Preliminary Examination: Present occasions of nationwide significance and Polity
Mains Examination: Normal Research-II, III: Authorities insurance policies and interventions, Structure of India-significant provisions and primary construction, Consciousness within the fields of IT and points regarding mental property rights.
What’s the continuing story: Amid complaints of violence and obscenity pertaining to content material on digital platforms, particularly within the backdrop of the current Ranveer Allahbadia controversy, the Central authorities is inspecting the necessity to create a brand new authorized framework to control such platforms.
Key Factors to Ponder:
• What does the Structure of India say concerning the freedom of expression?
• Learn concerning the Middleman Pointers and the Digital Media Ethics Code (IT Guidelines, 2021).
• What’s obscenity?
• What’s over-the-top (OTT)?
• How are OTTs regulated in India?
• What legal guidelines govern obscenity in on-line content material in India?
• Is YouTube regulated beneath the Digital Media Ethics Code outlined within the IT Guidelines?
Story continues under this advert
• How has the Indian judiciary’s view on what constitutes obscenity developed through the years?
Key Takeaways:
• In its communication to a parliamentary panel, the Union Data and Broadcasting Ministry has stated there’s a rising concern within the society that the constitutional proper of “freedom of expression is being misused to showcase obscene and violent content material on digital platforms”.
• It has advised the Standing Committee on Communications and Data Know-how — headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey — that whereas sure provisions exist beneath the present legal guidelines, there’s a rising demand for a stricter and efficient authorized framework to control such dangerous content material. “This ministry has taken be aware of those developments and is within the strategy of inspecting present statutory provisions and the necessity for a brand new authorized framework,” it stated.
• Lower than 10 days in the past, the committee had requested the I&B Ministry on February 13 concerning the amendments wanted within the present legal guidelines to clamp down controversial content material within the wake of the emergence of latest expertise and media platforms.
Story continues under this advert
• The ministry had simply three days in the past on February 19 requested social media channels and OTT platforms to comply with the Code of Ethics prescribed within the IT Guidelines 2021 and implement “entry management for A-rated content material” to stop youngsters from consuming inappropriate materials.
• It emphasised that the legislation requires OTT platforms to “not transmit any content material which is prohibited by legislation (and) undertake age-based classification of content material” and cited “the provisions of the Indecent Illustration of Ladies Act, 1986, Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, Safety of Youngsters from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and Data Know-how (IT) Act, 2000, whereby publication of obscene/pornographic content material is a punishable offence”.
• Below Half III of the Middleman Pointers and Digital Media Ethics Code (IT Guidelines, 2021), on-line streaming platforms are required to implement a three-level grievance redressal mechanism for violations of the Code of Ethics. This Code additionally prohibits platforms from transmitting illegal content material, mandates age-based classification, and restricts entry to ‘A’-rated content material for youngsters.
Do You Know:
• Whereas YouTube is ruled beneath the digital media and ethics code of the IT Guidelines, the provisions can solely apply to content material curated by the platform. For content material uploaded to a person’s channel, YouTube won’t be handled as a writer, however fairly as a social media middleman – since such content material falls beneath the purview of consumer generated content material – and cannot be held answerable for it so long as it adheres to sure authorities instructions, similar to blocking content material and different due diligence necessities.
Story continues under this advert
• The proper to freedom of speech and expression isn’t absolute. Article 19 of the Structure of India, which ensures the appropriate additionally offers for cheap restrictions on varied grounds, together with that of decency and morality. Which means free speech must be balanced in opposition to the up to date group requirements of morality in terms of penalising obscene acts or content material.
📍Legal guidelines Governing Obscenity in On-line Content material
• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS): Part 294 of the BNS punishes those that promote, import, export, promote, or revenue from obscene materials similar to books, work, and figures and likewise consists of the “show of any content material in digital kind”. It describes such materials as that which “is lascivious or appeals to the prurient curiosity” — materials which is overtly and excessively sexual — or which might “are inclined to deprave and corrupt individuals who’re probably…to learn, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it”.
• Part 67 of the Data Know-how (IT) Act, 2000: The legislation on obscenity has developed with the arrival of the Web and social media. Below Part 67 of the IT Act, anybody who publishes or transmits obscene materials in digital kind will be punished.
Different Necessary Articles Masking the identical matter:
📍Data Nugget: Ranveer Allahbadia controversy — ‘Obscenity’ legal guidelines, Hicklin Check and extra on your UPSC Examination?
UPSC Prelims Follow Query Masking related theme:
Story continues under this advert
(1) Which of the next novels was the topic of obscenity trials in lots of nations, together with India:
(a) The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
(b) Girl Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence
(c) The Image of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
(d) Emma by Jane Austen
(2) “Hicklin check” is said to:
(a) Bodily health of sports activities professionals
(b) Firing checks, sturdiness checks, accuracy checks, and extra for navy weapons
(c) Checks utilized whereas sentencing an accused in a legal case.
(d) Not one of the above
GOVT & POLITICS
Jaishankar says data from US regarding, govt wanting into it
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Present occasions of nationwide and worldwide significance
Story continues under this advert
Mains Examination: Normal Research-II: Bilateral, regional and international groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s pursuits.
What’s the continuing story: Amid a row over USAID funding for sure actions within the nation, Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Saturday stated the knowledge put out by the Trump administration is “regarding” and the federal government is wanting into it.
Key Factors to Ponder:
• Learn concerning the controversy surrounding USAID funding in India, and the way the Indian authorities responded.
• What’s USAID?
• What does USAID do?
• What’s the historical past of India-US relations?
• What’s the historical past of USAID?
• What are the areas of cooperation between India and the US?
• What function does USAID play in India?
Story continues under this advert
• What function does narrative-building and knowledge affect play in nationwide safety
• What are the important thing developments in India-US relations within the varied sectors?
Key Takeaways:
• Throughout an interplay at an occasion, he additionally stated USAID was allowed in India “in good religion, to do good religion actions”, and options are being made out of America that “there are actions that are in unhealthy religion”.
• Apart from, armed forces, civilian police guaranteeing legislation enforcement, safety can be about “how your thought processes are influenced, how narratives are set, how details are introduced to you, how your thoughts moulded with out you even realizing it,” he stated.
Do You Know:
Story continues under this advert
• USAID is the “lead worldwide humanitarian and improvement arm of the US authorities”, in line with the Congressional Analysis Service (CRS).
• The company offers help to different nations primarily by funding non-governmental organisations (NGOs), overseas governments, worldwide organisations, or different US companies, typically for particular applications to alleviate poverty, present training and healthcare, amongst different issues.
• The company managed greater than $43 billion in funds, and supplied help to round 130 nations in FY2023. The highest 10 recipients of USAID-managed funds in FY2023 had been: (in descending order of funding) Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Syria.
• The US has supplied improvement and humanitarian help to India since 1951, when President Harry Truman signed the India Emergency Meals Help Act, in line with an archived web page on the USAID web site. Nonetheless, its operations in India — as in the remainder of the world — have traditionally include strings and situations hooked up.
Different Necessary Articles Masking the identical matter:
📍UPSC Challenge at a Look | PM Modi’s US Go to: 4 Key Questions You Should Know for Prelims and Mains
📍Trump, Musk gun for USAID: All concerning the company, its function in India
Earlier yr UPSC Mains Query Masking related theme:
📍‘What introduces friction into the ties between India and the USA is that Washington remains to be unable to seek out for India a place in its international technique, which might fulfill India’s Nationwide shallowness and ambitions’. Clarify with appropriate examples. (UPSC CSE, GS2, 2019)
OPINION
In 1976, an ‘absent’ MP and a touch to avoid wasting his seat
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Present occasions of nationwide significance and Polity
Mains Examination: Normal Research-II: Structure of India —historic underpinnings, evolution, options, amendments, vital provisions and primary construction.
What’s the continuing story: Chakshu Roy writes-“Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Amritpal Singh is apprehensive of shedding his parliamentary seat. The Unbiased MP from Punjab can be accountable for Waris Punjab De, a pro-Khalistan group. He faces fees beneath the Nationwide Safety Act and has been in jail since 2023.”
Key Factors to Ponder:
• What’s Article 101(4) of the Indian Structure?
• What historic precedents exist for Members of Parliament (MPs) shedding their seats attributable to extended absence from Parliament?
• How does Parliament doc the attendance of its members?
• What’s the course of for MPs to use for depart from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and the way are these requests processed?
• How did the Authorities of India Act, 1935, affect the inclusion of the 60-day absence provision within the Indian Structure?
• Why does an MP’s seat not routinely develop into vacant after 60 days of absence? What process should the Home comply with to declare it vacant?
Key Takeaways:
• “Not too long ago, Amritpal approached the Punjab and Haryana Excessive Court docket, stating that he would lose his seat beneath Article 101(4) of the Structure if he couldn’t attend the Finances Session.”
• “The Article specifies that if an MP is absent from Parliament (with out permission) for 60 days, their seat will be declared vacant. Amritpal has attended Parliament solely as soon as — to take oath — for the reason that starting of the 18th Lok Sabha in 2024. The court docket has now requested the federal government whether or not the Lok Sabha has constituted a committee that sanctions the depart utility of MPs.”
• “The 60-day absence provision was a part of the Authorities of India Act, 1935. It then discovered its means into the Structure. In 1950, the provisional Parliament declared three seats as vacant beneath this provision. Then, in 1956, the primary Lok Sabha took motion in opposition to an Odisha MP, who had stayed away from the Home attributable to home troubles and in poor health well being. The supply got here to nationwide consideration in 1976. This time, a first-time Rajya Sabha MP was on the point of shedding his seat beneath Article 101(4). His identify, Subramanian Swamy.
• “Allow us to see how Parliament paperwork the presence of our public representatives. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha preserve a document of an MP’s participation in Home proceedings. So, if a member speaks within the Home or casts a vote, it exhibits they had been current. MPs can even mark their presence by signing an attendance register maintained by each Homes of Parliament. The Secretariat makes use of these registers to calculate the allowances to MPs.”
• “If MPs can not attend Parliament, they’ll request depart from the 2 Homes. Within the Lok Sabha, the depart functions go to a committee, whereas the Rajya Sabha decides these requests on the Home flooring.”
• “Go away requests are hardly ever denied. And being in jail whereas proceedings are ongoing is grounds for asking for depart. For instance, over the last Lok Sabha (2019-24), Atul Rai, the Bahujan Samaj Get together (BSP) MP from Uttar Pradesh, was in jail for many of his five-year time period and the committee accepted his depart.”
Do You Know:
• Even when an MP is absent for greater than 60 days, the Home has to “declare” the seat vacant, that means the matter must be put to vote.
Different Necessary Articles Masking the identical matter:
📍May Amritpal Singh lose his MP seat beneath Article 101(4)? Right here is why he needn’t fear
UPSC Prelims Follow Query Masking related theme:
(3) Contemplate the next statements concerning Article 101(4) of the Indian Structure:
1. A Member of Parliament (MP) can lose their seat if they’re absent from all conferences of the Home for 60 days with out permission.
2. The 60-day interval doesn’t embrace days when the Home is prorogued or adjourned for greater than 4 consecutive days.
Which of the statements given above is/are appropriate?
(a) 1 solely
(b) 2 solely
(c) Each 1 and a pair of
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
ECONOMY
How RBI’s $10-bn swap can enhance liquidity
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Present occasions of nationwide significance and Financial Growth
Mains Examination: Normal Research-III: Indian Financial system and points regarding planning, mobilisation, of sources, development, improvement.
What’s the continuing story: After conducting a $5 billion dollar-rupee swap lower than a month in the past, the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) on Friday (February 21) determined to inject rupee liquidity for longer length by one other $10 billion dollar-rupee buy-sell swap association.
Key Factors to Ponder:
• What’s a dollar-rupee swap?
• How does a swap work?
• What’s open market operation (OMO)?
• What’s the liquidity of the banking system?
• What’s the liquidity deficit of banks in India?
• How liquidity is managed by RBI?
• What measures has the RBI taken to make sure liquidity within the economic system?
• How does the swap mechanism assist stabilize the worth of the Indian rupee in periods of overseas fund outflows?
• How does the RBI’s intervention within the foreign exchange market impression the liquidity of the rupee within the banking system?
Key Takeaways:
• The central financial institution’s initiative is designed to supply a sturdy answer to the system’s liquidity necessities, whereas additionally stabilising the worth of the rupee and bolstering the nation’s overseas change kitty.
• The swap mechanism might help stabilize the foreign money by offering rapid liquidity assist, thereby mitigating the strain on the rupee in periods of overseas fund outflows. This momentary reduction can bolster market confidence and forestall extreme volatility within the change price.
• It should additionally beef up the greenback reserves of the RBI at a time when it’s intervening within the foreign exchange market to stop a slide within the rupee. The central financial institution can be conducting the $10 billion swap public sale for a tenor of three years subsequent week.
• The Indian banking system encountered its worst liquidity crunch in additional than a decade in January 2025. The liquidity deficit peaked at Rs 3.15 lakh crore on January 23, its lowest stage in practically 15 years.
• The RBI has been promoting {dollars} to stabilise the rupee, thereby sucking out an equal quantity in rupee from the system.
• The swap is within the nature of a easy buy-sell overseas change swap from the Reserve Financial institution facet. A financial institution will promote US {dollars} to the Reserve Financial institution and concurrently agrees to purchase the identical quantity of US {dollars} on the finish of the swap interval.
• The RBI had infused over Rs 3.6 lakh crore of sturdy liquidity into the banking system within the final 5 weeks by debt purchases, foreign exchange swaps and longer-duration repos.
Do You Know:
• The RBI makes use of Open market operations (OMOs) as a way to alter the rupee liquidity situations available in the market on a sturdy foundation. When the Reserve Financial institution feels that there’s extra liquidity available in the market, it resorts to the sale of presidency securities, thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity. Equally, when the liquidity situations are tight, the central financial institution buys securities from the market, thereby releasing liquidity into the market. It’s used as a software to rein in inflation and cash provide within the system.
Different Necessary Articles Masking the identical matter:
📍RBI publicizes $5-bn foreign exchange swap, OMOs and VRR to inject liquidity
Earlier yr UPSC Prelims Query Masking related theme:
(4) If the RBI decides to undertake an expansionist financial coverage, which of the next wouldn’t it not do? (UPSC CSE 2020)
1. Lower and optimize the Statutory Liquidity Ratio
2. Improve the Marginal Standing Facility Fee
3. Lower the Financial institution Fee and Repo Fee
Choose the right reply utilizing the code given under:
(a) 1 and a pair of solely
(b) 2 solely
(c) 1 and three solely
(d) 1, 2 and three
India shaping how AI is ruled: FM
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Present occasions of nationwide and worldwide significance.
Mains Examination: Normal Research III: Consciousness within the fields of IT, House, Computer systems, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and points regarding mental property rights.
What’s the continuing story: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday stated India was not simply main within the adoption of synthetic intelligence but in addition shaping how Al is ruled.
Key Factors to Ponder:
• What’s synthetic intelligence (AI)?
• What are the areas of AI utility?
• Is there any authorized framework for AI regulation globally and nationally?
• What are the advantages of AI?
• What are the moral points associated to AI?
• What are the initiatives taken by India to combine AI?
• What are the challenges associated to AI?
What are the necessary bilateral cooperation signed by India to advertise AI?
• What are the important thing highlights of Paris AI Summit?
• Learn concerning the India synthetic intelligence (AI) Mission?
Key Takeaways:
• Talking on the sixth convocation of the Indian Institute of Data Know-how- Kottayam (IIIT-Kottayam), Sitharaman stated that India was not simply prepared for Al, however the demand for Al-driven options was additionally excessive within the nation.
• She stated this was evident from the truth that the nation recorded 3 billion Al-related app downloads in 2024, whereas the US and China had just one.5 billion and 1.3 billion downloads, respectively.
• The Finance Minister additionally stated that India being made the co-chair on the current Al Motion Summit in Paris was a recognition of the nation’s international place within the sector.
Do You Know:
• Synthetic Intelligence (AI) is the flexibility of machines, particularly computer systems, to carry out duties that usually require human intelligence. These duties embrace issues like understanding language, recognising patterns, fixing issues, and making selections.
• Basically, AI allows machines to assume and be taught from expertise, similar to people do, however typically at a a lot sooner tempo with entry to huge quantities of knowledge.
• AI will be categorized into two sorts: Synthetic Slender Intelligence (ANI) often known as weak AI and Synthetic Normal Intelligence (AGI) additionally known as robust AI.
• ANI is designed for particular duties and excels inside a slender area. Examples embrace digital assistants like Siri, advice methods on platforms like Netflix, and picture recognition software program. ANI methods are extremely specialised and can’t switch their experience to unrelated duties.
• In distinction, AGI goals to copy human cognitive talents, enabling it to carry out any mental job a human can do. AGI would possess basic reasoning expertise, perceive context, and adapt to new conditions throughout varied domains. It could be able to autonomous studying and problem-solving with out requiring task-specific programming.
• Machine Studying (ML) and Deep Studying (DL) are subsets of AI however differ in complexity and capabilities. ML entails coaching algorithms to be taught from information and make predictions and sometimes requires guide function extraction.
• DL, a subset of ML, makes use of neural networks with many layers (therefore “deep”) to routinely be taught options from giant datasets. Whereas ML works effectively with smaller datasets, DL requires huge quantities of knowledge and computational energy.
Different Necessary Articles Masking the identical matter:
📍What’s Synthetic Intelligence, how is it revolutionising healthcare
Earlier yr UPSC Prelims Query Masking related theme:
(5) With the current state of improvement, Synthetic Intelligence can successfully do which of the next? (UPSC CSE 2020)
1. Convey down electrical energy consumption in industrial models
2. Create significant brief tales and songs
3. Illness prognosis
4. Textual content-to-Speech Conversion
5. Wi-fi transmission {of electrical} power
Choose the right reply utilizing the code given under:
(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 solely
(b) 1, 3 and 4 solely
(c) 2, 4 and 5 solely
(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Earlier yr UPSC Mains Query Masking related theme:
Introduce the idea of Synthetic Intelligence (AI). How does Al assist medical prognosis? Do you understand any menace to privateness of the person in using Al in healthcare? (UPSC CSE 2023)
Trump orders commerce chief to revive tariff retaliation in opposition to digital taxes
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Present occasions of nationwide and worldwide significance.
Principal Examination: Normal Research II: Impact of insurance policies and politics of developed and growing nations on India’s pursuits.
What’s the continuing story: President Donald Trump on Friday ordered his commerce chief to revive investigations geared toward imposing tariffs on imports from nations that levy digital service taxes on U.S. expertise corporations.
Key Factors to Ponder:
• What are digital service taxes (DSTs)?
• Why have nations imposed digital service taxes?
• What are the digital providers taxes in India?
• How do digital service taxes impression worldwide commerce relations?
• What are tariffs and the way do tariffs work?
• What are retaliatory tariffs?
• How does India’s digital service tax impression U.S. expertise corporations, and what has been the U.S. response?
Key Takeaways:
• The memo directs the U.S. Commerce Consultant’s workplace to resume digital service taxes investigations that had been initiated throughout Trump’s first time period, and examine any extra nations that use a digital tax “to discriminate in opposition to U.S. corporations,” in line with a White Home truth sheet.
• The digital service taxes geared toward dominant U.S. tech giants together with Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O),Meta’s Fb (META.O), Apple (AAPL.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O), have been a longstanding commerce irritant for a number of U.S. administrations.
• Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Austria and Canada have levied the taxes on gross sales income by these and different digital providers suppliers inside their borders.
• Throughout Trump’s first time period, USTR launched Part 301 unfair commerce practices in opposition to a number of of those nations, discovering they discriminated in opposition to U.S. corporations, paving the way in which for retaliatory tariffs on sure imports.
From “Reciprocal tariffs ‘quickly for India, China: US President”
• US President Donald Trump has stated that his administration will “quickly” impose reciprocal tariffs on nations similar to India and China, reiterating what he had stated throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s current go to to the US capital.
Do You Know:
• Tariffs are taxes or duties imposed by a authorities on imported items and providers. Their goal is to make overseas merchandise dearer in comparison with domestically produced items, thereby encouraging shoppers to want native merchandise. Tariffs additionally act as a protecting measure for home industries in opposition to overseas competitors. Moreover, they function a income for the federal government.
Different Necessary Articles Masking the identical matter:
📍UPSC Challenge at a Look | Tariff struggle: 4 Key Questions You Should Know for Prelims and Mains
UPSC Prelims Follow Query Masking related theme:
(6) Contemplate the next statements:
1. Tariffs are taxes or duties imposed by a authorities on imported items and providers.
2. Goal of tariffs is to make overseas merchandise dearer in comparison with domestically produced items
Which of the statements given above is/are appropriate?
(a) 1 solely
(b) 2 solely
(c) Each 1 and a pair of
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
🚨 Click on Right here to learn the Union Finances Particular problem of the UPSC Necessities journal for February 2025. Share your views and options within the remark field or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨
Subscribe to our UPSC e-newsletter. Keep up to date with the newest UPSC articles by becoming a member of our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and comply with us on Instagram and X.
