West Bengal assembly passes bill to replace governor with CM as chancellor of state universities

• The appointment of Vice-Chancellors in state government-run universities is among the responsibilities of Governors as Chancellors.
• Chancellors in most states have the power to annul decisions of the decision-making bodies of universities such as the Executive Council, and to make appointments to these bodies.
• They also enjoy the power to preside over the convocation of universities.
• In some states, however, Governors have little or no say in appointing VCs despite holding the post of Chancellor. In Telangana and Gujarat, Governors have no option but to appoint VCs from among the names approved by the state governments.
• The move by the Mamata Banerjee government has once again brought to the fore similar disputes playing out in Opposition-ruled states such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which too have curtailed the authority enjoyed by Governors as Chancellors.
• While no attempt has been made to officially designate the CM as Chancellor in any other state, Tamil Nadu in April passed two Bills that seek to transfer the power of the Governor to appoint VCs of 13 state universities to the state government, which is currently run by the DMK.

ICMR releases guidelines for type-1 diabetes

• Type 1 diabetes is a condition where the pancreas completely stops producing insulin, the hormone responsible for controlling the level of glucose in blood by increasing or decreasing absorption to the liver, fat, and other cells of the body.
• This is unlike type 2 diabetes — where the body’s insulin production either goes down or the cells become resistant to the insulin.
• Type 1 diabetes is predominantly diagnosed in children and adolescents.
• Type 1 diabetes is much more severe than type 2. Unlike type 2 diabetes where the body produces some insulin and which can be managed using various pills, if a person with type 1 diabetes stops taking their insulin, they die within weeks as the body produces zero insulin.
• Symptoms in children’s include frequent urination, extreme thirst, and diabetic ketoacidosis (a serious condition where the body has a high concentration of ketones, a molecule produced when the body isn’t able to absorb glucose for energy and starts breaking down fats instead).
• There are over 10 lakh children and adolescents living with type 1 diabetes in the world, with India accounting for the highest numbers.

Jack Dorsey announces ''Web 5

• Web 1.0: Web 1.0 was the first generation of the global digital communications network. It is often referred to as the “read-only” Internet made of static web-pages that only allowed for passive engagement.
• Web 2.0: The next stage in the evolution of the web was the “read and write” Internet. Users were now able to communicate with servers and other users leading to the creation of the social web. This is the world wide web that we use today.
• Web 3.0: Web 3.0 is an evolving term that refers to a “read-write-execute” web – with decentralization as its bedrock. It speaks about a digital world, built leveraging the blockchain technology, where people are able to interact with each other without the need of an intermediary. Web 3.0 will be driven by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

Web 5.0

• Being developed by Dorsey’s Bitcoin business unit, The Block Head (TBH), Web 5.0 is aimed at “building an extra decentralized web that puts you in control of your data and identity”.
• Web 5.0 is Web 2.0 plus Web 3.0 that will allow users to ‘own their identity’ on the Internet and ‘control their data’. Both Web 3.0 and Web 5.0 envision an Internet without threat of censorship – from governments or big tech, and without fear of significant outages.

Why a senior Google engineer claimed its AI-based chatbot LaMDA is ‘sentient’

• LaMDA is a language model created by Google AI, a division of Google dedicated to artificial intelligence.
• LaMDA is an artificial intelligence system that creates chatbots — AI robots designed to communicate with humans — by gathering vast amounts of text from the internet and using algorithms to respond to queries in the most fluid and natural way possible.
• Google first announced LaMDA at its flagship developer conference I/O in 2021.
• In June 2022 the LaMDA chatbot received widespread coverage regarding claims about it having achieved sentience (i.e. the capacity to experience feelings and sensations).

Canada''s Manitoba assembly passes the Turban Day Act

• Why April 13? The day of Baisakhi or Vaisakhi, which usually falls on April 13 or 14 each year, commemorates the birth of Khalsa Panth. It was on this day in 1699 that the tenth Guru Gobind Singh had laid the foundation of Khalsa Panth at Anandpur Sahib among his followers.
• Significance of the Act: Giving an official recognition to the turban or dastaar (a headgear which is Sikh religious symbol) will spread awareness against racism that Sikhs still face in Canada.
• Sikhs constitute just 1.4 per cent (around 5 lakh in number) of Canada’s total population but hold significant positions in the government and political system.
• Not just Sikhs, Canada remains the most preferred destination for Punjabis to immigrate.
• The month of April is celebrated as Sikh Heritage Month across Canada after the Federal Parliament passed the Bill in 2019 and it was given the Royal Assent.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Greece to demilitarise islands

• The Aegean Islands are the group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east; the island of Crete delimits the sea to the south, those of Rhodes, Karpathos and Kasos to the southeast.
• The vast majority of the Aegean Islands belong to Greece. The only sizable possessions of Turkey in the Aegean Sea are Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada), in the northeastern part of the Sea.
• Greece and Turkey are NATO allies, but the neighboring countries have a history of disputes over a range of issues, including mineral exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and rival claims in the Aegean Sea.
• Turkey argues the islands were ceded to Greece on the condition they remained demilitarized.
• Greece maintains Turkey has deliberately misinterpreted the treaties and says it has legal grounds to defend itself following hostile actions by Turkey.

Thailand becomes the first Asian country to legalise Marijuana.

• Thailand legalised the growing of marijuana and its consumption in food and drinks, the first Asian country to do so, with the aim of boosting its agriculture and tourism sectors but smoking pot is still against the law.
• Thailand, which has a tradition of using cannabis to relieve pain and fatigue, legalised medicinal marijuana in 2018. The government, banking on the plant as a cash crop, plans to give away a million plants to encourage farmers to take up its cultivation.
• The possession and sale of cannabis extracts containing more than 0.2% of its psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is not allowed, which will mean smokers of the drug known as “pot”, “weed” and a host of other names, will struggle to get “stoned”.
• Those who break the law can still face jail and fines.