Daily Current Affairs

Cabinet gives nod to Data Protection Bill (GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Why in news?

• The Union Cabinet recently cleared the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill.
• The clearance paves the way for the Bill to be introduced in Parliament in the Monsoon Session, scheduled to begin on July 20.
• The Bill, once it becomes law, will play a crucial role in India’s trade negotiations with other nations, and especially regions like the European Union, whose General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) are among the world’s most exhaustive privacy laws.

 

What is the significance of a privacy law?

• The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, is a crucial pillar of the overarching framework of technology regulations the Centre is building, which also includes the Digital India Bill, the proposed successor to the Information Technology Act, 2000, the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, and a policy for non-personal data governance.
• In 2022 August, the government withdrew from Parliament an earlier version of the data protection Bill that had been almost four years in the making, after it had gone through multiple iterations and a review by a Joint Committee of Parliament, and faced pushback from a range of stakeholders including tech companies and privacy activists.
• The proposed law will apply to processing of digital personal data within India; and to data processing outside the country if it is done for offering goods or services, or for profiling individuals in India.
• It requires entities that collect personal data called data fiduciaries to maintain the accuracy of data, keep data secure, and delete data once their purpose has been met.
• The Bill is expected to allow “voluntary undertaking” meaning that entities violating its provisions can bring it up with the data protection board, which can decide to bar proceedings against the entity by accepting settlement fees.
• Repeat offences of the same nature could attract higher financial penalties.

 

What are the concerns around the draft Bill?

• The Bill is understood to have largely retained the contents of the original version that was proposed in November 2022.
• Wide-ranging exemptions for the central government and its agencies, which were among the most criticised provisions of the previous draft, are understood to have been retained unchanged.
•  The Bill is learnt to have prescribed that the central government can exempt “any instrumentality of the state” from adhering to the provisions on account of national security, relations with foreign governments, and maintenance of public order among other things.
• The control of the central government in appointing members of the data protection board is learnt to have been retained as well. The chief executive of the board will be appointed by the central government, which will also determine the terms and conditions of their service.
• There is also concern that the law could dilute the Right to Information (RTI) Act, as personal data of government functionaries is likely to be protected under it, making it difficult to be shared with an RTI applicant.

 

How does India’s proposal compare with other countries?

• An estimated 137 out of 194 countries have put in place legislation to secure the protection of data and privacy, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
• Africa and Asia show 61% (33 countries out of 54) and 57% (34 countries out of 60) adoption respectively. Only 48% of Least Developed Countries (22 out of 46) have data protection and privacy laws.
• EU model: The GDPR focuses on a comprehensive data protection law for processing of personal data. It has been criticised for being excessively stringent, and imposing many obligations on organisations processing data, but it is still the template for most of the legislation drafted around the world.
• US model: Privacy protection is largely defined as “liberty protection” focused on the protection of the individual’s personal space from the government. It is viewed as being somewhat narrow in focus, because it enables collection of personal information as long as the individual is informed of such collection and use.
• China model: New Chinese laws on data privacy and security issued over the last 12 months include the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), which came into effect in November 2021. It gives Chinese data principals new rights as it seeks to prevent the misuse of personal data.
• The Data Security Law (DSL), which came into force in September 2021, requires business data to be categorised by levels of importance, and puts new restrictions on cross-border transfers.

 

The risks of the Zaporizhzhia NPP

(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Why in news?

• Recently, a Lithuania-based NGO named the Bellona Foundation published a report analysing the risks associated with the hostilities around the Zaporizhzhia NPP based on the facility’s design, safety measures, and the local geography.
• Nuclear power plants (NPPs) are complex and sophisticated facilities with several layers of safety measures, but no NPP in the world is built to withstand war.
• It was taken over by Russian forces in May 2022 and has since had to operate in conditions that threaten safety.

What is the reactor design?

• The Zaporizhzhia NPP is located southwest of Zaporizhzhia city, along the Dnieper river. It has six VVER-1000 reactors for a total power generation capacity of 6 GW.
• The reactor complex consists of the reactor vessel, in which uranium-dioxide fuel rods are immersed in water and control rods are inserted at the top. The water is both coolant and moderator.
• A pressuriser holds the water at a high but constant pressure to prevent it from boiling. This is the primary cooling circuit. As the water heats up, the heat is moved to a secondary cooling circuit, where it converts a separate volume of water into steam. This steam is fed to turbines to generate electricity.
• In this design, the water in the primary circuit does not leave the reactor vessel at any time. In RBMK reactors like at Chernobyl, the coolant and the moderator are different (light water and nuclear graphite respectively) and the coolant, which is radioactive for having been exposed to the nuclear fuel, flows out of the reactor vessel.
• One reason why Chernobyl became a disaster was because when the reactor was breached, the superhot graphite caught fire when it came in contact with air.
• Unlike Chernobyl, the VVER-1000 reactor and its power-generation units at Zaporizhzhia are placed inside a large airtight chamber called a containment.

 

What is the risk at Zaporizhzhia?

• In the worst case scenario, the containment is completely damaged and a projectile strikes a reactor while it is generating power.
• The principal danger here is that the primary circuit water could depressurise as steam and escape into the air, along with radioactive material and other volatile substances.
• This mixture will contain the isotope iodine-131, which is easily dispersed by winds and accumulates in and damages the thyroid gland in humans. It has a half-life of around eight days and so, per the report, “would only pose a threat for several weeks”.
• A breach and depressurisation would also release caesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years and was responsible for contaminating much of Chernobyl’s surroundings after the accident.
• Due to design differences, what was released in sustained fashion at Chernobyl for around a week is likely to be released in a single, short burst at Zaporizhzhia. This could keep the fallout to within 100 km.

 

Shutting down the reactors:

• If the reactors are shut for a few months, the iodine-131 will almost completely decay, removing an important threat. If a reactor has been in cold-shutdown (a shutdown where the primary circuit is almost at atmospheric pressure), then the chances of an explosive leak also drop.
• Since September 10, 2022, the six reactors at Zaporizhzhia have been shut. In late 2022, two were placed in a state of semi-hot shutdown, meaning the primary circuit was held at 200 degrees Celsius with heat from the decaying nuclear fuel. This was required to provide heat at the facility and for the nearby town of Energodar.
• As of May 2023, all reactors but the sixth were in cold-shutdown.

 

What are the other concerns?

• The Bellona report discussed several possibilities based on combinations of conditions. One was the ‘Fukushima scenario’ when the NPP becomes disconnected from the external power grid.
• This is dangerous because, when nuclear reactions are not happening in the reactor, the nuclear fuel has to be cooled, which means the coolant pumps need to operate. If they don’t, the fuel could become hot enough to melt through the reactor’s bottom, where it will contaminate soil, air, and water.
• A final concern is the working conditions of the 3,000 or so people at the plant, most of whom have refused to sign new employment contracts with their new Russian employers, amid, among other things, uncertainties over the management, violations of protocol, and “suspicions of disloyalty”.

 

Iran’s induction in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)

Why in news?

• As Iran joins the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as its ninth member, leaders of the SCO at a virtual summit chaired by Indian Prime Minister stressed that the formation of a “more representative” and multipolar world order is in the global interest.

 

What is the SCO?

• The SCO was built on the ‘Shanghai Five’ grouping of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which had come together in the post-Soviet era in 1996, in order to work on regional security, reduction of border troops, and terrorism.
• In 2001, the Shanghai Five inducted Uzbekistan into the group and named it the SCO.
• The organisation has two permanent bodies; the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure in Tashkent.

 

What are the main goals of the SCO?

• The SCO describes its main goals as

1. strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states;
2. promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, economy, research and technology and culture, making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and
3. moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

• The latter part of the statement which calls to build a “new international political and economic order” did not sit well with the U.S. and Europe, and has led to the SCO being dubbed as “anti-NATO” for proposing military cooperation.
• This concern was further heightened when heavy sanctions were placed on Russia for its actions in Crimea and China came to its aid, signing a $400 billion gas pipeline agreement.

 

Has SCO dealt with bilateral issues?

• India and Pakistan joined the SCO as observers in 2005, and were admitted as full members in 2017. Since 2014, India and Pakistan have cut all ties, talks and trade with each other.
• However, both countries have consistently attended all meetings of the SCO’s three councils; the Heads of State, Heads of Government, Council of Foreign Ministers.
• Despite the fact that India accuses Pakistan of perpetrating cross-border terrorism at every other forum, at the SCO, Indian and Pakistani armed forces take part in military and anti-terrorism exercises together, as part of the SCO-Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.
• Not only Pakistan, the SCO has also facilitated talks between India and China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) border issue.

 

Why is Iran’s induction significant for India?

• While the SCO’s original goals focused more on stability and security, recent declarations have put the focus squarely on connectivity in the region.
• For India, that has built its connectivity strategy through Iran’s Chabahar port, where it operates a terminal and through the International North South Transport Corridor that goes through Iran and Central Asia to Russia, the entrance of Iran in the SCO is an important milestone.
• To begin with, Iran’s presence ensures support for India’s moves to circumvent land-based trade through Pakistan, which has blocked transit trade for India.
• The Central Asian states that are double land-locked will seek to build a multimodal trade route via Afghanistan to ports in both Pakistan and Iran. It also allows India to conduct trade with the region while staying out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
•  In addition, the induction of Iran, a historically close partner of India that has also suffered from terrorism emanating from Pakistan and Afghanistan will bolster India’s push for an end to terror safe havens.

 

Challenges & Way Forward:

• Where the government may find some unease in a more vocal support for Iran is in the fact that the SCO is increasingly seen as an “anti-West” forum, and Iran, like Russia is under severe sanctions.
• In addition, the U.S. has accused Iran of supplying weapons to Russia, and the expected induction of Belarus in 2023 will only strengthen this image of the SCO, even as India strengthens ties with the Quad, making the Indian balancing act more difficult.