I. TECHNOLOGY
31. AI-powered Robot Lawyer ‘world’s first’ to represent human client in Court
The “first-ever robot lawyer” will represent a client in court. According to reports, a defendant will use the legal assistant powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to contest a traffic ticket. Here’s what all we know.
The “DoNotPay” firm developed the AI robot. It will function as a smartphone app and stream all court proceedings in real-time. The robot will instruct the defendant on what to say using headphones, much like a human attorney would do in real life.
Joshua Browder established the chatbot for legal services known as DoNotPay in 2015. It was introduced as a chatbot to give users facing late fees or fines legal guidance. The AI helper needed a lot of time to be trained on the case, according to Browder.
February 2023 is the scheduled month for the hearing. The actual date, the venue of the court, and the name of the defendant are still being kept a secret by the robot’s creators.
The defendant in the case, who will only respond to commands from the AI robot, is being sued for receiving a speeding ticket. According to the science and technology magazine New Scientist, the AI robot will process and analyse the evidence presented in court and then advise the defendant on how to respond.
According to Joshua Browder, DoNoPay has agreed to pay any fines if they lose the case. The business’s mission is to help people “battle corporations, beat bureaucracy, and sue anyone at the touch of a button.”
“DoNotPay utilizes artificial intelligence to help consumers fight against large corporations and solve their problems like beating parking tickets, appealing bank fees, and suing robocallers,” reads the company’s mission.
(Source: indiatimes.com dated 8th January,2023)
32. iPhone exports from India during April-December double to surpass $2.5 billion
Apple Inc. exported more than $2.5 billion of iPhones from India from April to December 2022, nearly twice the previous fiscal year’s total, underscoring how the US tech giant is accelerating a shift from China with geopolitical tensions on the rise.
Foxconn Technology Group and Wistron Corp. have each shipped more than $1 billion of Apple’s marquee devices abroad in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 2023, people familiar with the matter said
Pegatron Corp., another major contract manufacturer for Apple, is on track to move about $500 million of the gadgets overseas by the end of January, the people said, asking not to be identified revealing private information.
Apple’s rapidly growing export numbers illustrate how it is ramping up operations outside China, where chaos at Foxconn’s main plant in Zhengzhou exposed vulnerabilities in the Cupertino-headquartered company’s supply chain and forced it to trim output estimates.
That compounded a broader problem with evaporating demand for electronics as consumers weigh the risks of a global recession.
Apple, the world’s most valuable company, began assembling its latest iPhone models in India only last year, a significant break from its practice of reserving much of that for giant Chinese factories run by its main Taiwanese assemblers including Foxconn.
While India makes up just a fraction of iPhone output, rising exports bode well for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to make the country an alternative to China as factory to the world.
China’s Covid Zero policies and an episode of violence at the Zhengzhou plant — nicknamed iPhone City as the world’s biggest production centre for the device — laid bare the dangers of relying on the country. While Beijing has since dropped that approach to containing the virus, Apple and other global names are exploring alternative locations more than ever before.
India’s vast workforce, Modi’s support and a thriving local market make it a prime candidate to take on more electronics manufacturing. Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier, began building facilities in the country more than five years ago in anticipation of a need to extend its geographic range.
One recent selling point is a raft of new government incentives, a cornerstone of Modi’s drive to make India an electronics manufacturing hub. Foxconn has won Rs 3.6 billion ($44 million) of benefits in the first year of the so-called production-linked incentives scheme, while Wistron’s claims are currently being processed, the people said.
Apple’s contract manufacturers currently make iPhones at plants in southern India. But production in the country is just beginning. About 3 million of the devices were made in India in 2021, compared to 230 million in China, according to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates.
Foxconn began making the iPhone 14 in India a few months ago — sooner than anticipated — after a surprisingly smooth production rollout that slashed the lag between Chinese and Indian output from months to mere weeks. Apple’s three Taiwanese partners currently assemble iPhones 11 to 14 in India.
But moving out of China, where Apple has built a deep supply chain for close to two decades, isn’t easy. A Bloomberg Intelligence analysis estimated it would take about eight years to move just 10% of Apple’s production capacity out of China, where roughly 98% of the company’s iPhones are being made.
India tracks production and exports of all smartphone makers who enjoy financial incentives as part of Modi’s push.
Beyond smartphones, the country is drawing up plans to boost financial incentives for tablet and laptop makers, hoping to woo Apple to make everything from earphones to MacBooks locally as well as attract other brands.
The iPhone maker is also expected to open its first retail store in India in 2023, after meeting certain criteria imposed on foreign retailers.
(Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com. dated 09th January, 2023)
II. WORLD NEWS
33. Global recession likely in 2023: World Economic Forum survey
With geopolitical tensions continuing to shape the global economy and anticipate further monetary tightening in the United States and Europe, a majority of the World Economic Forum’s Community of Chief Economists expects a global recession in 2023.
The findings were found in the e January 2023 Chief Economists Outlook’ by the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the New Economy and Society.
As per the survey, almost two-thirds of chief economists believe a global recession is likely in 2023; of which 18 per cent consider it extremely likely – more than twice as many as in the previous survey conducted in September 2022. A third of respondents consider a global recession to be unlikely this year. However, views are divergent, with a third of respondents considering a global recession to be unlikely this year.
All of the chief economists surveyed expect weak or very weak growth in 2023 in Europe, while 91 per cent expect weak or very weak growth in the US. This marks a deterioration in recent months at the time of the last survey, the corresponding figures were 86 per cent for Europe and 64 per cent for the US, it showed.
The survey aims to summarise the emerging contours of the current economic environment and identify priorities for further action by policymakers and business leaders in response to the compounding shocks to the global economy from geo-economic and geopolitical events. The survey was conducted November-December 2022.
War and international tensions continue to shape global economic developments, and every respondent viewed it as likely, with 73 per cent saying somewhat and 27 per cent saying extremely, that patterns of economic activity will continue to shift around the world in line with new geopolitical fissures and faultlines.
The two strongest regions in 2023 according to the survey are the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and South Asia.
In South Asia, 85 per cent of respondents expect moderate (70 per cent) or strong (15 per cent) growth, a modest improvement since the September edition. Some economies in the region, including Bangladesh and India, may benefit from global trends such as a diversification of manufacturing supply chains away from China.
On inflation, the chief economists see significantly variation across regions, with the proportion expecting high inflation in 2023, ranging from just 5 per cent for China to 57 per cent for Europe.
Following a year of sharp and coordinated central bank tightening, the chief economists surveyed expect the monetary policy stance to remain constant in most of the world this year.
However, a majority of respondents expect further tightening in Europe and the US with 59 per cent and 55 per cent, respectively.
At the start of 2023, concerns about the cost of living remain acute in many countries. Yet, survey respondents indicate that the cost of living crisis may be close to its peak, with a majority (68 per cent) expecting the crisis to have become less severe by the end of 2023. A similar trend is evident in the energy crisis, with almost two-thirds of respondents optimistic that conditions will have begun to improve by the end of the year.
The survey also asked chief economists to highlight any sources of optimism in the current global economic context. Three factors were mentioned repeatedly: The strength of household balance sheets, the peaking of inflation and the resilience of labor markets.
The outlook for the global economy is gloomy, according to the results of the latest survey of chief economists. Global growth prospects remain anaemic, and global recession risk high.
(Source: livemint.com. dated 17th January, 2023)
34. China’s population falls for first time since 1961
China’s population has fallen for the first time in 60 years, with the national birth rate hitting a record low – 6.77 births per 1,000 people. The population in 2022 – 1.4118 billion – fell by 850,000 from 2021.
China’s birth rate has been declining for years, prompting a slew of policies to try to slow the trend. But seven years after scrapping the one-child policy, it has entered what one official described as an “era of negative population growth”.
The birth rate in 2022 was also down from 7.52 in 2021, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, which released the figures on Tuesday. In comparison, in 2021, the United States recorded 11.06 births per 1,000 people, and the United Kingdom, 10.08 births. The birth rate for the same year in India, which is poised to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, was 16.42.
Deaths also outnumbered births for the first time last year in China. The country logged its highest death rate since 1976 – 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people, up from 7.18 the previous year. Earlier government data had heralded a demographic crisis, which would in the long run shrink China’s labor force and increase the burden on healthcare and other social security costs.
Results from a once-a-decade census announced in 2021 showed China’s population growing at its slowest pace in decades. Populations are also shrinking and ageing in other East Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea. “This trend is going to continue and perhaps worsen after Covid,” says Yue Su, principal economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Ms Su is among experts who expect China’s population to shrink further through 2023.
“The high youth unemployment rate and weaknesses in income expectations could delay marriage and childbirth plans further, dragging down the number of newborns,” she added. And the death rate in 2023 is likely to be higher than it was pre-pandemic due to Covid infections, she said. China has seen a surge of cases since it abandoned its zero-Covid policy last month.
China’s population trends over the years have been largely shaped by the controversial one-child policy, which was introduced in 1979 to slow population growth. Families that violated the rules were fined and, in some cases, even lost jobs. In a culture that historically favors boys over girls, the policy had also led to forced abortions and a reportedly skewed gender ratio from the 1980s.
The policy was scrapped in 2016 and married couples were allowed to have two children. In recent years, the Chinese government also offered tax breaks and better maternal healthcare, among other incentives, to reverse, or at least slow, the falling birth rate.
But these policies did not lead to a sustained increase in the births. Some experts say this is because policies that encouraged childbirth were not accompanied by efforts to ease the burden of childcare, such as more help for working mothers or access to education.
In October 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping made boosting birth rates a priority. Mr Xi said in a once-in-five-year Communist Party Congress in Beijing that his government would “pursue a proactive national strategy” in response to the country’s ageing population.
(Source: bbc.com. dated 18th January,, 2023)
III. ENVIRONMENT
35. Ozone layer on track to recover within decades, UN reports
The ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades, according to a new UN assessment. Human emissions of certain chemicals cause a hole to open up in the ozone layer each year over the Antarctic. This affects the ability of the ozone to protect life on Earth from the sun’s harmful radiation.
In 1987, just seven years after scientists discovered man-made chemicals were damaging the ozone layer, the Montreal Protocol was signed by 197 parties to try and curb the amount of harmful chemicals in the atmosphere.
The global phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals previously found in hair spray, refrigerators, air conditioners and industrial cleaning products is already helping to mitigate climate change and decrease human exposure to UV rays. If current policies remain in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 values – before the appearance of the ozone hole – within decades.
A UN-backed panel of experts, presenting at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting , said the ozone would heal by around 2066 over the Antarctic, by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2040 for the rest of the world.
Variations in the size of the Antarctic ozone hole, particularly between 2019 and 2021, were driven largely by meteorological conditions. Nevertheless, the Antarctic ozone hole has been slowly improving in area and depth since the year 2000.
“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action,” says WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas. “Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done – as a matter of urgency – to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase.”
Nearly 99 per cent of banned ozone-depleting substances have been successfully phased out, according to the UN-backed Scientific Assessment Panel to the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances four-yearly report.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – another group of industrial chemicals that was used to replace banned chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)- were additionally targeted in the 2016 the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. While HFCs do not directly deplete ozone, they are powerful climate change gases that were on track to increase global warming by 0.3 to 0.5°C by 2100, according to the Scientific Assessment Panel.
“That ozone recovery is on track… is fantastic news. The impact the Montreal Protocol has had on climate change mitigation cannot be overstressed,” says Meg Seki, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Ozone Secretariat. “Over the last 35 years, the Protocol has become a true champion for the environment.”
(Source : euronews.com. 10th January, 2023)
