6.

Science and Technology

Science and Technology in India

1. India boasts of many contributions such as the first use of zero as

revealed by the Bakshali manuscript. However, India now needs to look
ahead of its past laurels and move from being a net consumer of
knowledge to becoming a net producer as it emerges as one of the
world’s largest economies. According to WIPO, India is the seventh
largest patent filing office in the world. However, India produces fewer
patents per capita.
2. Current situation
1. India has become a major destination for outsourced R&D
activities. We currently have more than 1,100 R&D centres set up
by MNCs such as IBM, Google, etc.
2. Indian scientists are at the forefront of some global
groundbreaking work. For example, 37 Indian scientists from nine
Indian institutions played a key role in the discovery of
gravitational waves that received the Physics Nobel prize in 2017.
Indian scientists also contributed to the discovery of a neutron star
merger at Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory
(LIGO), USA.
3. The development of Brahmos, advanced air defence supersonic
interceptor missiles, diverse missiles and rocket systems, remotely
piloted vehicles, light combat aircraft (LCA), etc., are brilliant
examples of India’s progress in strategic and defence
technologies.
4. India now ranks amongst a handful of nations that have credible
capabilities in the field of space technology. The upgrading from
SLV to ASLV and PSLV to GSLV, the first moon orbiter project
Chandrayan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) at the cheapest
price and the recent simultaneous launch of 104 satellites are
India’s significant achievements.
5. India is now the third largest country in terms of the number of
start-ups. The government has set up the Atal Innovation Mission
(AIM) to transform radically the innovation, entrepreneurship and
start-up ecosystem.
3. Importance
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1. Science, technology, and innovation have instrumental and

intrinsic value for society. They are key drivers of economic
performance and social well-being.
2. It is also important for driving scientific temper, with its spirit of
enquiry, the primacy accorded to facts and evidence, the ability to
challenge the status quo, the adherence to norms of discourse and
the elevation of doubt and openness.
3. The open spirit of inquiry that is fundamental to science can
provide a bulwark against the darker forces of dogma, religious
obscurantism, and nativism that are threateningly resurfacing
around the world.
4. It is also essential for human security, for combating climate
change as well as national security threats ranging from cyber
ware to autonomous military systems such as drones.
4. Challenges to research in India
1. R&D expenditures has remained stagnant at 0.6-0.7% of GDP
over the past two decades. This is well below other countries such
as US (2.8), China (2.1), Israel (4.3) and Korea (4.2). Central
government undertakes almost entire R&D expenditure with
limited State government spending but spending by state
governments is needed especially for application oriented R&D
aimed at problems specific to their economies and populations.
2. The share of the private sector in R&D investment in most
technologically advanced countries is as high as 65 percent to 75
percent, it is only about 30 percent in India.
3. There is a disconnect between the teaching and research enterprise
with research being concentrated in specialized research institutes
and universities playing largely a teaching role. This has led to a
situation where universities have students but need additional
faculty support, while research institutes have qualified faculty but
are starved of young students.
4. Our education system has so far not focused on cultivating a
scientific temperament at an early age. In comparison to China,
there are less than half Indian STEM PhD students in the US.
Fewer students have been enrolling for such degrees either due to
lucrative career options after master’s degree or rising work visa
challenges.

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5. Many Indian students prefer to major in engineering rather than

science, because of the promise of lucrative industrial career
opportunities.
6. There has been poor progress in the development and deployment
of affordable technologies for rural areas, particularly in
agriculture, agro-processing, micro irrigation, etc.
7. The public procurement system is heavily biased in favour of
experienced and established products and technologies. This
strongly discourages new and innovative technologies offered by
start-ups, who do not get much- needed support from government
procurement.
8. “Lab to Land” time is too long. Renowned public funded
institutions like (CSIR) have developed many frontline
technologies. However, the rate of transfer of these technologies
to industry and for societal benefits is low.
9. The adoption of indigenous innovations by Indian industry is not
very encouraging. Frequent violation of Preferential Market
Access (PMA) is an issue leading to large-scale imports of foreign
products and services.
5. Government efforts
1. Prime Minister Research Fellows (PMRF): It is a PPP between
Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) and
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which aims to improve the
quality of research by attracting the best talents across the country
and reduce brain drain.
2. IMPRESS scheme aims to identify and fund research proposals
in social sciences with maximum impact on the governance and
society.
3. SPARC aims to boost joint research with global universities from
28 countries and get international expertise to solve major
national problems, train Indian students in the best laboratories.
4. IMPRINT is a national initiative of MHRD which aims to
address engineering challenges in 10 technology domains relevant
to India through an inclusive and sustainable mode.
5. Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative set up by
the NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship
across the length and breadth of the country.

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6. Way forward
1. India needs to double its national expenditure on R&D with a
larger share coming from private sector and universities. The
metrics need to go beyond paper and publications to providing
value for society.
2. The private sector should be incentivised to both undertake and
support R&D through CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
funds. Government can also partner with private sector to create
new R&D funding opportunities such as 50:50 partnerships with
Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) for industry
relevant research under Ucchtar Avishkar Yojana (UAY).
3. Link national labs to universities and create new knowledge
ecosystems. Better synergy between universities and research
institutes would fill the gaps of faculty support and young talents
and ensure deep commitment to excellence.
4. India should leverage its scientific diaspora. India has the
opportunity to attract back more scientists with growing strength
of India’s economy and anti-immigrant atmosphere in some
countries. There has been an increase in scientists returning to
India. Schemes like INSPIRE, VAJRA can act as a catalyst in
leveraging the scientific diaspora. The inducements should be to
allow them to do good research.
5. Take a more mission driven approach to R&D in some areas like
agriculture, genomics, cyber physical systems, etc.
6. Improve the culture of research. Indian science and research
institutes need to inculcate less hierarchical governance systems
and encourage risk taking and curiosity in the pursuit of
excellence. There should be greater representation of younger
scientists in decision making bodies.
7. National laboratories and other publicly funded R&D institutions
need to make much stronger efforts to engage with the public
through the media or through regular tours and lectures and create
broad public support for their work.
8. To bring vibrancy to frugal innovations, a non-lapsable “District
Innovation Fund” with a corpus of about INR 2 crore in each
district may be created and used to promote grass root
innovations.

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Schemes for women in the field of S&T

1. Department of Science And Technology (DST) initiated exclusive

schemes to enable women to pursue a career in R&D in Science and
Technology (S&T) only in the year 2002. One of the major reasons for
gender gap in scientific R&D was the break in career that many women
had to face due to familial compulsions like marriage, child birth,
looking after old or ailing parents, children's education and so on.
2. DST has launched DISHA Programme for Women in Science to

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address these issues and made focused efforts to facilitate the re-entry
of such women to mainstream science.
3. In 2014, DST restructured the women specific programmes under one
umbrella called “KIRAN (Knowledge Involvement in Research
Advancement through Nurturing). Through KIRAN, DST is not
only addressing various issues related to women scientists
(unemployment, break-in career, relocation, etc.) but is also aimed at
providing opportunities in research, entrepreneurship, science
communication, etc.
4. Consolidation of University Research for Innovation and Excellence in
women universities (CURIE) is another component of KIRAN that has
a focus to develop state-of-the-art infrastructure to help large number of
women to enhance their S&T skills besides promoting research culture
in such institutions.
5. KIRAN is also providing budgetary support for creating Women
Technology Park (WTP) where appropriate S&T packages for women
are developed to improve livelihood and health & nutrition besides
reducing drudgery in order to enhance their quality-of-life. KIRAN has
more holistic approach and inclusiveness and gives more career options
to women through new components, namely mobility as well as training
in science communication, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
6. Indo-U.S. Fellowship for Women in STEMM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine): It will provide opportunities
to Indian Women Scientists, Engineers & Technologists to undertake
international collaborative research in premier institutions in U.S.A
7. UDAAN launched by MHRD to address the lower enrolment ratio of
girl students in science and engineering colleges.
8. Biotechnology Career Advancement and Re-orientation Programme
(BioCARe) is an initiative of Department of Biotechnology, it mainly
focuses on career development of employed/unemployed women
Scientists upto 55 years of age.

Contribution of Indians to science and technology

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IPR

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IPR

1. Reasons for improvement India’s IP regime

1. Accession to IPR related international treaties, Ex: India accession
to WIPO Performances and phonograms treaty.
2. Consent to initiate a Patent prosecution Highway (set of initiatives
for providing accelerated patent prosecution procedures by

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sharing information between some patent offices) with

international offices.
3. Dedicated set of IP incentives for small business enterprises. Ex:
GI tags given to Alphonse Mangoes, Nilambur teak etc.
4. A strong awareness raising effort on the negative impact of piracy
and counterfeiting. Ex: Mascot IP Nani by Ministry of Commerce
and Industry is a tech-savvy grandmother who helps the
government and enforcement agencies in combating IP crimes.
5. To encourage for innovation and seek protection for their
inventions, a 50 percent fee reduction has been provided.
6. Filing of patents and trademarks applications has been made
online.
7. Almost all old Intellectual Property (IP) records have
been digitised and new records are digitized immediately.
8. Automated electronic modules have been adopted to process
Patents and Trademarks applications which enabled achieving
enhanced speed, accuracy and transparency.
9. IP office has been transformed to enhance efficiency in processing
of applications, uniformity and consistency in the examination of
applications, bilateral cooperation at the international level, and
raising awareness level of public.
10. To increase transparency and dissemination of information, the
real time status of IP applications and e-registers is now open to
the public MSMEs.
2. Existing flaws in India's IPR regime
1. Traditional knowledge is ignored.
2. Section 3(d) of patent act. This section prevents multinational
companies ever-greening their patents simply by making minor
changes.
3. Compulsory licensing. Government can give to domestic
companies a license to produce a patented drug in emergency
circumstances.
4. Drug Price Control Order.
5. Food security vs IPR.
3. Features of IPR policy, 2016
1. Establishment of cell for IPR Promotion and Management to
function under the DIPP for creation and commercialisation of IP

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assets. State level cells to be created to prevent IPR thefts.

2. Legal and Legislative framework to have strong and effective IPR
laws, which balance the interests of rights owners with larger
public interest. Administration and implementation of IP related
laws brought under DIPP.
3. Major national institutes to make IPR studies compulsory.
4. IPR awareness to create public awareness about the economic,
social and cultural benefits of IPRs among all sections of society.
5. Commercialisation of IPR to get value for IPRs through
commercialization.
6. Enhancing access to health care, food security and environment by
leveraging IP. Human Capital Development to strengthen and
expand human resources, institutions and capacities for teaching,
training, research and skill building in IPRs.
4. Significance
1. Proposed cell would create a single window system for promotion,
awareness and utilisation of IP in the country.
2. It will create conducive environment for R&D which will enhance
creativity and innovation of indigenous products like medicines. It
will facilitate a stable, transparent and service oriented IPR
administration in the country.
3. The policy needs to be commended for taking note of our informal
economy and the need to encourage the creativity found within.
4. The policy recommends that the unauthorised copying of movies
be criminalised.
5. It will increase awareness on IPR in India and its about
economical, social and cultural benefits by strengthening and
expanding human resources.
5. Criticism
1. The entire edifice of the present IP policy is built on this flawed
foundation equating more IP with more innovation. IP could
accelerate innovation in some sectors while it impedes innovation
in others.
2. The policy also ignores the fact that at present, a large number of
patents are owned by foreigners and, therefore, any easing of rules
for patent protection would benefit them much more than
domestic applicants.
3. The policy advocates that publicly funded scientists and

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professors must convert all of their discoveries into IP assets. Elon

Musk dedicated inventions to public which helped in the growth
of automobile industry. Scientists like Benjamin Franklin and J.C.
Bose shunned patents owing to their potential to curb the free flow
of knowledge.
4. Time cost of IP registrations exceeds royalties.
5. No doubt films require some protection from pirates, but
criminalising of what is essentially a civil wrong is an over
reaction.
6. The policy proposes to convert each piece of our traditional
knowledge into an IP asset. We must first study whether GI
resulted in substantial benefits to any community.
6. A strong IPR regime can transform India into a creative and innovative
society. IPR regime must be carefully regulated to ensure that the
benefit of IPR accrues to Indian society rather than to west.

Geographic indicators

1. Geographical indicators refer to goods as originating in a specific

geographical region. So, the characteristics, qualities or reputation
thereof essentially attributable to such region. Ex: Scotch Whisky from
Scotland, Darjeeling tea etc.
2. Potential of Geographical Indications
1. GIs support and protect local production. They help us in
generating local employment and are mostly untouched by
industrialisation, originating in villages or small towns.
2. Since consistent quality is a must in GI-branded goods, producers
are expected to diligently follow specific production methods
which leads to better quality control.
3. Many European GIs have also successfully built up ancillary
industries like tourism and lodging in the respective regions.
4. GIs can boost our exports.
5. GI-branded goods can be made 100 percent in India without the
need for any foreign direct investment (FDI) and that they can
promote socio-economic development of the respective regions.
GIs are perhaps the most ideal IP rights to foster and realise a
programme like Make in India.

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3. Measures needed to strengthen GI

1. Current Indian legal framework for GIs needs to be strengthened
to address quality control and consumer expectations by insisting
on multi-layered quality control systems as a precondition for
registration.
2. Give a competitive advantage to producers and enable consumers
to make more informed choices by providing clear information on
origin specific products and their characteristics.
3. Important issues faced by GI producer bodies like market access
and funding for enforcement and marketing need to be addressed.
4. Correcting the definition of producer under the GI Act, which is
currently ambiguous and can mean either local manufacturer,
retailer or dealer.
4. Still a greenhorn in GI protection, India must hand hold producer
bodies, look at successful models elsewhere and mould these to suit the
ground realities of protection and enforcement in a developing country.

Fourth industrial revolution

1. Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is characterised by a fusion of

technologies that blur the lines between physical, digital, and biological
spheres. It is marked by advances in robotics, artificial intelligence,
nanotechnology, quantum computing, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D
printing and autonomous vehicles, etc.

Bio-Technology

1. Biotechnology harnesses cellular and bio-molecular processes to

develop technologies and products that help us to improve our lives. In
accordance with its various applications, branches of Biotechnology
have been derived namely -Blue biotechnology (marine and aquatic
application), green biotechnology (agriculture processes), red
biotechnology (medical) and white biotechnology (industrial).
2. Applications
1. Medical Biotechnology: Producing medical products that can be
used for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases. Ex:

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Antibiotics. Gene therapy involves correction of a genetic disorder

through delivery of a normal gene into the individual.
2. Animal Biotechnology: To improve the productivity of livestock
and also for development of affordable new generation vaccines
and diagnostics against a plethora of animal diseases.

3. Challenges
1. Low Research and development: India's research and
development expenditure is quite low at 0.6-0.7% of GDP.
2. Intellectual Property Right regime: First issue lies in Section
3(d) of the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005, which sets a
higher standard for patentability than mandated by TRIPS. Second
issue is that of compulsory licensing, which gives the government
power to suspend a patent in times of health emergencies.
3. Lack of Marketisation: Most of the early research funding, often
provided by universities or the government, runs out before the
marketisation phase.
4. Public Awareness: Lack of public awareness of the modern tools
of biotechnology and how it could improve our well-being, offer
food and energy securities and help in preserving our
environment.
5. Regulatory Authority: The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority
of India Bill which envisions creating Regulatory body for uses of
biotechnology products is pending in the parliament since 2008.

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6.Less Lucrative: The number and quality of jobs offered by this

sector is presently lesser than the work force supply available.
This is making students less interested in this sector.
4. Way forward
1. Strategic Road Map: There is a need for development of a
strategic roadmap for biotechnology where competitive areas and
needs for industry-based R&D.
2. Collaboration between government and industry.
3. Ecosystem of innovation: With growing convergence of
disciplines it is important for the Universities to evolve an
ecosystem in which scientists, innovators and future entrepreneurs
could be nurtured.
4. Specialised Human Resources: There is a need for development
of specialised human resources along with increasing the number
and quality of jobs offered by this sector.
5. Collection and Integration of Data: Life sciences researchers
face the problems of bringing various data together and further
integrate the data for using the different technologies.

GM crops

1. GM crops involves insertion of genes of organism from another

biological kingdom in order to achieve desired results. India is at the
4th global position in hectarage under GM crops. The recent
moratorium placed on cultivation of GM Mustard has re-ignited the
debate whether these GM crops be grown. Genetic Engineering
Appraisal Committee (GEAC) asked Maharashtra Government to
initiate action to stop cultivation of illegal Herbicide-Tolerant variety of
Bt Cotton (Bt cotton).
2. Benefits of GM crops
1. Better tolerance to harsh climatic conditons like, heat, drought,
salinity etc. It also prevents of loss species to endemic disease.
2. GM crops are superior crops as they generate better yields and are
resistant to pests and diseases. Country’s cotton production has
gone up more than 21 times since Bt hybrids were first planted in
2002. This benefitted farmers immensely.
3. India imports thousands of tons of GM edible oil every year with

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no evidence of health effects or deaths due to genetic alterations.

This will reduce our import burden.
4. GM crops offer a solution to further enhance the India’s food
security needs. Food with more desirable traits can be produced.
Ex: Golden rice with Vitamin-A.
5. Bangladesh has allowed Bt Brinjal and there have been no side
effects yet. However, still there remains some concerns.
6. US concluded that many American farmers have achieved weed
control and reduced losses from insect pests due to usage of BT
crops.
3. Reasons for opposition
1. Introduction of GM crop is a method by which large seed
producing companies attempt to monopolise the markets. GM
seeds are found to carry a terminator gene that terminates the seed
after a year or two.
2. GM require more water, fertilisers unlike what they are always
advertised to. In the last decade, more than 250,000 farmers have
killed themselves because of Monsanto’s costly seeds and
pesticides.
3. Experts worry that extensive use of GM crops can wipe out crop
diversity and ecosystems. GM crops harms bees and other small
insects which helps in pollination along with harmful insects.
4. There has been witnessed a decline/stagnation in yield after few
years with respect to many GM crops which in turn leads to
diminishing returns.
5. The migration of genes from GM plants into conventional crops
or wild species may have an indirect effect on food safety and
food security.
6. There is always a concern of pathogens becoming resistant to
the toxins produced by GM crops. For example the pink bollworm
has grown resistant to the toxins produced by BT cotton seed of
Monsanto.
7. The GEAC does not conduct the closed field trials on their
own. There is still opacity and there is no public data on effects of
GM on human health, food chain, allied sectors, etc.
8. People have apprehension as some studies found that GM crops
brings pre-mature growth in children and other side effects. Also,

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cattle feeding on GM crops becomes sterile has also been found.

4. Consultation with state governments on the issue given that agriculture
is a state subject. Grievance redressal of all stakeholders before
introduction of the GM crop. There should also be a liability clause,
that is, if something goes wrong the liability should be fixed statutorily
like in case of US law.

Gene editing

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Challenges in Gene editing

1. Against the order of the nature.

2. Available only to the rich, which perpetuate income inequalities.
3. Concerns over ‘Designer Babies’.
4. Genome-Editing Research Involving Embryos.
5. Safety concerns have been raised regarding genome editing in human
germline.
6. A ‘gene drive’ can propagate a set of genes with negative traits
throughout a population which may lead to disappearance of whole
targeted population with severe ecological consequences.
7. At present there is no regulating body to keep a check on the practices
and applications of the technology. There are at present no standard
norms for standardisation of norms for clinical trials for checking the
efficacy of the treatment.
8. The precise genetic modifications obtained through CRISPR-Cas9
technique makes it more difficult to identify a genetically modified
organism once outside the lab.

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1. Nuremberg code: It is established in 1947 in response to the

Nuremberg trails related to atrocities of Nazi Germany. This code is the
founding document of modern bio-ethics.
2. It is important to have continuing public deliberation to decide whether
or not germline editing should be permissible.

Nano-technology

1. Nano-science is the study of materials which are in nanoscale range (1-

100 nanometres). Conversion of any material in nanoscale results in
alteration of its physicochemical, biological, mechanical, optical,
electronic, etc. properties which can be utilized for different useful
activities.
2. Nano-Pharmaceuticals
1. Nano-pharmaceutical is an emerging field that combines
nanotechnology with pharmaceutical and biomedical science with
the goal of targeted drug delivery which may improve efficacy
and safety profile.
2. Precision targeting via nano-pharmaceuticals reduces toxic
systemic side effects, resulting in better patient compliance.
3. They offer the ability to detect diseases at much earlier stages.
4. Nano pharmaceutical reduces the cost of drug discovery, design
and development and enhances the drug delivery process.
3. Applications of Nanotechnology
1. Medical field: Disease diagnosis (detect cancer, bacterial and
viral infection), drug delivery, Superbugs and anti-microbial

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resistance (Nanotechnology holds the key to stopping antibiotic-

resistant bacteria and the deadly infections they cause).
2. Defence: Possible supplement to traditional weaponry for close
combat situations. Precision guiding tools for snipers and
others who use fire motor shells.
3. Agriculture: Anti-microbial nano-emulsions are used
for decontamination of food equipment. Bio indicators can be
used to detect the bio magnification of pesticides and fertilizers.
4. Water treatment and remediation: Nano-membranes are used
for water purification, desalination and detoxification. Nano-
sensors for the detection of contaminants and pathogens.
5. Construction: Nano-molecular structures to make asphalt and
concrete more robust to water seepage. Heat-resistant nano-
materials to block ultraviolet and infrared radiation.
6. Energy: Photovoltaic cells and OLEDs based on quantum
dots. Carbon nanotubes in composite film coatings for solar cells.
4. Challenges in Nano-technology
1. Health and environmental impact. They disrupt cellular,
enzymatic and other organ related functions posing health
hazards. They are non-biodegradable.
2. Information asymmetry between developed and developing
countries.
3. Lack of infrastructure and human resources. There is poor lab
firm integration, which is compounded by the scarcity of skilled
manpower.
4. High costs of technology due to IPR.
5. Governance issues because nanotechnology is multi-disciplinary
and inter-disciplinary.
6. Ethical consequences For instance nanotechnology may be used
in warfare, may invade people’s privacy, or may impinge on the
relationship between human beings and technology.
5. Nation Mission on Nano Science and Technology (Nano Mission)
1. It is an umbrella programme for capacity building which
envisages the overall development of this field of research in the
country and to tap some of its applied potential for nation’s
development.
2. Basic research promotion by creation of centres of excellence for

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pursuing studies.
3. Infrastructure Development for nano research by establishing a
chain of shared facilities across the country.
4. Promoting application-oriented R&D Projects, Nano-Technology
Business Incubators etc. Special effort will be made to involve the
industrial sector into nanotechnology R&D directly.
5. Human Resource Development through effective education and
training to researchers.
6. International Collaborations through Joint research
projects, academia-industry partnerships.
6. Nanotechnology could be both relevant and appropriate to sustainable
development practices in India. Therefore, it is necessary to develop
responsible nanotechnology governance.

Space and space missions

1. Indian achievements in Space science and technology have been

propelled by ISRO. From India’s first satellite Aryabhatta (1975) to the
development of indigenous cryogenic engine India has made significant
advances with little help and no technology sharing from developed
countries.
2. ISRO's thrust areas
1. Satellite communication: It is to address the national needs for
telecommunication, telemedicine, broadcasting and broadband
infrastructure. INSAT and GSAT are the backbones of India’s
satellite communication.
2. Earth Observation: Beginning with the Indian Remote Sensing
(IRS) series in the 1980s, today the RISAT, Cartosat and
Resourcesat series is backbone of this. It is to use space based
imagery for weather forecasting, disaster management and
national resource mapping and planning. These resources cover
agriculture and watershed, land resource, and forestry
managements.
3. Satellite-aided navigation: The GPS-aided GEO augmented
navigation (GAGAN) is a joint project between ISRO and AAI. It
improved accuracy and integrity, primarily for civil aviation
applications and better air traffic management over Indian

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airspace. This was followed up with the Indian Regional

Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
4. Space science and exploration missions: It includes the
Chandrayaan and the Mangalyaan missions, with a manned space
mission, Gaganyaan, planned for its first test flight in 2021. These
missions are not just for technology demonstration but also for
expanding the frontiers of knowledge in space sciences.
5. Launch vehicle technology: Beginning with the Satellite Launch
Vehicle (SLV) and the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle
(ASLV), ISRO has developed and refined the PSLV as its
workhorse for placing satellites in low earth and sun synchronous
orbits. The GSLV programme is still developing with its MkIII
variant and is capable of carrying a 3.5 MT payload into a
geostationary orbit. Recently, ISRO has tested RLV-TD to cut
down launch costs. ISRO is developing a small satellite launch
vehicle (SSLV) expected to be ready in 2019.
3. Achievements of Indian space science and technology
1. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is one the most reliable and
affordable launch vehicles. It has become the favorite launch
vehicle of developed nations also. Its low cost and high reliability
has gained it worldwide preference. Launch of 104 satellites by
PSLV has set a world record.
2. India's Chandrayaan mission sent was aimed to understand the
chemical characteristics and topography of Moon. Chandrayaan
even managed to hoist the Indian flag on the moon. India is the
first country to be able to reach Mars in the very first attempt
made. The budget for Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) was
approx 450 crores which makes it the least expensive mission to
Mars in 2014.
3. NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) aims to provide
reliable co-ordinates for military and civilian application.
4. Development of fuel efficient Scramjet engine is considered as a
feat which would further decrease the cost and allow launcher of
heavier satellites at lesser cost.
5. ISRO has indigenously developed cryogenic engine for deploying
in GSLV MK-III. GSLV now can be used for launching heavy
satellite and future man missions to mars. The GSLV Mk III

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rocket carried a satellite weighing more than three tonnes into a

high orbit above Earth.
6. Built at a low cost of 95 crores, the Reusable Launch Vehicle by
ISRO was meant to reduce the cost of satellites by reusing the
space shuttles.
4. Socio-economic development
1. Remote sensing sattellities such as RESOURCESAT have
provided information about water bodies, cropping patterns, farm
lands, forest cover, disaster management, drought management,
flood forecasting, mineral prospecting, monitoring and
supervision of mining, rural and urban spread etc. There inputs
have enabled better policy decisions.
2. Metrological satellites such as SCATSAT and Automatic Weather
Station (AWS) provide hourly information on critical weather
parameters.
3. Communication satellites (INSAT) are used for a range of
functions including television broadcasting and meteorological
imaging. It plays important role in delivering cyclone warning and
in search and rescue operations. INSAT has enabled the spread of
DTH internet services, e-governance applications.
4. NAVIC through IRNSS (Indian regional Navigation System) will
provide accurate real-time positioning and timing services not
only to India but 1500 km around Indian borders.
5. Telemedicine is another fart growing field which would bridge the
urban-rural divide in the field of health case.
6. Moreover, revenue generation by commercial applications would
also further enable the government to spend more to achieve
socio-economic goals.
5. Why is there so much interest on moon
1. Human Civilization: Extend human presence to the moon to
enable eventual settlement.
2. Scientific Knowledge: The Moon is the closest cosmic body to
pursue scientific activities that address fundamental questions
about the history of Earth, the solar system and the universe and
about our place in them.
3. Exploration Preparation: It is promising test bed to demonstrate
technologies, systems, flight operations required for deep-space

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missions for pursuing future missions to Mars and beyond.

4. Global Partnerships: Provide a challenging, shared and peaceful
activity that unites nations in pursuit of common objectives.
5. Economic Expansion: Expand Earth's economic sphere, and
conduct lunar activities with benefits to life on the home planet.
Moon is said to have huge reserves of Helium-3 which will cater
to future Earth's energy needs.
6. Public Engagement: Use a vibrant space exploration program to
engage the public, encourage students and help develop the high-
tech workforce that will be required to address the challenges of
tomorrow.
6. Chinese mission Chang’e-4 to unexplored part of the moon
1. Chang‘e4 landed on the Von Kramer crater within the South Pole-
Aitken basin, known to be the biggest depression in the solar
system. This is because scientists can see farther into space as
Earth‘s radiowaves can‘t get in the way.
2. Studying the composition of ancient craters such as the Von
Kramer can help scientists gain an insight into the asteroids that
rained down on the Earth during the planet‘s youth stage.
3. Dark side of the moon contain a treasure trove of information that
could advance our understanding of the history of the solar
system.
4. Moreover, Chang‘e4‘s success could help realise the long-held
astronomers dream of an observatory on the moon. The side
facing the Earth is not suitable for such a project because noises
from GPS satellites, Wi-fi, TV stations and many other human
interferences hamper the transmission of low-frequency messages.
But the Earth‘s satellite protects its far side from such noise.

National Policy of Electronics, 2019

1. The policy envisions positioning India as a global hub for Electronics

System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by promoting domestic
manufacturing, skill development, start-up, export ecosystem and
improving ease of doing business for the ESDM industry. It aims to
achieve a turnover of $400 billion and generate 1 crore jobs in the
ESDM sector by 2025.

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2. Strategy
1. Domestic manufacturing: By encouraging domestic
manufacturing through consistent tax incentives, establishing
Electronic Manufacturing Clusters, etc.
2. Promoting ease-of-doing business: By facilitating single
window mechanism for global investors using existing
mechanisms like Invest India, etc.
3. Encourage industry-led R&D: In all sub-sectors of electronics.
This would encompass support to various initiatives in areas like
5G, IoT Sensors, Artificial Intelligence etc.
4. Trusted Electronics Value Chain: To improve national cyber
security profile and control its supply chain across national
defense and critical national infrastructure like energy grids,
communication networks, digital economy etc.
5. Developing core competencies in the sub-sectors:
Electronics like Automotive Electronics Industry etc.
6. Electronic components Manufacturing ecosystem: Providing
incentives for lithium-ion cells, chip components, fuel cells,
optical fibre, solar cells etc.
7. Preferential market access by encouraging states: Adopt the
Public Procurement and leveraging the Government e-Market
Place (GeM) in the procurement of electronic products.
8. Other Measures: Human Resource development, acquiring mines
of Rare Earth Metals in foreign countries (Africa, Australia), Eco-
park for e-waste processing, etc.

Robotics

1. A robot is a machine especially one programmable by a computer—

capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically (self
or remote controlled). These are machines that can substitute for
humans.
2. Applications
1. Assembly robots used in manufacturing especially auto industry -
account for more than 50% of labour.
2. Military robot in dangerous environments (including bomb

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detection and de-activation).

3. Hospital robot used in low invasive surgeries.
4. Agri robots used in agriculture for precision farming, etc.
5. Home Appliances for cleaning, cooking, dishwashing, personal
assistants like Amazon Echo.
6. Nanorobots.
7. Swarm robotics used for coordination of multi-robot systems
which consist of many simple physical robots to achieve a desired
collective behaviour
8. Self driving cars.
3. Challenges in India
1. Loss of jobs.
2. Absence of hardware companies that can cater to businesses and
need to import
3. The cost of adopting Robotic technology is very high due to the
cost of procuring imported hardware components as well as
training personnel.
4. Scarcity of good faculty to teach the subject. Subject is not taught
to the engineering students in many colleges.
5. Scarcity of talent that specializes in the many disciplines such as
electrical, embedded, software and mechanical that make up
Robotics.
4. Govt Steps
1. Include robotics in Skill India Mission.
5. The advantages of robotics include heavy-duty jobs with precision and
repeatability, whereas the advantages of humans include creativity,
decision-making, flexibility and adaptability. Need for collaborative
robots and humans sharing a common workspace more closely and led
to the development of new approaches and standards to guarantee the
safety of the man-robot merger.

National Super Computing Mission

1. Recently CDAC designed and built PARAM Shivay, the first super
computer under the National Supercomputing Mission. The
supercomputer is a computer with a high level computational capacity

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compared to a general purpose computer. Performance of super

computing is measured in floating point operations per second
(FLOPS). India has 4 supercomputers in the Top-500 list of the world’s
top 500 supercomputers with Pratyush and Mihir.
2. Objective
1. To make India one of the world leaders in Supercomputing and to
enhance India’s capability in solving grand challenge problems of
national and global relevance.
2. To empower our scientists and researchers with state-of-the-art
supercomputing facilities and enable them to carry out cutting
edge research in their respective domains.
3. To attain global competitiveness and ensure self reliance in the
strategic area of supercomputing technology.
3. Provisions
1. The mission would be implemented jointly by Department
of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics
and Information Technology (DeitY).
2. Installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70
high performance computing facilities.
3. These supercomputers will also be networked on the National
Supercomputing grid over the National Knowledge Network
(NKN). National Knowledge Network (NKN) connects academic
institutions and R&D labs over a high speed network.
4. Development of professional High Performance Computing
(HPC) aware human resource.
4. Application areas
1. Climate Modelling: Weather Prediction. Paths of hurricanes and
the probability of tornado strikes. India has become the only
country worldwide to have an Ensemble Prediction System (EPS),
running weather models at a 12-km resolution due to Pratyush.
2. Seismic Analysis: Disaster Simulations and Management.
3. Data Mining: Extract information from raw data gathered on the
ground. For example, businesses can analyze data collected from
their cash registers to help control inventory or spot market
trends.
4. Scientific Research: For example, Researchers at CERN, found
the Higgs-Boson particle by analysing the massive amounts of

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data generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

5. Computational Biology and Computational
Chemistry and Molecular Dynamics like Atomic Energy
Simulations.
6. Discoveries beyond Earth (Astrophysics).
7. Big Data Analytics.
8. Finance.
9. Information repositories/ Government Information Systems.
10. Large Complex Systems Simulations and Cyber Physical
Systems.
11. National Security/ Defence Applications.
5. Challenges
1. Limited funding.
2. Limited Hardware development.
3. Brain Drain.
4. Limited manufacturing capability.

Big data

1. Big data is a buzzword used to describe a massive volume of both

structured and unstructured data that is too large to process using
traditional software techniques. Big data is big in terms of volume,
velocity and variety.
2. Uses
1. NITI Aayog also echoed the idea of evidence based policy making
guided by Big data.
2. Big data is used to better understand customers and their
behaviours and preferences. This will also increase the customer
loyalty.
3. The computing power of big data analytics enables us to decode
entire DNA strings in minutes and will allow us to find new cures
and better understand and predict disease patterns.
4. Weather forecasting can be made more robust now, which can
lead to better agricultural growth.
5. Financial data analysing for banks, stock market, customised
service for special customers.

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6. Analysing and managing the NATGRID data which comes from

21 sources. This can help us in better intelligence. Big data also
helps us in fighting crimes and terrorism.
7. It can help in curbing trafficking in human beings. Increasingly,
traffickers make use of mobile phones, social media, online
classifieds and other internet platforms. Data from these
technologies could be collected and used to identify, track, and
prosecute traffickers.
8. Discoms in India are using data from last mile sensors to
implement measures of cutting down aggregated technical and
commercial losses.
3. Dangers posed
1. Data colonialism: Most of the data from developing countries
goes to servers located in the west. This is because of absence of
adequate regulations dealing with privacy. Thus western
companies continue to collect and use this data with impunity.
2. Cyber crime: Big data allows fraudsters to collect huge amounts
of data which can include credit card numbers and online banking
passwords.
3. Privacy: NSA’s PRISM program of the United States has put the
potential dangers of Big Data analytics. It can snoop on almost
every user in cyberspace.
4. Unreliable: Data collected is often unreliable and thus basing
decisions solely on that is risky. Inefficient infrastructure for data
collection and management is the main reason.
5. Data sharing: Data sharing is not prominent today thus
benefitting the status quoits.
4. Measures
1. Make laws on privacy to address citizen’s concerns regarding
privacy.
2. We shouldn’t rely solely on actionable information derived from
big data but a humane touch in decision making is required as
well.
3. Data pools should be maintained which should be in common
domain to enhance transparency, access and equity.
4. Source of data should be verified before using it to identify
actionable points.

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5. Big data is here to stay and it is up to us on how to utilise it in the

most efficient way possible. If handled properly it has the ability
to impact our lives in a positive way both socially and
economically.

Artificial intelligence

1.
2. In February, the Kerala police inducted a robot for police
work. Chennai got its second robot-themed restaurant, where robots not
only serve as waiters but also interact with customers in English and
Tamil. In Ahmedabad, in December 2018, a cardiologist performed the
world’s first in-human telerobotic surgery on a patient nearly 32 km
away. All these examples symbolise the arrival of Artificial Intelligence
(AI) in our everyday lives.
3. India ranks third in the world in terms of high quality research
publications in artificial intelligence (AI) but is at a significant distance
from world leader China.
4. Advantages
1. Niti Ayoog in its discussion paper on the transformative potential
of AI in India that said the country could add $1 trillion to its
economy through integrating AI into its economy.
2. Healthcare: Shortage of qualified healthcare professionals (0.76
doctors and 2.09 nurses per 1,000 population (as compared to
WHO recommendations of 1 doctor and 2.5 nurses per 1,000
population). Non-uniform accessibility to healthcare across the
country. Affordability. Patients sometimes die due to non-

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availability of specialised doctors. AI can reduce the distance

between patients and doctors.
3. Agriculture: Soil health monitoring and restoration, Crop health
monitoring and providing real time action advisories, effective
price discovery, etc.
4. Education: Adaptive learning tools for customised
learning, Predictive tools to spot student dropouts, Customised
professional development courses,
5. Smart Cities and Infrastructure: Smart Homes, AI driven
service delivery, reduce Cyber-attacks, traffic management.
6. Smart Mobility and Transportation: Reduce Traffic accidents
through smart warnings (90% of which are caused by preventable
human errors), autonomous trucking for movement of goods,
travel route optimisation, AI can help optimise parking, AI for
Railways to improve efficiency.
5. Challenges
1. India does not have a comprehensive legislation to regulate this
growing industry.
2. Low intensity of AI research. A recent NITI Ayoog paper
estimates that it has only around 50 top-notch AI researchers,
concentrated in elite institutions like the IITs.
3. There is lack of quality data in building smart AI tools. India lacks
this in sectors such as agriculture and health.
4. High resource cost and low awareness for adopting AI in business
processes.
5. Unclear privacy, security and ethical regulations. Predicting and
analysing legal issues and their solutions is not that simple.
Criminal law is going to face drastic challenges. What if an AI-
based driverless car gets into an accident that causes harm to
humans or damages property? Who should the courts hold liable
for the same?
6. Unattractive Intellectual Property regime to incentivise research
and adoption of AI.
7. The usage of AI can lead to loss of traditional jobs.
8. AI is still long way from surpassing human intelligence. It may
induce apathy in governance and may fail to comprehend diversity
of problems faced by people needing instant customisation.

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6. Way forward
1. Incentivising Core and Applied research in AI. Introducing AI /
ML in schools and colleges.
2. Creation of Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence.
3. Accelerating Adoption of AI across the value chain in industries.
4. Digital literacy and AI skilling with special focus on urban
areas. Upgrade of existing systems so they are better integrated
with AI so that errors and chaos doesn’t occur later.
5. Establish a data protection framework with legal backing.
6. Should be initially used only in domains where processes are well
defined and have lesser human interface.
7. Bring all stakeholders on board like workers, civil society etc.,
before its induction.
8. Should be catalyst for local technology solutions and
manufacturing rather than imports.

Cyber physical systems

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Cloud computing

1. Cloud computing is the practise of using a network of remote servers

hosted on the internet to store and process data, rather than having a
local server or a personal computer. It is a general term for anything
that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet.
2. Advantages
1. Efficient: It will make use of existing infrastructure, thereby
reducing duplication of cost and effort.
2. Cost reduction: Flexibility in hardware and software i.e., pay as
you use.
3. Location independence: It can be accessible from anywhere.
4. Re-usability: App developed by one department can be reused by
another with customisation.
5. Better service delivery: It will lead to faster service delivery with
less chances of error, like in DBT.
3. Challenges
1. Data security.
2. Need for high speed internet connection (essentially a big
constraint for a country like ours).
3. Universal standardisation required which makes interoperability

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among providers difficult as of now.

4. Dependent on service providers even for trivial applications.

Data localisation

1. RBI issued a directive advising all Payment System Operators (PSOs)

to ensure that the entire data relating to payment systems is stored
within databases located in India.
2. Data localisation is a concept that the personal data of a country’s
residents should be processed and stored in that country. It may restrict
flow entirely or allow for conditional data sharing or data mirroring. In
2018, a draft data protection law by BN Shri Krishna Committee also
recommended that all personal data of Indians have at least one copy in
India. It also defined a category of data as critical personal data, which
must be stored and processed only in India.
3. Need for data localisation
1. Economic development of the country. Data is the new oil, an
economic resource, fueling the 4th Industrial
Revolution. Domains of cloud computing, data analytics etc., can
become major job creators in future.
2. Localization would lead to a larger presence of MNC’s in India
overall, through local offices, and increase tax liability and open
more jobs.
3. With data localization, there is a scope of greater access to ‘public
data’ collected by companies (e.g. traffic data collected by like
Uber, street level data collected by Google Maps) for the
Government.
4. Maintain data sovereignty and citizens data privacy. With data
stored in remote servers, the accountability of service providers
(like Google, Facebook etc.) reduces as it is outside the purview
of Indian regulatory authorities. With data localization, regulatory
oversight on end-use of data will improve.
5. Issue of national security. Data localization will help law
enforcement agencies to get access to user data for investigation
and prosecution.
4. Challenges associated with localisation
1. Economic Costs: Cross-border data flows have contributed $2.8

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trillion to the global economy in 2014, set to increase to $11

trillion by 2025. Stringent localisation norms could affect
innovation & ease of doing business in India.
2. Security Concerns: Isolating payment systems from global data
network would reduce their operational efficiency and make
transactions prone to frauds, systemic risks or a single point of
failure.
3. Push to protectionism in global trade: It hampers a globalised,
competitive internet marketplace. It might trigger a vicious cycle
of data localisation requirements by other countries.
4. Privacy concerns: There is no evidence that data localisation
leads to better privacy or security. Threat of state surveillance and
misuse of personal data of citizens by the Government will
remain.
5. Cloud Computing Softwares: Cloud computing softwares have
taken advantage of the economies of scale and an infrastructural
architecture across the world.
5. Before universalizing the policy of data localization, the Government
needs to provide a push to local capabilities in data storage and
processing India should put in place in a cybersecurity law to ensure
protection of private data of citizens.

4G vs 5G

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Block chain

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Defence

1. Advantages of private participation

1. It will cut down on our imports saving valuable forex reserves. As
defence sector is evergreen, our exports will go up. India’s
defence budget was $40.4 billion last year. This can be reduced if
private players play a significant role.
2. It will lead to competition which was not present earlier.
Competition will enhance product innovation, technology
upgradation, quality control, export promotion, finance and human
resource management.
3. State-of-the-art production in India will modernise defence
industrial setup and give strategical advantages.
4. Generation of jobs that will come handy to both skilled workforce
and unskilled people. This can be a pillar to reap the benefits of

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demographic dividend.
5. Self reliance and curtailing over dependence on foreign suppliers.
We have had bad past experiences during wartime when we were
either denied supply of equipment or the services were
compromised.
6. We can develop defence equipment specially for our needs. Ex:
Siachen heights equipment, etc.
7. This will reduce corruption in defence deals as India may not have
to make foreign defence purchases. India has spent around $50
billion on defence purchases in the last decade.
8. Expertise in defence sector provides enormous spin-off benefits.
Over the years, as Israel developed capabilities in defence
electronics, it has also built a reputation in areas such as medical
equipment, digital communication and advanced agricultural
technologies.
2. Challenges to private participation
1. Private players in defence are restricted from participation in
foreign countries through rigorous export control laws by the
government of their home countries. Any technology transfer is
highly unlikely unless India succeeds in persuading the
governments in their home countries.
2. Financial allocation to R&D vis-a-vis capital acquisition in
defence budget has declined in past decade. FDI cap of 49% is
hindering the effective participation.
3. Requirements of the armed forces are not made known to the
private sector sufficiently in advance. This hinders private
enthusiasm.
4. India has been availing technology through licensing agreements,
which have been prohibitory for local development and reduced
defence PSUs role as maintenance agencies or manufacturer of
small arms.
5. Slow and complex decision making regarding defence
procurement and the lack of military inputs in decision making.
Land acquisition is another major challenge.
6. Defence industry continues to be dominated by companies based
in the US and western Europe, with firms from these areas taking
up the top 10 positions on the list of the biggest arms makers. This

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may pose various strategic concerns for India.

3. Government efforts
1. Government is placing its focus on indigenisation of the industry
and acquiring advanced technologies from abroad.
2. Under Make in India programme, the government has given
licences to many private companies to manufacture products for
the country’s defence needs.
3. Government has recently come up with Defence Procurement
Policy, 2016.
4. The new defence offset policy, whereby foreign suppliers of
equipment need to manufacture a certain percentage of their
products in India, has given Indian firms a chance to play partners
to global companies.
5. With a focus to give boost to indigenous private defence
manufacturers, Defence ministry recently took leap forward steps
by accepting the recommendations made by expert committee
headed by Dhirendra Singh.
4. Highlights of DPP 2016
1. Creation of Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured
(IDDM) platforms, which will get top priority while buying
equipment and will be the first to be chosen for tenders.
2. Offsets clause increased from the current Rs.300 crore to Rs.2000
crore giving flexibility for foreign companies. Any greater value
of contract will be re-invested (30%) in Indian defence industries
which will help to upgrade indigenous technological capabilities
and know-how.
3. DPP-16 also states that 100% refund from the government, in case
of delay of procurement from vendor.
4. Defence ministry has also decided to fund private R&D, so as to
build a technology base.
5. Empowered committee is created to solve disputes or unforeseen
issues. But it is still without crucial chapters on strategic
partnerships and blacklisting norms in case of wrongdoing.
5. Steps to be taken
1. Bilateral talks need to be strengthened to persuade the foreign
government for allowing their defence companies to share their
critical technology and know how.

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2.Removal of all discriminatory treatments, regressive tax regimes

and duties for local defence manufacturers vis-a-vis foreign
manufacturers.
3. Providing easy availability of land and capital without inordinate
delays and swift single window and time bound clearances.
4. Tax incentives and easy credit facilities need to be given to
generate interest and attract foreign manufacturers in defence
sectors.
5. Time is now ripe for creating accountability structures for such
leaks and corruption scandals.
6. Security infrastructure to be upgraded to avoid any data theft or
cyber hacks of classified data.
6. Why defence corruption exists
1. India imports a big chunk of its armoury and hence, the
probability of one or two out of the many transactions to involve
corruption, increases.
2. Defence procurement is giant plausible source of black money.
Black marketers make full use of the opportunity this sector
offers.
3. The institutes of Lokpal and Central Vigilance Commission are
not strengthened enough to take meaningful actions. Also the
audits of the CAG are post event evaluations.
4. Since there have been cases of corruption with the CBI too,
genuine investigation becomes all the more difficult.
5. Till the time the cases reach the courts, the probability of
manipulating or removing the evidences and witnesses increases.

Drones

1. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or drone is an aircraft with no pilot on board.

They can be remote controlled or can fly on pre-programmed flight
paths. UAVs are currently used for a number of missions, including
reconnaissance and attack roles. Aside from defence utilities, plenty of
opportunities for civilian drone usage exist.
2. Opportunities in civilian sector
1. Disaster management: Tracking of cyclones, floods, epidemics
and range of disasters is easily possible with the use of UAVs.

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American authorities successfully used UAVs to track the

movement of Hurricanes. UAVs act as aerial eye for search and
rescue operations worldwide.
2. Conservation of environment: Tracking of migratory birds,
endangered species, anti-poaching mechanisms can easily employ
UAVs for better management of their activities in preventing
destruction of wildlife.
3. Uses in agriculture: Drones can help in precision agriculture.
Applications of pesticides, water, or fertilisers, can help by
identifying exactly where such resources are needed.
4. Commercial applications: Goods and service delivery is possible
with the help of UAVs. E-commerce and package delivery
platforms are using UAVs in American and European cities.
5. Law enforcement and firefighting: Surveillance and vigilance
purpose. Crowd, traffic and riots can be managed well with aerial
surveillance from UAVs. Recently Karnataka police used drones
to identify sand mining along the border.
6. Military uses: Indian military has drones like Lakshya, Daksh,
Rustom etc. Use it in difficult terrain like Siachen glacier.
7. Infrastructure: Drones can inspect tall structures and monitor
critical infrastructure such as ports and power plants.
8. Health care: Delivery of drugs to remote areas and can
complement tele-medicine initiatives.
3. Challenges
1. Use of drones for vigilance and surveillance has potential to
invade the personal space and privacy of civilian population.
Aerial imagery can be counterproductive in not worked out with
due care.
2. The airspace over Indian cities already has a high density of
aircraft traffic and unregulated use of drones poses a grave threat
for air collisions and accidents.
3. Another challenge lies in physical and electronic identification of
drones. Government is not equipped to track all kinds of drones,
especially small and micro drones. Drones flying below 1,000 feet
pose a challenge in this regard.
4. There are no standards for the manufacture of small and micro-
drones, resulting in UAVs with an exceptionally high failure rate.

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4. Way forward
1. Since drones are increasingly becoming part of a networked
environment, it is critical to give each drone a unique electronic
code, akin to an internet protocol address, for quick, easy and
clear identification.
2. UAVs of today are a precursor to next generation aerospace
technologies. Unless we bring in the right set of regulations, the
investors would be reluctant to take a leap of faith in the
development of the UAV industry.

Fortification of food

1. Fortification means externally adding required micro-nutrients to

already available food containing macro-nutrients. It ensures the
availability of complete nutrient diet to people.
2. India can adopt following methods
1. Adding set standardised level of micro-nutrients at production
level itself.
2. Availability of fortified and diversified food at mid-day meal in
schools and at Anganwadi level.
3. Ensuring availability of fortified food at affordable rates at fair
price shops.
4. Marking some specific food processing industries and make
fortification mandatory. Giving incentives like tax rebate to
industrial units involved in fortification of food.
5. Robust PDS strengthened by JAM trinity can be of great help.
3. Fortification addresses the following
1. It reduces the deficiency of iron in mothers which helps prevent
premature birth of child. According to WHO Iron-Fortified food
can help reduce the menace of maternal death caused by iron
deficiency.
2. It helps the growing child grow efficiently by providing them
micro-nutrients such as vitamin A and folic acids.
3. Zinc-fortified food can reduce the child death rate between six
months to 12 years caused by infectious diseases.
4. Wholesome cooked meal augmented with vegetables, dairy

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products improves the cognitive ability of children.

4. Nutritional food is imperative to a wholesome growth of population
which can further increase the all over production. In this way it is the
greatest tool to exploit the potential of Demographic Dividend.

Food irradiation

Transfats

1. Trans fats are a certain type of fatty acid that have what is known as a
“trans” chemical structure. Trans fats are made by adding hydrogen to
liquid vegetable oils (good for health unlike animal oils) to make them
more solid, and to increase the shelf life of foods. They are largely
present in Vanaspati, baked and fried foods.
2. Since they are easy to use, inexpensive to produce, last a long time, and
give foods a desirable taste and texture, they are still widely used
despite their harmful effects being well-known.
3. Why are they bad?
1. Trans fats raise bad (LDL) cholesterol levels and lower good
(HDL) cholesterol levels. Eating trans fats increases the risk of
developing heart disease and stroke. Globally, trans fats intake
leads to more than 500,000 deaths of people from cardiovascular
disease every year.
2. It’s also associated with a higher risk of developing type 2
diabetes.

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4. Steps to control trans fats

1. FSSAI has launched a new mass media campaign calling for the
elimination of industrially produced trans fats in the food
supply. Currently, the permitted levels of trans fats in vegetable
oils and hydrogenated vegetable oils is 5%, a percentage that
FSSAI wants to bring down to less than 2% by 2022. Called Heart
Attack Rewind, the 30 second public service announcement (PSA)
- the first mass media campaign of its kind
2. As part of the Eat Right campaign, edible oil industries took a
pledge to reduce trans fat content by 2% by 2022. Later, food
companies also took a pledge to reformulate packaged foods with
reduced levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat.
3. REPLACE, a roadmap of WHO, provides a roadmap about how
countries can remove and replace all trans fats from their food
supplies with the intention to eradicate it from the globe.
4. Since then, a lot of countries have made efforts to reduce the
levels of trans fats and in some cases, have completely banned
them.

Fixed dose combinations (FDCs)

1. Fixed dose combination drugs are two or more drugs in a single

formulation, with each drug having independent modes of action, the
combination of which are synergistic or additive or complementary in
their effect. Exploiting the liberal licensing system, bizarre FDCs tend
to find their way into the market, which has led to the Indian market
becoming the world leader of FDCs.
2. Why proliferation of FDCs
1. The individual state drug authorities in India have often
indiscriminately granted manufacturing licenses.
2. Pharma companies prefer them to circumvent the price control.
They prefer to market FDCs that are not under price control rather
than single-ingredient drugs under price control. It also simplifies
the procurement, management and handling of drugs.
3. FDCs offer a simple dosage schedule which improves patient
compliance. This is especially important in elderly patients or
patients suffering from multiple disorders.

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4. Cost is an important factor. Instead of buying two or more

separate medicines, a patient can buy just one FDC medicine to
treat multiple illness symptoms.
5. A government document had claimed that FDCs have shown to be
particularly useful in the treatment of infectious diseases like HIV,
malaria and tuberculosis, etc.
6. FDCs help in reducing the inadvertent medication errors and have
also been found to prevent or slow the advance of antimicrobial
resistance by reducing the need for mono-therapy.
3. Cons
1. Health experts have long maintained that many FDC
combinations in the market neither boast any advantage over
individual drugs nor are safe.
2. The patient may not actually need all the drugs present in the
combination.
3. Some of the drugs reportedly have dangerous side-effects.
4. Dosing is inflexible and cannot be regulated to patient’s needs as
each patient has unique characteristics such as weight, age,
pharmacogenetics, co-morbidity, which may alter drug
metabolism and effect.
5. Moreover, the existence of unlimited brands of FDCs with
different permutations and combinations leads to confusion rather
than guiding the prescribing doctor.

Nuclear energy

1. Nuclear energy has emerged as a viable source in recent

times. Important minerals used for the generation of nuclear energy are
uranium and thorium. Uranium deposits occur in the Dharwar rocks.
Geographically, uranium ores are known to occur in several locations
along the Singbhum Copper belt.
2. 3-stage nuclear process

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3. Nuclear fusion

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4. Advantages of Thorium reactors

1. Thorium is predicted to be able to replace uranium as nuclear fuel
in nuclear reactors, but only a few thorium reactors have yet been
completed.
2. Proliferation is not easy. Weapons-grade fissionable material (U-
233) is harder to retrieve safely from a thorium reactor.
3. Thorium reactors produce far less waste than present-day reactors.
Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive
waste.
4. Thorium reactors are cheaper because they have higher burn up.
5. Thorium mining produces a single pure isotope, so there is no
need for enrichment which reduces the cost.
6. Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming,
so fission stops by default in an accelerator driven reactor.
5. Nuclear deal with Japan
1. Being a non signatory to NPT, Japan had always opposed India’s
nuclear advancements. So such a deal now would signal a change
in Japan’s policy vis a vis nuclear deals and also regarding India.
2. Its significance comes from the fact that the Indo-US civil nuclear
deal is contingent on this deal as many nuclear reactors under the
Indo-US deal have to be built by the Japanese company Toshiba.
3. It will pave way for a growing India Japan relationship at many
multilateral platforms specially G4 which is vying for a
permanent seat at UNSC.
4. It will provide India with cutting edge and some critical nuclear
technology which is yet unavailable here and hence will advance
India’s nuclear capabilities to a great extent.
5. Japan’s efficient handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster

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would come in handy for India’s similar preparation for its own
reactors.
6. Japanese equipment comes with capital investment. Japan unlike
other countries is willing to manufacture in India. With this,
nuclear trade between the two countries would increase manifold.
7. It will also pave way for other trade deals, and Japan is expected
to be one of India’s leading trading partners.
8. Advancing nuclear capabilities could fulfill India’s rapidly
increasing energy needs without producing large scale carbon
emissions. Thus we can reach our INDC goals.
6. Challenges in making world go nuclear free
1. Many countries are not willing to give up nuclear weapons to
secure their people and land. Nuclear arms race among the
countries especially between U.S, Russia, China, India, Pakistan,
North Korea seems to be increased not showing any declining
trend.
2. Double standards of western countries are also to be blamed. In
the recent Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington, US urged
other countries to give up nuclear weapons but simultaneously are
having plans to spend $1 trillion for modernisation of its nuclear
inventory in the coming three decades.
3. Discriminatory nuclear regimes such as CTBT and NPT that have
been designed to maintain status quo and keep emerging powers
deprived.
4. Discriminatory responses to nuclear proliferation by the West that
applaud Israel and punish Iran, North Korea.
5. Lack of genuine initiatives in UN that can lead to nuclear non-
proliferation. The new START between US-Russia are simply a
chimera. This in turn raises the question of genuine UN reforms.
6. More than anything else, the genuine lack of interest among
nuclear powers to give up the weapons so as to maintain the
balance of power is the biggest obstacle in achieving a nuke free
world.
7. Challenges to nuclear energy
1. According to IAEA, just three nuclear reactors started
construction world wide last year. In contrast 20 to 30 new were
being built every year in the 1960s and 1970s.

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2. The emergence of cheap shale oil and gas has made competition
in the energy sector tougher than ever. Wind and solar power
generation are also growing as viable, alternative energy sources.
3. Toshiba and Hitachi, the nuclear heavy weights, are facing huge
losses. Toshiba has filed for bankruptcy recently.
4. In the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the
nuclear industry is facing a global crisis and a slowdown.
5. Stricter safety regulations have spiked the costs of constructing
plants and some countries have become more cautious about new
reactors.
6. Nuclear projects are also facing problems from domestic
opposition from people residing in the area. Ex: Kudankulam
project.
8. India's nuclear doctrine

Gas hydrates

1. They are formed when a gas such as methane gets trapped in well
defined cages of water molecules forming crystalline solids. It is a solid
ice-like form of water that contains gas molecules in its molecular
cavities.
2. Natural gas hydrates occur on continental margins and shelves
worldwide from polar regions to the tropics. Gas hydrate reservoirs are

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generally associated with biologically rich cold seep ecosystems at the

seafloor. Cold seeps are locations where hydrocarbon rich fluid seeps
up from below the sea floor, often as methane or hydrogen sulphide.
3. It is estimated that total amount of carbon in the form of methane
hydrates, far exceeds the carbon content in all the fossil fuel reserves
put together and hence these are supposed to be the future potential
energy resource.
4. India has the second largest gas hydrate reserves after America. The
Krishna-Godavari (KG), Cauvery and Kerala basins alone have 100-
130 trillion cubic feet of estimated reserves.

Generic drugs

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Hyperloop

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3-D printing

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IT in health care

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