24 Oct 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

B. GS2 Related

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Centre to set up peritoneal dialysis services under PMNDP

Context:

Scientists claimed to have achieved a near-mythical state of computing in which a new generation of machine vastly outperforms the world’s fastest super-computer, known as “quantum supremacy”.

Details:

• A team of experts working on Google’s Sycamore machine said their quantum system had executed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken a classic computer 10,000 years to complete.
• If verified and harnessed, the Google device could make even the world’s most powerful supercomputers — capable of performing thousands of trillions of calculations per second.

How does it work?

• Standard computers and quantum computers are radically different.
• While standard computers perform calculations with “bits”, which must be either 0 or 1, quantum computers have “qubits” that can take any value between 0 and 1.
• Fragments of data on a quantum computer, known as qubits, can be both 1 and 0 at the same time.
• This property, known as superposition, means a quantum computer, made up of several qubits, can crunch an enormous number of potential outcomes simultaneously.
• The computer harnesses some of the most mind-boggling aspects of quantum mechanics, including a phenomenon known as “entanglement” — in which two members of a pair of bits can exist in a single state, even if far apart.
• Adding extra qubits, therefore, leads to an exponential boost in processing power.
• The international team designed the Sycamore quantum processer, made up of 54 qubits interconnected in a lattice pattern.
• They used the machine to perform a task related to random-number generation, identifying patterns amid seemingly random spools of figures.
• The Sycamore, just a few millimetres across, solved the task within 200 seconds, a process that on a regular machine would take 10,000 years.

What are Quantum computers used for?

• In the search for new medicines, pharmaceutical companies call on computers to trawl through the structures of scores of molecules to see which might bind to biological molecules and have some useful action in the body. Quantum computers run these searches much faster by analysing whole libraries of molecules at a time and identifying the most promising drug candidates.
• Several startups see quantum computers as a means to design radically new materials, including better batteries, by modelling the quantum behaviour of the subatomic particles inside them.
• Another area where the processing capability of quantum computers could prove itself is weather forecasting.

Conclusion:

• Computer scientists have some formidable hurdles to overcome to make quantum computers useful and commonplace.
• Google’s experiment is an excellent demonstration of the progress in superconducting-based quantum computing.

Context:

India will commission its first-ever survey to estimate the population and geographical range of the snow leopard.

Details:

• The survey was announced at a meeting of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) programme being organised by the Union Environment Ministry.
• The meeting had officials from Nepal, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and China.
• It is for the first time that technology such as camera traps and scientific surveys would be used to estimate the numbers. This is critical to its conservation.
• National Tiger Conservation Authority, a part of the Union Environment Ministry, will play a crucial role in coordinating the survey.

Snow Leopard:

• The snow leopard is found along the upper reaches of the Himalayan range.
• In India, it is reported to have a presence in Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The snow leopard is found in 12 countries — India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
• It is the state animal of Himachal Pradesh.

Conservation status of Snow Leopards:

• It is classified as “Vulnerable” in the IUCN Red List.
• In addition, the snow leopard, like all big cats, is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), which makes trading of animal body parts (i.e., fur, bones and meat) illegal in signatory countries.
• It is also protected by several national laws in its range countries.

Issue:

• The inhospitable terrain and the reclusive nature of the animal have so far made a scientific estimation impossible.

Way forward:

• According to Prakash Javadekar, Union Environment Minister, there will be collective efforts to double the snow leopard population in the world in the coming decade.
• For this, there is a need to start thinking about capacity building, livelihood, green economy, and green pathway even in the snow leopard areas of the Himalayan range and cross-country cooperation. It forms the basis for all Snow Leopard range countries.

Context:

In an effort to revive the troubled state-owned telecom firms BSNL and MTNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.), the Union Cabinet has approved a package worth nearly Rs.70,000 crore. The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has also given an in-principle nod for the merger of the two entities.

Details:

• Under the package, 4G spectrum worth 20,000 crore will be administratively allotted to the two firms.
• Their debt will be restructured by raising bonds with sovereign guarantee worth Rs. 15,000 crore.
• A voluntary retirement scheme, on an outlay of Rs. 30,000 crore, will be offered to the employees.
• The government also plans to monetise the assets of the two firms worth Rs. 38,000 crore.

Significance of the move:

• Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is an Indian state-owned telecommunications company headquartered in New Delhi.
• Public sector presence will maintain a semblance of competition, now fast receding, in the telecom space. National security considerations demand a PSU presence.
• The entire Army network is managed by BSNL.
• Even for banks most of the network is managed by BSNL.
• In times of natural calamity and manmade disasters, BSNL has often emerged as the only operator which has been able to quickly revive communication networks in the affected areas.
• When it comes to national security, communication network is a key element. BSNL plays an important role in connecting strategic establishments across the country. This function cannot be given to any private operator.

Way forward:

• It is believed that, with these steps, BSNL and MTNL are expected to turn EBITDA (Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) positive in the next two years.
• Since an immediate merger is not feasible, given that MTNL is a listed entity, till the time the process is completed, MTNL will work as a subsidiary of BSNL.
• The administrative allotment of spectrum for 4G services to BSNL and MTNL will enable the PSUs to provide broadband and other data services. The spectrum would be funded by the government via capital infusion of Rs.20,140 crore.

Context:

Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra has refused to withdraw from heading a Constitution Bench re-examining his own judgment on compensation under Section 24 of the land acquisition law of 2013.

Background:

• The Supreme Court of India has found itself increasingly entangled in criticism concerning the recusal of Justice Arun Mishra.
• At the heart of the fuss is Section 24 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
• In 2014, three judges of the Court ruled on the construction of this provision in the Pune Municipal Corporation case.
• In 2018, another three-judge Bench of the Court departed from their interpretation, in the Indore Development Authority decision.
• To resolve the conflict between these two judgments and provide an authoritative understanding of Section 24, a five-judge Bench was constituted, led by Justice Mishra.
• Controversially, Justice Mishra also presided over the three-judge Bench in Indore Development Authority, penning an opinion that strongly disagreed with Pune Municipal Corporation.
• In a nutshell, the quarrel is this: having made his opinion on the legal issue abundantly clear in Indore Development Authority, should the judge still be allowed to sit on a bench established to reconsider the very same question?

Recusal:

Details:

• As noted by the Supreme Court in the NJAC judgment, a judge may be required to step down in one of two scenarios:
  • Cases of presumed bias, where the judge has a pecuniary interest in the outcome of a case (extended, through the Pinochet judgment to other similar non-pecuniary interests); or
  • Cases of apparent bias, where a reasonable, fair-minded observer would believe there is a real possibility that the judge is biased.
• It is this latter test of apparent bias which has been invoked in the ongoing proceedings.
• Emerging out of the principles of natural justice, the justification for the apparent bias test is fairly straightforward: that ‘justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done’ to instil public confidence in the legal system.
• The purpose of this test is not to disqualify judges on the slightest whiff of suspicion; rather, the allegation of bias is only to succeed if it convinces a reasonable, fully-informed fair-minded observer.
• In this case, there is no evidence to indicate that Justice Mishra cannot be persuaded to change his mind on the interpretation of Section 24 through fresh arguments in the current proceedings.
• Some have argued that, because the current Bench will be indirectly ruling on the rectitude of the Indore Development Authority judgment, Justice Mishra is, in effect, sitting on appeal over his own judgment. While this may sound unintuitive, it is not in fact prohibited under the common law.
  • Judges have often been permitted to question the validity of their own prior decisions — see, for instance, the decisions in Sengupta v. Holmes and JSC BTA Bank v. Ablyazov.
  • The law recognises that judges can be, and often are, persuaded to change their opinions.
• The current proceedings are not formally an appeal but arise out of an entirely distinct case. As such, the situation is more akin to that of a judge being asked to decide a legal issue they have ruled on in a prior case: a matter that occurs fairly routinely in our legal system.

The author believes that a recusal in this case would set a dangerous precedent for future litigants to cherry-pick their benches and coerce judges they find unfavourable into stepping down. Such a position would severely undermine the administration of justice in the Indian legal system.

Category: SECURITY

1. Need for balance (On web content regulation)

Q1. Which of the following is NOT an Ozone layer depleting substance?

Q2. Which of the following is/are NOT included in the UNESCO’s list of Intangible 
cultural heritage (ICH):

Q3. Consider the following statements with respect to McMahon Line:

Q4. Arrange the following from North to South: