Q.
Recently Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to impose a one-year prison
sentence and Rs. 10,000 fine on the editors of two tabloids. Do you think this move is
justified? Critically comment on the issues involved.
A. Rough framework
Legislature is not authorized to give
judgements.
Constitution has provided for
separation of powers for a reason. If
this is not followed, there would be
ambiguity about the powers.
Final Answer
Primary Answer
I The Karnataka Assemblys resolution
imposing a one-year prison sentence and Rs.
10,000 fine on the editors of two tabloids is
indefensible and deserving of unsparing
criticism
MB The Constitution confers certain privileges on
legislative institutions with the idea of
protecting freedom of speech and expression
in the House and ensuring that undue
influence, pressure or coercion is not brought
on the legislature in the course of its
functioning.
Unfortunately, breach of privilege is invoked
for the ostensible reason of protecting the
image of the House on the whole or its
individual members; too often, it is a thinly
disguised mechanism to insulate elected
representatives from criticism.
What matters is that by no stretch of the
imagination could the articles have
impeded the independent functioning of
the three legislators who had
complained against them. If the members
felt defamed, they could have opted to
pursue an appropriate judicial remedy in their
individual capacity.
Even if it is conceded that the House has
such a right, a moot question is whether
the legislature, through its Committee of
Privileges, should be a judge in its own
cause
C The legislature must use the power to punish
for contempt or breach of privilege sparingly,
invoking it mainly to protect the
independence of the House and not to take
away the liberty of critics.
The time has come for the legislature to
codify privileges and for the higher judiciary
to lay down the limits of penal action for
breach of privilege.
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Q. It is argued that given the Aadhaar infrastructure and the proliferation of
cellphones in India, blockchain technology can easily be adapted to fight voter
fraud. Discuss.

A. Rough framework Primary Answer

Intro n India, given the favourable conditions of

improved infrastructure and interest, the
time is ripe for the ECI to explore
blockchain technology as a future
alternative to EVMs.

Unique attributes of trust, transparency and

immutability, such a system is expected to
mitigate issues like vote manipulation in
political processes.

Main body In blockchain voting, each

transaction is similar to a vote and through
the use of multiple blockchains along with
public key encryption, the voting process is
secured while protecting the anonymity of
voters

After the polls are closed, a

separate blockchain application is created
for the counting of votes in the digital ballot
box. That blockchain should match the
public bulletin boards blockchain, proving
that the online voting system has operated
correctly. Further, the audit trail of the
transactions combined with public key
encryption solves the issue of auditability.

Examples:

Australia has declared its plan for

using blockchain in voting and began
projects for prototyping the technology a
couple of years ago.

In 2014, Denmarks Liberal Alliance

political party voted in a blockchain-based
system for its internal elections. Such
systems have also been adopted in Norway
and Spain.

Malta with a small population of

450,000, is about to embrace blockchain in
land registry, voting and other national
services.

Banking-

The Reserve Bank of Indias

research arm has also developed proof of
concepts with a few banks on blockchain,
and it said in its white paper that the
results are quite encouraging, giving
 comfort and confidence in the
implementability of blockchain technology

Further, the State Bank of India

initiated a national blockchain bank
consortium earlier this year to build and
implement blockchain solutions that can
minimize fraud and improve the efficiency
of the banking system.

In India, given the deep

penetration of cellphones and the unique
identification (Aadhaar) system, blockchain
could be a practical and feasible tool to
fight voter fraud and alleviate vote
authentication and validation concerns.
Aadhaar cards and electronic-know your
customer (e-KYC) norms are already
becoming mainstream. These critical
infrastructure components can be leveraged
to implement blockchain solutions in voting
and public services such as land
registrations, public-private contracts and
other service level agreements (SLA). The
technology sector is also responding
positively by increasing investments and
resources.

Conclusion Blockchains are transparent and designed

to have a decentralized authority which
ensures that control is not in one hand and
the process is visible to the public always.

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Q. Write a note on the advances made in basic brain science research in India
and the world.

A. Rough framework Primary Answer

Intro the scientific world is currently in a similar

wave of frenzied exploration centered on
the human brain. Former US president
Barack Obama announced the US BRAIN
(Brain Research through Advancing
Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative
in 2013, the European Union added its
own Human Brain Project a couple of
years later, as did China in 2016. Major
centres around the worldthe Karolinska
Institutet in Sweden, the Riken Brain
Science Institute in Japan, the Allen
Institute for Brain Science, Seattle,
Janelia Campus at the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, Virginia, the Blue Brain
Project at IBM and the The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, to name a few
are engaged in cutting-edge research.

Main body Collaboration pros:

The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an

example of a recent and successful
international collaborative initiative to
decode the human genome. The $3 billion
project was started in 1990 by the
National Institute of Health (NIH) and the
US department of energy (DoE) and was
completed earlier than its expected 15
years partly because of wide
collaboration.

Various Aspects

The study of neurogenetics was

substantially helped by HGP. A flood of
new sequencing technologies has allowed
scientists to understand genetic pathways
that cause neurological and psychiatric
disorders. Scientists have made
remarkable progress in understanding the
genetic signatures of Alzheimers disease,
schizophrenia, depression and autism,
among others.

Through an exciting series of

developments, the brain is now
understood to be plastic, meaning an
adult brain is widely adaptive in its scope
and scale.
 Optogenetics, pioneered in Stanford
University, has allowed scientists to turn
specific neurons on and off, thus enabling
the understanding of which neurons are
used for a specific activity.

Neural imaging has meant that memory

itself has evolved in our understanding

Indian scenario

In a country where suicide among young

women rivals maternal disorders as the
leading cause of death, the importance of
neuroscience research, both basic and
clinical, cannot be overemphasized.

In India, basic brain science research is

conducted in only a few places though
clinical research takes place in more
locations. The National Brain Research
Centre, located just outside Delhi, and
the Indian Institute of Sciences
endowed centre for neuroscience are
two such research centers.

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