Current Affairs | National | International | SSC | UPSC 23rd February 2025

 National News 

1. I&B Ministry plans new laws to regulate digital content 

• The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is examining the existing statutory provisions and the need for a new legal framework to regulate "harmful" content on digital platforms, indicating the government's move to sharpen its vigilance over them following an outcry over Ranveer Al-lahbadia's comments on a YouTube programme. 
• In its reply to a parliamentary panel's communication over the issue, the Ministry said there was a growing concern in society that the constitutional right of "freedom of expression is being misused to showcase obscene and violent content on digital platforms".
•  It told the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey that while certain provisions existed under the current laws, there was a growing demand for a stricter and effective legal framework to regulate such harmful content. 
• It said, "This Ministry has taken note of these developments and is in process of examining current statutory provisions and the need for a new legal frame-work." 
• The Ministry said the Supreme Court, many High Courts, MPs and statutory bodies such as the National Commission of Women had spoken on the issue after Mr. Allahbadia's comments drew wide condemnation. 
• The top court flagged the "vacuum" in law when it comes to content on plat-forms such as YouTube, and said "all kinds of things are going on". The Ministry told the panel that it would submit a detailed note after due deliberations. 
• The committee asked the Ministry on February 13 about the amendments needed in the laws to clamp down on controver-sial content in the wake of the emergence of new technology and media platforms.
• Members across party lines have joined the out-cry over Mr. Allahbadia's comments, prompting the committee to write to the government. 
• Unlike the conventional print and electronic content, new media services such as over-the-top (OTT) platforms or YouTube have no specific regulatory legal framework.
•  While there is a view in some quarters that authorities may use new provisions to censor content for extraneous reasons, there is a rising demand for strengthening the legal framework through amendments in the existing laws or by enacting new ones. 
• While hearing podcaster Mr. Allahbadia's plea for relief following registra-tion of FIRs against him, the top court observed, "We would like to do something. If the Govern-ment of India will willingly do it, we will be very happy. Otherwise, we are not going to leave this vacuum." 
• The Ministry also issued an advisory to OTT plat-forms and self-regulatory bodies, asking them to strictly adhere to the Code of Ethics prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021 while publishing content. 
• It asked the self-regulatory bodies of OTT platforms to take appropriate proactive action in case of violation of the Code of Ethics by the platforms.

 Science and technology news 

2. Why are States asked to use untested AI tools for TB screening? 

1. Even as time is running out to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of "eliminating" TB by 2025, the Health Ministry appears to be moving at glacial speed and is largely disinterested. A report submitted by the Health Technology As-sessment of India (HTAIn) committee in February 2024 on two indigenously developed solutions to screen people with presumptive and subclinical TB using Al-assisted chest X-ray interpretation was posted on the HTAIn web-site only on December 6, 2024. The two indigenously developed solutions are qXR from the Bengalu-ru-based Qure.ai and Genki from Pune's DeepTek.
2. HTA assessment of a new technology or tool for cost effectiveness and efficacy in terms of sensitivity and specificity is not mandatory. However, the Central TB Division (CTD) waits for the HTA report and approval by the Medical Technology Assessment Board (MTAB) chaired by Niti Aayog and involves stakeholders including itself before programmatic implementation of any new tool, technology or treatment regimen using novel drugs for TB. For instance, True-Nat for TB diagnosis was validated by ICMR's Na-tional Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), Chennai before it was as-sessed by the HTA before it was included in the TB programme. Similarly, the 
3. Join FREE Whatsapp Channel BPaLM/BPaL regimen for MDR-TB treatment was tested in a phase 3/4 trial by NIRT and then assessed by HTA before being included in the TB programme by the Central TB Division. 
4. Surprisingly, despite the assessment and approval of the two Al tools by the HTA and MTAB, respectively, the Central TB Division has not included them for programmatic imple-mentation. However, even in the absence of an HTA assessment, the CTD has "recommended for programmatic introduction" a similar Al tool DeepCXR developed by the Insti-tute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar. An ICMR expert committee had ap-proved the Al tool for "use under the national TB programme". Worse, CTD failed to officially communicate to the States that it was recommending the use of the DeepCXR tool in the TB programme. Instead, CTD informed the States in end January this year to "consider utilising" the DeepCXR tool only when the States reached out to CTD seeking Al solutions to analyse chest X-ray images. And the 100-day TB elimination campaign began on December 7, 2024. As per CTD, the DeepCXR technology is available for free for use in the national TB programme. 
5. As per a January-February 2020 review paper in the journal Neurology India, the Institute for Plasma Research had trained the Al tool using 6,000-30,000 chest X-ray images with an "overall accuracy of 93% on a test dataset". Documents show that the Al tool has been trained us-ing 54,000 X-rays and vali-dated using 14,000 X-rays from "multiple datasets from more than 18 sites, with an average accuracy of over 96%". There is no information on whether the DeepCXR tool is routinely used at any site for TB screening. Except for claims made in some documents and presentations, there is not a single pu-blished paper about the tool's sensitivity and specificity and performance in field settings. 
6. In contrast, there are a number of published studies on large patient populations where the performance of qXR and Genki has been evaluated. In fact, the qXR tool from Qure.ai with over 90% sensitivity and more than 70% specificity in people older than 15 years was one of the three Al algorithms that the WHO had referenced when updating the TB screening guidelines in March 2021. The qXR technology has been implemented in over 3,100 sites across 90 countries, and in about 490 sites in 25 States in India, and Genki has been implemented in over 80 sites across 15 States. 
7. As per the HTA assessment, both qXR and Genki have been found to be cost-effective. The cost per case interpreted/screened is 230 in the case of qXR and 122 for Genki. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of the two interventions are 90% and 68%, respectively, which meets WHO's non-inferior accuracy for TB screening. Both solutions were also found to be cost-effective. "Based on threshold analysis, the qXR technology will be cost-saving up to 400 per screening and Genki will be cost-effective up to ₹35 per screening," says Dr. Somen Saha, Professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Gandhinagar and the Principal Inves-tigator of the HTA assess-ment committee for the two Al tools. 
8. Useful interpretation 
9. The importance of using chest X-rays for screening presumptive and subclinical TB cases cannot be ove remphasised. 42.6% and 39% TB cases during the National TB Prevalence Survey 2019-2021 and TB prevalence survey in Tamil Nadu (2021-2022), respec-tively, were detected only because a chest X-ray was used for screening. Al-assisted X-ray interpretation takes less than a minute, has high accuracy, reduces the cost of TB detection, and can be used in resource-limited settings. 

Indian Polity 

3. Law Ministry to bring a new draft Bill to amend Advocates Act 

• The Union Law Ministry on Saturday announced that it would bring in a new draft Bill to amend the Advocates Act after receiving public feedback on the existing draft Bill. 
• The Ministry, proposing to amend the Advocates Act by making sweeping changes in the definitions of what a legal practitioner and a law graduate mean, had put the draft of the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025, on its website for pu-blic feedback and com-ments. However, members of the legal fraternity opposed certain amendments. 
• The Uturn on the draft Bill came after the Bar Council of India had written to Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, stat-ing that the proposed Bill seeks to undermine the "autonomy and independence of the Bar". 
• "The Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025, was made available for public consultation on February 13, 2025, on the web-site of the Department of Legal Affairs demonstrating the government's commitment to transparency and broader engagement with stakeholders and the public. However, considering the number of suggestions and concerns received, it has been decided to conclude the consulta-tion process now. Based on the feedback received, the draft Bill, as revised, will be processed afresh for consultation with stakeholders," a statement from the Law Ministry said. 
• "... Instead of creating a proper forum to allow lawyers to raise their grievances and issues, the proposed Bill takes away lawyers' rights to raise legi-timate demands by way of a boycott or abstinence from work with the imposition of penal consequences," senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who heads the party's legal cell, had said on Thursday.