Today's Headlines

Facial recognition technology at airports

GS Paper -3 (Information and Communication Technology)

The government launched DigiYatra which will provide a seamless entry and embarkation process for air passengers at the airports in the national capital, Bangalore and Varanasi. DigiYatra is based on facial recognition technology.

More about the news:

1. By March next year, it will be launched at four more airports - Hyderabad, Pune, Vijayawada and Kolkata and subsequently to all airports.
2. It will be available for passengers taking domestic flights from Terminal 3 (T3). At present, Air India, Vistara and IndiGo are part of DigiYatra.
3. The app is available onAndroid and ioS platforms.

Privacy and data issue:

1. The data shared by the passengers will be stored in an encrypted format and in a decentralised manner.
2. The secured, encrypted information on a passenger’s phone can be provided to the airport from which he or she is flying out, 24 hours before the journey.

How to avail the facility:

1. A passenger has to register their details on DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture.
2. In the next step, the boarding pass has to be scanned and the credentials are shared with the airport.
3. At the airport e-gate, the passenger has to first scan the bar coded boarding pass and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger’s identity and travel document.
4. Once this process is done, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.
5. The passenger will have to follow the normal procedure to clear the security and board the aircraft.

Flashback:

1. Digi Yatra Foundation, a not-for-profit company, is the nodal body for DigiYatra.
2. The foundation’s shareholders are Airport Authority of India (AAI), Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (HIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).

Indians exposure to lethal heat waves: World Bank

GS Paper -3 (Disaster and environment)

From 2030 onwards, more than 160 to 200 million people could be exposed to a lethal heat wave in India every year, and around 34 million Indians will face job losses due to heat stress-related productivity decline.

More about the news:

1. By 2037, the demand for cooling is likely to be eight times more than current levels.
2. It is imperative for India to deploy alternative and innovative energy efficient technologies for keeping spaces cool.
3. India’s Cooling Sector can attract Climate Investment Opportunities of $1.6 trillion by 2040 besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions significantly and creating 3.7 million jobs.

With increasing cooling, it leads to more emissions:

1. With the demand for cooling shooting up, there will be a demand for a new air-conditioner every 15 seconds, leading to an expected rise of 435% in annual greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades.
2. There is a need to shift to a more energy-efficient pathway which could lead to a substantial reduction in expected CO2 levels.
3. It proposes a roadmap to support New Delhi’s India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) 2019, through new investments in three major sectors: building construction, cold chains and refrigerants.

SC queries on GM mustard

GS Paper - 3 (Biotechnology)

The Union government was questioned by the Supreme Court on whether there was a "compelling cause" for it to release GM mustard and whether Indian agriculture would be "doomed" if such crops were not made available.

1. Is there an urgent need to make the hybrid DMH-11 [Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11] available right now? Can you not think about adding extra safety precautions, experimentation, and consultation, and think about releasing it later after you have a better grasp of it.
2. Because it has been claimed that the environment would be permanently and irreversibly harmed by the release at this time, Justice B.V. Nagarathna asked the government's attorneys, Attorney-General R. Venkataramani and Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati, why they were asking.
3. A day prior to the court's inquiry, petitioners had argued that the regulatory framework overseen by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), which approved the release of the genetically modified mustard variant DMH-11 into the environment, was "horrendous" and rife with conflicts of interest.
4. When asked why GM mustard was necessary given that India is home to 5,477 different types of mustard, attorney Prashant Bhushan spoke on behalf of petitioner and activist Aruna Rodrigues.
5. GM crops were not intended for Indian agriculture, according to the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) of the Supreme Court.

FLASHBACK:

1. The Genetically altered hybrid mustard variety Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 known as DMH 11.
2. It was created by Professor Deepak Pental of the University of Delhi in an effort to lessen India's dependence on imported edible oils.
3. The Bar, Barnase, and Barstar gene systems were principally used in the transgenic technology that produced DMH-11.