Context: India is hosting the fourth annual Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) Summit, a three-day event from 12th to 14th December 2023, in New Delhi.
Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence
Global Partnership on AI is a multi-stakeholder initiative to promote responsible development and use of AI.
Aim:
To bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.
To foster international collaboration and cooperation on AI.
To facilitate the adoption of best practices and guide AI policy development.
Launched: June 2020. India is a founding member of GPAI.
Members: Presently, GPAI has 29 members including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.
GPAI has a Council and a Steering Committee, supported by a Secretariat hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and two Centres of Expertise (in Montreal and Paris).
GPAI has four working groups on the themes of Responsible AI, Data Governance, the Future of Work, and Innovation and Commercialisation.
Context: A nine-country ‘Global River Cities Alliance’ (GRCA) inspired by India’s River Cities Alliance was launched at the Indian Pavilion, Dubai on the sidelines of the ongoing COP28 on Sunday.
Global River Cities Alliance (GRCA)
The GRCA is modeled on the lines of India’s River Cities Alliance established by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the National Institute of Urban Affairs under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in November 2021.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga, under the Jal Shakti ministry and Housing and Urban Affairs ministry’s National Institute for Urban Affairs (NIUA), will take on the role of the Secretariat of the GRCA.
The nine nations are India, Denmark, Cambodia, Japan, Bhutan, Australia, Netherlands, Egypt, and Ghana.
Multi-lateral funding agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have also pledged their support for the initiative.
Focus area of work
It focuses on capacity building and knowledge exchange in integrated river management to address climate change impacts on the ecosystem.
The collaboration includes a comprehensive water monitoring program, sharing best practices for renaturing urban areas, and restoring aquatic ecosystems for sustainable urban development.
Initiatives extend to restoring urban forests and lakes connected to rivers, emphasizing the importance of green spaces.
The proposed collaboration emphasizes collective action for safeguarding environmental flows and acknowledges the role of floods in maintaining river ecosystem health, showcasing a commitment to proactive environmental stewardship and innovative solutions for sustainable river management.
River city Alliance
River Cities Alliance is a platform for river cities in India to ideate, discuss, and exchange information for the sustainable management of urban rivers.
The Jal Shakti Ministry and Housing & Urban Affairs Ministry has partnered for the initiative.
The National Institute for Urban Affairs (NIUA) and the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) have collaborated for launching the River Cities Alliance.
The Secretariat of the River Cities Alliance will be set up at the National Institute for Urban Affairs (NIUA) with the support of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
The River Cities Alliance will focus on three themes: Networking, Technical Support, and Capacity Building.
Objectives
The primary objective of the River Cities Alliance is to aid the participating cities with a platform for discussing and exchanging information on aspects that are vital for the sustainable management of urban rivers.
These aspects include reducing impacts on river and water bodies, minimizing their water footprint, capitalizing on natural, intangible architectural heritage, and developing self-sufficient, self-sustainable water resources through the reuse & recycle strategy.
The participating cities of the River Cities Alliance will work to adopt and localize national policies and instruments with key river-related directions, develop city-specific sectoral strategies for sustainable urban river management, and prepare their Urban River Management Plans.
Current Developments
The River Cities Alliance currently has 142 river cities in India and serves as a dedicated platform for members to discuss aspects related to enhancing the state of urban rivers within their administrative boundaries.
Recently, the National Mission for Clean Ganga signed a Memorandum of Common Purpose (MoCP) with the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI), representing 124 cities/towns situated along the banks of the Mississippi River, USA. on the sidelines of COP28.
As part of the collaboration, a comprehensive water monitoring program, sharing best practices for renaturing urban areas, and restoring aquatic ecosystems for sustainable urban development initiatives will be discussed.
Context: European Union officials have reached a provisional deal on the world's first comprehensive laws to regulate the use of artificial intelligence. The European Parliament will vote on the AI Act proposals in early 2024, and the legislation is expected to take effect in 2025.
Major Highlights:
The European Parliament defines AI as software that can "for a given set of human-defined objectives, generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing the environments they interact with".
The framework comprises safeguards on AI usewithin the European Union. These safeguards will include the framework through which consumers will be empowered to file complaints against violations,precise guardrails on AI adoption by law enforcement agencies and imposition of fine on violations.
Classification of AI:
The Act’s central approach is the classification of AI techbased on the level of risk they pose to the “health and safety or fundamental rights” of a person. There are four risk categories in the Act — unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk and minimal risk.
The Act prohibits using technologies in the unacceptable risk category with little exception. E.g., Deployment of facial recognition technology on a large scale, with a few exemptions for law enforcement.
The Act lays substantial focus on AI in the high-risk category, prescribing many pre-and post-market requirements for developers and users of such systems. E.g.,use of AI tools for self-driving cars will be permitted, but it will be subject to certification.
AI systems in the limited (medium) and minimal risk category are allowed to be used with a few requirements like transparency obligations. E.g., generative AI chatbots, video games.
Enforcement:
The EU will be able to monitor and sanction those who violate the law through a new body called the EU AI office.
The EU AI office will have the power to slap a fine worth seven percent of a company's turnover or 35 million euros, whichever is larger.
Context: A new study reveals that a huge volume of unapproved and even banned fixed dose combinations (FDC) of antibiotics are being sold in India.
In 2020, 60.5% FDCs of antibiotics were unapproved and another 9.9% were being sold despite being banned in India.
What are FDCs?
Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) of drugs refer to pharmaceutical formulations that contain two or more active ingredientsin fixed proportions in a single dosage form.
These combinations can include drugs from the same therapeutic class or from different classes.
Benefits: FDCs can be useful in the treatment of some diseases since the combination can improve patient compliance.
For instance, if a patient has to take three different medications for a particular treatment, she may forget to take one. But if all three medications are combined into one tablet or one syrup, the chance of her forgetting to take one or two of the drugs is reduced.
For diseases such as AIDS, it is well documented that FDCs have proven to be very useful in improving patient compliance, which at the end of day improves treatment outcomes.
Issues with FDCs:
Increased Antimicrobial Resistance: Inappropriate use of FDCs can contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This is because the fixed ratio may not be appropriate for all patients, and it may lead to the overuse of one or both antibiotics.
Potential Side Effects: All drugs have side effects and when formulated together, there is a possibility that the active ingredient or even the excipients (inactive ingredients) may affect the way that each drug functions.
E.g., The drugs may interact in a way to reduce the therapeutic efficacy of each active ingredient, or the drugs may interact with each other to create a more toxic element, often called metabolites.
Regulatory Challenges: Pharmaceutical companies in India use FDCs to escape liability under multiple laws without much concern for public health.
Government fixes the prices of individual drugs under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO). Since drug combinations are traditionally not covered under the DPCO, it gives the pharmaceutical industry an easy way to escape the remit of the DPCO. As a result, the Indian market consists of various superfluous combinations of FDCs which are not found elsewhere, further being sold at high prices.
Lack of specific FDC regulations and the sheer volume of FDCs available in the market can make it challenging to effectively ensure quality across the board.
While there are no specific standards for FDC testing outlined in the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, the law empowers the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to formulate guidelines and regulations for the manufacturing, testing, and quality control of all drugs, including FDCs.
The CDSCO has established certain guidelines for FDC quality control, but these may not be as comprehensive or specific as those for individual drugs.
Caustic soda, also known as sodium hydroxide (NaOH), is a corrosive white crystalline solid.
It is strongly alkaline, meaning it readily dissolves in water and releases hydroxide ions (OH-), giving it a pH of around 14.
It is primarily produced through electrolysis. This process involves passing an electric current through a brine solution (sodium chloride dissolved in water) to separate the sodium and chloride ions.
Uses:
Cleansing agent: Unblocking drains, drain pipe cleaner, removes built up grease from ovens.
Soap and detergent production: Key ingredient in the production of soap and detergents.
Chemical manufacturing: Used in the production of a variety of chemicals, including chlorine, rayon, and paper.
Aluminium production: Used in Bayer process to extract aluminium from aluminium ore.
Textile processing: Used in processing of textiles, such as mercerizing cotton and finishing fabrics.
Food processing: Used in food industry as an acidity regulator and an anti-caking agent.
Oil refining: Used to remove sulphur impurities from crude oil.
Water treatment: Used to adjust the pH of water and remove certain contaminants.
Biodiesel production: Used as a catalyst in the production of biodiesel. [Biodiesel is made by reacting vegetable oil or animal fat with an alcohol (methanol or ethanol) and a catalyst (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide)].
Context: Conservationists have registered the first wild birth of two brown kiwi chicks in New Zealand in 150 years. This is being noted as a major success of conservation efforts.
About KIWIS
Kiwis are flightless bird’s endemic to New Zealand. They are national bird of New Zealand.
Kiwis are chiefly nocturnal animals and commonly forest dwellers.
The name is a Maori word referring to the shrill call of the male.
Approximately the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are the smallest ratites (which also include ostriches, emus, rheas, cassowaries and the extinct elephant birds and moas).
Kiwi eggs are one of the largest in proportion to body size (up to 20% of the female's weight) of any order of bird in the world.
The closest relatives to today’s kiwi are the extinct elephant birds from Madagascar. They are also related to emus and cassowaries of Australia, and the extinct moa of New Zealand.
There are five species of kiwi and their IUCN status.
Brown kiwi (Vulnerable)
Great spotted kiwi/roroa (Vulnerable)
Little spotted kiwi (Near Threatened)
Rowi (Vulnerable)
Tokoeka (Vulnerable)
Kiwi can live for between 25 and 50 years. Chicks hatch fully feathered.
They emerge from the nest to feed at about five days old and are never fed by their parents.
Juveniles grow slowly, taking three to five years to reach adult size.
Distribution of Kiwis
Threats to Kiwis
The biggest threat to kiwi chicks is stoats, and to adult kiwi it's dogs.
Cats also kill kiwi chicks, and ferrets frequently kill adult kiwi.
Context: Google recently unveiled Gemini AI, its latest large language model (LLM), designed to exhibit human-like behaviour.
About Gemini AI:
Google Gemini is a new multimodal generational AI model which comes in three sizes: Nano, Pro, and Ultra, catering to various needs of the users.
Gemini Ultra is the first model to outperform human experts on massive multitask language understanding (MMLU), which uses a combination of 57 subjects such as maths, physics, history, law, medicine and ethics for testing both world knowledge and problem-solving abilities.
Generative AI models:
Generative AI, also known as generative artificial intelligence, refers to a subset of artificial intelligence techniques that focus on generating new content or data that is similar to existing examples.
It involves using machine learning algorithms to create new and original content, such as images, text, audio, or even video with the help of natural-language prompts. E.g., DALL-E for image generation, ChatGPT for text generation.
One of the most popular approaches to generative AI is the use of generative models, particularly generative adversarial networks (GANs).
GANs consist of two components: a generator and a discriminator.
The generator learns to create new samples that resemble the training data, while the discriminator tries to distinguish between the generated samples and real data.
Through an iterative process, both components improve their performance, resulting in the generation of increasingly realistic content.
Applications of Generative AI:
Generate personalised social media posts, blogs, and marketing text and video copies by providing a text prompt. E.g., Midjourney.
Context: During the World Climate Action Summit of the 28th COP of UNFCCC, more than 20 countries from four continents launched the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy.
About Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy
This Declaration recognises the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as increasing the share of nuclear energy is critical to reach the goal of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degree Celsius from pre-industrial times.
Signatory countries: USA, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, UAE, and UK.
India is not a signatory to this Declaration as India has taken a principled position not to join alliances outside the COP Process.
Countries party to the Declaration have committed to:
Work together to advance a global aspirational goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity from 2020 by 2050.
Take domestic actions to ensure nuclear power plants are operated responsibly and in line with highest standards of safety, sustainability, security and non-proliferation and responsible management of nuclear waste.
Mobilise investments in nuclear power, including through innovative financing mechanisms.
Encourage multilateral financial institutions to include nuclear energy in their energy lending policies.
Support development and construction of nuclear reactors, such as small modular and other advanced reactors for power generation and wider industrial applications for decarbonization, such as hydrogen and synthetic fuel production.
Promoting resilient supply chains, including of fuel, for safe and secure technologies used by nuclear power plants over their full life cycles.
Extending the lifetimes of nuclear power plants while ensuring highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation.
Supporting responsible nations to explore new civil nuclear deployment under highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation.
Encourage complementary commitments from private sector, NGOs, development banks and financial institutions.
Nuclear power currently provides about 10% of the world’s electricity, equivalent to about a quarter of all low-carbon electricity. World's total operational nuclear energy capacity stands at 370 GW which is installed in 31 countries.
Importance of nuclear power for climate change
Nuclear power plants do not emit greenhouse gases. According to a recent study by IAEA, nuclear power generation has avoided nearly 70 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in the last 50 years.
Contributes to monitoring climate change and tackling its impacts.
Second largest source of clean dispatchable baseload power which cannot be provided other renewable energy sources like Solar and Wind power.
They can provide continuous baseload power unlike other renewable sources like Solar and Wind Power which are inherently intermittent.
Currently global installed nuclear energy/power capacity stands at about 370 GW, providing about 10% of world's total electricity.
New nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors occupy a small land footprint and can be sited where needed.
Nuclear power can partner with renewable energy sources and have flexibilities that support decarbonisation beyond the power sector, including hard-to-abate sectors.
IAEA has been supporting Member States to include nuclear power in their national energy planning in a sustainable way and has launched 'Atoms4NetZero' initiative.
Atoms4NetZero Initiative
Atoms4Zero is an initiative of IAEA that supports efforts by member states to harness the power of nuclear energy in the transition to net-zero.
It provides Member States and stakeholders including industry, financial institutions and international organisations with technical expertise and scientific evidence on the potential of nuclear energy to decarbonize electricity production and hard-to-abate sectors such as industry and transport.
India's Nuclear Energy Capacity
India currently has 6780 MW of installed nuclear capacity and is constructing 8 new reactors, which will add 6800 MW of nuclear capacity. This will take total installed nuclear capacity in India to about 13600 MW.
India plans to grow its installed nuclear energy capacity to about 22 GW by 2032, which itself will lead to tripling of nuclear capacity.
However, according to estimates for India to reach its goal of net-zero by 2070, India will need to expand its nuclear power capacity by 100 times.
According to experts joining this initiative was critical for India as:
India is anyway planning to triple its installed nuclear power capacity by 2032.
Tripling nuclear energy capacity is essential for reaching the target of net-zero by 2070.
Being a part of this declaration would have allowed India to be part of nuclear supply chains and bolstered its claims for a permanent seat of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Context: India Navy is looking up to host its largest multilateral exercise early next year at Vishakhapatnam.
About Exercise MILAN
MILAN is a biennial multilateral naval exercise, which was incepted by the Indian Navy in 1995.
Milan exercises were originally conceived to boost India’s ‘Look East Policy’ and have been significantly expanded under the present ‘Act East Policy’.
Multiple countries participate in this exercise such as Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia etc.
Over 39 friendly foreign countries participated in the Milan Exercise in the 2022 edition. Participation is expected to increase to more than 50 countries in 2024 edition of Milan Exercises.
GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System, is a satellite-based navigation system.
It is a network of satellites and receiving devices that allows users to determine their precise location (in latitude, longitude, and altitude) and obtain accurate time information anywhere on Earth.
The original GPS system began as a project of the U.S. military. The first experimental satellite for it was launched in 1978.
Components of GPS system:
The GPS system consists of three main components: satellites, ground control stations, and GPS receivers.
Satellites: The space segment consists of 24 satellites which orbit 20,200 km above the earth. These satellites constantly transmit radio signals that contain information about their location, time, and other data. The satellites are arranged in such a way that at least four of them are visible from any point on the Earth's surface at any given time.
Ground Control Stations: The ground control stations are responsible for monitoring and controlling the GPS satellites. They ensure that the satellites are functioning correctly and maintain their precise orbits.
GPS Receivers: GPS receivers are the devices used by users to receive signals from the GPS satellites. These receivers are commonly found in smartphones, navigation devices, and other GPS-enabled devices. The receiver uses a process called trilateration to determine the user's location.
How does GPS work?
The GPS receiver picks up signals from multiple GPS satellites that are in view of the receiver's location.
Each satellite sends out radio signals at the speed of light that includes information about the satellite's location and the precise time the signal was transmitted.
The GPS receiver measures the time it takes for the signals to reach it from each satellite.
Using the known locations of the satellites and the time it took for the signals to travel, the GPS receiver can calculate the distance between itself and each satellite.
With the distance measurements from at least four satellites, the GPS receiver can determine the precise three-dimensional position (latitude, longitude, and altitude) using a process called trilateration.
The GPS receiver can also provide additional information such as speed, direction, and time by continuously updating its position based on the signals received from the satellites.
Why multiple satellites (Trilateration)?
Using multiple satellites makes the GPS data more accurate. If a GPS receiver calculates its distance from only one satellite, it could be that exact distance from the satellite in any direction.
Think of the satellite as a flashlight. When you shine it on the ground, you get a circle of light. With one satellite, the GPS receiver could be anywhere in that circle of light. With two more satellites, there are two more circles. These three circles intersect, or cross, in only one place. That is the location of the GPS receiver. This method of determining location is called trilateration.
Satellite navigation systems of other countries:
Presently, there are four global satellite-based navigation systems.
United States: Global Position System (GPS)
Russia: Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)
China: BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)
European Union: Galileo
Japan has a four-satellite regional navigation system (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System).
India has its own Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation). Its space segment consists of seven satellites: three in geostationary orbits and four in geosynchronous orbits.
Applications:
Terrestrial, aerial, and marine navigation E.g., Location-based services in mobile devices, visual and voice navigation for drivers.
Vehicle tracking and supply chain management
Mapping, survey and geodetic measurements E.g., mapping of terrains, creating digital maps, and conducting land surveys
Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
Precision agriculture E.g., yield monitoring, variable rate application of fertilisers and pesticides.
Meteorology E.g., GPS receivers on weather balloons and satellites provide data on atmospheric conditions to monitor and predict weather patterns more accurately.
Seismology- To monitor ground movements and tectonic plate activity. E.g., GPS stations can detect and measure ground displacements, aiding in earthquake research and early warning systems.
Military Operations- GPS for navigation, target tracking, and coordination of operations.
Context: Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed has said that Indian companies must invest in clean energy projects in ‘climate vulnerable’ countries.
What is Climate vulnerable forum?
The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is an international partnership of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet.
It is Composed of 58 members from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific.
It serves as a South-South cooperation platform for participating governments to act together to deal with global climate change.
The Forum is led by a rotating chair for an ordinary period of two years.
Current chair: Ghana for the period 2022-2024. (Ghana is the second African nation to lead the CVF after Ethiopia).
Establishment:
The CVF first met near Male’, Maldives in November 2009.
At the CVF High-Level Meeting held during the UNFCCC (COP21), the Manila-Paris Declaration and the 2016-2018 Roadmap of the CVF was adopted.
At UNFCCC COP22 Forum members committed to ambitious climate action, striving, among others, to achieve maximal resilience and to meet 100% domestic renewable energy production as rapidly as possible.
Members:
African & West Asian region:
Asian & Pacific region
Latin America & Caribbean region
The UNDP Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office is the Administrative Agent of the Climate Vulnerable Forum Trust Fund.
Four intergovernmental agencies are participating partners in the implementation of the CVF Trust Fund:
International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
United Nations Development Progamme (UNDP)
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)
Vulnerable Twenty Group (V20) together with the Group of Seven (G7) and other supporting countries launched the Global Shield against Climate Risks. The aim of the Global Shield is to provide and facilitate more and better pre-arranged protection against climate and disaster related risks for vulnerable people and countries. It was launched at COP 27, Sharm-el-sheikh.
Context: Two Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots were killed after their Pilatus PC-7 Mk II trainer aircraft crashed during a routine training flight from the Air Force Academy at Dundigal, Telangana.
Trainer Aircraft
A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews.
Trainer aircraft fly slower, have less complex systems, and are designed to be resistant to and recoverable from stalls and spins. They are also much cheaper, allowing air forces to buy them in bulk to train cadets.
Currently, there are 75 Pilatus PC-7 Mk II aircraft in service with the IAF (including the one which crashed today. These are used for basic training, the first stage in a cadet’s flight training.
Modern military aircraft are notoriously difficult to master for rookie pilots (new recruits). Hence, they are trained on basic aircraft.
After this, cadets graduate to the HAL Kiran, an intermediate jet-powered indigenously developed trainer aircraft, followed by the BAE Hawk, a British jet-powered advanced trainer aircraft.
About Pilatus PC-7 Mk II
Pilatus Aircraft Ltd is an aerospace manufacturer located in Stans, Switzerland, which specialises in producing short take-off and landing aircraft, as well as trainer aircraft for air forces across the world.
The PC-7 is a low-wing, turbo-prop aircraft with tandem seating (the cadet sits in the front, the instructor behind him).
Powered by a turbo-prop engine, it has a maximum speed of 412 km/h and can fly to a height of slightly more than 10,000 m. It has a range of 1,200 km without external tanks, which translates to slightly more than 4 hours of flying time.
Will PC-7 Mk II be replaced?
In March, the Defence Ministry signed a contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to procure 70 HTT-40 at a cost of over Rs 6,800 crore.
Designed indigenously at HAL’s Aircraft Research & Design Centre, the HTT-40 is a basic trainer aircraft powered by a four-bladed turbo-prop engine (PC-7 is three-bladed).
The aircraft will have an air-conditioned cockpit, modern avionics, hot refuelling (with engines running), and zero-zero ejection seats. The aircrafts are scheduled to be delivered over a period of six years.
