Information & Communication Technology

Draft Guidelines on Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns

Context: Central Consumer Protection Authority under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has Draft Guidelines on Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns.

Draft Guidelines on Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns

These guidelines have been issued under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 by the Central Consumer Protection Authority for prevention and regulation of dark patterns.
These guidelines will apply to all platforms offering goods and services in India, advertisers and sellers.
The guidelines bars any person or platform to engage in any dark patterns.
These guidelines have defined Dark Patterns and specified what constitutes dark patterns.

DEFINITION OF DARK PATTERNS

Any practice or deceptive design patterns using UI/UX (user interface/user experience) interactions on any platform which is designed to mislead or trick users to do something they originally did not intend or want to do by subverting or impairing the consumer autonomy, decision making or choice which amounts to misleading advertisement or unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights.

Specified dark patterns

False Urgency: Falsely stating or implying the sense of urgency or scarcity so as to mislead a user into making an immediate purchase or take an immediate action, which may lead to a purchase.
Basket sneaking: Inclusion of additional items such as products, services, payments to charity/donation at the time of checkout from a platform, without the consent of the user, such as that the total amount payable by the user is more than the amount payable for the product/service chosen by the user.
Confirm shaming: Using a phrase, video, audio or any other means to create a sense of fear or shame or ridicule or guilt in the mind of the user to nudge the user to act in a certain way
Forced action: Forcing a user into taking an action that would require the user to buy any additional good(s) or subscribe or sign up for an unrelated service, to buy or subscribe to the product/service originally intended by the user.
Subscription trap: It is the process of:
- Making cancellation of a paid subscription impossible or a complex and lengthy process.
- Hiding cancellation option for a subscription.
- Forcing a user to provide payment details and/or authorisation for auto debits for availing a free subscription.
- Making instructions related to cancellation of subscription ambiguous, latent, confusing and cumbersome.
Interface interference: A design element that manipulates the user interface in ways that highlights certain specific information, obscures other relevant information relative to information being highlighted to misdirect a user from taking an action desired by her.
Bait and switch: Practice of advertising a particular outcome based on the user's action but deceptively serving an alternative outcome.
Drip pricing: It is a practice whereby:
- Elements of prices are not revealed upfront or are revealed surreptitiously within the user experience.
- Revealing price post-confirmation of purchase i.e., charging an amount higher than the amount disclosed at the time of checkout.
- A product or service is advertised as free without appropriate disclosure of fact that
Disguised advertisement: Practice of posing, masking advertisements as other types of content such as user generated content or new articles or false advertisements.
Nagging: A dark pattern due to which users face an overload of requests, information, options or interruptions which is unrelated to the intended purchase of goods or services, which disrupts the intended transaction.

About Central Consumer Protection Authority

Central Consumer Protection Authority is an authority provided by the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 which was to be notified by the Central Government.
Main aims of CCPA is to regulate unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interests of public and consumers and to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class.
CCPA consists of a Chief Commissioners and Commissioners who are appointed by Central Government.
CCPA has an investigation wing headed by Director General for conducting inquiry or investigation under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
District Collector may, on a complaint or a reference made to him by CCPA or Commissioner of a regional office, inquire into or investigate complaints regarding violation of rights of consumers as a class, violation of consumer rights, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements, within his jurisdiction and submit his report to CCPA or Commissioner of a regional office.

Functions of Central Consumer Protection Authority are:

Protect, promote and enforce rights of consumers as a class and prevent violation of consumer rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Prevent unfair trade practices and ensure that no person engages himself in unfair trade practices.
Ensure that no false or misleading advertisement is made of any goods or services which contravenes the provisions of Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Ensure that no person takes part in publication of any advertisement which is false or misleading.
Inquire or investigate into violations of consumer rights or unfair trade practices, either suo moto or on a complaint or on directions of central government.
File complaints before District Commission, State or National Commission as the case may be under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Intervene in any proceedings before district, State or National Commission in respect of any allegation of violation of consumer rights of unfair trade practice.
Review matters relating to inhibition of enjoyment of consumer rights and recommend remedial measures for their effective implementation.
Recommend adoption of international covenants and best international practices on consumer rights to ensure effective enforcement of consumer rights.
Undertake and promote research in the field of consumer rights.
Spread and promote awareness on consumer rights.
Encourage NGOs and other institutions working in the field of consumer rights to cooperate and work with consumer protection agencies.
Mandate the use of unique and universal goods identifiers in such goods to prevent unfair trade practices and to protect consumers' interest.
Issues safety notices to alert consumers against dangerous or hazardous or unsafe goods or services.
Advise Ministries and Departments of Central and State Governments on consumer welfare measures.
Issue necessary guidelines to prevent unfair trade practices and protect consumers' interest.

Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) & Security Sockets Layer (SSL)

Context: The government has announced a pool of ₹3.4 crore in prizes for developers who create an indigenous browser for the world which trusts the Controller of Certifying Authorities, which verifies digital signatures in the country.

An important caveat is that browser ideas entered into this competition will have to trust the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), the Indian government’s authority for digital signatures, including SSL (Security Sockets Layer) certificates.

About Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA):

It is an organisation that administers and monitors the functioning of Certification Authorities that issue encrypted (a technique for secure communication) digital certificates. This type of encryption allows relying parties to have an authenticated transfer of data under a secure connection, and the Authority has well-defined methods of assuring the identity of parties to whom it issues certificates.
It also confirms the attribution of a public key to an identified physical person by means of a public key certificate.
As per Section 18 of The Information Technology Act, 2000 provides the required legal sanctity to the digital signatures based on asymmetric cryptosystems. The digital signatures are now accepted at par with handwritten signatures and the electronic documents that have been digitally signed are treated at par with paper documents.
The IT Act provides for the Controller of Certifying Authorities(CCA) to license and regulate the working of Certifying Authorities.
The Controller of Certifying Authorities has been appointed by the Central Government under section 17 of the Act for purposes of the IT Act.
It aims to promote the growth of E-Commerce and E- Governance through the wide use of digital signatures.
It has established the Root Certifying Authority (RCAI) of India under section 18(b) of the IT Act to digitally sign the public keys of Certifying Authorities (CA) in the country. The RCAI is operated as per the standards laid down under the Act.
It certifies the public keys of CAs using its own private key, which enables users in cyberspace to verify that a given certificate is issued by a licensed CA. For this purpose, it operates, the Root Certifying Authority of India(RCAI).
The CCA also maintains the Repository of Digital Certificates, which contains all the certificates issued to the CAs in the country.

About Security Sockets Layer (SSL):

It is an encryption-based Internet security protocol.
It was first developed by Netscape in 1995 for the purpose of ensuring privacy, authentication, and data integrity in Internet communications.
It is the predecessor to the modern Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption used today.
A website that implements SSL/TLS has "HTTPS" in its URL instead of "HTTP."
In order to provide a high degree of privacy, SSL encrypts data that is transmitted across the web. This means that anyone who tries to intercept this data will only see a garbled mix of characters that is nearly impossible to decrypt.
It initiates an authentication process called a handshake between two communicating devices to ensure that both devices are really whom they claim to be.
It also digitally signs data in order to provide data integrity, verifying that the data is not tampered with before reaching its intended recipient.

What is the Akira ransomware?

Context: India's Computer Emergency Response Team issued an alert for ransomware called Akira. The ransomware, found to target both Windows and Linux devices, steals and encrypts data, forcing victims to pay double ransom for decryption and recovery.

About Ransomware

It is a type of malicious software (malware) designed to block access to a computer system or data until a ransom is paid to the attacker.
Its attacks can target individuals, businesses, or even government organizations. It has quickly become the most prominent and visible type of malware.
It is typically spread through spear phishing emails that contain malicious attachments in the form of archived content (zip/rar) files.
Other methods used to infect devices include drive-by-download, a cyber-attack that unintentionally downloads malicious code onto a device, and specially crafted web links in emails, clicking on which downloads malicious code.
It also spreads through insecure Remote Desktop connections.

About Akira Ransomware:

It is designed to encrypt data, create a ransomware note and delete Windows Shadow Volume copies on affected devices.
The ransomware gets its name due to its ability to modify the filenames of all encrypted files by appending them with the akira extension.
The ransomware is designed to close processes or shut down Windows services that may keep it from encrypting files on the affected system.
It uses Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, especially when users have not enabled two-factor authentication, to trick users into downloading malicious files.

Mechanism of Akira ransomware

The ransomware deletes the Windows Shadow Volume copies on the affected device. These files are instrumental in ensuring that organisations can back up data used in their applications for day-to-day functioning.
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) facilitates communication between different components without the need to take them offline, thereby ensuring data is backed up while it is also available for other functions. Once the ransomware deletes the VSS files it proceeds to encrypt files with the pre-defined the akira extension.
The ransomware also terminates active Windows services using the Windows Restart Manager API, preventing any interference with the encryption process. It is designed to not encrypt Program Data, Recycle Bin, Boot, System Volume information, and other folders instrumental in system stability. It also avoids modifying Windows system files with extensions like .syn. .msl and .exe.
Once sensitive data is stolen and encrypted, the ransomware leaves behind a note named akira_readme.txt which includes information about the attack and the link to Akira’s leak and negotiation site.
Each victim is given a unique negotiation password to be entered into the threat actor’s Tor site. Unlike other ransomware operations, this negotiation site just includes a chat system that the victim can use to communicate with the ransomware gang.\

Prevention measures against Akira Ransomware

CERT-In has advised users to follow basic internet hygiene and protection protocols to ensure their security against ransomware. These include:

Maintaining up-to-date offline backups of critical data, to prevent data loss in the event of an attack.
Update all operating systems and networks regularly, with virtual patching for legacy systems and networks.
Companies must establish Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Sender policy for organizational email validation, which prevents spam by detecting email spoofing.
Strong password policies and multi-factor authentication (MFA) must be enforced.
There should also be a strict external device usage policy in place and data-at-rest and data-in-transit encryption along with blocking attachment file types like .exe, .pif, or .url to avoid downloading malicious code.
Periodic security audits of critical networks/systems, especially database servers.

AI’s disruptive economic impact, an India check

Context: In a study called “Generative AI at Work” (involving over 5,000 customer support agents in the Philippines), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economists showed that AI tools boosted worker productivity by 14% and improved consumer satisfaction, leading to better treatment of customer service agents and increased employee retention.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines and is concerned with developing computer-operated machines that can complete tasks that typically require human intelligence.

Generative AI Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a form of AI that can autonomously generate new content, such as text, images, audio, and video.

Benefits of AI

AI through automated decision-making by can reduce error in decision making.
AI can automate repetitive tasks and with generative AI, even creative tasks can be done efficiently and fast.
In health sector with the help of AI patient monitoring including elderly patient monitoring, early diagnosis and process simplification can be done efficiently.
AI will "augment" the productivity of the labour force with the help of technologies and by automating some tasks and roles.
We can solve complex problems by leveraging AI's ability to analyse massive volumes of data quickly and spot patterns that we wouldn't otherwise be able to.
Intelligent automation (AI) can help by establishing a new virtual workforce that is capable of problem-solving and self-learning while increasing labour productivity.
Personalization enabled by AI will improve customer satisfaction and experience, which in turn will boost engagement and assist businesses in better consumer targeting and economic growth.
AI can assist early warning systems and disaster management by analysing historical data, patterns, and trends and monitoring real-time data to identify potential dangers.
Through assistive-personalised technology, monitoring of environmental changes, etc., AI can enhance people's quality of life.

Challenges of AI

Labour replacement by AI technologies. E.g., Chatbot replaced human assisted consumer support
A research paper titled “Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets” of MIT and Boston University found that robot adoption has a negative effect on workers, on average — it reduces the labour share, employment and wages.
The adverse effects of AI primarily affect blue-collar workers and individuals with lower levels of education as they lack the required skill in AI driven economy.
“Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality”, report document that between 50% and 70% of changes in the U.S. wage structure over the last four decades can be attributed to relative wage declines of worker groups specialised in routine tasks in industries experiencing rapid automation
Automation by AI may reduce labour share and wages, especially when productivity gains from automation are small.
There are distributional concerns of over automation due to AI which may cause inequality among workers and possible serious negative impacts on social welfare. E.g., tax challenge in AI
McKinsey Global Institute’s research suggests that AI may intensify competition and deepen the technological divide among firms.
- Early adopters of AI may gain significant advantages, leading to a winner-takes-all scenario.
AI could be highly disruptive as it is more likely to displace middle-class, white-collared jobs which constitute the major proportion of Indian population; in comparison to earlier technological advancements displaced people from lower-paid farm jobs to higher-paid factory floor jobs.
AI could create deep challenges for society, including in the labour market, politics, data privacy, crime and warfare; these challenges are difficult to anticipate and plan for.

Opportunities for India

The PwC report suggests that the greatest economic gains from AI will come from China, with a projected 26% boost to GDP by 2030. Thus, India should focus more on education and training in AI to take advantage of the demographic dividend and new opportunities that emanate from it.
Governments should step up their cyber regulations with respect to the new challenges posed by AI and may also need tax capital to balance the returns from capital and labour to reduce the displacement and distributional effects.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the productivity and GDP potential of the Indian economy. Strategic investment in different types of AI technology is needed to make that happen.

Way Forward

Regulation on the use of AI should be balanced and provide ample opportunities for the required investments in AI.
With ever-growing advancements in AI are now a reality and equipping ourselves with the latest tools will help us forge ahead along with everyone else.

The Majorana Fermions that holds the key to ‘quantum supercomputers’

Context: In a paper published on June 21, researchers at Microsoft announced that they had figured out a way to create an elusive kind of particle that could potentially revolutionise quantum computing.

Supercomputing

Supercomputing technology comprises supercomputers, the fastest computers in the world. Supercomputers are made up of interconnects, I/O (input/output) systems, memory and processor cores.

Unlike traditional computers, supercomputers use more than one central processing unit (CPU).
These CPUs are grouped into compute nodes, comprising a processor or a group of processors—symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)—and a memory block.
A supercomputer can contain tens of thousands of nodes. With interconnect communication capabilities, these nodes can collaborate on solving a specific problem.
Nodes also use interconnects to communicate with I/O systems, like data storage and networking.

Supercomputing is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS). Petaflops are a measure of a computer's processing speed equal to a thousand trillion flops. And a 1-petaflop computer system can perform one quadrillion (10¹⁵) flops. From a different perspective, supercomputers can be one million times more processing power than the fastest laptop.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is a rapidly emerging technology that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers.

Qubit

A qubit (or quantum bit) is the quantum mechanical analogue of a classical bit. In classical computing the information is encoded in bits, where each bit can have the value zero or one. In quantum computing the information is encoded in qubits. A qubit can hold a one, a zero or crucially a superposition of these.

A quantum computer can use individual electrons as qubits – its fundamental units of information. Information can be encoded in some property of each electron, like its spin.

Quantum Superposition

A quantum state in superposition can be seen as a linear combination of other distinct quantum states. This quantum state in superposition forms a new valid quantum state.

Quantum Entanglement

A pair or group of particles is entangled when the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the quantum state of the other particle(s). The quantum state of the system as a whole can be described; it is in a definite state, although the parts of the system are not.

Concepts associated with Quantum computing

Spin

Qantum particles exhibit an intrinsic angular momentum component which is known as spin.

Anti-Particle

Dirac’s equation predicted the existence of an antiparticle for each particle, such that if the two meet, they annihilate each other. Based on his prediction, scientists found the first antiparticle, the positron (or the anti-electron), in 1932.

Bound state

The Bound state of a particle is that particular state in which two particles are energetically forbidden to be separated at large distances or potentially bound in that state.

Ground state

It is the state of a particle with lowest possible energy. Usually, particles do not show any degeneracy at ground state.

Degeneracy

Degeneracy in quantum mechanics means that a system can have multiple states at the same energy.

Topological System

Topology systems are concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing holes, opening holes, tearing, gluing, or passing through itself.

Topological Degeneracy

In topological systems, the system has multiple states at the lowest or ground state energy, i.e., the quantum system can exist in two (or more) possible states at its lowest energy.

Fermions

These particles have half integer quantum spin like 1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc. This is why any particle, even something as large as an entire atom, can be a fermion, just its total quantum spin needs to have a half-integer value.

Non-Abelian Statistics

Under these rules, changing the order of steps in which you perform a task changes the task’s outcomes.

For example, say you have an algorithm that performs a series of steps in the order A-B-C-D. If the algorithm played according to the rules of non-Abelian statistics, A-C-B-D would give a different result from A-D-B-C.

Majorana Fermions and Majorana Zero Modes (MZM)

The quantum rules that apply to a single fermion also apply to pairs, or bound states. When the bound states are their own antiparticles – i.e., if they meet, they annihilate each other – they are Majorana fermions. Physicists call such bound states Majorana zero modes.

To be a Majorana zero mode, any bound state should satisfy two conditions

It should obey the Dirac equation.
It should be its own antiparticle.

Majorana Zero Modes helping in Computing

Quantum computers have a big problem, they’re very fragile and slight disturbances in the surrounding my result in the change of the quantum state of the particle and can result in change of the information.

Majorana zero modes are a mathematical construction that allows electrons to be described theoretically as being composed of two halves.
From a quantum computing perspective, if an electron can be split into two parts, then the information it encodes as a qubit will be protected from local perturbations.

Which makes Majorana Zero modes much more stable than most other qubits.

Also, MZM follows non-Abelian statistics which makes the outcome also dependent on the path taken in computation. So, the calculation done by MZM will have one more degree of freedom.

Current status of MZM

Indian Institute of Science associate professor Anindya Das said, “While topological quantum computing remains the ultimate goal, the existence of Majorana fermions hasn’t been settled yet. The result will need to be independently confirmed.”

Bharat 6G Alliance

Context: Department of Telecommunications under Ministry of Communications has launched Bharat 6G Alliance to drive innovation and collaboration in next-generation wireless technology.

Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA)

It is a collaborative platform consisting of public & private companies, academia, research institutions and standards development organisations to drive the design, development and deployment of 6G technologies in India.
This body is expected to promote universal and affordable connectivity, technology ownership and indigenous manufacturing, creating a culture of technology innovation, reducing imports, boost exports and augment creation of IPR around 6G technology and systems.

Objectives of Bharat 6G Alliance

Understand the business and societal needs of 6G beyond technology requirements, foster consensus on these needs and promote high impact open R&D initiatives.
Positioning India at forefront of 6G innovation: Accelerate 6G standards related patent creation in India and actively contribute to international standardisation organisations such as 3GPP & ITU.
Forge coalitions and synergies with other 6G Global Alliances, fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Facilitate market access for Indian telecom technology products and services.

Grants from Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF)

6G Terrahertz testbed with Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) & Multiplexing through consortium of SAMEER, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati & IIT Patna.

About Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF)

TTDF scheme was launched by Department of Telecommunications in 2022.
Under the scheme, 5% of annual collections from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) will be available for TTDF scheme for funding R&D of technologies, products and services.
Grants are given out of TTDF to Indian entities to encourage and induct indigenous technologies tailor made to meet domestic needs. Funds will also be used to develop standards to meet countrywide requirements and create ecosystem for research, design, prototyping, use cases, pilots and proof of concept testing etc.
The scheme is envisaged to bridge digital divide by developing and manufacturing state of art technologies to form synergies among academia, start-ups, research institutions and industry to build and develop telecom ecosystem.

Radio telescopes: probing space

Context: Telescopes are essential tools in every astronomer’s repertoire. A radio telescope is a telescope that helps scientists ‘see’ the universe using radio waves (1 mm to more than 10,000 km in wavelength).

How Radio telescopes function?

These telescopes collect faint radio waves coming from deep space, and with the help of other equipment focus and amplify them for scientific study. Radio telescopes can detect radio waves from a number of celestial objects, such as stars, galaxies, and black holes.

Where are they located and what is their shape?

They are ground based, and not in orbit, because they are usually quite large. This is because the size of the antenna – the dish like structure that detects the waves – is proportional to the wavelength being tracked.

In fact, the most common radio telescopes have a parabolic dish antenna. Due to its curved shape, the radio waves hitting the dish bounce to a point called the focus, where a receiver collects them.
Dish antennas collect many different wavelengths at once, so scientists often use receivers picking up multiple wavelengths at once.

Significance of large size and amplifiers

Because of their large wavelength, radio waves can travel long distances without interruption, making them ideal to catch glimpses of stars behind dust clouds. But the longer they travel, the weaker they get. So telescopes often try to maximise their signal collection area and use amplifiers to increase their strength.

Significant radio telescope

One of the biggest radio telescopes in the world today is the FAST instrument in China, with a 500metrewide dish.
The Giant Metre wave Radio Telescope (GMRT), located near Narayangaon, Pune in India, is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45 metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths. It is the largest and most sensitive radio telescope array in the world at low frequencies. It is operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.

SARAS (Shaped Antenna measurement of the background Radio Spectrum) is developed by Raman Research Institute and was deployed over Dandiganahalli Lake and Sharavati backwaters, located in Northern Karnataka, in early 2020.

Telegram Bots

Context: Reports surfaced stating that a Telegram bot was able to retrieve and display identification numbers from vaccination documents, including Aadhaar. Similarly, in 2021, a bot on the platform was discovered selling phone numbers extracted from Facebook. According to security researchers, a network of deep fake bots was identified on the platform, generating nonconsensual images using images of individuals submitted by users.

What are Bots?

A bot refers to a computer program designed to carry out tasks automatically.
Its primary purpose is to gather information from the internet or execute repetitive tasks at a much faster pace.

Applications of Bots

Ranging from malicious bots that carry viruses to search engine spiders.

Chatbots are capable of engaging in conversations with users to accomplish specific objectives. Example: Hi Poncho chatbot available in Facebook Messenger tells you the weather around you.
Web spidering, where an automated script fetches, analyzes, and organizes data from web servers at a speed far exceeding human capability.
Automated tasks such as setting alarms, providing weather updates, or conducting online searches. Examples: Siri and Cortana; Microsoft's Clippy.
One app with multiple bots can help with different tasks, like ordering food or checking sports scores.
Artificial intelligence-based bots are increasingly being used by organizations and entities to provide customer care, and sales and marketing services.

Two sides to bots

Beneficial purposes: information gathering, automated interaction through instant messaging or web interfaces, and dynamic engagement with websites.
However, Norton defines malicious bots as self-propagating malware that infects a host and establishes connections with central servers.
Can perform actions such as collecting passwords, logging keystrokes, acquiring financial information, distributing spam, and exploiting vulnerabilities created by viruses and worms.
Bots associated with automated accounts on Twitter and Facebook, spread misinformation on these platforms.

Use of Bots for malicious purposes

Bot attacks have impacted over 94.2% of websites. These attacks involve various types of malicious bots and botnets, including:

Spambots that harvest email addresses from contact
Downloader programs that suck bandwidth by downloading entire websites
Viruses and worms
DDoS attacks: distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network
Bots are used to increase traffic counts on analytics reporting to extract money from advertisers.
Internet trolls: Bots may be used on Internet forums to automatically post inflammatory or nonsensical posts to disrupt the forum and anger users.

What is Telegram?

Telegram, introduced in 2013, is a messaging platform service that provides an API for developers to create their applications and utilize the free API to develop specialized tools like bots, enabling seamless integration of services.
It ranks among the top 10 most downloaded apps globally and is recognized for its capacity to facilitate file sharing of up to 2GB.
It ensures the privacy of conversations by safeguarding them against unauthorized access from entities such as officials, marketers, and advertisers.
It does not handle any requests related to group chats or private conversations among participants.

Telegram bots

Telegram bots possess the capability to host complete web applications, enabling the provision of a wide range of services, from online stores to arcade games.
Some bots have the potential to collect user data, including personal information and chat history.
They can be specifically designed to facilitate convenient access to information stored in extensive databases that they are connected to.

Security concerns regarding telegram bots

Certain bots may possess security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by threat actors, compromising the security of users.
Threat actors can create malicious bots that contain harmful content, such as links to phishing websites or malware.
These threat actors may distribute bots with the intention of scamming users, enticing them with promises of rewards or discounts to trick them into divulging their personal information.
Introducing a bot into a secure Telegram chat may potentially weaken the level of encryption.
Wired reported that some bots do not employ Telegram's encryption protocol, which scrambles and renders messages illegible during transit.

Precautions and remedies

Anti-bot technique: Use of CAPTCHA, which is a form of Turing test used to distinguish between a human user and a less-sophisticated AI-powered bot, by the use of graphically-encoded human-readable text. However, Captchas are not foolproof in preventing bots as they can often be circumvented by computer character recognition and security holes.
Anti-malware software: All software should be updated and system updates should not be ignored.
To understand how individual bots handle user data, it is advisable for users to carefully review the terms of service and privacy policy associated with each bot.

E-education platforms, their Generative AI chapter

Context: The Massive Open Online Courses have gained a lot of currency in the last one decade. However, use of Artificial Intelligence has provided impetus to the growth of MOOCs in the recent years.

Background of MOOCs

Between 2008-2011, a new genre of online courses titled ‘Massive Open Online Courses’ (MOOCs) made their entry, driven by reputed institutions of learning.
Stanford University in 2011 brought first institutional course using MOOC model.
Most known and famous MOOC was edX launched by Harvard and MIT in joint effort.
As of 2021, there existed nearly 35 MOOCS Learning Management Systems (LMS) spread across North America, Asia and Europe.
India’s ‘Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds’ (SWAYAM) launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. It is one of the world’s largest learning e-portals.

Challenges faced by MOOCs

Fragile financial situation
Very high operating cost and maintenance expenses
Steep marketing cost
Very low and competitive fee structure
High dropout rates by entry level learners.

However, in the recent years, artificial intelligence has become a vital tool to make MOOC more interactive and attractive as a platform. In the current case Generative Artificial Intelligence has made an impressive performance in retaining the utility of the MOOCs.

What is Generative AI?

Generative artificial intelligence refers to a subset of AI techniques and models that are designed to generate new content or data that is similar to, or indistinguishable from, real human-generated content. It involves training models to learn patterns and structures from existing data and then using that knowledge to generate new, original content.

Generative AI models can be used in various applications such as image synthesis, text generation, music composition, and even video generation. These models are often based on deep learning techniques, particularly generative models such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), variational autoencoders (VAEs), or transformers.

GANs, for example, consist of two components: a generator and a discriminator. The generator learns to generate new data samples, such as images, by trying to fool the discriminator into thinking that the generated samples are real. The discriminator, on the other hand, learns to distinguish between real and generated data. Through an iterative process of training and feedback, GANs can produce increasingly realistic and high-quality content.

Generative AI has shown significant advancements in recent years and has been used in a wide range of applications, including art and design, content creation, data augmentation, and even in the development of realistic deepfake videos. However, it's important to note that generative AI also raises ethical concerns, such as the potential for misuse, the creation of misleading content, and the need for responsible and ethical deployment.

Examples of Generative AI:

OpenAI's Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT)
DeepArt or Deepfakes

How Generative AI could be game changer in MOOCs?

It help students easily locate the suitable courses without any attempt to explore entire MOOC.
AI can give challenges and task to students on daily basis without any repetition in language or pattern.
AI coaching, counselling and virtual assistance. AI techniques like natural language processing (NLP) enable chatbots and virtual assistants to interact with students, answer their questions, and provide support.
AI can assist in content creation and curation for online courses.
AI can help in making learning more interesting, thereby retaining high enrolment ratios.
AI can analyze student data, such as performance, learning styles, and preferences, to create personalized learning experiences. Adaptive learning platforms can use AI algorithms to tailor educational content and resources to each student's individual needs.
AI can help in breaking down the language barrier in real-time.

National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA)

Context: Recently two-day National Workshop commenced with presentations from representatives of top tech companies informing the delegates about the developments in the field of emerging technologies for enabling good governance representing Microsoft, IBM and Google Inc, for making National e- Vidhan Application (NeVA) more accessible, discoverable, insightful by use of Generative Artificial Intelligence models.

About National e- Vidhan Application (NeVA)

NeVA is a workflow system deployed on NIC Cloud, MeghRaj which helps the Chair of the House to conduct the proceedings of the House smoothly.
Hon’ble Members to carry out their duties in the House efficiently and to conduct Legislative Business of the House in a Paperless manner.
NeVA is a device-neutral and member-centric application created to equip them to handle diverse House Businesses smartly by putting entire information regarding member contact details, rules of procedure, list of business, notices, bulletins, bills, starred/unstarred questions and answers, papers laid, committee reports etc. in their handheld devices/ tablets and equip all Legislatures/ Departments to handle it efficiently.
NeVA will completely eliminate the process of sending out a notice/request for the collection of data.
The application hosts a secure page for each Member of the House for submitting questions & other notices.
The aim of the project is to bring all the legislatures of the country together, in one platform thereby creating a massive data depository without having the complexity of multiple applications.
mNeVA is a user-friendly Mobile App of NeVA that is available on Android as well as on iOS.
mNeVA has made information on the conduct of business in Legislatures accessible anytime, anywhere to everyone.

Powering up India’s supercomputing ambitions

Context: Indigenous development of supercomputers touches new highs in India but the country still greatly lags behind global peers.

Development of supercomputers in India:

The indigenous development of supercomputers in India began in 1980 with the involvement of organisations such as BARC, C-DAC and C-DOT, among others.
The launch of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) in 2015 has accelerated the efforts.
- Under the NSM scheme, C-DAC is aiming to install 70 supercomputers pan India.
Presently, India has 23 supercomputers — powerful computers that are primarily used for scientific and engineering work that demands ultra-high-speed computations.
The Indian government has initiated efforts to develop indigenous exascale computing capabilities through NSM by 2024.
- Param-Shankh, India’s new indigenous exascale supercomputing monster from C-DAC, is set to launch in 2024.
India has developed an indigenous server, Rudra, which can meet the high-performance computing needs of government bodies and public sector undertakings.

Challenges:

In terms of supercomputing capacity, India has made commendable progress, though it still lags behind other leading nations.
As of June 2022, China boasted a staggering 173 of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers, while the US had 128. From India, only three systems — Param Siddhi AI (ranked 111), Pratyush (132), and Mihir (249) — made it to the list.

While exascale computing is evolving rapidly, India has no exascale supercomputers yet. India is still looking at petaflops, while India should be looking at exaflops.
- Petaflops is a unit of measurement used to quantify the computational speed of a computer system. It represents the number of floating-point operations (flop) a computer can perform in one second.
  - One petaflop is equal to one quadrillion (10^15) floating-point operations per second.
  - One exaflop represents one quintillion (10^18) floating-point operations per second.
The use of supercomputers in India is currently limited to research institutions. Beyond research and academia, supercomputers have found limited adoption in the industry.

India currently lacks the infrastructure to produce the semiconductor devices required for the development of supercomputers.

Programming language Rust

About Rust:

Rust is a modern computer programming language developed by Mozilla in 2010. It was initially developed to build high-programming applications without the issue of invalid memory access that developers were facing while using C and C++.
The main purpose of using Rust is enhanced speed, improved memory safety, and concurrency, or the ability to run multiple computations parallelly.

Applications: Used to develop gaming engines, operating systems, and browsers that demand scalability.