IT, Robotics and computer related

Superconductivity is a phenomenon displayed by some materials when they are cooled below a certain temperature, known as the superconducting critical temperature.
Below a certain “critical” temperature, materials undergo transition into the superconducting state, characterized by two basic properties: firstly, they offer no resistance to the passage of electrical current.
When resistance falls to zero, a current can circulate inside the material without any dissipation of energy. Secondly, provided they are sufficiently weak, external magnetic fields will not penetrate the superconductor, but remain at its surface. This field expulsion phenomenon is known as the Meissner effect, after the physicist who first observed it in 1933.
# A group of researchers at University of Rochester, Intel corporation and University of Nevada in the U.S. have created a material that is superconducting at 15 degrees Celsius. But it needs ultrahigh pressure of about 2 million atmospheres to achieve this transition.

An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.
A notification from the Cabinet Secretariat on November 9, said that films and audio-visual programs made available by online content providers and news and current affairs content on online platform will be under the purview of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Moore’s Law refers to Moore’s perception that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, though the cost of computers is halved. Moore’s Law states that it can be expected that the speed and capability of computers will increase every couple of years, and we will pay less for them.

Moore’s law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empirical relationship linked to gains from experience in production.

Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer has topped the list of fastest supercomputers with the publication of the 56th Top500 list.
Summit and Sierra (IBM/Mellanox/Nvidia, United States) remain at number two and three, respectively, and Sunway TaihuLight (China) holds the fourth position.
Nvidia’s in-house HPC-AI machine Selene, doubles in size of Fugaku, moved up to two spots to secure a fifth-place.
Two supercomputers from India — PARAM Siddhi-AI and Mihir have been ranked 63rd and 146th, respectively, and remain the only two supercomputers from India in the latest list of TOP500.

The Bharat Air Fibre services are introduced by BSNL as part of digital India initiates by the Government of India. It aims for providing Wireless Connectivity in the range of 20 KMs from the BSNL Locations and thus customers at remote places also will be benefitted as BSNL comes with cheapest services with support of Telecom Infrastructure Partners.
BSNL Bharat AirFibre enables homes in rural areas with broadband services, which is different from the company’s Bharat Fiber FTTH (fiber to the home) service that users wired technology and is targeted at urban homes.

Both statements are correct.
Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a dedicated file storage system which can be connected to many different devices at the same time and allows access to the same disk. Users on a local area network (LAN) access the shared storage via a standard Ethernet connection.
NAS device has its own file server capabilities to store and managed access to files but does not have any keyboard or display interface and are managed from the connected machine/computers.

Statement 1 is correct. An optical fiber cable is a type of cable that has a number of optical fibers bundled together. All optical fibers use a core of hair-like transparent silicon covered with less refractive indexed cladding to avoid light leakage to the surroundings.
Statement 2 is incorrect. An optical fiber typically consists of a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with a lower index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by total internal reflection.
There are two major categories:
-Step index fiber optic cabling: core surrounded by the cladding, which has a single uniform index of refraction.
-Graded index fiber optic cabling: refractive index of the optical fiber decreases as the radial distance from the fiber axis increases.
Total internal reflection: the complete reflection of a light ray reaching an interface with a less dense medium when the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Ministry of Electronics & IT has launched the Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge- Innovate Solutions for Aatmanirbhar Bharat seeks to invite innovators, startups and students to use these microprocessors to develop various technology products.
The participants will get monetary support/ seed fund and an opportunity to translate their innovations around Swadeshi Processors, showcase them at a higher viewership platform and facilitate them to scale from ideation to marketplace.
Statement 2 is correct. IIT Madras and Center for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC) have developed two microprocessors named SHAKTI (32 bit) and VEGA (64 bit) respectively using Open Source Architecture under the aegis of Microprocessor Development Programme of Ministry of Electronics and IT.

Statement 1 is correct. An open API, also called public API, is an application programming interface made publicly available to software developers. An API is a software intermediary that makes it possible for application programs to interact with each other and share data.
Statement 2 is correct. The recently launched Aarogya Setu Open API Service will enable organizations to check the status of the Aarogya Setu app of their employees and integrate it into its various Work from Home features.
The new feature called ‘Open API Service’ will help people, businesses and the economy to return to normalcy, and aims to address the fear/risk of COVID-19 infection. The Open API (application programme interface) shall only provide the Aarogya Setu status and name of the Aarogya Setu User with their consent.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) free zone has launched an Agriota E-Marketplace to connect millions of rural Indian farmers to the UAE’s food industry, while eliminating middlemen.
The portal was jointly developed with CropData Technology, an Indian company that aids marginal and small farmers.

Statement 2 is correct. The platform uses blockchain technology to connect farmers with different entities in the UAE including food processing companies, traders and wholesalers.
It will initially offer cereals, pulses, oil seeds, fruits, vegetables, spices and condiments

: Bandicoot is a robotic system for manhole and sewer line cleaning aimed
at the complete elimination of manual scavenging from the face of earth. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in 2019 procured a ‘Bandicoot’, which would
help end the practice of manual scavenging.

Indian Army has developed a simple messaging application named the
Secure Application for Internet (SAI). The application supports end to end secure voice, text
and video calling services for Android platform over the internet.
SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be
tweaked as per requirements. It will be utilized pan Army to facilitate secure messaging
within the service.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI
Aayog are organizing a Global Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI), RAISE 2020-
‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020,’ from October 5-9, 2020.
The event will witness participation from global industry leaders, key opinion makers,
Government representatives and academia.

Statement 1 is correct. Television Rating Points (TRPs) represent how many
people, from diverse socio-economic categories, watched which channels for how much time
during a particular period of hours/days/week/months.
Television ratings in turn influence programmes produced for the viewers. Better ratings
would promote a programme while poor ratings will discourage a programme. It also has
commercial impact as program/channel with higher ratings is able to attract more and
profitable advertisements.
Statement 2 is incorrect. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India is a Joint
Industry Company founded by stakeholder bodies that represent Broadcasters,
Advertisers, and Advertising and Media Agencies.
The I&B Ministry notified the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India in
January 2014 and registered BARC in July 2015 under these guidelines, to carry out
television ratings in India.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with the interaction between computers and humans using the natural language.
The ultimate objective of NLP is to read, decipher, understand, and make sense of the human languages in a manner that is valuable. Most NLP techniques rely on machine learning to derive meaning from human languages.

Intel India is collaborating with the Government of Telangana, International
Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) and Public Health Foundation of
India (PHFI) to launch INAI, an applied artificial intelligence research centre in Hyderabad.

INAI initiative applies AI to population-scale problems in the Indian context, with a focus
on identifying and solving challenges in the healthcare and smart mobility segments
through strong ecosystem collaboration.
The U.S. accounts for 16% of the global AI talent, followed by China (9%) and India (8%). [The
Hindu]

Both statements are correct.
Indian Institute of Technology Madras researchers have booted up a microprocessor ‘Moushik’.
The design of the microprocessor, motherboard printed circuit board design, assembly and post-silicon boot-up were done at IIT Madras. The foundry-specific back-end design and fabrication were undertaken at Semi-Conductor Laboratory of Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) in Chandigarh and manufacturing of this motherboard was done at
Bengaluru.

The field application of Moushik includes smart cards, such as credit and debit cards; ID cards; travel cards for Metros and driving licences; electronic voting machines etc.

# The SHAKTI Processor Program, was started as an academic initiative back in 2014 by the
RISE group at IIT-Madras.

Statement 1 is incorrect. NITI Aayog recently announced the establishment of a Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Statement 2 is correct. This CIC is part of the AWS CIC Global Program, which provides an opportunity for government agencies, non-profits, and educational institutions, to come together on pressing challenges, apply design thinking, test new ideas, and access the technology expertise of AWS.

The NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center will enable government stakeholders, start-ups, and local organizations in India to innovate and create new approaches to solving problems.

This CIC joins a global network of AWS public sector cloud innovation centers across
Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, and United States.

Billed as “one of the most exciting artists of our time”, Ai-Da differs from generations of past masters in one inescapable way: she is a robot.
• Ai-Da is the brainchild of Aidan Meller, who claims she is the world’s first ultra-realistic humanoid artist, able to draw creatively thanks to in-built artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
• The 46-year-old art dealer recently unveiled Ai-Da — dressed in a brown wig and period-style painter’s blouse — in Oxford, ahead of an exhibition of her first works opening next week in the English University City.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger
technology. All network participants have access to the distributed ledger and its
immutable record of transactions.
With this shared ledger, transactions are recorded only once, eliminating the duplication of
effort that’s typical of traditional business networks.
Blockchain is decentralized, i.e. it does not store any of its information in a central
location, instead, the data is copied and spread across a network of computers.
Statement 2 is correct. No participant can change or tamper with a transaction after it’s
been recorded to the shared ledger. If a transaction record includes an error, a new
transaction must be added to reverse the error, and both transactions are then visible.

The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize
production.
The Second Industrial Revolution used electric power to create mass production.
The Third Industrial Revolution used electronics and information technology to automate
production.
Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that
has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of
technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.

Statement 1 is correct. The Union Cabinet has given its approval for the proposal of DoT for setting up of Public Wi-Fi Networks by Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) to provide public Wi-Fi service through Public Data Offices (PDOs) spread across length and breadth of the country to accelerate proliferation of Broadband Internet services through Public Wi-Fi network in the country.

This Public Wi-Fi Access Network Interface will be known as PM-WANI. PM-WANI eco-system will be operated by different players:

–Public Data Office (PDO): It will establish, maintain, and operate only WANI compliant Wi-Fi Access Points and deliver broadband services to subscribers.

–Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA): It will be an aggregator of PDOs and perform the functions relating to Authorization and Accounting.

–App Provider: It will develop an App to register users and discover WANI compliant Wi-Fi hotspots in the nearby area and display the same within the App for accessing the internet service.

–Central Registry: It will maintain the details of App Providers, PDOAs, and PDOs. To begin with, the Central Registry will be maintained by C-DoT.

Statement 2 is incorrect. There shall be no license fee for providing Broadband Internet through these public Wi-Fi networks.

Both statements are correct.

Union Cabinet has recently given its approval for the proposal of DoT for setting up of Public Wi-Fi Networks by Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) to provide public Wi-Fi service through Public Data Offices (PDOs) spread across length and breadth of the country to accelerate proliferation of Broadband Internet services through Public Wi-Fi network in the country. There shall be no license fee for providing Broadband Internet through these public Wi-Fi networks.

Salient Features:

–This Public Wi-Fi Access Network Interface will be known as PM-WANI.PM-WANI eco-system will be operated by different players as described herein under:

–Public Data Office (PDO): It will establish, maintain, and operate only WANI compliant Wi-Fi Access Points and deliver broadband services to subscribers.

–Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA): It will be an aggregator of PDOs and perform the functions relating to Authorization and Accounting.

–App Provider: It will develop an App to register users and discover WANI compliant Wi-Fi hotspots in the nearby area and display the same within the App for accessing the internet service.

–Central Registry: It will maintain the details of App Providers, PDOAs, and PDOs. To begin with, the Central Registry will be maintained by C-DoT.

Machine learning is a method of data analysis that automates analytical model building. It is a branch of artificial intelligence based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify patterns and make decisions with minimal human intervention.

Examples of machine learning: Digital assistants search the web and play music in response to our voice commands. Websites recommend products and movies and songs based on what we bought, watched, or listened to before. Spam detectors stop unwanted emails from reaching our inboxes. Medical image analysis systems help doctors spot tumors they might have missed. And the first self-driving cars like Tesla are hitting the road.

The original meaning of the term “quantum supremacy,” as proposed by John Preskill in 2012, is to describe the point where quantum computers can do things that classical computers can’t.

Google in 2019 said that its 54-qubit Sycamore processor was able to perform a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years. That would mean the calculation, which involved generated random numbers, is essentially impossible on a traditional, non-quantum computer.

Recently a Chinese team, based primarily at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, reported their quantum computer, named Jiuzhang, is 10 billion times faster than Google’s.

Assuming both claims hold up, Jiuzhang would be the second quantum computer to achieve quantum supremacy anywhere in the world.

# Where classical computers perform calculations using bits, which can have one of two states (typically represented by a 1 or a 0), quantum bits, or qubits, can exist in many states simultaneously. This allows them to solve problems more quickly than classical computers.

Both statements are correct.

NarrowBand-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a specification developed by 3GPP. It is a standards-based low power wide area (LPWA) technology developed to enable a wide range of new IoT devices and services. NB-IoT significantly improves the power consumption of user devices, system capacity and spectrum efficiency, especially in deep coverage.

NB-IoT is an ‘industrial grade’ LPWA solution – it runs on licenced spectrum which guarantees quality of service and a future-proofed capability. It’s a cellular technology related to LTE, supports two-way communications and is designed specifically for LPWA applications

It has low device cost, and compatibility with existing cellular network infrastructure, with the same level of security as LTE.

# BSNL, in partnership with Skylo, to introduce worlds’ first, satellite-based narrowband-IoT network in India.

Statement 1 is correct. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) works by transmitting millions of polarized light particles (photons) over a fiber optic cable from one entity to another. Each photon has a random quantum state, and collectively all the photons create a bit stream of ones and zeros.

Statement 2 is correct. The security of QKD stems from the ability to detect any intrusion on the QKD transmission. Because of the unique and fragile properties of photons, any third party (or eavesdropper) who tries to read or copy the photons in any way will change the photons’ state.

The change will be detected by the endpoints, alerting them that the key has been tampered with and must be discarded. A new key is then transmitted.

# A milestone of this project was achieved recently when DRDO developed Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology underwent trials in Hyderabad between two DRDO labs, DRDL and RCI, to show secure communication.

Commonly used bands for cellular communication are 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, and 2300MHz. Beyond that are the unlicensed bands used for technology such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – Wi-Fi used to be 2.4GHz (2400MHz) and has started to shift to the 5GHz band.

The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing commercial mobile services.

The auction will be for spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency bands.

At the broadest level, spectrum is regulated in two ways, it is either managed through a spectrum licence or it is licence exempt (i.e. unlicensed).

The vast majority of radio spectrum is licensed and encompasses a range of technologies that operate with enough power to allow the services to cover a relatively wide area.

Licence holders include commercial organisations, such as TV and radio broadcasters or mobile operators, and non-commercial organisations, such as the emergency services and the military.

The frequency band for FM radio is about 88 to 108 MHz.

Unlicensed frequency bands have more limited applications and are designated for certain specific types of use. There is no need for a licence from the regulator as long as the devices used meet certain technical standards in order to minimise interference.

The most notable examples of ‘unlicensed’ technologies are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which both operate in the 2.4 GHz band, other examples are cordless telephones, baby monitors, car key fobs and garage door openers.

Microsoft HoloLens, known under development as Project Baraboo, is a stand-alone mixed reality holographic headset specifically designed to be used on the Windows 10 platform.

 HoloLens allows users to experience 3D holographic images as though they are a part of their environment.

 It can help doctors to see through the organs and tissues in the operating theatre.

Cyber security experts have found zero-day vulnerability in Windows, allowing attackers to gain higher privileges on the target machine and dodging protection mechanisms in the Google Chrome browser.

 The newly discovered exploit was used in the malicious WizardOpium operation.

 A zero day exploit is a cyber-attack that occurs on the same day a weakness is discovered in software.

 At that point, it is exploited before a fix becomes available from its creator.

 Zero-day vulnerabilities are basically bugs in software, which leaves the doors open for cyber criminals to break into the system.

The Maharashtra Cyber Department has issued advisory warning users of ASUS, a reputed computer manufacturer that came under attack.

• The Cyber police officers said the attack, named Operation Shadow Hammer, affected the ASUS Live Update Utility, which automatically downloads updates for its systems and applications.

 Officials said the attack created back doors in the computers using a MAC address.

The Mission, launched in 2015, envisages empowering our national academic and R&D institutions spread over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 high performance computing facilities.

 The mission would be implemented jointly by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) through two organizations the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

 The Mission envisages empowering our national academic and R&D institutions spread over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 high-performance computing facilities.

Scientists from Technion — Israel Institute of Technology has developed a concept they have named the Ramanujan Machine, after the Indian mathematician.

 It is not really a machine but an algorithm, and performs a very unconventional function.

 With most computer programs, humans input a problem and expect the algorithm to work out a solution.

 With the Ramanujan Machine, it works the other way round. Feed in a constant, say the well-know pi, and the algorithm will come up with a equation involving an infinite series whose value, it will propose, is exactly pi. Over to humans now: let someone prove that this proposed equation is correct

Vyommitra.

• Recently, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) unveiled its first ‘woman’

astronaut, named Vyom Mitra who will ride to space in the first test flight of

the human space mission, Gaganyaan.

• She is half-humanoid and her body stops at the torso and has no legs. She is

capable of switching panel operations, performing Environment Control and Life

Support Systems (ECLSS) functions, conversations with the astronauts, recognising

them and solving their queries.

Quantum Computers work by harnessing the properties of quantum

mechanics.

Statement 1 is correct: As the reality of a quantum computer comes closer, it is useful for

us to understand both how one functions and how it’s different from a traditional

computer. The first thing to bear in mind is that they use different basic units of data: ‘bits’

and ‘qubits’.

• Every element of a classical computer is written in binary code (1s and 0s) and is

translated into electricity: high voltage is represented by 1, and low voltage by 0.

• In quantum computing, qubits are the basic unit and their value can be 1, 0, or

1 and 0 simultaneously, overlapping (superposition) and intertwining

(entanglement) according to the laws of physics.

• This means that qubits, as opposed to bits, can take on various values at one time

and can perform calculations that a conventional computer cannot.

Statement 2 is correct: The classical computer, if there is interference with the system;

the system can correct itself and continue running. For the time being, this is not the case

with quantum computers.

• “External disturbances force the system to define itself as 1 or 0, causing it to lose

its quantum coherence.

• To avoid this kind of external ‘noise,’ the system has to be completely isolated: the

atoms have to be very quiet, ensuring nothing makes them collide or interact with

the surroundings.

• Quantum computers have to be at a temperature of -273 °C (-459 °F) with

hardly any atmospheric pressure and isolated from Earth’s magnetic field.

: FrogPhone.

Statement 1 is incorrect: Researchers have developed a device that will allow scientists to

monitor frogs in the wild. Described as the world’s first solar-powered remote survey

device that can be installed at any frog pond and which receives a 3G or 4G cellular

network, it has been named “FrogPhone”. It has been developed by a team from various

Australian institutions, including the University of New South Wales and the University of

Canberra. A field trial conducted between August 2017 and March 2018 in Canberra proved

successful.

Statement 2 is correct: With FrogPhone, researchers can simply “call” a frog habitat.

After a call is made to one of the FrogPhones already on a site, the device will take three

seconds to receive it. During these few seconds, the device’s temperature sensors will get

activated and environmental data such as air temperature, water temperature and battery

voltage will be sent to the caller’s phone via a text message.

GIMS is the instant messaging platform for Government communication.

• GIMS platform provides GIMS mobile client for instant messaging and GIMS Portal

for administration and monitoring of platform.

• Designed to suit the hierarchy and communication policies of the government.
• Adaptable to both the central and state government organizations for intra and

inter organization communication.

• It is being developed as a secure Indian alternative without the security concerns

attached with apps hosted abroad or those owned by foreign entities.

• Like WhatsApp, GIMS employs end-to-end encryption for one-to-one

messaging.

Haryana Police has adopted a unique barcoding software — Trakea — to

ensure that thousands of forensic reports that form the backbone of the criminal

investigation system and subsequent trials in the courts of law, are not tampered with.

• According to the police, Trakea ensures foolproof security of the samples

collected from the scene of crime, and the forensic analysis reports, and is

different from traditional methods that the state police force has been following for

decades.

• Haryana Police claims it is the country’s first police force to have introduced

this unique barcoding for forensic reports.