Today's Headlines - 28 July 2023
Lok Sabha passes forest conservation bill
GS Paper - 1 (Geography)
Lok Sabha a bill that seeks to exempt land within 100 km of the country's borders from the purview of conservation laws and permit setting up of zoos, safaris and eco-tourism facilities in forest areas. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill-2023 was passed after a brief debate which was responded to by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
More about the Bill
The bill exempts certain types of land from the provisions of the Act such as forest land along a rail line or a public road maintained by the government providing access to a habitation, or to a rail, and roadside amenity up to a maximum size of 0.10 hectare.
Forest land that will also be exempted includes land situated within 100 km along the international borders, Line of Control, or Line of Actual Control, proposed to be used for construction of strategic linear projects for national importance or security.
It also exempts land up to 10 hectares, proposed to be used for constructing security related infrastructure, or land proposed to be used for constructing defence related projects, camp for paramilitary forces, or public utility projects as specified by central government not exceeding five hectares in a left wing extremism affected area.
Yadav made it clear that there was no contradiction between the Forest (Conservation) Act and the Forest Rights Act as the two legislations supplement each other.
The bill also seeks to empower the central government to specify, by order, the terms and conditions subject to which any survey, such as, reconnaissance, prospecting, investigation or exploration including seismic survey, shall not be treated as non-forest purpose.
#upsc #news #todayheadline #loksabha #conservation #geography #laws #zoo #tourism #facilities #forest #areas #railline #border #hectares #infrastructure #projects #forestrights #prospecting #investigation #exploration #seismic
Lok Sabha passes forest conservation bill
GS Paper - 1 (Geography)
Lok Sabha a bill that seeks to exempt land within 100 km of the country's borders from the purview of conservation laws and permit setting up of zoos, safaris and eco-tourism facilities in forest areas. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill-2023 was passed after a brief debate which was responded to by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
More about the Bill
The bill exempts certain types of land from the provisions of the Act such as forest land along a rail line or a public road maintained by the government providing access to a habitation, or to a rail, and roadside amenity up to a maximum size of 0.10 hectare.
Forest land that will also be exempted includes land situated within 100 km along the international borders, Line of Control, or Line of Actual Control, proposed to be used for construction of strategic linear projects for national importance or security.
It also exempts land up to 10 hectares, proposed to be used for constructing security related infrastructure, or land proposed to be used for constructing defence related projects, camp for paramilitary forces, or public utility projects as specified by central government not exceeding five hectares in a left wing extremism affected area.
Yadav made it clear that there was no contradiction between the Forest (Conservation) Act and the Forest Rights Act as the two legislations supplement each other.
The bill also seeks to empower the central government to specify, by order, the terms and conditions subject to which any survey, such as, reconnaissance, prospecting, investigation or exploration including seismic survey, shall not be treated as non-forest purpose.
#upsc #news #todayheadline #loksabha #conservation #geography #laws #zoo #tourism #facilities #forest #areas #railline #border #hectares #infrastructure #projects #forestrights #prospecting #investigation #exploration #seismic
Today's Headlines - 03 August 2023
UIDAI is using AI to tackle payment frauds
GS Paper - 3 (ITC)
As more frauds related to the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) come to the fore, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has turned to artificial intelligence-based systems in a bid to limit the cases — this includes developing technologies around fingerprinting and facial recognition. The UIDAI has rolled out an in-house Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technology-based Finger Minutiae Record – Finger Image Record (FMR-FIR) modality which is able to check the liveness of a fingerprint to detect the use of cloned fingerprint during the authentication process.
How does the Aadhaar fingerprint technology work?
The technology was rolled out in February this year and uses a combination of both finger minutiae and finger image to check the liveness of the fingerprint captured.
The measure was implemented after instances of people creating fake fingerprints using silicone to syphon off money from unsuspecting individuals’ bank accounts were reported.
The problem gets compounded on account of the fact that a large part of the AePS user base is in rural areas.
In effect, the AI-based technology is able to identify whether the fingerprint is from a real, or ‘live’ finger, or a cloned one.
Payment frauds on the rise
According to the Home Ministry, in the financial year 2020-21, 2.62 lakhs financial crimes, such as money laundering, bribery, corruption and different kinds of frauds, were reported. The number jumped to 6.94 lakhs in 2022, a report, released by the Standing Committee on Finance — headed by BJP MP Jayant Sinha — said.
Citing data it received from the supervised entities of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the committee noted that payment-related frauds are on the rise in India – In FY21, the volume of such frauds was a little over 700,000, which by FY23, increased to close to 20 million.
According to the information submitted to it by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), in the year 2022, out of 6,94,424 complaints related to financial frauds only in 2.6 per cent of cases an FIR was registered.
The details shared with Parliament revealed that between November 2021 and March 2023, more than 2,000 complaints related to AePS were received by the offices of the RBI’s ombudsman.
#upsc #news #headline #UIDAI #payment #frauds #ITC #adhaar #system #FMR #FIR #machine #work #syphon #rural #areas #RBI #reserve #bank #india #ombudsman #cases #financial #bribery #corruption #silicone #cloned #I4C #indian #cyber #crime #coordination #tackle
UIDAI is using AI to tackle payment frauds
GS Paper - 3 (ITC)
As more frauds related to the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) come to the fore, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has turned to artificial intelligence-based systems in a bid to limit the cases — this includes developing technologies around fingerprinting and facial recognition. The UIDAI has rolled out an in-house Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technology-based Finger Minutiae Record – Finger Image Record (FMR-FIR) modality which is able to check the liveness of a fingerprint to detect the use of cloned fingerprint during the authentication process.
How does the Aadhaar fingerprint technology work?
The technology was rolled out in February this year and uses a combination of both finger minutiae and finger image to check the liveness of the fingerprint captured.
The measure was implemented after instances of people creating fake fingerprints using silicone to syphon off money from unsuspecting individuals’ bank accounts were reported.
The problem gets compounded on account of the fact that a large part of the AePS user base is in rural areas.
In effect, the AI-based technology is able to identify whether the fingerprint is from a real, or ‘live’ finger, or a cloned one.
Payment frauds on the rise
According to the Home Ministry, in the financial year 2020-21, 2.62 lakhs financial crimes, such as money laundering, bribery, corruption and different kinds of frauds, were reported. The number jumped to 6.94 lakhs in 2022, a report, released by the Standing Committee on Finance — headed by BJP MP Jayant Sinha — said.
Citing data it received from the supervised entities of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the committee noted that payment-related frauds are on the rise in India – In FY21, the volume of such frauds was a little over 700,000, which by FY23, increased to close to 20 million.
According to the information submitted to it by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), in the year 2022, out of 6,94,424 complaints related to financial frauds only in 2.6 per cent of cases an FIR was registered.
The details shared with Parliament revealed that between November 2021 and March 2023, more than 2,000 complaints related to AePS were received by the offices of the RBI’s ombudsman.
#upsc #news #headline #UIDAI #payment #frauds #ITC #adhaar #system #FMR #FIR #machine #work #syphon #rural #areas #RBI #reserve #bank #india #ombudsman #cases #financial #bribery #corruption #silicone #cloned #I4C #indian #cyber #crime #coordination #tackle