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UPI saves people from Cash on Delivery hassle and running to an ATM

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes for a digital India, many of us may have used Unified Payments Interface (UPI). But do you know what it is?

What is UPI?

UPI is a system that allows multiple bank accounts into a single mobile app, thus, merging several banking features, seamless fund routing, and merchant payments under one umbrella.

The UPI has made bank-to-bank money transfers simple and secure, enabling everything from purchasing vegetables from roadside vendors to sending money to friends and relatives.

UPI was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on April 11, 2016, by Raghuram G Rajan, then-Governor of RBI, at Mumbai.

Features

Some of the unique features of UPI is that it allows immediate money transfer through mobile phones round the clock 365 days.

Besides, it saves people from Cash on Delivery hassle, running to an ATM, or rendering exact amounts.

People can also pay multiple bills from a single mobile app via Utility Bill Payments, Over the Counter Payments, QR Code-(Scan and Pay) based payments.

As per the latest guideline issued by the NPCI, a person is allowed to use UPI to send a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per day. The restriction varies from bank to bank.

Besides, there is a cap on the total amount of UPI transfers that can be made in a day. Twenty transfers are permitted per day using UPI.

HOW TO REGISTER IN UPI ENABLED APPLICATION

Steps for Registration

User downloads the UPI application from the App Store/  Bank's website

User creates his/her profile by entering details such as virtual id (payment address), password, etc. User goes to "Add/Link/Manage Bank Account' option and links the bank and account number with the virtual id

Generating UPI - PIN

User selects the bank account from which he / she wants to initiate the transaction

Change UPI PIN

User receives OTP from the Issuer bank on his / her registered mobile number

User now enters last 6 digits of Debit card number and expiry date

User enters OTP and enters his/her preferred numeric UPI PIN (UPI PIN that he/she would like to set) and clicks on Submit After clicking submit, customer gets notification (successful or decline) User enters his / her old UPI PIN and preferred new UPI PIN (UPI PIN that he/she would like to set) and clicks on Submit After clicking submit, customer gets notification (successful or failure)

Picture Credit : google 

When the Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars in February 2021, it marked the beginning of its tasks, which included looking for signs of past Martian microbial life, cache rock, and soil samples for future return to Earth. While the rover is still at it, it has provided for another first already. Based on data provided by Perseverance, scientists have made the first-ever audio recording of an extraterrestrial whirlwind.

Not always on

The Perseverance rover is equipped with what is the first working microphone on the Martian surface. This microphone, however, is not on continuously. Far from it, in reality. This microphone records for about three minutes every couple of days.

This is partly the reason why it has taken this long to get the whirlwind recording, despite the fact that the rover landed in the Jezero where there's been evidence of nearly 100 dust devils, or tiny tornadoes of dust and grit, since Perseverance landed.

This was the first time that the rover’s microphone was on when one of these dust devils passed over the rovers. While there is definitely an element of luck, it wasn't entirely unexpected as it was only a matter of time before the microphone was on at the right time.

"The Martian” might not happen

Taken along with air pressure readings and time-lapse photography, the sound recording of the dust devil will help scientists understand Mars atmosphere and weather conditions better. The information gathered has already suggested that future astronauts on the Martian surface would not have to worry about gale-force winds blowing down antennas or habitats, as popularised by The Martian, the book and the movie of the same name.

In fact, there is reason to believe that the winds might have certain benefits. Scientists believe that the winds blowing grit off the solar panels of other rovers like Opportunity and Spirit might well be the reason why they lasted so much longer. Similarly, the lack of such winds and dust devils in the Elysium Planitia where the Insight mission landed could be a factor as to why that mission's operational period was planned to end in December 2022.

Picture Credit : google 

Using artificially engineering materials, researchers achieve contactless manipulation.

Have you heard about ultrasound? As the name suggests, ultrasound corresponds to sound waves with frequencies that are higher than the upper limit of what humans can hear. While we can't hear it, we still put it to good use, albeit in different ways.

One of the most popular ways, and one that you might have heard of, is to use ultrasound for scans. Ultrasound scans are a procedure whereby high-frequency sound waves are bounced off objects (think organs or bones) to create an image of part of the inside of the body. Commonly used to monitor the health of unborn babies during pregnancy, ultrasound waves are also employed to diagnose medical conditions.

Hands-free movement Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have now discovered a new method that uses ultrasound waves to move objects. The study was published in Nature Communications early in December.

Even though waves have been shown to move objects before, these objects were typically very small, in the order of millimetres to nanometres. What the researchers of this study were able to achieve was to move bigger objects using ultrasound, backed by the principles of metamaterial physics.

What are metamaterials?

Materials that are engineered artificially to interact with waves such as light and sound are referred to as metamaterials. The researchers placed a metamaterial pattern on the surface of an object, which could then be steered without touches using sound.

The researchers were not only able to move an object forward using this technique, but were also able to pull it back towards the source. Even though the study only serves as a demonstration of a concept, higher frequencies of waves and different materials and object sizes are expected to be tested in the future.

The need to move things is ever-present in many fields of science and engineering, especially robotics. By exploring ultrasound waves to move objects without physical contact, the researchers have provided a new mechanism of contactless manipulation that might prove to be important in the upcoming years.

Picture Credit : Google