Current Affairs

Tackling hate speech with AI

Context: Content on social media and other digital platforms can come under the scanner as the State government will deploy AI-powered Social Media Analytics Solution software to identify hate speech and malicious campaigns in news and advertising.

• Content on social media and other digital platforms could come under the scanner as the Karnataka government will deploy AI-powered ‘Social Media Analytics Solution’ software to identify hate speech, misinformation and malicious campaigns in news and advertising.
• The AI-based software will be used to assess misinformation, disinformation, hate speech and harmful narratives, especially for safety of women, children, and the public.
• The decision to deploy the AI-powered software at the cost of ₹67.26 crore was arrived at during the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister .
• “This is not only for fact checking, but also to identify manipulation on social media platforms and digital media platforms. Right now, the AI software will be deployed to assess. Law will come later and action will be initiated,”
• On the legal standing of screening of content, there is no absolute bar to screen or verify criminal intentions or manipulation.” He also clarified that this would not be applicable to news media outlets. “Fake media banners and houses will, however, not be spared, that there will be no human interference in this, and that no party or government will benefit.
• The Cabinet note said that the software would be developed adhering to guidelines on data sovereignty and data localisation, and cloud architecture would be developed adhering to the guidelines of MeitY. It also pointed out that the Department of IT/BT has after evaluation found the importance of IDTU project in controlling the spread of misinformation ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
• The proposed software will be proprietary algorithm, which will be dynamic and continuously renewed AI/ ML units since there is a threat of misinformation evolving and fixed algorithm was not an answer. There will be real-time alerts and geo-specific threat mapping. It would help in identifying new-age misinformation, hate speech, deep fakes, bot networks, multi-language narratives, and subject-based manipulations.

Source: The Hindu

Denotified tribes seek constitutional recognition, separate Census entry

Context: Denotified tribes, nomadic tribes, semi-nomadic tribes seek ‘separate column’ in 2027 caste census, claiming they have been politically misclassified among SC, ST, OBC groups; they want sub-classification to highlight backwardness within grouping.

• Denotified tribes, nomadic tribes, and semi-nomadic tribes across the country are coming together to push for a “separate column” for themselves in Census 2027 . Their demand is for constitutional recognition of the denotified tribes in a Schedule, on a par with the existing classifications of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
• In February 2027, India will conduct a caste enumeration for the first time since 1931. Five years after that 1931 Census, the origins of the Scheduled Castes list came into being in the form of the Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1936.
• Half a century earlier, in 1871, a colonial law had classified entire communities, particularly nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, as “criminals”. After the law was repealed in 1952, these groups came to be known as “denotified” tribes.
• The Social Justice Ministry has now recommended to the Office of the Registrar-General of India that these denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes be included in the Census. The Office of the RGI has agreed to include them in next year’s caste enumeration exercise, Ministry officials assured community leaders in North India in a virtual meeting on January 30.

‘Separate column’

• “But we have no idea how they will do this,” B.K. Lodhi, a community organiser in Uttar Pradesh who was at the meeting, told The Hindu. “If we are not counted in a separate column, a separate code, in the Census forms, we will be lost once again,” said Balak Ram Sansi, 63, a Karnal-based organiser with the All India Denotified Nomadic Tribes Development Council.
• Even as leaders from denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic communities across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and other parts of North India are fighting to have their own Schedule, some leaders have started to stress the importance of recognising “graded backwardness” within this grouping as well.
• They want the demand for sub-classification to go hand in hand with that for a separate Schedule. These leaders, like Dr. Lodhi, are drawing their arguments from an August 2024 judgment, in which the Supreme Court paved the way for sub-classification of SCs and STs.

Denotified tribes

• The Criminal Tribes Act was first enacted in 1871 and then amended in 1924, before being officially repealed on August 31, 1952. The 1871 Act said it was for the “registration, surveillance and control of certain criminal tribes and eunuchs”, describing “criminal tribes” as “tribe, gang, or class of persons” that are “addicted” to committing non-bailable offences. “These communities were among the first to confront the British and sustained the struggle. That is why the colonial government classified us as ‘criminal tribes’,” Mr. Sansi said.
• The previous National Commission for Denotified Tribes, headed by Bhiku Ramji Idate, identified 1,200 such tribes, most of which have been assimilated in the SC, ST, or OBC classifications over the past seven decades. In its 2017 report, however, the Idate Commission listed 267 DNT communities that have not been classified as such. Dr. Lodhi, who served as Deputy Secretary and Director (Research) to the Idate Commission, said, “Most of the DNTs have been amalgamated in the SC, ST, OBC lists and they are not able to compete in these categories because of how marginalised they are.” Mr. Sansi said it was “politics” that led to the DNT communities being “misclassified”.

No caste certificates

• Despite schemes for DNTs run by both the State and the Centre, such as the SEED scheme, only a “miniscule” percentage of people are getting benefits, mainly because governments are not willing to issue DNT certificates, the leaders said.
• The Social Justice Ministry has only spent ₹69.3 crore on the SEED scheme in the past five years (as of December 2025), compared to the planned expenditure of ₹200 crore. “The reason for this is that no State is issuing proper DNT community certificates for us despite reminders from the Centre,” Dr. Lodhi said.

Manipur President’s Rule ends; Khemchand new CM

Context: Will prioritise peace, says the Chief Minister; BJP’s Kuki-Zo member Nemcha Kipgen and Losii Dikho of the Naga People’s Front sworn in as Deputy CMs; two more MLAs take oath as Ministers

• The installation of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance government, with a Meitei leader at the helm, brought an end to nearly a year of President’s Rule in Manipur.
• Around 6 p.m., Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla administered the oath of office to former Assembly Speaker and martial artist Yumnam Khemchand Singh as the State’s second Chief Minister since the 2022 election.
• The first, Nongthombam Biren Singh, resigned on February 9, 2025, following the ethnic conflict between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities that broke out on May 3, 2023. The swearing-in ceremony followed the revocation of President’s Rule, which was imposed on February 13, 2025.
• Mr. Khemchand Singh represents the BJP from the Singjamei constituency.
• The BJP’s Kangpokpi MLA, Nemcha Kipgen, from the Kuki-Zo community, and Naga People’s Front MLA Losii Dikho, a Naga leader representing the Mao constituency, were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers. The former took the oath virtually from Manipur Bhavan in New Delhi.
• Two other Meitei MLAs — Govindas Konthoujam of the BJP (Bishnupur) and Khuraijam Loken Singh of the National People’s Party (Wangoi) — were sworn in as Ministers at the Lok Bhavan in Manipur’s capital, Imphal. “There will always be challenges. We will prioritise peace and work for the State’s development and growth,” Mr. Khemchand Singh said after swearing in.