DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 28th March 2023

Syllabus

• Prelims –Environment and Ecology

Context: Recently, the Minister of state (independent charge) for science and technology and earth science stated that India will continue to support the efforts of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

About the Commission for the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR):-Background:–

• It was established by an international convention in 1982 with the objective of conserving Antarctic marine life.

Objective:-Based on the best available scientific information, the Commission agrees to a set of conservation measures that determine the use of marine living resources in the Antarctic.

• It is an international commission with 27 Members.
• Important members: Australia, Brazil, China, EU, Japan, UK, USAetc
• 10 countries have acceded to the Convention so far.
• India is a member of the convention.
• The CAMLR Convention entered into force on 7 April 1982.
• CCAMLR’s Secretariat is located in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
• CCAMLR’s programs of research, monitoring and the application of conservation measures in the Convention Area make a valuable contribution to Antarctic conservation.

About United Nations 30×30 Framework:-

• It is a landmark agreement adopted by the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15.
• COP15:-
  • It was held in Montreal, Canada.
  • It was originally set to be held in Kunming, China, in 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• United Nations 30×30 Framework aims to protect 30 per cent of the planet’s lands, coastal areas and inland waters by 2030.
• The United Nations has designated the next 10 years “The Decade on Restoration” to halt ecosystem degradation.
• The 30×30 goal is particularly urgent because it’s easier to protect an environment from destruction than it is to regenerate an environment that’s already been degraded.
• An estimated 16.44% of land worldwide is currently protected, along with 7.74% of the ocean, according to the United Nations.
• Roughly three-quarters of all land environments and two-thirds of the ocean have been heavily degraded by human activities according to reports.
• The 30% conservation goal gives the planet a chance to recover and could protect millions of species from extinction.
• The countries can protect 30% of their land and marine spaces through legislation.

MUST READ: Conserving Marine Resources and BIMSTEC & Maritime Protection

SOURCE: DOWN TO EARTH

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) “Climate Action Tracker” which monitors the emission reduction pledges of different countries is a : (2022)

1. Database created by a coalition of research organisations
2. Wing of “International Panel of Climate Change”
3. Committee under “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”
4. Agency promoted and financed by United Nations Environment Programme and World Bank

Q.2) “Biorock technology” is talked about in which one of the following situations? (2022)

1. Restoration of damaged coral reefs
2. Development of building materials using plant residues
3. Identification of areas for exploration/extraction of shale gas
4. Providing salt licks for wild animals in forests/protected areas

Syllabus

• Prelims – Environment and Ecology

Context:

About Earth Hour:-

• Earth Hour famously began in Sydney, Australia back in 2007.
• It is an annual initiative of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).
• Earth Hour is held every year on the last Saturday of March.
• It encourages people from more than 180 countries to switch off the lights from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm as per their local time.
• Objective: to encourage individuals, households, communities and businesses to take accountability for their ecological footprint and engage in a dialogue on finding real solutions to challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation as a whole.
• The 2023 edition of this worldwide movement, organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), has been scheduled for 8:30-9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 25.
• Interestingly, every year on March 20-21, Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres witness the equinox.
  • Equinox: it is an astronomical event that causes both hemispheres to experience nearly equal hours of day and night.

• This leads to near coincidental sunset times in both hemispheres, thereby ensuring a compelling visual impact for a global ‘lights out event’.
• This is a major reason to celebrate Earth Hour towards the end of March.

About World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF):-

• It is the world’s leading conservation organization and works in more than 100 countries.
• It was established in 1961.
• It is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland.
• Initiatives of WWF:-
  • TX2 Goal
  • TRAFFIC
  • Living Planet Report

MUST READ: Energy Security

SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) Statement 1: The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the Arbor Day Foundation have recently recognized Hyderabad as the 2020 Tree City of the World

Statement 2: Hyderabad was selected for recognition for a year following its commitment to growing and maintaining the Urban forests. (2021)

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

1. Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct and Statement 2 is the correct explanation for Statement 1
2. Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct but Statement 2 is not the correct explanation for Statement 1.
3. Statement 1 is correct but Statement 2 is not correct.
4. Statement 1 is not correct but Statement 2 is correct.

Q.2) The “Common Carbon Metric” supported by UNEP, has been developed for(2021)

1. Assessing the carbon footprint of building operations around the world
2. Enabling commercial farming entities around the world to enter carbon emission trading
3. Enabling governments to assess the overall carbon footprint caused by their countries
4. Assessing the overall carbon footprint caused by the use of fossil fuels by the world in a unit of time

Syllabus

• Prelims –Environment and Ecology

Context: Recently, a new species of eel Gy mnothorax tamilnaduensis has been discovered.

About Gymnothorax tamilnaduensis:-

• The researchers have discovered a new species of Moray eel at the Mudasalodai fish landing centre off the Cuddalore coast.
• The species has been named after Tamil Nadu as Gymnothorax tamilnaduensis with a common name as Tamil Nadu brown moray.
• The new species are notably different from its known Indian water congeners (organisms of the same genus) by having a series of lines of small dark spots present on the head and a single line of black spots on the midline of the body.
• About 28 species of Gymnothorax have been documented in Indian waters so far.
•  The species discovered off the Cuddalore coast represents India and increases the total amount of species of Gymnothorax to 29.
•  The present description is also the first new species of the genus Gymnothorax from the south-eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal.
• The holotype of this new species has also been deposited at the National Fish Museum and repository of ICAR-NBFGR, Lucknow.
• The name of the species has been registered in ZooBank.
• ZooBank: it is the online registration system for the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN)

MUST READ: Mumbai blind eel

SOURCE: THE HINDU

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) Consider the following kinds of organisms: (2021)

1. Copepods
2. Cyanobacteria
3. Diatoms
4. Foraminifera

Which of the above are primary producers in the food chains of oceans?

1. 1 and 2
2. 2 and 3
3. 3 and 4
4. 1 and 4

Q.2) Which one of the following is a filter feeder? (2021)

1. Catfish
2. Octopus
3. Oyster
4. Pelican

Syllabus

• Prelims –Environment and Ecology

Context: Recently, four tiger cubs were born in Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park after 13 years.

About Sanjay Gandhi National Park:-

IMAGE SOURCE: Sanjay Gandhi National Park Well known national park in Mumbai , India | Popular travel destination in Maharashtra | Mumbai Orbit

• It is a protected area near Mumbai in Maharashtra.
• It was formerly known as Borivali National Park.
• It was renamed to its present name in 1996, after Sanjay Gandhi.
  • Sanjay Gandhi: he was the eldest son of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
• It is part of the Western Ghats’ biodiversity.
• It forms roughly 20.5% of Mumbai’s geographical area.
• Kanheri Caves is situated within a national park
  • It is a 2000-year-old complex of some 160 rock-cut caves.
  • It was an important Buddhist learning centre
  • It is a protected archaeological site.
  • The name Kanheri is derived from ‘Kanhagiri’ in Prakrit .
  • It occurs in the Nasik inscription of the Satavahana ruler Vasisthiputra Pulumavi.
  • Kanheri was mentioned in the travelogues of foreign travellers.
  • The earliest reference of Kanheri is ascribed to Fa-Hein who visited India during 399-411 CE and later by several other travellers.
  • These excavations were primarily undertaken during the Hinayana phase of Buddhism but also has several examples of the Mahayana stylistic architecture as well as   few printings of the Vajrayana order.

MUST READ: Silent Valley National Park

SOURCE: THE INDIAN EXPRESS

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) Which of the following Protected Areas are located in the Cauvery basin? (2020)

1. Nagarhole National Park
2. Papikonda National Park
3. Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve
4. Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 3 and 4 only
3. 1, 3 and 4 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Q.2) With reference to India’s Desert National Park, which of the following statements is correct? (2020)

1. It is spread over two districts.
2. There is no human habitation inside the Park.
3. It is one of the natural habitats of the Great Indian Bustard.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Syllabus

• Prelims –Polity

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court on Friday restored the doctrine of “guilt by association” in criminal jurisprudence in India

About Guilt by association doctrine:-

• It is also known as the association fallacy.
• It is officially defined as “guilt ascribed to someone not because of any evidence, but because of their association with an offender.”
• Thus, an individual can face criticism or backlash as a result of their likeness to an existing group or entity.
• Conversely, honour by association describes a situation where someone is lauded as a result of their affiliation with groups that are perceived in a positive light.
• The Supreme Court restored the doctrine of “guilt by association” in criminal jurisprudence in India.
•  It overruled a bunch of its 2011 judgments and declared that mere membership of a banned organisation will be a crime under the country’s anti-terror law — Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967

About the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,1967:

• It is an Indian law aimed at the prevention of unlawful activity and associations in India.
• Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India.
• The most recent amendment of the law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 (UAPA2019).
• It has made it possible for the Union Government to designate individuals as terrorists without following any formal judicial process.

MUST READ: Misuse of UAPA and Increase in arrests under UAPA Act

SOURCE: HINDUSTAN TIMES

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) With reference to India, consider the following statements: (2021)

1. When a prisoner makes out a sufficient case, parole cannot be denied to such prisoner because it becomes a matter of his/her right.
2. State Governments have their own Prisoners Release on Parole Rules.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Q.2) In the context of polity, which one of the following would you accept as the most appropriate definition of liberty?(2019)

1. Protection against the tyranny of political rulers
2. Absence of restraint
3. Opportunity to do whatever one likes
4. Opportunity to develop oneself fully

Syllabus

• Prelims – Governance

Context: Recently, the government made a statement in Lok Sabha saying that it is providing 15 lakh rupees per Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK) under the Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Vikas Yojna (PMJVM).

About Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Vikas Yojna:-

IMAGE SOURCE: Van Dhan Vikas Yojana – Empowering Tribals across India – Speak loud with your Brand (inc91.com)

• It was launched in 2018.
• Objective: it seeks to improve tribal incomes through the value addition of tribal products.
• The scheme will be implemented through the Ministry of Tribal Affairs as Nodal Department.
•  Tribal Co-Operative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) will be the Nodal Agency at the National Level.
  • TRIFED was established in 1987 under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 by the Government of India as a National level Cooperative body.
  • It was under the administrative control of the then Ministry of Welfare of India.
  •  Objective: as a market developer and service provider, the objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people in the country by way of marketing development of the tribal products
• At the State level, the State Nodal Agency for MFPs and the District collectors are envisaged to play a pivot role in scheme implementation at the grassroots level.
• Locally the Kendras are proposed to be managed by a Managing Committee (an SHG) consisting of representatives of Van Dhan SHGs in the cluster.
• A typical Van Dhan Vikas Kendra constitutes 10 tribal Van Dhan Vikas Self Help Groups (SHG), each comprising of upto 30 MFP gatherers or tribal handicraft artisans i.e. about 300 beneficiaries per Kendra.

MUST READ: Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022

SOURCE: NEWSONAIR

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India: (2019)

1. PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
2. A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG mstatus.
3. There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
4. Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

1. 1, 2 and 3
2. 2, 3 and 4
3. 1, 2 and 4
4. 1, 3 and 4

Q.2) With reference to organic farming in India, consider the following statements: (2018)

1. ‘The National ‘Programme for Organic Production’ (NPOP) is operated under the guidelines and ‘directions of the Union Ministry of Rural Development.
2. ‘The Agricultural and Processed Food Product Export Development Authority ‘(APEDA) functions as the Secretariat for the implementation of NPOP.
3. Sikkim has become India’s first fully organic State.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Syllabus

• Prelims –Environment and Ecology

Context: Gandhamardan hills were named the third biodiversity heritage site in Odisha recently.

About Gandhamardan hill:-

• The Gandhamardan hill (Gandhamardan Reserve Forest) spreads in Bargarh and Balangir districts in Odisha.
• This ecologically fragile ecosystem is rich in floral and faunal diversity and is protected under the Odisha Biodiversity Rules,2012.

About Biodiversity heritage site:-

• These are well-defined areas that are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems.
• They have a high diversity of wild and domesticated species, the presence of rare and threatened species, and keystone species.
• Under Section 37 of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 the State Government in consultation with local bodies may notify the areas of biodiversity importance as Biodiversity Heritage Sites.

They may comprise of any one or more of the following components:-

• richness of wild as well as domesticated species or intra-specific categories
• high endemism
• presence of rare and threatened species
• keystone species
• species of evolutionary significance
• wild ancestors of domestic/cultivated species or their varieties
• past pre-eminence of biological components represented by fossil beds
• having significant cultural, ethical or aesthetic values; important for the maintenance of cultural diversity (with or without a long history of human association with them)

Biodiversity Heritage Site in India:-

• There are 36 Biodiversity Heritage Site in India.
• Some of them are as follows:-

Biodiversity Heritage Site (BHS)                     District/State

• Nallur Tamarind Grove                          Karnataka
• Hogrekan                                                 Karnataka
• University of Agricultural Sciences      Karnataka
• Ambaraguda                                             Karnataka
• Glory of Allapalli                                      Maharashtra
• Tonglu BHS and Dhotrey BHS under the Darjeeling Forest Division  -Darjeeling,    West Bengal
• Mandasaru                                              Odisha
• Dialong Village                                       Manipur
• Ameenpur lake                                      Telangana
• Majuli                                                       Assam
• Gharial Rehabilitation Centre             Uttar Pradesh
• Chilkigarh Kanak Durga                      West Bengal
• Purvatali Rai                                           Goa
• Naro Hills                                               Madhya Pradesh
• Asramam                                                Kerala
• Schistura Hiranyakeshi                       Maharashtra
• Arittapatti                                               Tamilnadu

MUST READ: 1st Biodiversity Heritage site in TN

SOURCE:HINDUSTAN TIMES

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) Which of the following are in Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve? (2019)

1. Nayyar, Peppara and Shendurney Wildlife sanctuaries; and Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve
2. Mudumalai, Sathyamangalam and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Silent Valley National Park
3. Kaundinya, Gundla Brahmeswaram and Papikonda Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Mukurthi National Park
4. Kawal and Sri Venkateswara Wildlife Sanctuaries; and NagarjunasagarSrisailam Tiger Reserve

Q.2) Consider the following statements (2018)

1. The definition of “Critical Wildlife Habitat” is incorporated in the forest rights act 2006
2. For the first time in India, Baigas have been given habitat rights
3. Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change officially decides and declares Habitat Rights for Primitive and Vulnerable Tribal Groups in any part of India

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Syllabus

• Prelims –Geography

Context: Recently, UK committed to provide weapons containing depleted uranium to Ukraine.

About Depleted Uranium:-

• It is a by-product of the process of creating enriched uranium, which is used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
• In comparison to enriched uranium, depleted uranium is much less radioactive.
• It is incapable of generating a nuclear reaction.
• It is denser than lead.
•  It is thus ,widely used in weapons as it can easily penetrate armour plating.
•  Apart from the US, Britain, Russia, China, France and Pakistan produce uranium weapons.
• These are not classified as nuclear weapons, as per the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.
• the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons(ICBUW):-
  • It coordinates campaigning against Depleted Uranium ammunition worldwide within the framework of the United Nations.
  • In particular, the campaign is supported by the IPPNW (International Doctors for the Prevention of Nuclear War) and the IALANA (Lawyers Against Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons).
  • It was  established in 2003 in Berlaar, Belgium.
  • It has had special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2005.
  • The Coalition provides the framework for dealing with all aspects of the uranium weapons issue and seeks to bring peace, human rights and environmental movements closer together on this issue.
  • The aim of the coalition is to ban DU weapons, eliminate the environmental damage caused by uranium weapons use, help the victims, and prevent future damage from such weapons and actions.
  • The coalition is open to NGOs, groups and individuals who wish to contribute to the realization of their goals.
• Ingesting or inhaling them depresses renal function and raises the risk of developing a range of cancers.
• Depleted uranium munitions which miss their target can poison groundwater and soil.

MUST READ: Iran nuclear Programme

SOURCE:INDIAN EXPRESS

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

Q.1) With reference to India, consider the following statements: (2022)

1. Monazite is a source of rare earths.
2. Monazite contains thorium.
3. Monazite occurs naturally in the entire Indian coastal sands in India.
4. In India, Government bodies only can process or export monazite.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

1. 1, 2 and 3 only
2. 1, 2 and 4 only
3. 3 and 4 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Q.2) Consider the following minerals (2020)

1. Bentonite
2. Chromite
3. Kyanite
4. Sillimanite

In India, which of the above is/are officially designated as major minerals?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 4 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 2, 3 and 4 only

Syllabus

• Mains – GS 2 (Governance)

Context: Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs recently informed Lok Sabha that the implementation period of the Smart City Mission had been extended upto June 2023.

About Smart Cities Mission (SCM):

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched in 2015.
• It will cover 100 cities and is being implemented by the Ministry Housing and Urban Affairs and all state and union territory (UT) governments.
• It initially aimed to be completed by 2019-20 but has since been extended.
• The projects were supposed to be completed within five years of the selection of the city, but in 2021 the Ministry changed the deadline for all cities to June 2023.
• As of March 2023, the 100 cities have issued work orders for 7,799 projects. Out of these, 5,399 projects have been completed, and the rest are ongoing.
• Only around 20 cities are likely to meet the June deadline; the rest will need more time.

Significance:

• India is the world’s second-most populous nation.
• 31% of India’s present population and contribute around 63% of GDP (Census 2011).
• Urban areas are anticipated to house 40% of India’s people and contribute around 75% of India’s GDP by the year 2030.
• To promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to their citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.
• Make Cities liveable, inclusive, sustainable (Area-based development).
• Create employment opportunities.
• Integrated Command and Control Centres:
  • All 100 cities have also constructed Integrated Command and Control Centres to monitor all security, emergency and civic services.
  • During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, these centres were converted into emergency response units by many of the cities.

Important characteristics of smart cities are:

Source: https://smartcitykota.com/about/

Challenges

Infrastructure development:

• A lot of challenges come up when a large scale infrastructure development is done.
• The legal set-up, inconsistency in policies and regulatory norms are the major challenges in a country like India. They affect the actual execution of projects.

Financing for project:

• Keeping the funds and finances flowing in for the smart cities mission is a challenge. Most ULBs are not even financially self-sustainable.
• Getting the right finances flowing in for the completion of the project and later the maintenance of the technological developments in the smart cities can be a challenge.

Technical constraints:

• Most of the urban local bodies have a limited technical capacity to ensure the development of the smart cities.
• These technical and technological limitations hinder the cost-effective and timely implementation of the smart steps.

Transport:

• Urbanizing the public transport for urban mobility is a challenge for the government due to the inadequate transport system currently persisting in the cities.
• Various factors like lack of investment, high population density, zoning, and poor urban planning have been making the transit system in Indian cities inadequate.

Government Initiatives to Support the SCM

• National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM): It will create a shared digital infrastructure for urban India.
  • It shall work across the three pillars of people, process, and platform to provide complete support to cities and towns.
• National Urban Learning Platform (NULP): It aims to propagate solutions and innovations that are underway, and act as an enabler of the rapid development of diverse new solutions developed by cities and states.
• Ease of Living Index (EoLI): The EoLI is an assessment tool by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development in the city.
• India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC): It was launched to reward the cities, projects and innovative ideas promoting ‘smart; development in cities.
• The Urban Learning Internship Programme (TULIP): TULIP is a program for providing fresh graduates with experiential learning opportunities in the urban sector.
  • It would help enhance the value-to-market of India’s graduates and help create a potential talent pool in diverse fields like urban planning, transport engineering, environment, municipal finance etc.

Way Forward:

As India continues its growth trajectory, the quality of its urbanisation will become paramount to ensure that this growth is sustainable and equitable. It is imperative that the government finds a solution to overcome these challenges to see the dream project of turning more than 100 Indian cities into smart cities.

There has indeed been progress on a wide variety of smart projects in the 100 cities and towns chosen under the Smart Cities Mission. The completed projects are providing social and economic benefits, especially to the marginalised sections of the populations of these cities.

Source:  Indian Express

Syllabus

• Mains – GS 2 (Governance) and GS 4 (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)

Context: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has released the country’s first Ethical Guidelines for Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Biomedical Research and Healthcare.

Artificial intelligence(AI):

• Artificial intelligence(AI) is defined as a system’s ability to correctly interpret external data and to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation.
• AI uses complex computer algorithms to emulate human cognition albeit with far reaching capabilities of analyzing large datasets.

Applications of AI in Healthcare

Source: ResearchGate

• The induction of AI into healthcare has the potential to be the solution for significant challenges faced in the field of healthcare like diagnosis and screening, therapeutics, preventive treatments, clinical decision making, public health surveillance, complex data analysis, and predicting disease outcomes.
  • For example, Computed Tomography (CT) scans can be automatically read by AI as well as radiologists.
• Tuberculosis screening can be done by AI using Chest X-Rays.
• As a result, AI for health has been recognized as one of the core areas by researchers as well as the governments.

Key features of the guidelines:

• Effective and safe development, deployment, and adoption of AI-based technologies: The guidelines provide an ethical framework that can assist in the development, deployment, and adoption of AI-based solutions in healthcare and biomedical research.
• Accountability in case of errors: As AI technologies are further developed and applied in clinical decision making, the guidelines call for processes that discuss accountability in case of errors for safeguarding and protection.
• Patient-centric ethical principles: The guidelines outline 10 key patient-centric ethical principles for AI application in the health sector, including accountability and liability, autonomy, data privacy, collaboration, risk minimisation and safety, accessibility and equity, optimisation of data quality, non-discrimination and fairness, validity and trustworthiness.
• Human oversight: The autonomy principle ensures human oversight of the functioning and performance of the AI system.
• Consent and informed decision making: The guidelines call for the attainment of consent of the patient who must also be informed of the physical, psychological and social risks involved before initiating any process.
• Safety and risk minimisation: The safety and risk minimisation principle is aimed at preventing “unintended or deliberate misuse”, anonymised data delinked from global technology to avoid cyber-attacks, and a favourable benefit-risk assessment by an ethical committee among a host of other areas.
• Accessibility, equity and inclusiveness: The guidelines acknowledge that the deployment of AI technology assumes widespread availability of appropriate infrastructure and thus aims to bridge the digital divide.
• Relevant stakeholder involvement: The guidelines outline a brief for relevant stakeholders including researchers, clinicians/hospitals/public health system, patients, ethics committee, government regulators, and the industry.
• Standard practices: The guidelines call for each step of the development process to follow standard practices to make the AI-based solutions technically sound, ethically justified, and applicable to a large number of individuals with equity and fairness.
• Ethical review process: The ethical review process for AI in health comes under the domain of the ethics committee which assesses several factors including data source, quality, safety, anonymization, and/or data piracy, data selection biases, participant protection, payment of compensation, possibility of stigmatisation among others.

Concerns with Artificial Intelligence in healthcare:

• Cultural Acceptance: Patients often seek assurance from doctors physically present. This creates aversion to technology diagnosing. Elderlies are found to be more averse to adopting new technology.
• Data Safety/ Privacy: AI systems can challenge privacy through real time collection and use of a multitude of data points that may or may not be disclosed to an individual in the form of a notice with consent taken. Hackers can exploit AI solutions to collect private and sensitive information such as Electronic Health Records.
• Liability: In case of error in diagnosis malfunction of a technology, or the use of inaccurate or inappropriate data the question arises of who the liability would fall upon the doctor or the software developer.
• Malicious use of AI: While AI has the potential to be used for good, it could also be used for malicious purposes. For example, there are fears that AI could be used for covert surveillance or screening.
• Effects on patients: Concerns have been raised about a loss of human contact and increased social isolation if AI technologies are used to replace staff or family time with patients.

Way Forward:

India has a host of frameworks that combine technological advances with healthcare, such as the Digital Health Authority for leveraging digital health technologies under the National Health Policy (2017), the Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act (DISHA) 2018, and the Medical Device Rules, 2017.

As governance of AI tools is still in preliminary stages, even in developed countries. Therefore, AI cannot be held accountable for the decisions it makes, so an ethically sound policy framework is essential to guide the AI technologies development and its application in healthcare. Further, as AI technologies get further developed and applied in clinical decision making, it is important to have processes that discuss accountability in case of errors for safeguarding and protection.

Q.1) Consider the following statements regarding Depleted Uranium:

1. It is a by-product of the process of creating enriched uranium, which is used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
2. In comparison to enriched uranium, depleted uranium is much less radioactive.
3. International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons(ICBUW) coordinates campaigning against Depleted Uranium ammunition worldwide within the framework of the United Nations.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1 2 and 3

Q.2) Consider the following pairs:

Biodiversity Heritage Site (BHS) and State

1. Gandhamardan hills – West Bengal
2. Nallur Tamarind Grove – Karnataka
3. Arittapatti and Meenakshipuram villages – Kerala
4. Ameenpur lake – Telangana

How many pairs given above is/are correctly matched?

1. One pair only
2. Two pairs only
3. Three pairs only
4. All four pairs

Q.3) Sanjay Gandhi National Park is located in

1. Maharashtra
2. Gujrat
3. West Bengal
4. Jharkhand

Comment the answers to the above questions in the comment section below!!

ANSWERS FOR ’ 28th March 2023 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs.st

Q.1) – c

Q.2) – b

Q.3) – b