Governance Community

Quarterly compliance audits of social media companies will be carried out by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity). Presently, each month, social media firms report on their compliance with IT guidelines 2021. Here, they disclose the actions they took in response to various complaints. “Meity has now put in place a mechanism to audit compliance of social media intermediaries under IT rules every quarter. As part of the audit, the ministry will verify if social media companies are reporting about grievances raised to them correctly and if their action taken is in sync with the laid-out rules,” the source told the news agency. The government has proposed creating an appellate panel with the authority to overrule decisions made by social media companies regarding any grievance in order to tighten the noose around these platforms. The IT ministry has concluded the public comment process about the proposed rule.

From October 2022 onward, 5G telecom services will be made available in India. According to Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Soon after the 5G auction concludes, the government will distribute the spectrum, which will result in the launch of services in October. Speaking at a press conference in Mumbai, Vaishnaw stated. He noted that the global rollout of 5G had been uneven and predicted that India would implement 5G considerably more quickly than many other countries. He said that if 5G service prices get too high, the government will step in and state-owned BSNL will function as a market balancer. We anticipate that we will likely defy the trend and have a considerably faster rollout of 5G compared to many other regions, he said, adding that the global implementation of 5G has been slow. This is because our other costs are significantly under control. Vaishnaw stated that as of Saturday, the government has received 1.49 lakh crore rupees from the sale of 5G spectrum and expressed optimism that this figure will surpass 1.5 lakh crore rupees. Regarding the cost of 5G services, the average cost of telecom services worldwide is $2,400 [per month], compared to about $200 in India. “Data cost is lowest in India in the world,” he stated without specifying a number. The success of the 5G spectrum auction indicates that the sector is booming, and the results are very good, he says.

The NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu crossed the 50% threshold after the third round of vote counting in the presidential elections, assuring her victory against the nominee of the opposition, Yashwant Sinha, by a sizable margin. Murmu has received 2,161 of the 3,219 valid votes that have been counted so far, while Sinha received 1,058. Murmu, 64, is the first Adivasi and second woman to become the nation’s First Citizen and the Supreme Commander of India’s Armed Forces.  Murmu served as a Minister in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD-BJP coalition government from 2000 to 2004 and was elected to two terms in the Odisha Assembly in 2000 and 2004. 2015 saw her take the oath of office as Jharkhand’s first female governor. Sinha congratulated Murmu on her victory on Twitter not long after her score passed the halfway point. “I join my fellow citizens in congratulating Smt Droupadi Murmu on her victory in the Presidential Election 2022. India hopes that as the 15th President of the Republic she functions as the Custodian of the Constitution without fear or favour,” he wrote. PM Narendra Modi congratulates Droupadi Murmu on her victory in the Presidential polls. “India scripts history. At a time when 1.3 billion Indians are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a daughter of India hailing from a tribal community born in a remote part of eastern India has been elected our President! Congratulations to Smt. Droupadi Murmu Ji on this feat,” he wrote after the NDA candidate crossed the halfway mark.  

After the first round of votes in the 2022 presidential elections were counted on Thursday, Droupadi Murmu of the NDA is in the lead. Murmu received 540 of the 748 votes cast by MPs, while Yashwant Sinha of the opposition received 208. Following the start of the vote-counting process at the Parliament House on Thursday morning for the recently held Presidential election, India will soon know who will succeed Ram Nath Kovind as the nation’s 15th President. Droupadi Murmu of the NDA is found to be in the lead in the second round after the votes from the first 10 states were counted (in alphabetical order). Murmu received 809 of the 1,138 total valid votes, while Sinha received 329. These votes have a 1.49 lakh value according to a population and assembly strength formula. Ms. Murmu received slightly over 1.05 lakh of that, and Mr. Sinha received 44,276. By 8 pm, the final result is anticipated. According to the support given by several parties, Droupadi Murmu of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is clearly ahead of Yashwant Sinha of the opposition in this election. If elected, Murmu will hold the nation’s top constitutional position for the first time as a tribal woman. Following her anticipated victory in the election, Droupadi Murmu is set to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several senior members of his Cabinet, and BJP chief J P Nadda on Thursday evening. According to sources, she will also be congratulated by Home Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal. Over 98% of the 4,796 eligible voters—including 771 MPs and 4,025 MLAs—participated in the presidential election’s voting process, which was completed on Monday.  

Rajnath Singh, the minister of defence, has issued a warning against the improper use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications and stated that the nation needs to consider the potential risks associated with the new technology. “We cannot stop the development of Artificial Intelligence nor should we make such an effort. But we also need to be careful about it. The bigger the change that any technology brings, the bigger and more serious is its transitional phase,” he said. “Since AI is going to bring a massive change, it may bring legal, ethical, political and economic upheaval situations. We have to be prepared for that too,” he added. At a first-of-its-kind conference on “Artificial Intelligence in Defence” hosted by the Defense Ministry, Singh introduced 75 products for the armed services that are powered by AI. He discussed the subject and stated that whenever a new technology is introduced, it takes time for society to adjust its political, social, and ethical standards. “Artificial Intelligence should not be misused in any case. There is a need to work on AI with great care so that in the coming time, it does not get out of our own hands somewhere else,” he added. However, the Minister stated to be a big optimist who likewise has an optimistic outlook on the development of AI. He claimed that numerous initiatives were being made to advance AI in defence. He stated that new autonomous weapons and technologies have been developed so that we can hit their target and destroy the enemy’s establishments even without human control, when speaking about advanced artificial intelligence-driven applications in defence. He asserted that AI-enabled gadgets could manage vast amounts of data and were useful for improving soldier training.