1. TECHNOLOGY AND AI
#World-first’ AI camera targets drink-drivers
Motorists under the influence of alcohol or drugs could be caught by a pioneering AI camera which is being tested for the first time in Devon and Cornwall. The state-of-the-art Heads-Up machine can detect road use and behaviour consistent with drivers who may be impaired by drink or drugs.
Police further up the road can stop the vehicle, talk to the driver and do a roadside test for alcohol and illegal drugs. Geoff Collins, UK general manager of camera developer Acusensus, said: “We are delighted to be conducting the world’s first trials of this technology right here in Devon and Cornwall.”
The camera can be moved quickly to any road in either county, without warning, with drivers unaware they have been spotted until police pull them over. “We are all safer if we can detect impairment before it causes an incident that could ruin lives,” said Mr. Collins.
Acusensus cameras have previously been used to help police catch drivers using mobile phones at the wheel or not wearing seat belts. With drink-drivers six times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash, Devon & Cornwall Police are hoping the Heads-Up system will help to save lives.
“Our officers cannot be everywhere,” said Supt Simon Jenkinson, whose team polices the 14,000 miles of roads in the two counties. As members of the Vision Zero South West road safety partnership, we’re committed to doing everything we can to reduce the number of
people killed and seriously injured on our roads. Embracing emerging technology such as these cameras is vital in that quest. The trial is taking place throughout December to coincide with other drink-driving campaigns.
(Source: bbc.com dated 14th December, 2024)
#THE 12 GREATEST DANGERS OF AI
In his new book Taming Silicon Valley, the AI expert Gary Marcus shared what he sees as the greatest dangers of AI and gave a list of 12 immediate dangers of AI in Silicon Valley.
1. Deliberate, automated, mass-produced political disinformation.
“Generative AI systems are the machine guns (or nukes) of disinformation, making disinformation faster, cheaper, and more pitch perfect,” says Marcus. “During the 2016 election campaign, Russia was spending $1.25 million per month on human-powered troll farms that created fake content, much of it aimed at creating dissension and causing conflict in the United States.”
2. Market manipulation.
He argues, “Bad actors won’t just try to influence elections; they will also try to influence markets. I warned Congress of this possibility on 18th May, 2023; four days later, it would become a reality: a fake image of the Pentagon, allegedly having exploded, spread virally across the internet,” which made the stock market briefly buckle.
3. Accidental misinformation.
“Even when there is no intention to deceive, LLMs can spontaneously generate (accidental) misinformation. One huge area of concern is medical advice. A study from Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute showed that LLM responses to medical questions were highly variable, often inaccurate,” notes Marcus.
4. Defamation.
“A special case of misinformation is misinformation that hurts people’s reputations, whether accidentally or on purpose,” notes Marcus. “In one particularly egregious case, ChatGPT alleged that a law professor had been involved in a sexual harassment case while on a field trip in Alaska with a student, pointing to an article allegedly documenting this in The Washington Post. But none of it checked out.”
5. Nonconsensual deepfakes.
Marcus explains that “Deepfakes are getting more and more realistic, and their use is increasing. In October 2023 (if not earlier) some high school students started using AI to make nonconsensual fake nudes of their classmates.”
6. Accelerating crime.
Marcus argues that Generative AI is already being used for impersonation scams and spear-phishing. “The biggest impersonation scam so far seems to revolve around voice-cloning. Scammers will, for example, clone a child’s voice and make a phone call with the cloned voice, alleging that the child has been kidnapped; the parents are asked to wire money, for example, in the form of bitcoin.”
7. Cybersecurity and bioweapons.
“Generative AI can be used to hack websites to discover ‘zero-day’ vulnerabilities (which are unknown to the developers) in software and phones, by automatically scanning millions of lines of code—something heretofore done only by expert humans,” explains Marcus.
8. Bias and discrimination.
“Bias has been a problem with AI for years. In one early case, documented in 2013 by Latanya Sweeney, African American names induced very different ad results from Google than other names did, such as advertisements for researching criminal records.”
9. Privacy and data leaks.
Marcus points to Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, where she argued that companies are spying on all of us and that surveillance capitalism “claims human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data [that] are declared as proprietary behavioral surplus, fed into [AI], and fabricated into prediction products that anticipate what you will do now, soon, and later.” Marcus adds: “and then sold to whoever wants to manipulate you.”
10. Intellectual property taken without consent.
A lot of what AI will “regurgitate is copyrighted material, used without the consent of creators like artists and writers and actors,” notes Marcus. “The whole thing has been called the Great Data Heist — a land grab for intellectual property that will (unless stopped by government intervention or citizen action) lead to a huge transfer of wealth — from almost all of us — to a tiny number of companies.”
11. Overreliance on unreliable systems.
Marcus explains: “In safety-critical applications, giving LLMs full sway over the world is a huge mistake waiting to happen, particularly given all the issues of hallucination, inconsistent reasoning, and unreliability we have seen. Imagine, for example, a driverless car system using an LLM and hallucinating the location of another car. Or an automated weapon system hallucinating enemy positions. Or worse, LLMs launching nukes.”
12. Environmental costs.
The training of LLMs requires enormous amounts of energy, which has implications for the environment. “Generating a single image takes roughly as much energy as charging a phone. Because Generative AI is likely to be used billions of times a day, it adds up,” explains Marcus. Additionally, he notes that the trend among AI companies is to train bigger and bigger models, which requires astronomical amounts of energy.
(Source: Forbes.com dated 9th November, 2024)
2 HEALTH
#Elon Musk’s Neuralink announces study to connect brain implant to robotic arm
Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface implant startup Neuralink announced on X that it received approval to launch a new feasibility study, CONVOY, which will test the use of its wireless brain-computer interface (BCI), or N1 implant, to control an investigational assistive robotic arm.
“This is an important first step towards restoring not only digital freedom, but also physical freedom. More info to come, but the CONVOY study will enable cross-enrolling participants from the ongoing PRIME study,” Neuralink said in a post.
Neuralink’s PRIME study (short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface) involves the placement of a small, cosmetically invisible implant in the area of a person’s brain that plans movements. The N1 implant is designed to interpret one’s neural activity to assist them in operating a computer or smartphone by simply intending to move.
The ongoing medical device clinical trial is designed to provide individuals with quadriplegia the ability to use digital devices with their thoughts, and the company is continuing to seek individuals to participate in the study.
Neurolink’s BCI device was first implanted into 29-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh in February, resulting in Arbaugh having the ability to play chess and video games hands-free.
In July, Elon Musk joined Neuralink to give a live update on patients implanted with the Telepathy device. “Let’s say somebody has lost their arms or legs, we could actually attach an Optimus arm or Optimus legs to a Neuralink implant so that the motor commands from your brain that would go to our biological arms now go to your robot arms or robot legs, and you’d basically have cybernetic superpowers,” Musk said.
Optimus, also known as the Tesla Bot, is a general-purpose robotic humanoid that was initially announced by Musk in 2021, with a prototype shown in 2022. Musk showcased the robot’s progress at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event at Warner Bros. Studio last month in Los Angeles.
Neuralink recently announced it received approval from Health Canada to perform a clinical trial on its N1 brain implant and R1 robot, which is used to place the implant into the brain. The “Canadian Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface” (CAN-PRIME) study will be performed by the University Health Network (UHN) hospital at its Toronto Western Hospital.
Last month, the company received FDA breakthrough device designation for Blindsight, an implant that aims to restore vision in individuals who are blind. Blindsight implants a microelectrode array into the visual cortex of a person’s brain. The array then activates neurons, which then provide the individual with a visual image.
(Source: www.mobihealthnews.com dated 27th November, 2024)
The workshop held at the Palladium Hotel, Mumbai on August 7th and 8th,
The Keynote Address at the Conference was given by Shri Sunandan
1. OVERSEAS FUNDS – TA X AND REGULATORY ASPECTS by Shri Bhavin Shah. He dealt with issues relating to taxation of overseas funds and structures for inbound investment by such funds. He also highlighted issues in respect of capital gains on indirect transfers, treaty residence, GAAR, etc. He also provided insights into normal structures of overseas funds. 
2. STRUCTURING OF EPC CONTRACTS – TA X & OTHER ISSUES by Shri H. Padamchand Khincha. He highlighted and exhaustively analysed the controversies and issues relating to taxation of various types of EPC contracts, including splitting up of such contracts, treatment of joint ventures, accrual and classification of income from such contracts. 
3. EXPATRIATE S – TAX AND REGULATORY ASPECTS by Shri Nikhil Bhatia. He analysed the various issues relating to taxation of expatriates, including determination of residential status, deductibility of social security contributions, and treatment of tax equalisation, and also discussed other provisions affecting expatriates, such as provident fund contribution, etc. This was supplemented by various Case Studies involving issues such as transfers, tax efficient method for such transfers, Indian Exchange Control Regulations, Tax Credits, etc. 
4. PLACE OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT (POEM) by Shri Pinakin Desai, who analysed the meaning of the newly introduced term in the Indian context. He discussed the international perspective and earlier case laws on control and management, and the various factual aspects which would assist in determination of the POEM. 
BASE EROSION AND PROFIT SHIFTING (BEPS) – RECENT DEVELOPMENTS by Shri T. P. Ostwal, who covered issues relating to recent developments internationally, and at the OECD. He explained the progress on each of the 15 action points under the BEPS initiative, and the expected timelines within which further actions were to be taken. 
The speaker on the subject, Mr. Monish Chatrath gave the audience an overview of the latest developments under Companies Act, which place an onerous responsibility on the auditor. Emphasising their importance, he stressed upon the need to make IFC a powerful and practical tool, in the hands of all the stakeholders – the organisation, the consultant and the auditor. 
The speaker Mr. R. Ravichandran, Director of Income Tax (Intelligence & Criminal Investigation) explained in detail, the legal framework, procedures and issues involved in the use of Digital Evidence obtained by the Income Tax Department during various stages of assessments, search and seizures.
One day Seminar on BEPS in Action was organised by the International Taxation Committee on 7th November, 2015 at Palladium Hotel in Mumbai. 
The Seminar started with CA. Vishal Gada giving an overview of the final deliverables of the OECD on the 15 Action Plans on their Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. He gave a detailed summary of the Action Plans. Thereafter, he dealt with the Action Plan on addressing tax challenges in Digital Economy. He informed the audience about the various options that the OECD has suggested to deal with the lack of permanent establishment threshold and indirect taxes issues arising out of e-commerce transactions for source countries. He also summarised some global developments like unilateral actions by countries relating to BEPS during his talk. 
In the subsequent session, action plans relating to substance issues arising in the transfer pricing field were taken up by CA. Sanjay Tolia. He dealt with value creation in case of intangibles, as regards risks and capital and high risk transactions. He also explained the new documentation requirement for country-by-country reporting with master file and country files. 
Mr. S.P. Singh, IRS, dealt with the action plans dealing with the issues of transparency and certainty. These action plans related to establishing methodologies to collect and analyse data on BEPS, requiring taxpayers to disclose their aggressive tax planning arrangements, making Dispute Resolution mechanism more effective and developing a Multilateral Instrument to effectively implement the action plans. 
In the final session, CA T. P. Ostwal updated the participants about the current developments like the ‘Google tax’ and reporting on aggressive planning techniques by taxpayers and other related developments in India and globally. 
The speaker, CA. Rohan Phatarphekar shared with the audience, his views on the recent development and controversies in Transfer Pricing. He gave a brief overview on the application and interpretation of these recent developments. He emphasised on the issues involved and the approach of the revenue for these controversies and discussed the same in details. 
A full day seminar on “Charitable Trusts” was organised jointly with The Chamber of Tax Consultants. The objective of the seminar was to enlighten the participants with the entire aspects and procedures for formation, running rules, regulations, investments and taxation of Charitable Trusts with special emphasis on the updated laws and CSR provisions. 
The faculty answered the various queries raised by the members which reflected how deeply the audience got interested on the subject. More than 200 members present gained immensely from the expert deliberation from the faculties. The video of the lecture is available at www.bcasonline.org & www.bcasonline.tv, respectively, for the benefit of all. 
The Indirect Tax Committee of the Society conducted a workshop on 12th September 2015 on “How to assess the impact of proposed GST law” on two major business sectors. Mr. Divyesh Lapsiwala dealt with possible impact on pharmaceutical sector. He explained in a very lucid manner and citing various examples as to how the new concepts in GST are likely to impact business processes and distribution models of pharma companies. Parind Mehta demonstrated before members the likely impact of GST on construction sector by discussing a case study. Participants also discussed various legal issues which may crop up while solving the case study. 
Mr. Yogesh Thar addressed the august gathering on “ICDS: Overview and Challenges in Application”. The highlights of his talk are summarised below:
Lecture Meeting on Important Income-tax Decisions of 2014 on 29th January 2015
Programme on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) & Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) on 7th February 2015
The Human Resources Committee of BCAS organised a workshop (spread over four Saturdays), under the auspices of Amita Memorial Trust, where the Trainer, Mr. Shyam Lata dealt with various aspects of enhancing public speaking, communication and interpersonal skills. These four sessions helped the participants overcome limiting inhibitions. He guided them to develop a compelling desire, not only to express one’s ideas but to do so with conviction and assertion. 27 participants attended the workshop. They immensely benefited from the training.
ESI, Bonus & Gratuity Act, Shop and Establishment Act:-
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Every year, the most awaited event is the budget. What the Finance Minister unfolded on 29th February 2016 with respect to the direct tax provisions was covered in the Public Lecture Meeting held on 4th March 2016 by Senior Advocate Mr. S. E. Dastur. This was the 51st Budget Lecture Meeting of the Society and 28th year of address by Mr. S. E. Dastur. This year the Society has captured pre budget expectations and post budget inteviews from the stalwarts and the youth. Just before the lecture began, a series of views of various people on the budget were taken by Mr. Ameet Patel. All these videos are available on our website as well as Youtube channel and also on social media.
President Raman Jokhakar welcomed the speaker, Senior Advocate Mr. Vikram Nankani, an eminent speaker on the subject to throw light on the amendments of the changes by the Finance bill 2016.The lecture meeting commenced with the launch of the new publication of the Society “Partnership Firms – Registration Procedure and Frequently Faced Issues with Registrar of Firms” by Mr. Uday Sathaye, Past President of the Society. The book was launched by the speaker Mr. Nankani. 
Professionals like CA’s, Advocates, Businessmen are finding it difficult to Register Partnership Firms with Registrar of Firms in Maharashtra due to various issues. This process of registration involves submission of documents and the careful adherence to a procedure which has been laid down. 
His address was followed by the interactive session wherein the panel of RBI officers provided views on the written queries provided to them in advance. The queries covered all important areas of FEMA including those dealing with ODI, FDI, LRS, ECB and Trade transactions. The Officers answered the queries and also dealt with several questions from the audience.
The post lunch technical sessions was on “Trade Transactions” by Mr. Shabbir Motorwala who succinctly covered the vast subject in the time available with him. The last session was on “ECBs” wherein Mr. Kumar Saurabh Singh covered the recent amendments in the ECB policy and also dealt with the other financing routes available to borrowers. Both the speakers answered queries from the audience and covered the subjects in significant detail. The Conference was received well by all present. 
It was once again a proud moment for BCAS and BCAS Foundation to organise a music concert “Udat Abeel Gulal”, together with a few other organisations at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on 19th March, 2016 in aid of Dilasa Sanstha, an NGO engaged in relief work for drought affected farmers of Maharashtra. Attended by a large audience, it started with jugalbandi of Santoor and Saraswati Veena by Shri Snehal Muzoomdar, Maithili Muzoomdar on Santoor and Shri Narayan Mani on Saraswati Veena respectively, accompanied by a team of virtuoso musicians and interspersed with Vedic chants by Ved Pandit Dr. Narasimha Ghanpatigal. Explaining the theme “Bairagi se Basant”, Compere Mihir Sheth vividly created background atmosphere for celebration of spring with quotes from Kalidasa and Rig-Veda. Narrating the ethos of the theme and quoting medieval poet Maagh, he said when season of Basant arrives, its enchanting beauty feels us with a sense of bliss, Abeel and Gulal colour our lives, the fire of Holi protects our lives, give us the prosperity and hence, we all invoke Firegod Agni as narrated in Agnisooktam in Rig-Veda whose hymns are often chanted in raga Bairagi. 
The Jugalbandi started with raga Bairagi rendered on Santoor and Saraswati Veena interspersed with chanting of Vedic hymns and then deftly moved on to raga Basant and Kafi, which are the popular ragas of the Basant season, accompanied by vocalists Shraddha Shridharni in Hindustani style and Nupur Joshi in Carnatic style. Both the vocalists recreated magic with their rendition of poet Nanhalal’s poems so ably composed by Snehal Muzoomdar. Fine balance of melodious music with perfect percussion and dramatic entry of vocalists on the stage left the audience completely mesmerised when it reached the crescendo in the end. 
The Human Development & Technology Initiative Committee continued with the annual CSR activity of supporting Eye Camp for the tribals and the needy people from the rural area surrounding Vansda, Dist. Navsari. 
The Committee had set a target of one Eye Camp with a Budget of Rs.51,000/- for cataract surgery of 51 patients. However, with divine grace and kind support of all donor friends, it was able to collect Rs.2,17,200, which can take care of 217 patients i.e. little over four Eye Camps. 
In the first session CA. Mayur Nayak effectively explained, many important points aptly punctuated with humour. He explained the importance of clarity of goal, attitude to win, discipline, consistency, effective time management and how to overcome distractions. He guided them to have Balanced food, effective study and relaxation. He emphasised that harmony of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual alignment would help them to face any challenges in life including that of exams. 
In the second session CA. Shrinivas Joshi focused on CA exams. He explained at length as to how to prepare with qualitative studies for exams including use of appropriate reference materials. He shared the information that excellent study materials and faculties are available freely to clarify and guide on a variety of subjects covered in the syllabus. He explained at length as to what the examiner expects from the students and also cleared their doubts on misinformation and wrong impressions in the minds of the students about the ICAI exams and its results. He shared the important tips as to how to write the papers and manage time of three hours in exams. He answered all questions raised by the students. 
The Seminar on Media and Entertainment Industry was conducted by the International Taxation Committee of the BCAS on 12 February 2016 at St. Regis Hotel (Palladium Hotel). This seminar was organized jointly with Accounting & Auditing Committee and Indirect Taxation Committee. The speakers at the seminar and the topics covered were as under: 
Mr. Jehil Thakkar on Know the industry – current issues – Business models, cash flows, vehicle for investments, etc. (Industry overview and typical situations)
Mr. Utkarsh Sanghvi on Indirect tax issues in media and entertainment industry, including: Service tax, VAT and customs. 
The seminar was attended by more than 50 participants. The seminar became very informative and provided an overview of industry as a whole and detailed technical analysis on taxation, accounting and auditing aspects. The Seminar provided an insight into the industry and focused on the issues faced in the industry and the current trends in respect of the Media and Entertainment industry. The sessions at this seminar were all interactive and generated good amount of debate among the participants and the presenter. 
Lecture Meeting on Important Case Laws of 2015 on Indirect Taxes held on Wednesday, 17th February 2016 at IMC Hall Churchgate Shri. K. Vaitheeswaran dealt with various important case laws of 2015 on Indirect Taxes. He discussed and deliberated upon case laws in the field of Central Excise, Customs, Service Tax and Sales tax. He dealt with intricacies of the cases with an impact analysis. 
Lecture Meeting on Important Income Tax Decisions of 2015 was held on Wednesday, 24th February 2016 at the Jaihind College Auditorium. 
