Why in News

• Some Internet-based firms have been tricking users into agreeing to certain conditions or clicking a few links.

About Dark Patterns

• These patterns are unethical user interface designs that deliberately make users’ Internet experience harder or even exploit them.
• In turn, they benefit the company or platform employing the designs.
• By using dark patterns, digital platforms take away a user’s right to full information about the services they are using and their control over their browsing experience.
• The term is credited to UI/UX (user interface/user experience) researcher and designer Harry Brignull, who has been working to catalogue such patterns and the companies using them since around 2010.

Use of Dark patterns

• Social media companies and Big Tech firms such as Apple, Amazon, Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Google use dark or deceptive patterns to downgrade the user experience to their advantage.
• In social media, LinkedIn users often receive unsolicited, sponsored messages from influencers.

Concerns

• Dark patterns endanger the experience of Internet users and make them more vulnerable to financial and data exploitation by Big Tech firms.
• Disablingthis option is a difficult process with multiple steps that require users to be familiar with the platform controls.
• Dark patterns confuse users, introduce online obstacles, make simple tasks time-consuming, and have users sign up for unwanted services/products

• Karnataka’s government has introduced a new startup policy (2022-27) aiming to add around 10,000 startups to the state’s business ecosystem in the next five years, with a focus on high-growth startups.
• The policy, which was introduced on 22nd December 2022, aims to stimulate the growth of around 25,000 startups in the coming five years, particularly focusing on increasing the number of high-growth startups.

Positioning Karnataka as the “Champion State” for Startups

• The new policy, which has been framed by the Department of Electronics and IT/BT, aims to position Karnataka as the “Champion State” for startups and further increase the number of high-growth startups by 2027.
• The policy will create an enabling environment for growing startups and make the state an innovation hub. It will also provide a conducive environment and ideal business environment for growth for tech-enabled startups operating outside of Bengaluru.

Supporting Startups through Funding and Incubation

• As part of the policy, the state government will launch an INR 100 Cr venture capital fund to back deeptech startups working in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, electric vehicles, medtech, robotics, and drones.
• The policy also provides funding to startups at various stages of their business life cycle, including seed funding, venture capital funding, angel investor funding, and sector-specific funding.
• It also offers incubation support, mentorship, co-working spaces, and a dedicated Start-up Cell to help startups grow and succeed.

Expanding the Startup Ecosystem in Karnataka

• Karnataka currently houses around 15,000 startups, and the new policy aims to add around 10,000 more in the next five years.
• The policy also establishes 50 new-age innovation network (NAIN) centres – 35 in IT/electronics and 15 in bio-technology institutions of higher learning located outside Bengaluru Urban district – to support the growth of startups in these sectors.

Aim of Karnataka’s new startup policy

• Karnataka’s new startup policy aims to position the state as a leading destination for startups and drive the growth of the startup ecosystem in the region.
• It provides a range of support measures, including funding, incubation, mentorship, co-working spaces, and a dedicated Start-up Cell, to help startups grow and succeed.
• The policy also establishes 50 new-age innovation network (NAIN) centres to support the growth of startups in the IT/electronics and bio-technology sectors.

• The central government has unveiled a plan for the conservation of Asiatic lions in Gir, a region in Gujarat. Titled “Lion@47: Vision for Amrutkal,” the plan is part of Project Lion and aims to secure and restore habitats to manage the growing lion population.
• It also aims to generate livelihoods for local communities, establish a global hub of knowledge on big cat disease diagnostics and treatment, and promote inclusive biodiversity conservation.

Objectives of Project Lion:

• The main objectives of Project Lion are to secure and restore habitats for the management of the growing lion population, scale up livelihood generation and participation of local communities, establish a global hub of knowledge on big cat disease diagnostics and treatment, and create inclusive biodiversity conservation through the project initiative.
• The project aims to conserve Asiatic lions in Gujarat through a landscape ecology-based approach that integrates conservation and eco-development.

Comparison to Project Tiger

• Project Lion is being implemented in the Gir landscape in Gujarat, which is the last remaining habitat of Asiatic lions.
• In contrast, Project Tiger is being implemented in 53 tiger reserves across the country. Both projects aim to ensure the overall conservation of the ecosystems inhabited by these flagship species.

Implementation and Funding

• Project Lion is being implemented by the Gujarat government and other stakeholders, including the Central Zoo Authority and is funded by the central government.
• The new plan for the conservation of Asiatic lions in Gir aims to secure and restore habitats, generate livelihoods for local communities, establish a global hub of knowledge on big cat disease diagnostics and treatment, and promote inclusive biodiversity conservation.

• Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of centrally protected monuments that have been illegally encroached.

Which states have the highest number of centrally protected monuments that have been encroached on?

• According to the Central Government, a total of 356 centrally protected monuments have been illegally encroached into across India. This is an increase from the 2019 figure of 321 protected monuments that have been infringed.
• Uttar Pradesh, at 743, has the largest number of centrally protected monuments that have been illegally encroached.
• Tamil Nadu has the second-highest number of illegally encroached centrally protected monuments at 412.
• It is followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra with 48 and 46 such monuments respectively.
• Gujarat has the fifth highest number of illegally encroached centrally protected monuments.

What are centrally protected monuments?

• Centrally Protected Monuments are those that are protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
• Under this Act, construction activities are prohibited within 100 meters of a centrally protected monument and construction within 100 to 200 meters of these structures is strictly regulated.
• The regulations under this Act are implemented by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

How are the centrally protected monuments protected?

• The officials from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) regularly inspect the monuments to assess their present conditions.
• Besides conducting various conservation and preservation works based on the requirement, the ASI officials also file police complaints, issue show cause notices to defaulters for the removal of the illegal encroachments, and also issue orders to the Collector requesting for the demolition or removal of these encroachments.

About Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958

• The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR Act) regulates the preservation of ancient and historical monuments as well as archaeological sites and remains of national importance. The ASI, which comes under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Culture, functions under the provisions of this Act.
• This Act protects monuments and sites that are more than 100 years old. An area within 100 meters of the monuments that are protected under this Act is considered a “prohibited area”. Here, all construction activities are banned. The area within 200 meters of the monument is a regulated area. Any repair or modifications of structures within this area can be done only with prior permission from the ASI.

• A new research has found that if necessary conservation efforts are not taken, the populations of up to 97 percent of land-based Antarctic species could decline by the end of this century.

About Antarctica’s biodiversity

• Antarctica has a unique species of plants and animals that can survive the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent on Earth. These species include 2 flowering plants, hardy moss and lichens, numerous microbes, invertebrates and breeding seabirds like emperor and Adélie penguins. These animals and plants are threatened because of global warming and climate crisis.

What are the key findings of the study?

• Greater conservation efforts are required for the protection of Antarctic ecosystems, which are threatened because of climate crisis.
• Climate change is the biggest threat to the plant and animal species living in Antarctica. Addressing global warming is an effective step to secure their future.
• With the worsening global warming, Antarctica’s ice-free areas are predicted to expand further, causing rapid changes in the natural habitat of animals and plants living there.
• Humanity’s presence in the region, besides causing environmental pollution, supports the thriving of invasive species.
• According to the study, under the worst-case scenario, if the current conservation efforts remain the same, the population of 97 percent of Antarctic terrestrial species and breeding seabirds could decline between now and 2100.
• At the best-case scenario, 37 percent of the species would decline.
• The most likely scenario would mean a 65 percent decline in the population of the terrestrial species by 2100.
• Emperor penguins are at the risk of going extinct by 2100 in the worst-case scenario. It is the only species in the study that is facing this fate.
• Climate change is also threatening the nematode worm Scottnema lindsayae, which lives in extremely dry soils. It is threatened as melting ice is increasing soil moisture.
• Not all species in Antarctica are facing population decline. Some are expected to benefit initially. These include 2 Antarctic plants, some mosses and the gentoo penguin. Their populations are expected to increase and become more widespread in the event of more liquid water, more ice-free and warmer temperatures.

How can these threats be addressed?

• An estimated 23 million USD per annum could be enough to implement 10 key strategies to minimise threats faced by Antarctica’s biodiversity. This is relatively small sum that can benefit 84 percent of the terrestrial bird, mammal and plant groups. It is lesser than the cost of reviving the threatened species, which is estimated to be more than 1.2 billion USD per annum.
• Reducing global warming to not more than 2°C could benefit up to 68 percent of terrestrial species and breeding seabirds. Managing non-native species and diseases and effectively managing and protecting native species can also benefit Antarctica’s biodiversity. They can be achieved by providing special protection for species, and increasing biosecurity to prevent the introduction of non-native species.

• Project Vaani will be implemented jointly by the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), ARTPARK (AI and Robotics Technology Park), and Google to gather speech data from across India for the creation of an AI-based language model that can understand diverse Indian languages and dialects.

What is Project Vaani?

• Under Project Vaani, diverse languages used across India will be mapped by collecting speech sets of around 1 million people from 773 districts over 3 years.
• The estimated cost of this project is around 30 to 40 million USD.
• It is part of the Bengaluru-based IISc and Artpark’s Bhasha AI project that includes RESPIN (Recognizing Speech in Indian languages) and SYSPIN (Synthesizing Speech in Indian languages).
• The project would involve IISc and Google recording around 1.5 lakh hours of speech, part of which will be transcribed in local scripts.
• This project uses a district-anchored approach, which involves recording local speeches by randomly selecting over 1,000 people from each district.

What are the objectives of the initiative?

• One of the main objectives of this project is the development of technologies like automatic speech recognition, speech-to-speech translation and natural language understanding.
• Its ultimate goal is to deliver a technological solution that can eliminate the linguistic barriers that are currently present in technology and increase accessibility of the technology for a wider range of people.
• Once this project is fully completed, efforts will be taken to create an artificial intelligence-based language model that can understand diverse languages and dialects used in India.
• The new model proposed under the Vaani project supports both speech and text translation. This would be a leap from the Multilingual Representations for Indian Languages (MuRIL), which only supports text-based translation. The new model would be trained on speech and text from over 100 Indian languages, which are spoken by over 1 lakh people across India.

What is the current status of the project?

• Over the past few months, linguistic data from nearly 69 districts have been collected from across India.
• So far, over 150 hours of data have been collected, covering more than 30 languages from 841 different pin codes in a gender and age-balanced manner.

Why in News?

• The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), a British consultancy, has said India’s will become third largest economy by 2035 from the current fifth spot.
• In its annual World Economic League Table, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said that over the next five years, India’s annual rate of GDP growth is expected to average 6.4 percent after which growth is expected to average 6.5 percent in the subsequent nine years.
• CEBR also adds that by 2037, world gross domestic product will be doubled as developing economies will catch up with the richer ones.
• The shifting balance of power will see the East Asia and Pacific region account for over a third of global output by 2037, while Europe’s share shrinks to less than a fifth.
• It said on the other hand, the global economy will face recession in 2023 mainly due to rises in interest rates by the central banks to arrest higher inflation.
• In its annual World Economic League Table, it said  global economy surpassed 100 trillion Dollar for the first time in 2022, but will stall in 2023 as policy makers continue their fight against soaring prices.

About Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR)

• The Centre for Economics and Business Research is an economic consultancy based in London, United Kingdom.
• CEBR supplies economic forecasting and analysis to private firms and public bodies. It provides a range of economic services, including economic impact studies, macroeconomic forecasting, policy research, and general economic strategy and consultancy

History

• CEBR was founded in 1992 by Douglas McWilliams, a former Chief Economic Adviser to the Confederation of British Industry and Chief Economist for IBM (UK) and later Gresham College professor of commerce.

Structure

• Forecasting and Thought Leadership
• The Forecasting and Thought Leadership team delivers forecasts of the British and global economies. The team is also responsible for delivering a range of economic tracker reports, such as the Irwin Mitchell UK Powerhouse Report, and the Asda Income Tracker.
• Economic Advisory
• The Economic Advisory team covers areas such as economic impact analysis, economic simulations, policy analysis, market sizing and valuations. Cebr has provided economic advisory to various industries, including tech, energy, maritime, financial services, international trade, manufacturing, engineering, and the arts.
• Environment, Infrastructure and Local Growth
• The Environment, Infrastructure and Local Growth team has provided analysis for transport planning and other areas of policy and strategy, including digital connectivity, and housing.

World Economic League Table.

• Since its first publication in 2009, CEBR’s World Economic League Table (WELT) has provided a yearly measure of the comparative economic success of the countries of the world. It regularly receives global coverage upon its release every Boxing Day (26 December)

Why in News?

• Centre has approved projects worth around 2,700 crore rupees for developing sewerage infrastructure in the Ganga basin.
• Out of these projects, 12 pertain to develop the sewerage infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
• Along with this afforestation programmes for the year 2022-23 for Uttarakhand and Bihar were also approved at an estimated cost of 42.80 crore rupees.
• The approvals were given during the 6th meeting of the Executive Committee of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
• Another project titled ‘Scientific exploration of floral diversity near the Ganga river banks for ethnobotanical purposes along with their conservation was also approved in the meeting for all the five states.
• The project will be implemented in collaboration with Patanjali Research Institute (PRI) and Patanjali Organic Research Institute (PORI), Haridwar, Uttarakhand.

About National Mission for Clean Ganga:

• The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was implemented by the National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga also known as the National Ganga Council(set in 2016; which replaced the National Ganga River Basin Authority – NGRBA).
• This mission was established in 12th August 2011 under the Societies Registration Act,1860as a registered society.
• It has a two-tier management structure and comprises of Governing Council and Executive Committee.
• The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) under National Ganga Council is supported by the State level Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
• It is an initiative taken by the Government of India to address the pollution of the river Ganga by providing financial and technical assistance.

• The Farmers First Project launched by Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University in the Baijnath area (Kangra district) has transformed the lives of farmers. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had sanctioned the project in 2017.
• Under the project, the university had selected 500 farmers of Tara, Dharer, and Kandkosari villages of Dharer panchayat.
• Earlier, the farmers used to grow maize and barley for their own consumption.
• After the introduction of high-yielding varieties of early radish, early peas, cauliflower and chilies, the farmers earned good income in the past three years.
• It is for the first time that the farmers are selling vegetables in nearby markets of Baijnath and Palampur.
• On an average, farmers are earning Rs 10,000 per kanal and around 66 per cent farmers have been able to double their farm income.
• The farmers are collectively harvesting and transporting crops in a jeep to the market and marketing the crops themselves.

• Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar stressed the need to create a Himalayan grid to solve the problems of the Himalayan states after inaugurating a three-day HIM Samvaad– “Trans Himalayan Conference on Localised Solutions and Implementation Strategy” organised at Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni.
• Nauni University, Sewa International, Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kisan Yojana and Indian Ecological Society are jointly organising the conference.
• Arlekar said, “The Himalayan region has its own problems which need to be solved collectively. The Himalayan Grid could be considered on the same lines as the Coastal Guard Grid for the coastal regions.”
• “Natural calamities in the Himalayan regions could be solved through such platforms.”
• Vice-Chancellor Rajeshwar Chandel said natural farming had shown a potential to be a strong livelihood resource for the Himalayan farming communities.