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Monthly DNA
10 Mar, 2020
23 Min Read
Paper | Topics | Subject |
---|---|---|
GS-I | SC/ST Education-Social Inclusion | Indian Society |
GS-II | COMPREHENSIVE CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM | |
GS-III | Quantum Supremacy |
What’s in News?
After several years of rising trends, the Centre has reduced the percentage allocation of funds for the education of schoolchildren from SC and ST communities as well as for the northeastern region in the coming year.
Concerns:
Scheme for SC/ST in education.
NGOs Scheme
Scheme of Grant in Aid to Voluntary Organisations working for Scheduled Castes
Scholarships
Pre-Matric Scholarship to the SC Students studying in classes IX & X
Pre-Matric Scholarships to the Children of those engaged in occupations involving cleaning and prone to health hazards
Post-Matric Scholarship for SC students
Upgradation of Merit Of SC Students
Central Sector Scholarship of Top Class Education for SC Students
National Overseas Scholarship
National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste Students
Hostels
BABU JAGJIVAN RAM CHHATRAWAS YOJANA
Free Coaching
Free Coaching Scheme for SC and OBC Students
Schemes for Economic Development
Credit Enhancement Guarantee Scheme for the Scheduled Castes (SCs)
National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC)
National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC)
Special Central Assistance to Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCA to SCSP)
Scheme of Assistance to Scheduled Castes Development Corporations (CDCs)
Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS)
Venture Capital Fund For Scheduled Castes
Schemes for Social Empowerment
Centrally Sponsored Scheme for implementation of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY)
SCHOLARSHIP SCHEMES FOR SC/ST STUDENTS The Finance Minister in his budget speech on the Union Budget 2005-06 made the following announcements – “The key to empowering the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes is to provide top class education opportunities to meritorious students. The three on-going scholarship schemes for SC/ST students under the Central Plan – pre-Matric, post-Matric and merit-based – will continue. To provide an added incentive, I propose a new window: a short list of institutes of excellence will be notified, and any SC/ST student who secures admission in one of those institutes will be awarded a larger scholarship that will meet the requirements for tuition fees, living expenses, books and a computer.” The Scheme was approved in 2007 and was subsequently revised in January 2012 and June 2016. 2. Objectives and Coverage 2.1 The Scheme aims at recognizing and promoting quality education amongst students belonging to SCs, by providing full financial support. The scheme will cover SC students for pursuing studies beyond 12th class. 2.2 The scheme will operate in all institutions notified by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. 2.3 The SC students, who secure admission in the notified institutions, will be awarded scholarship to meet the requirements for (i) full tuition fee and non-refundable charges (there will be a ceiling of Rs. 2.00 lakhs per annum per student for private sector institutions and Rs.3.72 lakhs per annum per student for the private sector flying clubs for Commercial Pilot Training and Type Rating Courses), (ii) living expenses to the beneficiary @ Rs. 2220/- per month per student. However, the advance payment of living expenses, to be paid directly by the Central Government, through Direct Benefits Transfer mode would be restricted to 1 quarter only. (iii) books and stationery @ Rs. 3000/- per annum per student and (iv) the latest computer with accessories like UPS, Printer, and Multi-media limited to Rs. 45000/- per student as one-time assistance during the course. The Institute will procure computers and supply them to the awardees. Alternatively, the Institute may also consider reimbursement of expenses made by a student on the Purchase of the computer. Limited Rs. 45,000/- provided, the computer and accessories are procured from a reputed manufacturer/supplier. 2.4 The scholarship, once awarded, will continue till the completion of the course, subject to satisfactory performance.
3. Eligibility 3.1 Those SC students who have secured admission in the notified institutions according to the norms prescribed by the respective institutions will be eligible for the scholarship under the scheme to the extent of the number of scholarships allocated to the institutes concerned. In case the number of students admitted exceeds the number of awards, then the scholarship will be restricted to the top ones in the inter-se merit list. The remaining students from SC category admitted in the institute in different courses shall be eligible for the Post-Matric Scholarship (PMS) administered by this Ministry as a centrally sponsored scheme, provided such students are otherwise eligible for the said scheme. In case, the institute finds that the number of eligible candidates in the 1st year are less than the number of scholarships allotted to it, the balance scholarships may be offered to students studying in 2nd, 3rd and 4th year, etc. one the basis of inter-se merit of previous year’s result giving priority to those with higher number of Years left to complete their respective course i.e. 1st Year students is to get priority over the 2nd year students and so on. 3.2 Thirty percent (30%) of slots allotted to the Institute shall be reserved for eligible SC girl students as per their inter-se merit. In absence of sufficient number of girl students, the slots may be transferred to eligible boy students as per their merit. 3.3 However, the 30% slots as mentioned above will not include those girl students who are selected on the basis of their performance in the overall merit list of SC students of the Institute. 3.4 The ceiling of total annual family income from all sources under the Scheme is Rs. 6.00 lakh and the general selection criteria among the eligible candidates of any institution must be the merit. However, if for the last available slot in an institution, there is more than one student with equal marks; preference may be given to the student with the lowest parental income. 3.5 The benefit of the Scheme will not be provided to more than 2 siblings in a family. The students will submit an affidavit to this effect in the Institute to certify that he/she is not the 3rd sibling of the family who is availing the benefit under the Scheme. 3.6 The ceiling of total annual family income from all sources under the Scheme is Rs. 6.00 lakh and the general selection criteria among the eligible candidates of any institution must be the merit. However, if for the last available slot in an institution, there is more than one student with equal marks; preference may be given to the student with the lowest parental income. 3.7 The scholarship will become payable immediately after a student has secured admission and has started attending the classes. 3.8 The scholarship will be terminated if the student fails to pass the final examination of each year or any terminal examination or semester examination prescribed. He will, however, remain eligible for the Post-Matric Scholarship. |
Way forward:
The Department may also look into the feasibility of bringing back the students who drop out at the secondary level and simultaneously providing them vocational training so that these students can look for job opportunities at the earliest possible and also continue their studies.
Source: TH/MoSJ
COMPREHENSIVE CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II- IR
The date 26/11 has gone down in the history as a day that saw the most heinous attack carried on the Indian soil. The attack claimed 164 lives; leftover 300 injured and sent shock waves around the world. Terrorism has reared its ugly head every now and then and has devastated the world like nothing else. It is an issue which has affected millions of lives from Asia to the Americas but till date, there is no consensus on an international convention on terrorism. Several efforts have been made to address the problem but negotiations have not borne out results to address the issue.
What is it?
The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism is a proposed treaty which intends to criminalize all forms of international terrorism and deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, arms, and safe havens. It is a draft proposed by India in 1996 that is yet to be adopted by the UNGA.
What does it call for?
Universal definition of terrorism: no good terrorist or bad terrorist.
Ban on all groups regardless of country of operation, cut off access to funds and safe havens.
Prosecution of all groups including cross border groups.
Amending domestic laws to make cross-border terror an extraditable offence.
It also addresses, among other things, the issue of Pakistan’s alleged support for cross-border terrorism in south Asia.
Concerns expressed by various countries:
US + allies: concerns over definition of terrorism, including acts by US soldiers in international interventions without UN mandate.
Latin American countries: concerns over international humanitarian laws being ignored.
There are also concerns that convention will be used to target Pakistan and restrict rights of self-determination groups in Palestine, Kashmir etc.
Why the Lack of Consensus?
Origin and Status of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) New Delhi has pushed for an intergovernmental convention to enhance prosecution and extradition of terrorists since 1996. In 2018, even after two decades, there is still a lack of consensus. Although consensus eludes towards the adoption of the terrorism convention, discussions have yielded three separate protocols that aim to tackle terrorism:
|
Geopolitics and the Act of terror
Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT)
The global impact of terrorism:
Measures to Tackle Terrorism
Source: UN/TH
Quantum Supremacy
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III- S&T
Recently, Google’s quantum computer, named Sycamore, claimed “quantum supremacy”, as it reportedly did the task in 200 seconds that would have apparently taken a supercomputer 10,000 years to complete.
What is “quantum supremacy”?
Quantum Computing vs Traditional Computing
What is quantum computing?
Let’s start with the basics.
An ordinary computer chip uses bits. These are like tiny switches, that can either be in the off position – represented by a zero – or in the on position – represented by a one. Every app you use, website you visit and photograph you take is ultimately made up of millions of these bits in some combination of ones and zeroes.
This works great for most things, but it doesn’t reflect the way the universe actually works. In nature, things aren’t just on or off. They’re uncertain. And even our best supercomputers aren’t very good at dealing with uncertainty. That’s a problem.
That's because, over the last century, physicists have discovered when you go down to a really small scale, weird things start to happen. They’ve developed a whole new field of science to try and explain them. It’s called quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics is the foundation of physics, which underlies chemistry, which is the foundation of biology. So for scientists to accurately simulate any of those things, they need a better way of making calculations that can handle uncertainty. Enter, quantum computers.
How do quantum computers work?
Instead of bits, quantum computers use qubits. Rather than just being on or off, qubits can also be in what’s called ‘superposition’ – where they’re both on and off at the same time, or somewhere on a spectrum between the two.
Take a coin. If you flip it, it can either be heads or tails. But if you spin it – it’s got a chance of landing on heads, and a chance of landing on tails. Until you measure it, by stopping the coin, it can be either. Superposition is like a spinning coin, and it’s one of the things that makes quantum computers so powerful. A qubit allows for uncertainty.
If you ask a normal computer to figure its way out of a maze, it will try every single branch in turn, ruling them all out individually until it finds the right one. A quantum computer can go down every path of the maze at once. It can hold uncertainty in its head.
It’s a bit like keeping a finger in the pages of a choose your own adventure book. If your character dies, you can immediately choose a different path, instead of having to return to the start of the book.
The other thing that qubits can do is called entanglement. Normally, if you flip two coins, the result of one coin toss has no bearing on the result of the other one. They’re independent. In entanglement, two particles are linked together, even if they’re physically separate. If one comes up heads, the other one will also be heads.
It sounds like magic, and physicists still don’t fully understand how or why it works. But in the realm of quantum computing, it means that you can move information around, even if it contains uncertainty. You can take that spinning coin and use it to perform complex calculations. And if you can string together multiple qubits, you can tackle problems that would take our best computers millions of years to solve.
What can quantum computers do?
Quantum computers aren’t just about doing things faster or more efficiently. They’ll let us do things that we couldn’t even have dreamed of without them. Things that even the best supercomputer just isn’t capable of.
They have the potential to rapidly accelerate the development of artificial intelligence. Google is already using them to improve the software of self-driving cars. They’ll also be vital for modelling chemical reactions.
Right now, supercomputers can only analyse the most basic molecules. But quantum computers operate using the same quantum properties as the molecules they’re trying to simulate. They should have no problem handling even the most complicated reactions.
That could mean more efficient products – from new materials for batteries in electric cars, through to better and cheaper drugs, or vastly improved solar panels. Scientists hope that quantum simulations could even help find a cure for Alzheimer’s.
Quantum computers will find a use anywhere where there’s a large, uncertain complicated system that needs to be simulated. That could be anything from predicting the financial markets, to improving weather forecasts, to modelling the behaviour of individual electrons: using quantum computing to understand quantum physics.
Cryptography will be another key application. Right now, a lot of encryption systems rely on the difficulty of breaking down large numbers into prime numbers. This is called factoring, and for classical computers, it’s slow, expensive and impractical. But quantum computers can do it easily. And that could put our data at risk.
There are rumours that intelligence agencies across the world are already stockpiling vast amounts of encrypted data in the hope that they’ll soon have access to a quantum computer that can crack it.
The only way to fight back is with quantum encryption. This relies on the uncertainty principle – the idea that you can’t measure something without influencing the result. Quantum encryption keys could not be copied or hacked. They would be completely unbreakable.
How will it help us?
Government's Initiative
Challenges Associated with Quantum Computing
Way Forward
Source: TH
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