Current Affairs Quiz 09 February 2023  

About K.G. Balakrishnan Commission
• The Union government has notified a Commission in 2022 under the former Chief Justice of India and former chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) K G Balakrishnan .
• The three-member Commission will also comprise retired IAS officer Dr. Ravindra Kumar Jain and University Grants Commission member Prof Sushma Yadav.
• It will submit its report within two years.
Purpose
• To examine the issue of whether Scheduled Caste (SC) status can be accorded to Dalits who have over the years converted to religions other than Sikhism or Buddhism.
• The commission’s inquiry will also look into the changes an SC person goes through after converting to another religion and its implications on the question of including them as SCs.
o These will include examining their traditions, customs, social and other forms of discrimination, and how and whether they have changed as a result of the conversion.

Key Facts about NISAR
• NISAR is an Earth-observation satellite that stands for (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar).
• Developed by:
o It is Jointly developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation under a partnership agreement signed in 2014.
• Function:
o It will scan the globe every 12 days over the course of its three-year mission of imaging the Earth’s land, ice sheets and sea ice to give an unprecedented view of the planet.
• Features:
o The 2,800 kilogram satellite is a dual-frequency imaging radar satellite.
o While NASA has provided the L-band radar, GPS, a high-capacity solid-state recorder to store data, and a payload data subsystem, ISRO has provided the S-band radar, the GSLV launch system and spacecraft.
• Another important component of the satellite is its large 39-foot stationary antenna reflector.
 The reflector will be used to focus “the radar signals emitted and received by the upward-facing feed on the instrument structure.
Objectives of the Mission
• NISAR will observe subtle changes in Earth’s surfaces, helping researchers better understand the causes and consequences of such phenomena.
• It will spot warning signs of natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides.
• The satellite will also measure groundwater levels, track flow rates of glaciers and ice sheets, and monitor the planet’s forest and agricultural regions, which can improve our understanding of carbon exchange.
• ISRO will use NISAR for a variety of purposes including agricultural mapping, and monitoring of glaciers in the Himalayas, landslide-prone areas and changes in the coastline.

• Deepfakes:
o Deep fake is a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI) used to create convincing images, audio, and video hoaxes.
o Deepfakes use deep learning AI to replace the likeness of one person with another in video and other digital media.
o The most common method relies on the use of deep neural networks involving autoencoders that employ a face-swapping technique.
o Although deepfakes could be used in positive ways, such as in art, expression, accessibility, and business, it has mainly been weaponized for malicious purposes.
o Deepfakes can harm individuals, businesses, society, and democracy, and can accelerate the already declining trust in the media.
• Deepfake voice:
o Deepfake voice, also called a synthetic voice, uses AI to generate a clone of a person’s voice. The voice can accurately replicate the tone, and accents, of the target person.
o Synthetic voices are used for business, entertainment, and other purposes to advance them, deepfake voices are usually associated with copying human voices to fool someone.
o Creating deep fakes needs high-end computers with powerful graphics cards, leveraging cloud computing power.
o Deepfakes can also be used to carry out espionage activities. Doctored videos can be used to blackmail government and defence officials into divulging state secrets

In September 2019, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes recommended the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule.
The Commission took note of the fact that the newly created Union Territory of Ladakh is predominantly a tribal region in the country.
 The UT has two Hill councils in Leh and Kargil, but neither is under the Sixth Schedule.
 Their powers are limited to collection of some local taxes such as parking fees and allotment and use of land vested by the Centre.

What are Muons?
• Muons are subatomic particles raining from space. They are created when the particles in Earth’s atmosphere collide with cosmic rays — clusters of high-energy particles that move through space at just below the speed of light.
o Atom is the smallest unit of matter and is made up of smaller units known as subatomic particles i.e. protons, neutrons and electrons.