Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Provisions of IT Rules 2021
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with IT Rules 2021
The article highlights the issues with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Important provision made in the IT Rules 2021
- The Rules mandate duties such as removal of non-consensual intimate pictures within 24 hours.
- The rules also mandates publication of compliance reports to increase transparency.
- Rules provides for setting up of a dispute resolution mechanism for content removal.
- It provides for adding a label to information for users to know whether content is advertised, owned, sponsored or exclusively controlled.
Issues with the rules
1) Affects right to free speech and expression
- The Supreme Court, in the case of Life Insurance Corpn. Of India vs Prof. Manubhai D. Shah (1992) had elevated ‘the freedom to circulate one’s views as the lifeline of any democratic institution’.
- So, the rules need to be critically scrutinised for the recent barriers being imposed by it.
2) Violation of legal principles
- The rules were framed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY).
- However, the Second Schedule of the Business Rules, 1961 does not empower MeiTY to frame regulations for digital media.
- This power belongs to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
- This action violates the legal principle of ‘colourable legislation’ where the legislature cannot do something indirectly if it is not possible to do so directly.
- Moreover, the Information Technology Act, 2000, does not regulate digital media.
- Therefore, the new IT Rules which claim to be a piece of subordinate legislation of the IT Act, goes beyond the rule-making power conferred upon them by the IT Act.
- This makes the Rules ultra vires to the Act.
3) Deprives the fair recourse to intermediary
- An intermediary is now supposed to take down content within 36 hours upon receiving orders from the Government.
- This deprives the intermediary of a fair recourse in the event that it disagrees with the Government’s order due to a strict timeline.
4) Privacy violation
- These Rules undermine the right to privacy by imposing a traceability requirement.
- The immunity that users received from end-to-end encryption was that intermediaries did not have access to the contents of their messages.
- Imposing this mandatory requirement of traceability will break this immunity, thereby weakening the security of the privacy of these conversations.
- This will also render all the data from these conversations vulnerable to attack from ill-intentioned third parties.
- The threat here is not only one of privacy but to the extent of invasion and deprivation from a safe space.
- Recent data breach affecting a popular pizza delivery chain and also several airlines highlights the risks involved in such move in the absence of data protection law.
- Instead of eliminate the fake news, the Rules proceed to hurriedly to take down whatever authority may deem as “fake news”.
5) Operational cost
- The Rules create additional operational costs for intermediaries by requiring them to have Indian resident nodal officers, compliance officers and grievance officers.
- Intermediaries are also required to have offices located in India.
- This makes profit making a far-fetched goal for multinational corporations and start-up intermediary enterprises.
- Therefore, not only do these Rules place a barrier on the “marketplace of ideas” but also on the economic market of intermediaries in general by adding redundant financial burdens.
Consider the question “What are the challenges associated with the social media? How the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 will help is dealing with these challenges? What are the issues with these rules?”
Conclusion
Democracy stands undermined in direct proportion to every attack made on the citizen’s right. The IT Rules 2021 have tilt towards violation of rights. Therefore, these rules need reconsideration.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Blackbuck
Mains level: Not Much
Odisha’s blackbuck population has doubled in the last six years, according to figures from the latest population census.
Blackbucks in Odisha
- Blackbucks are found only in the Ganjam district in the southern part of the state, which is where the census was carried out.
- It is known in Odisha and Ganjam as Krushnasara Mruga.
- The people of Ganjam believe the sighting of a blackbuck in a paddy field is a harbinger of luck for them.
- It used to be sighted in the Balukhand-Konark Wildlife Sanctuary in Puri district till 2012-13, but now has vanished from the area.
- The blackbuck is a Schedule-1 animal according to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (amended in 1992) and is considered as ‘Vulnerable’ according to the Red Data Book.
Reasons for their rise
- Improvement of habitats, the protection given by the local people and forest staff were some of the reasons for the increase of the population.
- The people of Ganjam had been enthusiastically protecting the animal like the Bishnois of western Rajasthan and the Vala Rajputs of Saurashtra.
Answer this PYQ:
Q.With reference to ‘Eco-Sensitive Zones’, which of the following statements is/are correct?
- Eco-Sensitive Zones are the areas that are declared under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
- The purpose of the declaration of Eco-Sensitive Zones is to prohibit all kinds of human activities, in those zones except agriculture.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Back2Basics: Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
- WPA provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds, and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security.
- It provides for the protection of a listed species of animals, birds, and plants, and also for the establishment of a network of ecologically important protected areas in the country.
- It provides for various types of protected areas such as Wildlife Sanctuaries, National Parks, etc.
- There are six schedules provided in the WPA for the protection of wildlife species which can be concisely summarized as under:
| Schedule I: |
These species need rigorous protection and therefore, the harshest penalties for violation of the law are for species under this Schedule. |
| Schedule II: |
Animals under this list are accorded high protection. They cannot be hunted except under threat to human life. |
| Schedule III & IV: |
This list is for species that are not endangered. This includes protected species but the penalty for any violation is less compared to the first two schedules. |
| Schedule V: |
This schedule contains animals which can be hunted. |
| Schedule VI: |
This list contains plants that are forbidden from cultivation. |
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with vaccine hesitancy
The article deals with the issue of vaccine hesitancy and its consequences.
Why vaccinate?
- The primary purpose of vaccination is to protect individuals against severe infection.
- Vaccination also protects populations by providing ‘herd immunity’, if done on a large scale.
- Globally, vaccinations against polio, small pox, meningitis and so on have seen huge success.
Need to address the vaccine hesitancy
- The results of a 2020 Gallup poll, conducted before the vaccine roll-out reveals that 18% of the Indian said that they won’t take the vaccine.
- But vaccine hesitancy has gone up in India since then, due in part to largely overblown reports of complications or even deaths.
- The consequences of vaccine hesitancy are disastrous.
- If herd immunity does not develop, disease outbreaks and pandemics will prevail.
- The slower the vaccination rate, the wider the spread of infection and the greater the chances of mutations and the emergence of new variants.
Factors driving vaccine hesitancy
- The influencing factors include a lack of awareness of the extent of benefits.
- Fears based on inaccurate information.
- Lack of access to vaccine.
- Disinformation, especially on social media.
- Other factors include civil liberty concepts, cost, cultural issues, and various layers of confidence deficit.
Way forward
- To allay vaccine fears, our messaging needs to focus on simple facts.
- Before attempting to persuade people, we need to understand the basis of their fear, hesitancy and the anti-vax attitude.
- By challenging untruths, we inadvertently feed the perception that we are actively suppressing the “real” truth.
- The objective now should be to reach more people faster with a message that doesn’t just provide more science but includes guidance.
- Providing practical information through social media, alternatives to apps for those lacking easy access to vaccines, and taking the help of well-informed frontline workers will all help.
Conclusion
The possibility of a significant number of people not getting vaccinated thwarts our collective ability to reach the herd immunity threshold against Covid-19. Therefore the issue of vaccine hesitancy needs to be urgently addressed.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Currency Swap
Mains level: Bangladesh economic growth
Bangladesh’s central bank has approved a $200 million currency swap facility to Sri Lanka.
Practice question for mains:
Q. What are Currency Swaps? Discuss the efficacy of Currency Swap Agreements for liberalizing bilateral trade.
What is a Currency Swap?
- In this context, a currency swap is effectively a loan that Bangladesh will give to Sri Lanka in dollars, with an agreement that the debt will be repaid with interest in Sri Lankan rupees.
- For Sri Lanka, this is cheaper than borrowing from the market, and a lifeline as is it struggles to maintain adequate forex reserves even as repayment of its external debts looms.
- The period of the currency swap will be specified in the agreement.
A helping hand for SL
- Bangladesh Bank, the central bank, has in principle approved a $200 million currency swap agreement with Sri Lanka.
- Dhaka decided to extend the facility after a request by Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa to Bangladesh’s PM Sheikh Hasina.
- It will help Colombo tide over its foreign exchange crisis, according to media reports from Bangladesh, quoting the bank’s spokesman.
- Sri Lanka, staring at an external debt repayment schedule of $4.05 million this year, is in urgent need of foreign exchange.
An unusual move
- Bangladesh has not been viewed so far as a provider of financial assistance to other countries.
- It has been among the most impoverished countries of the world, and still receives billions of dollars in financial aid.
- But over the last two decades, its economy has pulled itself up literally by the bootstraps, and in 2020, was the fastest growing in South Asia.
- Bangladesh’s economy grew by 5.2 percent in 2020 and is expected to grow by 6.8 percent in 2021.
- The country has managed to pull millions out of poverty. Its per capita income just overtook India’s.
A break in monopoly
- This may be the first time that Bangladesh is extending a helping hand to another country, so this is a landmark of sorts.
- It is also the first time that Sri Lanka is borrowing from a SAARC country other than India.
- The presumption was that only India, as the regional group’s largest economy, could do this.
- The Bangladesh-Sri Lanka arrangement shows that is no longer valid.
Why didn’t SL approach India?
- Last year, it requested for a $1 billion credit swap, and separately, a moratorium on debts that the country has to repay to India.
- But India-Sri Lanka relations have been tense over Colombo’s decision to cancel a valued container terminal project at Colombo Port.
- India put off the decision, but Colombo no longer has the luxury of time.
Is SL in a crisis?
- With the tourism industry destroyed since the 2019 Easter attacks, Sri Lanka had lost one of its top foreign exchange pullers even before the pandemic.
- The tea and garment industries have also been hit by the pandemic affecting exports.
- Remittances increased in 2020, but are not sufficient to pull Sri Lanka out of its crisis.
- The country is already deep in debt to China. According to media reports, Sri Lanka owes China up to $5 billion.
What about the previous swap facility that India gave Sri Lanka?
- Last July, the RBI did extend a $400 million credit swap facility to Sri Lanka, which the Central Bank of Sri Lanka settled in February. The arrangement was not extended.
- RBI has a framework under which it can offer credit swap facilities to SAARC countries within an overall corpus of $2 billion.
- According to RBI, the SAARC currency swap facility came into operation in November 2012 with the aim of providing to smaller countries in the region.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indian Broadcasting Foundation
Mains level: Self regulation by electronic media
The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the apex body of broadcasters, is expanding its purview to cover digital streaming platforms and will be renamed the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF).
Why such a move?
- The move would bring broadcasters and OTT (over-the-top) platforms, which have seen a substantial jump in their viewership base after the pandemic, under one roof.
- For this, the IBDF was in the process of forming a new wholly-owned subsidiary to handle all matters of digital media, an official statement said.
- The IBDF would also form a self-regulatory body, the Digital Media Content Regulatory Council (DMCRC), for digital OTT platforms.
Indian Broadcasting Foundation
- The IBF is a unified representative body of television broadcasters in India.
- The organization was founded in the year 1999. Over 250 Indian television channels are associated with it.
- The organization is credited as the spokesman of the Indian Broadcasting Industry.
- The IBF is the parent organization of the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) which was set up in the year 2011.
- The BCCC examines content-related complaints relating to all non-news general entertainment channels in India.
Note: The IBF has no statutory backing.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CNR Rao and his scientific contributions
Mains level: Not Much
Bharat Ratna Professor C.N.R. Rao has received the International Eni Award 2020 for research into renewable energy sources and energy storage, also called the Energy Frontier award.
Who is CNR Rao?
- Rao is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry.
- Rao is one of the world’s foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has contributed to the development of the field over five decades.
His scientific contributions
His work on transition metal oxides has led to a basic understanding of novel phenomena and the relationship between materials properties and the structural chemistry of these materials.
- Rao was one of the earliest to synthesize two-dimensional oxide materials such as La2CuO4.
- He was one of the first to synthesize 123 cuprates, the first liquid nitrogen-temperature superconductor in 1987. He was also the first to synthesis Y junction carbon nanotubes in the mid-1990s.
- His work has led to a systematic study of compositionally controlled metal-insulator transitions.
- Such studies have had a profound impact in application fields such as colossal magnetoresistance and high-temperature superconductivity.
- He has made immense contributions to nanomaterials over the last two decades, besides his work on hybrid materials.
Answer this PYQ from CSP 2020 in the comment box:
Q. With reference to carbon nanotubes, consider the following statements:
1. They can be used as carriers of drugs and antigens in the human body.
2. They can be made into artificial blood capillaries for an injured part of the human body.
3. They can be used in biochemical sensors.
4. Carbon nanotubes are biodegradable.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2, 3, and 4 only
(c) 1, 3, and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Citations for the Energy Frontiers award
- Professor Rao has been working on hydrogen energy as the only source of energy for the benefit of all mankind.
- Hydrogen storage, photochemical and electrochemical production of hydrogen, solar production of hydrogen, and non-metallic catalysis were the highlights of his work.
- The EF award has been conferred for his work on metal oxides, carbon nanotubes, and other materials and two-dimensional systems, including graphene, boron-nitrogen-carbon hybrid materials, and molybdenum sulfide (Molybdenite – MoS2) for energy applications and green hydrogen production.
- Green hydrogen production can be achieved through various processes, including the photodissociation of water, thermal dissociation, and electrolysis activated by electricity produced from solar or wind energy.
Significance of this award
- This is considered to be the Nobel Prize in Energy Research.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Golden visa scheme
Mains level: Not Much
A Bollywood actor has recently received a golden visa from the UAE government.
What is the Golden Visa?
- The Golden Visa system essentially offers long-term residency (5 and 10 years) to people belonging to the following groups: investors, entrepreneurs, individuals with outstanding talents the likes of researchers, medical professionals and those within the scientific and knowledge fields, and remarkable students.
- The main benefit of the visa will be security.
- The UAE government has made it clear that they are committed to providing expatriates, investors and essentially everyone looking to make the UAE their home an extra reason to feel secure about their future.
Who are eligible to apply?
- For the 10-year visa, investors having no less than AED (Dirham) 10 million worth of public investment, either in the form of an investment fund or a company, can apply.
- However, at least 60 per cent of the total investment must not be in the form of real estate and the invested amount must not be loaned, or in case of assets, investors must assume full ownership.
- The investor must be able to retain the investment for a minimum of three years as well.
- The long-term visa can also include the holder’s spouse and children, as well as one executive director and one advisor.
- In addition to the aforementioned, foreign nationals who are looking to set up their business in the UAE may also apply for permanent residency (5 years) through the Golden Business Visa scheme.
Perks for the talent
- Besides entrepreneurs, individuals with specialized talent can also apply for the visa. They include doctors, researchers, scientists, investors and artists.
- These individuals may be granted a 10-year visa following accreditations granted by their respective departments and fields and the visa will also be extended to their spouses and children.
- Exceptional high school and university students are eligible for a 5-year residency visa in the UAE.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Smallpox vaccination in colonial India
Mains level: Not Much
A 19th-century portrait of three women from Mysore has been going viral as “one of the most important scientific pictures in the history of medicine in India”.
What did the portrait depict?
- Believed to be painted in 1805 by Irish-born artist Thomas Hickey, the oil on canvas was initially thought to be portraits of “dancing girls or courtesans”.
- The painting depicted one of the first vaccine drives in India, with bejewelled women from the Wadiyar dynasty posing for Hickey.
- The canvas was commissioned to promote participation in the smallpox vaccination programme and the women posing with the scars.
What is smallpox?
- Smallpox is an acute contagious disease caused by the variola virus, a member of the orthopoxvirus family.
- It was one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity and caused millions of deaths before it was eradicated.
- It is believed to have existed for at least 3000 years.
How and when did the smallpox vaccine reach India?
- The smallpox vaccine, discovered by Edward Jenner in 1796, was the first successful vaccine to be developed.
- On June 14, 1802, Anna Dusthall, an Anglo-Indian toddler, was the first person in India to be successfully vaccinated against the virus that relied on the cowpox virus, “a mild cousin of smallpox” to trigger immunity.
- The “vaccine vesicle” that came on the arm of the receiver was a source of lymphatic fluid or pus that would act as a vaccine, leading to an arm-to-arm immunisation chain.
- The vaccine subsequently travelled to different parts of India, including Hyderabad, Cochin, Madras and Mysore.
How was the drive carried out?
- While the lymph was at times reportedly dried and sealed between glass plates to be transported, it often did not survive long journeys, due to which the British had to primarily rely on a human chain.
- There was also opposition from the domestic population on the introduction of the cowpox virus and also because some believed the goddess of smallpox would be angered by the vaccination.
- With Tipu Sultan defeated in Mysore, and the reinstatement of the Wadiyars, the East India Company was trying to strengthen its position in South India.
- It protected the ex-pat population from an epidemic, making vaccination essential.
- Queen Lakshmi Ammanni, who had lost her husband to smallpox, supported their cause and wanted to vaccine her population against the deadly virus.
- The painting was supposed to encourage participation in the vaccination drive.
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