UPSC Prelims News 11 October 2022

UPSC Prelims News of 11 October 2022

Rosetta Stone

Context: Historians from Egypt have asked the British Museum to return the Rosetta Stone.

About Rosetta Stone:

The Rosetta Stone is a large stone slab with inscriptions on it. It is believed to be a piece of a bigger rock.
It has inscriptions in three scripts, all of which provide a decree or public message. They were said to have been placed all over the Kingdom in ancient Egypt.
Origin: The inscriptions were made during the reign of King Ptolemy V who ruled from 204–181 BC. The age of stone is said to be over 2,000 years.

Discovery: The stone was discovered during the time of French king Napoleon Bonaparte, who was in Egypt from 1798 to 1801. It was found accidentally in the city of Rashid (called Rosetta by the French) in the Nile Delta.
- - After the defeat of the French, the stone was transferred to the British under the Treaty of Alexandria (1801).
Inscription: The inscription is in three scripts: hieroglyphs (suitable for a priestly decree), Demotic (the cursive Egyptian script used for daily use), and Ancient Greek (the language of the administration).

UPSC Prelims News of 10 October 2022

Tele-MANAS

Context: The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare launched the Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele-MANAS) initiative on World Mental Health Day.

What is Tele-MANAS?

About

It is a round-the-clock mental health service that aims to increase access to mental healthcare across India.
This initiative will be the digital arm of the National Mental Health Programme and District Mental Health Programme.
This mental health service can be accessed by calling the helpline number 14416 and 1-800-91-4416.

Objective

It aims to make mental healthcare services accessible to even the remotest and difficult-to-reach terrains in the country.
The Tele-MANAS will boost access to mental healthcare across the country by providing nationwide network offering counselling, consultation with specialist and e-prescriptions.

Implementation

The nodal centre for its implementation is National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience (NIMHANS).
Technical support for this initiative will be provided by IIT Bombay.

Coverage:

Initially, the service will be launched in 20 states and union territories. It will later be expanded to include other parts of the country as well.

Weapons Systems Branch

Context: The government has approved the creation of a Weapon System branch for officers in the Indian Air Force (IAF).

About the Weapons Systems Branch (WSB)

This is the first time since Independence that a new operational branch is being setup
The WSB will bring different weapons systems operators under one entity. It will streamline the operational employment of all specialists airborne and ground-based weapons systems.
This will essentially be for manning of four specialised streams of Surface-to-Surface missiles, Surface to Air Missiles, Remotely Piloted Aircraft and weapon system operators in twin and multi crew aircraft.
Creation of this branch would result in savings of over ₹3,400 crore due to reduced expenditure on flying training.
The IAF also unveiled a new digital camouflage uniform for its rank and file.

Quantum Entanglement for Higher Dimensions

Context: Indian scientists have found a simpler way to quantify the amount of entanglement in higher dimensional systems.

What is Quantum Entanglement?

Quantum entanglement means that aspects of one particle of an entangled pair depend on aspects of the other particle. The behaviour of one produced an instantaneous reaction in the other.
- This was possible even if they were no longer connected in any way and were separated by very large distances.
- These particles can be electrons or photons, and an aspect could be its state, such as whether it is “spinning” in one direction or another.
Application: Quantum entanglement can be used for quantum communication, quantum computation and information processing tasks that cannot be performed by classical systems.

About the Research

The existing method of characterizing quantum state is Quantum State Tomography (QST), which can then be used to quantify entanglement.
- QST is a tool for estimating the properties of quantum states.
New method to quantify entanglement: The new research used just two sets of measurements and experimentally quantified the amount of entanglement in a pair of three dimensional photonic qutrits.

Significance of Study

Quantum teleportation: The study would help in better assessment of the efficacy of an entangled state for technological applications like quantum teleportation.
- Quantum teleportation is a method for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away.
- The accuracy of the process depends on the amount of entanglement and hence carries significance.
Higher dimensional system (qudits): Higher dimensional systems (dimension greater than two) have advantages in both quantum computing and quantum communications.
- Experimental studies of higher-dimensional entangled states along with quantification of the entanglement are of critical importance.

UPSC Prelims News of 12 October 2022