Weekly Current Affairs (8th to 14th October 2023) Part - 2 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention Impact on Global Food Production

Context: A recent study published in the journal Nature Food has shed light on the potential consequences of a geoengineering technique known as Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention (SAI) on global food production. As the world grapples with the escalating challenges of climate change, SAI has emerged as a Plan B, offering a unique approach to mitigate the impacts of global warming.

What is SAI?

SAI involves injecting sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, creating reflective aerosol particles, akin to the natural phenomenon observed after volcanic eruptions. By mimicking this effect, scientists aim to cool the Earth's surface and counteract the effects of climate change.

Key Highlights of the Study

SAI as a Climate Intervention

• SAI is a proposed method of solar geoengineering, intended to reduce global warming.
• It mimics volcanic eruptions, creating a cooling effect through global dimming and increased albedo.
• For instance, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 2001 led to a significant drop in the average global temperature.

Diverse Impact on Agriculture

• The study explores how SAI affects agriculture based on factors like precipitation and solar radiation.
• Computer models are used to evaluate SAI scenarios on crops such as maize, rice, soybean, and spring wheat.
• Different regions respond differently; while cold, high-latitude areas benefit from uncontrolled climate change, mid-latitude temperate regions could see enhanced productivity.

Comprehensive Impact Assessment

• The research emphasizes the need to assess consequences beyond crop production, including effects on human health and ecosystems.
• Concerns such as impacts on the ozone layer, the hydrological cycle, monsoon systems, and crop yields must be thoroughly examined.

SAI in the Context of Geoengineering Techniques

• Geoengineering encompasses deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth's climate system to combat climate change. These interventions fall into two categories: Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and Solar Radiation Management (SRM).

Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Techniques

• Afforestation and Reforestation: Increasing natural carbon dioxide absorption by planting trees or restoring forests.
• Biochar: Converting biomass into charcoal to enhance carbon storage in the soil.
• Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS): Growing biofuel crops and capturing emitted carbon dioxide for underground storage.
• Ocean Fertilization: Stimulating phytoplankton growth in oceans to absorb carbon dioxide and transfer it to the deep ocean.

Solar Radiation Management (SRM) Techniques

• Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention (SAI): Injecting sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere to create a cooling effect.
• Space-Based Reflectors (SBR): Placing mirrors in orbit to deflect sunlight.
• Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB): Increasing cloud reflectivity by spraying sea water droplets into low-level clouds.
• Cirrus Cloud Thinning (CCT): Reducing heat-trapping cirrus clouds through cloud seeding.
• Surface Albedo Modification (SAM): Changing land or sea surface reflectivity, e.g., painting roofs white.

Conclusion

As we delve into the realm of geoengineering techniques, understanding their potential and risks is paramount. The study on Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention serves as a crucial step toward comprehending the complex interplay between climate intervention and global food production. As scientists continue their research, informed decision-making and international collaboration will be key to navigating the intricate path toward a sustainable future.

Emergence of Multimodal AIs

Context: There has been a paradigm shift within AI (Artificial Intelligence) towards Multimodal Systems, allowing users to engage with AI through a combination of text, images, sounds, and videos.

• These systems aim to replicate human-like cognition by encompassing multiple sensory inputs.

What are Multimodal AI Systems?

About:

• Multimodal AI is artificial intelligence that combines multiple types, or modes, of data to create more accurate determinations, draw insightful conclusions or make more precise predictions about real-world problems.
• Multimodal AI systems train with and use video, audio, speech, images, text and a range of traditional numerical data sets.
• For Example: Multimodal audio systems follow similar principles, with Whisper, OpenAI's open-source speech-to-text translation model, serving as the foundation for GPT's voice processing capabilities.

Recent Developments in Multimodal AI:

• OpenAIs ChatGPT: OpenAI announced enhancements to its GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models, allowing them to analyze images and engage in speech synthesis, enabling more immersive interactions with users.
• It is working on a project named "Gobi," which aims to create a multimodal AI system from scratch, distinct from the GPT models.

Google's Gemini Model:

• Another major player in the field is Google’ new yet-to-be-released multimodal large language model Gemini.
• Due to its huge collection of images and videos from its search engine and YouTube, Google had a clear edge over its rivals in the multimodal domain.
• It puts immense pressure on other AI systems to rapidly advance their multimodal capabilities.

What are the Advantages of Multimodal AI over Unimodal AI?

• Multimodal AI, unlike unimodal AI, leverages diverse data types such as text, images, and audio, offering a richer representation of information.
• This approach enhances contextual understanding, resulting in more accurate predictions and informed decisions.
• By fusing data from multiple modalities, multimodal AI achieves better performance, increased robustness, and the ability to handle ambiguity effectively.
• It broadens applicability across various domains and enables cross-modal learning.
• Multimodal AI provides a more holistic and human-like understanding of data, paving the way for innovative applications and a deeper comprehension of complex real-world scenarios.

What are the Applications of Multimodal AI?

• It finds applications in diverse fields, including autonomous driving, robotics, and medicine.
• For example, In medical field, the analysis of complex datasets from CT Scans and identifying genetic variations, simplifying the communication of results to medical professionals is very crucial.
• Speech translation models, such as Google Translate and Meta's SeamlessM4T, also benefit from multimodality, offering translation services across various languages and modalities.
• Recent developments include Meta's ImageBind, a multimodal system capable of processing text, visual data, audio, temperature, and movement readings.
• The potential for integrating additional sensory data like touch, smell, speech, and brain MRI signals is explored, enabling future AI systems to simulate complex environments.

What are the Challenges of Multimodal AI?

Data Volume and Storage:

• The diverse and voluminous data required for Multimodal AI poses challenges in terms of data quality, storage costs, and redundancy management, making it expensive and resource-intensive.

Learning Nuance and Context:

• Teaching AI to understand nuanced meanings from identical input, especially in languages or expressions with context-dependent meanings, proves challenging without additional contextual cues like tone, facial expressions, or gestures.

Limited and Incomplete Data:

• Availability of complete and easily accessible data sets is a challenge. Public data sets may be limited, costly, or suffer from aggregation issues, affecting data integrity and bias in AI model training.

Missing Data Handling:

• Dependency on data from multiple sources can result in AI malfunctions or misinterpretations if any of the data sources are missing or malfunctioning, causing uncertainty in AI response.

Decision-Making Complexity:

• Neural networks in Multimodal AI may be complex and challenging to interpret, making it difficult to understand how AI evaluates data and makes decisions. This lack of transparency can hinder debugging and bias elimination efforts.

Conclusion

• The advent of multimodal AI systems represents a significant advancement in the field of artificial intelligence.
• These systems have the potential to revolutionize various industries, enhance human-computer interactions, and address complex real-world problems.
• As AI continues to evolve, multimodality is poised to play a pivotal role in achieving artificial general intelligence and expanding the boundaries of AI applications.

Surge in Human Settlements in Flood-Prone Areas

Context: According to a recent study conducted by the World Bank, human settlements in some of the world's riskiest flood zones have increased by a staggering 122% since 1985, contributing to the vulnerability of millions to water disasters induced by climate change. And, this growth is predominantly observed in middle- and low-income countries.

• On the other hand, the most secure regions experienced an 80% increase in growth in human settlements.

What are the Major Takeaways from the Study?

Global Landscape of Settlement Expansion:

• Most countries, especially in East Asia, saw more settlements in regular flood zones and ultra-high flood zones than in dry areas.
• Libya, which suffered from devastating flooding in September 2023, had an 83% increase in settlement extent in the worst flood zones.
• Pakistan, experiencing catastrophic flooding both in 2022 and 2023, witnessed an 89% increase in settlements in prone areas.

Notable Exceptions:

• Dry settlements in the United States increased by 76%, while the highest flood settlements rose by only 46%.
• Other countries with more dry settlements than ultra-wet areas include India, France, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Japan and Canada.

What are the Possible Factors Behind Increasing Human Settlements in Flood Zones?

• Rural to Urban Migration: As countries experience economic growth, urbanization near waterways becomes prevalent. Settlements often expand into flood-prone areas as cities grow.
• For Example: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, exemplifies this issue, growing from a fishing village to over seven million people.
• Economic Factor: Low-income populations often cannot afford to live in safer, less flood-prone areas. They might be forced to live in flood-prone zones because of housing affordability constraints.
• Lack of Regulatory Enforcement: In some countries, land-use planning and zoning regulations might not be effectively enforced. This can result in settlements proliferating in flood-prone areas without adequate safeguards.
• Cultural and Historical Ties: Some communities have deep cultural or historical connections to flood-prone regions, and this can influence their decisions to remain or settle in these areas despite the risks.
• Tourism and Recreation: Coastal and riverfront areas, despite their vulnerability to flooding, continue to draw tourists and recreation enthusiasts because of their inherent appeal.
  • The demand for resorts, hotels, and vacation homes can lead to settlement in these areas, even if it's only seasonal.

Note:

• Settlement expansion into flood zones does not negate the significance of climate change. The two issues are intertwined, compounding risks and vulnerabilities. People might prioritize immediate needs for shelter and livelihoods over long-term climate risks.
• This can lead to decisions that are more focused on short-term survival.

• Strict Land Use Policies: Implement and enforce stringent land use regulations that prohibit or restrict new construction in high-risk flood zones.
  • Designate flood-prone areas as 'no-build' zones and enforce these restrictions consistently.
• Infrastructure Investment: There is a need to Invest in resilient infrastructure, including better flood defences, early warning systems, and floodplain mapping.
  • Improve drainage systems to mitigate the impact of flooding in existing settlements.
• Government Support and Relocation Assistance: The government can offer financial incentives for residents to relocate from flood-prone areas to safer zones.
  • Also, the government needs to strengthen emergency response and preparedness measures in flood-prone areas to minimize the loss of life and property during flood events.
• Public Awareness and Education: Launch public awareness campaigns to educate citizens about the risks associated with living in flood-prone areas.
  • Promote community-based education programs on flood preparedness and the importance of avoiding such areas.

Granting Habitat Rights and Implications

Context: Recently, the Chhattisgarh Government has granted habitat rights to its Baiga PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) right after the Kamar PVTG received habitat rights in August 2023.

• The Baiga PVTG became the second group to be granted these rights in Chhatisgarh.
• Chhattisgarh has seven PVTGs (Kamar, Baiga, Pahadi Korba, Abujhmadiya, Birhor, Pando and Bhujia).

What is the Baiga Tribe?

• The Baiga (means sorcerers) tribe mainly lives in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. 
• Traditionally, the Baiga lived a semi-nomadic life and practised slash and burn cultivation. Now, they are mainly dependent on minor forest produce for their livelihood.
• Bamboo is the primary resource.
• Tattooing is an integral part of Baiga culture, every age and body part has a specific tattoo reserved for the occasion.

What are Habitat Rights?

About:

• Habitat rights recognition provides the community concerned rights over their customary territory of habitation, socio-cultural practices, economic and livelihood means, intellectual knowledge of biodiversity and ecology, traditional knowledge of use of natural resources, as well as protection and conservation of their natural and cultural heritage.
• Habitat rights safeguard and promote traditional livelihood and ecological knowledge passed down through generations. They also help converge different government schemes and initiatives from various departments to empower PVTG communities to develop their habitats.
• According to the FRA, "habitat" includes customary habitats and those in reserved and protected forests of PVTGs and other forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes.
• Out of 75 PVTG in India, only three have habitat rights- the Bharia PVTG in Madhya Pradesh was the first, followed by the Kamar tribe and now the Baiga tribe in Chhattisgarh.

Procedure of Declaring Habitat:

• The procedure is based on a detailed guideline given for this purpose in 2014 by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
• The process involves consultation with traditional tribal leaders to determine the extent of culture, traditions, and occupation.
• Coordination between state-level departments, including Forest, Revenue, Tribal, and Panchayati Raj, and with the UNDP team is essential for defining and declaring habitats.

Legality:

• Habitat rights are granted to PVTGs under Section 3(1)(e) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (also known as FRA).
• The recognition of Habitat rights grants PVTGs possession over their customary territory, encompassing habitation, economic and livelihood means, biodiversity knowledge.

Identification of PVTGs

• PVTGs are identified based on criteria such as technological backwardness, stagnant or declining population growth, low literacy levels, subsistence economy, and challenging living conditions.
• They face vulnerability in health, education, nutrition, and livelihood.
• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has identified 75 PVGTs in 18 states and one Union Territory.
• In 1973, the Dhebar Commission created Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) as a separate category, who are less developed among the tribal groups. In 2006, the Government of India renamed the PTGs as PVTGs.

What is the Significance of Granting Habitat Rights?

Preservation of Culture and Heritage:

• Granting tribal rights helps in preserving the unique cultural, social, and traditional heritage of tribal communities. It allows them to maintain their distinct languages, rituals, customs, and traditional knowledge systems.

Empowerment and Social Justice:

• Tribal rights empower these communities by providing them with legal recognition, ensuring their participation in decision-making processes that affect their lives, and rectifying historical injustices. This empowerment contributes to a more just and equal society.

Protection of Livelihoods:

• Many tribal communities depend on their natural surroundings for their livelihoods. Granting rights over lands and resources ensures that they can sustain their traditional occupations like hunting, gathering, fishing, and farming, supporting their economic well-being.

Sustainable Development:

• By granting rights to tribal communities, governments can promote sustainable development. Indigenous practices often prioritize sustainability and conservation, which is crucial for the environment and the overall well-being of society.

Conservation of Biodiversity:

• Tribal communities often possess unique knowledge about their local ecosystems, flora, fauna, and sustainable resource management. Recognizing their rights allows for the preservation of biodiversity and sustainable management of natural resources.

Conclusion

Granting tribal rights is fundamental to fostering a more inclusive, just, and harmonious society where the rights, cultures, and traditions of all citizens, including tribal communities, are respected and protected.

The Journey of Remote Voting for Migrants

Context: In a world where mobility is a way of life, ensuring every citizen’s right to vote is paramount. The Election Commission of India (ECI) embarked on a groundbreaking mission in late 2022 – the introduction of Remote Electronic Voting Machines (R-EVMs) aimed at facilitating domestic migrant voting. With the goal of enhancing the lackluster 67.4% voter turnout in the 2019 general election, this initiative seeks to bridge the geographical gap between citizens and their voting rights. A recent survey conducted among Delhi’s migrant population sheds light on the viability of this revolutionary voting system.

Understanding Remote EVMs: Bridging the Distance

Registration and Setup

• Voters interested in remote voting register within a pre-defined timeframe, ensuring their connection to their home constituencies.
• Multi-constituency remote polling stations enable efficient voting for citizens from various constituencies at one location.

Voting Process

• R-EVMs mirror the existing Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) but introduce electronic ballot displays, allowing voters to select candidates effortlessly.
• Votes are counted and stored electronically, promising accuracy and transparency.

Global Precedents

• Several countries, including Estonia, France, Panama, and Pakistan, have successfully implemented remote voting for their citizens living abroad or away from their home constituencies.

Significance of Migrant Votes: A Closer Look

Migration Patterns

• Migrants predominantly relocate for employment opportunities (58%), family-related reasons (18%), and marriage (13%).

Voter Registration and Participation

• 53% of migrants are registered voters in Delhi, with 27% retaining their voter registration in their home states.
• Migrants exhibit a higher participation rate in national and state-level elections compared to local elections.

Trust in Remote Voting

• 47% of respondents trust the proposed remote voting system, with notable gender and education-based differences in trust levels.

Challenges and Concerns: Navigating the Path Ahead

Legal Framework

• Amendments to electoral laws are essential to accommodate remote voting, necessitating redefinitions of "migrant voter" and addressing voter portability and residency issues.

Secrecy and Administrative Challenges

• Ensuring voting secrecy and preventing impersonation pose substantial challenges.
• Effective supervision of remote voting stations and arranging polling agents demand meticulous planning.

Technological Hurdles

• Voter familiarity with technology and interfaces is vital to prevent confusion and errors.
• Counting votes accurately through remote voting mechanisms requires innovative solutions.

The Path Forward: Ensuring Confidence and Accessibility

Machine Independence

• Verifiability and correctness of the voting process must not solely rely on the assumption of machine correctness.

Voter Agency

• Empowering voters to cancel their votes if dissatisfied, with a straightforward cancellation process, reinforces democratic agency.

Stakeholder Confidence

• Building trust among voters, political parties, and the election machinery is paramount for the successful implementation of remote voting.

Conclusion

The prospect of remote voting for migrants signifies a paradigm shift in the democratic landscape of India. By addressing the needs of a mobile population, the ECI not only empowers citizens but also fosters a deeper sense of inclusion and accessibility in the electoral process. As we navigate the challenges ahead, the promise of a more participatory democracy beckons, where every voice truly matters, regardless of geographic constraints.