Daily Current Affairs : 7th and 8th December 2023

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023
2. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
3. Role of Special Enquiry committee  
4. Regulating Deepfakes
5. Facts for Prelims

1 . Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023

Context: The Lok Sabha recently passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023. 

Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Amendment) Bill 2023

• The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to amend the 2019 Act and provide representation in the Legislative Assembly to the Kashmiri Migrants and displaced persons from the PoK. 
• It seeks to nominate two members from the Kashmiri migrant community and one person representing the displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to the Legislative Assembly. 
• The amendment Bill proposes to increase the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly to 90 from 83. 
• It seeks to reserve seats for the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. 
• It seeks to insert new sections 15A and 15B in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 for the Lieutenant Governor to nominate not more than two members, one of whom shall be a woman, from the community of “Kashmiri Migrants” and one Member from “Displaced Persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir”, to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. 

Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill 2023

• The Jammu & Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 is aimed at amending the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004. 
• The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 provided reservation in jobs and admission in professional institutions to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and other socially and educationally backward classes. 
• The Jammu & Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the Section 2 of the 2004 Act. 
• The amendment Bill suggests a change in the nomenclature of a section of people who were earlier described as “weak and under privileged classes (social castes)” to “other backward classes”. 
• The government may make inclusions or exclusions from the category of weak and under-privileged classes, on the recommendations of a Commission.   

2 . UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

Context: Gujarat’s traditional dance form ‘Garba’ was included in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

About the news

• The popular dance form Garba is the 15th cultural item from India to make it to the UNESCO list. 
• The inclusion has been made under the provisions of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.  
• The international cultural body described the ‘Garba’ as a ritualistic and devotional dance performed in India. 

What is Intangible Cultural Heritage? 

• Cultural heritage includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. 
• Intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. An understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of different communities helps with intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for other ways of life. 
• The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing States as for developed ones. 

About UNESCO’s Convention

• The Convention, adopted in 2003 after 60 years of work in this domain, is the international community’s first binding multilateral instrument intended to safeguard and raise the profile of this heritage. 
• Its goal is to incite countries to care about and look after the ICH present on their territories. 

Responsibilities of States that ratify the Convention

• At the national level, States Parties are asked to take the necessary measures to safeguard the ICH present on their territory: define and inventory the ICH, with the participation of the communities concerned; adopt policies and establish institutions to monitor and promote it; encourage research; and take other appropriate safeguarding measures, always with the full consent and participation of the communities concerned. 
• Each State Party submits regular progress reports to the Committee, starting six years after ratifying the Convention. 
• States are also invited to nominate elements to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and the Register of Best Safeguarding Practices, which are all mechanisms to focus international attention on ICH. 
• States also have the possibility of asking for international assistance from the Fund for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. 
• The resources of this Fund consist of contributions made by States Parties. 

3 . Role of Special Enquiry committee

Context: The ethics committee of the Lok Sabha is believed to have recommended the expulsion of Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha for her “unethical conduct” and “breach of privileges” 

What is the role of ethics committee? 

• The ethics committee was constituted in 2000, to oversee the moral and ethical conduct of members and examine cases of ‘unethical conduct’ referred to it. 
• The Committee examines complaints filed against members of the House by other members; outsiders through a member; or referred by the Speaker.  
• The Committee makes a prima facie inquiry before deciding to examine a complaint and presents its report to the Speaker, who places it before the House for consideration. 
• The term ‘unethical’ is not defined. It is left to the Committee to decide whether any act is unethical or not. 
•  In 2007, an MP accompanying his close female companion, impersonating her as his wife was considered ‘unethical’ by the Committee. It recommended suspension of the MP from 30 sittings of the House. 

What are privileges committees? 

• The privileges committee or special inquiry committee examines the more serious accusations against a member. 
• In 1951, a special committee found a member guilty of promoting a business interest by putting questions in return for financial benefits. It was again a special committee that inquired into the ‘cash for query’ scam of 2005 where 10 MPs of Lok Sabha were recommended for expulsion. 

Is an expulsion constitutional? 

• The Constitution under Article 101 lists down the grounds for vacation of a seat by an MP. 
• It includes voluntary resignation, disqualification and continuous absence from the House for 60 sittings. 
• Expulsion is not mentioned explicitly in the Constitution. However, the Supreme Court has provided conflicting judgments in this regard. In Raja Ram Pal versus Hon’ble Speaker (2007), it upheld the power of Parliament to expel its members for breach of privilege by interpreting Article 101 to include expulsion as a ground. 
• But in Amarinder Singh versus Special committee, Punjab Vidhan Sabha (2010), the Supreme Court held expulsion by the State Assembly as unconstitutional. It held that such scenarios would frustrate the objectives of Parliamentary democracy. 

How to reconcile privileges of the House and democratic representation? 

• The allegations of ‘cash for query’ against Mahua Moitra are serious in nature. Yet, if she is expelled, the citizens of the constituency would be left without a representative till next elections or a bye-election.  
• The privileges of the House developed in medieval Britain to protect the House of Commons from an authoritarian King. 
•  It is important to preserve the dignity and privilege of the House. It is equally imperative, if not more in a modern democracy, to ensure that democratic representation is not prejudiced for political reasons. 
• Parliamentary Committee proceedings are not as detailed as a judicial case that is conducted as per the Evidence Act. Even in this case, the ethics committee is believed to have recommended legal inquiry and the CBI has already registered a preliminary inquiry.  
• It would be prudent to set up fast track courts to conduct trials for such cases in a time bound manner of say 60 days. If they are convicted in such a trial, it would result in their disqualification under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Otherwise, they should continue to be a member of the House. 

4 . Regulating Deepfakes

Context: Last month a video featuring actor Rashmika Mandanna went viral on social media, sparking a combination of shock and horror among netizens. 

How did deepfake tech emerge? 

• Deepfakes are made using technologies such as AI and machine learning, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. Although they have benefits in education, film production, criminal forensics, and artistic expression, they can also be used to exploit people, sabotage elections and spread large-scale misinformation. 
• While editing tools, like Photoshop, have been in use for decades, the first-ever use of deepfake technology can reportedly be traced back to a Reddit user who in 2017 had used a publicly available AI-driven software to create pornographic content by imposing the faces of celebrities on to the bodies of ordinary people. 
• Now, deepfakes can easily be generated by semi-skilled and unskilled individuals by morphing audio-visual clips and images. As such technology becomes harder to detect, more resources are now accessible to equip individuals against their misuse. 
• A 2019 study conducted by AI firm Deeptrace found that a staggering 96% of deepfakes were pornographic, and 99% of them involved women. 

What are the laws against the misuse of deepfakes? 

• India lacks specific laws to address deepfakes and AI-related crimes, but provisions under a plethora of legislations could offer both civil and criminal relief. For instance, Section 66E of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) is applicable in cases of deepfake crimes that involve the capture, publication, or transmission of a person’s images in mass media thereby violating their privacy. Such an offence is punishable with up to three years of imprisonment or a fine of two lakh. 
• Further, Sections 67, 67A, and 67B of the IT Act can be used to prosecute individuals for publishing or transmitting deepfakes that are obscene or contain sexually explicit acts. 
• The IT Rules, also prohibit hosting ‘any content that impersonates another person’ and require social media platforms to quickly take down ‘artificially morphed images’ of individuals when alerted. In case they fail to take down such content, they risk losing the ‘safe harbour’ protection — a provision that protects social media companies from regulatory liability for third-party content shared by users on their platforms. 
• Provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) can also be resorted for cybercrimes associated with deepfakes — Sections 509 (words, gestures, or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 499 (criminal defamation), and 153 (a) and (b) (spreading hate on communal lines) among others.  
• The Delhi Police Special Cell has reportedly registered an FIR against unknown persons by invoking Sections 465 (forgery) and 469 (forgery to harm the reputation of a party) in the Mandanna case. 

Issues with the laws

• The IT Rules only addresses instances wherein the illegal content has already been uploaded and the resultant harm has been suffered; instead, there has to be more focus on preventive measures, for instance, making users aware that they are looking at a morphed image. 
• the current regulations only focus on either online takedowns or criminal prosecution but lack a deeper understanding of how generative AI technology works and the wide range of harm that it can cause. 

Centre’s response

• The Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw recently chaired a meeting with social media platforms, AI companies, and industry bodies where he acknowledged that “a new crisis is emerging due to deepfakes” and that “there is a very big section of society which does not have a parallel verification system” to tackle this issue. 
• He also announced that the government will introduce draft regulations, which will be open to public consultation, within the next 10 days to address the issue. 
• the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Rajeev Chandrasekhar has maintained that the existing laws are adequate to deal with deepfakes if enforced strictly. 
• He said that a special officer will be appointed to closely monitor any violations and that an online platform will also be set up to assist aggrieved users and citizens in filing FIRs for deepfake crimes. 

5 . Facts for Prelims

NCERT

• National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India. 
• Established in 1961, it is a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Registration Act. 

National Disaster Mitigation Fund

• The objective of creation of National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) is for the projects exclusively for the purpose of mitigation which is being served by the existing Centrally Sponsored Schemes / Central Sector (CS) Schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Krishonnati Yojana, National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture, MGNREGA, Major Irrigation projects, Namami Gange-National Ganga plan, River Basin Management, National River Conservation Plan and Water Resource Management. 
• Additionally, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has made a provision of 10% of total outlay for all CS.