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Table of Contents
Why India Cannot Afford To Repeat Its Nuclear Weapons Mistakes With AI
❖ India will host the prestigious Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit in New Delhi from December 12 to 14, 2023.
❖ As India hosts the GPAI summit, discussions are raising on the comparison of nuclear revolution with advancement in Artificial Intelligence.
About Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI):
- A global initiative: to direct the ethical advancement and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in a way that upholds the members’ common democratic ideals and human rights.
- Formation: With 28 members as of right now, it was established on June 15, 2020.
- India became a founding member of the group in 2020.
- Objective: GPAI is a multi-stakeholder initiative that supports innovative research and applied activities on AI-related priorities in an effort to close the gap between theory and practice in the field.
- Collaboration and Cooperation: GPAI brings together knowledgeable individuals and skills from academia, industry, government, civil society, and science to promote international cooperation. It is based on a shared commitment to the OECD Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence.
Why is there a Comparison between Nuclear and AI?
- Destructive Potential: Both possess a great deal of destructive potential.
- In August 1945, the use of atomic bombs against Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki exposed the world to the nuclear revolution.
- The AI revolution poses an even greater threat as machines begin to subjugate and enslave humans.
- Geopolitical Implications: These difficulties include the following:
- Control how it affects geopolitical rivalry.
- Make a distinction between the proper and improper use of these technologies.
- Establish global guidelines and establishments to control its application.
- Control and Regulation: Much like during the nuclear era, there is an increasing amount of interest in encouraging the great powers to reach “arms control” agreements.
- The management of the AI revolution is thought to depend heavily on the US-China AI agreements. Nonetheless, China and the US are both developing AI for military applications.
- Ban Demand: Similar to the nuclear era, many people now call for a prohibition on AI use in the military.
- Or, at minimum, a “freeze” on research and development until a more thorough evaluation of the technology has been conducted.
- International Norms Management:
- Suggestion: Establishing a “Global Agency for Artificial Intelligence” (IAAI).
- Comparable to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was established in 1957 to control nuclear energy applications.
- Need: To control the unfavorable effects of the AI revolution.
- Suggestion: Establishing a “Global Agency for Artificial Intelligence” (IAAI).
- Consistency of Pace: Similar to nuclear, the worries haven’t stopped AI from advancing quickly.
- Economic Promises: The promise of nuclear technology to provide affordable electricity was not fulfilled. On the other hand, AI promises to revolutionize politics, society, and the economy.
Lessons for India from its Nuclear History to Deal with AI
- Be Realistic: Rather than pursuing idealism this time, India needs to act realistically and pick up speed in the AI space as soon as possible before it’s too late.
- Involvement and Collaboration: India must maintain the momentum in its collaboration with the US on artificial intelligence (AI) and other important and developing technologies.
- India, which was keen to gain friendship with China, lost the chance to become the first nation in Asia to acquire nuclear weapons. Early in the 1960s, US President John F. Kennedy wrote a handwritten letter urging India to proceed with nuclear weapons development.
- Technology Application: India must reject the old temptation to discover a “third way” in technological advancement and declare its uniqueness.
- While the application of technology can be country-specific and context-dependent, science and technology are universal.
The Path Ahead:
- Strengthen and Expand Domestic Capabilities: To maximize the benefits of international cooperation, India must develop robust domestic AI capabilities.
- Private Sector Involvement: The private sector should now get involved.
- If governments drove technological advancement in the latter half of the 20th century, particularly in the nuclear and space industries, the private sector is driving AI research, development, and innovation in the West.
- Reforms Are Needed: The government’s recent efforts in the science and technology sectors are noteworthy, but they must be implemented at the appropriate and necessary pace.
- Practical Approach: AI is strategically and significantly important, and India cannot afford to repeat its previous idealism nuclear weapons error with AI at this time.
News Source: The Indian Express
An Experiment In Education At Grassroots Level Schools In Bangladesh
Context
Recently, Swati Narayan’s book “Unequal,” which compares social indicators with those of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, among other neighboring countries, revealed differences in health, education, nutrition, and sanitation, exposing inequalities in India.
Joyful Learning in Bangladesh
- The Early Childhood Education Model of Kajoli: It’s a play-based and peer-based learning model.
- Teachers’ Dedication: In spite of scarce resources, educators remain committed to their students and employ creative approaches.
- NGO support: These learning centers are widely spread throughout the nation and are mostly run by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as BRAC (formerly known as the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee).
Difference between Students of Bihar and Bangladesh
On the Basis of Reading
- Outstanding Achievements of Bangladeshi Students: The survey indicates that Bangladeshi students perform better than their Indian counterparts. Nearly 90% of the fifth-graders have read at least one Bengali paragraph at the grade 2 level.
- In Nepal, roughly two-thirds of grade 5 pupils demonstrated equivalent competency.
- more than half of the students in Bihar could not read fluently, which is concerning.
- These Bihar results were almost exact replicas of the Annual Status of Education Report that Pratham, an NGO, has been compiling for the past ten years in India.
On the Basis of Tuitions
- In Bangladesh, the poorest students are becoming more adept learners than the wealthiest ones.
- This is because of the capable and committed educators who have received training in happy learning methods, the prompt delivery of textbooks, scholarships for underprivileged and female students, and the Bengali culture’s emphasis on education.
- In Nepal, learning levels were not influenced by family income.
- Only 29% of students in Nepal and 35% of students in Bangladesh paid additional tuition on average.
- In Bihar, students from wealthier families demonstrated significantly higher scores than those from poorer backgrounds.
- The additional money that wealthier families spend on private tuition and schools accounts for a large portion of this inequality.
- Additionally, by hiring local teachers, a large number of upper caste teachers with phony degrees exacerbated the problem.
- Frequency of Corporal Punishment: Despite being illegal, corporal punishment is nonetheless frequently used.
- Despite being formally enrolled in government schools, many kids never showed up for class.
- According to the survey, 44% of students in government schools and 82% of students enrolled in private schools also attended private tuition for a few hours each week.
Conclusion
India must act to combat these deteriorating circumstances and absorb knowledge from its neighbors in order to build a more knowledgeable future for itself.
News Source: The Hindu
The Need To Transform Agri-Food Systems
Context
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently released a report that revealed the staggering $10 trillion in hidden costs associated with global agrifood systems.
Concern with the Report Findings
- Exorbitant: In nations with middle-class incomes, these expenses account for almost 11% of GDP.
- Shows Severe Effects: It shows increased poverty, damage to the environment, and health-related effects (such as malnutrition and unhealthful eating habits).
Other Findings of the Report
- Cause of Impacts: Unsustainable activities and practices associated with business as usual.
- Action required: Agrifood system transformation.
- Useful Methods: Converting to multicropping systems, which could safeguard farmers’ health, enhance community nutrition, and have a positive effect on ecological health.
Impacts of Intensive Agriculture
- Seed Sovereignty: The acquisition of fertilizers and seeds from multinational companies compromised seed sovereignty.
- Indigenous Knowledge: It destroyed farmers’ Indigenous knowledge systems.
- Monoculture Shift: It moved a variety of crop varieties, including pulses, to plantations that practice monoculture.
- Nutritional Need: It made households’ needs for sustenance worse.
- Ecological Effects: Extraction of groundwater and soil fertility were impacted by intensive agriculture.
- Debt to Farmers: It causes agricultural inputs to be privatized and deregulated, which raises household debt levels among agrarian households.
- A farmer’s household’s debt to asset ratio increased by 630% between 1992 and 2013.
- India’s agricultural sector is becoming less and less viable; the average monthly income for a farming household is just Rs 10,816.
Impact of Policy Environment
- The National Food Security Act 2013 guarantees 65% of Indian households access to subsidized food through the Public Distribution System and welfare programs like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme and Integrated Child Development Services.
- Because of the Public Distribution System’s subsidized rates, rice and wheat are greatly preferred.
- Thus, between 1966–1967 and 2017–2018, the area planted to rice and wheat increased by approximately 20% and 56%, respectively.
- Other Crops: Policies that favored investments in dams and canal irrigation (sugarcane) and free electricity for borewells (arecanut) led to the flourishing of water-intensive cash crops.
- Impact: Since coarse grains account for less than 1% of all foodgrain procurement, they receive little attention. Examples of coarse grains include jowar, bajra, ragi, maize, and barley.
The Path Ahead
- Crop diversification is necessary because it would allow for the production of food, fodder, and cash from commercial crops. It would also support the local biodiversity by providing ecosystem services like nitrogen fixation and pest traps. When taken as a whole, it also helps to improve soil health.
- Enhanced Production of Millets: The yield per hectare of millet is higher than that of wheat and rice, and it’s more nutritious. It can grow in semi-arid environments without depleting groundwater supplies, needs little maintenance, and offers a variety of food sources.
- Need to Redirect Subsidies: Farmers should be compensated for their contribution to maintaining natural capital, rather than receiving incentives.
- To envision a transition, it is imperative to tackle issues pertaining to local seeds, institutional arrangements for market access, drudgery, and the requirement for farm labor.
- Farmers’ Affirmative Actions:
- Farmers should stop practicing monoculture.
- Natural farming methods must be implemented.
- Income diversification by adding value and including poultry and livestock.
- Transition Model: It is necessary to adopt those economic models and transition pathways that have the potential to both sustain farm incomes over the long term and improve ecological outcomes for the landscape.
- Institutions, policymakers, and social groups must work together to develop financial incentives that encourage farmers to switch from high-input monoculture to diversified cropping.
- Food regimes must change systemically from local to global value chains, and local initiatives like diversifying food sources could serve as a springboard for tackling these intricate systemic problems.
News Source: The Hindu