches to solve this problem through Photonics. RF, when
modulated on a spectrally rich optical pulsed source, can be stretched in the optical domain
through a dispersive medium, thus converting high-frequency RF signals into effectively low
frequency signals. This reduces the input bandwidth requirements of the back-end ADC as
many times as the stretch factor of the optical pulse. The other Photonic approach is to use
an optical clock whose fluctuations in timing (timing jitter) is much smaller an electronic clock;
which is possible with a short pulsed laser. High bandwidth RF signals, when sampled with
stable optical clocks, can provide a much higher effective number of bits (ENOB) compared
to electronic clocks. It has time-stretched photonic ADC with effective bandwidth 12 times
higher than EADC, which enables digitisation of signals with a much larger precision. An
NG-PADC developed by IIT Madras with support from the IMPRINT programme of Science,
Engineering, Research Board (SERB), is equipped with a time-stretched photonic ADC whose
effective bandwidth is 12 times higher than a corresponding EADC, which enables sampling
of higher bandwidth signal with effectively lower bandwidth EADCs.

MeitY Launches Technology for Air Quality Monitoring System

(AI-AQMS v1.0)
Air Quality Monitoring System (AI-AQMS v1.0) developed under MeitY supported projects.
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata in collaboration
with TeXMIN, ISM, Dhanbad under the ‘National programme on Electronics and ICT
applications in Agriculture and Environment (AgriEnIcs)’ has developed a outdoor air
quality monitoring station to monitor environmental pollutants which includes parameters
like PM 1.0, PM 2.5, PM 10.0, SO2, NO2, CO, O2, ambient temperature, relative humidity
etc., for continuous air quality analysis of the environment.

Indian Semiconductor Mission

India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) has been setup as an Independent Business
Division within Digital India Corporation having administrative and financial autonomy
to formulate and drive India’s long-term strategies for developing semiconductors and
display manufacturing facilities and semiconductor design ecosystem. Envisioned to be
led by global experts in the Semiconductor and Display industry. ISM is serving as the
nodal agency for efficient, coherent and smooth implementation of the programme for
development of semiconductor and manufacturing ecosystem in India.

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Objectives of ISM are as under:

1. Formulate a comprehensive long-term strategy for developing sustainable
semiconductors and display manufacturing facilities and semiconductor design eco-
system in the country in consultation with the Government ministries / departments /
agencies, industry, and academia.
2. Facilitate the adoption of secure microelectronics and developing trusted semiconductor
supply chain, including raw materials, specially chemicals, gases, and manufacturing
equipment.
3. Enable a multi-fold growth of Indian semiconductor design industry by providing
requisite support in the form of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools, foundry
services and other suitable mechanisms for early-stage start-ups.
4. Promote and facilitate indigenous Intellectual Property (IP) generation.
5. Encourage, enable and incentivize Transfer of Technologies (ToT).
6. Establish suitable mechanisms to harness economies of scale in Indian semiconductor
and display industry.
7. Enable cutting-edge research in semiconductors and display industry including
evolutionary and revolutionary technologies through grants, global collaborations
and other mechanisms in academia / research institutions, industry, and through
establishing Centres of Excellence (CoEs).
8. Enable collaborations and partnership programs with national and international agencies,
industries and institutions for catalysing collaborative research, commercialization and
skill development.

Semiconductors & Electronics Sector will have a Huge Role to Play

in India Techade

Semicon conferences are organised in different geographies world-wide by SEMI and called
Semicon Europa, West & East in USA, Taiwan, Korea, Japan etc. where semiconductor
industry is established, with the aim to maximise outreach of the technological advancements
in the semiconductor domain as well as the policies of various countries to strengthen their
semiconductor ecosystem. Government of India announced USD 10 billion Semicon India
Programme with an aim to develop Semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem
in India. With an intent to create awareness and showcase India as a potential hub for
Semiconductor Design, Manufacturing, R&D and Manpower Development, SemiconIndia
Conference 2022 was organised in Bengaluru.

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SEMI Intent to Support the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)

Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) announced the exchange of signing of Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) between the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE)
at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and Lam Research India at the ongoing
SemiconIndia in Gandhinagar. The SEMI today announced its intent to support the India
Semiconductor Mission (ISM) in creating a vibrant semiconductor manufacturing and
design ecosystem in India. The collaboration would build on the successful execution of
ISM’s SemiconIndia’s two editions and continue SEMI’s tradition of bringing stakeholders
in the end-to-end semiconductor ecosystem together. An MoU is under development.
The announcement was made in the presence of Minister of State for Skill Development
& Entrepreneurship and Electronics & IT Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MeitY Secretary
Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma, President SEMI Shri Ajit Manocha and senior officials of the
Government and Industries.

Design and Manufacturing of Electronics System

India is emerging as trusted player in global value chain of electronics and has a target of
USD 300 billion for electronics manufacturing by 2025-26. In this connection, the Government
has taken various strategic steps and initiatives to broaden and deepen the Electronics
Manufacturing and Information Technology sector in the country. In order to boost electronics
manufacturing, including semiconductors and position India as a global hub for Electronics
System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) and compete globally, the steps taken
1. National Policy on Electronics 2019: The National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019)
has been notified on February 25, 2019. The vision of NPE 2019 is to position India as a
global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by encouraging
and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including
chipsets, and creating an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.
To attract and incentivise large investments in the electronics value chain and promote
exports, following three Schemes have been notified under the aegis of NPE 2019:
• Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large scale Electronics Manufacturing
was notified on April 1, 2020 to provide an incentive of 4 per cent to 6 per cent to
eligible companies on incremental sales (over base year) involved in mobile phone
manufacturing and manufacturing of specified electronic components, including
Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) units.
• Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT Hardware was notified on March
3, 2021 to provide an incentive of 4 per cent to 2 per cent/1 per cent on net
incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered
under the target segment, to eligible companies, for a period of four years. The
Target Segment under PLI Scheme includes (i) Laptops (ii) Tablets (iii) All-in-One
PCs and (iv) Servers.

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• Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and

Semiconductors (SPECS) was notified on April 1, 2020 to provide financial incentive
of 25 per cent on capital expenditure for the identified list of electronic goods
that comprise downstream value chain of electronic products, i.e., electronic
components, semiconductor/display fabrication units, ATMP units, specialised
subassemblies and capital goods for manufacture of aforesaid goods.
• Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme was notified on April
01, 2020 to provide support for creation of world class infrastructure along with
common facilities and amenities, including Ready Built Factory (RBF) sheds/Plug
and Play facilities for attracting major global electronics manufacturers along with
their supply chain to set up units in the country. The Scheme provides financial
assistance for setting up of both EMC projects and Common Facility Centres
(CFCs) across the country.
• Program for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem:
To widen and deepen electronics manufacturing, the Union Cabinet on December
15, 2021, approved a comprehensive program with an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore
for the development of Semiconductors and Display manufacturing ecosystem.
With the approval of Cabinet, this Programme has been recently modified on
September 21, 2022. The modified programme offers Fiscal Support of 50 per
cent of project cost uniformly for semiconductor fabs across the technology nodes
as well

Department of Atomic Energy

Some Important achievements of DAE from 2014 to 2022
1. APSARA-U (BARC): 2 MWh Pool Type Research Reactor, suitable for enhanced production
of isotopes for applications in the field of Medicine, Industry and Agriculture, became
critical on 10th September 2018. The facility is being used to irradiate samples for
production of radioisotopes.
2. Dhruva (BARC): The reactor operated at very high availability factors and about 4000
samples are irradiated in last eight years, apart from studies in nuclear and allied
sciences by national institutes and Universities.
3. IGCAR / FBTR (Fast Breeder Test Reactor): Using the indigenously designed and
developed fuel of Uranium Carbide and Plutonium Carbide FBTR attained its rated
capacity of 40MWt and is connected to the grid, producing 10 MWe. The cumulative
Effective Full Power Days (EFPD) of operation is 128 days and the electrical energy
produced is 23.5 million units this year (2022) and in the period 2014-2022 a total of
75.8 million units of electrical energy has been produced.
4. IGCAR / Metal Fuel Pin Fabrication Facility: Sodium bonded metal fuel pin fabrication facility
with high purity inert atmosphere glove box train has been established. Metal fuel pins
of U-Pu-Zr were fabricated and the test fuel pins are undergoing irradiation at FBTR. The
facility was dedicated to the nation in May’2018 by the Honourable President of India.

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5. Power Generation:
(i) NPCIL/ Completion of 53 years of operation of TAPS 1&2, oldest reactors In
operation In the world.
(ii) NPCIL/ Operation of about 582 reactor years so far.
(iii) NPCIL/Setting of World Record of 962 days of continuous operation by KGS-1;
Continuous Operation of RAPS-5 for 765 days (more than 2 years); Continuous
Operation of 777 days by RAPS-3; Continuous operation of 852 days of NAPS- 2;
Continuous operation of Indian nuclear power reactors for more than a year 42
times so far;
(iv) NPCIL/ CAPEX of Rs. 14235 crore in 2021-22.
(v) NPCIL/ CAPEX of Rs. 14235 crore in 2021-22.
(vi) NPCIL/ CSR expenditure of Rs. 101.96 crore.
6. Radio-isotope Production:
(i) BARC/ Significant contributions towards indigenous development and clinical
translation of a number of radiopharmaceutical agents for cancer treatment at
an affordable cost. These include 177Lu-DOTA-TATE, 177Lu-PSMA-617, 177Lu-
EDTMP, 177Lu-DOTMP, 90Y-hydroxyapatite micro-particles and so on. Three
different formulations of Yttrium-90 were developed and deployed.
(ii) BARC/ Working on the philosophy of wealth from waste, about 1 lakh Ci of Cs was
recovered and about 6 kg of this has been converted to pencils for irradiation.
(iii) BARC/ BRIT Technology for recovery of 106 RU from nuclear waste and fabrication
of 106 RU containing silver plaque (circular configuration) has been successfully
developed for eye cancer treatment. These plaques were supplied to hospitals
including AIIMS, Delhi.
(iv) BRIT/ Cs-137 based Blood Irradiator, as an alternate to Co-60 based Blood
Irradiator, was developed and introduced. The same has much longer useful life
compared to Co-60 blood irradiator.
7. Cancer Care
(i) TMC/ Registering close to 80,000 new patients and over 6,50,000 follow ups
annually at Mumbai alone, it provides high quality cancer care to patients from
across the country regardless of socio economic status and their ability to pay;
more than 60% of patients are treated almost free of cost.
(ii) TMC/ At National Level
(a) The National Cancer Grid - Created in 2012 with the broad vision of creating
uniform standards of cancer care across India. Eight years later, it has grown
into the world’s largest cancer network with 287 members, comprising cancer
centres, research institutes, patient advocacy groups, charitable organizations
and professional societies. Between the member organizations of the NCG, the
network treats over 750,000 new patients with cancer annually, which is over 60%
of all of India’s cancer burden.

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(b) The NCG also partners with the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya
Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in ensuring evidence-based cancer care and rationalizing
tariff packages under the scheme. The NCG’s work on Patient Health Records
(PHR) was extensively used in the National Health Authority’s National Digital
Health Mission (NDHM) recently launched by the Prime Minister.
(c) TMC has embarked on a major expansion plan that will quadruple its patient care
capabilities as well as broaden its geographic presence in the country. TMC has
now expanded to six other hospitals located in Varanasi (2), Guwahati, Sangrur,
Vishakapatnam, Chandigarh and Muzaffarpur.
(d) The centre is offering technical assistance to various state government for
strengthening their cancer care such as – Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West
Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
(e) ACTREC, which had 100 beds till last year, has expanded to 500 beds this year
(will expand to 900 beds by mid 2023), and will offer cutting-edge treatment
with dedicated facilities for solid tumor chemotherapy, hematolymphoid cancers
management, treatment with radionuclide isotopes, and the first Proton Beam
therapy unit with three gantries in India and the first in the government sector.
(f) Starting from 740 beds in 2017, TMC has grown to 2450 beds (in 2022) and will
further increase its capacity to 2700 beds by mid 2023. Currently, TMC treats
about 125,000 new patients with cancer annually (approximately 10% of all of
India’s cancer burden).
(j) The hub and spoke model of cancer care has been successfully implemented
in Punjab and in Uttar Pradesh. This has been endorsed by the parliamentary
committee on science and technology in 325th report, and the Parliamentary
Standing Committee Health and Family Welfare in its 139th report.
8. TMC/ At International Level
• With the creation of NCG “Vishwam” the international component of the NCG, the
network is rapidly being acknowledged as one of the most influential organizations
in global cancer care.
• The Low cost implementable research outputs at TMC has changed cancer care
globally especially in Africa and developing world where it has become part of
implementable guidelines. Three new studies in breast cancer were presented
this year alone which have used low cost and indigenous interventions to improve
survival significantly and has the potential to save over 100,000 lives when
implemented globally.
9. Nuclear Agriculture and Application of Radiation technology for food processing/ preservation
• BARC/ Till date BARC has developed & released 55 crop varieties for cultivation
including the varieties of groundnut, mung dal, pigeon pea, Urad dal, mustard,
soybean, cowpea, rice, jute and sunflower, 13 new seed varieties were released.
• BARC/ Eco-friendly and biodegradable BARC-hydrogel has been further improved
to achieve water absorption up to 550 times of its own weight.

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• BARC/ 13 Food irradiation plants have been set up. Litchi Treatment plant based
upon BARC-DAE technology was commissioned at National Research Centre on
Litchi, ICAR located at Mushahari, Muzaffarpur, Bihar on 29th May 2017. Food
preservation technologies developed for Jamun product, Sprouts & Sweet Corn
Kernels, Stuffed Baked Food, Intermediate moisture shrimp, Fish soup powder
have recently been transferred to different firms for commercial deployment.
Gamma radiation technology was used to extend shelf life of 28 tons of potatoes
from typical 100 days to eight months while retaining all quality attributes.
10. Technology Transfer
(i) BARC/ Handheld low cost 12-Channel Tele-ECG Instrument, suitable for rural
health care was developed. The instrument can be operated using Mobile phones
via Bluetooth.
(ii) BARC/ Radiation Hygienisation Technology for Converting Sewage Sludge into
Organic Manure - First facility of capacity 100 tons/day has been constructed at
Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) plant was inaugurated in
2019; 2nd plant coming-up at Indore MoU signed with Pune Municipal Corporation
for 3rd unit.
(iii) BARC/ Bhabha Kavach - A series of specially designed Bullet Proof Jackets
(BPJs) that utilize indigenously developed Hot-Pressed Boron Carbide (HPBC)
and Carbon Nanotube (CNT) technologies. The technology for manufacture of
Bhabha Kavach was transferred to M/s MIDHANI in April 2017 and 3 more reputed
companies. Level III+ Bhabha Kavach successfully qualified tests for the Central
Armed Police team and the BSF team and successfully tested boron carbide-CNT
impregnated polymer composite ballistic armour for Level IV threat.
(iv) BARC/ Nisargruna - Technology for Hygienic Processing & Disposal of Solid
Biodegradable Waste: Nisargruna was implemented in many cities including
Matheran Municipal council as a part of Swacchh Bharat Abhiyan. Kannur village
in Kerala has installed 1000 kg of waste per day Nisargruna plant. Nisarguna plant
produced biogas is used as a fuel in kitchen.
(v) BARC/ Water Treatment technologies – Deployed in many villages in the state of
Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
(vi) BARC/ Thermal seawater desalination technology based on Multi Effect Distillation-
Thermal Vapour Compression - technology transferred to two entrepreneurs.
11. Civil Nuclear Cooperation:
Civil Nuclear cooperation agreement for peaceful application of nuclear energy were
signed with Japan, Great Britain, Vietnam, Bangladesh.
Tripartite MoU signed between Russia, Bangladesh and India for establishing Nuclear
Power Plant in Bangladesh.
Nuclear Research & Development cooperation agreement signed with Canada.

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India three Stage Nuclear Programme

The Indian nuclear power programme, launched in 1954, envisaged a three-stage
development of nuclear power generation from the country’s uranium and thorium
resources.
1. In the first stage, heavy water reactors fuelled by natural uranium would produce
plutonium.
2. The second stage would initially be fuelled by a mix of the plutonium from the first stage
and natural uranium [It contains 0.7% uranium-235, 99.3% uranium-238, and a trace of
uranium-234 by weight (0.0055%)]. This uranium would transmute (Transmutation is the
conversion of an atom of one element to an atom of another through nuclear reactions.
Induced nuclear transmutation is transmutation which is induced by scientists by
striking the nuclei with high volume particles) into more plutonium and once sufficient
stocks have been built up, thorium would be introduced into the fuel cycle to convert
it into uranium 233 for the third stage.

In the final stage, a mix of thorium and uranium fuels the reactors. The thorium transmutes
to U-233 as in the second stage, which powers the reactor. Fresh thorium can replace the
depleted thorium in the reactor core, making it essentially a thorium fuelled reactor even
though it is the U-233 that is undergoing fission to produce electricity.

Why there is an emphasis on thorium technology?

• Thorium reactors produce far less waste than present-day reactors.
• They have the ability to burn up most of the highly radioactive and long-lasting minor
actinides that makes nuclear waste from Light Water Reactors a nuisance to deal with.
• The minuscule waste that is generated from these reactors is toxic for only three or four
hundred years rather than thousands of years.
• Thorium reactors are cheaper because they have higher burnup.
• Thorium reactors are significantly more proliferation-resistant than present reactors.
This is because the U-233 produced by transmuting thorium also contains U-232,
a strong source of gamma radiation that makes it difficult to work with. Its daughter
product, thallium-208, is equally difficult to handle and easy to detect.

BharatNet Project:
• National Optical Fibre Network (NoFN) which is now renamed as BharatNet project
was launched in 2012.
• The project aims to provide affordable broadband services to citizens and institutions
in rural and remote areas, in partnership with States and the private sector.

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• It involves connecting all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats in the country to the block
headquarters for provision of both bandwidth and dark fibre on a universal and non-
discriminatory basis.
• The network is capable of providing scalable bandwidth of upto 1 GBPS.
• The entire project is being funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), which
was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country.
• Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd(BBNL) was created as the special purpose vehicle to
execute the project.
• BharatNet will now extend upto all inhabited villages beyond the gram panchayats
(GPS) in the said states.
• Over 3.6 lakh villages and over 16 states of the country will be covered under the
expanded BharatNet programme.
• The revised strategy includes creation, upgradation, operation, maintenance and
utilisation of BharatNet by the concessionaire who will be selected by a competitive
international bidding process.
• The states to be covered under the revised plan are Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan,
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal,
Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

Artificial Intelligence in Pandemics

• Disease Surveillance: Human activity especially migration has been responsible for the
spread of the virus around the world.
(i) In the near and distant future, technology like this may be used to predict zoonotic infection
risk to humans considering variables such as climate change and human activity.
(ii) The combined analysis of personal, clinical, travel and social data including family
history and lifestyle habits obtained from sources like social media would enable more
accurate and precise predictions of individual risk profiles.
• Predicting Outbreaks: An artificial-intelligence company called BlueDot, which uses
machine learning to monitor outbreaks of infectious diseases around the world, alerted
clients including various governments, hospitals, and businesses to an unusual bump
in pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China.
An automated service called HealthMap at Boston Children’s Hospital also caught
those first signs. As did a model run by Metabiota, based in San Francisco. That AI
could spot an outbreak on the other side of the world is significant, and early warnings
save lives.
• Early Diagnosis: AI has a proven track record here. Machine-learning models for
examining medical images can catch early signs of disease that human doctors miss,
from eye. But these models typically require a lot of data to learn from.

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• Automatic temperature measurement: Automated camera systems used in conjunction

with thermal sensors and vision algorithms on autonomous or remotely operated robots
could be used to monitor temperatures of patients in hospitals.
Example: In the United States, a surveillance company announced that its AI enhanced
thermal cameras can detect fevers, while in Thailand, border officers at airports are already
piloting a biometric screening system using fever-detecting cameras.
• Virtual healthcare assistants: The number of COVID-19 cases has shown that healthcare
systems and response measures can be overwhelmed.
AI has leveraged its natural language processing capabilities to build a multilingual
virtual healthcare agent that can answer questions related to COVID- 19, provide
reliable information and clear guidelines, recommend protection measures, check and
monitor symptoms, and advise individuals whether they need hospital screening or
self-isolation at their homes.
• Intelligent Drones and Robots: The public deployment of drones and robots has been
accelerated due to the strict social distancing measures required to contain the virus’
spread.
To ensure compliance, some drones are used to track individuals not using face masks
in public, while others are used to broadcast information to larger audiences and also
disinfect public spaces.
• Curative Research: What has troubled the scientific community is the absence of a
definitive cure for the virus.
(i) AI can lead the charge for the development of antibodies and vaccines for the novel
coronavirus, either entirely designed from scratch or through drug repurposing.
(ii) For instance, using its AlphaFold system, Google’s AI company, DeepMind, is
creating structure models of proteins that have been linked with the virus in a bid
to aid the science world’s comprehension of the virus.
(iii) Although the results have not been experimentally verified, but it seems to be a
step in the right direction.

Cabinet Approves National Green Hydrogen Mission

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved
National Green Hydrogen Mission. The initial outlay for the Mission will be Rs.19,744 crore,
including an outlay of Rs.17,490 crore for the SIGHT programme, Rs.1,466 crore for pilot
projects, Rs.400 crore for R&D, and Rs. 388 crore towards other Mission components. MNRE
will formulate the scheme guidelines for implementation of the respective components.

The Mission will result in the following likely outcomes by 2030:

• Development of green hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 MMT (Million Metric
Tonne) per annum with an associated renewable energy capacity addition of about
125 GW in the country.

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• Over Rs. Eight lakh crore in total investments Creation of over Six lakh jobs.
• Cumulative reduction in fossil fuel imports over Rs. One lakh crore.
• Abatement of nearly 50 MMT of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

The Mission will have wide ranging benefits like creation of export opportunities for
Green Hydrogen and its derivatives, Decarbonisation of industrial mobility and energy
sectors, reduction in dependence on imported fossil fuels and feedstock, development
of indigenous manufacturing capabilities, creation of employment opportunities, and
development of cutting-edge technologies.

India’s Green Hydrogen production capacity is likely to reach at least 5 MMT per annum,
with an associated renewable energy capacity addition of about 125 GW. The targets by
2030 are likely to bring in over Rs. 8 lakh crore investments and create over 6 lakh jobs.
Nearly 50 MMT per annum of CO2 emissions are expected to be averted by 2030.

The Mission will facilitate demand creation, production, utilization and export of Green
Hydrogen. Under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition Programme
(SIGHT), two distinct financial incentive mechanisms – targeting domestic manufacturing
of electrolysers and production of Green Hydrogen – will be provided under the Mission.
The Mission will also support pilot projects in emerging end-use sectors and production
pathways. Regions capable of supporting large scale production and/or utilization of
Hydrogen will be identified and developed as Green Hydrogen Hubs.

All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), 2020-2021

The Government of India started the AISHE in 2010-11. A task force formed from AICTE, UGC,
National Medical Council, Distance Education Council, and representatives from leading
universities conduct the survey. In 2020-21, the survey was started under the leadership of the
Ministry of Education. The survey mainly focuses on higher education in the country.

Key Findings of AISHE

• The number of students pursuing higher education increased by 7.5% as compared
to 2019-20 and increased by 21% as compared to 2014-15. The numbers were more
than 4.14 crores. This is the first time, the figures crossed the 4 crore mark.
• The number of females joining higher education increased by 13 lakhs as compared
to 2019-20. The numbers were more than 2 crores.
• The number of Scheduled Caste Students pursuing higher education increased by
28% as compared to 2014-15.
• The number of female Scheduled Caste students pursuing higher education increased
by 38% as compared to 2014-15.

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• The number of ST students pursuing higher education increased by 47% as compared

to 2014-15. In the females, the increase was 63.4%.
• Number of OBC students: The increase was by 32% as compared to 2014-15; In
females, the increase was by 39%.
• Substantial improvement was seen in the Gross Enrolment Ratio.
• The number of students enrolled in distance education increased by 7% as compared
to 2019-20.
• The total number of universities in the country increased by 70 as compared to 2019-
20. The number of colleges increased by 1,453.
• The Gender Parity Index increased to 1.05. It was 1 in 2017-18.
• The total number of teachers in the country increased by 47,914 as compared to 2019-20.

Top States in Terms of Number of Enrolment

UP, TN, Maharashtra, MP, Rajasthan, and Karnataka

North Eastern States

Total enrolment was 12.06 in 2020-21. It was 9.36 lakhs in 2014-15. The number of female
enrolments was 6.14 lakh in 2020-21. It was higher than for males! Males: 5.92 lakhs.

Performance Assessment Review and Analysis of Knowledge for

Holistic Development (PARAKH)-A part of NCERT
The Government of India recently launched PARAKH to assess the performance of
secondary and higher secondary students. Different states in the country are following
different assessment procedures to evaluate their students. Because of the variations,
students are facing difficulties during their college admissions. PARAKH will bring
uniformity to the analysis procedures.

PARAKH – A Part of National Education Policy, 2020

The National Education Policy, of 2020 brought in several changes to the education system
of the country. Major changes were at the school level. The concept was PARAKH was one
among them. The policy aims to achieve inclusion and excellence. PARAKH will help in
achieving inclusion. How so? Difference in evaluation patterns seldom affects the college
admissions of students. For instance, the state board students face more difficulties to
compete with the CBSE school students. This is because of differences in syllabus, exam
pattern, and above of all the differences the difference in paper evaluation.

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What will PARAKH do?

• PARAKH will release guidelines to the state and central boards.

• It will remove the disparities in scoring school students from different states.

• PARAKH Will provide new assessment patterns to the state boards.

Functions of PARAKH
• PARAKH is to function in three major areas namely examination reforms, School based
assessments, and large scale assessments
• It will work with international organizations and education boards PARAKH will conduct
National Achievement Survey

Earth’s Ozone Layer on Track to Recovery within Four Decades

The Earth’s protective ozone layer, which shields the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation,
is on track to recover within four decades, according to a scientific assessment conducted
by a panel of experts and backed by the United Nations. The findings, which were published,
come nearly 35 years after the landmark Montreal Protocol was enacted in 1987, banning the
production and consumption of chemicals that deplete the ozone layer.

Meta Launches New LLaMA

In the world of artificial intelligence, chatbots have become a ubiquitous tool for
communication. Companies have been striving to create their own chatbots to cater to
the needs of their customers. After the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, several companies
have launched their own versions of chatbots to grab a share of the market. META, which
loves to monopolize the “Internet Chat” world, has launched its new chatbot called LLaMA.

LLaMA: Large Language Model Meta AI

LLaMA is a large language model developed by META that is similar to ChatGPT. The main
objective of the model is to assist researchers in the field of AI. LLaMA is the third large
language model developed by META. The first was Glactica, and the second was Blender.
However, unlike its predecessors, LLaMA requires fewer resources and computing power.

LLaMA is yet to be released in the market, and only the research paper has been published.
However, the announcement of the launch was made in a grand Mark Zuckerberg style,
creating a buzz in the industry.

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Objective of LLaMA

While LLaMA works almost like ChatGPT, its main objective is to assist researchers in their work.
LLaMA can fetch information from the research field, making it a valuable tool for researchers.
META aims to establish its top position in the world of chats by creating its own chatbot.

What are micro LED displays?

The smartphone giant APPLE is shifting towards micro LED. The micro LEDs are self
illuminating diodes. Their colour production and illumination are brighter than organic
LEDs. Their energy consumption is less compared to normal LEDs. Apple is planning to
use micro LEDs in its future watch models.

What is a micro LED display?

• It is a flat-panel display. Its pixel elements are made of microscopic LEDs.
• The main advantage of micro-LED display is greater control of pixel-level light control.
• The lifetime of micro LEDs is greater than the OLED (Organic LED).
• Higher brightness at reduced risk of screen burning.

Working Principle

The micro LED uses Indium Gallium Nitride semiconductors. In micro LEDs, each pixel can
be turned ON or turned OFF. This cannot be done with conventional LEDs. Therefore, you get
perfect colour control and contrast with micro-LED displays. The life of micro LEDs is longer.
They can emit light continuously for more than 100,000 hours. That is, non-stop use for 11 years.

Why are micro LEDs better?

The LCD displays in the market today use LED as backing light and a liquid crystal layer
to create the image. The image is created by blocking the light on the crystal wherever
required. There are no such complications with micro LEDs. Each and every LED on the
screen can be controlled. Therefore, the image resolution is high, response time is less
and power consumption is less.

World First Satellite Based Two Way Messaging System

Qualcomm launched the first satellite based two-way messaging. Called as Snapdragon
Satellite. It's means that, you can use SMS just like WhatsApp. In two-way messaging like
WhatsApp, both participants can send or receive messages simultaneously. But in one-
way messaging apps offering SMS services, only one operation is possible.

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About Snap Dragon Satellite

• It was launched at the CES 2023.
• It is powered by a 5G Modem RF system.
• It can support 5G non-terrestrial networks. NTN is used in flying objects.

In Simple Terms
X and Y are conversing. X sends “Hi”, Y receives and replies “Hello”. Now before receiving
Y’s Hello, X sends another message “How are you”. Now “Hello” from Y and “How are
you” from X have a clash. Either one has to wait. This waiting is not there in two-way
communication. Conversations occur just because you speak on phone.

Supported by the Iridium Satellite Constellation

The two-way messaging system is supported by the Iridium satellite constellation. The
Iridium constellation was launched by the Iridium communication-based in the US. The
main purpose of the satellites is to provide L-band data, mostly voice data. And is being
widely used in satellite phones.

1st International Quantum Communication Conclave

With the vision that India should lead in the development of telecom technologies and
standards, the Department of Telecom organized the ‘First International Quantum
Communication Conclave’ on 27-28 March, 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The Objective of the ‘First International Quantum Communication Conclave’

The objective of the conclave was to provide an excellent opportunity to learn about the
latest advancements in quantum communication technologies. Experts from industries,
academia, R&D centers, and government deliberated possible applications of Quantum
Technologies in building a secure communication infrastructure.

The Standards Released During the Inaugural

During the event, the standards on the ‘Test Guide of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) System’
and ‘Quantum-Safe and Classical Cryptography System’ were released. These standards
seek to provide a framework for the development of secure communication systems.

CDOT’s Role in Developing Solutions in Quantum Communications

The C-DOT is actively involved in providing solutions in Quantum Communications. It
is currently in the path to become a hub for Quantum Communication-related activities
under NMQTA. It developed the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post Quantum
Cryptography (PQC) security solutions, which have been demonstrated in the live network.

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The Quantum Hackathon 2023

The Quantum Hackathon 2023 was launched during the event to find vulnerabilities in
QKD and PQC solutions. Its purpose is to further strengthen India’s Quantum Ecosystem.
Learning from this Hackathon will be shared with the overall Indian ecosystem. This will
strengthen the security of solutions that are developed by the Indian industry. Successful
Hackathon applicants will receive prize of Rs.10 Lakh for each break into the QKD or PQC
systems. An opportunity will also be provided for them to further collaborate with C-DOT in
the area of Quantum Security at mutually agreeable terms and conditions.

Copilot
Microsoft unveiled its latest artificial intelligence (AI) integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Designed to boost workplace productivity, the Copilot combines the “power of large
language models with business data and the Microsoft 365 apps to unleash creativity,
unlock productivity and uplevel skills,” according to a press statement.

How does Copilot work?

Copilot works like an assistant and has been integrated with popular everyday apps
such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, so users can easily access it.
Additionally, Microsoft has launched Business Chat to work alongside your Microsoft 365
apps and data such as calendar emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts to
enhance the experience and make it easier and faster.

With Copilot, users can use prompts such as “tell your team how you updated a product
strategy,” and it will generate an update based on the morning’s meetings, emails, and
chat threads. According to Microsoft, this will “fundamentally transform the way we work”
and will turn your words into the “most powerful productivity tool on the planet.”

How can Copilot enhance productivity?

Copilot has been built to free up space and help people focus better on the tasks at hand.
In Microsoft Word, it writes, summarises, and creates along with the user. It can give you a
draft to edit or use as a starting point. Although Microsoft acknowledges Copilot might not
always be right, it will help you save sourcing, writing, and editing time.

In PowerPoint, users can create vivid presentations with a single prompt and then add
relevant content. In Excel, Copilot will help create data visualizations in a matter of seconds
and identify trends. Additionally, clearing your inbox won’t leave you drained, as Copilot
can do that for you in minutes and help you manage it so that you can focus on the
communication part. With the Copilot in Power Platform, you can automate repetitive tasks,
create chatbots, and turn an idea into a working app in minutes.

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What are the benefits of Copilot?

Copilot will give people more agency and make technology more accessible through the
most universal interface.

Copilot is currently being tested with selected commercial customers. While it is still in its
testing phase, the potential for the integration is enormous, with the ability to fundamentally
transform the way we work and boost productivity in the workplace. It has the potential to
save users countless hours, allowing them to focus on what’s important while still getting
the job done quickly and efficiently. With Copilot, Microsoft is taking a significant step
towards revolutionizing the way we work with technology.

What is GPT-4?
OpenAI has made a major announcement that has generated a lot of buzz in the artificial
intelligence (AI) community. The company has unveiled its latest creation, GPT- 4, a large
multimodal model that can process both text and image inputs. This new language model is
an upgrade from its predecessor, GPT-3, which was already groundbreaking in its own right.

Greater Accuracy and Human-level Performance

GPT-4 has been designed to solve difficult problems with greater accuracy and demonstrate
human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks. The
language model is so powerful that it can pass a simulated bar exam with a score that
places it around the top 10% of test-takers. Additionally, GPT-4 can answer complex tax-
related questions, schedule a meeting among three busy people, or even learn a user’s
creative writing style.

Handling Over 25,000 Words of Text

GPT-4 has an impressive capacity to handle over 25,000 words of text. This is a significant
improvement from GPT-3, which could only handle up to 2,048 words of text. This capacity
makes it ideal for processing long-form content such as research papers, books, and
even legal documents.

Understanding Languages that are not English

One of the most exciting features of GPT-4 is its ability to understand languages that are
not English. This makes it an ideal language model for processing texts in languages such
as Chinese, Arabic, and French, among others. This feature is a significant improvement
from GPT-3, which was mainly designed to handle English texts.

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Potential Applications of GPT-4

The potential applications of GPT-4 are numerous, and the technology has the potential
to transform various industries. For instance, GPT-4 can be used in the legal industry to
process legal documents and contracts, which can save time and increase efficiency.
Additionally, the language model can be used in the medical field to process medical
records and help doctors diagnose diseases accurately.

What are Megha-Tropiques-1?

The Indian Space Agency ISRO is conducting a controlled re-entry of a decommissioned
Indo-French satellite, Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT1), jointly developed to study tropical weather
and climate. The satellite was launched in 2011 and exceeded its intended operational
lifespan until 2021.

What is ISRO’s plan on Megha-Tropiques-1?

Rather than letting it become space debris for over 100 years, ISRO is using its remaining on
board fuel to precisely manoeuvre the satellite for a controlled atmospheric re-entry, predicted
to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. ISRO involved experts across multiple domains to plan
and ensure safe execution of the re-entry, given the satellite’s age and the risks of accidental
break-up in space. This is in line with ISRO’s commitments to the UN Inter-Agency Space
Debris Coordination Committee. The UN requires the de-orbiting of end-of-life satellites.

What is Megha-Tropiques-1?

The Megha Tropiques was launched in 2011. The main objective of the satellite mission
was to study the water cycle. The satellite was developed by ISRO and CNES. During its
operation, the satellite studied the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere and how climate
change will affect the water cycle.

What was the base of Megha-Tropiques-1?

The Megha-Tropiques was designed based on the GEWEX, Global Energy and Water
Exchanges project. It was a research project of the World Climate Research Programme.
GEWEX did a wide analysis of aerosols in the atmosphere. It brought results on surface
radiation, global precipitation, and how water cycle has changed in the last decade, etc.
It also studied the boundary layers in the atmosphere.

What were the payloads of Megha-Tropiques-1?

• MADRAS: Microwave Analysis and Detection of Rain and Atmospheric Structures: It
was a microwave imager.

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• SAPHIR: Sounder for Probing Vertical Profiles of Humidity: It was a sounding instrument
to study the absorption band of water vapour.
• SCARAB: Scanner for Radiation Budget: It was based on the Russian satellite models
of measuring longwave radiances.

What is Mission Har Payment Digital?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a new mission called “Har Payment Digital”
as part of its efforts to make every Indian a user of digital payments. The initiative was
launched during Digital Payments Awareness Week and aims to reinforce the ease and
convenience of digital payments, while also onboarding new users. The central bank has
started an initiative to adopt 75 villages and transform them into digital payment-enabled
villages. These villages are to be adopted by payment system operators.

Who are the promoters of Mission Har Payment Digital?

Banks and payment system operators will promote the Har Payment Digital campaign
and highlight the various payment channels available. The RBI’s Regional Offices will also
promote the acceptance and use of digital payments through the Jan Bhagidari activities
as part of this initiative.

Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP)

The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has launched the Integrated Teacher
Education Programme (ITEP) in 57 Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) throughout India.
This flagship initiative is launched under NEP 2020. It was notified in 2021. It offers a
4-year dual-major undergraduate degree program, preparing teachers for the 4 stages of
the new school structure i.e. the 5+3+3+4 structure of foundational, preparatory, middle
and secondary schooling.

What is ITEP?

The ITEP aims to provide cutting-edge pedagogy, foundational literacy and numeracy,
early childhood care and education, inclusive education, and an understanding of India’s
values, ethos, art, and traditions, among other things. Prospective teachers passing out
of this course will be equipped with 21st-century global standards to shape the future of
New India. The course will save students one year by completing it in 4 years instead of 5.

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Benefits of ITEP

It will provide cutting-edge pedagogy. This means it will provide the latest technologies
used in teaching methods and teaching practices. Also, it will establish foundational
literacy and aid in Early Childhood Care and Education. (ECCE)

PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 Mission
ISRO successfully launched the PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 mission to send two Singapore
made satellite into space. An Orbital Experimental module was also launched as part of
this mission to carry out tests in the space vacuum.

TeLEOS-2 and Lumelite-4

TeLEOS-2 and Lumelite-4 are the two Singapore-made satellites that were launched
aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre
in Sriharikota. TeLEOS-2, weighing 741 kg, is a commercial Earth Observation satellite
developed by the Government of Singapore and Singapore Technologies Engineering
Limited. Lumelite-4, on the other hand, is a small, 16 kg satellite developed by the
Singapore-based ST Engineering Geo-Insights Pte Ltd, with the purpose of augmenting
the maritime safety of the city-state.

PSLV-C55 Mission
The PSLV-C55 mission, under which the two satellites were launched. It marks ISRO’s
first commercial mission of the year 2022, and also its first mission to use the PSLV Orbital
Experimental Module (POEM) – a spent fourth stage of the launch vehicle that has been
repurposed as an experimental platform for scientific experiments. The POEM is carrying seven
non-separable payloads, including the Navigation Guidance and Control (NGC) system, which
will be used for attitude stabilization, and the Starberry Sense Payload developed by the Indian
Institute of Astrophysics, which is a low-cost device to accurately identify and measure star
positions in space. Other payloads carried by the POEM include PILOT (PSLV In orbitaL OBC
and Thermals), an OBC package from IIST; ARIS-2 (Advanced Retarding Potential analyser for
Ionospheric Studies) experiment from IIST; HET-based ARKA200 Electric Propulsion System
from Bellatrix; DSOD-3U and DSOD-6U deployer units along with the DSOL-Transceiver in S-
& X- bands from Dhruva Space.

DS-SAR Satellite Mission

The PSLV-C56 launch, with the DS-SAR satellite and six co-passengers, is set to take place on
July 30, 2023, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre located in Sriharikota. This highly anticipated
event marks a significant milestone in space exploration and satellite technology.

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The DS-SAR satellite is destined for a Near-equatorial Orbit (NEO) with an inclination angle
of 5 degrees. This strategic positioning will enable the satellite to efficiently execute its
designated tasks and capture critical data and imagery.
The DS-SAR satellite has been developed through a successful collaboration between the
Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), acting on behalf of the Government of
Singapore, and ST Engineering. The collaboration showcases the combined expertise of
these entities, aiming to leverage advanced technology for sustainable satellite solutions.

What is XPoSat?
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Raman Research Institute (RRI),
Bengaluru, have joined hands to embark on an exciting mission known as the X-Ray
Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat). This collaborative effort aims to delve into the dynamics of
bright astronomical X-ray sources, shedding light on their behavior and characteristics.

A World of Exploration
While XPoSat marks India’s first venture into polarimetry missions, it is worth mentioning
that NASA launched the world’s second polarimetry mission called the Imaging X-ray
Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) in 2021. IXPE, equipped with advanced telescopes, allows
scientists to observe polarized X-rays emitted by neutron stars and supermassive black
holes. Similarly, XPoSat seeks to unlock the secrets of X-ray sources by studying their
polarization and understanding the geometry and inner workings of these luminous objects.

Indian Space Policy 2023

The Indian government recently approved the Indian Space Policy 2023, with the aim of
institutionalizing and facilitating private sector participation in the Indian space sector. The
policy’s approval by the Cabinet Committee, helmed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is
a significant step towards transforming India into a major space power.

ISRO’s Focus on R&D of Advanced Space Technologies

Under the new policy, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will focus on research
and development of advanced space technologies. The private players participation in
the space sector is crucial to increase India’s current share of less than two per cent in the
global space economy to 10 per cent in the future.

NSIL’s Role in Carrying Out Strategic Activities

New Space India Limited (NSIL) will carry out strategic activities related to the space
sector. NSIL will work in a demand-driven mode, according to Union Minister Jitendra
Singh. This means that private players will have access to end-to-end space activities,
including building rockets, satellites, launch vehicles, data collection, and dissemination.

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In-Space as the Interface between ISRO and Private Sector Enterprises

Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-Space) serves as a liaison
between ISRO and private sector enterprises. In-Space will enable private players to
participate in the space sector by offering a simplified regulatory environment for private
entities’ operations. The policy’s approval is expected to pave the way for the Indian space
sector’s privatization and contribute to the country’s economic growth.

The Rise of Private Sector Companies in India’s Space Industry

Over 100 active space companies have been operating in India since 2012, according
to the Economic Survey of India. Private sector companies like SpaceX, led by Elon
Musk, have become a popular choice for space missions around the world. The Indian
government’s approval of the Indian Space Policy 2023 is expected to encourage more
private sector companies to enter the space sector.

Raccoon Stealer

In a recent cyber attack, eight Central government entities, including central paramilitary forces
and the Income Tax department, were targeted by the Raccoon Stealer malware. The attack
was brought to the attention of the affected agencies by the National Technical Research
Organisation (NTRO), a specialized intelligence agency under the National Security Advisor.

What is Raccoon Stealer?

Raccoon Stealer is an information stealing malware that is usually delivered through email.
It retrieves sensitive data from infected machines and is available as Malware-asa- service
(MaaS). This means that anyone can buy this malware and use it for malicious purposes.

Attack on Central Government Entities

The NTRO wrote to the affected agencies on March 24 to inform them of the attack.
According to the intelligence agency, recent analysis revealed that a malicious campaign
was launched “by an unknown threat actor using Raccoon malware” to target computer
systems of the Central Board of Direct Taxes of the Income Tax department, the pay and
accounts department of the Central Public Works Department, the office of the IG of CRPF,
the DG of the NSG, the assistant director (admin) of the Sashastra Seema Bal, the Centre
for Social Tech of NCERT, a joint director of the National Institute of Disaster Management,
and a call center of the Sports Authority of India at JLN Stadium.

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Impact on Government Agencies

The attack on these government agencies has raised concerns about the security of
sensitive data. The Raccoon Stealer malware can retrieve sensitive data, such as personal
information, financial data, and login credentials. The attack has also highlighted the need
for better cybersecurity measures in government agencies.

‘Akira’ Ransomware Attack

In recent times, a dangerous Internet ransomware virus called Akira has been making
headlines due to its malicious activities. This sophisticated malware is designed to encrypt
vital personal information and data on victims’ systems, rendering them inaccessible.

The primary objective of Akira ransomware is to steal vital personal information from its
victims. This sensitive data can include financial records, personal identification details,
and confidential documents. The attackers then leverage this information to extort money
from the victims.

Targeting Windows and Linux-Based Systems

Akira ransomware is not limited to a specific operating system. It targets both Windows
and Linux-based systems, making it a potent threat for a wide range of users.

Double Extortion Tactics

One of the most alarming aspects of Akira ransomware is its utilization of double extortion tactics.
The ransomware group first encrypts the victim’s data, rendering it inaccessible. Then, they
threaten to release this stolen data on their dark web blog, if the victim does not pay the ransom.

Accessing Victim Environments through VPN Services

The ransomware group behind Akira is known to access victim environments through
Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. This is particularly effective in cases where users
have not enabled multi-factor authentication, making them vulnerable to attacks.

The Motive behind Akira Ransomware

The primary purpose of Akira ransomware is financial gain. By encrypting data and holding
it hostage, the attackers aim to extort money from their victims in exchange for restoring
access to their systems and sensitive information.

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What is Daam Malware?

The Central government recently issued an advisory warning individuals about a dangerous
malware known as ‘Daam’ that specifically targets Android phones. This advisory highlights
the severity of the threat and provides crucial information on how to safeguard personal
data and devices from potential attacks.

Understanding Daam Malware

Daam is a malicious software that possesses the capability to infiltrate Android devices
and gain unauthorized access to various sensitive components, including call records,
contacts, history, and even the device’s camera.

Distribution and Modus Operandi

The Daam malware primarily spreads through third-party websites or applications obtained
from untrusted or unknown sources. By luring users into downloading and installing infected
files, the malware manages to bypass security checks implemented on Android devices.

Once the Daam malware successfully bypasses the security check, it starts its nefarious
activities. Its primary objective is to compromise sensitive data stored on the targeted
device, such as call records and history. Additionally, Daam can modify device passwords,
leaving users vulnerable to unauthorized access and control.

Encryption Algorithm and File Manipulation

Daam utilizes the AES (advanced encryption standard) encryption algorithm to encode
files present on the victim’s device. This encryption process results in the deletion of non-
encrypted files, leaving only the encrypted ones with the “.enc” extension. Victims also
receive a ransom note, typically named “readme_now.txt,” which serves as a demand for
payment in exchange for restoring access to the compromised files.

Challenges of Cyber Security in India

India has advanced quite a lot in terms of digitization and adoption of IT infrastructure,
however, the state of cyber security in India is in dire need of an upgrade. This is especially
due to the lack of centralization where state government agencies are in charge of
protecting their resources and data. India as a country is performing excellently in terms
of Cyber Defence Systems, but we must also enforce strict guidelines to all government-
run firms to secure their systems and data.
• One of the most important challenges of India’s cyber security challenges is the fact
that there is a huge lack of uniformity in the kinds of devices that are used to access
the internet. This makes it very hard for technical and legal standards to be set to
protect devices and data using government regulations.

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• The second challenge is a huge lack of centralized national-level cyber security architecture.
India already has the means to protect critical infrastructure such as the Indian Army’s
digital assets, however, this is not centralized enough to protect the entire country.
• There is no end to the possibilities of an attack and the kinds of attacks that can be
carried out. Cyber security attacks can occur at any time and from anywhere. The
threat can be of any form and new vulnerabilities are discovered on a daily basis to
compromise the security of systems. This makes it hard to keep up and incorporate the
perfect system that is necessary currently.
• Finally, there is an enormous lack of awareness as a National cyber security regulatory
policy does not exist for individuals. Corporations and companies already have and
follow all these regulations, but there should be a supervised framework that must be
followed by common internet users as well.

Piezoelectric MEMS Technology

A group of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Defence
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully developed a new
sensor technology for underwater communications. The technology can be applied by the
Navy and has the potential to revolutionize underwater communication technology.

Development of Piezoelectric MEMS Technology

Piezoelectric MEMS technology is an important component for developing high performance
thin films that can be used for acoustics and vibration-sensing applications. Researchers at the
DRDO and IIT Madras have successfully created the piezo MEMS process for the complete
fabrication of an acoustic sensor. The PZT thin film-based acoustic sensor they fabricated
exhibits higher performance than the conventional PVDF-based acoustic sensor.

Advantages of Indigenous Technology

One of the significant advantages of this indigenous technology is that the cost of
fabrication is relatively lower than international foundries, which have limited foundries
available. The Navy can use this technology to fabricate high-performance piezo MEMS
acoustic devices at a lower cost. This technology also enables researchers to develop
devices that are more advantageous for defence applications.

Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical

Education Project
The World Bank has recently given its approval for a substantial loan of USD 255.5 million
to India, aiming to improve the quality of technical education in the country. This ambitious
project is set to make a significant impact by focusing on research, entrepreneurship,
innovation, and governance improvement in government-run technical institutions.

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Support for Government-Run Technical Institutions

The Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education Project
is expected to benefit approximately 275 government-run technical institutions across
India. This massive undertaking aims to enhance the quality of education and empower
students with the necessary skills for their future careers.

Empowering Students through Upgraded Curricula

As part of the project, students will gain access to upgraded curricula that incorporate
emerging technologies in communication and climate resilience. This forward-thinking
approach will equip students with the knowledge and competencies required to thrive in
an increasingly dynamic and rapidly evolving world.

Enhanced Internship and Placement Services

Students participating in the project will also enjoy improved internship and placement
services. This includes invaluable opportunities to network with professional associations,
fostering connections and opening doors to promising career paths. Such practical
exposure is instrumental in bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-
world application.

World Bank’s Role in Empowering Technical Education

The World Bank, a respected multilateral institution, played a vital role in making this loan
possible. Their support demonstrates a commitment to bolstering technical education and
expanding career prospects for Indian students. The loan, granted by the IBRD, will reach
its full term after 14 years, during which there will be a grace period of five years.

Paper-based Supercapacitor Made from Seaweed

Scientists at Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI) have made
a breakthrough in energy storage technology with the development of the thinnest,
lightweight, and biodegradable paper-based supercapacitor. This innovative device,
derived from seaweed, offers several advantages in terms of its characteristics and
potential applications.

Characteristics of a Supercapacitor

Supercapacitors are known for their fast charging/discharging cycle, high power density,
and longer lifecycle. These electrochemical charge storage devices provide efficient and
reliable energy storage solutions.

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Seaweed as the Key Material

The researchers utilized seaweed, a marine macroalgae, to create the paper-based

supercapacitor. By extracting cellulose nanofibers from seaweed and reducing them
into graphene oxide and zinc oxide, they achieved a material with high tensile strength,
performance, and cost-effectiveness.

Applications and Business Prospects

The paper supercapacitor holds immense potential in various industries. It can be

integrated into electronics, memory backup systems, airbags, heavy machines, electric
vehicles, and more. This wide range of applications offers significant business prospects
and paves the way for sustainable energy storage solutions.

Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Radiation

Recently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Delhi LSA, organized a webinar
focused on raising awareness about Electromagnetic Field (EMF) radiation. The event
aimed to address misconceptions surrounding the potential harmful effects of EMF
radiation from mobile towers. Experts shed light on the nature of EMF emissions, safety
measures, and the role of international organizations in setting limits.

Understanding EMF Radiation

The EMF radiation emitted from mobile tower antennas and mobile handsets is in the form
of RF or Electromagnetic energy. It is important to note that this type of energy is non-
ionizing and has very low levels of energy.

Ensuring Compliance and Safety

The responsibility of maintaining safe limits for EMF radiation lies with the Department
of Telecommunication (DoT) and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs). These entities have
adopted stricter norms for safety, which are 10 times more stringent than the norms
prescribed by ICNIRP as recommended by WHO. Regular testing of radiation from working
mobile towers is carried out by the field units of DoT Delhi on a sample basis, covering up
to 5 percent of the total working mobile towers annually.

Access to Information

To promote transparency and accessibility, DoT provides information on mobile tower radiation
on their official website. The website serves as a valuable resource for the public, offering
insights into the journey of EMF awareness, safety measures, and related guidelines.

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What is Electronic Interlocking?

The recent train accident in Odisha’s Balasore has brought the focus on the safety measures
implemented in the railway system and the role of electronic interlocking system.

The Purpose of Electronic Interlocking

Electronic interlocking is a crucial safety measure in the railway system. Its primary
purpose is to prevent conflicting movements between trains by ensuring that signals are
not changed in an improper sequence. This system aims to ensure that trains receive a
signal to proceed only when the route is proven safe.

The Cause of the Train Accident

The tragic train accident in Balasore was caused by a change in electronic interlocking. The
accident had occurred due to a change that took place during the electronic interlocking
process. An investigation is underway to determine the details and identify those responsible.

Responsibility for Investigation

The Commissioner of Railway Safety has been assigned the responsibility of investigating
the train accident. This body will conduct a thorough examination of the incident, gather
evidence, and determine the factors that contributed to the accident.

Casualties and Train Involvement

Tragically, the train accident resulted in the loss of 288 lives, with over 1000 people
injured. The incident involved three different trains: Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express,
Coromandel Express, and a goods train. Seventeen coaches of the passenger trains were
derailed and suffered severe damage.

Units Involved in Rescue Operations

The rescue operations were carried out with the assistance of multiple units. Seven
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, five Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force
(ODRAF) units, and 24 Fire Services and Emergency units actively participated in the
rescue and relief efforts.

Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT)

The Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) is gearing up for a significant meeting in August,
scheduled to be held in Brisbane. This key gathering aims to determine the future
deployment of the 6 GHz spectrum band for 5G services in India. As India and other

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Region 3 member nations, including China, South Korea, Japan, and others, prepare for
the World Radio Communications-2023 conference in Dubai, the decisions made in this
meeting will play a crucial role in shaping the 5G landscape in the country.

Deciding the 6 GHz Spectrum Band for 5G Services

The primary purpose of the APT meeting in Brisbane is to deliberate and finalize the
deployment of the 6 GHz spectrum band for 5G services in India. This decision holds
significant importance as the 6 GHz spectrum band offers internet speeds up to 10
Gbps, enabling faster and more efficient communication networks. The meeting aims to
build momentum and collective support from all Region 3 nations to embrace the 6 GHz
spectrum for a cost-effective rollout of 5G services.

Key Region 3 Member Nations

The APT meeting will witness participation from crucial Region 3 member nations, which
include India, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and
New Zealand. This diverse group of countries in the Asia-Pacific region plays a vital role in
driving ICT policy and regulatory coordination, making the meeting a significant platform
for crucial discussions regarding 5G deployment.

Bharat 6G Alliance
The Telecom sector is a dynamic and rapidly evolving industry with continuous technological
advancements. To spearhead the development of indigenous technology and take the lead
in 6G technology, the Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA) has emerged as a crucial collaborative
platform.

Focus on Indigenous Technology and 6G Leadership

The primary objective of the Bharat 6G Alliance is to foster the development of indigenous
technology and secure a prominent position in the realm of 6G technology. By bringing
together public and private companies, academia, research institutions, and standards
development organizations, the alliance aims to drive innovation and propel India’s growth
in this futuristic field.

A Collaborative Platform for Advancement

The Bharat 6G Alliance website serves as a collaborative platform, facilitating knowledge

exchange and synergy among stakeholders. It fosters partnerships and collaborations
with global 6G alliances, promoting international collaboration and sharing of expertise.

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Grants and Initiatives Supporting Innovation

Under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF), a significant grant of 240.51
crores has been provided to advance research and development in the telecom sector.
This funding plays a pivotal role in promoting innovation and indigenous technological
solutions.

TRAI’s Draft Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection

Fund (Sixth Amendment) Regulation, 2023
In India, the telecommunications sector is regulated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India (TRAI), an autonomous body responsible for safeguarding consumer interests,
promoting fair competition, and fostering growth in the industry. One of TRAI’s notable
initiatives is the establishment of the Telecommunication Consumers Education & Protection
Fund (TCEPF) in June 2007. The fund’s primary purpose is to support activities related to
consumer education and protection in the telecommunications domain. Recently, TRAI
has proposed amendments to the TCEPF Regulations, aiming to enhance fund utilization
and overall consumer protection.

Samudrayaan Project
Deep Ocean Mission has been launched w.e.f. 07.09.2021, as a Central Sector
Scheme of Ministry of Earth Sciences with the approval of the Cabinet. Samudrayaan
is a project under the Deep Ocean Mission. Under the Samudrayaan project of Deep
Ocean Mission, Matsya 6000 manned submersible design has been completed so
far. Under the Mission, Deep water Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) namely
Ocean Mineral Explorer (OMe 6000) has been deployed for exploration. Deep sea
mineral exploration was performed using OMe 6000 AUV during December 2022
using research ship Sagar Nidhi at Polymetallic Manganese Nodule (PMN) site at a
depth of 5271 m in the allocated area of International Seabed Authority at Central
Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB). About 14 sq km area has been surveyed with all scientific
payloads to generate high resolution seabed features to understand and validate there
source potential at exploration site. About 1 km x 0.5 km area has been mapped using
high resolution cameras for quantitative polymetallic manganese nodule resource
abundance, distribution and deep-sea biodiversity.

Deep Ocean Mission was approved by the Cabinet with the overall estimated cost of
Rs.4077 Crores for two phases of the Mission period during 2021-2026. The allocated
budget so far is Rs.1400 crore, out of which Rs.405.92 crores has already been
disbursed and an expenditure of Rs.225.35 crores have been incurred.

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The details about the findings of AUV exploration survey is as follows:

1. High resolution sea floor mapping was conducted at Central Indian Ocean up to a
depth of 5271 m with all payloads during 15th and 16th December, 2022. The vehicle
was operated in pre-defined 2km X 2km area with all scientific payloads and acquired
data sets for more than 26 hours from 30 m altitude at 5271 m depth and successfully
launched and recovered in the high seas safely.
2. For high resolution seabed photography, 1 km x 0.5 km was chosen and 130 photographic
lines were completed at 4m spacing by operating the AUV for 30 hours at 5m altitude
at 5271 m depth during 17th & 18th December, 2022. Datasets were acquired in
collaboration with National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai, National Centre
for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa, National Institute of Oceanography, Mumbai,
CSIR, Delhi and Kongsberg, Norway.
3. Details obtained from AUV are useful to facilitate the resource estimation to target the
regions of high abundance with flat surface and Environment Impact Assessment for
the deployment of deep sea mining machine with collector device at PMN site in CIOB.

16,73,115 Hybrid or Electric Vehicles Currently in use In India

To promote adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles in the country, the Government
launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India
(FAME India) Scheme since 2015. Presently, Phase-II of FAME India Scheme is being
implemented for a period of 5 years w.e.f. 1st April, 2019 with a total budgetary support of
Rs. 10,000 crores.

Further, following steps have been taken by the Government for adoption of hybrid and
electric vehicles in the country:
1. The Government on 12th May, 2021 approved a Production Linked Incentive (PLI)
scheme for manufacturing of Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) in the country in order
to bring down prices of battery in the country.
2. Electric Vehicles are covered under Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for
Automobile and Auto Components, which was approved on 15th September, 2021 with
a budgetary outlay of Rs. 25,938 crore for a period of five years.
3. GST on electric vehicles has been reduced from 12% to 5%; GST on chargers/ charging
stations for electric vehicles has been reduced from 18% to 5%.
4. Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) announced that battery-operated
vehicles will be given green license plates and be exempted from permit requirements.
5. MoRTH issued a notification advising states to waive road tax on EVs, which in turn will
help reduce the initial cost of EVs.

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Lithium-Ion Batteries
The energy storage based on lithium-ion batteries will help India to achieve its greenhouse
mitigation targets since the basic raw material for production of electric vehicles is lithium
and other critical materials. At present, investments in manufacturing and overall value
addition for Advanced Chemistry Cells (ACCs) are negligible in India and almost entire
domestic demand of ACCs is still being met through imports. In order to reduce dependency
of imported ACC battery for electric vehicles, the Government on 12th May, 2021 approved
a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for manufacturing of Advance Chemistry Cell
(ACC) in the country. The total outlay of the scheme is Rs. 18,100 Crore for a period of
5 years. The scheme envisages to establish a competitive ACC battery manufacturing
set up in the country (50 GWh). Additionally, 5GWh of niche ACC technologies is also
covered under the Scheme. The scheme proposes a production linked subsidy based on
applicable subsidy per KWh and percentage of value addition achieved on actual sales
made by the manufacturers who set up production units.

Further, the Ministry of Heavy Industries has taken following steps to boost the production
of e-vehicle in the country including public transport buses:
1. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India):
The Government notified Phase-II of FAME India Scheme initially for a period of three
years commencing from 1st April, 2019 with a total budgetary support of Rs. 10,000
crore. The Scheme was extended for a further period of 2 years up to 31st March, 2024.
Under FAME-India Scheme phase-II, incentives are provided to buyers of electric
vehicles in the form of an upfront reduction in the purchase price of electric vehicles.
2. Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Automotive Sector: The Government on 15th
September, 2021 approved the PLI Scheme for Automotive Sector with a budgetary
outlay of Rs. 25,938 crores. Electric vehicles are covered under this PLI scheme.
As per the information received from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change, Government of India published the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022
on 24th August, 2022 for environmentally sound management of waste batteries,
including EV batteries.
The rules provide Extended Producer Responsibility framework for producers of
batteries to recycle/ refurbish the waste batteries as per the prescribed timelines. The
rules mandate the recyclers to recover the minimum percentage of materials from
waste batteries.
3. Gaganyaan: Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight
capability by launching crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission
and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters. The project is
accomplished through an optimal strategy by considering in house expertise, experience
of Indian industry, intellectual capabilities of Indian academia & research institutions

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along with cutting edge technologies available with international agencies. The pre-
requisites for Gaganyaan mission include development of many critical technologies
including human rated launch vehicle for carrying crew safely to space, Life Support
System to provide an earth like environment to crew in space, crew emergency
escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and
rehabilitation of crew. Various precursor missions are planned for demonstrating the
Technology Preparedness Levels before carrying out the actual Human Space Flight
mission. These demonstrator missions include Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT), Pad
Abort Test (PAT) and Test Vehicle (TV) flights. Safety and reliability of all systems will
be proven in unmanned missions preceding manned mission.
4. NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory
being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. NISAR will map the entire globe in 12
days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes
in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, ground water and
natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides. NISAR
carries L and S dual band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which operates with Sweep
SAR technique to achieve large swath with high resolution data. The SAR payloads
mounted on Integrated Radar Instrument Structure (IRIS) and the spacecraft bus are
together called an observatory. Jet Propulsion Laboratories and ISRO are realizing the
observatory which shall not only meet the respective national needs but also will feed
the science community with data encouraging studies related to surface deformation
measurements through repeat-pass in SAR technique NISAR Utilization Programme.

This flagship partnership would have major contributions from both agencies. NASA is
responsible for providing the L-Band SAR payload system in which the ISRO supplied S-Band
SAR payload and both these SAR systems will make use of a large size (about 12m diameter)
common unfurl able reflector antenna . In addition, NASA would provide engineering
payloads for the mission, including a Payload Data Subsystem, High-rate Science Downlink
System, GPS receivers and a Solid State Recorder.

This would be the first dual frequency radar imaging mission in L-Band & S-Band using
an advanced Sweep SAR technique to provide L & S band space-borne SAR data with
high repeat cycle, high resolution, and larger swath, with capability of full-polar metric and
interferometric modes of operation. It will provide a means of disentangling and clarifying
spatially and temporally complex phenomena, ranging from ecosystem disturbances, to
ice sheet collapse and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and
landslide. This is expected to provide impetus to the fast maturing microwave remote
sensing applications in geosciences. The precision interferometric orbits of the mission
will enable in mapping few millimetres of deformations in the land surface. The selection
of lower frequency bands will cater to the need for better characterization of vegetation,
which is vital for global carbon stock estimation and monitoring of carbon fluxes from
vegetation. Similarly, the selection of L- and S-band frequencies will enable characterizing

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targets beneath tree canopy and sub-surface features due to differential penetration of the
signals in two frequency NISAR studying concepts for a Synthetic Aperture Radar mission
is to determine Earth change in three disciplines: ecosystems (vegetation and the carbon
cycle), deformation (solid Earth studies), and cryosphere sciences primarily as related to
climatic drivers and effects on sea level NISAR will acquire data over the Indian Coasts
and monitor annual changes in the bathymetry along the deltaic regions. The shoreline
and the erosion accretion also will be monitored. The NISAR mission will observe sea ice
characteristics over the seas surrounding India’s Antarctic polar stations, can be used to
detect the marine oil spill and disseminate the spill location during accidental oil seepage
for preventive measures.

Chandrayaan-3
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end
capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of Lander and Rover
configuration. It will be launched by LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. The propulsion
module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. The propulsion
module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the
spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.

Lander payloads: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure

the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA)
for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate
the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is
accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.

Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown
Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.

Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM)

and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required
for Inter planetary missions. The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified
lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar
surface during the course of its mobility. The Lander and the Rover have scientific payloads
to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. The main function of PM is to carry the LM
from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the
LM from PM. Apart from this, the Propulsion Module also has one scientific payload as a
value addition which will be operated post separation of Lander Module. The launcher
identified for Chandrayaan-3 is LVM3 M4 which will place the integrated module in an
Elliptic Parking Orbit (EPO) of size ~170 x 36500 km.

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The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are:

1. To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface.
2. To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon.
3. To conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

To achieve the mission objectives, several advanced technologies are present in Lander
such as,
1. Altimeters: Laser & RF based Altimeters.
2. Velocimeters: Laser Doppler Velocimeter & Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera.
3. Inertial Measurement: Laser Gyro based Inertial referencing and Accelerometer
package.
4. Propulsion System: 800N Throttleable Liquid Engines, 58N attitude thrusters &
Throttleable Engine Control Electronics.
5. Navigation, Guidance & Control (NGC): Powered Descent Trajectory design and
associate software elements.
6. Hazard Detection and Avoidance: Lander Hazard Detection & Avoidance Camera and
Processing Algorithm.
7. Landing Leg Mechanism.

To demonstrate the above said advanced technologies in earth condition, several Lander
special tests have been planned and carried out successfully. Those are,
1. Integrated Cold Test - For the demonstration of Integrated Sensors & Navigation
performance test using helicopter as test platform.
2. Integrated Hot test – For the demonstration of closed loop performance test with
sensors, actuators and NGC using Tower crane as test platform.
3. Lander Leg mechanism performance test on a lunar simulant test bed simulating
different touch down conditions.

Aug 05, 2023

The Chandrayaan-3 mission achieved a crucial milestone with the successful completion
of the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI). The insertion was carried out by retro-burning at the
Perilune for 1835 seconds, starting at 19:12 Hrs IST. The maneuver resulted in an orbit of
164 km × 18074 km, as intended.

This is the third time in succession that ISRO has successfully inserted its spacecraft into
the lunar orbit, apart from doing so into the Martian orbit.

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As the mission progresses, a series of maneuvers have been planned to gradually reduce
Chandrayaan-3's orbit and position it over the lunar poles. After some maneuvers, the
propulsion module will separate from the lander while in orbit. Following that, a series of
complex braking maneuvers will be executed to facilitate a soft landing in the South Polar
region of the Moon on August 23, 2023.

The health of Chandrayaan-3 is normal. Throughout the mission, the health of the spacecraft is
being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry
Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antenna
at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, with the support from ESA and JPL Deep space antenna.

155 MM X 52 Cal Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System

Artillery is a class of heavy military weapon systems responsible for engagement of targets
at longer ranges. Usually, artillery weapons function on battery concept. A battery consists
of 6 to 8 guns under command of a battery command post from where all guns receive
firing data in terms of projectile type, quantity of propellant, and laying angles. Role of an
artillery weapon depends on four basic artillery missions.

Artillery gun systems are primarily used for indirect fire and can be mounted on different
platforms. Each type of platform is applicable specific to terrains and employment areas
and gives an optimum performance in terms of mobility, fire power, and protection along
with logistics requirements. Artillery guns are the backbone of any army which function
to fulfill the military doctrine of country including defence, offence, destruction, and
neutralisation.

Indian artillery initiated a major drive somewhere in the year 2000 towards modernisation
and rationalisation of various artillery equipment under employment and fleet reorganisation
around 155 mm x 52 Calibre gun systems. In connection with this, an ambitious Field Artillery
Rationalisation Plan (FARP) was formulated by Indian Army. Under FARP, procurement
of total 1580 nos. of 155 mm x 52 Calibre Towed Artillery Gun Systems was envisaged
along with additional numbers of self-propelled (Tracked/ Wheeled) Guns, Mounted Gun
Systems and Ultra Light Howitzers. The Indian artillery witnessed no induction of new
gun systems subsequent to induction of 155 mm x 39 Calibre Bofors FH-77B howitzers in
1986-87.

Energy from Wind-Solar Hybrid

National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy: The Ministry issued National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy
on 14th May, 2018. The main objective of the policy is to provide a framework for promotion
of large- scale grid connected wind-solar PV hybrid systems for optimal and efficient

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utilization of wind and solar resources, transmission infrastructure and land. The wind-
solar PV hybrid systems will help in reducing the variability in renewable power generation
and achieving better grid stability. The policy also aims to encourage new technologies,
methods and way-outs involving combined operation of wind and solar PV plants.

The Major Highlights of the Policy are as under:

• A wind-solar plant will be recognized as hybrid plant if the rated power capacity of one
resource is at least 25% of the rated power capacity of other resource.
• Both AC and DC integration of wind-solar hybrid project are allowed.
• The power procured from the hybrid project may be used for fulfillment of solar RPO
and non-solar RPO in the proportion of rated capacity of solar and wind power in the
hybrid plant respectively.
• Existing wind or solar power projects, willing to install solar PV plant or Wind Turbine
Generators (WTGs) respectively, to avail benefit of hybrid project, may be allowed.
• All fiscal and financial incentives available to wind and solar power projects will also
be made available to hybrid projects.
• The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
(CERC) shall formulate necessary standards and regulations including metering
methodology and standards, forecasting and scheduling regulations, REC mechanism,
grant of connectivity and sharing of transmission lines, etc., for wind-solar hybrid
systems.
• Storage may be added to the hybrid project to ensure availability of firm power for a
particular period.

Khanan Prahari Mobile App to Curb Illegal Mining

The Government of India has launched one mobile app namely “Khanan Prahari” and
one web app Coal Mine Surveillance and Management System (CMSMS) for reporting
unauthorized coal mining activities so that monitoring and taking suitable action on it can
be done by concerned Law & Order enforcing authority. The CMSMS has been developed
to curb illegal mining and take transparent action as an e-Governance initiative of GoI on
use of Space Technology. The objective of development and launching of this CMSMS
application was to detect citizens' participation against illegal mining by receipt of citizen’s
complaints through mobile app – Khanan Prahari and to monitor and take action on any
kind of illegal coal mining activity being carried out within the leasehold boundaries of any
Coal Mining Project in the Coalfield Areas.

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Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX)

• It is a collaborative venture between Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and
the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• The mission is scheduled to launch in 2025.
• LUPEX will use a rover and lander to study the possibility of establishing a base on the
Moon, the availability of water ice, and surface exploration technologies.
• JAXA and ISRO are developing the rover and lander, respectively.
• The rover will carry not only the instruments of ISRO and JAXA but also those of US
space agency NASA and European Space Agency (ESA).
• Proposed instruments onboard LUPEX:
(i) Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), an autonomous unit
of the Department of Space, has proposed multiple instruments in the LUPEX
mission mainly to carry out measurements on the surface and subsurface near the
permanently shadowed polar region of the Moon.
(ii) The objective of one of the proposed instruments — Permittivity and Thermo-
physical investigation for Moon’s Aquatic Scout (PRATHIMA) — is in-situ detection
and quantification of water-ice mixed with lunar surface and sub-surface soil using
a rover/lander platform.
(iii) The aim of another proposed instrument — Lunar Electrostatic Dust Experiment
(LEDEX) — is to detect the presence of charged dust particles and to confirm the
dust levitation process in the volatile-rich polar region, and to estimate approximate
dust size and flux of charged, levitated dust particles.
• The mission will provide valuable insights into the lunar polar region and will help to
pave the way for future human exploration of the Moon.

DISHA Satellite
The Disturbed and quiet time Ionosphere-thermosphere System at High Altitudes (DISHA)
is a proposed twin satellite aeronomy mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
It will study the effects of space weather events on the uppermost layers of Earth's
atmosphere. The mission will consist of two small satellites namely DISHA-H and DISHA-L
in high and low inclinations for simultaneous observation in polar and equatorial regions.
DISHA satellites will have expected mission life of 5 years with at least 3 years of combined
operations and are expecting readiness by 2024–25.

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DRDO Successfully Flight Tests Hypersonic Technology Vehicle

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested
a Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), which is an unmanned scramjet
vehicle with the ability to travel at six times the speed of sound.

The test was conducted from Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Launch Complex at Wheeler Island,
off the coast of Odisha.

The HSTDV tests the indigenously developed hypersonic air-breathing scramjet technology.
The scramjets are a variant of air breathing jet engines and have the ability to handle
airflows of speeds much higher than the speed of sound. Hypersonic speeds are five
times (or more) higher than the speed of sound.

The DRDO, in a series of tweets, stated, “In a historic mission today, India successfully
flight tested the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), (which is) a giant
leap in indigenous defence technologies and a significant milestone towards a Sashakt
Bharat and Atmanirbhar Bharat. DRDO, with this mission, has demonstrated capabilities for
highly complex technology that will serve as the building blocks for NextGen Hypersonic
vehicles in partnership with the industry.”

Gram UJALA Scheme Distributes One Crore LED Bulbs in Rural Areas
Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) has implemented the Gram UJALA
Programme under which energy efficient LED bulbs of 7W and 12W were distributed in
exchange of 60W and 100W incandescent bulb respectively, at Rs.10 per LED bulb in
rural areas. Under Gram UJALA, 1 Crore LED bulbs have been distributed in rural areas
of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana (5 States) as a Pilot
Project. The distribution under the pilot project of Gram UJALA has been completed and
currently, no further distribution activity is underway.

One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency

• A gas-based economy is crucial for an Atmanirbhar Bharat and work is being done in
the direction of 'One Nation, One Gas Grid'.
• The Indian Power system for planning and operational purposes is divided into five
regional grids.
• One Nation, One Gas Grid refers to the integration of these regional grids thus
establishing a National Grid for providing energy produced by natural gas to various
stakeholders like the central government, the state governments, the public and the
private sectors.

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Objective and Need of One Nation & One Gas Grid

• Meeting the targets: The initiative of the Indian government will help meet its target of
reaching 15% natural gas in its energy basket mix by 2030 which is currently at 6.2-
6.5% whereas the global average is 23-24%.
• Connecting the nation: With one nation and one gas grid, the energy produced from
natural gas will be supplied to the whole country via a single source.
• Improving regional imbalance: It will help in improving the regional imbalance of gas
availability as currently the natural gas is only in limited pockets of the country.
• India as a gas based economy: One nation, one gas grid which will help emerge India as
a gas based economy.
• It will not only lead to robust development in the economy but also encourage a clean
environment.
• Cleaner environment: In times when conventionals sources are depleting and mining
is being extended to a greater depth and area, natural gas can prove to be a boon by
preventing deforestation and desertification.
• Reduce import dependency: The import dependency of natural gas in India has reached
to 53%. In order to reduce this high percentage, the government is taking measures to
diversify the energy mix of India.

India’s Targets
• To increase the share of natural gas, the government has announced the expansion
of the natural gas grid from the previous 17,500 kilometers to 34,500 kilometers. To
which, 450 kms have already been added making it approx 18000.
• The next 16000 kms is expected to be achieved in the next 4-6 years.
• Primarily, as a grid, the north and west part of India were already connected via LNG terminal.
• In the last 4 years, efforts have also been made to connect eastern India with North
via the Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline which is a PM Urja Ganga Project
which is in its final stages and will also add around 3000 kms to the grid.
• The southern part of India is also being looked upon and is expected to add about
1500 kms to the grid.

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