Editorials/Opinions Analysis For UPSC 30 March 2023

Editorials/Opinions Analysis For UPSC 30 March 2023

Contents

1. Liberating India’s growth and welfare data
2. 6G: India’s Preparations for This Game-Changer

Liberating India’s Growth and Welfare Data

Context

• Data is the key concept in the technological landscape of the twenty-first century, driving a variety of personalised services by connecting specific data from numerous sources and permeating our collective consciousness.
  • Citizens also anticipate efficient and well-coordinated service delivery from the government in the area of governance.

Relevance

GS Paper-2: Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation

Mains Question

“Data can be a benefit for government, economic development, and public welfare.” Examine the claim critically. (250 Words)

Major highlights

• The Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) paper released by NITI Aayog and the report by the Committee of Experts on Non-Personal Data Governance Framework (NPD Report) have expanded on the idea of data’s advantages.
  • The Economic Survey 2019 included a section on data as a useful good, proposing that government data on socially relevant topics should be made democratic or a public good in the interest of social welfare.
• For measurable and actionable governance and policy perspectives, as well as for spurring innovation and growth, data is an essential component.
  • Several Government of India initiatives, such as the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile or JAM trinity, the Open Government Data Platform of India, and the National Judicial Data Grid, have focused on using data to improve ease of living and efficiency.
• As Covid-19 showed, governments today need various departments’ frontline employees to work together and share data in order to address a variety of complex challenges.
  • According to OECD studies from 2019, public-sector data access and sharing can contribute to social and economic benefits worth between 0.1 percent and 1.5 percent of GDP.

The public good of data:

• Even though sharing data across departments has always been a “North Star,” initiatives along these lines have not been particularly successful because the integration is frequently based on aggregated data.
  • Local issues necessary for effective beneficiary targeting and evaluating the impact of policies are lost in such aggregated data.
• Making certain legacy functions more transparent through data was the initial focus of government digitization.
• Later, real-time integration of a variety of functional data became the focus of digitization.

DEPA Paper: Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture

• The architecture “flows from the Centre’s overarching position that data is primarily an economic good,” according to the DEPA paper.
• Its main objective is to give individuals control over their personal data by creating a strong and flexible institutional, regulatory, and legislative framework that is backed by technology designed for secure data-sharing.
• Market participants from the financial and technological ecosystems, as well as new entrepreneurs, have the opportunity to use and expand on this digital platform because the DEPA platform is accessible as a public good.
  • According to the paper, the issue is not that companies profit from the data of individuals; rather, it is that both individuals and small businesses do not gain anything.

Report on Non-Personal Data (NPD)

• Improving transparency and good governance requires a critical component: data, especially non-personal data.
• The NPD Report highlights its significance in terms of the general welfare.
  • Access to current big data sets helps create opportunities to quickly address problems in new technology-led solutions at the intersection of big data and good governance.

Concerns:

• The need to provide adequate protections for the community and individuals must remain contextual when weighing the benefits and risks of using big data sets for good governance.
  • The value of raw/factual data sets made up of amnesioned user information is also essential.

Need of the Hour

• Enabling real-time data sharing between departments is necessary to complete the logical progression of digitisation in government from an initial focus on specific departmental functions to core departmental operations.
  • Privacy and security guidelines should be developed and followed to protect the data of citizens.
  • To achieve this, we must simultaneously create structural, mental, and administrative changes.
  • Departments need to change the way they think about data so that they start thinking of it as a “product” rather than just a by-product of their work.
• Each department will publish a data catalogue (metadata) and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to facilitate sharing, resulting in a system that is both flexible and secure.
• The following administrative actions must be taken to facilitate this.
  • To start, departmental Service Level Agreements (SLAs) must be defined and tracked at the highest levels of government to ensure the quality of publishing curated data fields to the central catalogue.
  • The second requirement is for data scientists to be empowered by direct reporting lines to department heads and embedded in a distributed manner across departments.
  • A Central Metadata and Governance Authority should handle the centralised aspects of data governance.
• Government must get involved in data creation as a public good, particularly for the underprivileged and in social sectors.
  • Combining the various datasets that the government already owns would have a number of advantages.

Conclusion:

• Given technological advancements in data collection and storage, society is consuming data at a higher rate than ever.
• Data can be created as a public good within the legal framework of data privacy as people generate data of societal interest.
• Access to and use of big data will be essential for ensuring the best governance outcomes.
  • From the standpoint of improving quality of life, this will help Indian society.
  • It will also encourage India to achieve overall business facilitation and world-class innovation.

6G: India’s Preparations for This Game-Changer

Context

India’s aim to roll out its 6G telecom network, which promises ultra-high-speed internet connectivity, by the end of the decade was recently announced by the Prime Minister.

Relevance

GS Paper-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

Mains Question

Analyze the Bharat 6G Vision document and the roles of various stakeholders, including the government, business, and academia, to determine the potential effects of 6G technology on India’s digital infrastructure and economy. (250 words).

Recognizing 6G’s Improvements Over 5G Technology:

• Following 5G, the sixth generation, or 6G, represents a development in telecom network technology.
  • Building on the success of 5G, 6G is anticipated to offer solutions that are more dependable, affordable, and ultra-low latency, with speeds that are nearly 100 times faster than 5G.
• The user experience and economies around the world will be impacted by these improvements, which will change how people interact with one another and technology.
• 6G is positioned to revolutionise communication technology thanks to its intelligent network management and control, integrated wireless sensing and communication, and bandwidths up to 1Tbps.
  • Thanks to this incredible bandwidth, which will be 100 times greater than that of 5G, completely new communication applications and experiences may be possible.

The 6G Vision Document’s main characteristics are as follows:

• The “Bharat 6G Vision” document, which the Prime Minister recently released, aims to create a national mission for 6G with a nine-year term from 2022 to 2031.
  • The project will be funded in three stages: Phase I will cover the first four years, Phase II the next four years, and Phase III the final three years.
• The mission’s objective is to promote coordination and collaboration among various central and state government stakeholders, as well as those from business and academia, in order to advance basic and applied research for 6G technologies, leading to the creation of new intellectual property (IP), knowledge, and skill sets.
• Pilot scale demonstrations, validation of these technologies in real-world use cases, participation in and contribution to national and international standards are anticipated starting in 2025.

Leadership Development in 6G:

• India has more than 127 patents on the 6G technology it is using to get ready for the next generation of telecommunications.
• India is involving all stakeholders, including business, academia, and service providers, to identify priority areas for research despite the fact that 5G is still only being deployed in a few locations.
• With a global focus on its telecom and digital industries, the nation is also arguing for a stronger role in current legislation at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Potential advantages of the 6G rollout include:

• Hyperconnectivity is anticipated to accompany the rollout of 6G and offer cutting-edge user experiences in all industries.
  • It will make it possible to access necessary data, resources (both physical and digital), and social services without regard to time or place.
• The incorporation of AI/ML will play a significant role in industries like education, allowing students to engage in virtual visits and industry interactions to learn through immersive experiences.
  • AI/ML will also be crucial in the fields of agriculture and medicine.
• Researchers are investigating quantum technologies to learn how they might offer previously unheard-of performance in quantum sensing, communication, security, and computing.
  • These technologies will probably be used in the 6G rollout to provide advanced services.
• Non-terrestrial wireless networks are likely to be integrated with the terrestrial network to provide ubiquity coverage, not only on ships and aircraft but also in rural areas that the terrestrial network in India underserves, as a result of the decreasing cost-effectiveness of Low Earth Orbit satellites and new technologies like HAPS.

The Apex Council’s role in the implementation of 6G:

• The implementation of 6G will heavily rely on the Apex Council.
• Its goal is to bring together the government, business, telecom service providers (TSPs), academia, and research organisations to work together on innovation, standardization, pilot projects, global manufacturing, testing, and supply.
• The Apex Council will assess and approve 6G action plans and roadmaps to make sure that all parties collaborate to meet the mission’s goals.

Consumer advantages:

• 6G mobile communication technology’s hyper-connectivity and improved experience will enhance and make it possible to access necessary data, resources (both physical and digital), and social services without time restrictions.
• The widespread adoption of 6G technology will eliminate disparities in social and economic infrastructure between regions and provide alternatives to rural exodus and metro-driven urbanisation.
• The introduction of 6G will be crucial in bridging the digital divide between urban and rural communities and enhancing people’s lives.

Conclusion:

• After 5G, the deployment of 6G technology is anticipated to be the next significant advancement in telecom network technology.
  • The government’s plans for a national mission to facilitate the coordination and interaction between various stakeholders in the Center and State governments, industry, and academia are outlined in the “Bharat 6G Vision” document, which was released by the Prime Minister.
• The introduction of 6G technology is anticipated to revolutionise how people interact with one another and technology, having an effect on economies around the world.
• Innovation and cooperation from all stakeholders, including the government, business, telecom providers, academia, and research institutions, are necessary for the successful implementation of 6G technology.