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In a first but important step bringing relief to the families of eight former Indian Navy personnel on the death row in Qatar, the appellate court there commuted the death sentence.
The detailed order of the Qatar court is awaited, but the Government of India said that the sentences have been “reduced”.
The commutation of the death sentence is the first legal win for New Delhi, almost a year-and-half after the detention and arrest of the former Indian Navy personnel in Qatar.
The Ministry of External Affairs said, “We have noted the verdict today of the Court of Appeal of Qatar in the Dahra Global case, in which the sentences have been reduced.”
“The detailed judgement is awaited. We are in close touch with the legal team as well as the family members to decide on the next steps,” the MEA statement said.
Pegasus used recently to target phones of 2 journalists Amnesty: Post (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
A forensic investigation by Amnesty International’s Security Lab in partnership with The Washington Post has claimed that two Indian journalists were among those “recently targeted with Pegasus spyware on their iPhones”. Pegasus is an invasive spyware developed by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group.
The NSO Group has always maintained it deals only with governments and that too after intense scrutiny.
Express Network
Planning to launch 50 satellites in next five years says ISRO chef (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
India is aiming to launch 50 satellites in the next five years for geo-intelligence gathering which will include the creation of a layer of satellites in different orbits with a capacity to track the movement of troops and image thousands of kilometers of area, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath said.
Speaking at `Techfest’, an annual science and technology event organised by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, he said it is important to improve the ability of satellites to detect changes, to bring in more of AI-related and data-driven approach to analyse data, reduce data downloads and get only the necessary information.
Spacecrafts are capable of observing a country’s borders and neighbouring regions, he noted.
Nina Singh 1st woman to head CISF, Anish Dayal new CRPF chief (Page no. 11)
(Miscellaneous)
The Centre appointed Nina Singh as the Director General of CISF, making her the first woman to head this elite force. Apart from her, the Centre has also appointed ITBP chief Anish Dayal Singh as the Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Nina Singh has been appointed as the DG, CISF. Singh, a 1989-batch IPS officer of Rajasthan cadre, is currently working as Special DG, CISF. She has been appointed to the post till her superannuation on July 31, 2024.
Nina Singh was the first woman IPS officer allocated to the Rajasthan cadre where she served in many important assignments across the state.
She also worked as Joint Director in the CBI during 2013-18 where she supervised many high-profile cases having national and international ramifications.
Editorial
An AI for the people (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
2023 was perceived by both industry leadership and the populace as one where artificial intelligence had a significant impact on social and economic relations.
This was, in particular, due to the apparent success of large language models, a family of generative models, in solving complex tasks, and if the claims of organisations like OpenAI are to be believed, making progress towards artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Whether this perception is accurate is a debate for researchers — as of now, AGI is speculation. However, the intensity of how capital reacted to the sentiment around AI in 2023 itself bears comment.
The year started with Microsoft deciding to invest $10 billion in the OpenAI project, at the heels of the virality of its ChatGPT, which, by February, had become the fastest-growing application. Not to be outdone.
Ideas Page
Reimagine the counter strike (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
The saga of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir has largely been dominated by the Valley narrative. The twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region have always been a footnote to Kashmir’s turbulent history of Partition, militancy and militarisation.
However, these districts have refused to stay neglected. Periodic yet intriguing developments vis-a-vis the security situation speak of a different social and political dynamic at work in these border districts, peopled by a complex mosaic of religious, ethnic and linguistic communities — in contrast to the largely Muslim Valley.
Over the last couple of years, the region has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. In 2023 alone, Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts in the Jammu region reportedly witnessed the deaths of 55 individuals, including 20 security personnel and 28 terrorists.
The year commenced on an ominous note when seven civilians were killed at Dangri, Rajouri on January 1. In the early years of militancy in the 1990s, the districts of Rajouri and Poonch were essentially used to access the Valley, cutting across the Pir Panjal range by exploiting the terrain for concealed movement. Targeted militancy-related incidents in this belt date back to 1996-97.
By then, pro-independence elements and local militant leadership had been replaced by foreign tanzeems like Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat-Ul-Ansar and Lashkar-e-Toiba. Since then, this region has been a “fallback option” for the terror groups and their handlers in Pakistan whenever their machinations are scuttled in the Kashmir Valley.
Economy
Binance, eight other offshore crypto firms get notice over PMLA non – compliance (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU-IND) has issued show cause notices to nine offshore cryptocurrency and virtual digital assets service providers (VDA SPs) for not being compliant with the requisite provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and has asked the Union Information Technology ministry to block their web addresses, the Finance Ministry said. The ministry termed the notices as “compliance action”.
The nine VDA SPs include Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex. FIU-IND is the national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies and foreign FIUs. The agency is under the Finance Ministry.
Director FIU IND has written to Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the URLs of said entities that are operating illegally without complying with the provisions of the PML Act in India.