Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for January 31, 2025. If you missed the January 30, 2025 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here FRONT PAGE India braces for AI challenge, Govt says own foundational model in 4-8 months Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Main Examination: • General Studies III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life. • General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights. What’s the ongoing story: Days after a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) lab launched the low-cost foundational model DeepSeek, the Indian government has said it has decided to build a domestic large language model of its own as part of the Rs 10,370 crore IndiaAI Mission, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Thursday. Key Points to Ponder: • What is India’s plan for setting up AI computing capacity? • What is IndiaAI Mission? • What are the key highlights of GOI’s ambitious artificial intelligence (AI) Mission? • Why is it important for India to develop indigenous AI models instead of relying on foreign technologies? • Explain the role of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in shaping India’s AI ecosystem. • How does AI development influence global geopolitics? • Discuss India’s role in the AI race and its potential for international collaborations. • What is DeepSeek? • What sets DeepSeek models apart • What is different about DeepSeek AI models? • Discuss the significance of Deepseek and other open-source AI models in democratizing artificial intelligence. • Evaluate the need for regulatory frameworks in the context of open-source AI like Deepseek. Key Takeaways: • The government has also selected 10 companies that will supply 18,693 graphics processing units or GPUs — high end chips needed to develop machine learning tools that can go into developing a foundational model. • The companies include the Hiranandani Group-backed Yotta, Jio Platforms, Tata Communications, E2E Networks, CMS Computers, Ctrls Datacenters, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, NxtGen Datacenter, Orient Technologies, and Vensysco Technologies. • Nearly half of the total GPUs will come from Yotta alone, who has committed to offer 9,216 units. • The government will launch a common compute facility, from where startups and researchers can access the computing power, in the next few days. • The cost of accessing higher end GPUs would be Rs 150 per hour, and using lower end GPUs would cost Rs 115.85 per hour. • To further ease access to these services, the government will give a 40 per cent subsidy to end users on the total price. • Under the IndiaAI Mission, the government has also selected 18 application-level AI solutions for the first round of funding. Vaishnaw said that these applications focus on the areas of agriculture, learning disabilities and climate change. Do You Know: • On Monday, January 27, the Chinese lab’s AI mobile app (powered by its DeepSeek-V3 model) overtook rival ChatGPT to become the No. 1 free app available on Apple’s App Store in the US. • In 2015, Liang Wenfeng founded a Chinese quantitative hedge fund called High-Flyer. Quantitative or ‘quant’ hedge funds rely on trading algorithms and statistical models to find patterns in the market and automatically buy or sell stocks, according to a report by Wall Street Journal. • To analyse troves of financial data and support complex operations, Liang established a deep-learning research branch under High-Flyer called Fire-Flyer and stockpiled on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in order to build supercomputers. • Then, in 2023, Liang decided to redirect the fund’s resources into a new company called DeepSeek with the goal of developing foundational AI models and eventually crack artificial general intelligence (AGI). • DeepSeek is also one of the leading AI firms in China to embrace open-source principles. • DeepSeek’s AI models have reportedly been optimised by incorporating a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture and Multi-Head Latent Attention as well as employing advanced machine-learning techniques such as reinforcement learning and distillation. • Under the India AI Mission, the government will look to establish a computing capacity of more than 10,000 GPUs and also help develop foundational models with a capacity of more than 100 billion parameters trained on datasets covering major Indian languages for priority sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and governance. • AI Curation Units (ACUs) will also be developed in 50-line ministries. The proposal also includes the establishment of an AI marketplace designed to offer AI as a service and pre-trained models to those working on AI applications. • The implementation of this AI compute infrastructure will be done through a public-private partnership model with 50 per cent viability gap funding. If the compute prices come down, the private entity will have to add more compute capacity within the same budgeted amount to meet increased demand. Of the total outlay, Rs 4,564 crore has been earmarked for building computing infrastructure. Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Despite talent, India lags behind 📍It’s time for the AI leap UPSC Previous Year Prelims Question Covering similar theme: 1. With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (2020) 1. Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units 2. Create meaningful short stories and songs 3. Disease diagnosis 4. Text-to-Speech Conversion 5. Wireless transmission of electrical energy Select the correct answer using the code given below: (a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only (b) 1, 3 and 4 only (c) 2, 4 and 5 only (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 UPSC Previous Year Mains Question Covering similar theme: 📍What are the main socio-economic implications arising out of the development of IT industries in major cities of India? (2022) 📍“The emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Digital Revolution) has initiated e-Governance as an integral part of government”. Discuss. (2020) IAF officer set to pilot mission to space station: ‘Journey of 1.4 bn people’ Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nanotechnology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights. What’s the ongoing story: Just a few months away from becoming the second Indian to travel to space — the first in 40 years — Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on Thursday said he was embarking on a journey on behalf of 1.4 billion people of India, and wanted each one of them to share his experience. Key Points to Ponder: • Discuss the significance of India’s human spaceflight program (Gaganyaan) in the context of global space diplomacy and international collaboration. • Analyse the role of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in India’s space missions. • How does the experience of IAF officers contribute to space exploration? • Evaluate the role of international partnerships in India’s human spaceflight program. • How do collaborations with countries like Russia, USA, and France enhance ISRO’s capabilities? • What are the challenges India faces in establishing a long-term human spaceflight program? Suggest policy measures to address these challenges. • What are the key objectives of the Gaganyaan mission? How does it align with India's larger space exploration goals? • Explain the importance of astronaut training for space missions. What role does Roscosmos play in training Indian astronauts? Key Takeaways: • Speaking at an online press conference of the Axiom 4 mission from the United States, Shukla (40), who is one of the four astronauts travelling to the International Space Station, said he hoped that his journey would inspire a whole generation of Indians to undertake similar missions in future. • The mission is being operated by private space company Axiom Space in partnership with NASA and SpaceX. • The launch date for Axiom 4 mission, which Shukla will pilot, has not been finalised yet. The company says it would happen “no earlier than Spring of 2025”, which means anytime between March and June. • The mission will take all four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for a duration of 14 days, longer than Sharma’s 7 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes in space. The mission is likely to be launched in the spring of 2025, according to NASA. The mission will use SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. • The astronauts underwent training at the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation (JAMSS). The initial training was carried out at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. There the astronauts learned about the communication systems, emergency response procedures and conducting research activities inside the Columbus module of the ISS. • Columbus is a European module of ISS that has a versatile laboratory for interdisciplinary research in microgravity. India’s space agency along with the department of biotechnology have been working on developing space biology experiments that may be carried out on-board Axiom-4. • Afterwards, the crew underwent training at JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center in Japan, where they were trained on operations of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo. The training included in-depth knowledge about the module’s capability. • A mission patch for the astronaut uniform has also been developed, which shows the Earth in the centre of a pentagon, with the names and flags of all four astronauts. There are also seven stars depicted in the centre representing the seven continents. • The first private mission to ISS by Axiom space was carried out in April 2022, with a second mission in August the same year. The third mission was launched in May 2023, which included the first woman to command a commercial human spaceflight mission and the first Saudi astronaut to live and work on the ISS. Do You Know: • Shubhanshu Shukla who recently got promoted, was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on October 10, 1985. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned on June 17, 2006, in IAF’s fighter stream. Shukla is a Fighter Combat leader and a test pilot with around 2,000 hours of flying experience to his credit. Sukhoi-30MKI, Mig-21, Mig-29, An-32, Dornier, Hawk, and Jaguar are some of the aircraft flown by Shukla. • The Axiom Mission-4 is slated for a launch in October 2024 and it is a private spaceflight to the ISS operated by Axiom Space. The mission is supported by SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. It will take off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida from a Falcon 9 launcher. The mission is said to last for 14 days. Axiom Mission-4 follows after the success of Axiom-1, Axiom-2 and Axiom-3. This collaboration between ISRO, Axiom Space, and Nasa is a significant leap forward in international space cooperation. • Meanwhile, Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, the back-up astronaut for the mission was born in Thiruvazhiyad in Kerala on August 26, 1976. Nair who is also an alumnus of National Defence Academy, is a recipient of the Sword of Honour at the Air Force Academy. On December 19, 1998, Nair was commissioned to the fighter stream. He also holds the highest achievement of being a flying instructor and has around 3000 hours of flying experience to his credit. • This is a historic feat, as so far India has had only one astronaut in space, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma who was aboard the Indo-Soviet mission in 1984. Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍What is Gaganyaan? 📍Gaganyan: How to send an Indian into space UPSC Previous Year Prelims Question Covering similar theme: 2. Which of the following is NOT a key objective of India's human spaceflight program? (a) Demonstrating India’s capability in crewed space missions (b) Enhancing international collaboration in space technology (c) Establishing a permanent Indian space station by 2030 (d) Conducting military surveillance from space EXPRESS NETWORK SC eases terms for appointing retired judges to clear HC backlog Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Main Examination: General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity. What’s the ongoing story: The Supreme Court Thursday relaxed its earlier condition to appoint ad hoc judges in High Courts to clear the backlog of pending criminal cases, and said vacancies in HCs needn’t be more than 20 per cent of its sanctioned strength. Key Points to Ponder: • How is an ad hoc judge appointed? • When can an ad hoc judge be appointed? • When have ad hoc judges been appointed in the past? • Significance of Article 224A in addressing the issue of case pendency in Indian High Courts-Know in detail • How can the use of ad hoc judges contribute to judicial efficiency? • Discuss the implications of appointing retired High Court judges on an ad hoc basis for judicial independence and accountability. Key Takeaways: • A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant said the ad hoc judges will sit on a bench presided over by a sitting judge of the High Court, and decide pending criminal appeals. • In April 2021, the Supreme Court issued directions allowing the appointment of ad hoc judges under Article 224 of the Constitution “to deal with the unprecedented situation arising from the backlog of cases pending in the High Courts.” • Article 224A deals with the appointment of retired Judges at sittings of High Courts. “The Chief Justice of a High Court for any State, may with the previous consent of the President, request any person who has held the office of a Judge of that Court or of any other High Court to sit and act as a Judge of the High Court for that State, and every such person so requested shall, while so sitting and acting, be entitled to such allowances as the President may by order determine and have all the jurisdiction, powers, and privileges of, but shall not otherwise be deemed to be, a Judge of that High Court,” it says. • On Thursday, the SC bench ordered that “each High Court may appoint ad hoc judges by taking recourse to Article 224A for appointment of ad hoc judges between two to five in number but not exceeding 10 per cent of the sanctioned strength.” Accordingly, it said that its directions in paragraphs 43, 54 and 55 of the April 2021 judgement, which spoke about the 20 per cent vacancy requirement, be kept in abeyance. • The bench also made it clear that the Memorandum of Procedure which lays down a procedure for appointment under Article 224A will be applied. Do You Know: • An ad hoc judge is a retired judge who is appointed on a temporary basis for a specific vacancy or purpose only for a limited period of time. In the 2021 judgment, the Court laid down the conditions and procedure for appointing ad-hoc judges. • The April 2021 order said the trigger for recourse to Article 224A would not arise only in case the vacancies exceed 20 per cent. It had also said that “for the time being dependent on the strength of the High Court and the problem faced by the Court, the number of ad hoc Judges should be in the range of two to five in a High Court.” • The April 2021 judgement also allowed the HCs to constitute Division Benches comprising only ad hoc judges “because these are old cases which need to be taken up by them”. Thursday, however, the SC said that “the ad hoc judges will sit in a bench presided over by a sitting judge of the High Court and decide pending criminal appeals.” • The SC, in Lok Prahari, was considering measures to address pending cases before the courts and the vacancies in posts for HC judges, stating that “A number of vacancies arising every year are barely filled in by fresh appointments”. At the time, the SC was faced with nearly 40% vacancies across all High Courts. The court also took note of Law Commission reports published in 1979, 1988, and 2003, which suggested that temporarily appointing retired judges who already have decades of experience is a viable solution to tackle the mounting backlog of cases. Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Why Supreme Court suggested appointing retired High Court judges on ‘ad hoc’ basis UPSC Previous Year Prelims Question Covering similar theme: 3. With reference to the Indian judiciary, consider the following statements: 1. Any retired judge of the Supreme Court of India can be called back to sit and act as a Supreme Court judge by the Chief Justice of India with the prior permission of the President of India. 2. A High Court in India has the power to review its own judgement as the Supreme Court does. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither I nor 2 Collapse of glacial debris caused Sikkim flood, no evidence of cloudburst: Study Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World. Mains Examination: • General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes. • General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation. • General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management. What’s the ongoing story: The collapse of a 14.7-million cubic metre mass of rock, ice and sediment into the South Lhonak glacial lake was the trigger behind the devastating 2023 Sikkim flood that destroyed a hydropower dam on the Teesta, reveal the findings of a year-long study published in the prestigious Science journal on Friday. Key Points to Ponder: • Know about Sikkim flood 2023 in detail • Map Work-Sikkim, Lhonak Lake and River Teesta • The 2023 Sikkim floods were initially attributed to a cloudburst but were later found to be caused by the collapse of a giant mass of glacial debris. Discuss the role of climate change and glacial instability in triggering such disasters in the Himalayas. • How Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) pose a significant threat to Himalayan states. • What are the causes and consequences of GLOFs? • With increasing instances of natural disasters in the Himalayan region, analyse the vulnerabilities of hydropower infrastructure in glaciated terrains. • How can India ensure sustainable development while mitigating disaster risks in Himalayan Region? • Discuss the significance of remote sensing and early warning systems in preventing disasters like the 2023 Sikkim floods. • The Himalayas are witnessing rapid glacial retreat, leading to the formation of unstable glacial lakes. Examine the implications of this phenomenon for downstream populations and ecosystems. Key Takeaways: • Crucially, the study found no evidence of a “triggering cloudburst event” in the vicinity of the lake. The Sikkim government had told the National Green Tribunal last year that a cloudburst had possibly preceded the glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). • The study says the South Lhonak lake remains “highly susceptible” to future GLOFs — a warning that comes just weeks after an Environment Ministry panel cleared a proposal to build a new 118.64-metre high concrete gravity dam in the place of the original 60-metre tall Teesta-III dam. This ministry approval came without a fresh public hearing and even as the design aspects of the dam are yet to be approved. • The investigation into the causes, dynamics and consequences of the GLOF was carried out by a team of 34 experts from nine countries and was led by Ashim Sattar, assistant professor, School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. • According to the study, the collapse of the frozen glacial debris, called a moraine, created a 20-metre tsunami-like wave that breached the lake’s natural dam. It released 50 million cubic metres of water — equal to 20,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools — that took just about two hours to reach the hydropower dam, 67 km downstream. • Though the exact cause of its collapse is inconclusive, the moraine — formed by glaciers over several years — was found to be unstable for years preceding the event. It showed a maximum displacement of 15 metres per year between 2016 and 2023, the study revealed. • The area around the glacial lake was also found to be unstable, owing to thawing of permafrost, or frozen ground, likely due to climate change. • The flood’s severity was also worsened by climate warming effects and heavy rainfall, which saturated the soil and increased its vulnerability to landslides, thus amplifying downstream impacts such as erosion, sediment transport and flood intensity, said a note issued by the authors of the study. • The team of experts used seismic signal data, satellite imagery and modelling techniques to back-calculate the GLOF’s movement and validated it using ground information available with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority. • The reconstruction showed that the moraine collapsed at 10.12 pm on October 3. At around 10.30 pm, the flood water reached an Indo-Tibetan Border Police camp, 7.12 km downstream, which was consistent with ITBP’s information. As the lake’s natural dam burst, its level dropped 28 meters. • The reconstruction showed that at 12:30 am, October 4, the flood waters reached the 1,200 MW Chungthang hydropower dam — this was in line with the reported time of 12.35 pm. • The study also quantified the enormous amounts of sediment eroded by the GLOF — about 270 million cubic meters, enough to fill 1,08,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The sediment and boulders were deposited downstream causing immense devastation and damage. Satellite-imagery based mapping also identified 45 landslides caused by the GLOF along the Teesta valley. Do You Know: • Glacial debris refers to the rock debris that is eroded, plucked up, and entrained in the flowing ice of a glacier as it moves down mountainsides. This debris can accumulate at the terminus, form lateral moraines, or cover the surface of the glacier, affecting the melt rate and being influenced by various local factors. • On the intervening night of October 3 and October 4, 2023, an ice avalanche hit the South Lhonak Lake, located at an altitude of 5,200 metres, breaching the glacial lake. The avalanche created giant waves, leading to a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), and triggered a flash flood downstream in Teesta. • The force of the floodwaters breached the Chungthang dam, exacerbating the floods, killing 40 people across four districts of Sikkim. Across Mangan, Gangtok, Pakyong, and Namchi districts, about 100 villages were affected and 76 people were reported missing. • The Teesta-III project is in Mangan district and utilises a drop of about 800m in the Teesta River between Chungthang and Sankalang villages. The flash floods triggered by the GLOF event had overtopped the project dam and flooded the underground powerhouse, bringing power generation to a halt. Sikkim Urja and their environmental consultants R S Envirolinks have argued that the underground powerhouse and electro-mechanical equipment can be restored to their original condition in a year. Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍14 months after glacial lake flood, Sikkim’s Teesta dam gets environment nod for rebuild without public hearing UPSC Previous Year Prelims Question Covering similar theme: 4. When you travel in Himalayas, you will see the following: (2012) 1. Deep gorges 2. U-turn river courses 3. Parallel mountain ranges 4. Steep gradients causing land sliding Which of the above can be said to be the evidence for Himalayas being young fold mountains? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 1, 2 and 4 only (c) 3 and 4 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4 THE EDITORIAL PAGE Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Mains Examination: General Studies III: Issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, What’s the ongoing story: Shailaja Chandra Writes: Given the size and complexity of the issues plaguing the Yamuna, it is time that people at the helm of affairs — politicians, bureaucrats or engineers — address major problems Key Points to Ponder: • Map Work-Yamuna River • The Yamuna River is crucial for millions of people, yet it remains one of the most polluted rivers in India—Discuss the major causes of its pollution and suggest effective measures for its revival. • The Yamuna River is integral to both ecology and culture, yet it faces severe environmental degradation—Discuss the impact of pollution on aquatic biodiversity and human health. • The Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) has been in place for decades—Critically examine its effectiveness • Examine the key reasons behind the Yamuna water dispute between Haryana and Delhi. How does it impact water availability for Delhi's residents? • Discuss the role of the 1994 Yamuna Water Sharing Agreement in regulating water distribution between Haryana and Delhi. • Critically assess the role of judicial interventions and inter-state cooperation in resolving water disputes in India. Use the Yamuna dispute as a case study. Key Takeaways: Shailaja Chandra Writes: • There are three separate issues concerning the Yamuna and Delhi — drinking water, pollution and environmental flow. • The water coming from Haryana is the only source of drinking water in Delhi and anxieties about its potability affect citizens, particularly when accountability is opaque. The supply of drinking water becomes a crisis in Delhi every few months. The capital receives its drinking water from several key inlets that all originate in Haryana, chief among them the Wazirabad Barrage, where raw water from the Yamuna is received in Delhi. The flow at Wazirabad depends on the releases from Haryana’s Hathni Kund Barrage. • During the lean seasons, water levels often drop, leading to ammonia contamination and water shortages in Delhi. The city’s drinking water depends on these inlets. Treatment at Delhi’s Wazirabad, Chandrawal, Okhlam Haiderpur and Bawana treatment plants rests entirely on the availability of water from Haryana. • The second issue is of pollutants, apart from ammonia. This is largely due to sewage flowing in the stormwater drains, the discharge of industrial effluent mainly from unlicensed household industries, and solid waste dumping. During the period 2018 to 2021, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) set up the Yamuna Monitoring Committee (YMC) to monitor the abatement of pollution in the river. • Five reports were given to the NGT, which pinpointed the roles and responsibilities of 16 stakeholders who contribute substantially to pollution. During the life of the committee, each of the stakeholders — which included the Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Development Authority, and the governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh — committed to a slew of measures. These have not been undertaken. • The third issue is environmental flow. The National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Jal Shakti had asked for a report from the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) in Roorkee. • The NIH study was aimed at assessing the flow of water necessary to maintain ecological balance and support essential riverine functions. The NIH concluded that the current water withdrawals upstream significantly reduce the river’s flow through Delhi, exacerbating pollution levels and harming aquatic life. It recommended regulating water releases from upstream barrages, especially during lean seasons, to maintain a minimum environmental flow. • The YMC, too, had pointed out that Delhi suffers from severely reduced flow, especially during the nine non-monsoon months, and this was leading to high contamination and ecological degradation. It recommended revisiting the 1994 water-sharing agreement between the basin states of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and UP to ensure a more equitable distribution of water. • The studies by the YMC and NIH underscore the critical importance of maintaining adequate environmental flow in the Yamuna to ensure its ecological health and the well-being of communities that depend on it. Do You Know: • The river Yamuna and Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that Haryana was mixing poison in its waters released to Delhi has become a major election issue. Legal wrangling on the matter has started, and the Election Commission has questioned the statement. Kejriwal said it was his duty to warn the citizens of Delhi. • Easily dissolvable in water, ammonia is a colourless, gaseous chemical with a sharp odour, which is widely used in industrial processes. It is also used as fertiliser, coolant, cleansing agents, food additives, and in animal feed production, plastic and paper manufacturing, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). • Major sources of ammonia pollution include runoff from farmlands, a direct discharge of effluents from industries where ammonia is used and untreated sewage. The chemical is also naturally released in water with the degradation of organic matter such as blue-green algae. • The long-term impact of ammonia in human bodies can cause damage to internal organs due to its corrosive properties, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. • Notably, dye units, distilleries and other factories concentrated in the Panipat and Sonipat districts as well as sewage from colonies are believed to pollute the stretch of the Yamuna before it enters Delhi at Wazirabad. As a result, several quality parameters of the river are impacted including dissolved oxygen which becomes zero. The situation worsens in the dry, winter months due to the absence of freshwater downstream. Moreover, water treatment plants cannot treat water with ammonia content of more than one part per million (ppm). As a result, water supply disruptions take place in the capital when the ammonia levels spike in the river. • The Delhi Jal Board’s water treatment plants use chlorine to treat excessive ammonia. According to officials, 11.5 kg of chlorine is needed per litre of water per hour to neutralise one ppm of ammonical nitrogen. Some amount of chlorine should remain in the treated water after the treatment process so that pathogens can be neutralised. • In winters, as the ammonia levels increase the efficiency of the water treatment plants reduces, according to the Delhi Jal Board. • For years now, the Delhi and Haryana governments have failed to come up with a long-term viable solution to resolve the issue of excessive ammonia in water. Delhi government proposed setting up an in-situ ammonia treatment plant at the Wazirabad pond as an immediate solution to the crisis in March 2023. However, it remains under development. The Haryana government is also yet to complete laying down a pipeline to prevent the inter-mixing of pollutants. Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Why Yamuna in Delhi has high ammonia levels 📍Yamuna board said ammonia problem occurs ‘every year’, no ‘convergent’ solutions by states 📍Heatwave, water shortage in the national capital: How does Delhi get its water? UPSC Practice Prelims Question Covering similar theme: 5. With reference to the Yamuna River, consider the following statements: 1. The Yamuna originates from the Yamunotri Glacier in Uttarakhand. 2. It is the longest tributary of the Ganga. 3. The river flows through Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2, and 3 ECONOMY Did DeepSeek copy OpenAI’s artificial intelligence technology? Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights. What’s the ongoing story: OpenAI prohibits the practice of training a new AI model by repeatedly querying a larger, pre-trained model, a technique commonly referred to as distillation, according to their terms of use. And the company suspects DeepSeek may have tried something similar, which could be a breach of its terms. Key Points to Ponder: • The emergence of AI models like DeepSeek and OpenAI’s ChatGPT raises questions about intellectual property and data security—Comment • Discuss the ethical and legal challenges in AI model replication. • Examine the role of AI regulations and international cooperation in ensuring fair competition and responsible AI development. • What are the challenges in protecting AI models from unauthorized replication or reverse engineering? • Suggest technological and policy measures to address these AI model replication. • Critically analyse the impact of AI technology leaks on global AI geopolitics. • The increasing use of open-source AI models has led to both innovation and concerns about misuse. Discuss the advantages and risks of open-source AI development. Key Takeaways: • Even as ChatGPT creator OpenAI faces a barrage of copyright infringement cases in some countries, the company believes that its upstart Chinese rival DeepSeek may have copied from its artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Not just OpenAI, but one of US President Donald Trump’s top advisors has also levelled this claim, without yet presenting much evidence. • DeepSeek’s entry into the AI space – touted for being open source, its accuracy and claims that its built at fraction of the cost as its US competitors – have caused an upheaval in the technology industry. It has sent Nvidia’s stock on a downward spiral, since their model was trained on inferior graphics processing unites (GPUs) compared to what the likes of OpenAI have access to. And its entry has reignited the conversation around stricter export controls. • It is in this context that OpenAI has said that DeepSeek may have used a technique called “distillation,” which allows its model to learn from a pretrained model, in this case ChatGPT. While DeepSeek has been accused of intellectual property theft ever since it gained mainstream attention, some industry experts have dismissed these claims saying they stem from an inadequate understanding of how models such as DeepSeek are trained. Do You Know: • OpenAI prohibits the practice of training a new AI model by repeatedly querying a larger, pre-trained model, a technique commonly referred to as distillation, according to their terms of use. And the company suspects DeepSeek may have tried something similar, which could be a breach of its terms. • Some, however, disagree with assertions that DeepSeek copied technology from OpenAI and the likes. “There’s a lot of misconception that China ‘just cloned’ the outputs of OpenAI. This is far from true and reflects incomplete understanding of how these models are trained in the first place…” Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity said in a post on X. • “DeepSeek R1 has figured out RL (reinforcement learning) finetuning. They wrote a whole paper on this topic called DeepSeek R1 Zero, where no SFT (supervised fine tuning) was used. And then combined it with some SFT to add domain knowledge with good rejection sampling (aka filtering). The main reason it’s so good is it learned reasoning from scratch rather than imitating other humans or models,” he added. • The idea of using reinforcement learning (RL) became a focus point for AI companies in 2024. “This new paradigm involves starting with the ordinary type of pretrained models, and then as a second stage using RL to add the reasoning skills,” explained Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, in a blog post. • Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), is a process in machine learning where a pre-trained model is further trained (fine-tuned) on a labeled dataset specific to a particular task. This approach leverages the general knowledge the model has already acquired during its initial pre-training phase and adapts it to perform well on a more specialized task. • The contention is that companies like OpenAI have developed large language models (LLMs) by “training” on vast quantities of text, including, without a licence or permission, copyright-protected works. This “unlawful utilisation of copyrighted materials exclusively benefits OpenAI and its investors, to the detriment of the creative works across the entire industry in India,” said the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) said in a statement. • OpenAI is facing a number of similar lawsuits in other jurisdictions as well. In December 2023, The New York Times sued the company and Microsoft, citing “unlawful” use of copyrighted content. The publication has alleged that OpenAI and Microsoft’s large language models, which power ChatGPT and Copilot, “can generate output that recites Times content verbatim, closely summarises it, and mimics its expressive style.” Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍As Chinese AI startup DeepSeek shakes up Silicon Valley, there could be implications for India, others in the fray EXPLAINED Taxes and the citizen Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Mains Examination: General Studies III: Government Budgeting. What’s the ongoing story: On Saturday (February 1), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for the upcoming financial year (2025-26). The Budget is being presented at a time when the Indian economy is facing several challenges. Key Points to Ponder: • This time the challenges are more economic in nature—How? • Analyse India's tax-to-GDP ratio in comparison to both developing and developed countries. • Discuss the implications of India's tax-to-GDP ratio on India's fiscal policy and public expenditure. • Evaluate the progressivity of India's tax system. • How do direct and indirect taxes impact different income groups, and what measures can be taken to enhance tax equity? • Discuss the challenges posed by India's large informal economy on tax collection. • What strategies can be implemented to broaden the tax base and improve compliance? • Critically assess the reliance on indirect taxes in India's revenue system. • What is the role of tax incentives and exemptions in India's economic development. Are these measures effective in achieving their intended objectives, or do they lead to revenue losses and economic distortions? Key Takeaways: • This time the challenges are more economic in nature. Overall GDP growth rate seems to be reverting back to the sluggish pace it had before Covid; India grew at less than 4% in 2019-20. Since then India’s GDP has registered an annual average growth rate (compounded annual growth rate) of less than 5%. • The two biggest engines of GDP growth seem to have run out of steam: Indians (in their personal capacity) are not spending enough on goods and services, and this dullness has meant that the private firms have been sitting on the sidelines instead of investing in creating new productive capacities. • In sunnier times, trade (read exports) used to be a way to generate economic growth but with Donald Trump as the US President all bets are off and no one can be certain about trade prospects in the coming days, thanks to Trump’s threat to impose tariffs and possibly lead to a global trade and currency war. • That leaves the government with the onerous job of single-handedly kick-starting the economy by spending more. To a great extent, it has been attempting to do it for the past few years with little success in reviving a durable growth momentum. As a result, the government’s finances are already stretched — read, it is already under pressure to reduce its annual borrowings and pare down its existing mountain of debt. • What’s the solution? It all comes back to the Indian consumer. Unless people start spending more, it may not be possible to get out of the rut of sluggish growth. To be sure, 5%-6% annual GDP growth rate is not a pace that policymakers can be proud of; the hope is to push it closer to 7%-8% on a consistent basis, if not higher. • Given that there are limits to how much can the government spend and how much can the economy absorb such spending in the short term — say, increased spending on even more physical infrastructure (roads, railways, ports etc.) — many argue it is time to cut taxes. Doing so will leave consumers with more in their pockets and will, hopefully, trigger a spending cycle that will, in turn, incentivise firms to start investing, thus creating more and better paying jobs that further lead to a new round of spending, so on and so forth. • There is another reason why many people — especially those who are categorised as “middle class” — demand a cut in taxes: There is a growing sense that the Indian government has been over-taxing its citizens. Do You Know: • At close to 80%, the Indian central government has a very high dependence on tax revenues. Many other comparable economies such as Brazil, Mexico and China are much less dependent on tax revenues. Cutting tax rates or collecting less taxes will force the Indian government to borrow more money from the market, thus competing with private firms for investible funds, and, in the process, driving up interest rates for everyone in the economy. • Most developed countries in Europe manage to raise much higher levels of revenues as a proportion of GDP. This suggests that those countries are more efficient at raising revenues and that India’s government, despite being desperately dependent on taxation for their expenditure, isn’t able to target as wide a tax base. • India fits into a broad pattern where the richer a country, the more capable its government is in raising taxes as a percentage of the overall GDP. So India is behind China, which, in turn, is behind the US. Of course, there are variations. For instance, France and Germany raise much higher tax revenues (as a percentage of GDP) than Saudi Arabia or even South Korea despite being roughly at a similar level of per capita income. • India’s tax revenues (as a percentage of GDP) is not as high as many of the developed countries even though it funds a remarkably high proportion of central government’s spending. Moreover, as India becomes richer (in per capita income terms), and its democracy deepens, tax collection can be expected to go higher. Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Explained: Dummies’ guide to the Budget UPSC Previous Year Prelims Question Covering similar theme: 6. Along with the Budget, the Finance Minister also places other documents before the Parliament which include ‘The Macro Economic Framework Statement’. The aforesaid document is presented because this is mandated by (2020) (a) Long standing parliamentary convention (b) Article 112 and Article 110(1) of the Constitution of India (c) Article 113 of the Constitution of India (d) Provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 PRELIMS ANSWER KEY 1. (b) 2. (d) 3. (C) 4.(d) 5.(a) 6.(d) For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.com Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
