August 12, 2025

Current Affairs

Aadhaar Face Authentication to ensure Exam Transparency

Context: The government is expanding Aadhaar face authentication to enhance fairness in exams, improve service delivery, and ensure inclusion.

Relevance of the Topic : Prelims: What is Aadhar Face Authentication and how it is done.

What is Aadhaar Face Authentication?

Aadhaar Face Authentication is a biometric verification method where a person’s live facial image is matched with the photograph stored in the Aadhaar database at the time of enrolment.
Uses liveness detection to ensure the person is physically present.
Operates through a smartphone or computer camera.

Why is it being used?

Transparency in competitive exams: It helps ensure the person taking the exam is the real registered candidate. The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) already have approval to use it for examinee verification.
Solving biometric issues: Many labourers and elderly people have worn-out fingerprints, making fingerprint authentication unreliable. Face authentication bypasses that issue.

Recent adoption of Aadhaar Face Authentication:

Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO): EPFO has mandated that Universal Account Numbers (UAN) for salaried employees and pensioners will only be generated after Aadhaar face authentication.
India Post Payments Bank: Recently adopted face authentication for services, saying it aligns with Digital India and Financial Inclusion goals ensuring equal access for all citizens.
Sports Authority of India (SAI): Approved to use Aadhaar authentication for athletes, coaches, and staff to verify identity during registration, attendance, and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes like Khelo India and TOPS.

Legal and Administrative Framework:

Any Aadhaar authentication (including face recognition) requires IT Ministry approval.
In January 2025, new rules called the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Amendment Rules, 2025 were issued.

Under these rules:

Government & private organisations can submit authentication proposals to the IT Ministry.
Proposals are vetted by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
A new Aadhaar authentication portal (SWIK Portal) has been launched for submitting proposals. About 1-6 proposals are approved each month.

Significance:

Enhance Examination Integrity: Reduces impersonation in competitive exams and builds trust among candidates.
Social Inclusion: Addresses biometric failure issues for vulnerable groups.
Administrative Accountability: Ensures accurate beneficiary identification and transparent welfare delivery.
Ease of Access: Smartphone-based authentication reduces dependency on physical infrastructure.

Challenges & Concerns

Privacy Risks: Potential misuse of biometric data, if safeguards are weak.
Cybersecurity: Need for robust protection against spoofing or hacking.
Digital Divide: Access issues for those without smartphones or internet.

Aadhaar face authentication is becoming a central identity verification tool in India. It reflects the government's broader push for Digital India, Good Governance, and Financial Inclusion, while expanding the role of Aadhaar beyond fingerprints and OTPs.

Also Read: UIDAI notifies new rules for Aadhar Authentication

Outrage over classification of Sylheti as a Bangladeshi dialect

Context: Sylheti is spoken by over 7 million people in Northeast India and millions more in Bangladesh’s Sylhet Division. The classification of Sylheti as a foreign or Bangladeshi dialect has sparked outrage in Assam's Barak Valley.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Sylheti language.

Sylheti Linguistic Status

Sylheti is spoken on both sides of the India-Bangladesh border, notably in Assam’s Barak Valley, and in parts of Meghalaya and Tripura & in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh.
Many speakers identify culturally and linguistically as Bengali, while maintaining Sylheti as their mother tongue.
It is often classified as a dialect of Bengali, with the primary argument being mutual intelligibility between the two.
However, linguists note that such intelligibility may stem from speakers’ exposure to both languages rather than inherent similarity. The region exhibits diglossia, with standard Bengali used for education and literacy, while Sylheti remains the spoken vernacular in daily life.
Sylheti and standard Bengali share almost identical morphology and syntax, but they differ in phonetics.

Historically, Sylheti had a script known as Sylhet-Nagri, which emerged in the late medieval period under Persian influence. It was used mainly by Sufi mystics for religious and philosophical writings, but it was never widely adopted as a common script.

Historical Background of Sylhet:

1874: Sylhet was moved from Bengal to Assam to strengthen Assam’s revenue base.
From 1874-1947: Sylhet’s status was contested, i.e., Bengal vs Assam, Hindu vs Muslim political leanings.
1947 Partition: A referendum decided Sylhet would join East Pakistan, except for Karimganj (now in Barak Valley, Assam). Many Hindu Sylhetis migrated to India, especially Barak Valley.
Pre-Partition migration: Sylheti traders, clerks, and professionals were already settled across Assam, Tripura, and Meghalaya long before East Pakistan or Bangladesh existed.

Need for a Unified Welfare Architecture in India

Context: India’s welfare architecture is vast and globally recognised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). However, it remains fragmented and inefficient, underscoring the need for systemic unification.

Relevance of the Topic Mains: India’s Welfare Architecture - Issues, Need for a unified system.

India's Welfare Architecture:

India’s welfare architecture is one of the largest in the world. The Centre runs over 34 major social protection schemes and 24 pension schemes, while states have their own independent initiatives.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has acknowledged India’s achievement in delivering both cash and non-cash social protection.
ILO’s World Social Protection Report (2024) states that India’s social protection coverage has doubled from 24.4% in 2021 to 48.8% in 2024.

While these benefits reach over 100 crore beneficiaries, they operate in silos often duplicating efforts and creating administrative inefficiencies.

Issues with the Current Welfare System

Fragmentation of Schemes: Over 34 major central schemes, 24 pension schemes, and many separate state-level programmes run in silos.
Duplication & Overlap: Schemes with similar benefits are repackaged under new names by different states, leading to duplication of effort and resources. Institutions like E-Shram (unorganised workers) and EPFO (formal workers) overlap, but do not interconnect.
Poor Targeting: Eligibility criteria vary widely between schemes causing exclusion of deserving beneficiaries and inclusion of ineligible ones. No unified database (scattered data) or structure makes it difficult to identify the right people.
Complex Access for Citizens: People have to run between multiple government offices and platforms to claim entitlements. Lack of portability across states for migrants and informal workers.
Inefficient Use of Resources: Scarce fiscal resources spread thinly across many small schemes instead of pooled for greater impact.
Focus on Short-term Consumption, Not Long-term Growth: Most schemes are isolated cash payouts without linkages to skill development, asset creation, or economic empowerment.
Political Populism: Frequent election-season welfare promises add to fragmentation and fiscal stress.

These structural gaps highlight the urgent need for a unified welfare delivery system that consolidates schemes and integrates data across Centre and states.

Advantages of a Unified Welfare State

Eliminates duplication of schemes and saves administrative costs. Optimises scarce fiscal resources for deeper coverage.
Simplifies access: one platform for all entitlements. Improves interoperability between databases and schemes.
Strengthens targeting of genuine beneficiaries. Integrates benefits, allowing one entitlement to unlock others.
Shifts focus on collective outcomes instead of isolated scheme performance.

The G20 New Delhi Declaration’s call for “sustainably financed universal social protection coverage” further strengthens the case for a “One Nation, One Social Security” governance model.

Global Lessons:

Brazil- The Fome Zero Programme: Established the Unified System of Social Assistance (SUAS), integrating welfare services across all 26 states, the federal district, and over 5,500 municipalities.
South Korea (1990s Reforms): Consolidated fragmented programmes under the National Pension Service and National Health Insurance Service.

Proposed Framework for Unified Welfare Architecture in India:

Centre provides the unified architecture; states adapt to local contexts.
Use EPFO’s Universal Account Number (UAN) to route all transfers, earmarking a portion for pensions/insurance.
Employ Aadhaar, JAM Trinity, and Digital India Stack for portability and verification.
Reward states for improved coverage, efficiency, and outcome delivery.
Harmonise overlapping welfare laws while respecting state autonomy.

To unlock the full potential of its vast welfare network, India must move from fragmented silos to a unified, digitally integrated system that ensures portability, precision targeting, and lasting socio-economic upliftment.

India’s First Underwater Museum and Artificial Coral Reef

Context: Maharashtra is set to create India’s first underwater museum and artificial coral reef by scuttling the decommissioned naval warship INS Guldar near Nivati Rocks, Vengurla, in Sindhudurg district.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: About India’s First Underwater Museum; Artificial Coral Reef; INS Guldar.

India’s first Underwater Museum and Artificial Coral Reef

India’s first underwater museum and artificial coral reef will be developed around the decommissioned warship INS Guldar in Maharashtra.
Aim: To boost marine conservation and tourism, offering scuba diving and future submarine tours.
The underwater museum cum-artificial reef is estimated to cost Rs 78 crore. The initiative is supported by the central government. Centre will bear nearly 60% of the total cost and the state government the rest.

INS Guldar

INS Guldar, an 83 metre long Kumbhir Class landing ship, was built in Poland and commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1985. It was decommissioned in 2024.
It was designed for amphibious warfare and capable of beach landings. It was once part of India’s peace keeping mission in Srilanka combating attacks from the Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
It has been officially handed over by the central government to the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation for conversion into a submerged museum.

Scuttling of INS Guldar:

Scuttling is the deliberate sinking (controlled sinking) of a ship to dispose of an old vessel, create an artificial reef, or prevent it from falling into enemy hands. The process of scuttling follows the Archimedes principle.
Archimedes principle: The buoyant force keeping an object afloat is equal to the weight of the water the object displaces.