GS – 2
Facing the end of freedom, one face at a time. Critically comment on the perils of face recognition technology.150 Words
In the News:
- IBM announced its exit from the facial recognition technology business altogether and wouldn’t condone use of any technology used for mass surveillance and racial profiling that violate “basic human rights and freedoms”.
- This started a positive trend amongst technology companies. Microsoft president confirmed that they won’t sell to US police its facial recognition tech either. Amazon also announced a one-year moratorium on selling law enforcement agencies access to “Recognition”, its notorious facial recognition technology.
Advanced Democracies vs India:
- Other advanced democracies have been slowing down or stopping altogether the uses of facial recognition in the public sphere. But in India with such use of facial recognition technology tells us is that government intends to flout both the provisions of the Aadhaar Act and the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment upholding our fundamental constitutional right of privacy.
- It’s laudable for government to protect public order, to identify and prosecute criminals. A government which instead uses the occasion of public disorder to introduce such measures by executive fiat can only be suspected of taking advantage of events to subvert the Constitution it, and its police, are sworn to protect.
Supreme court Intervention:
- Unless the awareness is subjected to judicial review when it is used, and there is subsequent judicial oversight to prevent abuse, our lives are no longer our own.
- Immediate intervention by the SC on the basis of petitions brought by advocates for constitutional privacy is necessary.
- Unless we are vigilant now, even as we are put under so much additional strain by the pandemic and its human consequences, we shall live also through the death of freedom.
ICMR, CSIR must call out any breach of due process in the appraisal of any drug. Explain in detail.250 Words
In the News:
- The unrelenting spread of COVID-19 has set off both mass anxiety and a clamour for a panacea. Fear paves the way for profiteers. Patanjali Ayurved’s recent claim of having discovered a “cure” and bypassing every regulatory requirement without any serious consequence so far shows that India’s regulatory checks and balances are wanting.
- The company said in Haridwar that its product, ‘Coronil’, had cured everyone in a clinical trial.
- While quackery and the potency of ‘magic drugs’ are a part of life in India, its declarations could not be ignored because of the tremendous influence its products wield and its claim to have proved the product through a clinical trial, which makes it open to evaluation by the standards of modern medicine.
Scientific Assessment:
- The company’s claim of a cure by all accounts was a clear subversion of the scientific process. When hydroxychloroquine was being touted as a potential wonder drug for COVID-19, some of India’s scientists were quick to join a global opprobrium that raised methodological issues that claimed no effect — and even harm. More than the outcome, it is the method deployed that ought to be scrutinised by scientists to reinforce public trust in scientific assessment.
- There has always been a tension between traditional Indian systems of medicine and pharmaceutical drugs but there is now consensus in India’s regulatory system that claims by both systems of developing safe efficacious drugs must pass clinical trials.
- It is well within the domain of institutions of the ICMR or the CSIR or national science academies to call out a breach of due process in the appraisal of any drug, whether allopathic, ayurvedic or homeopathic. To not do so would amount to criminal negligence.
Future Officers 