Skin Colour Discrimination, India BioEconomy Report and Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act – DairyScoop

Focus on content disclosure, labelling: Govt report to Delhi HC on ‘deepfakes’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: 

• General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and
implementation.

• General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT

What’s the ongoing story: DEEPFAKES TARGETING women during state elections, a rise in scam content using AI, better enforcement rather than new laws, and lack of uniform definition for “deepfake” — these are some of the key concerns raised by stakeholders, according to a status report submitted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to the Delhi High Court on Monday.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is a deepfake?

• What are deepfakes, and how do they pose a challenge to digital security and democracy?

• Discuss the legal and technological measures available in India to counter deepfake threats.

• The rise of deepfake technology has created new ethical and legal challenges in the digital era—know its implications for privacy, national security, and media credibility.

• Discuss the role of artificial intelligence in both the creation and detection of deepfake content.

• The Delhi High Court has asked the government to focus on content disclosure and labelling of deepfake media—Examine the effectiveness of such measures in tackling AI-generated misinformation.

• Compare and contrast India’s approach to deepfake regulation with that of other countries.

Key Takeaways:

• According to the report, a nine-member committee set up by MeitY in November 2024 met a month later. The committee then met technology and policy stakeholders on January 21 this year.

• The stakeholders pressed for mandatory regulation around AI content disclosure with a caveat that the emphasis should be on malicious actors rather than on creative uses of deepfake technology.

• The minutes of the meetings, made part of the status report, notes that various stakeholders in attendance emphasised that “…there should be regulation around mandatory Al content disclosure, labeling standards, and grievance redressal mechanisms, while giving emphasis on malicious actors rather than benign or creative uses of deepfake technology”.

• Prior to the stakeholders’ meeting, the MEITY’s panel looking at deepfake issues had opined there should be “mandatory intermediaries’ compliance”.

• Intermediary liability frameworks determine the extent to which intermediaries can be held liable for content on their platforms. The frameworks range from holding intermediaries entirely responsible for the content posted on their platform to complete immunity.

• Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), an initiative of the Meta-supported Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), flagged to two specific election-related trends during the meeting: one, during state elections, DAU saw deepfakes targeted towards women, and two, scam content using AI is on the rise, a trend which has increased post elections. DAU supports media organisations in detecting deepfakes.

Do You Know:

• Deepfake is a portmanteau of “deep learning” and “fake”. It is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software that superimposes a digital composite on to an existing video (or audio). The origin of the word “deepfake” can be traced back to 2017 when a Reddit user, with the username “deepfakes”, posted explicit videos of celebrities.

• “The term first rose to prominence when Motherboard reported on a Reddit user who was using AI to superimpose the faces of film stars on to existing porn videos, creating (with varying degrees of realness) porn starring Emma Watson, Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson and an array of other female celebrities,” a report in The Guardian said. In June this year, a deepfake video surfaced that showed Mark Zuckerberg saying that he is in total control of the stolen data of billions of people.

• Deepfakes constitute fake content — often in the form of videos but also other media formats such as pictures or audio — created using powerful artificial intelligence tools. They are called deepfakes because they use deep learning technology, a branch of machine learning that applies neural net simulation to massive data sets, to create fake content.

• It employs a branch of artificial intelligence where if a computer is fed enough data, it can generate fakes which behave much like a real person. For instance, AI can learn what a source face looks like and then transpose it onto another target to perform a face swap.

• The application of a technology called Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), which uses two AI algorithms — where one generates the fake content and the other grades its efforts, teaching the system to be better — has helped come up with more accurate deepfakes.

• GAN can also come up with computer-generated images of fake human beings, which has been used by a website called ‘This Person Does Not Exist’. This makes it virtually impossible to detect whether the videos or images we see on the Internet are real or fake.

• Deepfakes can be really difficult to detect. For instance, many people had fallen for Tiktok videos of Tom Cruise playing golf which were later revealed to be deepfakes.

• A paper presented at the Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision 2021 describes a new technique which renders deepfakes more foolproof, making it difficult for traditional tools to detect them.

• The study, led by Paarth Neekhara and Shehzeen Samarah Hussain, both PhD students at University of California San Diego, found that the detection tools can be deceived by inserting slightly manipulated inputs called adversarial examples into every video frame.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍UPSC Essentials | One word a day — Deepfakes

Previous year UPSC 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

SC stays Allahabad HC observations on rape: ‘Insensitive, inhuman’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Main Examination: 

• General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary

• General Studies IV: Emotional intelligence-concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance and Case Studies

What’s the ongoing story: The Supreme Court has decided to examine the March 17, 2025, order of the Allahabad High Court which said that grabbing breasts and breaking the strings of the girl’s pyjamas while dragging her under a culvert were not sufficient to hold the charges of rape or attempt to rape.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What exactly Allahabad High Court had said?

• Analyze the impact of insensitive judicial remarks on survivors of sexual violence.

• In the context of the Supreme Court staying the Allahabad HC’s observations, what are the ethical and legal responsibilities of the judiciary while dealing with cases of sexual violence?

• Differentiate between “preparation” and “attempt” in the context of criminal law.

• Why is “attempt” to commit a crime considered more serious than mere preparation?

• Discuss the legal provisions related to “attempt to commit rape” in India.

Key Takeaways:

• The top court registered a suo motu case in this regard on Tuesday on the basis of a letter by Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta.

• The High Court had ordered a POCSO court to alter the offence of rape in a case into that of “assaulting or abusing with an intent to disrobe or compel her to be naked”.

• The single bench of the High Court directed the trial court in Kasganj district to issue fresh summons to the two accused, booked for rape, under the modified charges.

• The High Court was hearing a petition filed by the accused, challenging the summons issued to them by the Special Judge of the POCSO court in Kasganj to face trial in a rape case.

Do You Know:

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 26) stayed a ruling of the Allahabad High Court that said grabbing the breasts of a minor child and breaking the string of her pyjama “hardly constitute[d] an offence of attempt to rape”, and merely amount[ed] to “preparation”.

• In his order passed on March 17, Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra of the Allahabad High Court deleted the charges of attempted rape against three accused persons and directed that they should be tried for the “minor offence” of assaulting or using criminal force against a woman under Section 354B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), read with Sections 9/10 (aggravated sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).

• In Abhayanand Mishra v. State of Bihar (1961), the SC ruled that to prove an attempt to commit an offence, the prosecution must broadly show that:
a. The accused had the “intention” to commit that offence.
b. The accused made preparations to commit the offence.
c. The accused then acted towards committing the offence — this need not be the “penultimate act”, that is, the final act before the offence is committed.
d. The penultimate act took place “during the course of committing that offence”. (This is known as the requirement of “proximity”.)

• Crucially, an attempt is said to be made only when this penultimate act takes place — an accused cannot be held guilty for merely making preparations without taking any action towards committing a crime.

• As the SC put it in State of Maharashtra v Mohd. Yakub (1980), “attempt begins where preparation ends”.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Supreme Court to examine controversial Allahabad HC order on rape

📍‘Grabbing breasts, breaking strings of pyjamas not sufficient to hold rape charge’, HC judge orders accused be booked for minor offence of ‘assault or abuse’ of girl

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:
2. Which of the following constitutional provisions empower the Supreme Court to stay or overrule observations made by High Courts?
a) Article 129
b) Article 142
c) Article 226
d) Article 356

Kerala chief secy calls out skin colour bias, links it to casteism: ‘I dig black’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development—Inclusion

Main Examination: General Studies I: Salient features of Indian Society

What’s the ongoing story: “As a woman, it is difficult to be heard. But when you are a black (dark-skinned) woman, you are invisible,” Kerala’s Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan (59) told The Indian Express on Wednesday, a day after her social media post in which she spoke out against discrimination on the basis of skin colour.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Who is Sarada Muraleedharan?

• Discuss the interplay between skin color bias and casteism in Indian society.

• Despite constitutional safeguards, biases based on skin colour continue to persist in Indian society. How do such biases impact individual experiences and societal structures?

• Examine the role of media, social structures, and cultural factors in perpetuating such biases.

• How does bias against darker skin tones intersect with gender, caste, and economic inequality in India?

• Suggest policy measures to promote greater inclusivity and social acceptance.

Key Takeaways:

• Muraleedharan said that India’s obsession with skin colour is rooted in casteism. “It is a fact that people of lower caste and people who are in deeper poverty are branded dark or black. We have our prejudices,” she said.

• “In my case, it is true that I have not made my caste public because of which there is always a question of where to slot me in the caste hierarchy. First, they think I am not a Malayali, then they think I am of a high caste because of my name. But then I do not ‘look like a high caste person’, and then they get confused,” she said.

• Muraleedharan took over as Chief Secretary after her husband, V Venu, retired on August 31, 2024.

• A 1990-batch IAS officer, Muraleedharan has worked in various capacities in the government, including with the self-help group, Kudumbashree, National Rural Livelihoods Mission of the Ministry of Rural Development, and Ministry of Panchayati Raj. She is due to retire in a month’s time.

Do You Know:

• According to article 14 of the Indian constitution, the state shall not deny equality to any person before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India. Article 15 prohibits the state from discriminating any citizen on ground of any religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

• The Advertising Standards Council of India attempted to address skin-based discrimination in 2014 by banning ads that depict people with darker skin as inferior.

• Actor-director Nandita Das says there is a need to put the ‘unity in diversity’ line to practice but such is the level of discrimination that fair is considered lovely in a country where 90 per cent of the population has dark skin. The actor, who has been associated with the campaign ‘Dark is Beautiful’, says she fails to understand the divide prevailing in society be it for skin colour or religion, especially in a country like India, which is so diverse.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍‘You have so beautiful white skin’: India and its problems with skin colour

📍Colorism and employment bias in India: an experimental study in stratification economics

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:
3. With reference to discrimination based on skin colour in India, consider the following statements:
1. The Constitution of India explicitly mentions skin colour as a basis for non-discrimination.
2. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, addresses caste-based discrimination but does not explicitly mention skin colour bias.
3. Indian laws prohibit racial discrimination but do not have specific legal provisions against colourism.
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

IN PARLIAMENT

Tribhuvandas laid foundation of Amul, says Shah; Kurien shaped it, says Opp

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

What’s the ongoing story: A “new age” cooperative culture will emerge from Tribhuvan Sahkari University, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said Wednesday as LS passed a Bill to set up the university.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Personality in News-Tribhuvandas Patel and Dr Verghese Kurien

• Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill, 2025—Know its key highlights

• Discuss the role of Tribhuvandas Patel and Verghese Kurien in shaping the Indian dairy industry.

• Operation Flood is considered one of the most successful agricultural revolutions in India. Analyze its impact on rural livelihoods, dairy cooperatives, and India’s economy.

• Compare and contrast the Green Revolution and the White Revolution in terms of their impact on Indian agriculture and rural development.

• What are the significance of dairy cooperatives in India’s rural economy. What lessons can be learned from Amul’s success for other agricultural sectors?

Key Takeaways:

• The Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill, 2025, named after one of the pioneers of the cooperative movement in India Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel, seeks to establish the university on the campus of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in Gujarat to impart training in the cooperative sector.

• Shah said the Bill will strengthen the rural economy and provide the country with new leadership in the cooperative sector. “There is a need for trained human resources everywhere, and this university can give us this. Cooperatives became weak because those who were involved gave work to their own people. There were no degrees in cooperative sector, so how were standards to be set? Once this university comes up, only those with these diplomas and degrees will get these jobs,” said Shah. He said there are no common courses now for the cooperative sector in institutions across the country and the University will offer degree, diploma, and certificate courses besides enhancing research in the sector.

Do You Know:

• Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and politician. A follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he is regarded as the father of the cooperative movement in India, most notably in the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union in 1946, and the Anand Co-operative movement.

• Born in Kozhikode, Kerala on November 26, 1921, Dr Verghese Kurien obtained degrees in physics in 1940 and mechanical engineering in
1943, intending to join the Indian Army as an engineer.

• In May 1949, Kurien began his government-mandated assignment at an experimental government creamery in Anand, Gujarat, hoping to leave after his bond period ended. While there, he developed a friendship with Tribhuvandas Patel, then the Chairman of the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union. From 1945-46, Patel led the effort for dairy farmers in the region to unionise and combat the exploitation by Polson, a dairy company that monopolised milk collection.

• At Patel’s insistence, Kurien took charge as an engineer to look after the cooperative’s machines. With time, he took an active interest in the daily operations of the union and the farmers, eventually becoming its general manager.
Under Kurien’s leadership, the cooperative expanded its capacity and acquired equipment to process and store dairy products. Thus, it was able to expand its milk supply to previously underserved areas of the country, which relied on imported milk powder. More importantly, the collective established a direct link between the producers and consumers.

• The cooperative would be renamed the Anand Milk Union Limited or Amul, and began marketing its products under the Amul brand. This model of dairy milk cooperatives proved to be wildly successful and others soon followed suit. Kurien and Patel, along with Dara Khurody – who had established the Aarey Milk Colony in Bombay, which provided pasteurising and distribution facilities for the milk from Anand – were awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1963.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍National Milk Day: Recalling Verghese Kurien’s role in pioneering the white revolution

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
📍Explain various types of revolutions, took place in Agriculture after Independence in India. How have these revolutions helped in poverty alleviation and food security in India? (2017)

THE IDEAS PAGE

Court must revisit NJAC

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Main Examination: 

• General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary

• General Studies II: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability,

What’s the ongoing story: K.K. Venugopal Writes: Article 124 of the Constitution deals with the establishment and constitution of the Supreme Court. It provides that the President of India (the President acting on the advice of the Council of Ministers) shall appoint every judge of the Supreme Court only after consultation with the Chief Justice of India.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Discuss the evolution of the judicial appointment system in India.

• How does the collegium system compare with the NJAC in terms of transparency and accountability?

• The Supreme Court struck down the NJAC on the grounds of protecting judicial independence—Know whether judicial independence and executive accountability can be balanced in judicial appointments.

• Examine the key challenges and criticisms of the collegium system.

• What reforms, if any, are necessary to ensure a more transparent and accountable judicial appointment process?

• How the issue of judicial appointments affects the balance between the executive, legislature, and judiciary.

• In light of the Supreme Court’s decision on NJAC, discuss the role of constitutional amendments in shaping institutional reforms in India.

• Should the judiciary reconsider its stance on NJAC? Justify your answer.

Key Takeaways:
K.K. Venugopal Writes:

• The system worked smoothly for the first two decades after Independence, with judges of great erudition and integrity being appointed. But the Supreme Court was called upon to safeguard judicial independence, which led to the famous First Judges Case in 1981 — the S P Gupta case. In that case, counsel argued that the term “consultation” in Article 124 should be interpreted as “concurrence”, meaning that no judge should be appointed without the Chief Justice’s approval. The Court, however, rejected this argument.

• Despite the clear reasoning in the First Judges Case, the issue was revisited in the 1990s. The Court, in a dramatic shift, reversed its earlier stance and turned Article 124 on its head, declaring that “consultation” actually meant “concurrence”. The Supreme Court, thereafter, created the “collegium” system, a body consisting of the Chief Justice and the four senior-most judges, to make appointments to the Court — a system that was never envisaged in the original Constitution, thereby transferring the significant power of choosing and proposing the appointment of judges from the executive to the judiciary.

• A rare consensus emerged across the political spectrum in 2014, which resulted in the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, establishing the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). The Court invoked the “Basic Structure Doctrine”, ruling that the inclusion of the law minister and two eminent persons and the dilution of the primacy of the view of the judges in the process of judicial appointments compromised judicial independence. This conclusion is, in my view, difficult to comprehend.

Do You Know:

• The Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, which established the NJAC and the NJAC Act, was passed by Parliament in 2014 to set up a commission for appointing judges, replacing the Collegium system. This would essentially increase the government’s role in the appointment of judges.

• The NJAC was to comprise the Chief Justice of India as the ex officio Chairperson, two senior-most Supreme Court Judges as ex officio members, the Union Minister of Law and Justice as ex officio member, and two eminent persons from civil society — one of whom would be nominated by a committee consisting of the CJI, Prime Minster and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the other would be nominated from the SC/ST/OBC/minority communities or women. The laws were repealed in October 2015 after the Supreme Court struck them down.

• The NJAC Act had proposed that appointment of judges be done by a six-member body, headed by the Chief Justice of India, and comprising two most senior SC judges, the Union Law Minister and two “eminent” persons. The two eminent persons were to be selected by a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the CJI and the leader of the largest Opposition party in Lok Sabha.

• However, the Supreme Court was of the view that there was no question of accepting an alternative procedure which did not ensure primacy of the judiciary in the matter of selection and appointment of judges in the higher judiciary.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍NJAC and the veto question

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
📍Critically examine the Supreme Court’s judgment on ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014’ with reference to the appointment of judges of higher judiciary in India. (UPSC CSE 2017)

EXPRESS NETWORK

US religious freedom report calls for sanctions on R&AW, India says biased & politically motivated

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

What’s the ongoing story: India has rejected a US panel’s latest religious freedom report which says minorities in the country face deteriorating treatment and — for the first time — recommends targeted sanctions against the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) over its alleged involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatists.

Key Points to Ponder:

• The report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), released on March 25 says what?

• Know the role of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) in safeguarding India’s national security and strategic interests.

• The imposition of sanctions by the U.S. on India’s intelligence agencies could have significant diplomatic consequences—Discuss the potential impact of such a move.

• How should India respond to unilateral sanctions imposed by other nations on its government agencies?

Key Takeaways:

• The report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), released on March 25, recommended designating India as “country of particular concern” among 15 others including Afghanistan, Russia, China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

• In a strongly worded response, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called the report “biased and politically motivated”.

• Responding to questions, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “The USCIRF’s persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom.”

• “Such efforts to undermine India’s standing as a beacon of democracy and tolerance will not succeed. In fact, it is the USCIRF that should be designated as an entity of concern,” he said.

• The latest report documents religious freedom conditions in 2024 and recommends action to the White House, Congress and State Department. These recommendations are not binding.

• The independent, bipartisan US federal government agency has flagged concerns over the state of minorities in India several times over the years. But this is the first time that it has also mentioned the Indian intelligence agency in connection with alleged repression of minorities and recommended targeted sanctions.

Do You Know:

• It said the US Congress should designate India as a “country of particular concern” for “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations…”
It recommended: “Impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities, such as Vikash Yadav and RAW, for their culpability in severe violations of religious freedom by freezing their assets and/or barring their entry into the US.”

• The US has charged Yadav, a former Indian government official, in the alleged foiled plot to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil in 2023. India has said Yadav was “no longer an employee of the Government of India”.

• In the report, the agency also recommended that the US government conduct a “review assessing whether arms sales to India, such as MQ-9B drones under Section 36 of the Arms Export Control Act, may contribute to or exacerbate religious freedom violations”. In October last year, India sealed a deal with the US to procure 31 Predator drones at $4 billion to shore up its defence along the Eastern borders.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍US govt commission flags ‘worsening’ religious freedom, India says ‘malicious’, ‘biased’

EXPLAINED

Status of India’s bioeconomy, how to sustain further growth

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

What’s the ongoing story: A new government report has pegged the value of India’s bioeconomy in 2024 at more than $165 billion, accounting for over 4.2% of the country’s GDP.

Key Points to Ponder:

• The India BioEconomy Report-know its key highlights

• What is Bioeconomy?

• Discuss the role of government policies and initiatives in strengthening India’s bioeconomy.

• How does India’s bioeconomy align with the principles of sustainability and environmental conservation?

• Discuss the ethical and regulatory challenges associated with Bioeconomy and its rapid expansion in India.

• India aspires to become a major player in the global bioeconomy. Compare India’s progress with other leading bioeconomy nations such as the USA and EU.

Key Takeaways:

• The India BioEconomy Report, released by the Department of Biotechnology, says there is ample opportunity for this sector to grow to about $300 billion by 2030, and to $1 trillion by 2047.

• Realising the potential for greater use of biotechnology in economic processes, the government in 2024 unveiled the BioE3 policy (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment).

• Its main objective is to establish India as a global hub for bio-manufacturing, and a major centre for research and development in biotechnology.
The policy is an attempt to prepare India for a future in which the control over, and capabilities in, cutting-edge technologies would be the main drivers of economic growth. The idea is to incentivise and promote the setting-up of a network of universities, research institutions, start-ups and industries to facilitate bio-manufacturing in key areas such as bio-based chemicals and enzymes, functional foods, precision biotherapeutics, marine and space biotechnology, and climate-resilient agriculture.

• India already has fairly well-developed capabilities in some of these areas, which would be relatively easy to build upon in order to deliver commercially successful products.

Do You Know:

• Bioeconomy refers to the industrial use of biological resources (plants, animals, and microorganisms), and the replication of natural biological processes in the production of goods and services.

• Biological resources and natural processes have been integral to the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and agriculture sectors for a long time. But their use is now expanding to many other areas. Bioresources like plants or microorganisms are renewable, relatively cheap, and locally available, while natural processes are more sustainable and eco-friendly.

• The report shows that the value of India’s bioeconomy nearly doubled in the last five years, from around $86 billion in 2020 to $165 billion in 2024 (see chart).

India’s bioeconomy.

• The number of companies operating in the bioeconomy has gone up by almost 90% in the last three years, from 5,365 in 2021 to 10,075 in 2024. This number is projected to double again by 2030, by which time such companies would employ close to 35 million people, according to the report.

• Nearly half the value of the bioeconomy (roughly $78 billion) was generated in the industrial sector, for the development and use of biofuels and bioplastics, among other things. The pharma sector accounted for another 35% of the total value, with vaccines the major contributor.
The report showed that only five states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh — accounted for more than two-thirds of the value generated in the bioeconomy (see table). The entire eastern and northeastern region generated less than 6% of the total value.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Centre’s new BioE3 policy: How can biotechnology be harnessed for economic development?

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:
4. Which of the following best describes the term “bioeconomy”?
a) The use of biological resources for economic growth, job creation, and environmental sustainability
b) An economy entirely based on agriculture and animal husbandry
c) A system where biotechnology replaces all conventional industrial processes
d) The exclusive use of biofuels and organic materials in industrial production

Why activists are worried about Section 44(3) of new data protection law

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

What’s the ongoing story: The government wants to use the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) to curtail access to public information on the pretext of safeguarding privacy, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday (March 25).

Key Points to Ponder:

• Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act)-Know its key features

• What is Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act?

• Analyse the impact of Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act on citizens’ right to privacy.

• How can the balance between national security and individual privacy be maintained?

• Compare India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

• What is the role of the Data Protection Board of India (DPBI) under the DPDP Act, 2023?

Key Takeaways:

• The DPDP Act received the President’s assent on August 11, 2023, and will come into force after the Rules under the Act are notified. In January, Vaishnaw’s ministry invited feedback and comments on the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025. The window for comments on the draft Rules closed on February 18.

• The DPDP Act is intended to “provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognises both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process such personal data for lawful purposes and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

• Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act mentions a change that will be made in Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. This change, RTI activists say, will greatly reduce the amount of information that government agencies are obligated to disclose under the 2005 Act.

• Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act states: “…There shall be no obligation to give any citizen…information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority…is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information.”
Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act shortens this clause in the RTI Act to broaden the scope for denying information. It says: “In section 8 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, in sub-section (1), for clause (j), the following clause shall be substituted, namely: — “(j) information which relates to personal information”.

Do You Know:

• The potential conflict between a citizen’s right to information and the privacy of the subject of that information where the greater public interest is involved, has been discussed widely.

• During the discussions that preceded the passage of the RTI Bill by Parliament, the Bill was examined by a Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee. Section 8(1) of the Bill was about “Exemption from disclosure of information”, and sub-sections 8(1)(a) to 8(1)(j) spelt out those exemptions.
A general rider to the exemptions in Section 8(1) says that any information “which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person”.

• Activists point out that a lot of personal information about public servants such as their assets and liabilities are published because it is seen to serve a public purpose. The blanket exemption now granted to all “information which relates to personal information” could be used to deny the public their right to know, they say.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India’s Data Protection Law: Simple, consent-driven and business-friendly

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
5. Right to Privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty. Which of the following in the Constitution of India correctly and appropriately imply the above statement? (2018)
(a) Article 14 and the provisions under the 42ndAmendment to the Constitution.
(b) Article 17 and the Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV.
(c) Article 21 and the freedoms guaranteed in Part III.
(d) Article 24 and the provisions under the 44thAmendment to the Constitution.

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