Daily Prelims Notes 6 December 2020

December 6, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Table Of Contents

1. POST QUANTUM CRPTOGRAPHY

Subject: Science & tech

Concept:

Classical computers use classical bits that can take the value 0 or 1, allowing for a binary system to be set up and the lowest level of computer language is done manipulating these bits.
A Quantum Computer uses qubit on the other hand can exist as a superposition of two states 0 and 1. So if you have an n-qubit number, it can exist as a superposition of 2n states. This also allows for immense amount of parallel processing.
Post quantum cryptography – a field which deals with additional possibilities offered by a quantum system, which goes beyond being able to break the integer factor code.

Enter lattices

One of the main contenders for a mathematical problem that is hard for the quantum computer to crack is the so-called shortest vector problem.
This involves lattices. Lattices are regular arrangement of points in space; examples in nature include honeycombs and all crystalline solids, like common salt.
A line of regularly spaced points is a lattice in one dimension, and a crystal of salt is a three-dimensional lattice. Mathematically, we can extend this construction to 5, 10 or even 500 dimensions.
At this magnitude, it becomes in theory a “hard” problem for a quantum computer to calculate the shortest vector from one point to any other point. This problem can therefore be used to construct “locks” that can even withstand a quantum attack.
Post Quantum Cryptography provides new methods to construct such encryption schemes which are secure against quantum computers.

2. HERD IMMUNITY

Subject: Science & tech

Context: Director-General of ICMR Dr. Balram Bhargava said: “If we’re able to vaccinate a critical mass of people and break virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population.”

Concept:

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune.
Initially, herd immunity, an important tool in epidemic control, was proposed as a means to overcome the pandemic.
Only a certain proportion of the population needs to be infected in order to stop large outbreaks, either through naturally-acquired disease, or through vaccination.

Challenges in achieving Herd Immunity through Partial Vaccination:

The levels of immunization needed for herd immunity are determined by how the virus spreads in the population, and makes the assumption that spread is homogenous. But SARS-CoV-2 virus spread exhibits a high level of uneven transmission.
This is the reason why there have been a number of super-spreading events where some infected individuals spread the virus to very a large number of people while most infected individuals transmit the virus only to a few or none.
With COVID-19 vaccines, we will also need to reach age groups which are not currently targeted as part of the large-scale immunisation efforts. This will be a design, logistics and implementation challenge. All of these aspects are important to consider while considering the country-wide COVID-19 immunisation plans.
Considering that the government has already listed out the high-priority groups that will receive the vaccine, the issue of choosing other sections of the population that needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity will be ethically challenging.
Another contentious area is the question of vaccinating those who have already been infected. The immunity offered by the natural infection is probably long term. Till date, we are not aware of the added benefits or risks of vaccinating the people who are already infected.

3. HAYABUSA2 MISSION

Subject: Science & tech

Context: Six years after Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission was launched, it is set to return back to Earth on December 6 carrying with it samples from the one-kilometre wide Ryugu asteroid that orbits the Sun.

Concept:

The Hayabasu2 mission was launched in December 2014 when the spacecraft was sent on a six-year-long voyage to study the asteroid Ryugu and collect samples that it is now bringing back to the Earth.
The mission is similar to NASA’s OSIRIS-REX mission that brought back samples from asteroid Bennu late in October.
According to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), this is the first time that a probe has visited a celestial body that is under 100 metres in diameter.

Additional Information

Hayabasu2’s predecessor, the Hayabusa mission brought back samples from the asteroid Itokawa in 2010.
Ryugu is classified as a Potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). It was discovered in 1999 and was given the name by the Minor Planet Center in 2015. It is 300 million kilometres from Earth and it took Hayabusa2 over 42 months to reach it.

4. THE 2nd CANCER GENOME ATLAS (TCGA) 2020

Subject: Current Events

Context: The Minister of Science and Technology and Vice President of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), virtually inaugurated the 2nd TCGA 2020 conference in New Delhi.

Concept:

TCGA is a landmark cancer genomics program that molecularly characterized over 20,000 primary cancer and matched normal samples spanning 33 cancer types.
This joint effort between the US- National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute began in 2006, bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines and multiple institutions.
Over the years, TCGA generated over 2.5 petabytes of genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data. The data, which has already led to improvements in the ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer, will remain publicly available for anyone in the research community to use.
On similar lines, the establishment of an ‘Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA)’ has been initiated by a consortium of key stakeholders in India led by CSIR, Government of India.

5. DACA PROGRAMME

Subject: International Relations

Context: A U.S. judge ordered the Trump administration to fully reinstate DACA programme that protects from deportation immigrants who came to the country illegally as children.

Concept:

DACA is an American immigration policy established by the Obama administration through an executive action in 2012.
It allows some individuals who entered the country illegally as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit.
The DACA programme has helped around 8,00,000 beneficiaries, a group that is commonly referred to as the ‘Dreamers’.
This program protects such immigrants from deportation & grant them a two-year relief which can be extended by issuing work permit and a Social Security number.
Recipients of DACA need to satisfy several requirements, including clear criminal record. Also, Such immigrants must have been 30 or younger at the time of launch of DACA and brought to the US before age 16.
DACA does not provide legal US residency; it only provides the reprieve from deportation while being allowed to legally work. The large majority of DACA recipients are from Mexico.

6. INFLATION IN MONETARY POLICY

Subject: Economics

Concept:

Monetary Policy Committee opined that inflation was likely to remain elevated, “barring transient relief in the winter months from prices of perishables”. This, it stressed, “constrains monetary policy at the current juncture from using the space available to act in support of growth”.

Projection on CPI inflation

Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation, the RBI said, would average 6.8% for Q3 and 5.8% in Q4 — both levels above or close to the 6% upper bound of the target range for ensuring price stability — before easing to a 5.2% to 4.6% range in the first half of the next financial year, starting April 2021.

How does India measure retail inflation?

Inflation is the rate of change in the prices of a given set of items. India bases its retail inflation metrics on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The index records changes in prices for a sample of family budget items that are representative of what consumers typically spend their household income on — food, fuel, housing, clothing, health, education, amusement and even paan, tobacco and intoxicants. The measure is based on a weighted average.
The CPI-based retail inflation is measured monthly and is published as a percentage value of change in the index from the corresponding year-earlier period.
Data for a certain month are released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation generally on the twelfth day of the subsequent month.

Why is faster inflation a concern for policymakers?

Faster retail inflation is indicative of prices of household items rising quickly. While inflation affects everyone, it is often referred to as a ‘tax on the poor’ as the low-income stratum of society bears the brunt.
Persistent high inflation pushes several items out of reach for this category of consumers. For example, onions and potatoes are generally a key staple in an average Indian family’s diet. But, if the price of potatoes starts rising rapidly, a poor household is often forced to sharply reduce or forgo its consumption of this key source of essential nutrients, including carbohydrates.
Over time, if unchecked, persistent high inflation erodes the value of money and hurts several other segments of the population, including the elderly living off a fixed pension. It hence ends up undermining a society’s consumptive capacity, and thereby, economic growth itself.

RBI’s role in tackling inflation

The RBI’s explicit mandate is to conduct monetary policy. “The primary objective of monetary policy is to maintain price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth. Price stability is a necessary precondition to sustainable growth,” the RBI states on its website.
In 2016, the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, was amended to provide a statutory basis for the implementation of a flexible inflation-targeting framework, where the Centre and the RBI would review and agree upon a specific inflation target every five years.
Under this, 4% was set as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation target for the period from August 5, 2016, to March 31, 2021, with the upper tolerance limit of 6% and the lower tolerance limit of 2%.

What is core inflation and why is it important?

Core inflation helps measure inflation after excluding the effects of temporary volatility, especially from prices of items such as fuel and food. For example, seasonal spikes in food prices may skew the inflation rate, but the effect is only transitory.
Viewing inflation after stripping out such volatility helps give it a better picture of the underlying trend in prices.

7. LAB-GROWN MEAT

Subject: Science & tech

Context: The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) approved this week the sale of a lab-grown meat product. This is the first time cultured meat has been cleared for sale anywhere in the world. The product approved by the SFA is cultured chicken, produced by US-based East Just.

Concept:

How is lab-grown or cultured meat different from plant-based meat?

The latter is made from plant sources such as soy or pea protein, while cultured meat is grown directly from cells in a laboratory.
Both have the same objective: to offer alternatives to traditional meat products that could feed a lot more people, reduce the threat of zoonotic diseases, and mitigate the environmental impact of meat consumption.
In terms of cellular structure, cultured or cultivated meat is the same as conventional meat — except that cultured meat does not come directly from animals.

Benefits:

According to the Good Food Institute (GFI)’s 2019 State of the Industry Report on cultivated meats, compared to conventional meat, cultivated meat could reduce land use by more than 95%, climate change emissions by 74-87% and nutrient pollution by 94%.
Since cultivated meat is created in clean facilities, the risk of contamination by pathogens such as salmonella and E coli, which may be present in traditional slaughterhouses and meat-packing factories, is significantly reduced.
It does not require antibiotics either, unlike animals raised for meat, thereby reducing the threat posed to public health by growing antibiotic resistance.