Prelims Focus 7th February 2025

Jevons Paradox

In News: Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, highlighted the Jevons Paradox inside the context of AI, noting that increased performance and accessibility of AI may want to cause surging demand.

• • Jevons Paradox states that when a useful resource will become greater green and less expensive to use, its ordinary consumption has a tendency to grow in preference to lower.
  • First found by William Stanley Jevons in his 1865 ebook The Coal Question. He stated that improvements inside the performance of steam engines, which used coal, caused accelerated coal intake, not as low as one may anticipate.

• How It Works: Key Factors

• • Cost Reduction: When performance will increase, operational prices decrease, making the aid extra attractive.
  • Higher Accessibility: Efficient technology lets in greater users and industries to adopt it.
  • Economic Expansion:  Enhanced productivity can force business and financial growth, leading to more demand.
  • Elastic Demand: When an aid is especially attentive to price changes, accelerated performance results in better usage as opposed to conservation.    

GREAT Scheme

In News: The Ministry of Textiles, in its 10th Empowered Programme Committee assembly under the National Technical Textiles Mission, authorized key projects, along with funding for startups under the GREAT scheme.

• It is an initiative under the National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM) by the Ministry of Textiles.
• Provides funding of as much as INR 50 lakhs consistent with startup.
• Focuses on critical areas like clinical textiles, industrial textiles, and shielding textiles.
• Encourages R&D, product improvement, and commercialization of modern textiles solutions.

Import Duty Waiver on Medicines

In News: The Union Budget 2025 implemented duty exemptions for important medical products at the border to reduce costs for vital healthcare throughout India.

Key Changes:

• The duty on 36 vital medications which treat cancer alongside rare diseases has now been eliminated completely.
• The import duty on six extra drugs was decreased from 7.5% to 5%.
• Under patient assistance programs the government provides duty-free status to a total of 37 life-saving pharmaceuticals.

Impact:

• The three percent of imported patented medicines obtain benefits because Indian manufacturing produces 97 percent of all medicines through off-patented methods.
• The affordability of India’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sector protects its domestic pharmaceutical output.

Government Initiatives:

• Through the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO) government regulation maintains drug affordability.
• Healthcare accessibility improves through government initiatives such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Pariyojna and Ayushman Bharat.
• The government implements these initiatives to achieve two objectives including healthcare cost reduction and support of domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Global Concerns Over DeepSeek AI

In News: The Chinese AI app DeepSeek received worldwide bans after concerns about user privacy caused global responses about data safety protocols.

Privacy Issues:

• Councils seek to address their privacy concerns regarding DeepSeek because the service utilizes Chinese server capacities that Chinese authorities could potentially access.

Global Bans:

• The governments of Italy, Taiwan, Australia and the United States have banned DeepSeek mainly because it poses national security threats.
• The US Congress and the Navy together with NASA instituted official bans against using DeepSeek on their agency devices.

India’s Response:

• The Indian Finance Ministry took a stance against DeepSeek because it assessed the tool as inadequate for protecting sensitive government information.
• Indian leaders work on creating domestic AI models that will protect local data privacy and decrease dependence on overseas systems.

IndiaAI Mission:

• Through a budget of ₹10,000 crore this mission aids AI research activities and startup development.
• The establishment of 18,000 GPUs by India serves to lower the cost of AI development.
• The problems encountered by DeepSeek reveal the requirement for safe AI systems when nations work to develop innovation while protecting privacy and security.

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