NRC IN MANIPUR

Important for

Prelims : Demography of Manipur, Map of north-eastern states

Mains : National Register of Citizens (NRC), Crossborder migration, Security issues

Why in news?

• United Naga Council asks State govt. to start update of NRC in Manipur. Manipur govt. headed by CM N. Biren Singh has been seeking the Centre’s nod for undertaking the updating exercise like Assam.

Demands of the Naga Council

• Naga Council says that influx of people from Myanmar will create a serious demographic crisis. For the council, undertaking a NRC practice is the only solution to curb the unwarranted population. The State government should thus initiate stringent steps to curb the menace
• The United Naga Council, an apex body of Nagas in Manipur, has asked the State government to immediately start the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The council has also criticised, centre’s policy of encouraging inflow of people.
• The state government has been seeking centre’s nod for undertaking the updating exercise like Assam.

Manipur’s demography

• Manipur is inhabited by three major communities — the Meiteis, the Nagas and the Kuki­-Zomis. 
• The Meitei and Naga communities are considered indigenous, while most of the Kuki-­Zomi people are said to have settled from Myanmar. 

Recent clashes

• One of the triggers of the Kuki-­Meitei clash has been the perception that the Kuki­Zomi people and their Chin (Myanmar) cousins have been promoting “narco­terrorism”. 
• As advised by the Union Home Ministry, the State government began collecting the biometric data of people from Myanmar in July. 
• Officials in Manipur said 718 Myanmar nationals, including 301 children and 208 women, entered the Chandel district on July 22 and 23 due to the clashes between the Myanmar Army and the civil forces. 
• The Myanmar nationals are now staying in seven villages — Lajang, Bonse, New Samtal, New Lajang, Yangnomphai, Yangnomphai Saw Mill, and Aivomjang — in Chandel district. These villages are along the India­Myanmar border. 

GS PAPER : III

LAW TO AUCTION AND MINE LITHIUM

Important for

Prelims : Minerals and Resources

Mains : Government licensing, Industrial development, Electric mobility

Why in news?

• India’s Parliament passed a law allowing the government to auction and mine its newly-discovered reserves of lithium, among other minerals, increasing the mining of the critical input for EV batteries.

The development

• Under the law, lithium, along with other minerals was removed from a previous list of atomic minerals, which prevented it from being auctioned to private companies.
• Upon removal of these minerals from the list of atomic minerals, exploration and mining of these minerals will be open to private sector.
• As a result, exploration and mining of these minerals is expected to increase significantly in the country.
• Lithium reserves were discovered earlier this year in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Other minerals that will now be open for mining and auction include titanium, beryl, niobium and zirconium.
• These minerals were earlier only allowed to be mined by state­ run companies, which meant they were mined in limited quantities, and the involvement of private firms could be a ‘force multiplier’.

GS PAPER : III

NO RESISTANCE: THE QUEST FOR HOLY GRAIL

Important for

Prelims Exam: Super conductivity

Mains Exam: NA

Why in news?

Last week, two South Korean researchers posted two related papers claiming that a lead-based compound they had developed had shown superconducting properties at room temperature, under normal pressure conditions.

What is Superconductivity?

Superconductivity refers to a state in which a material offers zero, or near-zero, resistance to electric current. A current is nothing but the movement of charged particles, electrons in most cases, in a particular direction. When the electrons move, they collide, and interact, with other atoms in the material.

When resistance vanishes

• Resistance involves a loss of energy mostly in the form of heat. Part of the reason why electrical appliances get heated is this resistance.
• Elimination of this resistance can result in super-efficient electrical appliances, removal of transmission losses in power cables, and massive gains in energy.

Applications of super conductivity

• Superconducting materials show very interesting behaviour under magnetic field which allows the functioning of systems like the MRI scan machine
• The superfast Maglev trains that float above the tracks is due to conductivity.

Extremely low temperatures: What current superconductors look like

• As of now, superconductivity can be achieved only at very low temperatures, more than 250 degree Celsius below zero, very close to absolute zero which is – 273 degree Celsius.
• The first material to have been discovered to show super conductive properties was Mercury.
• Commonly used superconductors are– Lead, Aluminium, Tin, Niobium, and several others – also become superconducting at comparable temperatures, called critical temperature.
• ‘High-temperature’ superconductors, as of now, show superconductive properties only well below -150 degrees Celsius.

GS PAPER : III

How UIDAI is using AI to tackle payment frauds

Important for

Prelims Exam : UIDAI , AePS

Mains: Data security, payments fraud.

Why in news:

As the number of frauds related to Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) come to the fore, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has turned to artificial intelligence-based systems in a bid to limit the cases.

What is AePS?

• AePS is a payment service that allows bank customers to use Aadhaar to access the bank account and perform basic transactions like balance inquiry and cash withdrawls.

Government’s stance:

• To prevent AePS frauds by the use of spoofed fingerprints during Aadhaar authentication, the UIDAI has rolled out an in-house Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technology-based Finger Minutiae Record – Finger Image Record (FMR-FIR) modality , which is able to check the liveness of a fingerprint to detect the use of cloned fingerprint during the authentication process.

How does the Aadhaar finger print technology work?

• It uses a combination of both finger minutiae and finger image to check the liveness of the fingerprint captured.
• The AI-based technology is able to identify whether the fingerprint is from a real, or ‘live’ finger, or a cloned one.

Limitations?

• They have failed to thwart a number of frauds related to AePS, in which a business correspondent, a key member in the payment supply chain, is the culprit.
• Unsuspecting individuals, especially in rural areas, do not always have the wherewithal to ask for a receipt that the business correspondents is supposed to generate after each transaction.

Who is Business correspondent?

• A business correspondent (BC) is an informal bank agent equipped with a biometric Point-of-Sale (PoS) machine, which works like a micro ATM e.g. If someone needs Rs 500, they have to give their bank details to the BC along with their Aadhaar-based biometric details and the BC will give them the Rs 500.