Daily Current Affairs

Atal Innovation Mission launches ATL Sarthi (GS Paper 2, Governance)

Why in news?

• Recently, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) - NITI Aayog launched ATL Sarthi, a comprehensive self-monitoring framework to strengthen the ever-growing ecosystem of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL).

 

ATL:

• Atal Innovation Mission is establishing Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) in schools across India to foster curiosity, creativity, and imagination in young minds; and inculcate skills such as design thinking mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing etc. As of date, AIM has funded 10,000 schools to establish Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs).
• AIM is continuously strengthening this ecosystem by developing tools and framework to enhance the performance of ATLs and achieve the desired objectives. ATL Sarthi is one such initiative in this direction. 

 

ATL Sarthi:

• As the name suggests, Sarthi is a charioteer and ATL Sarthi will enable the ATLs to be efficient and effective. 
• The initiative has four pillars ensuring the performance enhancement of ATLs through

1. regular process improvements like  a self-reporting dashboard known as ‘MyATL Dashboard’ and 
2. Compliance SOPs for schools to ensure financial and non-financial compliances,
3. on-ground enablement of ATLs in collaboration with relevant local authorities through Cluster-based Approach and
4. providing ownership to schools to analyze their performance through Performance-Enablement (PE) Matrix.

• The ATL Cluster aims at providing a self-sustainable model for enablement and monitoring wherein the ATLs and local authorities work in tandem with each other on-ground to form clusters of 20-30 ATLs in a particular region.
• These ATLs can learn from each other through training, collaborations, events and best practices.
• As a pilot, AIM executed ATL Sarthi with different partners in regions like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat.

 

Way Forward:

• Atal Innovation Mission aims to foster millions of young innovators in India by setting up ATLs in schools.
• ATL Sarthi provides a Monitoring and Evaluation framework to enhance the performance of ATLs.

 

Why is WhatsApp threatening to leave U.K.?

(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Why in news?

• Recently, the WhatsApp’s head Will Cathcart said that WhatsApp would not comply with U.K.’s proposed Online Safety Bill (OSB) which will in effect outlaw end-to-end (E2E) encryption.
• He said that it was the first time a “liberal democracy” was attempting to block a “secure product”.

What is end-to-end encryption?

• E2E encryption ensures that a message can only be decrypted by the intended recipient using a secure decryption key that is unique to each sender-recipient pair and to each of their messages.
• Decryption, even by the messaging service provider, is impossible. Even if the platform’s servers are compromised, without the intended recipient’s decryption key, only a garbled string of characters will be available.
• Over the last few years, E2E encryption has been steadily gaining ground. It is offered by default on WhatsApp, Signal, Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime and is an option on Meta’s Messenger and Telegram.

 

What is the Online Safety Bill?

• The Online Safety Bill is a proposed British legislation that seeks to improve online safety by placing certain “duty of care” obligations on online platforms.
• Most of the criticism is directed against clause 110 of the OSB which empowers the British telecommunications regulator, the Office of Communications, to issue notices to most kinds of internet service providers, including private messaging apps and search engines, to identify and take down terrorism content that is communicated “publicly” and Child Sex Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) content that is communicated “publicly or privately”, and to prevent such content from being communicated in the first place.
• Although the OSB does not mandate removal of E2E encryption, it would de facto mean breaking it as messaging apps would have to scan all messages that are sent on their platform to flag and take down terrorist and CSEA content.
• Since the clause also requires the platforms to “prevent” terrorism and CSEA content from being communicated using the platforms, it would mean that WhatsApp would have to implement a client-side scanning mechanism to scan content on users’ devices before it is even encrypted.
• For this, they would need to rely on algorithms that are not very sophisticated and do not understand context.

 

What if the platforms don’t comply?

• If platforms do not comply, they may face penalties of up to £18 million or 10% of the platform’s global revenue of the preceding accounting year, whichever is higher.
• Currently, the Bill has been passed by the House of Commons and a House of Lords committee is examining the Bill. Once the committee’s report is ready, it will go back to House of Lords for a third reading.

 

Did India enact a similar law?

• Through the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the Indian government made it mandatory for messaging platforms with more than five million users in India to “enable the identification of the first originator” of a message, or what is commonly called traceability.
• This is not the same as asking for scanning and flagging of all encrypted content; it is about getting to the first person who sent a message that may have been forwarded multiple times.
• In India, WhatsApp did not threaten to leave the market. It instead, sued the Indian government over the traceability requirement.
• This is mainly because India, with 487.5 million WhatsApp users, is home to 22% of the platform’s 2.24 billion monthly active users. WhatsApp’s penetration rate in India is over 97% while in the U.K., it is at about 75%.  Moreover, the U.K., with 40.4 million users accounts for little less than 2% of global users.

 

Why do landfills catch fire during summers?

(GS Paper 3, Environment)

Why in news?

• The Kochi landfill site around Brahmapuram that caught fire Recently is a stark reminder that Indian cities need to be prepared for more such incidents as summer approaches.
• Preventing such fires require long-term measures, including thorough and sustained interventions from municipalities.

 

How do landfills catch fire?

• India’s municipalities have been collecting more than 95% of the waste generated in cities but the efficiency of waste-processing is 30-40% at best.
• Municipal solid waste consists of about 60% biodegradable material, 25% non-biodegradable material and 15% inert materials, like silt and stone. Municipalities are expected to process the wet and dry waste separately and to have the recovered by-products recycled.
• This openly disposed waste includes flammable material like low-quality plastics, which have a relatively higher calorific value of about 2,500-3,000 kcal/kg, and rags and clothes.
• In summer, the biodegradable fraction composts much faster, increasing the temperature of the heap to beyond 70-80°C. A higher temperature coupled with flammable materials is the perfect situation for a landfill to catch fire.

 

Is there a permanent solution?

• There are two possible permanent solutions to manage landfill fires. The first solution is to completely cap the material using soil, and close landfills in a scientific manner. This solution is unsuitable in the Indian context, as the land can’t be used again for other purposes. Closed landfills have specific standard operating procedures, including managing the methane emissions.
• The second solution is to clear the piles of waste through bioremediation;  excavate old waste and use automated sieving machines to segregate the flammable refuse-derived fuel (RDF) (plastics, rags, clothes, etc.) from biodegradable material.
•  The recovered RDF can be sent to cement kilns as fuel, while the bio-soil can be distributed to farmers to enrich soil. The inert fraction will have to be landfilled.
• However, implementing a bioremediation project usually takes up to two or three years, necessitating a short-term solution for summertime landfill fires.

 

What are some immediate measures?

• Landfill sites span 20-30 acres and have different kinds of waste. The first immediate action is to divide a site into blocks depending on the nature of the waste. At each site, blocks with fresh waste should be separated from blocks with flammable material.
• Blocks that have been capped using soil are less likely to catch fire, so portions like these should also be separated out. The different blocks should ideally be separated using a drain or soil bund and a layer of soil should cap each block. This reduces the chance of fires spreading across blocks within the same landfill.
• Next, the most vulnerable part of the landfill; the portion with lots of plastics and cloth should be capped with soil. The fresh-waste block shouldn’t be capped but enough moisture should be provided by sprinkling water and the material should be turned regularly for aeration, which helps cool the waste heap.
• Once a site has been divided into blocks, the landfill operator should classify incoming waste on arrival to the site, and dispose them in designated blocks rather than dumping mixed fractions.
• Already segregated non-recyclable and non-biodegradable waste should be sent to cement kilns instead of being allowed to accumulate. Dry grass material and dry trees from the site should also be cleared immediately.

 

Way Forward:

• While these measures can help reduce the fires’ damage, they’re far from ideal and not long-term solutions.
• The permanent and essential solution is to ensure cities have a systematic waste-processing system where wet and dry waste are processed separately and their byproducts treated accordingly.

 

Australia to buy U.S. nuclear submarines under AUKUS

(GS Paper 2, International Relation)

Why in news?

• Recently, the Australia has unveiled plans to buy up to five U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, then build a new model with U.S. and British technology under an ambitious plan to bulk up Western muscle across the Asia-Pacific in the face of a rising China.
• The announcement came at an event at a San Diego, California, naval base where U.S. President hosted Australian Prime Minister and British Prime Minister.

What is AUKUS?

• The defence deal called AUKUS was agreed upon by Australia, UK and the US in September 2021.
• The first aspect of the pact is equipping Australia with submarines and this part of the agreement is called Pillar One. The US and UK will share plans for their submarines that will help Australia build its own eventually.
• The AUKUS agreement is aimed at preserving a “free and open” Indo-Pacific.
• Before the pact, Australia planned to buy diesel-powered subs from France in a $60 billion deal in 2016.

 

What is the submarine deal?

• The three nations will create a new fleet of cutting-edge tech which include Rolls-Royce reactors made in the UK. Under the deal, members of the Royal Australian Navy will be trained to use the subs and will be embedded at submarine bases in the US and the UK from 2023.
• The country will receive at least three nuclear-powered submarines from the US in the early 2030s. These Virginia-class vessels will be second-hand and need the approval of the US Congress. Australia will have the option to purchase two more. These have an estimated value of $3 billion each.
• Compared with the Collins-class submarines due to be retired by Australia, the Virginia-class is almost twice as long and carries nearly three times more crew, with a capacity for 132 on board.
• The US vessels are also able to stay submerged almost indefinitely and launch powerful cruise missiles.
• From 2027, the US and the UK will base some vessels at Perth’s Ran Base.

 

What’s next?

• Australia will get up to eight new submarines called SSN-AUKUS. They will have British designs and will be powered by the American combat system. These attack crafts will be built in Britain and Australia.
• The UK is expected to get deliver the first home-built sub by the late 2030s. Australia will deliver new vessels to its navy by the early 2040s.
• These boats will be faster than Australia’s existing fleet. They will come with cruise missiles that have the capability of striking targets on land and at sea.
• With the deal, Australia will join a group of seven countries which have such ships: the US, Russia, China, the UK, France and India.

 

How has China reacted?

• China has long criticised the deal, calling it a “dangerous” provocation in the past. It has repeatedly accused Australia, the UK, and the US of adopting a “Cold War mentality” that risks a greater escalation in the region.
• After the AUKUS deal was announced, China’s mission to the UN said that it is a “blatant act that constitutes serious nuclear proliferation risks, undermines international non-proliferation system, fuels arms races, and hurts peace and stability in the region”.