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As the country heads to Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the Centre is looking to invoke a controversial law that would require WhatsApp to share details about the first originator of a message on account of rising artificial intelligence (AI)-led misinformation on the messaging platform.
The basis for this are multiple deepfake videos of politicians circulating on WhatsApp, and the government is understood to be in the process of sending an order to the messaging company under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, seeking the identity of the people who first shared the videos on the platform.
A deepfake is a video of a person in which the face or body has been digitally altered so that he or she appears to be someone else, typically used to spread false information.
It’s not about partisanship. The videos in question depicted deepfakes of politicians from different political parties. Such fake videos of politicians from across the political aisle have been brought to our notice, which we believe can cause harm to electoral integrity in India.
So we are planning to send a first originator notice to WhatsApp,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity.
Editorial
Don’t count they ay (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
The publication of the caste survey data by the Bihar government has, for the first time in nearly a century, furnished us with a reliable snapshot of the caste makeup of our society.
Even as the implications of this move remain unclear, speculation is rife about the political fallout of the numbers.
Some supporters of the move predict that the information has the potential for causing a political earthquake. Critics have, in the meanwhile, raised an alarm. The BJP’s fear is quite understandable:
It is afraid that the numbers, if they become public knowledge, might rip apart the winning caste coalition that it has so carefully stitched together.
More puzzling, however, is the fear that seems to have gripped a section of the liberal commentariat. Don’t count, they say. For, social justice is a mirage that will lead our politics astray.
Ideas Page
Keep water at the Centre (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
October 16 is observed as World Food Day to mark the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 1945.
Its main purpose was to ensure food and nutrition security around the world in the aftermath of World War II. How far the world has moved to achieve this goal is an open question.
While there is ample food being produced on this planet that can easily feed eight billion people, its access is quite skewed across nations.
This year’s theme for the World Food Day is “Water is Life. Water is Food”. In this context, it would be good to review how far India has progressed in achieving food security, and how it is using its water resources in agriculture.
First on the food security front. Having been through a journey of “ship to mouth” in mid 1960s, India has come a long way.
Only in the last three years, 2020-21 to 2022-23, India exported 85 million tonnes (MT) of cereals, mainly rice, wheat and corn.
This it did even after giving free food (rice or wheat) to more than 800 million people under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana.
This is a stupendous achievement. India has also made major strides in milk production which has shot up from 17 MT in 1951 to 222 MT in 2022-23.
World
Putin to visit Beijing meet Xi to deepen no limits partnership (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China this week in a bid to deepen a partnership forged between the United States' two biggest strategic competitors.
Putin will attend the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17-18, his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine.
China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.
The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat while US President Joe Biden argues that this century will be defined by an existential contest with between democracies and autocracies.
"Over the past decade, Xi has built with Putin's Russia the most consequential undeclared alliance in the world," Graham Allison, professor at Harvard University and a former assistant secretary of defence under Bill Clinton.
Explained
How Jews first migrated to Palestine and how Israel was born (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
In the latest chapter of bloodshed in the Israel-Palestine dispute, the Israeli military has ordered thousands of civilians to leave Gaza City as it prepares for a possible ground offensive.
While the modern contours of the Israel-Palestine conflict are well-known — Palestinians saying Israel was forcibly established on their homeland, Israel claiming it has every right to exist on its Biblical homeland — how did the Jewish migration to ‘Israel’ first begin?
According to the Hebrew Bible, ‘Israel’ is the name God gave to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, who is considered the patriarch of all three ‘Abrahamic’ religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The descendants of Abraham settled in Canaan, which is roughly the territory of modern Israel.
What the GI tag can mean for the cashew industry in Goa (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Last week, Goan cashew (kernel) got the geographical indication (GI) tag. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant hailed the recognition as a great opportunity for the cashew industry in the state and “a milestone towards Swayampurna Goa mission”.
A GI tag is conferred upon products originating from a specific geographical region, signifying unique characteristics and qualities.
Essentially, it serves as a trademark in the international market. It is given by the Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai.
Cashew manufacturers and processors in Goa said they hoped the GI tag would help consumers differentiate between authentic Goan cashews and cashews sourced from outside the state, which are often marketed as ‘Goan cashews’.
The application for the GI tag for the Goan cashew — derived from the Portuguese name ‘caju’ or ‘kaju’ in Konkani — was filed by the Goa Cashew Manufacturers’ Association (GCMA), with the Department of Science, Technology and Waste Management, Government of Goa, acting as facilitator.