UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 20 March 2024

InstaLinks : help you think beyond the issue but relevant to the issue from UPSC prelims and Mains exam point of view. These linkages provided in this ‘hint’ format help you frame possible questions ina your mind that might arise(or an examiner might imagine) from each current event. InstaLinks also connect every issue to their static or theoretical background. This helps you study a topic holistically and add new dimensions to every current event to help you think analytically

InstaLinks : help you think beyond the issue but relevant to the issue from UPSC prelims and Mains exam point of view. These linkages provided in this ‘hint’ format help you frame possible questions ina your mind that might arise(or an examiner might imagine) from each current event. InstaLinks also connect every issue to their static or theoretical background. This helps you study a topic holistically and add new dimensions to every current event to help you think analytically

Table of Contents:

GS Paper 3:

• AI’s Impact on Elections: Balancing Promise and Peril

Content for Mains Enrichment (CME)

• ILO Recommendation for Domestic Workers

Facts for Prelims (FFP)

• Tobacco Board

• Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024

• Trademark Rules: ‘Passing off’ provisions

• SAKHI App

• Indigenous Sickle Cell Disease Drug Developed

• Ketamine use

• Military Exercises in News

Mapping

• Similipal Tiger Reserve (Odisha)

AI’s Impact on Elections: Balancing Promise and Peril

#### GS3/ GS2 Paper

Syllabus: Application of Technology

Source: TH

Context: While AI promises numerous benefits, its misuse, particularly in elections, raises concerns. The 2024 elections worldwide, including in India, mark a pivotal moment, as AI’s impact on electoral behaviour becomes increasingly evident.

Promises of using AI for Election:

• Campaign Strategy Revolution: AI tools optimize campaign strategies, enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.

• Information Campaigns: AI aids targeted information campaigns, spreading tailored news.

• Technological Advancements: Rapid AI developments help in better study of electoral dynamics for political parties

• Micro-Targeting Voters: AI enables precise targeting based on demographics and online behaviour.

• Influence through Personalization: Tailored messages sway opinions effectively.

Perils of using AI for Election:

Aspect | Description

Manipulating Electoral Behavior | AI enables highly personalized propaganda, surpassing traditional methods like bots and automated social media accounts. See the below figure for example:

Spreading Disinformation | The term “Deep Fake Elections” highlights the expected impact of AI-generated disinformation tools. The persuasive ability of AI models would be far superior to the bots and automated social media accounts

E.g., Cloned celebrity voices– The combination of cloned celebrity voices with social media algorithms allows for targeted dissemination of misinformation, potentially distorting election outcomes.

‘AI hallucinations’ | AI’s inclination to fabricate information challenges its reliability and accuracy, warning against excessive dependence on AI systems.

Inherent Adversarial Capabilities | AI systems may develop adversarial capabilities like poisoning, backdooring, and evasion, posing significant threats that require effective mitigation strategies.

Poisoning: It refers to the deliberate manipulation of training data to compromise the performance of machine learning models.

Backdooring: Backdooring involves the insertion of a hidden vulnerability or malicious code into an AI system, allowing unauthorized access or control by attackers.

Evasion: Evasion, also known as adversarial evasion, is a technique used to deceive AI systems by subtly modifying input data to produce incorrect or unexpected outputs.

Lack of Effective Regulation | India faces the dilemma of regulating AI, oscillating between a non-regulatory approach and mitigating user harm, potentially leaving room for misuse.

Lack of Effective Checks by the Largest AI Platforms | Generative AI platforms restrict users from creating misleading images, yet researchers have successfully generated deceptive election-related images, raising concerns about the platforms’ efficacy in preventing misuse.

E.g., Users of Midjourney have created fake photos of Joe Biden handing wads of cash to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Trump playing golf with Russian President Vladimir Putin

Steps that can be taken to prevent AI misuse for Politics:

• Ethical Considerations in AI Governance: Prioritize fairness, transparency, accountability, and democratic principles in AI governance frameworks.

• Employment of Proactive Measures: Adopt robust regulatory frameworks and oversight mechanisms to mitigate AI-driven manipulation risks.

• Invest in digital and media literacy programs to empower voters to discern fact from fiction and resist manipulation.

• As per the Tech Accord for Combatting Deceptive AI in Elections (2024): Prevention: Invest in precautions to limit deceptive AI election content. Provenance: Attach origin signals to identify content sources. Detection: Employ methods to detect deceptive AI content. Responsive Protection: Provide swift responses to incidents of deceptive content dissemination. Evaluation: Learn from experiences in dealing with deceptive content. Public Awareness: Educate the public on media literacy and protection from manipulation. Resilience: Develop tools and resources to defend the democratic process against deceptive content.

• Prevention: Invest in precautions to limit deceptive AI election content. Provenance: Attach origin signals to identify content sources. Detection: Employ methods to detect deceptive AI content. Responsive Protection: Provide swift responses to incidents of deceptive content dissemination. Evaluation: Learn from experiences in dealing with deceptive content. Public Awareness: Educate the public on media literacy and protection from manipulation. Resilience: Develop tools and resources to defend the democratic process against deceptive content.

• Prevention: Invest in precautions to limit deceptive AI election content.

• Provenance: Attach origin signals to identify content sources.

• Detection: Employ methods to detect deceptive AI content.

• Responsive Protection: Provide swift responses to incidents of deceptive content dissemination.

• Evaluation: Learn from experiences in dealing with deceptive content.

• Public Awareness: Educate the public on media literacy and protection from manipulation.

• Resilience: Develop tools and resources to defend the democratic process against deceptive content.

• Developing and Implementing Technology to Mitigate Risks: Attach machine-readable information to AI-generated content to certify authenticity.

• Addressing Deceptive AI Election Content: Appropriately address detected deceptive AI content while upholding principles of free expression and safety.

• Engagement with Global Civil Society: Engage with global civil society organizations and experts to understand the risk landscape and develop effective technologies and initiatives.

• Advisory and Self-Censorship: Ministry advisory requires social media platforms to ensure AI tools avoid bias or discrimination in the electoral process. AI platforms implement self-censorship and code-level censorship to limit responses to controversial queries.

India’s Stance on AI Regulation:

India aims to develop sovereign AI and AI computing infrastructure, focusing on real-life applications in healthcare, agriculture, governance, language translation, etc., to catalyse economic development.

Currently, India is transitioning from a no-regulation stance on AI to actively formulating regulations based on a risk-based, user-harm approach. India’s AI penetration factor is about 3, the highest among G20 and OECD countries. Some of the initiatives in AI are:

• Awareness Initiatives like #AIFORALL NITI Aayog’s National Strategy for AI(2018) focused on inclusive and responsible AI NITI Aayog’s ‘Principle of Responsible AI,‘ outlines seven key principles for AI use TRAI proposed a domestic statutory authority for AI regulation in July 2023, emphasizing a risk-based framework. Ethical guidelines for AI in healthcare by the Indian Council of Medical Research SEBI’s circular guiding AI policies in the capital market National Education Policy 2020recommends integrating AI awareness into school courses. Other Government Schemes for AI: INDIAai; Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence(GPAI); US India Artificial Intelligence Initiative; Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Youth; Artificial Intelligence Research, Analytics and Knowledge Assimilation Platform.

• Awareness Initiatives like #AIFORALL

• NITI Aayog’s National Strategy for AI(2018) focused on inclusive and responsible AI

• NITI Aayog’s ‘Principle of Responsible AI,‘ outlines seven key principles for AI use

• TRAI proposed a domestic statutory authority for AI regulation in July 2023, emphasizing a risk-based framework.

• Ethical guidelines for AI in healthcare by the Indian Council of Medical Research

• SEBI’s circular guiding AI policies in the capital market

• National Education Policy 2020recommends integrating AI awareness into school courses.

• Other Government Schemes for AI: INDIAai; Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence(GPAI); US India Artificial Intelligence Initiative; Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Youth; Artificial Intelligence Research, Analytics and Knowledge Assimilation Platform.

Conclusion:

With elections looming in 2024 worldwide, including in India, the impact of AI on electoral processes demands attention. AI, especially Generative AI, presents opportunities and challenges in shaping electoral outcomes. Addressing its disruptive potential is crucial to safeguarding democratic processes and upholding electoral integrity.

Insta Links:

• IndiaAI Mission What are hallucinating chatbots?

• IndiaAI Mission

• What are hallucinating chatbots?

Prelims Links:

Q1. With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (UPSC 2020)

• Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units

• Create meaningful short stories and songs

• Disease diagnosis

• Text-to-Speech Conversion

• Wireless transmission of electrical energy

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only (b) 1, 3 and 4 only (c) 2, 4 and 5 only (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Ans: B

ILO Recommendation for Domestic Workers

#### Content for Mains Enrichment (CME)

Source: ILO

Context: The International Labour Organization (ILO) has issued a new policy brief urging governments, workers’ organizations, and employers to ensure that domestic workers have access to labour rights and social protection.

Who are domestic workers?

Domestic workers are individuals (women in particular) hired to perform various household tasks within private residences, such as cleaning, cooking, childcare, and other domestic duties. They play a crucial role in supporting families and often work without formal contracts or labour protections. There are about 5 million domestic workers in India (of which 3 million are women)

Recommendations:

• Recognize domestic workers as care workers and integrate them into national care policies and social security systems.

• Ratify the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 189, known as the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011, to protect the rights of domestic workers.

• Implement skills recognition and training initiatives to formally value the work of domestic workers.

• Raise awareness about the critical role of domestic workers in society.

Steps taken by India:

• Implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, to protect female domestic workers from sexual exploitation.

• Inclusion of provisions for domestic workers in the Code on Wages, 2019.

• Provision of social security for all unorganized workers, including domestic workers, under the Code on Social Security, 2020.

Tobacco Board

#### Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: Th

Context: The Tobacco Board has set a crop size of 100 million kg for Karnataka in 2024-25. Farmers are urged to cultivate within authorized areas and register with the board to avoid excess production and ensure market sustainability.

India ranked as the 2nd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of unmanufactured tobacco globally in 2021.

About Tobacco Board (HQ: Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, est. 1976)

It is a statutory body under the Tobacco Board Act, 1975. It functions under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry. Its primary role includes promoting the export of various tobacco varieties and regulating the production, distribution, and quality of Flue Cured Virginia tobacco.

Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024

#### Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: Mondaq

Context: India has announced progressive changes in the Patents Rules, 2003 (under the Patents Act 1970) through the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024, notified by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Indian Patent Office.

What is a Patent?

A patent is a statutory right granted by governments, providing exclusive rights to the inventor for their invention. It prohibits others from using, making, selling, or importing the patented product or process without permission. The patent term typically lasts for 20 years. To qualify for a patent, an invention must meet criteria such as novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability.

Key changes introduced under Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024

• Revised Due Date for Request for Examination: The deadline for filing a Request for Examination (RFE) in a patent application has been reduced from 48 months to 31 months from the earliest priority date.

• Simplified Submission of Form 3: Patent applicants are now required to submit details of corresponding applications on Form 3 only twice.

• Introduction of ‘Certificate of Inventorship’ to recognize inventors’ contributions to patented inventions.

• 10% reduction in renewal fees if paid in advance through electronic mode for at least 4 years.

• The frequency of filing statements of working patents was reduced from once in a financial year to once in every three financial years.

• Empowerment of Controller: The Controller has been granted authority to extend time periods specified in the Rules and to condone delays for up to six months.

• Amendments in Pre-grant and Post-grant Opposition Procedures: The time frame for submission of recommendations by an Opposition Board and the response time for applicants have been adjusted.

Achievements:

• India has ratified the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and its patent office granted over 100,000 patents between March 2023 and March 2024.

• There has been a surge in Geographical Indication registrations, a record-breaking number of copyright registrations, and the highest number of design registrations during the fiscal year 2023-24.

• Trade Marks Registry is committed to issuing examination reports within 30 days of receiving trademark applications.

• National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM) has provided IP training to over 24 lakh youths in the last two years.

Trademark Rules: ‘Passing off’ provisions

#### Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: TOI

Context: Recently, Dolma Aunty, renowned for her momos in Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, won a trademark battle in her favour. The Delhi High Court cancelled the trademark registration of ‘Dolma Aunty Momos’ in the name of Mohammed Akram Khan after Dolma Tsering, the original Dolma Aunty, filed a petition against him.

The legal action invoked ‘passing off’ provisions, seeking cancellation of the infringers’ trademark under relevant sections of the Trademarks Act.

What is a trademark?

These are symbols, designs, words, or phrases associated with a business, and registering them grants exclusive rights to their usage. Governed by the Trademarks Act of 1999, trademarks registered with the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks are protected for 10 years and can be renewed periodically.

What is the ‘Passing off’ provision?

It refers to deceptive practices where one brand attempts to profit from another’s reputation through misrepresentation.

In trademark law, the distinction between infringement and passing off is crucial. If a registered trademark is violated, it constitutes infringement. However, if the trademark isn’t registered and infringement happens, it’s categorized as passing off.

Regarding passing off, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Cadila Healthcare Limited vs. Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited (2001) defined it as a type of unfair trade competition

#### Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: Th

Context: The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) has developed SAKHI, a multi-purpose app for astronauts on the Gaganyaan space flight mission.

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram developed the system for the Gaganyaan mission. It aims to support astronauts by monitoring their health, ensuring communication with Earth, and maintaining mission logs in various formats. It also reminds astronauts about hydration, dietary schedules, and sleep patterns.

ISRO aims to launch the Gaganyaan mission in 2025, with the crew assisted by SAKHI during their journey.

Indigenous Sickle Cell Disease Drug Developed

#### Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: TH

Context: Delhi-based Akmus Drugs and Pharmaceutical Limited has developed a new India’s first room-temperature stable indigenous drug for sickle cell disease.

How Akmus Sickle Cell Drug is a Game-Changer?

• Basic Component: The drug’s primary component is an oral suspension of Hydroxyurea.

• Affordable Price: Priced at less than ₹600 (at just 1% of the global price)

• Suitable for All Ages: Tailored for patients of all age groups, ensuring broad applicability.

• Precise Administration: Provided with oral syringes, it offers convenience and accuracy in dosage.

• Room Temperature Stability: Eliminates the need for stringent storage conditions, unlike imported solutions requiring refrigeration (at 2-8 degrees Celsius)

What is SCD?

Sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder, impacts patients throughout their lives. SCD is a group of inherited Red Blood Cell (RBC) disorders or haemoglobin disorders. It changes the shapes of RBCs from round to a C-shaped farm tool called a sickle. Sickle cells clog the blood flow and die early, causing a constant shortage of RBCs.

India’s initiatives:

• National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission (launched in 2023, it aims to eliminate sickle cell genetic transmission by 2047)

• The recent approval of Casgevy, a groundbreaking gene therapy utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 technology

• India has acknowledged SCD as a top health concern for tribal communities, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions.

Ketamine use

#### Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: LM

Context: Elon Musk defends ketamine use, deeming it ‘beneficial’ for investors. The Tesla CEO disclosed his prescription for ketamine, stating it helps manage his mood.

About Ketamine:

Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic (produces a trance-like state) that has some hallucinogenic effects.

Usage:

• Doctors use it to induce general anaesthesia that does not require muscle relaxation. General anaesthesia denotes a sleep-like state

• Developed as an animal anaesthetic in the 1960s, and later approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for human use.

• Recently used to treat depression and mental illnesses, also used recreationally. Recreational use involves snorting, injecting, or smoking. Administered through intravenous (IV), nasal spray, or tablet for mental illness treatment.

Effects of Ketamine: Ketamine works by blocking the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in the brain. This receptor is involved in the transmission of pain signals and in the regulation of mood. By blocking the NMDA receptor, ketamine can produce analgesia (pain relief) and euphoria. It can create pleasant visualizations and a sense of detachment Ketamine can produce hallucinations similar to other drugs such as Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and angel dust.

Regulations: Ketamine has been included as a psychotropic substance under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985

Military Exercises in News

#### Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: ET

Exercise Name | Details

Exercise Tiger Triumph – 24 | Bilateral tri-service Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise between India and USA.

Other exercises with the USA | Military training exercises: Yudh Abhyas and Vajra Prahar. Air Force exercise: Cope India. Naval Exercise along with Japan: Malabar.

Exercise Lamitiye 2024 | Joint Military Exercise between Indian Army and Seychelles Defence Forces.

Similipal Tiger Reserve (Odisha)

#### Mapping

Source: TH

Context: Police in Odisha have discovered illegal poppy farms deep within the Similipal Tiger Reserve, burning over 1,54,980 poppy plants worth approximately over ₹3 crore.

About Poppy Plant:

Poppies, flowering plants known for their vibrant colours, belong to the Papaveraceae family. Notably, Papaver somniferum produces opium, a potent narcotic with medicinal properties like morphine. Poppies also yield edible seeds.

The opium poppy cultivation is regulated in India and can be cultivated only in such tracts as are notified by the Government. At present these tracts are confined to three States, viz. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh and Chittorgarh and Jhalawar Districts of Rajasthan constitute about 80% of the total area.

About Similipal Tiger Reserve (Odisha):

Established in 1956, Similipal Tiger Reserve has been a Project Tiger site since 1973 and a biosphere reserve since 1994. It’s a part of UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves and the Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve. Additionally, it’s home to two indigenous tribes, the Erenga Kharias and Mankirdias, who practice traditional agriculture.