UPSC Essentials | Mains Answer Practice GS 2 : UNCLOS and AI governance (Week 146)

QUESTION 2

“AI governance must move beyond expert-driven regulation to incorporate public participation and social accountability.” Discuss the statement with suitable examples.

QUESTION 1: How UNCLOS balances the principles of freedom of navigation, coastal state sovereignty, and resource rights. Discuss in the context of recent naval conflicts in the Indian Ocean.

Relevance: The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is central to questions on global commons and maritime governance. Increasing tensions in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) test the balance between sovereignty and freedom of navigation. It is also important for understanding India’s maritime interests, trade routes, and security doctrine (SAGAR).

Note: This is not a model UPSC answer. It only provides you with a thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982 and entered into force in 1994. It lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order for the world’s oceans, establishing rules for the allocation of States’ rights and jurisdiction in maritime spaces, the peaceful use of the oceans and the management of their resources.

— The Convention also establishes a framework for the ongoing development of certain areas of sea law, including the activity of competent international organisations such as the International Maritime Organisation.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

— A particular concern is the spillover of the war beyond West Asia, involving “neutral states” as well. In international law, maritime waters are broadly divided into three categories: Belligerent, neutral, and international.

— Belligerent waters include internal and territorial waters (up to 12 nautical miles of the baseline) of conflicting parties and the maritime arena other than the internal and territorial waters of neutral states (which are called neutral waters). International waters refer to the high seas, the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), and the contiguous zones beyond territorial waters.

The recent naval conflicts in the Indian Ocean

— In the first incident, an Iranian frigate, IRIS Dena, was sunk by the US submarine USS Charlotte, the first such attack in the Indian Ocean since World War II. The attack caused the deaths of around 87 Iranian sailors and wounded many others. The strike, though not in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka, was within the island state’s EEZ (40 nautical miles off Galle).

— According to the US, it is legal to destroy enemy ships as long as they are not in the territorial waters (12 nautical miles) of neutral states. The US cited the Newport Manual on the Law of Naval Warfare that says, “A neutral state’s contiguous zone, EEZ, and continental shelf do not constitute neutral sea areas.”

Role of UNCLOS

— According to Article 301 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), “States parties shall refrain from any threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations.” Interestingly, while Sri Lanka has ratified UNCLOS, Iran has signed but not ratified it. The US and Israel have not even signed the Convention. But all three countries are UN members and bound by the UN Charter.

Conclusion:

— Though technically legal, the attack, seen in a larger global context, poses three issues. One, the IRIS Dena was on its way back from an International Fleet Review organised by India, a strategic partner of the US and a fellow member of the Quad. The attack was an embarrassment for New Delhi.

— There are no clear-cut international treaties or conventions on naval warfare. Most of the interpretations involving wars in the maritime domain rely on customary international law, UNCLOS, the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions.

(Source: Sinking of the Dena exposes the limits of international law, http://www.imo.org)

Points to Ponder

Do provisions related to Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) create ambiguities during military operations at sea?

How have recent tensions in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) exposed limitations in enforcement of international maritime law?

Related Previous Year Questions

Discuss the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of the Maldives for India with a focus on global trade and energy flows. Further, discuss how this relationship affects India’s maritime security and regional stability amidst international competition. (2024)

Sea is an important Component of the Cosmos’ Discuss in the light of the above statement the role of the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) in protecting environment and enhancing maritime safety and security. (2023)

QUESTION 2: “AI governance must move beyond expert-driven regulation to incorporate public participation and social accountability.” Discuss the statement with suitable examples.

Relevance: AI regulation is an emerging theme in digital governance and public policy debates. It raises concerns of bias, inequality, and concentration of power in big tech companies. It is also relevant for India’s policy initiatives like NITI Aayog AI strategy and global AI ethics frameworks.

(Representational Image)

Note: This is not a model UPSC answer. It only provides you with a thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— The pace and scale of AI deployment has far outstripped the ability of traditional regulatory models to ensure oversight.

— India has implemented a principle-based AI governance framework based on seven Sutras to promote safe, trusted, and inclusive AI innovation across sectors. The guidelines advocate the formation of new national institutions such as the AI Governance Group, Technology & Policy Expert Committee, and AI Safety Institute. The AI governance principles promote innovation above restraint, promoting AI as a catalyst for equitable growth, competitiveness, and the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

— AI-enabled systems increasingly impact labour markets, education, healthcare, finance, and even democratic processes. While technical know-how resides in private firms, the risk and impact is borne by the public at large. This is compounded by the ability of machine-learning systems to evolve post-deployment, complicating regulation for static legal frameworks. The cumulative outcome is a fragmented ecosystem where knowledge, regulation and risk are unevenly distributed.

— A participatory approach to governance offers one pathway to correct this imbalance. Such an approach would enable the diverse community of end-users, such as citizens, civil society organisations, independent researchers and academia, to detect emerging harms that domain experts or developers overlook. This is particularly helpful when bias relates to linguistic or cultural groups, regional practices or local traditions. Participatory approaches allow models to account for experiential knowledge, enabling audits to bring contextual shortcomings to the surface.

— Community-led audits can further strengthen transparency and accountability by stress-testing systems under real-world conditions. However, a participatory approach to governance may only be effective when embedded in institutional design.

— Discourse around AI governance often treats opacity as a purely technical problem, locating the “black box” within proprietary algorithms and complex model architectures. While technical opacity is real, this framing is incomplete. There is also an emerging social black box. Decisions regarding what problems are worth automating, which datasets are to be deployed for training models, whose errors are tolerable and which harms we embrace are not always made by algorithms. They are shaped by commercial value, strategic priorities and social considerations. So long as upstream choices remain opaque, even transparent AI models may produce unjust outcomes.

Conclusion:

— Participatory governance mechanisms carry the prospect of piercing this veil and opening AI systems to democratic oversight.

— If governance remains a technocratic exercise behind closed doors, AI will deepen inequalities and weaken democratic oversight. If India invests in qualitative institutionalised participatory mechanisms for AI audits and builds infrastructure to drive responsible innovation, AI-enabled systems can be aligned with public values rather than narrow institutional priorities.

(Source: Society bears AI risks. It must have a say in AI governance, http://www.pib.gov.in)

Points to Ponder

How can algorithmic bias and opacity affect democratic decision-making and citizen rights?

What role should governments and institutions like NITI Aayog play in balancing innovation with regulation?

Related Previous Year Questions

e-governance projects have a built-in bias towards technology and back-end integration than user-centric designs. Examine. (2025)

e-governance, as a critical tool of governance, has ushered in effectiveness, transparency and accountability in governments. What inadequacies hamper the enhancement of these features? (2023)

Topic: War in the Middle East – Where is it headed, and what happens now

What is the endgame?

Is US & Israel justified in attacking Iran?

What is happening inside Iran?

What will be new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khameini’s strategy?

How does west Asia view the war?

How is India’s position on the war perceived by different nations?

How far is it going to impact India’s economy and its diaspora in the region?

Join us in the next edition of Explained.Live with Navdeep Suri, Former Indian Ambassador to UAE & Egypt in conversation with Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor, The Indian Express

Register now: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/9017733199890/WN_GLNpxRb6SqyjNrW4Ut81Mg

March 19, 2026 | 5:30 PM | Zoom

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