Current Affairs by Sourabh Mishra

Model Answer

Question #1. What is infrastructure resilient island state? How climate resilient infrastructure in India can be strengthened? Also suggest some alternative measures for future.

Answer

The Infrastructure for Resilient Island State (IRIS) is an initiative under the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). The Infrastructure for Resilient Island State (IRIS) aims to create a disaster-resilient infrastructure that can minimize human and economic loss of the small island countries during various disasters.

• Timely Information: ISRO will build a special data window for the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to provide them timely information about cyclones, coral-reef monitoring, coast-line monitoring, etc. through satellite.

The unpredictability and increasing frequency of the natural disasters have challenged the town planners to develop new places that can withstand a variety of threats faced by the buildings, particularly in the upcoming cities.

Steps to strengthen the disaster resilient Infrastructure

• By introducing analysing measures: India should develop a climate-proof infrastructure index (CPII) that identifies chronic and acute risks, maps critical vulnerabilities, and build strategies to protect its built-in and planned infrastructure.
• By infrastructure transitions: India needs to rethink its infrastructure standards. A one-size-fits-all approach is no longer feasible in a rapidly changing risk landscape. Hazard-linked infrastructure development is a smarter alternative that tailors standards to the specific threats, which a region or asset is normally exposed to.
• A global system: we need system innovations to improve the monitoring and evaluation of global, national, and sub-national policies on infrastructure. Doing so will help us build capacity, leverage private and public investments, develop tailor-made risk financing instruments, and better predict and prepare for adverse climate events.
• Involvement of civil societies and local institutions: Involvement of NGOs and local groups will help at the time of climate or disaster onset. The government alone is not responsible for the disaster management.
• Making management people centric: our system is now focused on how disaster will come and how to mitigate it else our approach should be people centric. The people of disaster prone areas must be given extra allowances for managing the disaster crisis. Along with this, the needs of people based on geography must be taken into care.
• Help based on nature of disaster: the nature of disaster should decide the prevention and post disaster management in the areas. Special committees made by state government can help in such governance.

Future alternatives

Hydrogen infrastructure: shifting to hydrogen infrastructure can help during disaster crisis and help to reduce transitions in climate change.

• India is targeting to produce three-fourths of its hydrogen from renewable resources by 2050.
• Hydrogen is seen as the potential fuel to replace fossil fuels in future.
• It will help India in increasing its renewable energy capacity.
• Thus reduce dependence on coal, making climate change slower.
• Power generation, use in vehicles and industries and for making sustainable devices is the key goal for which hydrogen can be used.

Emergency provisions: with the use of technology we can enhance our disaster surveillance in the areas like flood prone areas, mountains and hills and over oceans.

• Using AI technologies for climate alters.
• Use of Drones for surveillance of the areas.
• Proper resource allocation in deficit areas like drought prone regions.

Conclusion

The fourth edition of the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI) has been conducted by both the developing and developed countries for making the focus of all towards the changing scenario of infrastructure needs for the future. Saving the people from the disaster crisis is need of the hour.

Question #2. What do you understand by Digital public goods (DPGs)? What are the benefits and challenges of open technology for expanding digital ecosystems?

Answer

The digital public goods are non-excludable and non-rivalrous. It is defined as open source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable International and domestic laws that do not harm and help in attaining the SDGs. The creation and promotion of digital public goods for addressing the rising concentration in the digital market has emerged as a new phenomenon in India. The digital market due to the technological and corresponding features is prone to concentration. India is a prominent stakeholder in this process with lucrative digital markets however efforts are needed to discipline the e-commerce sector.

Digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructure (DPI) are prime examples of technological investments into 'open' tech that can help governments more quickly develop solutions to big and urgent challenges. Maximizing the potential of these technologies will take new mindsets, collaborations and approaches to technological capacity.

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) refers to societal scale digital systems with functions essential for public and private service delivery, including payment systems and data exchanges. One example of a DPI is OpenG2P, which digitized cash transfers and was built during the West Africa Ebola crisis.

Benefits of open technology

• The recent collaboration between MOSIP and OpenG2P is an example of how identity and the Government-to-Person (G2P) benefit transfer ecosystem is converging as part of DPIs to support countries to deliver services and social assistance rapidly and responsibly.
• Collaborative efforts such as Co-Develop bring together resources that can help countries build inclusive, safe and equitable DPIs. Such actions need to be fast-tracked and replicated at the earliest.
• The availability of technical expertise is a challenge for implementing DPGs and DPIs and their subsequent maintenance and scaling. Global technical cooperation can play a catalytic role to support bottom-up country efforts in this endeavour.
• Leave no one behind: Alliance for Affordable internet (A4AI) is one such example. It aims to drive down the cost of internet access in low- and middle-income countries through policy and regulatory reform.

Challenges associated

• Constraints in technical capability
• A persistent digital divide
• lack of fiscal space
• Unintended exclusions and
• The risks to data and digital rights of citizens can slow or complicate the development and execution of these solutions.

Way forward

• As international cooperation accelerates to implement global digital commons, governments can lead the way by catalyzing critical conversations on the role of the global south and local digital ecosystems as builders and implementers of inclusive, equitable and safe digital ecosystems.
• But they will need the international community's support to deliver on the extraordinary promise that DPGs, DPIs and ODEs hold for the world.
• This space is where the new era of dynamic, open and inclusive global cooperation must find its next calling.