Summary Information & Communication technology.

topic- Information & Communication technology. Date- 27/06/2022 What is ICT in everyday life? ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology. The term gives a broader meaning to Information Technology (IT). IT refers to all communication technologies that are the tools to access, retrieve, store, transmit and modify information digitally. ICTs are also used to refer to the convergence of media technology such as audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks, by means of a unified system of cabling (including signal distribution and management) or link system. However, there is no universally accepted definition of ICTs considering that the concepts, methods, and tools involved in ICTs are steadily evolving on an almost daily basis. Examples of ICT in everyday life is given below: 1. E-mail – Refers to ICT in online communication 2. E-commerce – /Refers to ICT in business 3. Online Banking – Refers to ICT in banking 4. E-government – Refers to ICT in governance 5. E-learning – Refers to ICT in learning Cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of a computerized database. It uses strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. It typically does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority. Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems. Why is it in demand? 1. Funds transfer between two parties will be easy without the need of third party like credit/debit cards or banks. 2. It is a cheaper alternative compared to other online transactions. 3. Payments are safe and secured and offer an unprecedented level of anonymity. 4. The private key is only known to the owner of the wallet. 5. Funds transfers are completed with minimal processing fees. Significance of Cryptocurrencies 1. Time Effective: Cryptocurrencies can help save money and substantial time for the remitter and the receiver, as it is conducted entirely on the Internet, runs on a mechanism that involves very less transaction fees and is almost instantaneous. 2. Cost Effective: Intermediaries such as banks, credit card and payment gateways draw almost 3% from the total global economic output of over $100 trillion, as fees for their services. Concerns over Cryptocurrencies 1. Sovereign guarantee: Cryptocurrencies pose risks to consumers. They do not have any sovereign guarantee and hence are not legal tender. 2. Market volatility: Their speculative nature also makes them highly volatile. For instance, the value of Bitcoin fell from USD 20,000 in December 2017 to USD 3,800 in November 2018. 3. Risk in security: A user loses access to their cryptocurrency if they lose their private key (unlike traditional digital banking accounts, this password cannot be reset). 4. Malware threats: In some cases, these private keys are stored by technical service providers (cryptocurrency exchanges or wallets), which are prone to malware or hacking. 5. Money laundering: Cryptocurrencies are more vulnerable to criminal activity and money laundering. They provide greater anonymity than other payment methods since the public keys engaging in a transaction cannot be directly linked to an individual. 6. Regulatory bypass: A central bank cannot regulate the supply of cryptocurrencies in the economy. This could pose a risk to the financial stability of the country if their use becomes widespread. 7. Power consumption: Since validating transactions is energy-intensive, it may have adverse consequences for the country’s energy security (the total electricity use of bitcoin mining, in 2018, was equivalent to that of mid-sized economies such as Switzerland). Cryptocurrencies in India: 1. In 2018, The RBI issued a circular preventing all banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies. This circular was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in May 2020. Recently, the government has announced to introduce a bill; Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, to create a sovereign digital currency and simultaneously ban all private cryptocurrencies. BHARATNET BharatNet is a project of national importance to establish, by 2017, a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis, to provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, to realise the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector. The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.  Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd(BBNL) was created as the special purpose vehicle created to execute the project.  BharatNet will now extend up to all inhabited villages beyond the gram panchayats (GPs) in the said states.  Over 3.6 lakh villages over 16 states of the country will be covered under the expanded BharatNet programme. Lessons from other countries-  In terms of implementation, we can look at some models which have been adopted in other countries. In Australia, the Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) program was started in 2007, in response to data which showed that internet services were not available for rural and remote areas. A one -time incentive payment was offered to internet service providers to supply broadband service s in eligible areas.  Estonia follows a model where communications undertakings, are invited to provide universal service in a designated area. The price for the service is to be fixed by the State, and there is a provision to compensate the undertaking for any losses incurred in providing universal service.  In India, we can perhaps look at the model of how when there was a need to expand access to banking services for people in rural areas, the State had stepped in by imposing a specific mandate for banks to open a specified number of new branches in rural and underserved areas if they want to expand. Conclusion Bharat’s need for internet connectivity is extremely urgent, both for accessing State services and information as well as for personal consumption. As the government announces a National Broadband Mission, one hopes that the name change is not merely cosmetic, and also carries with it an updated strategy and implementation design which can create the infrastructure needed for people to have access to a better quality of life. Supercomputer Supercomputers are the physical embodiment of high-performance computing (HPC), allowing organizations to solve problems that would be impossible with regular computers and to better assess associated revenue streams FEATURES  Supercomputers have certain distinguishing features. Unlike conventional computers, they usually have more than one CPU (central processing unitThe use of several CPUs to achieve high computational rates is necessitated by the physical limits of circuit technology.  Electronic signals cannot travel faster than the speed of light, which thus constitutes a fundamental speed limit for signal transmission and circuit switching.  This limit has almost been reached, owing to miniaturization of circuit components, dramatic reduction in the length of wires connecting circuit boards, and innovation in cooling techniques (e.g., in various supercomputer systems, p rocessor and memory circuits are immersed in a cryogenic fluid to achieve the low temperatures at which they operate fastest).  Rapid retrieval of stored data and instructions is required to support the extremely high computational speed of CPUs. Therefore, most supercomputers have a very large storage capacity, as well as a very fast input/output capability. Characteristics of Supercomputer  These types of computers are able to solve large amounts of calculations, and complicated calculations as well.  Multiple users are capable of accessing the supercomputer at same time.  It Is more expensive so ordinary users can not purchase that computer.  Use for special areas where there is a high amount and complicated calculations.  Having huge storage capacity. As of June 2021 there are 3 systems based in India on the TOP500 supercomputer list. Rank Site Name 89 Centre for Development of Advanced Computing PARAM Siddhi-AI 107 Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pratyush (Cray XC40) 187 National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting Mihir (Cray XC40) Digital divide Digital divide is any uneven distribution in the access to, use of, or impact of information and communications technologies between any number of distinct groups, which can be defined based on social, geographical, or geopolitical criteria, or otherwise. Impacts of digital divide:  In the Lokniti-CSDS National Election Study 2019, only 1 in every 3 were found to be using smartphones (approximately 90% of the smartphone users had Internet in their phones), and merely 16% and 10% households had access to a computer/laptop and an Internet connection at home, respectively.  Mandatory online registration introduces a skew in favour of urban centres, given that a little over half of India’s population has access to broadband Internet, while rural tele-density is under 60%. States including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh having among the country’s lowest tele-density.  It is more difficult for those with less access and greater unfamiliarity with technology, including access to a smartphone or computer. Solutions:  Infrastructure: The promotion of indigenous ICT development under Atmanirbhar Abhiyan can play a significant role.  Digital literacy: Digital literacy needs special attention at the school / college level. The National Digital Literacy Mission should focus on introducing digital literacy at the primary school level in all government schools for basic conten t and in higher classes and colleges for advanced content.  Cyber security: MeitY will need to evolve a comprehensive cyber security framework for data security, safe digital transactions, and complaint redressal.  Telecom ombudsman: The government should also set up telecom ombudsman for the redress of grievances. Cloud Computing It is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. The Government of India is embracing cloud computing technology for expanding its egovernance initiatives throughout the country. In India, the focus of e-governance is to reduce corruption and ensure the government schemes are reaching people living in rural areas of the country. Further, e-governance services ensure quicker service delivery and eliminate the involvement of middlemen who tend to capitalize on loopholes for quick money by means of exploiting people. In order to utilise and harness the benefits of Cloud Computing, Government of India has embarked upon an ambitious initiative – “GI Cloud” which has been named as ‘MeghRaj’. This initiative is to implement various components including governance mechanisms to ensure proliferation of Cloud in the government. The focus of this initiative is to accelerate delivery of e-services in the country while optimizing ICT spending of the Government. MeghRaj will ensure optimum utilization of the infrastructure and speed up the development and deployment of eGov applications. Cloud computing in Indian Governance: DigiLocker DigiLocker is the public cloud-based storage introduced by the Indian government for the citizens of India. It is much more than an online drive where you upload your documents to be accessed depending on your convenience. The documents are digitally verified and signed by the government of India in a few seconds with an authentic DigiLocker verification seal. With more than 57.13 million users and 4.27 billion issued documents, DigiLocker has proved to be one of the biggest success stories of cloud in the government . In India, cloud computing has ensured the success of national initiatives and schemes such as Swachh Bharat Mission, e-Hospital, National Scholarship, My-Gov and eTransport. Li-Fi Li-Fi, or light fidelity, invented by German physicist and professor Harald Haas, is a wireless technology that makes use of visible light in place of radio waves to transmit data at terabits per second speeds—more than 100 times the speed of Wi-Fi.  Though it was discovered in the last decade, proofs of concept to test commercial utilization started emerging only in 2015. How does it work? Li-Fi is a Visible Light Communications (VLC) system. This means that it accommodates a photo-detector to receive light signals and a signal processing element to convert the data into ‘stream-able’ content. Unlike Wi-Fi, which uses radio waves, Li-Fi runs on visible light.  Here, data is fed into an LED light bulb (with signal processing technology), it then sends data (embedded in its beam) at rapid speeds to the photo-detector (photodiode).  The tiny changes in the rapid dimming of LED bulbs is then converted by the ‘receiver’ into electrical signal.  The signal is then converted back into a binary data stream that the user would recognise as web, video and audio applications that run on int ernet enables devices. Advantages:  Li-Fi could make a huge impact on the internet of things too, with data transferred at much higher levels with even more devices able to connect to one another.  Li-Fi offers great promise to overcome the existing limitations of Wi-Fi by providing for data-heavy communication. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI):  AI refers to the simulation of human intelligencein machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions.  AI is a self, adaptive learning  Applications: Industrial automation, Space science, self-driven cars, Healthcare sector, weather forecasting etc. According to the ‘Global AI Report’ 2019, AI will add 957 billion dollars to India’s GDP by the year 2035 boosting India’s annual growth by 1.3% points. India stood at the 9th position in terms of the number of AI specialists working. The US, China & the UK topped the list.