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Distribution: weekly

  • A different fight-back

    Context

    Coronavirus crisis is an opportunity for India to build on domestic technological capabilities in artificial intelligence, big data analytics, life sciences and health technology in the private sector.

    How a small tech company flagged Covid-19 outbreak?

    • What does it do? A small tech company in Canada — BlueDot — was among first outside China to spot a new epidemic spreading out from Wuhan last December.
      • BlueDot, founded in Canada by a medical scientist of South Asian origin, Kamran Khan, tracks the origin and transmission of infectious diseases around the world.
    • How could they detect the outbreak in China?  BlueDot did this by sifting through massive volumes of news reports and blogs by individuals, including health professionals flowing out of China.
      • Data analytics and medical expertise combined: BlueDot combines “public health and medical expertise with advanced data analytics to build solutions that track, contextualise, and anticipate infectious disease risks”.
      • Use of AI: BlueDot is one of the many technology firms leveraging artificial intelligence for business and policy purposes.
      • Many governments are reaching out to tech companies to cope with the corona crisis.
      • The state government of California has just hired BlueDot to help it deal with the challenge.

    The growing role of technology in dealing with coronavirus

    • Across the world, policymakers see a growing role for technology in identification, tracking, and treating the coronavirus.
    • Alibaba and Tencent’s help in China: In China, the Communist Party roped in big tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent in the battle against the virus.
    • Silicon valley’s help in the US: In the US, President Donald Trump has set aside his well-known distaste for Democrat-leaning Silicon Valley to tackle what he now calls a war-like emergency.
    • India will need all the science and technology it can get hold of in overcoming the crisis that is bound to escalate by the day.
    • An opportunity to do good: For the small tech startups in related areas, this is a moment to shine. For the large tech companies, this is a huge opportunity to deploy their immense capabilities to resolve the specific problems posed by the spread of the coronavirus.
      • In rising to the occasion, they could fend off a lot of the recent negative criticism of their business practices and demonstrate that their commitment to “doing good” is not just empty rhetoric.
    • A good business proposition: “Doing good” is also a sensible business proposition at this time.
      • As governments desperately seek solutions to the crisis, the tech startups and established companies leverage the moment to scale up many technologies, develop new uses and markets.

    How countries used technology to deal with the outbreak

    • How China used technology? In China, as the government moved decisively after the delayed initial response, it turned to-
      • the well-established mass surveillance system based on facial recognition technologies,
      • sensing technologies to identify those with fever in public places and
      • data from mobile phone companies to trace the people who might be infected, and limit the spread of the disease.
    • China also developed a Health Code that uses data analytics to-
      • identify and assess the risk of every individual in a targeted zone based on travel history and time spent in infected places.
      • The individuals are assigned a colour code (red, yellow, or green) which they can access via popular apps to know if they ought to be quarantined or allowed in public.
    • How Korea used technology? Many Asian democracies like South Korea have also turned to AI tools to contain the spread of the disease.
    • How the US used technology? As it copes with the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the US had no option but to use surveillance to contain it.
      • Partners in dealing with outbreak: Unsurprisingly, the big tech companies in the US, based on collecting and monetising massive amounts of data from individuals, have inevitably become partners for Washington.
      • But the relationship between the government, corporations and individual citizens in the US is governed by a welter of laws.
      • There is mounting pressure now to tweak these laws to manage the corona crisis.
      • The US is also liberalising the regulations on the access to, and use of, patients’ health records.

    Growing collaboration between science and the state

    • The race between China and the US: Overarching these arguments is a race between the US and China to find new vaccines for the coronavirus.
      • And, more broadly, for the mastery of new scientific capabilities — from artificial intelligence to health technologies.
      • The competition, in turn, is promoting a more intensive alliance between science and the state in both nations.
    • Collaboration could accelerate the technological capabilities: The collaboration between science and the state during past crises led to a dramatic acceleration of technological capabilities.
      • World War precedents: During the Second World War, science and the state got together to move nuclear physics from the lab to the battlefield.
      • Cold War precedent: The Cold War between America and Russia promoted the development of space technology, microelectronics, communications and computing.
    • Role of private entities: What marks out the current technological race between the US and China is the role of private and non-governmental entities.
      • That might well be the missing link in India’s effort to beat the coronavirus.

    Conclusion

    • Opportunity for India: The current crisis, however, is also an opportunity for India to build on the existing domestic technological capabilities in the areas of artificial intelligence, big data analytics, life sciences, health technology in the private sector.
    • India needs stronger private sector in science: In India, the state has dominated the development of science and its organisation. That was of great value in the early decades after Independence.
      • Today, what Delhi needs is a stronger private sector in science and greater synergy with it in dealing with challenges like the corona crisis.

  • What is Windrush Scandal?

     

    The British government has apologised for its treatment of Britons of Caribbean origin, which were wrongly detained or deported for being illegal immigrants, after the publication of a devastating official report.

    What is the scandal?

    • The Windrush scandal is a 2018 British political scandal concerning people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and, in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK.
    • Many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries as members of the “Windrush generation”.
    • As well as those who were wrongly deported, an unknown number were wrongly detained, lost their jobs or homes, or were denied benefits or medical care to which they were entitled.
    • A number of long-term UK residents were wrongly refused re-entry to the UK, and a larger number were threatened with immediate deportation by the Home Office.
    • The scandal also prompted a wider debate about British immigration policy and Home Office practice.

    Windrush Generation

    • The Windrush generation is named after one of the many vessels that ferried some half a million people from the Caribbean islands to the U.K. in the late 1940s.
    • The “Empire Windrush” ship had brought one of the first groups of West Indian migrants to the UK in 1948.
    • The generation refers to migrants from the Caribbean Commonwealth who had come to the U.K. at a time when they had the right to remain indefinitely in Britain but had had their rights questioned under a toughened immigration regime.

  • [pib ] Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum

    Indian students will undertake a research internship at Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, LA, USA under the IUSSTF Program.

    What is IUSSTF?

    • IUSSTF is an acronym for the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum.
    • It is established under an agreement between the Governments of India and the USA in March 2000.
    • It is an autonomous bilateral organization jointly funded by both the Governments that promote Sci-Tech, Engineering and Innovation through substantive interaction among government, academia and industry.
    • The Department of Science & Technology, Governments of India and the U.S. Department of States are respective nodal departments.

    About Viterbi Program

    • The Viterbi Program of IUSSTF was developed between IUSSTF and the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California (USC).
    • This program is a part of the Government’s endeavour to encourage research and development amongst the bright young Indian minds to create long-term, sustainable, and vibrant linkages between India and the US.

  • Breach of trust

    Context

    In bypassing established protocol to seek call details of citizens en masse, the government violates SC guidelines.

    What is the issue?

    • Departure from stringent protocol: The Cellular Operators Association of India has reported mass requests from the government for mobile call detail records (CDRs).
      • Which is a serious departure from the stringent protocol established by the UPA government following an uproar in 2013 after prominent politicians were found to be under unauthorised surveillance.
    • Records of all customers: Records have been sought for all consumers on certain dates in parts of Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.
      • In the case of Delhi, records were sought for the last three days of campaigning before assembly elections, while the anti-CAA protests were at their peak.
    • How the data was requested? Requests were delivered by local offices of the Department of Telecommunications, taking advantage of a condition in licences granted to operators, which permits the DoT to inspect their CDRs, which go back one year.

    Breach of many requirements and norms

    • A serious breach of privacy: These requests depart from established protocol and international expectations on multiple counts, and amount to a serious breach of privacy.
    • What is the protocol for requesting CDR information? A CDR request is supposed to be sanctioned by the home secretary and handled by a police officer of the rank of SP or above,
      • But in this case DoT offices were used.
    • The requirement of informing magistrate was not fulfilled: The requirement to report CDR requests on a monthly basis to the district magistrate was not complied with.
    • No reason was offered: Most importantly, no reason was offered for snooping on the traffic of citizens.
    • Surveillance must be specific and purposive: It is generally understood that communications surveillance must be specific and purposive, and must not trespass on the privacy of the innocent.
    • Invasion of privacy of all citizens: Indiscriminate mass surveillance of communications invades the privacy of all citizens to the detriment of public trust. In this case, it was for purposes which are not verifiably honourable, since the government has chosen not to reveal them.

    Why the CDR data matters if it is metadata only?

    • Combining CDR with other data gives more information: CDRs are all metadata and no content. They do not reveal any words uttered or messaged.
      • But combining the metadata with phone location data reveals a lot about connections between specific people and the actions that they take.
    • Multi-dimensional map of human activity: If data is available at scale, as was the case here, it is possible to build a multi-dimensional map of human activity, and correlate it with real events.
    • This would disturb the balance of information power between the citizen and the state, and amount to a breach of privacy.

    Conclusion

    If the government needs CDR data for a legitimate purpose, it should have no objection to following the rule-book scrupulously. And if there is a reason for sidestepping protocol in a sensitive matter, it should explain why.

  • Supreme Court Removes Manipur MLA Under The 10th Schedule

    The Supreme Court has removed a Minister against whom disqualification petitions were pending before the Speaker since 2017.

    • The court invoked its discretionary powers under Art. 142 of the Indian Constitution.

    What is Article 142?

    • Article 142 of the Constitution empowers the Supreme Court to pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.
    • Any decree so passed or orders so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India.
    • The phrase ‘necessary for doing complete justice’ encompasses a power of equity which is employed when the strict application of the law is inadequate to produce a just outcome.
    • The power under Article 142 can be exercised when the SC has to decide difficult cases where adequate laws may not exist, or existing laws may not be adequate, in order to deliver complete justice.

    Scope and limitations

    • Supreme Court in State of Punjab v Rafiq Masih (2014) has opined that- Article 142 of the Constitution of India is supplementary in nature and cannot supersede the substantive provisions, though they are not limited by the substantive provisions in the statute”.
    • Article 212 of the Constitution bars courts from inquiring into proceedings of the Legislature.
    • In this case, however, prompted by the fact that the Speaker’s conduct has been called into question on several occasions, the court invoked Article 142.

  • What are Supplementary Grants?

    Supplementary Grants

    Lok Sabha recently held voting on supplementary demands for grants for Jammu and Kashmir and passed the proposals on voice vote.

    What are Supplementary Grants?

    • The additional grant required to meet the required expenditure of the government is called Supplementary Grants.
    • When grants, authorised by the Parliament, fall short of the required expenditure, an estimate is presented before the Parliament for Supplementary or Additional grants.
    • These grants are presented and passed by the Parliament before the end of the financial year.
    • When actual expenditure incurred exceeds the approved grants of the Parliament, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Railways presents a Demand for Excess Grant.

    How it works?

    • The Comptroller and Auditor General of India bring such excesses to the notice of the Parliament.
    • The Public Accounts Committee examines these excesses and gives recommendations to the Parliament.
    • The Demand for Excess Grants is made after the actual expenditure is incurred and is presented to the Parliament after the end of the financial year in which the expenses were made.

  • PCR Test for Diagnosis of the COVID-19

     

    The diagnosis of COVID-19 can be done with the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Test which is explained as under:

    The PCR Test

    • It uses a technique that creates copies of a segment of DNA. ‘Polymerase’ refers to the enzymes that make the copies of DNA.
    • Kary Mullis, the American biochemist who invented the PCR technique, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993.
    • The ‘chain reaction’ is how the DNA fragments are copied, exponentially — one is copied into two, the two are copied into four, and so on.
    • However, SARS-COV-2 is a virus made of RNA, which needs to be converted into DNA. For this, the technique includes a process called reverse transcription.
    • A ‘reverse transcriptase’ enzyme converts the RNA into DNA. Copies of the DNA are then made and amplified.
    • A fluorescent DNA binding dye called the “probe” shows the presence of the virus. The test also distinguishes SARS-COV-2 from other viruses.

    Various Stages:

    1) Collection and transport

    • Testing centre takes swabs from nasal cavities and back of the throat (pharynx), and puts samples in a “virus transport medium”, which contains balanced salts and albumin to prevent the virus from disintegrating.
    • Sample is then transported in cold storage to the testing lab.

    2) Extraction of viral RNA

    • Coronaviruses have large single-stranded RNA genomes.
    • Testing lab extracts the RNA from the samples, using commercially available kits.

    3) Putting THE RNA in THE PCR mix

    • Extracted RNA is added to a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) mix.
    • This includes the ‘master mix’, which contains a ‘reverse transcriptase’ enzyme that converts the RNA into DNA.
    • Master Mix contains Taq polymerase, the enzyme that creates copies of the DNA, nucleotides, as well as other elements such as magnesium — an ion of which is needed to amplify the DNA.
    • The PCR mix also contains ‘reagents’ such as ‘primers’ and ‘probes’.
    • Primers are particular strands of DNA that are designed to bind with the DNA that is to be copied; probes are used to detect the specific sequence in the DNA sample.
    • Finally, the PCR mix consists of a “housekeeping” gene — a normal human gene (RNAse P) that is used to ensure that samples were properly collected, and RNA extracted.

    4) Amplification of the viral DNA

    • Sample, in its PCR mix, is put into tubes or plates, which are then put in a thermal cycler machine that is used to conduct the PCR process.
    • First, the RNA is converted into DNA. Then the process of copying the genes starts.
    • The thermal cycler heats and cools the mixture with the sample, alternating between three temperatures — for melting the DNA to separate the two strands.
    • The thermal cycler runs 30-40 such cycles in order to amplify the DNA to check for the virus.

    5) Testing against controls

    • Amplified DNA is tested against a positive control, which usually consists of genes of the virus cloned into plasmid, and a negative control, which is a ‘known’ sample that has tested negative for the virus earlier.
    • RNase P should show amplification, positive control should be positive, negative control should be negative, and then whatever result you get for the specimen, is the correct result.
    • In order for a test to be valid before the result is released, certain ‘validity criteria’ have to be met.
    • If the housekeeping gene (RNase P) is positive, positive control is positive, negative control is negative, and the sample does not show any PCR positive result, the sample is declared negative.
    • If the PCR result is positive, the patient has COVID-19.

  • Dumping of Radioactive Nuclear Waste

    In a controversial move, Japan has decided to dump the radioactive heavy water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Sea.  The dumping of nuclear waste is considered to be the easiest way to get rid of it.

    What is Heavy Water?

    • Heavy water (deuterium oxide) is a form of water that contains a larger than normal amount of the hydrogen isotope deuterium rather than the common hydrogen that makes up most of the hydrogen in normal water.
    • Heavy water is used in certain types of nuclear reactors, where it acts as a neutron moderator to slow down neutrons.
    • Slowed neutrons are more likely to react with the fissile uranium-235 than with uranium-238 which captures neutrons without fissioning.

    Where is Fukushima waste?

    • It is currently being stored in large tanks, but those are expected to be full by 2022.
    • Almost 1.2 million liters of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant is to be released into the ocean.
    • The contaminated water has since been used to cool the destroyed reactor blocks to prevent further nuclear meltdowns.

    Hazards of the nuclear contamination

    • Radioactive pollution in the ocean has been increasing globally — and not just since the disaster at Fukushima.
    • Radiation levels in the sea off Fukushima were millions of times higher than the government’s limit of 100 Becquerel.
    • A single Becquerel that gets into our body is enough to damage a cell that will eventually become a cancer cell.
    • Even the smallest possible dose, a photon passing through a cell nucleus, carries a cancer risk. Although this risk is extremely small, it is still a risk.

    Who else dumped radioactive water into oceans?

    The dumping of nuclear waste in drums was banned in 1993 by the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution. But discharging liquid contaminated with radiation into the ocean is still permitted internationally.

    • The lion’s share of dumped nuclear waste came from Britain and the Soviet Union, figures from the IAEA show.
    • By 1991, the US had dropped more than 90,000 barrels and at least 190,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste in the North Atlantic and Pacific.
    • To this day, around 90% of the radiation in the ocean comes from barrels discarded in the North Atlantic, most of which lie north of Russia or off the coast of Western Europe.

  • Nominated members of Rajya Sabha

    Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi has been nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha.

    Nominated members in RS

    • As per the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution of India on 26 January 1950, the Rajya Sabha was to consist of 216 members of which 12 members were to be nominated by the President and the remaining 204 elected to represent the States.
    • The present strength, however, is 245 members of whom 233 are representatives of the states and union territories and 12 are nominated by the President.
    • The Rajya Sabha is not subject to dissolution; one-third of its members retire every second year.
    • The 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are persons who are eminent in particular fields, and are well known contributors in the particular field.
    • The nominated members are usually amongst persons having special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service.

    Constitutional provisions

    • 80(1)(a) of Constitution of India makes provision for the nomination of 12 members to the Rajya Sabha by the President of India in accordance with provisions of Arts.80(3).
    • 80(3) says that the persons to be nominated as members must be possessing special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following namely : Literature, science, art and social service.

    Earlier CJIs in other Offices

    • Justice Hidayatullah was appointed vice-president nine years after his tenure as CJI ended (1979).
    • Justice Ranganath Mishra was appointed six years after his retirement (1998).
    • Justice Bahraul Islam served as a member of the Rajya Sabha several years before he was elevated to the SC (1983).
    • Justice Subba Rao, who contested for the post of president (and lost to Zakir Hussain) was roundly criticised for the decision at that time.

    Issues with CJI’s appointment

    • Late Arun Jaitley cautioned, in 2012, that “pre-retirement judgments are influenced by a desire for a post-retirement job”. Perhaps, those words were never more relevant than they are today.
    • The immediacy and hurried nature of the present appointment, barely four months after Justice Gogoi retired, is bound to give rise to questions about its context.
    • It was a tenure that inspired much scrutiny; a tenure which saw the repeated use of sealed envelopes, the contents of which were known only to the government; a tenure which recorded a significant and frequent number of judgments in favour of the executive.

    What were the alternatives?

    • Several appointments to administrative bodies require a cooling-off period for individuals so as to eliminate the possibility or suspicion of a conflict of interest or quid pro quo.
    • Officials who retire from sensitive positions are barred from accepting any other appointment for a period of time, normally two years.
    • These cooling-off periods in posts are premised on the snapping off of the nexus between previous incumbency and new appointment by the interposition of a sufficient time gap.

  • Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal

     

    Environmental organisations from across central and Eastern Europe have criticised a major project intending to link three rivers and provide seamless navigation between three of Europe’s peripheral seas, according to a statement.

    Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal

    • For centuries Europe’s rulers have dreamed of construction of a huge Y-shaped canal connecting the Elbe, Oder and Danube rivers, most of which would be on Czech territory.
    • The Canal intends to connect the Danube, Oder and Elbe rivers and thus provide another navigable link from the Black Sea to the North and Baltic Seas.
    • The Main-Danube Canal already provided a navigable connection between the Black Sea and the North Sea.
    • Several hundred kilometres of artificial waterways would have to be built for the canal, according to the statement.
    • Critics have called on the European Commission to ensure that the project be excluded from EU funding, and not be included as part of the Trans-European Transport Network.