Science and Technology Quick Revision Part-6

by | Feb 11, 2025 | APPSC Group-2 Mains Paper-2 Science and Technology

Information and Communication Technology (ICT):

  • Definition of ICT
    • ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications, including the internet, wireless networks, and computers.
  • Components of ICT
    • Hardware: Physical devices like computers, servers, routers, and smartphones.
    • Software: Programs and operating systems (e.g., Windows, macOS, Android).
    • Networks: Communication systems like the internet, LAN, WAN, and Wi-Fi.
    • Data: Information processed and stored by ICT systems.
    • People: Users and professionals who design, manage, and use ICT systems.
  • Types of Networks
    • LAN (Local Area Network): Connects devices within a small area (e.g., home, office).
    • WAN (Wide Area Network): Covers large geographical areas (e.g., the internet).
    • MAN (Metropolitan Area Network): Covers a city or campus.
    • PAN (Personal Area Network): Connects devices within a person’s workspace (e.g., Bluetooth).
  • Internet and World Wide Web (WWW)
    • Internet: A global network of interconnected computers.
      • In 1974, Computer scientists Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn published a proposal for “A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication”. 
      • Cerf developed Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to allow computers on different networks to communicate with each other. 
      • Cerf later added Internet Protocol (IP) to TCP, creating the TCP/IP protocol suite that governs how data moves through a network. 
    • WWW: A system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the internet.
      • Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989 and opened to the public in 1993.
    • Protocols: HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), HTTPS (secure version), FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
  • ICT Standards and Protocols
    • TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol for data transmission.
    • SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol for email.
    • Wi-Fi Standards: IEEE 802.11 (e.g., 802.11ac, 802.11ax).
  • Cloud Computing
    • Delivers computing services (e.g., storage, servers, databases) over the internet.
    • Types: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service)
  • Cybersecurity
    • Protects systems, networks, and data from cyber threats.
    • Common threats: Malware, phishing, ransomware, DDoS attacks.
    • Security measures: Firewalls, encryption, antivirus software, and multi-factor authentication.
  •  Data Storage
    • Primary Storage: RAM (Random Access Memory) and ROM (Read-Only Memory).
    • Secondary Storage: Hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, and cloud storage.
    • Data Units: Bit, Byte, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB.
  • Programming and Development
    • Programming Languages: Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, etc.
    • Web Development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks like React and Angular.
    • Databases: SQL (Structured Query Language) for managing relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL).
  • ICT in Everyday Life
    • E-commerce: Online shopping platforms (e.g., Amazon, eBay).
    • E-learning: Online education platforms (e.g., Coursera, Khan Academy).
    • Telemedicine: Remote healthcare services.
    • Social Media: Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

India and ICT

  • India’s ICT Sector Overview
    • India has a rapidly growing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector that is transforming the country’s economy and society.
    • India’s IT industry is likely to hit the US$ 350 billion mark by 2026 and contribute 10% to India’s GDP.
    • IT/ITeS industry generated approximately USD 254 billion in revenue during FY24.
    • Tech exports reached nearly USD 200 billion, reflecting a growth of 3.3%, while the domestic market is expected to expand by 5.9%, crossing USD 54 billion in FY24.
    • India is known as the “IT outsourcing capital of the world,” providing services to over 200 countries.
    • Major IT Hubs: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, and Gurugram are key IT hubs in India.
    • India is the largest exporter of IT services, with major clients in the US, Europe, and Asia.
  • Key ICT Developments in India
    • Digital India (2015): A government initiative to improve digital infrastructure and e-services.
    • BharatNet Project: Largest rural broadband initiative (connecting villages with optical fiber).
    • 5G Rollout (2022): Faster mobile networks for smart cities, AI, and IoT.
    • Make in India: Encouraging local manufacturing of electronics & ICT products.
    • Startup India: Boosting tech startups in AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and fintech.
  • ICT in Key Sectors
    • Healthcare: Telemedicine, AI-based diagnostics, CoWIN (COVID vaccination app).
    • Education: SWAYAM, DIKSHA, National Digital Library, eVidya programs.
    • Agriculture: eNAM (e-Market for farmers), Kisan Call Centers, AI-based weather forecasting.
    • Industry 4.0: AI, IoT, automation, and blockchain in manufacturing.
  • E-Governance Initiatives:
    • UMANG App: Unified mobile app for government services.
    • Aadhaar: World’s largest biometric ID system for digital identity verification.
    • DigiLocker: Cloud-based document storage.
    • E-Courts: Digital case management in the judiciary.
    • GSTN (Goods and Services Tax Network): Platform for GST compliance and tax filing.
    • BharatNet: Project to provide broadband connectivity to rural areas.
    • MyGov: A platform for citizen engagement in governance.
  • FinTech & Digital Payments:
    • UPI (Unified Payments Interface): Fastest-growing real-time payment system.
    • Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System (AEPS): Banking for rural India.
    • RBI’s Digital Rupee: India’s push for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
  • National Policy on Information Technology 2012
    • Launched by: Government of India (2012)
    • Objective: To make India a global IT powerhouse and promote inclusive, sustainable development using ICT.
    • Vision: “To strengthen and enhance India’s position as a global IT hub, drive economic growth, and empower citizens through IT.”
    • Targets of NPIT 2012
      • Increase IT industry revenue to $300 billion by 2020.
      • Generate 10 million additional skilled IT professionals by 2020.
      • Expand IT exports to $200 billion by 2020.
      • Achieve 100% broadband connectivity in villages and towns.
      • Establish India as a global hub for IT innovation and R&D.
      • E-Governance & Transparency – Strengthening public services using IT.
      • To make at least one individual in every household e-literate.
    • Key Initiatives under the Policy
      • Digital India (2015) – Expanding ICT infrastructure & digital services.
      • National Knowledge Network (NKN) – High-speed internet for research institutions.
      • BPO Promotion Scheme – Encouraging IT-BPO centers in smaller cities.
      • IT for Governance – E-Governance initiatives like Aadhaar, DigiLocker, UMANG.
      • Skill Development & Capacity Building – Training programs like Skill India & FutureSkills Prime.
  • Digital India Initiative
    • Launched on July 1, 2015, envisions transforming India into a knowledge-based economy and digitally empowered society by ensuring digital services, accessibility, inclusion, and empowerment.
    • Ministry: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
    • Digital India has laid the foundation for a developed India by 2047.
    • Digital services have also helped curb corruption.
    • Initiatives like UPI, DigiLocker, DigiYatra, CoWIN, Aarogya Setu, e-Sanjeevani, UMANG, GeM, DIKSHA, e-Hospital, and e-Court are impacting millions of lives and making tasks simpler.
    • Currently, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is used for payments in seven countries: UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, and Mauritius.
    • UPI’s launch in France is especially significant as it marks the first use of UPI in Europe.
  • E-Governance: Overview
    • E-Governance (Electronic Governance) refers to the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to deliver government services, exchange information, and integrate various stand-alone systems and services. It aims to make governance more efficient, transparent, and accessible to citizens.
    • Types of E-Governance
    • Government-to-Citizen (G2C): Focuses on providing public services to citizens. Examples are –
      • Online payment of taxes, bills, and fines.
      • Issuance of certificates (birth, death, marriage).
      • Online portals for healthcare, education, and employment services.
      • Aadhaar: Digital identity for citizens.
      • DigiLocker: Digital storage of documents.
      • UMANG App: Unified platform for government services.
    • Government-to-Business (G2B): Facilitates interactions between the government and businesses. Examples are –
      • Online business registration and licensing.
      • Tax filing and compliance for businesses.
      • Tender and procurement portals.
      • GST Portal: For Goods and Services Tax filing.
      • MCA21: Portal for corporate compliance.
      • GeM (Government e-Marketplace): For public procurement.
    • Government-to-Government (G2G): Involves sharing data and resources between government departments and agencies. Examples are –
      • Inter-departmental communication and collaboration.
      • Sharing of databases and resources for better decision-making.
      • e-Office: Digital workplace for government offices.
      • NIC (National Informatics Centre): Provides ICT infrastructure for government operations.
    • Government-to-Employees (G2E): Focuses on improving internal government processes and employee management. Examples are –
      • Online payroll and HR management systems.
      • Training and development portals for government employees.
      • HRMS (Human Resource Management System): For employee management.
      • iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training): For employee training.
  • E-Governance Programmes and Services related to Public Service Delivery
    • Common Services Centres – CSCs are offering government and business services in digital mode in rural areas through Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). Over 400 digital services are being offered by these CSCs.
    • Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) – for providing government services to citizen through mobile.
    • e-District Mission Mode Project (MMP): e-District project has been implemented at district and sub-district levels of all States/UTs, benefitting all citizens by delivering various e-Services such as Certificates (Birth, Caste, Death, Income and Local Resident), Pension (Old Age, Disability and Widow), Electoral, Consumer Court, Revenue Court, Land Record and services of various departments such as Commercial Tax, Agriculture, Labour, Employment Training & Skill Development etc.
    • DigiLocker: It is facilitating paperless availability of public documents.
    • Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is the leading digital payment platform.
    • CO-WIN – It is an open platform for management of registration, appointment scheduling & managing vaccination certificates for Covid-19.
    • MyGov – It is a citizen engagement platform that is developed to facilitate participatory governance.
    • MeriPehchaan – National Single Sign-on platform called MeriPehchaan has been launched in July 2022 to facilitate / provide citizens ease of access to government portals.
    • MyScheme – This platform has been launched in July 2022 to facilitate citizens to avail eligibility-based services.
    • Direct Benefit Transfers –  offering Aadhaar enabled direct benefit transfer to citizens.
    • Diksha – Diksha is a national level educational platform that helps students and teachers to participate, contribute and leverage a common platform to achieve learning goals at scale for the country.
    • e-Pramaan is a national e-authentication service. It is National Single Sign-On (SSO) Platform provides a unified login facility for accessing various government services, both at the national and state levels. Single Sign-On (SSO) means users can access multiple government services with a single set of credentials, eliminating the need to remember multiple usernames and passwords.
    • GI Cloud, also known as ‘MeghRaj’, is a significant initiative by the Government of India to leverage the power of cloud computing for delivering e-services and optimizing ICT spending.
  • E-Governance Programmes and Services related to Welfare of Farmers
    • National Agriculture Market (e-NAM): Government of India has launched National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme with the objective of creating online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate farmers with remunerative prices for their produce.
    • M-KISAN – mKisan Portal (www.mkisan.gov.in) for sending advisories on various crop related matters to the registered farmers through SMSs.
    • One Stop Window-Farmers Portal (www.farmer.gov.in) for dissemination of information on various agricultural related matter including, seeds variety, Storage Godown, Pests and plant diseases, Best Agricultural Practices, Watershed, Mandi details etc.
    • Soil Health Card – It provides soil related information to facilitate farmers in farming activities.
    • Mobile based advisory system for agriculture & Horticulture (M4AGRI) – It is mobile based advisory system for agriculture and horticulture. It has been implemented in the North-East States namely Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
  • E-Governance Programmes and Services related to Data Governance for Socio-economic Development
    • Open Government Data – To facilitate data sharing and promote innovation over non-personal data, Open Government Data platform has been developed.
    • API Setu – To facilitate data exchange among the system, API Setu has been developed as a platform. The platform has more than 2100 APIs, and 1000+ user organisations.
    • MeitY has prepared the draft National Data Governance Framework Policy which aims to realize the full potential of India’s digital government vision, maximize the efficiency of data-led governance & public service delivery and to catalyze data-based research and innovation.

Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000:

  • IT Act 2000 
    • It is the primary legislation in India that governs electronic commerce, digital signatures, and cybercrime.
    • It was enacted to provide legal recognition to electronic transactions and facilitate the growth of e-commerce and e-governance.
  • Objectives of the IT Act, 2000
    • Provide legal recognition to electronic records and digital signatures.
    • Facilitate electronic filing of documents with government agencies.
    • Prevent cybercrime and ensure cybersecurity.
    • Promote e-commerce and e-governance in India.
  • Key Features of the IT Act, 2000
    • Key Features of the IT Act, 2000
      • Electronic records and digital signatures are given the same legal status as paper documents and handwritten signatures.
      • Digital signatures are validated using asymmetric crypto systems and hash functions.
    • Legal Recognition of Electronic Records and Digital Signatures:
      • Electronic records and digital signatures are given the same legal status as paper documents and handwritten signatures.
      • Digital signatures are validated using asymmetric crypto systems and hash functions.
    • Certifying Authorities (CAs):
      • The Act provides for the appointment of Certifying Authorities to issue digital signature certificates.
      • The Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) regulates the functioning of CAs.
    • Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee:
      • Established to advise the government on matters related to the IT Act and cybersecurity.
    • Cyber Appellate Tribunal:
      • A specialized tribunal to adjudicate disputes related to the IT Act.
      • Appeals against the tribunal’s decisions can be made in the High Court.
  • IT Act was amended in 2008 to address emerging challenges in cybersecurity and technology. Key changes include:
    • Introduction of Section 66A: Penalized sending offensive messages through communication services (later struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015).
    • Section 69: Granted authorities the power to intercept, monitor, or decrypt information for cybersecurity purposes.
    • Section 43A: Introduced compensation for failure to protect sensitive personal data.
    • Section 67C: Made it mandatory for intermediaries to preserve and retain specified information.
  • Recent Developments
  • Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 focuses on data privacy and sets a framework for the collection, storage, and processing of personal data
  • IT Rules, 2021: Introduced to regulate social media intermediaries and digital news platforms. These rules require the appointment of a Grievance Officer by intermediaries to resolve the complaint. MeitY has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules, 2021”) on 25 February 2021 which were subsequently amended 28th October 2022 and 6th April 2023.
  • Cybercrime Reporting: Establishment of the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to report cybercrimes.
  • Section 66A of the IT Act was a controversial provision in India’s Information Technology Act, 2000. It dealt with the punishment for sending offensive messages through a computer or communication device.
    • In the landmark case of Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), the Supreme Court of India struck down Section 66A as unconstitutional. The Court held that the provision violated the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

Cybersecurity:

  • Waht is Cybersecurity?
    • Cybersecurity refers to protecting networks, systems, and data from cyber threats.
    • Ensuring the security and privacy of citizen data is essential for building trust in e-governance systems.
    • IT Act, 2000: Provides legal recognition to electronic records and digital signatures. Includes provisions for penalties and compensation for cybercrime.
    • National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP), 2013 – First comprehensive cybersecurity framework for national security.
    • CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) – National agency handling cyber incidents and issuing advisories.
    • Helpline155260 and its Reporting Platform have been made operational by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs
  • Following measures taken to ensure digital safety and cyber security:
    • Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is designated as a National nodal agency to coordinate matters related to cyber security incidents in the country.
    • National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) has been setup to enhance the protection and resilience of Nation’s Critical information infrastructure.
    •  Government has issued general guidelines for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) regarding their key roles and responsibilities for securing applications / infrastructure and compliance Organisations are encouraged to develop their organisation level cyber security policy.
    • Public Private Partnership has been developed for cooperation and collaboration for responding cyber security incidents.
    • Awareness has been created in law enforcement agencies through conducting cybercrime awareness workshops.
    • Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) Project is being implemented with an objective of capacity building in the area of Information Security, training of Government personnel and creation of mass Information Security awareness.
    • Cyber forensics training labs in all north eastern states, CBI Academy Ghaziabad and cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Bangalore have been setup and more than 28,000 state police from North Eastern States, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka have been trained for dealing with cybercrime.
    • Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP) for countering cyber threats and cyber terrorism has been developed and so far 60 workshops have been conducted for Central Govt. Ministries/Departments, States/Union Territories and other organisations.
    • Research and development is carried out in the thrust areas of cyber security.
    • Government has initiated setting up of National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber security threats and enable timely information sharing for proactive, preventive and protective actions by individual entities. Phase-I of NCCC has been made operational.
    • Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) provides detection of malicious programs and free tools to remove the same.

Source: PIB, GOI websites, Internet