UPSC;PRELIMS2025;MAINS2025;CURRENT AFFAIRES EXPLAINED;WINUPSC

 AI SURVEILLANCE 

Q:- explores the legal frameworks, gaps, and concerns surrounding AI surveillance in India and how they intersect with constitutional rights, particularly the right to privacy. 

• In 2019, the Indian government made headlines by announcing its intention to create the world’s largest facial recognition system for policing. 
• Over the next five years, this ambition has materialised with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered surveillance systems being deployed across railway stations and the Delhi Police preparing to use AI for crime patrols. 
• The latest plans include launching 50 AI-powered satellites, further intensifying India’s surveillance infrastructure. 
•  While technological integration in law enforcement is commendable, it raises substantial legal and constitutional concerns. 
• The use of AI for surveillance has global parallels, often resulting in “dragnet surveillance”, a term that refers to indiscriminate data collection beyond just suspects or criminals. 
• As observed with Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the United States, even well-intended surveillance laws can result in overreach, infringing on citizens’ rights. 
• The Telangana Police data breach earlier this year revealed deep-rooted concerns about the data collection practices of Indian law enforcement agencies.
•  According to reports, Hyderabad police had access to databases from social welfare schemes, including “Samagra Vedika”, raising questions about the scope of data being collected and the lack of transparency regarding its use.
•  Lack of proportional safeguards While data-driven governance offers solutions for public welfare and crime prevention, these practices must be measured against the individual’s right to privacy, as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. 
• The Supreme Court of India, in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017), recognised privacy as a fundamental right, extending its scope to “informational privacy”. 
•  The judgment emphasised that the era of “ubiquitous dataveillance” brings challenges that must be addressed through robust legal frameworks. 
• However, the extent of surveillance infrastructure in India currently lacks proportional safeguards, leading to legitimate concerns about the implications of AI-driven data collection.

•  The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), passed in 2023, 

• it was meant to provide a framework for managing consent and ensuring accountability for data privacy in India.

CRITICISM 

•  the law has been heavily criticised for broad exemptions that grant the government unchecked power to process personal data.
•  For instance, Section 7(g) of the DPDPA waives the need for consent when processing data for medical treatment during an epidemic. 
• Section 7(i) further exempts the government from consent requirements for processing data related to employment, a particularly concerning clause given that the government is India’s largest employer. 
• These exemptions raise red flags about the potential for misuse, especially when applied to AI-powered surveillance technologies that operate on vast quantities of personal data. 
•  Moreover, the DPDPA introduces obligations for citizens that could further exacerbate privacy concerns. 
• Section 15(c) mandates that citizens not to suppress any material information when submitting personal data. 
• This provision, while intended to ensure data accuracy, could lead to punitive measures for something as simple as an outdated address or technical error in data collection systems.
•  the DPDPA places heightened scrutiny on individual data while offering the government broad leeway in its use and collection.
• Given the profound implications of AI technologies in processing sensitive personal information, the legal framework appears unbalanced, skewed in favour of state surveillance over individual rights. 
•  The approach in the West India is not alone in grappling with AI and its impact on civil liberties. 

CASE STUDIES/ EXAMPLES

• The European Union (EU) has enacted regulations that could serve as a useful guide for India.
•  The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act takes a risk-based approach to AI activities, categorising them into unacceptable, high, transparency, and minimal risk levels. 
•  Unacceptable risk activities, such as real-time remote biometric identification for law enforcement, are prohibited under EU law unless exceptions apply, such as searching for victims of serious crimes or responding to imminent threats. 
• In stark contrast, India has begun deploying AI-powered facial recognition technology and CCTV surveillance in public spaces with little to no legislative debate or risk assessment. 
• For example, Delhi and Hyderabad have integrated AI into policing without any publicly available guidelines on how data is collected, processed, or stored, or how potential abuses of the technology will be prevented. 
•  As of now, AI remains largely unregulated in India. In 2022, the government promised that AI technologies would be regulated under the upcoming Digital India Act, but draft legislation has yet to materialise. 
• This regulatory void leaves citizens vulnerable to the risks associated with AI-powered surveillance, including the infringement of privacy, discrimination, and data breaches.
•  Countries such as the United States and members of the European Union have already begun to legislate on the use of AI in public systems, with clear categorisations and restrictions for technologies that could pose a significant threat to civil liberties.
•  The absence of a similar legal framework in India is troubling, especially given the government’s ambitious plans to expand surveillance capabilities.
•  At its core, the debate over AI surveillance in India touches on fundamental constitutional questions. 
• The right to privacy, as enshrined in Article 21, and the principle of proportionality, as outlined in the Puttaswamy judgment, demand that any intrusion into personal data be backed by law, pursue legitimate aims, and be proportionate to the goal pursued.
•  However, the existing surveillance framework, bolstered by AI technologies, appears to stretch these principles to their limits. 
•  Address the impact on civil liberties It is not the use of AI in governance itself that is problematic, but rather its unchecked application without sufficient safeguards. 
• A comprehensive regulatory framework that addresses AI’s implications for civil liberties is urgently needed. 
•  It would help protect public interest in consonance with the ‘Right to Privacy’ if such a framework includes provisions for transparent data collection practices, where it is publicly disclosed, what data is being collected, for what purpose, and how long it will be stored.
•  Furthermore, the framework must ensure consent gathering mechanisms have narrow and specific exemptions for processing data with independent and effective judicial oversight. 
• This will not only ensure transparency in consent gathering but also safeguard the constitutionality of such applications of AI-based data processing.
•  In this context, India could benefit from adopting a risk-based regulatory approach, such as the EU’s, which categorises AI activities based on the risks they pose to citizens’ rights. 
•  India is at a crucial juncture in deploying AI-powered surveillance. 
• While integrating advanced technologies in law enforcement and governance offers immense potential, it must be balanced against citizens’ constitutional rights. 
•  Policy decisions that embed privacy measures into infrastructure before deployment, with inherent safeguards in surveillance protocols, are vital. 
• Consent mechanisms, transparency reports, and judicial oversight at relevant stages of data collection and management can avoid costly retrofits and retraining. 
•  Though the DPDP Act addresses some issues, criticisms persist, and the long-awaited DPDP Rules remain unnotified. 

CONCLUSION

• To mitigate risks from AI-driven surveillance, regulating “high-risk activities” through restrictions on digital personal data processing and transparent auditor oversight of data sharing is crucial. A proactive regulatory approach will ensure AI serves public interest without compromising civil liberties.

NEP 2020; GS-2; EDUCATION

•  Indian students in Higher Education (HE) are spending considerably more time in the classroom than their European Union (EU) and North American counterparts. 
• Yet, they remain at risk of being relatively undereducated. There are primarily two reasons: 

1.   higher proportion of teaching time in course credits and 
2.  higher number of courses a semester under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. 

•  A contrast and the academic impact An average student in a university in the EU or North America takes approximately four courses asemester with a maximum of three hours of lectures a course a week. 
• This brings the total classroom time to a maximum of 12 hours a week. On the other hand, Indian students enrolled in the new four-year undergraduate programmes in Indian universities must take five courses a semester with four hours of lectures a course a week. 
• This amounts to 20 hours of classroom time a week. 
• These extra eight hours in the classroom do not leave much time for essential academic activities outside the classroom such as self-study, reading, or working on assignments, most likely leading to exhaustion and reduced learning.
•  A casualty of this increased classroom time is the number of assessments that are actually feasible in a course. 
• In the earlier version of the choice-based credit system in the three-year undergraduate programme, where students took only four courses a semester, there was relatively more scope for continuous assessment. 
• Now, with increased classroom time, students find it difficult to work on anything more than two assessments a course. 
• This could impact the diversity of assessments, privileging multiple choice questions-based assessments that are easily graded via phone apps over assessments such as a term paper or a reflective essay that requires more time and effort from students. 
•  Thus, increased classroom time risks incentivising rote learning and perpetuating the school dynamics where teachers are owners of knowledge and students are passive recipients.
•  At least at the university level, students need to be pushed to own their learning. This is possible only if they are allowed time to reflect, plan, and execute their learning, explore learning outside the classroom individually and with peers scaffolded by assignments such as reflective essays, group projects, and cross-disciplinary problem solving. 
•  The subject of continuous assessment Addressing this reduction in the number of possible assessments is important because NEP 2020 lays emphasis on continuous assessment.
•  In this system, the final grade can be aggregated from three or four assessment components spread over the semester. 
• Such a system provides an opportunity to design a mix of low and high stakes assessments, incentivising continuous effort and learning, rather than cramming up before one or two examinations.
•  Continuous assessment allows considerable flexibility for faculty to tailor assessment frequency and type to meet the learning outcomes of their courses. 
• It is also a way to receive continuous feedback for faculty to adjust teaching strategy and for the students to adjust self-study strategies. 
•  The increased classroom time impacts the quality of teaching as well. 
• The extra eight-hour a week in the classroom for Indian teachers eats into the time available for research, course revisions, development of new courses, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. 
• This negatively affects the quality and currentness of teaching. 
•  The classroom time of two to three hours a course a week in the EU and North American universities, with a total teaching load of two to three courses a semester brings the average weekly classroom teaching load of a typical university teacher in these countries to nine hours.
•  In contrast to this, an average Indian faculty is expected to teach 14-16 hours a week, with time spent in the classroom varying from eight-16 hours depending on how flexible the institutional administration is in interpreting University Grants Commission guidelines. 
•  The centres of learning Teaching a course as per the vision of the NEP 2020 includes designing the course, selection of reading materials, development and administration of assessments, as well as grading. 
•  This is in complete contrast to the earlier model where teachers were responsible mostly for classroom lectures with assessment and grading taken care of centrally by the affliating university. 
•  The elite central universities, Indian Institutes of Technology, and the Indian Institutes of Management could be an exception to this with possibly fewer than eight hours a week in classroom teaching a faculty along with substantially higher resources. 
• But it is important to note that the bulk of teaching and learning in India happens in public universities and colleges, and not in these elite institutions. 
•  Thus, to realise the vision of the NEP 2020 fully, a serious reconsideration of the number of courses and classroom time a course in the new four-year undergraduate programmes across India is necessary.
•  Doing so will improve the teaching and learning outcomes for Indian students putting them on a par with their global counterparts. 
• It will also get students out of the habit of rote learning, improve their self-learning skills, and ensure their readiness for further higher-level educational pursuits.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE 

The ongoing national conversation on what India needs to do for universal health coverage (UHC) often misses the complexity of multiple health systems and the unique challenges they bring. SUBSTANTIATE

• Almost every health system type that is seen globally is present in different parts of India. Sometimes, more than one type can be seen within the same State. Government expenditure (per capita) on healthcare, for example, varies significantly from State to State. Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu spend ₹3,829, ₹2,590, and ₹2,039, respectively, while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar spend only ₹951 and ₹701, respectively (National Health Accounts — Estimates for India 2019-20). 
•  West Bengal, a predominantly rural State, has a low fertility rate at 1.64, but it also has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates (16%). 
• This is very different from other States with low fertility, such as Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, where teenage pregnancy rates are 2.4% and 3.4%, respectively (National Family Health Survey-5, 2019-2021). 
• A UHC plan for States must be developed considering these very different realities. 
•  Not the solution Government health expenditure in West Bengal, which was ₹1,346 per capita in 2019-20, is only about 61% of the estimated ₹2,205 (research-based and infltion-adjusted) required to offer UHC. 
• This number compares with a similarly populated State such as Madhya Pradesh where government health expenditure is ₹1,249 per capita. 
•  Growing government health expenditure is good but may not solve the problem. 
• West Bengal’s government health expenditure has been growing at 11% per annum over the last few years and, at this rate, could grow to fully meet the funds estimated to be required for UHC by 2030. 
•  However, the State’s out-of-pocket expenditure was high at 67% in 2019-20 and had only reduced by 2-3% from the previous years (National Health Accounts — Estimates for India 2019-20). 
• The story is no different in Andhra Pradesh, which saw a 3% increase in per capita government health expenditure in 2019-20 from the previous years, but had a high out-of-pocket expenditure of 64% (National Health Accounts — Estimates for India 2019-20).
•  Deeper challenges Thus, increasing government health expenditure does not appear to be working to contain a key issue relating to the health burden on citizens. 
• This suggests that there are deeper design challenges with the health system. 
•  Without addressing these, increased government expenditure on health may do little to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure rates. The implications of this are significant. 
• Out-of-pocket expenditure already accounts for a majority of health spending in most of the States. 
• A paper published recently (Sangar et al. 2018) noted that out-of-pocket expenditure accounted for more than 50% of health spending not just in poor States such as Jharkhand, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, but also in comparatively prosperous States such as Kerala and Punjab, which have strong healthcare systems. 
•  In the case of West Bengal, high C-section rates even within the public sector strongly indicate that there is an adequate supply of public sector hospitals at which free care can be offered. 
• This negates the need and relevance of the State’s Swasthya Sathi scheme, which is intended to allow patients to seek care in private hospitals using the government’s limited tax resources. 
• It is designed to compensate for a defeciency in the supply of government hospitals.
•  On the other hand, that there is a significant share of adults with high blood sugar rates across West Bengal, relative to the rest of the country; and also relatively low rates of hypertension in the State suggests high rates of genetically inherited insulin insuffciency, which needs to be addressed with urgency in primary care settings. 
•  Similar trends are observed in Bihar and Gujarat, which also have high blood sugar levels and relatively lower hypertension rates, in contrast to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, where both conditions are prevalent. This necessitates tailored health system strategies and region-specific public health messaging to address the varying trends in non-communicable diseases across different areas. 
•  Data also show that while there is an income gradient, even the very poor in West Bengal have high blood sugar rates. 
• It is clear from the high blood sugar rates that the current, largely out-of-pocket expenditure-driven health system design cannot address this challenge and that a much more proactive approach needs to be taken at the primary care level. 
• However, with a 58% shortfall in primary health centres and health and wellness centres, the primary healthcare system in the State faces challenges in meeting the healthcare needs of its population; this needs to be addressed urgently. 
•  A mosaic of challenges The data here illustrate how healthcare is an interconnected system that presents a complex mosaic of challenges and opportunities. 
• These cannot be addressed by blanket solutions that are unmindful of the uniqueness of the local area health profile, and its deeper relations to history, culture, and ways of working. 
• Thus, leverage points vary and blunt instruments or even throwing resources can have little impact and, in some cases, make the situation worse. 
• A holistic approach is essential, integrating public health initiatives, regional policy adaptations, and climate resilience, to build a robust and equitable healthcare system

CHINA: WORLD'S LARGEST DEBT COLLECTOR

• Over 25% of the world’s bi lateral external debt was owed to China by the end of 2023, making the country the leading debt collector. 
• Two decades ago, the country rarely lent money; Japan lent the highest amount, followed by Germany, France, the United States and the United Kingdom. 
•  Further, over the last two de cades, when China’s external lending increased massively, the amount of bilateral external debt owed by countries surged exponentially too. 
• In other words, China is majorly responsible for the rapid rise in external debt in many countries in the last 20 years.
•  Bilateral external debt is a country’s debt to foreign governments.
•  In this analysis, only bilateral debt is considered and not debt owed to agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and bondholders. 
•  It also shows (in %) China’s share in the total bilateral external debt stock owed. External debt stock is the debt owed by a country to non-residents repayable in currency, goods, or services. It is the sum of all public, publicly guaranteed, and private non-guaranteed long-term debt and short term debt. 
•  The external debt stock owed to all countries increased from $49.5 billion to $741.4 billion between 1973 and 2023. 
• The external debt stock owed to China increased from $1 billion to $193.1 billion in the same period. 
• In percentage terms, the share of debt owed to China remained around the 1% mark until 2003, surged to 16.6% by 2013, and to 2ter surpassed by Japan, which remained the top lender by the end of 1993, 2003, and 2013. 
• External debt stock owed to the U.S. drastically reduced from 36% in 1973 to just 4% in 2023. Notably, by the end of 2023, the Netherlands was the third biggest lender after China and Japan. Chart 3shows the external debt owed by all countries to China in absolute terms and percentage terms. For instance, Pakistan owed $22 billion to China by the end of 2023, which is close to 60% of all the bilateral debt owed by the country. 
• The farther a nation is to the right, the higher the share of its bilateral debt owed to China by 2023. 
• The bigger the size of the bubble, the higher the debt owed to China in absolute terms. Notably, many countries to which China loaned money were either in a financial crisis which then worsened or later descended into a financial crisis. For instance, Laos, one of the poorest nations in Asia, owed $6 billion to China in 2023, which was over 75% of its bi lateral external debt. The nation’s economic situation turned difficult with persistent high inflation, currency depreciation, and slow growth.
•  In 2021, China opened a high-speed rail line with Laos as a part of its Belt and Road initiative. Angola, the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, owed $17 billion to China, which was about 58% of its external debt. In fact, 16 sub-Saharan nations owe over 50% of their external debt to China. 

PRIVATE AVIATION AND EMISSIONS 

• If the aviation sector were a country, it would be among the world’s top 10 greenhouse gas-emitting nations. 
•  Air travel is one of the most polluting modes of travel for its relatively higher carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions and the effects of vapour trails and gases it deposits in the atmosphere.
•  But even within air travel, private jets and chartered planes have a higher carbon footprint per passenger. 
•  According to a 2021 report of the European Federation for Transport and Environment, private jets are five- to 14-times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights and 50-times more than trains.
•  A recent study in Nature reported emissions increased by 46% between 2019 and 2023, especially thanks to private aviation. 
• The number of aircraft increased from 25,993 in December 2023 to 26,454 in February 2024 and is expected to grow further. According to the paper, “Private aviation contributed at least... about 3.6 tonnes of CO2 per flight.” 
•  More millionaires in India As of March 2024, 112 private planes were registered in India. According to the paper, India has very few aircraft per lakh population (0.01) compared to Malta (46.51), the U.S. (5.45), Switzerland (3.76), the U.K. (0.78), Brazil (0.43), France (0.36), and Russia (0.1). 
• China has a comparable 0.02. “But India is actually among the top 20 countries in terms of private aircraft ownership and the highest among low-middle-income countries,” Ramya Natarajan, a research scientist at the Centre for Study of Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTEP), a think-tank in Bengaluru, said. “This isn’t surprising because India, while still a developing country, has the third highest number of billionaires in the world and also has a rapidly growing millionaire population.” Despite nascent efforts to decarbonise the aviation industry, solutions like sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), hydrogen, and electrification haven’t been easy to implement at a large scale. 
•  flight usage In the study, researchers from institutes in Sweden, Germany, and Denmark analysed flight data from the ADS-B Exchange platform and focused on five recent global events accompanied by international travel. 
•  These events were the World Economic Forum in Switzerland; the Super Bowl in the U.S.; the COP28 climate talks in the U.A.E.; the Cannes Film Festival in  BIG SHOT THE GIST Private jets are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights and 50 times more than trains. Nature reports emissions increased by 46% because of private aviation India is among the top 20 countries in terms of private aircraft ownership. 
• India though a developing country has the third highest number of billionaires and a rapidly growing millionaire population As of March 2024, 112 private planes were registered in India. Representative photo. 
• CHRIS LEIPELT France; and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. In many cases, the researchers found the same aircraft units were used for these events. Some 47% of all these flights were for distances shorter than 500km. Around 19% were in fact for distances shorter than 200km; many of them were actually empty or used to deliver goods. About 5% of the flights spanned less than 50km — a distance otherwise easily covered by road or rail. 
•  The study also reported that the use of private aircraft for leisure destinations like Ibiza in Spain and Nice in France peaked in June-August, which is summer in the northern hemisphere, and especially over the weekends.
•  Around 69% of private aviation was concentrated in the U.S. The researchers also estimated that another 8,500 jets will be delivered to private parties in the next 10 years, although how many will end up in India is unknown. “
• How many additional private flights might be added every year as India becomes a wealthier, developed country? Can India afford to take the U.S. route? What would the overall impact of such lifestyle choices be?” 
• . Air travel and India’s emissions In the last decade, the Indian government launched the policies ‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik’ (UDAN) to enhance rural connectivity and ‘Nextgen Airports for In India, the alcohol-to-jet pathway seems most likely in the medium term. However, planning is needed to avoid negative land-use change and groundwater implications. Demand for SAF should not incentivise sugarcane or maize Bharat Nirman’ (NABH) to increase airport capacity by more than five times.
•  Indian airplane operators have also been testing low-carbon fuels. 
• In 2018, for example, SpiceJet operated a flight from Uttarakhand to New Delhi on aviation fuel blended with oil from seeds of the jatropha plant, to the tune of 25% by volume. In 2023, Air Asia flew a flight from Pune to New Delhi powered by SAF blended with aviation turbine fuel (ATF) based on indigenous feedstock and supplied by the Indian Oil Corporation, Ltd. 
• But these attempts have not translated into the commercialisation of SAF due to its limited availability and effciency. According to one April 2024 estimate, it also costs “at least 120%” more than conventional jet fuel for reducing emissions by at least 27%.
•  Apart from SAFs, both experts and lawmakers have discussed hydrogen and electrification as possible alternatives to kerosene, which is used in aviation for its high energy density. 
• Hydrogen packs three-times more energy in the same mass but handling it is a nightmare. Engineers will need to redesign, remodel, and restructure aircraft bodies as well as the fuel storage, transportation, and fuelling facilities at airports to use hydrogen-based fuels in aviation.
•  Likewise, electrification is currently a poor solution due to issues of battery weight, •ight stability, and its dependency on other economies for its raw materials, industry experts have said.
•  “In India, the alcohol-to-jet pathway seems most likely in the medium term, given that we already have a good ethanol production supply chain,” Natarajan said. “However, this should be carefully planned to avoid negative land-use change and groundwater implications.
•  A demand for SAF should not incentivise increased cultivation of sugarcane or maize. 
• Instead, only surplus sugar should be used.” However, Natarajan added, the work of her and her peers at CSTEP suggests there is hope. 
• “If by the year 2050, only surplus sugar is converted to ethanol and ethanol is fully used to make aviation fuel, instead of blending with petrol as we do currently, then we can meet almost 15-20% of the aviation fuel demand of 2050,”