Hindustan Republican Association (HRA)

• In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi declared the launch of the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Owing to the Chauri Chaura incident Gandhi withdrew the movement.
• The HRA was thus founded by a group of young men who were disillusioned by Gandhi’s tactics.

Kakori Train Action Incident

• The train robbery at Kakori was the HRA’s first major action, in August 1925 which took place in the train number 8 which ran between Shahjahanpur and Lucknow.
• On a fateful day, it carried treasury bags meant to be deposited in the British treasury in Lucknow.
• On August 9, 1925, as the train was passing the Kakori station, about 15 km from Lucknow, Rajendranath Lahiri, a member of the HRA who was already seated inside, pulled the chain and stopped the train.
• Subsequently, around ten revolutionaries, including Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan, entered the train and overpowered the guard.
• They looted the treasury bags (containing approx. Rs. 4,600) and escaped to Lucknow.
• The only major leader of HRA at this time who evaded arrest was Chandrasekhar Azad.
• In 1928, a year after the execution of the Kakori Conspiracy accused, the HRA merged with various other revolutionary groups that had emerged in Punjab, Bihar, and Bengal and became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).

Quantum Computing

• Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement.
• Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers.
• The bit is the fundamental unit of a classical computer.
• Its value is 1 if a corresponding transistor is on and 0 if the transistor is off.
• The transistor can be in one of two states at a time – on or off – so a bit can have one of two values at a time, 0 or 1.
• The qubit is the fundamental unit of a QC.
• It’s typically a particle like an electron.
• A qubit can be in combination of states, which allows for exponentially larger calculations and hence solve complex problems.
• Some information is directly encoded on the qubit: if the spin of an electron is pointing up, it means 1; when the spin is pointing down, it means 0.
• But instead of being either 1 or 0, the information is encoded in a superposition: say, 45% 0 plus 55% 1.
• This is entirely unlike the two separate states of 0 and 1 and is a third kind of state.
• The qubits are entangled to ensure they work together.
• If one qubit is probed to reveal its state, so will some of or all the other qubits, depending on the calculation being performed.
• The computer’s final output is the state to which all the qubits have collapsed.
• One qubit can encode two states and five qubits can encode 32 states.
• A computer with N qubits can encode 2N states, whereas a computer with N transistors can only encode 2 × N states.
• So a qubit-based computer can access more states than a transistor-based computer, and thus access more computational pathways and solutions to more complex problems.
• Google and IBM have been known to use transmons, where pairs of bound electrons oscillate between two superconductors to designate the two states.

Battle of Wandiwash

• Battle of Wandiwash, (Jan. 22, 1760), in the history of India, a confrontation between the French, under the comte de Lally, and the British, under Sir Eyre Coote.
• It was the decisive battle in the Anglo-French struggle in southern India during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63).
• Lally, cut off from sea support by the withdrawal of Admiral d’Aché’s fleet and hampered by a lack of funds and by dissensions among his troops, tried to recover the fort of Wandiwash near Pondicherry.
• There he was attacked and routed by Coote, with about 1,700 British troops against about 2,000 French.
• Lally’s best general, the marquis de Bussy, was captured.
• The French were thereafter confined to Pondicherry, which surrendered on Jan. 16, 1761, after much privation.
• Lally was later imprisoned and executed, after a trial in Paris, for alleged treason.
• The victory in Vandavasi was one of the successes of Coote who went on to defeat Hyder Ali of Mysore (1722-1782) in June 1781 at Parangipettai (Porto Novo).

Prisons in India

• Prisons in India are still governed by the Prisons Act, 1894, a colonial legislation which treats prisoners as sub-par citizens, and provides the legal basis for punishment to be retributive, rather than rehabilitative.
• For this reason, the government in 2016 introduced the Model Prison Manual to replace the existing prison manual.
• In the manual, the government has considered aspects such as human rights, the rehabilitation of prisoners in society, the rights of female prisoners, laws for prison inspection and the right to education even for death row convicts.
• For this reason, the government in 2016 introduced the Model Prison Manual to replace the existing prison manual.
• In the manual, the government has considered aspects such as human rights, the rehabilitation of prisoners in society, the rights of female prisoners, laws for prison inspection and the right to education even for death row convicts.

Ladakh Committee

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) constituted a high-powered committee chaired by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai for the Union Territory of Ladakh.
• The committee will discuss:
• Measures to protect the region’s unique culture and language taking into consideration its geographical location and strategic importance.
• Ensure protection of land and employment for the people of Ladakh.
• Strategize inclusive development and discuss issues related to the empowerment of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill District Councils of Leh and Kargil.

Sixth Schedule

• The sixth schedule under Article 244 of the Constitution protects the autonomy of tribal populations through the creation of autonomous development councils which can frame laws on land, public health, and agriculture.
• As of now ten autonomous councils exist in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram.
• As per the 2011 Census, the total population of Ladakh was 2,74,289, and nearly 80% of them are tribal.