DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS
1 – DNA systems at police stations: GS III – Science and Technology
Context:
- Police and central investigative agencies can gather, retain, and analyse physical and biological samples, such as retina and iris scans of people who have been arrested, thanks to the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act (CrPI).
Important information:
- The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the nodal agency, is still drafting the standard operating procedure (SOP) and guidelines needed to completely apply the Act, hence it hasn’t been fully implemented yet.
- Under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the NCRB is in operation.
Legislation is necessary since:
- The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, which was implemented during the British colonial era, was superseded by the CrPI Act. Its purview was restricted to the acquisition and documentation of pictures, fingerprints, and finger impressions of individuals convicted of specified crimes, as well as impressions of innocent individuals upon a magistrate’s directive.
Function of the NCRB:
- The NCRB will keep a single database where impressions made at any police station would be kept.
- Authorised law enforcement and correctional authorities nationwide might access the database.
The NCRB is going to advise:
- the process by which State police handle and store measurements in a format that is compatible with the NCRB database and
- Measurement taking has been permitted for police and jail authorities, and the Act has broadened the scope to include any individual qualified to take such measurements, registered medical professionals, and other authorised personnel.
- The records must be kept for seventy-five years.
Situation in the field:
- Launched in 2022, NAFIS is a distinct project under the NCRB.
- Each suspect the police apprehend is given a unique ten-digit National Fingerprint Number (NFN).
- The state police have their own database of fingerprints.
- By combining the data onto a single platform, NAFIS allows law enforcement to conduct a nationwide search to match fingerprint impressions taken from a crime scene.
Problems:
Breach of essential rights:
- There were arguments made throughout the Bill’s parliamentary debate that it infringed upon fundamental rights, such as the right to privacy.
- Concerns regarding the security of such data surfaced because DNA samples and facial recognition technology were to be included.
Data destruction:
- In the event that a person is wrongfully accused of a crime or is found not guilty by the court, it assumes responsibility for destroying and discarding that person’s records from the central database.
- This would affect members of certain social groups who would not be able to apply for deletion because they do not have access to the legal system.
No definition of the information to be gathered:
- It is yet unknown what kinds of DNA samples the police are able to obtain.
- DNA sample handling calls for the right training.
Another issue is storage:
- Infractions listed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, it is required.
Source The Hindu
2 – The prisoner’s dilemma: GS II – Judiciary related issues
Context:
- The Indian Defence Minister used the idea of the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” in his address to emphasise the necessity for nations to cooperate with one another rather than acting in opposition to one another.
Prisoner’s Dilemma: What Is It?
- In a game theory thought experiment known as the “prisoner’s dilemma,” two rational agents have the option to work together for their mutual advantage or turn on their companion (a “defect”) in order to benefit personally.
- Game theory, a scientific field in and of itself, is useful for understanding how individuals and/or entities act in various situations.
- But the final result also depends on what other people and nations do.
- Undoubtedly, if the other side or parties behave in conflict, the result could be different in the end.
For instance:
- Let’s say A and B are hauled in to be questioned regarding a crime.
- But the police only have circumstantial proof, so the most they can hope for is a year’s imprisonment for each of A and B.
- Unless, naturally, they obtain more reliable proof.
Thus, the policeman places A and B in different rooms and gives them each a straightforward option:
- One prisoner will escape punishment while the other will serve a 15-year sentence if they can prove the other was involved in the crime.
- The prisoner’s choice is to remain silent or confess, to put it simply.
What if they both admit?
- If so, each of them will serve ten years in prison.
- The following matrix summarises the rewards for every prisoner in this “game”:
Utilisations of the conundrum:
- There are several practical implications for this conundrum (as well as its solutions) in both international law and business.
For example:
- Could they lower prices to the point where it is no longer profitable for them to remain in business if they employ this tactic repeatedly?
- In order for them to each make a healthy enough profit, wouldn’t it be preferable if they could agree on a floor price?
- In a similar vein, should nations establish certain ground rules in geopolitics to prevent themselves from starting an arms race that will ultimately destroy their own economy and populations?
Source The Hindu
3 – West Antarctica’s rapid ice melt: GS I – Geography related issues
Context:
- No matter how much carbon emissions are reduced, the ice sheet in West Antarctica will continue to melt quickly due to the warm oceans surrounding it, a new study finds.
Important information:
- The ice sheet would raise the global mean sea level by 17.4 feet, or 5.3 metres, if it were entirely destroyed.
- The water in West Antarctica will continue to rise three times faster than it did in the 20th century, which will cause the region’s ice sheet to melt more quickly, even in the best-case scenario of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
What is a sheet of ice?
- An ice sheet is simply an area of glacial ice that is larger than 50,000 square kilometres, or about the size of Uttarakhand covered in ice.
Currently, there are two main ice sheets in the world:
- Greenland glacier as well as
- Antarctic glacier.
- Combined, they hold over two thirds of the planet’s freshwater.
- This implies that throughout time, ice sheets contribute to both a rise and a fall in the global mean sea level depending on how much mass they gain or lose.
How is the ice sheet melting in the West Antarctic?
- The method by which ice sheets melt is multifaceted.
- Melting of ice shelves by warm ocean waters is one of them.
- The borders of an ice sheet that floats on the ocean are known as ice shelves.
- These glaciers have a tendency to accelerate as an ice shelf thins or vanishes, releasing more ice into the ocean and raising sea levels.
- Sea ice is not the same as ice shelves or ice sheets.
- West Antarctica, and the Amundsen Sea in particular, are experiencing the similar phenomenon.
Path ahead:
- Despite the dire conclusions, attempts to lessen the effects of climate change shouldn’t be abandoned.
- There are other additional effects that we can still prevent or minimise, such as:
- the East Antarctic Ice Sheet melting, or
- the intensity of excessive rains, heat waves, and droughts.
Source The Hindu
4 – Moon Age: GS III – Science and Technology
Important information:
- The moon may be almost 40 million years older than previously believed, according to a recent study.
- Its development appears to have occurred within the first 110 million years of the solar system’s formation, approximately 4.46 billion years (or “GA” — giga annum) ago.
- The results are based on a recently developed technique known as atom probe tomography (APT).
How did scientists find the new age of the moon?
- Reanalyzing crystals from lunar sample 72255, which was known to contain some of the oldest zircon ever discovered, dating back 4.2 billion years, was what the scientists did.
- Zircon is the oldest mineral that has been found on Earth and is a key component in understanding how our planet and life as we know it were formed.
- One popular method for determining the age of zircon in rock is to look at the lead distribution.
Why does zircon have anything to do with the moon’s age?
- The large impact theory is the most popular explanation for how the Earth-moon system formed.
- Debris was ejected as a result, and the sphere we know as our moon soon took shape.
- This gave rise to the notion known as the Lunar Magma Ocean, which describes the makeup of the moon’s interior.
- The preserved zircon found within crystal grains of lunar sample 72255 allowed them to recalculate the moon’s age.
In relation to Earth, how ancient is the moon?
- It is estimated that Earth is 4.5–4.6 billion years old.
Source The Hindu
