[Mission 2023] Insights SECURE SYNOPSIS: 15 April 2023

NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same

Answer the following questions in 150 words:

General Studies – 1

1. Discuss the significance of Dalit writing as a social movement and its potential to challenge dominant narratives and create a more inclusive society in India.

Reference: The Hindu

Introduction

The term Dalit was first used by Jyotirao Phule for the oppressed classes or untouchable castes of the Hindu. The Dalit movement began as a protest movement, to bring socio-political transformation in the status of Dalits in India.

Dalit writings have been an important tool in the Dalit Movement to express the feelings, pain and sufferings of Dalits. At a time, when there was no means of communication to support the Dalits, pen was the only solution. Even prior to the 1960s, writers like Baburao Bagul, Bandhu Madhav, Shankarao Kharat, Narayan Surve, Anna Bhau Sathe were expressing Dalit concerns and issues in their literature.

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significance of Dalit writing

• Given the Upper Castes would never allow the Dalits voice to be expressed, as it would be a threat for their own survival, the Dalits began their own magazineand began to express their own experiences.
• Dalit literature, the literature produced by the Dalit consciousness, emerged initially during the Mukti movement.
• The Mukti movement was led by very poor Dalits who fought against the saint – poets of the time.
• These literature argued that Dalit Movement fights not only against the Brahmins, but all those people whoever practices exploitation, and those can be the Brahminsor even the Dalits themselves.
• Dalit literature helped with the ability to give voice to the Dalit community and to bring their stories and experiences to the forefront.
• Through literature, Dalit writers have been able to challenge the dominant caste hierarchy and expose the injustices and atrocities faced by the Dalit community.
• Their writing provides a platform for the marginalized to express their thoughts, emotions, and experiences, and to assert their identity and agency in a society that has historically denied them these rights.
• New revolutionary songs, poems, stories, autobiographies were written by Dalit writers.
• These were sung in every village, poem and other writings were read by the entire community.

Impacts

• It helped to create awareness among the general public about the issues faced by the Dalit community and to promote social justice and equality.
• By highlighting the struggles and achievements of the Dalit community, Dalit writing inspired social and political movements aimed at ending caste-based discrimination and creating a more just and equitable society. Eg.: Dalit Panther Movement

Conclusion

Thus, it can be said that the significance of Dalit writing lies in its ability to empower the marginalized, challenge dominant discourses, and promote social justice and equality.

2. It is pertinent to monitor and prepare for the potential impact of El Nino on India, given its potential to significantly impact the country’s agriculture and economy. Analyse.

Reference: Indian Express , Insights on India

Introduction

El Niño is a naturally occurring phenomenon that is linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific. El Niño is Spanish for “the boy child,” which is often used to refer to Jesus Christ, and the phenomenon earned this name because it typically occurs in December around Christmas. El Niño occurs every 2-7 years, and can last anywhere between nine months and two years.

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Mechanism

During El Niño, the trade winds weaken or even reverse: Instead of blowing from east (South America) to west (Indonesia), they could turn into westerlies. As the winds blow from the west to east, they cause the masses of warm water to move into the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. The rise in SSTs there, thus, produces increased rainfall along western Latin America, the Caribbean and US Gulf Coast, while depriving Southeast Asia, Australia and India of convective currents.

El-Nino impact on Indian monsoon:

• El Nino, characterized by warming of surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, is associated with lower than normal monsoon rainfall in India.
• El Nino has been found to impact almost half the world triggering droughtsin Australia, India, southern Africa and floods in Peru, Ecuador, the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Colorado River basin.
• El Nino affects the flow of moisture-bearing windsfrom the cooler oceans towards India, negatively impact the summer (south-west) monsoon.
• After all, the south-west monsoon (June-September) accounts for over 70% of the country’s annual rainfall and irrigates over half of the crop land.
• The rain-fed kharif crops are heavily dependent on the monsoon and the quantity of rainfall determines agricultural production.
• El Niño years tend to be drier than average, but one of the strongest El Nino of the century (1997-98) produced a monsoon season with above-average rainfall for India.
• Researchers also believe that even the location of the warming in the Pacific may possibly have an influence on the monsoon.

Impact of the early arrival of Indian monsoon:

• The monsoon arrived earlier than normal in India, raising hopes that output of crops like rice and oilseeds will get a boost after a brutal heat wave hit winter-sown wheat and prompted the nation to restrict exports.
• India is the second-biggest grower of wheat, rice, sugar and cotton, and the largest buyer of palm, soybean and sunflower oils.
• The livelihood of millions of farmers in the country of about 1.4 billion people depends on rains brought by the winds from the Indian Ocean.
• The farm sector is the main source of income for 60% of its population and accounts for 18% of the economy.
• The monsoon is critical to India’s farm output and economic growth at a time when the country, where man-made systems like canals and tube wells irrigate only a part of the land, is battling soaring food prices.
• Timely and normal rains are set to boost production outlook for monsoon-sown crops such as rice, soybeans and pulses and help in softening soaring inflation.
• Bountiful rains would also fill reservoirs, which in turn would brighten prospects for winter crops, usually planted during October and November.
• The early arrival of the south-west monsoon comes at a time when parts of Northwest India were experiencing extremely high maximum temperatures.

Conclusion

Early or late arrival of monsoon does not mean it would bring lesser or more rainfall. Earlier this year, IMD predicted a “normal” monsoon. It means the rainfall is likely to be in the range of 96-104 per cent of the long period average of the years 1971-2020. A good monsoon boosts crop output, while poor rains lead to drinking water shortages, lower harvests and higher imports of some commodities.

General Studies – 2

3. The cooperative movement in India has been successful in empowering marginalized communities and improving their economic conditions. Critically examine.

Reference: Indian Express , Deccan Herald

Introduction

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled. The need for profitability is balanced by the needs of the members and the wider interest of the community

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Importance of cooperatives:

• India is an agricultural country and laid the foundation of World’s biggest cooperative movement in the world.
• For instance, Amul deals with 16 million milk producers, 1,85,903 dairy cooperatives; 222 district cooperative milk unions; marketed by 28 state marketing federations.
• There are over 8 lakh cooperatives of all shapes and sizes across sectors in India
• In India, a Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility.
• It provides agricultural credits and funds where state and private sectors have not been able to do very much.
• It provides strategic inputs for the agricultural-sector; consumer societies meet their consumption requirements at concessional rates.
• It is an organization for the poor who wish to solve their problems collectively.
• It softens the class conflicts and reduces the social cleavages.
• It reduces the bureaucratic evils and follies of political factions;
• It overcomes the constraints of agricultural development;
• It creates a conducive environment for small and cottage industries.

For marginalized section in particular:

• Increased Income: A study conducted on Women Dairy Cooperative Society (WDCS) members across Rajasthan showed that with the income generated through dairying, 31% of the women had converted their mud houses to cement structures, while 39% had constructed concrete sheds for their cattle.
• Provides Leadership lessons: Importantly, women-led cooperatives also provide fertile ground for grooming women from rural areas for leadership positions.
• Breaks barriers: In many instances, this becomes the first step for women in breaking free from traditional practices.
• Defeats Information Asymmetry: The presence of collectives in the form of cooperatives and milk unions plays a significant role in enhancing the knowledge and bargaining power of women
• Set up business chain: Cooperatives enhance backward and forward linkages in the dairy value chain, paving the way for freeing small farmers from the clutches of middlemen, and guaranteed minimum procurement price for milk.
• A study by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)indicates that 93% of women farmers who receive training alongside financial support succeed in their ventures, compared to the 57% success rate of those who receive financial aid alone.
• According to latest data, there are more than 1,90,000 dairy cooperative societies across the country, with approximately 6 million women members.

Way forward:

• Principle of the cooperative movement is to unite everyone, even while remaining anonymous. The cooperative movement has the capacity to solve people’s problems.
• The pandemic seems to have increased the significance of community effort.
• Reducing vaccine hesitancy, providing food to those waiting outside hospitals and, most importantly, looking after orphaned childrenare imperatives crying out for the cooperative model.
• Implementing the steps provided by the Vaidyanathan committeeon credit cooperative societies.
• The idea of cooperatives must take the agenda beyond agriculture, milk, credit and housing cooperatives
• New areas are emerging with the advancement of technology and cooperative societies can play a huge role in making people familiar with those areas and technologies.
• There is a need to create more cooperatives with women at the helm of it.
• The irregularities in cooperatives need to be checked and the need of the hour is to have rules and stricter implementationof same.

General Studies – 3

4. Provide an overview of different types of biofuels and their classification. Highlight the current status of biofuel production in India and the government’s efforts to promote its use.

Reference: Insights on India

Introduction

Biofuel is a type of renewable energy source derived from microbial, plant, or animal materials. Examples of biofuels include ethanol (often made from corn in the United States and sugarcane in Brazil), biodiesel (sourced from vegetable oils and liquid animal fats), green diesel (derived from algae and other plant sources), and biogas (methane derived from animal manure and other digested organic material).

Biofuels can be solid, liquid, or gaseous. They are most useful in the latter two forms as this makes it easier to transport, deliver, and burn cleanly.

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Biofuels may be solid, liquid or gaseous in nature.

• Solid: Wood, dried plant material, and manure
• Liquid: Bioethanol and Biodiesel
• Gaseous: Biogas

Classification of Biofuels:

• First-generation biofuels
  • These are made from sugar, starch, vegetable oil, or animal fats using conventional technology.
  • These are generally produced from grains high in sugar or starch fermented into bioethanol; or seeds that which are pressed into vegetable oil used in biodiesel.
  • Common first-generation biofuels include vegetable oils, biodiesel, bioalcohols, biogas, solid biofuels, syngas.
• Second-generationbiofuels
  • These are produced from non-food crops, such as cellulosic biofuels and waste biomass (stalks of wheat and corn, and wood).
  • Common second-generation biofuels include vegetable oils, biodiesel, bioalcohols, biogas, solid biofuels, and syngas.
  • Research continues on second-generation biofuels including biohydrogen, biomethanol, DMF, Bio-DME, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, biohydrogen diesel, mixed alcohols and wood diesel.
• Third-generation biofuels
  • These are produced from extracting oil of algae– sometimes referred to as “oilgae”.
  • Its production is supposed to be low cost and high-yielding – giving up to nearly 30 times the energy per unit area as can be realized from current, conventional ‘first-generation’ biofuel feedstocks
  • Micro-organisms like algae can be grown using land and water unsuitable for food production, therefore reducing the strain on already depleted water sources.
  • One disadvantage is that fertilizers used in the production of such crops lead to environment pollution.
• Fourth-generationbiofuels
  • These are produced from crops that are genetically engineeredto take in high amounts of carbon are grown and harvested as biomass.
  • The crops are then converted into fuel using second generation techniques. The fuel is pre-combusted and the carbon is captured.
  • Then the carbon is geo-sequestered, meaning that the carbon is stored in depleted oil or gas fields or in unmineable coal seams.
  • Some of these fuels are considered as carbon negativeas their production pulls out carbon from environment.

Government of India initiatives to promote the use of Biofuels:

Since 2014, the Government of India has taken a number of initiatives to increase blending of biofuels.

• The major interventions include administrative price mechanism for ethanol, simplifying the procurement procedures of OMCs, amending the provisions of Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951 and enabling lignocellulosic route for ethanol procurement.
• The Government approved the National Policy on Biofuels-2018 in June 2018. The policy has the objective of reaching 20% ethanol-blending and 5% biodiesel-blending by the year 2030.
  • Among other things, the policy expands the scope of feedstock for ethanol production and has provided for incentives for production of advanced biofuels.
• The Government has also increased the price of C-heavy molasses-based ethanol
• Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana, 2019:The objective of the scheme is to create an ecosystem for setting up commercial projects and to boost Research and Development in 2G Ethanol sector
• GOBAR(Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources) DHAN scheme, 2018: It focuses on managing and converting cattle dung and solid waste in farms to useful compost,biogas and bio-CNG, thus keeping villages clean and increasing the income of rural households. It was launched under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).
• National Biofuels policy 2018
• Categorisation of biofuels to enable extension of appropriate financial and fiscal incentives under each category. The two main categories are:
  • Basic Biofuels- First Generation (1G) bioethanol & biodiesel
  • Advanced Biofuels – Second Generation (2G) ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to drop-in fuels, third Generation (3G) biofuels, bio-CNG etc.
• Expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of Sugarcane Juice, Sugar containing materials like Sugar Beet, Sweet Sorghum, Starch containing materials like Corn, Cassava, Damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, Rotten Potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
• Allows use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol to ensure appropriate price to farmers during surplus. However, it needs the approval of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee.
• Thrust on Advanced Biofuels: Viability gap funding scheme for 2G ethanol Bio refineries of Rs.5000 crore in 6 years in addition to additional tax incentives and higher purchase price as compared to 1G biofuels.
• Encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, used Cooking Oil, short gestation crops.
• Synergising efforts by capturing the roles and responsibilities of all the concerned Ministries/Departments with respect to biofuels in the policy document itself.

Potential Benefits of Biofuels:

• Reduce Import Dependency: The large-scale production of biofuels would reduce import dependency on crude oil and save forex.
• Cleaner Environment: By reducing crop burning & conversion of agricultural residues/wastes to biofuels there will be reduction in GHGs emissions and other particulate matters.
• Municipal Solid Waste Management: It is estimated that, annually around 62 MMT of Municipal Solid Waste gets generated in India. The policy promotes conversion of waste/plastic, MSW to drop in fuels (hydrocarbon fuels from solid waste).
• Infrastructural Investment in Rural Areas: addition of 2G bio refineries across the Country will spur infrastructural investment in the rural areas.
• Employment Generation: the establishment of bio-refineries would create jobs in Plant Operations, Village Level Entrepreneurs and Supply Chain Management.
• Additional Income to Farmers: Farmers can capitalize on agricultural residues /waste which otherwise are burnt by them. They can sell their surplus output to ethanol making units when price dump, thus, ensuring appropriate price.

Shortcomings in India’s biofuel programs

• Efforts taken to achieve Biofuel production could lead to food security and strain water resources.
• According to critics, the policy is overly ambitious. Given the constraints in technology and current abysmally low status of blending (2%), the targets of the 2018 policy are too ambitious to be fulfilled
• The policy is totally silent on octane (which is blended with petrol) which has direct consequences of air quality and pollution.
• The policy advocates the use of untested technologies like the production of 2G ethanol. Relying technology which is commercially untested is not a viable option.
• According to critics, the ways in which companies are selected to develop and boost Biofuel in India is not transparent.
• Other biofuels, such as jatropha, have often proven to be commercially unviable.
• Achieving 20% blend rate would require India to divert an extra one-tenth of its net sown area towards sugarcane.
• Any such land requirement is likely to put a stress on other crops and has the potential to increase food prices.
• Abuse of policy especially when prices of crude oil soar as farmers would find it economically more rewarding to convert farm produce into ethanol for doping with petrol.
• Need of improvement in technological and financial feasibility with respect to production of biofuels. Thus, industry academic collaboration should be enhanced in an integrated manner.
• Inadequate supply-chain infrastructure to deliver biofuels to the final consumer. Hence, improved investment should be done in building robust infrastructure.
• The government should also take steps to remove policy barriers that have discouraged private investment in building supply chains for tapping India’s huge biofuel potential.

Way Forward

• The government has set some ambitious goals for the energy sector which include electrification of all census villages by 2019, 24×7 electricity and 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, reduction in energy emissions intensity by 33%-35% by 2030 and producing above 40% electricity from non-fossil fuels by 2030.
• These goals clearly exhibit the Centre’s push towards strengthening the energy infrastructure of the country while promoting the agenda of sustainability.
• Additionally, in the official gazette of the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018, MNRE has also discussed the government’s five-point strategy to curb the country’s dependency on foreign imports in the oil and gas sector.
• The strategy involves increasing domestic production, adopting biofuels and renewables, energy efficiency norms, improvement in refinery processes and demand substitution.

5. Explain the purpose of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and its working. Discuss some of the recent discoveries made by the LHC.

Reference: The Hindu

Introduction

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator that pushes protons or ions to near the speed of light. It consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures that boost the energy of the particles along the way. LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. The accelerator sits in a tunnel 100 metres underground at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.

LHC is expected to throw up evidence of “new physics” — or physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which explains how the basic building blocks of matter interact, governed by four fundamental forces.

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Main goals of LHC

• The Standard Model of particle physics – a theory developed in the early 1970s that describes the fundamental particles and their interactions – has precisely predicted a wide variety of phenomena and so far successfully explained almost all experimental results in particle physics.
• But the Standard Model is incomplete.
• The Standard Model does not explain the origins of mass, nor why some particles are very heavy while others have no mass at all.
• It leaves many questions open, which the LHC will help to answer.
• The discovery of the Higgs boson was only the first chapter of the LHC story. Indeed, the restart of the machine this year marks the beginning of a new adventure, as it will operate at almost double the energy of its first run.
• Thanks to the work that has been done during the Long Shutdown 1, the LHC will now be able to produce 13 TeV collisions (6.5 TeV per beam), which will allow physicists to further explore the nature of our Universe.
• The ultimate aim of the LHC’s detectors is to allow physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics, including measuring the properties of the Higgs boson and searching for the large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories, as well as other unsolved questions of physics.

LHC – role in understanding the evolution of the universe

• After the discovery of the Higgs boson, scientists have started using the data collected as a tool to look beyond the Standard Model, which is currently the best theory of the most elementary building blocks of the universe and their interactions.
• Scientists at CERN say they don’t know what Run 3 will reveal; the hope is to use the collisions to further the understanding of so-called “dark matter”.
• This hard-to-detect, hoped-for particle is believed to make up most of the universe, but is completely invisible as it does not absorb, reflect, or emit light.

Recent discoveries by LHC

• ‘God Particle’ discovery: In scientists at CERN had announced the discovery of the Higgs boson or the ‘God Particle’ during the LHC’s first run.
• This led to Peter Higgs and his collaborator François Englertbeing awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 2013.
• The Higgs boson is the fundamental particle associated with the Higgs field, a field that gives mass to other fundamental particles such as electrons and quarks.
• ‘New Physics’ beyond Standard Model: After the discovery of the Higgs boson, scientists have started using the data collected as a tool to look beyond the Standard Model, which is currently the best theory of the most elementary building blocks of the universe and their interactions.

Conclusion

Many physicists hope that the Large Hadron Collider will help answer some of the fundamental open questions in physics, which concern the basic laws governing the interactions and forces among the elementary objects, the deep structure of space and time, and in particular the interrelation between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Answer the following questions in 250 words(15 marks each):

General Studies – 1

6. Socioeconomic inequality is indeed a major problem behind water shortages in urban areas. There is need for more equitable distribution of water resources and sustainable water management practices to ensure that everyone has access to water. Analyse.

Reference: Down to Earth , Insights on India

Introduction

Extravagant habits of the wealthy elite, like swimming pools, well-maintained lawns and regularly washed cars, are depriving poorer communities of basic water access, a new study has found. Socioeconomic inequalities could be driving urban water crises as much as factors like climate change or population growth in cities.

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Background

The study was published in the journal Nature Sustainability April 10, 2023. The researchers developed a system-dynamic model for the study to represent unequal water consumption by city residents.

• The team focused on Cape Town in South Africa to study the consumption habits of wealthier city dwellers compared to poorer ones.
• The researchers chose the metropolitan area of Cape Town as a case for two main reasons: Firstly, the city is marked by stark socioeconomic inequalities and a starkly segregated urban space. Second, between 2015 and 2017, Cape Town experienced a severe drought, unfolding into an unprecedented water crisis known as Day Zero.
• The elite households in Cape Town used 2,161 litres of water per day, according to the study. The water consumption of upper-middle-income households reached about 988.78 litres per day. On the other hand, lower-income families use only 178 litres per day and informal households consume 41 litres a day.
• Since 2020, more than 80 metropolitan cities across the world, including London, Miami, Barcelona, Beijing, Tokyo, Melbourne, Istanbul, Cairo, Moscow, Bangalore, Chennai, Jakarta, Sydney, Maputo, Harare, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Rome have faced severe water shortages due to droughts and unsustainable water use.

Water stress in India

• India has 4 % of the world’s freshwater which has to cater to 17 % of the world’s population.
• Approximately 600 million people or roughly around 45 % of the population in India is facing high to severe water stress.
• As per the report, 21 Indian cities will run out of their main source of water i.e. groundwater by 2020.
• Nearly 40 % of the population will have absolutely no access to drinking water by 2030 and 6 % of India’s GDP will be lost by 2050 due to the water crisis.
• As per NITI Aayog report (CWMI) released in June 2019, India is facing the worst-ever water crisis in history.
• A disastrous water crisis has been creeping up on us for years. Water tables have declined precipitously, even by thousands of feet in some parts of Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Tanks and wells have gone dry.
• Some rivers have shrunk while other smaller ones have completely dried up.
• Water rationing is routine in many urban areas, while in many villages women are trudging longer distances to fetch water.
• A recent report mentions that over 70% of surface irrigation water is being simply wasted, nationally.
• Not only farmers are affected by the water crisis, urban dwellers in cities and towns across India are also facing a never seen before drinking water scarcity.
• In India, there are conflicts between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over sharing of Cauvery waters, between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh over sharing of Narmada waters, between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over sharing of Krishna waters, etc.

Urban water resource management

• Ground water management is of utmost importance in urban areas where 50% water is drawn from ground. E.g.: Encroachment of flood plains, ground water recharge are areas to work with.
• Loss of green cover in urban areas and heat island effect are reasons for depleting water sources. e.g.: Urban forests needs to be created like in Aarey, Mumbai.
• The Ministry of Water Resources must reconfigure its relationship with other Ministries and Departments (Urban Development, Local Self-Government and Environment).
• Enhanced integration and coordination are needed through effective land and water zoning regulations that protect urban water bodies, groundwater sources, wetlands and green cover while simultaneously working to enhance waste water recycling and water recharge activities targeting aquifers and wells through rainwater harvesting.

Conclusion and Way Forward

• Effective land and water zoning regulations would protect urban water bodies, groundwater sources, wetlands and green cover.
• Enhance waste water recycling and water recharge activities targeting aquifers and wells through rainwater harvesting.
• Governance and management should increasingly interact and draw from the expertise of fields such as hydrology (watershed sustainability), hydrogeology (aquifer mapping and recharge) and agriculture sciences (water-sensitive crop choices and soil health).
• The importance given to groundwater conservation should not ignore surface water conservation including the rivers and lakes which are in a critical state due to encroachment and pollution.
• The Ministry of Jal Shakti must focus on protecting and conserving water resources on the one hand and minimising and enhancing efficiency of water usage on the other.

General Studies – 2

7. The proposed IT Amendment Rules of 2023 aimed at combating fake news and misinformation are problematic, as they grant authorities broad and vague powers to censor information and punish those who spread it. Critically examine.

Reference: Indian Express

Introduction

Fake news and the spread of misinformation are a big threat to society and must be dealt with deftly. Amendment is proposed to the IT Act, to combat the same. The amendments now “make it obligatory on the intermediaries to not to publish, share or host fake, false or misleading information in respect of any business of the Central Government”. 

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 Changes being proposed

• The 2023 amendment confers power on MeitY to notify a fact check unit of the Central Government that will identify fake or false or misleading online content with respect to any business of the Central Government.
• Social media intermediaries (such as Facebook, and Twitter) and telecom service providers shall inform the user not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share any information in respect of any business of the Central Government, that is identified as fake or false or misleading by such fact check unit.
• Violation of this rule can lead to the social media intermediaries losing their ‘safe harbour’ immunity.

 Concerns with the new amendment

• Government’s Role as Regulating Entity: The fact-checking unit’s inclusion in the IT Amendment Rules raises concerns about the government’s role as a regulating entity.
  • The government’s power to determine whether any information is “fake” or “false” could be misused to prevent questioning or scrutiny by media organizations.
• Misuse of Power: The power vested in the fact-checking unit could be misused to prevent free speech and expression.
  • The government’s takedown notices issued for critical opinion or commentary on social media platforms can be seen as a way to suppress dissenting voices.
• Judicial Oversight: The government cannot sit on judgment without a right to appeal or judicial oversight.
  • There is a need for a fair and impartial mechanism to ensure that the fact-checking unit’s powers are not misused.
• Threat to Free Speech and Expression: By threatening to remove a platform’s immunity for content that is flagged by a government unit, the Union government intends to create a “chilling effect” on the right to speech and expression on online platforms.
  • This can have a significant impact on citizens’ right to access information and express their opinions freely.
• Contradictory with guidelines existing: Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 elucidates the procedure to issue takedown orders, which these notified amendments could bypass.
  • They also run afoul of Shreya Singhal vs Union of India (2015), a verdict with clear guidelines for blocking content.
  • Any bypassing of existing guidelines could lead to censorship and restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression.

Consultations required

• The IT Amendment Rules, 2023 were notified by MeitY without any meaningful consultation that it had promised after it withdrew the earlier draft amendments it had put out in January 2023.
• The Press Information Bureau was given sweeping powers in the earlier draft amendments, which were criticized by media organizations across the country.
• The lack of consultation is concerning, and the government should conduct consultations with media organizations and press bodies before making any significant changes.

Measures needed to curb fake news

• The current response to fake news primarily revolves around three prongs— rebuttal, removal of the fake news item and educating the public.
  • Rebuttal: It is a form of fact-checking wherein the fake news is debunked by pointing out errors like mismatch, malicious editing and misattribution.
  • Removal of Fake news: Technical companies like Facebook and YouTube uses algorithms to proactively remove fake news from their platforms.
  • Also, WhatsApp has put a limit on forwarding messages, so as to limit the spread to fake news.
• Education and Awareness: The government must take the initiative to make all sections of the population aware of the realities of this information war and evolve a consensus to fight this war. It mustalso take strict action against the fake news providers.
  • Ex: Italy has experimentally added ‘recognizing fake news’ in school syllabus. India should also seriously emphasize cybersecurity, internet education, fake news education in the academic curriculum at all levels.
• Strict Regulation: News being spread using chatbots and other automated pieces of software should automatically be selected for special screening.
• Bring out policy: The government should bring out a draft seeking opinion from stakeholders regarding issues of controlling fake news. Any future guidelines on ‘fake news’ should target ‘fake news’ and not try to regulate media in the name of ‘fake news’.
• Regulatory mechanism: The PCI needs to be reformed and empowered in a way so as to enable it to strikea balance between the freedom of media and speech on the one hand, and right to know on the other.
• Government should have independent agency: to verify the data being circulated in social and other media. The agency should be tasked with presenting real facts and figures.
• An ombudsman Institution: To receive complaints on fake news and initiate immediate action.
• Accountability of social media: Social media websites should be made accountable of such activities so that it becomes their responsibility to have better control over the spread of fake news.
• Using Artificial Intelligence:The artificial intelligence technologies, particularly machine learning and natural language processing, might be leveraged to combat the fake news problem. AI technologies hold promise for significantly automating parts of the procedure human fact checkers use today to determine if a story is real or a hoax.

 Conclusion

The government should reconsider the provisions in the IT Amendment Rules, 2023, and conduct meaningful consultations with all stakeholders to ensure that free speech and press freedom are not compromised.

8. The reforms to the Bretton Woods system would need to take into account the changing global economy, the perspectives and needs of a broader range of countries, and the potential for financial instability. Discuss.

Reference: Live Mint ,  Insights on India

Introduction

The trend towards global governance has been most prominent in the economic sphere, where it has been associated with the Bretton Woods System that emerged in the aftermath of WWII. The major factor for its emergence was the desire not to return to the economic instability and chaos of the inter-war period.

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Evolution and aftermath of Bretton Woods

• International Monetary Fund (IMF): Its chief purpose was to encourage international cooperation in the monetary field by removing foreign exchange restrictions, stabilising exchange rates and facilitating a multilateral payment system between countries.
  • However, post transition from fixed to floating exchange rates, IMF increasingly focussed on lending to the developing countries.
  • The most controversial aspect of the loans was the conditionalities associated with it which required recipient countries to introduce structural adjustment programmes based on faith in market fundamentalism.
  • This led to one size fits all application of neoliberal principles. ▪ Although ‘structural adjustment programmes’ sometimes produced benefits (as in South Korea), they often created more harm to developing countries due to the destabilising impact of shock therapy market reforms such as increased poverty and employment (by rolling back states), opened fragile economies to foreign competition etc.
• World Bank (WB): It provided low interest loans to support major investment projects as well as provided technical assistance and thus focussed on promoting development.
  • However, in emphasising the need to promote growth by expanding trade, WB helped to maintain dependency and poverty.
  • Development disparities thus became entrenched and during 1990s widened through a structural imbalance in trade that allowed developed countries to grow rich by selling high price, capital intensive goods, while developing countries sold low-price, labour-intensive goods.

Need for reforms

• Reformed Bretton Woods institutions– the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – a Bretton Woods 2.0 is what the world needs for the 21st century.
• While these institutions performed well over their first 50 years – they have been struggling in more recent times as problems of rising inequality, financial instability and protectionism have re-emerged.
• The threat of climate change and ecological stress, rising disasters and a more interconnected world with new threats like cyber-security and pandemics require a new international financial architecture.
• A modernised and reshaped set of Bretton Woods institutions to help address and mitigate these challenges, with three R’s – a revised global remit and the mandate to monitor agreed global rules and enhanced resources not only to help individual countries but also to address global problems. If this is a bridge too far in today’s fractured world a Bretton Woods 1.5 with enhanced remit and resources is proposed.

Reforms necessary to be taken

• First, at its centre will sit three reshaped and revitalised global institutions -the IMF, WBG and the WTO. The IMF will be tasked with macroeconomic policy and financial stability. This will include much stricter and enhanced surveillance of the advanced economies and the spillover effects of their policies to better understand and hopefully predict the global crisis and help less advanced economies.
• It is beginning to drift into areas of support – for poverty, gender and climate change which are better addressed by other agencies.
• A restructured WBG will make sustainability and shared prosperity (to address rising inequality) its major goals and it will need to use its capital base to leverage private capital more effectively. It must also be able to help within the country but be better able to address global good and bad by working closely with others. It should be a wholesaler not a retailer of finance. For example, the WHO on better-coordinated pandemic response to give an example.
• Finally, we need a strengthened WTO which stands not just for genuinely fair trade with speedier processes for dispute resolution and flexibility and authority to respond to emergencies more expeditiously. Progress made at the 12th MC in Geneva on several issues opens the path towards progress on a strengthened WTO.
• Second, the system also needs more automatic and rule-based agreed financing mechanisms. The current system of ex-post and discretionary response has delayed the ability to help and made it more politicised.

Conclusion

For the Bretton Woods twins to retain their heft, they should raise their game to serve the world better. Being US-backed may no longer be the asset it was. As the US is no longer an upholder of free trade, the duo might also need to worry about “common prosperity” coming to be seen as a Chinese proposition globally. How effectively and quickly the two multilateral lenders are reformed could make a big difference, as also whether they are widely seen to be serving everybody’s best interests rather than just the West’s own.

General Studies – 3

9. What is 3D bioprinting? While 3D bioprinting has enormous potential in healthcare and other industries, it is still a developing technology with limitations that need to be addressed before it can be widely used. Examine.

Reference: wikipedia.org

Introduction

3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing process where organic and biological materials such as living cells and nutrients are combined to create artificial structures that imitate natural human tissues. These biomaterials are called bioinks, and they mimic the composition of our tissues.

In other words, bioprinting is a type of 3D printing that can potentially produce anything from bone tissue and blood vessels to living tissues for various medical applications, including tissue engineering and drug testing and development.

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Bioprinted structures, such as organs-on-chips, can be used to study functions of a human body outside the body, in 3D. The geometry of a 3D bioprinted structure is more similar to that of a naturally occurring biological system than an in vitro 2D model. Structural similarity can in turn lead to functional results that are more physiologically relevant. No other technology enables the level of geometric complexity in engineering tissues that 3D bioprinting enables. That is why this technology has the potential to completely change the way we treat diseases – by replacing animal testing and ending the organ transplant waiting list.

Potential in healthcare

• The products obtained from bioprinting technologies can mimic both the biological and functional properties of our bodies’ natural-occurring structures and tissues.
• This can potentially lead to different kinds of applications, but today there’s only one feasible use for bioprinting: pharmaceutical drug testing and research.
• The production of artificial organs for transplantation would solve the issues of high demand and low availability, as well as post-surgical complications associated with organ rejection given that the fabricated organs would be developed using the patient’s own organic material.
• Besides the ethical part of it, drug development with bioprinted materials can make pre-clinical trials of new drugs much more cost-effective, helping them to be validated and reach the market sooner, while also potentially reducing the need for animal testing.
• The production of artificial organs for transplantation would solve the issues of high demand and low availability, as well as post-surgical complications associated with organ rejection given that the fabricated organs would be developed using the patient’s own organic material.
• Instead of creating entire functional organs, the small tissue patches can be potentially used to regenerate and treat organs like the liver and heart.
• Bone and skin grafting can also benefit from the technology, including surgery for reconstructive and aesthetic purposes.

Limitations

• Many new developments are over-hyped as the ultimate and ready-to-use breakthroughs in the field of 3D bio-printing, when in fact there are many unsolved problems in tissue engineering before complex organs like the heart, kidney and liver can be bio-printed.

• The vasculature—network of blood vessels that feeds the organ—is still a challenge. The vasculature still has to be developed to allow lab skin to integrate with the human body’s blood vessels.
• Stem cell engineering to grow all the cells of an organ in a personalised way to avoid rejection by the recipient’s immune system is another challenge.
• Researchers still have to ensure that a lab organ will work with all the other organs in a human body.
• The future of 3D bio-printed tissues and organs depend on regulatory clearances and getting the technology right.
• The entire process is also criticized from a moral and ethical perspective.

Conclusion

With a growing market of bioprinters and an increased interest in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, it’s clear that bioprinting technologies will continue to develop even more rapidly. It will indeed justify its value both from a moral and ethical perspective, which is always a significant challenge in technologies associated with medicine and nature. Let’s see how the technology will develop in a few more decades.

10. The menace of Left-wing extremism which is the single largest internal security threat in India is on a decline. It is indeed a welcome news but the Maoist threat remains a potent challenge to be overcome. Discuss.

Reference: The Hindu , Insights on India

Introduction

Left Wing Extremism (LWE) movement has its roots in the Naxalbari area West Bengal in the 1960’s.These Maoists insurgents started running a parallel system of administration in parts of central and Eastern India. They kill civilians, destroy public buildings and extract ransom from businessmen. In the recent years, however, LWE movement is showing decline, because of the shift in the approach of the successive Governments. The recent statement by Home Minister noted that the geographical influence of the Maoists has reduced from 96 districts in 10 States in 2010 to 41 now.

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Maoist threat remains a potent challenge:

• LWE still poses multiple challenges such as ‘radicalization of youth’; hindering the development initiatives; threat to the political stability of LWE areas; etc
• The Maoist insurgency still has potency in South Bastarin Chhattisgarh, the Andhra-Odisha border and in some districts in Jharkhand.
• These States must focus on expansive welfare and infrastructure building even as security forces try to weaken the Maoists.
• Frequent skirmishes and attacks have not only affected the security forces but also left many tribal civilians caught in the crossfire.
• A purely security-driven approach fraught with human rights’ violations has only added to the alienation among the poor in these areas.

Measures needed by government to tackle the Maoist insurgency:

• Modernizing the police force: The scheme focuses on strengthening police infrastructure by construction of secure police stations, training centers, police housing (residential) and equipping police stations with required mobility, modern weaponry, communication equipment and forensic set-up etc.
  • On the administrative side, changes include separation of investigation from law and order, specialized wings for Social and Cyber Crimes are initiated in several states.
  • Various technological reforms are pushed including modernization of the control room, fast tracking Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS), pushing for National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) and pushing for incorporation of new technology into policing
• Social Integration:State Governments have surrender and rehabilitation policy, while the Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments through the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme for LWE affected States.
  • Additional incentives are given for surrendering with weapons/ammunition.
  • The surrenderers are also impartedvocational training with a monthly stipend for a maximum period of 36 months.
  • Skill Development: Skill Development in 34 Districts affected by Left Wing Extremism” under implementation from 2011-12 aimsto establish ITIs and Skill Development Centers in LWE affected districts.
• Infrastructure Development:Road Connectivity, communication needs to be rapidly scaled up in LWE affected districts. g.: Mobile towers being set up in remote areas.
• Community policing improves interface with citizens and makes police more sensitive. E.g. (i) Janamaithri Suraksha Padhathi, Kerala (ii) Friends of Police Movement (FOP), Tamil Nadu (iii) Suraksha Setu – Safe City Surat Project
• Improve communication network: There should be sharing of information & knowledge to improve the functioning of police force.
• Better Surveillance and Monitoringwith standardization, deployment and integration of private security surveillance system.

Conclusion

The Union government and the States must continue to learn from successes such as the expansion of welfare and rights paradigms in limiting the movement and failures that have led to the continuing spiral of violence in select districts. Through a holistic approach focusing on development and security related interventions, the LWE problem can be successfully tackled.

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