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Subject – Technology
Topic – Scientific and technological advancements- Robotics, Machine learning, Augmented reality, Nanotechnology, RFID, Quantum computing etc.
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Technology PYQs – Click Here
Click on the question to see the model answer. Submit your answers below and complete the 90-day challenge for RAS Mains answer writing
Q1 What is Machine learning ? 2M
Answer:
Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, enables computers to learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention,automating the process of analytical model building.
- How it works:
- Decision Process: Applying the trained model to make predictions.
- Error Function: Evaluating model performance by measuring prediction accuracy.
- Model Optimization: Improving model accuracy by adjusting weightage to parameters to minimize errors.
Application-
- Speech Recognition: Eg- Siri, Alexa, etc.
- Customer Service: Eg- Slush, Maya Chatbots, etc.
Q2 Highlight the major differences between virtual reality and augmented reality. 5M
Answer:
Q3 Answer the following subparts of the question: 10M
How is quantum computing different from traditional computing?
What are superposition and entanglement?
Enlist the salient provisions of the National Quantum Mission.
Answer:
Quantum computing-traditional computing different :
Superposition and entanglement?
(Quantum Entanglement → Enables correlations between qubits
Quantum Superposition → Allows qubits to exist in multiple states simultaneously}
| Superposition: Superposition refers to the ability of a quantum system, such as a qubit (quantum bit), to exist in multiple states simultaneously. A qubit in superposition can represent both 0 and 1 at the same time, in various proportions. This property allows quantum computers to perform multiple calculations simultaneously, enabling massive parallelism and potentially speeding up certain computations exponentially.Entanglement: Entanglement is a phenomenon where the quantum states of two or more particles (qubit pair) become correlated in such a way that the state of one particle cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when they are separated by large distances. This means that the state of one particle instantly influences the state of the other(s), regardless of the distance between them. It allows for the creation of highly correlated qubits, which can be used to perform complex computations and enable secure communication protocols like quantum cryptography |
Salient provisions of the National Quantum Mission(NQM):
| Implementation: launched by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), with a total cost of Rs. 6000 crore from 2023-24 to 2030-31. Objective: The mission aims to seed, nurture, and scale up scientific and industrial R&D in Quantum Technology (QT), fostering a vibrant and innovative ecosystem. Mission Deliverables:Develop intermediate-scale quantum computers (50-1000 physical qubits) , Establish satellite-based secure quantum communications, Develop high-sensitivity magnetometers and Atomic Clocks for precision timing. Mission Implementation: Establish four Thematic Hubs (T-Hubs) at top academic and National R&D institutes focusing on:Quantum ComputingQuantum CommunicationQuantum Sensing & MetrologyQuantum Materials & Devices |
Q4. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
Gandhi’s experience in South Africa was decisive: not only in his political, family and social life, but also for his culture and religion. Two of his most faithful collaborators there, Henry Polak and Hermann Kallenbach, were secular Jews. Gandhi had occasion to meet exponents of diverse religions and denominations, including Christian ones; he held long discussions with them, and some tried to convert him. It was a Jainist poet and thinker from Bombay, Raychandbhai, who confirmed Gandhi in the faith of his fathers.
Gandhi met him on his return to India from England, and continued to correspond with him from South Africa, until the poet’s premature death. In his autobiography, Gandhi wrote that only once in his life had he come close to choosing a personal guru: yes, Raychandbhai. He considered him ‘the best Indian of his time,” and freely acknowledged his debt to the Jain. If his Christian friends in London had awakened in him “the thirst for a religious quest,” Raychandbhai had taught him that religion was essentially the control of one’s own spirit, and liberation from any attachment or aversion to people or things.
It was principally during his South African years that Gandhi became acquainted with writers whom he would consider masters for the rest of his life: Ruskin, Thoreau, Carpenter, Tolstoy. In 1904 he read Ruskin’s Unto this Last, a book identifying the individual good with the common good, and speaking of the importance of work as the cornerstone of life; for Ruskin, all types of work have equal dignity and value, whether they be intellectual or manual, noble or humble. In 1907, Gandhi read Thoreau’s “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,”’ and was struck by its central theme: one’s duty to refuse to obey a country’s laws if one believes them to be unjust. Two years later, while in London, he read a volume written by the idealistic socialist, Enward Carpenter:
Civilisation: Its cause and cure. He found it “enlightening’’, excellent in its analysis of civilisation.
An advocate of the return to a simple life in harmony with nature, Carpenter condemned modern civilisation as degrading and corrupting; like Ruskin, he exalted the joy of manual work, which industrialism had separated from the creative project.
However, the author that struck Gandhi more than any other was Tolstoy. All during the rest of his life, Gandhi would recognise his debt to the Russian writer. He probably read Tolstoy for the first time during the London years of his youth, when he greatly admired the author’s ideas and work.
But his first great encounter with Tolstoy dates back to 1894, in South Africa, when a friend gave him a copy of God’s Reign is Within You. Gandhi’s reading of it left an indelible impression on him. He felt for the book and its author the same admiration that he had held for the Sermon on the Mount.
He found in it an admonition against responding to evil with violence, an exhortation to love one‘s neighbour and practise pacifism, and a confirmation of the ancient Indian commandment (Jainist, in particular) of ahimsa. He also found a brief story of the forerunners of non-violence, and a catalogue of its advocates and “militants’’ at that time: from the Quakers to Tom Paine, from the American abolitionists to the Russian doukhobors.
In other books by Tolstoy which he read in the years that followed, Gandhi was led to agree more and more adamantly with the Russian’s distillation of Christianity-and of every religious faith-to the commandment to love one’s neighbour; the aspiration toward a profound moral rebirth of man; a highly critical attitude toward progress, science, luxury and wealth, as well as toward the city, a place of alienation and destruction of man’s deepest values.
Questions
1. Why was Gandhi’s experience in South Africa decisive?
2. Who was Gandhi’s personal guru and why did he consider him so?
3. Who were the writers whom he considered as masters?
4. How did these masters influence Gandhi?
5. How much was Gandhi impressed by Tolstoy?
6. Find a word in the passage that has the same meaning as the following:
(i) the state of understanding something
(ii) a state of agreement or of peaceful existence together
7. Write down a word or phrase opposite in meaning to each of the following words :
(i) secular
(ii) awakened
Answers
1. Gandhi’s experience in South Africa was decisive because two of his most faithful collaborators were there. He interacted with intellectual exponents of diverse religions and denominations.
2. Raychandbhai was Gandhi’s personal guru. Gandhi chose him because it was him who taught Gandhi that religion was essentially the control of one’s own spirit and liberation from any attachment or aversion to people or things.
3. Gandhi considered Ruskin, Thoreau, Carpenter and Tolstoy his masters.
4, The masters influenced Gandhi in different ways. Ruskin taught Gandhi about identification of personal good in common good and to respect every kind of work. Thoreau and Carpenter fed him about civil duties, right, causes and cure. Tolstoy refined Gandhi as a nonviolent person as he inspired him to not respond to evil with violence.
5. Tolstoy left an impeccable mark on Gandhi. He shook him internally through his advocacy of admonition against violence as a response.
6. (i) enlightening
(ii) harmony
7. (i) religious, spiritual
(ii) unconscious, ignorant
