News & Editorial Analysis 20 December 2022
The Hindu News Analysis
COP-15 summit adopts historic biodiversity deal (Environment: GS lll) Page 1
Nearly 200 countries, including India, approved a historic Paris-style deal, Kunming-Montreal Agreement, on Monday to protect and reverse dangerous loss to global biodiversity at the COP-15 biodiversity summit in Canada.
The Chinese brokered deal is aimed at saving the lands, oceans and species from pollution, degradation and climate change.
The principle enshrined in climate change negotiations, that countries historically responsible for global warming must pay for remedial measures more than developing countries, is ought to be applied with respect to conservation of biodiversity too as climate change also had an impact on biodiversity.
One of the proposed recommendations is reducing the overall risk from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals by at least half by 2030.
Regarding the finance package to support conservation efforts globally, the deal commits to progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources by 2030, mobilising at least $200 billion/year.
The accord’s 23 targets include axing environmentally “destructive” farming subsidies, reducing risk from pesticides and tackling invasive species.
The deal is being compared by many to the landmark plan to limit the global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) welcomed the agreement reached at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to agree on a new plan to preserve and protect nature with the new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
#COP-15_Sumit
LS passes Bill to extend ST status to Betta-Kuruba (Society: GS l) Page 10.
The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include Betta-Kuruba on the Scheduled Tribes list of Karnataka as a synonym for the already categorized Kadu-Kuruba tribe in the state.
The Bill was passed through voice vote after a discussion.
MPs from the ruling BJP government insisted that the government consider bringing a comprehensive Bill to include all such communities left out of the list instead of bringing legislation one by one.
The government insisted that the House was giving due time to discuss issues pertaining to the smallest and most marginalised communities in the country.
Congress party maintained that the government was not even raising the reservation quota for these communities proportionally
#ST_Status #Betta-Kuruba #Lok_Sabha #Fourth_Amendment_Bill
U.K. judges rule Rwanda deportation plan lawful, say it is consistent with UN rules (IR: GS ll) Page 13.
Judges in London ruled that the U.K. government’s controversial plan to deport migrants to Rwanda was lawful, after a legal challenge by migrants and campaigners.
The plan was brought to try to tackle record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel from northern France by small boats but it triggered a wave of protests from rights groups and charities.
The court has concluded that it is lawful for the government to make arrangements for relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda and their asylum claims to be determined in Rwanda rather than in the U.K.
The relocation of asylum seekers to Rwanda is consistent with the UN Refugee Convention and with the statutory and other legal obligations on the government including the obligations imposed by the Human Rights Act 1998.
#Rwanda_Deportation_Plan #Migrants #Rwanda
The Hindu Editorial Analysis
Linkage of Aadhar with Voter ID Card
Why is the government advocating the use of Aadhar as voter identification?
Update Database: Through routine operations, the linking project would help the Election Commission keep an accurate and up-to-date voter database.
Eliminate Duplication: To remove foreign workers who may have registered for numerous seats on the electoral lists or individuals who have several voter registrations in a single constituency.
Indian voter identification By connecting Aadhaar to voter identity cards, the government claims it will be able to guarantee that every Indian resident has a single voter identification card.
What is the purpose of this link?
By the end of 2021, 99.7% of Indian adults possessed an Aadhaar card.
No other officially recognised document, including those frequently used for specialised purposes like ration cards, PAN cards, and driver’s licences, can compare to this breadth.
dependable and inexpensive
Because it uses biometric authentication, Aadhaar-based identification and verification are expected to be more dependable, rapid, and affordable than traditional IDs.
Legal standing After the Election Laws (Amendment) Act of 2021 was passed by Parliament in December 2021, Section 23(4) of the Representation of the People Act of 1950 was inserted.
In order to authenticate entries in the electoral rolls of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency for residents who have already registered, it stipulates that the electoral registration officer may ask people for their Aadhaar numbers.
Recently made changes:
The government has now revealed updates to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
According to the recently passed Rule 26B, every person whose name appears on the roll may provide the registration officer with his Aadhar number.
Government actions are uncertain: The Form 6B issued under the new Rule 26B does not appear to reflect the fact that linking the Aadhaar with the voter ID is a voluntary process, despite statements to the contrary from the government and the EC.
The format for sending Aadhaar data to the electoral registration officer is outlined in Form 6B.
The voter may also choose to submit any of the other stated documents or their Aadhaar number.
Only if the voter is unable to produce their Aadhaar number because they do not have one, must they present the other listed documents.
What issues come up when voter identification and Aadhar are combined?
Constitutional status uncertain The Supreme Court examined the constitutionality of the mandate to link Aadhaar with bank accounts in the Puttaswamy case (Right to Privacy).
many objectives It is unclear why selecting voters using Aadhaar is preferred given that it can only be used to establish residency and not citizenship.
Checking voter identity against this won’t remove voters who aren’t Indian citizens from the electoral rolls; it will only assist prevent voter duplication.
biometric errors The error rates for biometric-based authentication can be estimated using a variety of techniques.
Aadhaar-based biometric authentication experienced a 12% error rate in 2018, according to the Unique Identification Authority of India.
Previous instances where election rolls were destroyed using Aadhaar further underscore the problem.
A similar attempt made in 2015 in Andhra and Telangana resulted in the disenfranchisement of over 30 lakh voters before the Supreme Court halted the linking process.
Aadhaar’s “demographic” data could be used to identify voters, violating their right to privacy and facilitating governmental surveillance. If the Aadhaar and election rolls databases are connected, this might occur.
Way Ahead
Legislative amendments: The administration must solicit feedback from the public and allow for a more complete legislative assessment before enacting any new legislation.
It is vital to make sure that elected officials and common individuals alike have access to opportunities and advantages in a Parliamentary democracy like India.
There must be a detailed discussion of the ramifications of a proposed bill in order to identify and address any problems that legislation may bring about.
protection of privacy The government must prioritise passing the Personal Data Protection (PDP) bill before pursuing the Aadhaar-voter ID link. Governmental entities must abide by the PDP regime and get specific consent from an individual before sharing personal information with another government entity.
#Aadhar #Voter_ID #India #Citizen #Government
Deep fake Technology
What is the process of a deep fake?
A person in an already-existing video or picture is replaced with another person in a deepfake type of synthetic media. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are used to modify the audio/video, which has a predisposition to deceive.
It has attracted attention because of how easily false information, celebrity pornography, etc. may spread online.
By adding fresh sounds or images over an existing media file, it creates a fake version of the authentic or original audio-visual data.
The number of deep fake videos online tripled in just nine months to 15,000 in September 2019, according to AI company Deeptrace. Surprisingly, 96% of them were pornographic, and 99% of them resembled porn actresses more closely than popular women.
What role did Deep Fakes play?
The discriminator and generator, two AI systems at odds with one another, are used to produce deep false content.
The discriminator is accountable for determining if the multimedia information is real or fraudulent.
When the generator and discriminator cooperate, a generative adversarial network is produced (GAN). The generator gains invaluable knowledge on how to improve the following deep fakes each time the discriminator properly decides that the material is fake.
Establishing the intended output and producing a training dataset for the generator are the initial steps in setting up a GAN.
After the generator starts generating output at a level that is acceptable, videos can be handed to the discriminator.
Deep Fakes technology advantages:
GANs can be used to generate fictional medical images in order to train disease detection algorithms for rare diseases and satisfy patient privacy concerns.
Deepfake can hasten the movement for greater equity through accessibility.
The generator gets better at creating fake video clips as the discriminator gets better at spotting them. On the flip hand, the discriminator gets better at spotting fake videos while the generator gets better at creating them.
Artificial intelligence will soon be able to reason more precisely as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) advances.
Deepfake movies can be used to enhance displays in galleries and museums.
Deep fakes technology can be used to create AI avatars that can be used in training videos.
Lockdowns and health issues have significantly increased the difficulty of producing videos featuring real people, which has raised interest from the corporate sector in businesses like London-based Synthesia.
In addition to being utilised for entertainment and education, deepfake technology can be used to create customised avatars.
Easy ways to prevent identity theft For instance, in news exposes detailing the persecution of LGBTQ individuals in Russia, AI-generated avatars have been deployed to conceal the identities of interview subjects.
Disney has improved its visual effects by utilising high-resolution deep fakes face swapping technology as the field of deep fakes technology advances.
Issues with Deep Fake:
Financial fraud is a problem for the entire financial system because of Deepfake.
The security of cyber networks and the veracity of online information are both under risk in the age of fake news.
In phishing attempts, deepfakes would make it more challenging to spot a hoax.
Deep fakes can be used to undermine democratic processes like elections in every country.
Given that it may be used to create fake pornographic videos and make politicians appear to say things they did not, there is a considerable chance that it could cause harm to individuals, groups, and societies.
The public is so sceptical as a result of the abundance of convincing fakes that it is simple to dismiss any actual evidence of a crime.
As new technology makes it possible for unskilled people to make sophisticated fakes using only a few photos, imitation movies are likely to grow more popular outside of the world of superstars. Vengeance porn will flourish as a result of this.
The use of false identities and imposter frauds in cybercrime is on the rise.
Issues with authenticity and respectability: It is harder to tell whether a video is real or not when blatant fakes are present.
Moving ahead:
As media consumers, we must be able to decipher, understand, translate, and use the information we encounter.
Meaningful regulations created in collaboration with the technology industry, civic society, and the government can aid in halting the creation and spread of hazardous deep fakes.
Deep fakes pose risks to the government, society, economy, culture, and local communities, which should be known to policymakers.
Before the issues caused by deep fakes can be resolved, media literacy needs to be increased.
The only way to solve this problem is through technology solutions powered by artificial intelligence that can recognise and block deep fakes.
Since blockchains are resistant to a number of security issues, they can be used to digitally sign and validate the authenticity of movies and documents.
Conclusion:
Given that adversarial training (which commonly uses GANs) results in deep fakes, these fakes can be enhanced by attempting to trick an algorithmic detector and analysing the results.
Collaborative efforts and community strategies that cross legal boundaries, platform guidelines, technical intervention, and media literacy can be efficient and ethically righteous in reducing the harm presented by malevolent deep fakes.
#Deep_Fake_Technology
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