Daily Current Affairs 24 July 2023 – IAS Current Affairs
Current Affairs 24 July 2023 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :
TRAI Recommendation to Regulate AI
Source: PIB
GS II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation; GS III: Science and Technology
Overview
- News in Brief
- TRAI Recommendation to Regulate AI
- What is Artificial Intelligence?
Why in News ?
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a set of recommendations advocating the urgent adoption of a regulatory framework to govern the responsible development of artificial intelligence (AI) across sectors.
About TRAI Recommendation
- Why regulation required?
- In a risk-based framework, it was crucial to govern particular AI use cases that may directly affect people.
- Creation of Authority
- The creation of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority of India (AIDAI).
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay - It is an independent statutory agency that would serve as an advising body, a regulatory body and a recommendatory body for all fields linked to artificial intelligence.
- Specific AI use cases should be controlled according to a risk-based framework, with legally enforceable duties placed on high-risk use cases that directly affect people.
- All upcoming technologies and cutting-edge designs for AI models will be adopted by AIDAI.
- Establish a standard framework for private and governmental organisations to embrace the national data policy.
- It should draw members from different ministries, departments, industry, legal experts, cyber experts, academia and research institutes, besides representatives of relevant ministries and departments of central or state governments
- The creation of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority of India (AIDAI).
- Responsible Ministry
- The ministry of electronics and information technology should serve as the administrative ministry for artificial intelligence, according to TRAI.
- AI role in all sector
- AI has the ability to have an impact on a variety of industries
- Not only the telecom industry, including healthcare, transportation, finance, education, and agriculture.
- To look at how AI is affecting many industries rather than just telecom holistic approach is needed.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
- AI refers to a computer’s or a robot’s capacity to do jobs that are typically performed by people since they call for human intelligence and judgement.
- The term artificial intelligence (AI) describes a machine’s capacity to carry out cognitive functions including reasoning, perception, learning, and problem-solving.
- The capacity to reason and act in ways that have the highest possibility of reaching a particular objective.
TRAI
- The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which was established in 1997 by an Act of Parliament.
- Aims to regulate telecom services, including fixation/revision of tariffs for telecom services which were earlier vested in the Central Government.
- Create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications in the country.
- To provide a fair and transparent policy environment.
Global Efforts Towards Immunization
Source: PIB
GS II: Health
Overview
- News in Brief
- How it helps
Why in News ?
Over 4 million more children were vaccinated in 2022 compared to the year before, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a press release July 18, 2023.
- Even though immunisation services have picked up pace since the COVID-19 pandemic, recovery remains uneven.
News in Brief
- In 2022, more than 20.5 million children, compared to 24.4 million in 2021, failed to receive one or more vaccinations administered through routine immunisation programmes.
- The amount is still greater than the 18.4 million kids who didn’t participate in 2019 due to pandemic-related interruptions, highlighting the need for continued efforts to make up lost time, rebuild systems, and recover.
Major Progress in Global Immunization Efforts
- 73 countries that experienced significant declines in immunisation coverage during the pandemic, 15 have recovered to pre-pandemic levels and 24 are on the road to recovery.
- Most alarmingly, 34 have either stagnated or continued declining.
- HPV Vaccination Rates
- Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates have returned to pre-pandemic levels, but they remain below the 90% target.
- Measles Vaccination
- One of the most infectious infections, measles, has not responded as well to vaccination as other diseases have.
- This has made an additional 35,2 million kids more likely to contract the measles as a result.
- First dose measles vaccination coverage improved to 83% in 2022, but it remains lower than the 86% achieved in 2019.
- DTP3 Vaccine Usage
- The three-dose vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough), also known as the DTP3 Vaccine, is used as the global marker for immunisation coverage.
Marine Heat Waves
Source: Indian Express
GS II: Environment
Overview
- News in Brief
- How it helps
- What is Marine Heat Waves?
- What is the impact of Marine Heat Waves?
Why in News ?
The sun is now frying the entire planet. While June was the planet’s warmest month on record, July is expected to surpass it by hundreds or perhaps thousands of years.
News in Brief
- Sweltering temperatures have induced extreme heat warnings, wildfires and poor air quality in different regions.
- But it isn’t just on the land that the mercury has soared the average daily global sea surface temperature is off the charts too.
- In April, it reached 21.1 degrees Celsius, breaking the previous record of 21 degrees Celsius in 2016.
- And since then, ocean temperatures have remained at record-high levels, giving rise to marine heat waves (MHWs) around the globe.
What is Marine Heat Waves?
- Marine heat wave is an extreme weather event.
- It happens when the sea surface temperature in a given area rises by three or four degrees Celsius for at least five days.
- According to the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), MHWs can endure for weeks, months, or even years.
- At present, MHWs have gripped the
- North-east Pacific
- Southern hemisphere in the southern Indian Ocean and the Pacific
- North-east Atlantic, tropical North Atlantic, and the Mediterranean
What is the impact of Marine Heat Waves?
- MHWs can have detrimental consequences on both human health and marine ecosystems.
- They could also change marine species’ migratory patterns, result in coral bleaching, or even affect weather patterns.
- Storms that are strengthened by MHWs have a devastating impact on coastal towns.
- The said 3 to 4 degree made severe impact on marine life.
- Sudden and unexpected death of many fish or other aquatic animals is an example.
- It will alter the ecosystem.
- Bleaching of coral reefs another impact.
What is Coral Bleaching?
- Water eject the zooxanthellae algae that reside in their tissues when the water temperature rises too high.
- This turns them completely white.
- The term for this is coral bleaching.
- Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.
- Various natural phenomena like hurricanes and tropical cyclones becomes more frequent.
- As the ocean warms heat from the oceans passes to the air.
- Severe rain fall causes frequent flooding.
- Besides the destruction of coral reef it affect the people depend on it.
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