13 March 2023

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

 1 – AUKUS: GS II – Topic International Relations:

 Context:

• The coming week in Australia will be important. A decision regarding the “optimal pathway” for AUKUS, the security alliance made up of the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, may have an impact on Australia’s plans to operate a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines within the next ten years. It has been deemed “the single biggest expansion in defensive capability in Australia’s history” by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

About:

• AUKUS, a security alliance, will prioritise advancing strategic goals in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Notwithstanding the US’s categorical denial, the alliance opposes China’s militaristic operations in the South China Sea due to its Indo-Pacific orientation.
• The three countries already exchange a lot of intelligence with Canada and New Zealand because to the Five Eyes agreement.
• Australian nuclear submarines are coming: Australia will obtain support from the US and the UK as part of this programme in order to buy nuclear-powered submarines.
• This move is significant since the US has only ever traded nuclear submarine technology once, starting in 1958 with Great Britain.
• Nuclear submarines that can stay underwater for longer periods of time and are quieter than their conventional counterparts.
• The Quad’s underwater and anti-submarine warfare capabilities will thus be significantly enhanced, especially in light of India’s stated plan to acquire additional nuclear-powered submarines.
• The “Quad” group is made up of Japan, Australia, the USA, and India.
• Australia will soon join the exclusive club of just six countries—China, France, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India—that operate nuclear-powered submarines. It will also be the only country with such submarines that doesn’t have a civilian nuclear power industry.
• Multi-Sectoral Cooperation: As part of AUKUS, there will be a new framework for interactions and gatherings between the three nations as well as collaboration on cutting-edge technology (applied AI, quantum technologies and undersea capabilities).

Source The  Hindu

2 – INS Sahyadri: GS III – Topic Internal Security of India:

 Context:

• Cross-deck landings, boarding drills, and seamanship evolutions were among the manoeuvres performed during the exercise on March 11 and 12, according to Indian Navy sources.

About INS Sahyadri:

• Modern armaments and sensors on board the INS Sahyadri let her to recognise and kill threats from the air, the surface, and the subsurface.
• The INS Sahyadri (F49), a stealthy multi-role Shivalik class frigate, was built for the Indian Navy.
• This class of frigate is more capable of stealth and ground attack than the Talwar-class frigates were.

About Shivalik Class:

• The Shivalik class or Project 17 class of stealth frigates are used by the Indian Navy.
• India has just unveiled its first stealth warships.
• They were designed to have more powerful stealth characteristics and land-attack capabilities than the Talwar-class frigates that came before them.
• Three ships in all were built between 2000 and 2010; by 2012, all three were in service.

Source The  Hindu

3 – Artificial Intelligence: GS III – Topic Science and Technology

 Context:

• AI, the digital distillation of a technological revolution, is facilitating the long overdue evolution of the human mind. AI has the ability to revitalise, turbo-charge, and spark new intellectual pathways in human minds, which is as dangerous as anything disruptive and original is. These new avenues allow us to understand and confront the most pressing issues affecting society today.
• The two conventional categories for dividing intelligence, AGI and ANI, are unknown to the general public. Theorists and AI specialists refer to this as Artificial Global Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI). AGI is meant to be capable of doing a variety of intellectual tasks, whereas ANI is only meant to perform one or a few closely related tasks.

About:

• Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that focuses on making computers behave like people.
• The ability of a machine to do cognitive tasks including reasoning, sensing, learning, and problem-solving is referred to as artificial intelligence (AI).
• The ability of a machine to do cognitive tasks including reasoning, sensing, learning, and decision-making is referred to as artificial intelligence (AI). initial design goal was to create a machine that could mimic human intelligence.
• Beyond what was initially anticipated, AI has significantly advanced. Because to major breakthroughs made in data collection, processing, and computation power, intelligent systems can now be utilised to replace a range of tasks, enable communication, and increase productivity.
• As AI’s capabilities have significantly improved, its applications are becoming more and more prevalent.

In the previous ten years, artificial intelligence has grown exponentially:

• It can be found in a variety of places, including the recommendations we get on the streaming or shopping website we favour, GPS mapping technology, and the predictive text that completes our sentences when we try to send an email or perform a web search.
• Something more revolutionary than the use of electricity could result from it. Also, AI gets smarter the more we use it and generate data.
• Ten years after artificial intelligence (AI) first defeated human champions on Jeopardy, it has made amazing strides.
• Unless we are unable to remember the “before” situation, automation, big data, and algorithms will continue to permeate into new dimensions of our lives.
• By creating new and previously unthinkable avenues for reducing climate change, educating the public, and advancing scientific research, AI can help us get closer to eradicating hunger, poverty, and disease. AI can help us move closer to abolishing hunger, poverty, and disease, much as electricity allowed us to control time and profoundly modify almost every aspect of life.

Artificial intelligence use can be advantageous or harmful:

• Already, AI has accelerated and improved cancer detection, raised business productivity, increased crop yields, and improved access to financing.
• The global economy might grow by more than $15 trillion and 14% by 2030 as a result. Google has found more than 2,600 “AI for good” use cases worldwide.
• 134, or 79% of all SDG targets, may be made possible by AI, according to a study on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that was published in Nature.
• The world is about to undergo unprecedented technological revolution that will be deeper and more profound than anything that has come before.

Problems with artificial intelligence (AI):

• Artificial intelligence is expected to significantly affect many different industries in the coming years, including the technology sector.
• Yet, just because something has a lot of promise does not necessarily indicate that it is without flaws.
• The possibilities and difficulties of artificial intelligence are also not trivial, thus figuring out problems and looking for solutions will help hasten the field’s tremendous growth.
• According to studies, data centres utilise around 40% of their overall energy for cooling IT equipment. To save energy use, businesses are already moving their data centres to colder regions like Siberia.
• Beyond merely energy use, data centres have an effect on the environment.
• Due to mining for battery parts and the subsequent disposal of the toxic batteries, battery backups at data centers—which are required for when there are power outages—have an impact on the environment. Hazardous materials are routinely used to make coolants.
• It is getting harder to choose colder climates outside of their borders as more countries pass strict data security legislation demanding the preservation of citizen data on home servers.
• Intelligent devices that can take the place of low-wage workers in professions like fruit picking and cashiering are being developed by businesses that specialise in robotics and artificial intelligence.
• Algorithms produce and provide us with likely solutions or alternatives based on our prior web searches.
• Therefore, based on our digital footprints, AI is aiming to mimic our preferences and even our thought processes.

Concerns about data privacy:

• Important concerns concerning data privacy are also raised by AI. Due to the algorithm’s constant hunt for data, our digital footprints are being collected and sold without our knowledge or informed consent.
• In the name of personalization, we are constantly being profiled, which isolates us in groups of like-minded individuals, lessens our exposure to opposing viewpoints, and weakens our capacity for consensus.
• The idea that algorithms now know us better than we know ourselves is hardly an exaggeration given the discrete bytes of information that are constantly circling around us online. They have the capacity to subtly affect how we behave.
• Our level of technological dependence, our inability to put down our phones, and the disturbing Cambridge Analytica case—in which such algorithms and big data were used to influence voting—should all serve as strong indicators of the individual and societal risks connected to current AI business models.
• It’s critical to remember that individuals, with all of our conscious and unconscious biases, are still at fault in a world where algorithms are in charge. We both produced the data and the algorithms that are used.

Artificial intelligence use could have negative effects:

• The study, which was published in Nature, also demonstrates that AI actively undermines 59, or 35%, of SDG goals.
• At the beginning, the enormous processing power required for AI leads to more power-hungry data centres and a large rise in carbon emissions.
• AI might then make digital exclusion more severe. Intelligent devices that can take the place of low-wage workers in professions like fruit picking and cashiering are being developed by businesses that specialise in robotics and artificial intelligence.
• Without clear regulations on employee reskilling, the promise of new opportunities will actually lead to huge new inequities in society.
• Wider inequalities between and within countries are predicted as investment shifts to countries with established AI-related sectors.
• Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook are the top four Big Tech corporations, with a combined worth of about $5 trillion, exceeding the GDPs of practically all nations on the planet.
• In 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc on the world, their value climbed by more over $2 trillion.
• The truth is that artificial intelligence (AI) has the power to improve the lives of billions of people while also regenerating, aggravating, and generating new problems.

Preventative measures against the misuse of artificial intelligence:

• Artificial intelligence would deepen social and economic divides without moral checks and balances, amplifying any ingrained prejudices at an irreversible size and rate and creating discriminatory effects.
• It is not practical nor reasonable to expect AI tech companies to resolve all of these problems through self-regulation.
• To begin with, governments are hardly the only entities developing and utilising AI.
• Second, if we want to make sure that there are the necessary harm-mitigating practises, reviews, and audits throughout the design, development, and deployment phases, we must build a “whole of society” approach to AI governance.
• It is critical to foster the openness, accountability, diversity, and public trust required for AI to flourish and realise the enormous potential it holds.
• Given the global reach of AI, such a “whole of society” strategy must be predicated on a “whole of globe” strategy.
• Some countries, including India, are seeking to find the right balance between AI advancement and AI governance for the benefit of the general people. One of these countries is India.
• The Responsible AI for All strategy created by NITI Aayog as the outcome of a year-long consultative process is a good example.
• It understands that our digital future cannot be optimised for good without multi-stakeholder governance systems that ensure the rewards are fair, inclusive, and just.

Source The  Hindu

4 – Blue Economy: GS III – Topic Indian Economy

 Context:

• The major subjects of conversation during brainstorming sessions at the three-day Supreme Audit Institutions-20 (SAI20) Engagement Group delegates’ meeting, which starts on Monday, will be the “Blue Economy” and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).
• Girish Chandra Murmu, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, chairs the group when the country has the G-20 Presidency.

What Is the Blue Economy?

• The phrase “blue economy” refers to the appropriate use of marine resources for travel, scientific research, and economic growth while safeguarding the health of marine and coastal ecosystems.
• India has a diverse range of businesses that make up the blue economy, including fishing, tourism, shipping, and offshore oil and gas exploration.
• More than 3 billion people depend on the oceans for their livelihood, and 40% of the world’s population lives near the coast. Moreover, the oceans provide 80% of world trade.

What role does the blue economy play?

• Transportation: India’s blue economy contributes an estimated 4% of its GDP and supports 95% of the nation’s business through transportation. The nation’s 7,500 km of coastline is made up of 200 small ports, 12 major ports, and nine coastal states (GDP).
• Development of the Shipping Industry: India is seeking to improve its capability as a centre for ship repair and maintenance, which can have a number of geopolitical and economic advantages.
• India has the ability to produce offshore wind and solar energy, which could help to satiate the growing energy needs of the country.
• The growth of aquaculture and marine biotechnology, which has the potential to improve both the health of the ocean ecosystem and the nation’s food security, can be aided by the blue economy.
• Synergy with SDG: It promotes all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, particularly SDG14, which is about “life below water”.
• What challenges face India’s blue economy?
• Absence of infrastructure can make it difficult to develop and extend commercial operations in a number of India’s coastal regions, which lack ports, airports, and other types of infrastructure.
• Overfishing: The wellbeing of the marine ecosystem and the fish populations in India’s coastal seas are seriously threatened by overfishing. As a result, the fishing industry and other blue economy sectors might suffer.
• Marine Pollution: Pollution from sources including oil spills, plastic debris, and industrial effluent can disrupt marine ecosystems and harm the blue economy.
• Coastal communities may be in risk as a result of rising sea levels, a negative Indian Ocean dipole, and other climate change effects, which can also have a significant impact on the blue economy.
• Fishing Conflict Between Sri Lanka and India: There have been misunderstandings and conflicts between Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen since the Palk Bay’s border between Indian and Sri Lankan seas is not well established.
• To address this issue, both India and Sri Lanka have tried to negotiate accords to regulate fishing in the Palk Bay and set clear limits. Despite these efforts, the issue hasn’t always been resolved.

What should be done as a result?

• Examples of sustainable resource management practises that can aid in ensuring the long-term viability of marine resources and the industries that depend on them include setting catch limits, establishing marine protected areas, and enforcing laws to prevent overfishing and other forms of resource extraction.
• Investment in Infrastructure: By making investments in infrastructure, such as ports, airports, and other services, coastal cities can encourage the expansion and growth of their economy.
• Research and development: Investing in R&D to promote blue economy practises and technologies can help to increase output and reduce environmental harm.
• a a an an an an an an a (rath) (, that, if-) (-) (-, not-).
• Partnerships and Collaboration: collaborating on projects and initiatives as well as exchanging knowledge and skills with other nations, international organisations, and other stakeholders can boost the expansion and advancement of the blue economy.
• India should also view its oceans as more than just bodies of water, but as a global stage for ongoing social, cultural, and economic dialogue.

Source The  Hindu