Efforts towards Gram Rajya

Panchayats have a pivotal role to play in integrated rural development by focusing on the 17 SDGs which are subsumed under nine themes to ensure poverty-free, clean, healthy, child-friendly, and socially secured well-governed villages. Ministry of Panchayati Raj has introduced digital solutions like e-GramSwaraj for planning, budgeting and accounting of Panchayats, inspiring 2.38 lakh Gram Panchayats to adopt e-GramSwaraj. However, all Panchayats also need to be brought onto this platform to meet the digital mission of governance.In recent years, owing to the continuous efforts by the government, Panchayats have emerged as leaders, planners and policymakers at the grass-root level. This has enabled them to realize their national as well as global targets in the true spirit of the transition from ‘Local to Global’. It is also heartening to note here that India has achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in 2019, 11 years ahead of its actual timeline in 2030. Now Panchayats need to achieve complete sanitation and adopt waste management practices, converting waste to wealth. This will provide new confidence in rural economy. The government seems to be on target to provide clean drinking water to each household in the country by 2024, which would be a new milestone for the country as vast as India.

It is heartening that the increase in fund allocation to the rural local bodies from Rs.100 per capita per annum in the 10th Finance Commission has been raised to Rs.674 per capita per annum in the 15th Finance Commission, thanks to the growing focus of the present dispensation on the rural populace. Now Central Finance Commission funds are directly transferred to the bank accounts of Panchayats, leaving little or no scope for any diversion, dilution and deviation in the process. Similarly, now efforts are also being made to ensure that every grant meant for people should directly go to the eligible beneficiaries, and improve education, employment, water & other situations.

To further sensitize all stake holders in the process to give a boost to an all round development of the villages, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj is celebrating its iconic week under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Governance Conference, ‘Sushasan – Sugamta se Sampanta’ was also organized today (12th April). Through such programmes, the government is ensuring that the Panchayati Raj institutions become the real instruments to carry out the programmes of rural development. In this endeavour, Governance is playing a significant role in making Panchayati Raj Institutions functional and efficient. With the rapid expansion of the economy and the growing awareness and assertion of rights by the populace, the need and demand for good governance has also increased in recent years. Today’s governance style is becoming more citizen-oriented, citizen-centric, citizen-friendly, ensuring dedication, responsiveness and accountability of both official and Elected Representatives, towards rural development.

‘Ram Rajya is incomplete without Gram Rajya’ , the significance of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous statement is being well-realised today with burgeoning efforts being taken by the government to improve governance at rural level with focus on providing villages (approx 6.5 lakh) with connectivity, education, employment opportunity and entertainment. With the Centre and State Governments together implementing various development programmes, good governance is critical not only for ensuring social inclusion in the Government Programmes, but also for establishing accountability. And Panchayati Raj institutions have a definite mandate for realization of goal towards improving the quality of life in rural areas.

Knowing the State of Indian Agriculture

From an economy struggling with short supply to turn into a net exporter of agri-products, occupying seventh position globally, India has come a long way. It is one of the top producers of cereals (wheat & rice), pulses, fruits, vegetables, milk, meat and marine fish. However, there are areas needing a lot of work for the nutritional security for harvesting the demographic dividend of the country. The country faces deficit of pulses & oilseeds. Though the availability of fruits & vegetables and milk & meat & fish has increased,but affordability is still a work in progress. No denial that a sea change has been witnessed in this domain and a look at working of key initiatives is must to understand the happenings and outlook.

PM-KISAN provides income support to small and marginal farmers, Krishi Bhagya Scheme empowers farmers to use modern technologies to yield more crops per drop of water, NMSA caters to key dimensions of ‘Water use efficiency’, ‘Nutrient Management’ and ‘Livelihood diversification’ through solutions of sustainable development, whereas PM Fasal Bima Yojana provides financial support to the farmers who suffer crop loss or damage. National Agriculture Market (eNAM) portal has been a huge success. The portal is a unified national market for agricultural commodities, a network of the existing APMC mandis. It makes better price discovery available now through transparent auction process based on quality of produce along with timely online payment.

“New India will be more prosperous if the farmers in the country are further empowered. I am happy that Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and other schemes related to agriculture are giving new strength to crores of farmers of the country,” said PM Modi while sharing details of the benefits of different schemes of the Central government for the farmers.

The government has launched many schemes in Agriculture sector that have been producing exceptional results. These include PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), launch of E-NAM, National Mission For Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), Gramin Bhandaran Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Mrida Swastha Yojana, Livestock insurance Scheme, Scheme on Fisheries Training and Extension, etc.

These schemes have resulted in an unprecedented increase in Agricultural exports and production figures. India’s agri exports crossed USD 50 billion for the year 2021-22, notwithstanding logistical challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic in the form of high freight rates, container shortages, etc. According to the DGCI&S data, exports of many agri items registered record growth including exports of rice, pulses, wheat, other cereals, dairy products, poultry products, sheep/goat meat, Fruits and vegetables, Floriculture, etc. Various initiatives taken by Centre through APEDA such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product specific and general marketing campaigns by active involvement of Indian Embassies have helped as well. Major export destinations as per 2021-22 data are Bangladesh, UAE, Vietnam, USA, Nepal, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran and Egypt.

More than 300 outreach programmes in collaboration with state governments have been organised in the country, products matrix for 50 agricultural products which have good scope for expanding exports portfolios have also been created by the government and concerned authorities. Centre has also taken othe initiatives like promotion of geographical indications (GI), recognition of 220 labs across India to provide services of testing to a wide range of products to exporters, facilitating participation of exporters in the International Trade Fairs, organising national events like AAHAR, Organic World Congress, BioFach India etc. Government, through the aegis of APEDA also initiates registration of pack-houses for horticulture products for meeting the quality requirements of the international market. APEDA has adopted multiple world class technology and software in IT division such as Blockchain technology implemented in hortinet traceability, Farmer Connect Portal, Geographical Indications (GI) Promotion Portal, Mobile App, iTrack System, TraceNet, Organic Promotional Portal, Agriexchange App, and Cloud Migration etc.

This significant rise in agri-exports is seen as a testimony of the government’s commitment to enhance farmers’ income through giving thrust on boosting exports of agricultural and processed food products.

Journalists of Future

Kacha baadaam, kacha baadaam! Simultaneous access of high end camera and good internet connectivity through smartphones is becoming ubiquitous. This has made everyone a content producer with access to whole wide world. Citizen journalism is around the corner. Coupled with advents of machines as personal assistants and smart writers, what is going to be fate of a journalism student?

While treatment of news seems rather facile, authenticity of facts, figures, sources and maintaining a responsible view in writing require much more maturity, given the importance of sending a balanced message and accounts to the readers. The latter part is the area which requires greater human intervention, whereas tech-based solutions and tools can now takeover the other steps involved in the process of news production – information gathering, composition, analysis, compilation, adding backgrounder & follow-ups etc.

The process starts with gathering information through various sources and channels, a tedious task where newsrooms are required to find the best pieces from a sea of copies and remove the redundant. This can be easily done now using some simple AI tools and bots which reduce human intervention to great lengths. Such an inheritance is but prone to acquiring undesired bits too, which may lead to inclusion of misinformation and biased opinions/content. This scourge of fake news and misinformation can be dealt with through blockchain technology by using its ability to establish the origin of a story or fact.

AI is helping journalists and media persons in transcribing Audio and Video Interviews allowing them to spend their time on deriving insights instead. It is feasible now to examine large databases and even send alerts as soon as a trend or anomaly emerges from big data. It can provide content producers and publisher’s tools to identify fake news and lessen their impact on their readership. AI can even assist in lessening the subjective interpretation of the data as its machine learning (ML) algorithms are trained to consider accuracy. The bigger picture leads to far greater realities where AI & ML can make automated Newsrooms, publishing and Robotics, etc. possible.

The best use of AI and machine learning in media could be its assistance in direct news operations too, like primary preparation of long-form articles, in-depth analyses and addition of story backgrounders & timelines etc. Once an AI-based draft is ready, simple corrections and basic copy-editing can help media houses produce volumes of news copies. AI-written articles are currently limited to simple and formulaic topics including stock market results, sports game scores, etc. British daily newspaper ‘The Guardian’ has already started using AI & ML tools to produce machine-written articles.

The time and money being saved from such a technological assistance needs to be spent on performing a much more responsible and qualitative journalism, something that the world seems to be missing out on. This can provide journalists and media firms much more flexibility and scope to be in touch with ground reality and at the same time, also be able to see and gather content with added accountability and cut through various layers of misinformation that may be added to the content and suggestions. If used properly by trained journalists, AI can revolutionise the way the Indian Media struggles for covering the entire country, which is so densely populated, has so many languages, religions, so many ministries, legal issues, a nation which brims with vast political happenings on a daily-basis.

Hindi Medium for Engineering and Medicine

Understanding the language of nature and writing them in mathematical formula like no one before was not enough, that Ramanujan needed to spend time, energy and alas even life to be recognised in a language aliens to him. It is painful to calculate the loss which could have been prevented if he would had worked in his mother tongue.

Talking especially of technical education, Indian talent has suffered great losses in the name of language. It’s a psychologically proven fact that students grab things in their mother tongue much more easily than in a language they start reading later in their life. This hampers the cognitive ability, which is essential for spontaneous development.

Providing equal opportunities and level playing field to the mother tongue medium students, who appear to be in a bad shape when it comes to reading technical books and writing exams in English, is essential to bring parity in the education system. Situation seems to be rather worse in Hindi speaking states as around 50% of all students come from the Hindi background. Bringing to the fore the inherent talent of the students coming from backwards areas, rural background, etc. & tapping it to the fullest is essential for complete transformation of the technical education system which doesn’t appear to be in a good shape presently. If their technical abilities are left unharnessed, the dream of a knowledge based economy of 21st century with a scientific bent of mind, can’t be realized.

Language is the biggest roadblock to R&D as technicality or technical education or intelligence of an individual has nothing to do with any language. It has been proved time and again by different scientific researches. The scientific developments in countries like Japan, China, France, Israel, Germany and a few others have sufficiently and repeatedly proved to the globe that technical education could be provided equally efficiently in any language of the world.

Currently technical education is a prerogative to the students coming from only relatively higher economic and social strata of the society, however they may or may not be good for the technical education. The reason behind the failure of engineering in Hindi medium project was translation of engineering terminology in Hindi. For making technical education a success, it is essential that books be written by the technical experts who could write in Hindi or in association of the people who also write Hindi well and understands technical education or things related to it.

India is also a country with a large section of its population falling in the middle class category. Students, belonging to particularly this section are majorly inclined towards pursuing either Engineering or Medical studies. It is high time the barriers of language be removed for the lot in order to free up their time, energy, money and increasing their chances of having a more promising future, and ultimately increasing chances for the country to expect more promising future generations .

Holistic needs of post-pandemic Healthcare

Covid-19, which originated from one corner of the world and devastated the ’normal’ ways of the entire planet by taking lives, halting economic activities and causing traumatic effects to body and mind with extreme aftermaths. With that, ‘What is Health and how to care for it’, has become a fundamental query in everyone’s mind. Indian philosophy of Pancha Kosha provides an appropriate framework towards it. The Upanishads state that our apparent reality or prakriti comprises of five different extensions, starting from the closely packed physical body, annamaya kosha(food sheath) pranamaya kosha(vital air sheath), and evolving gradually to more subtle and sublime levels of manomaya kosha(mind sheath), vigyanmaya kosha(intellect sheath) and anandmaya kosha(bliss sheath), all being supported by the absolute reality or Atman. The concept of Pancha Kosha or five cardinal layers or sheaths was elucidated in many sacred Ancient Hindu texts like Taittiriya Upanishad, Vivekacudamani and Panchadasi. Healthcare and well-being as we understand in modern societal setup is taking care of the needs of the first three sheaths and Income, employment, education, food security, housing, transportation, safety, and social support are all important factors to it. Additionally, trauma or adverse childhood experiences may have long-term effects on health and well-being.

Another framework used often to understand these needs of modern living is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Abraham Maslow is said to have developed the concept of five stages of needs that motivate human behavior. The five stages in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in order from lowest to highest level include physiological, safety, social (love and belonging), esteem, and self-actualization, where first two levels of need are considered basic needs, which are based on the need for survival and safety. The third stage, social stage is based on psychological or emotional needs, which includes interpersonal relationships. In post-pandemic world, Social Needs are very vital to health and well-being of individuals and policy makers are recognising the importance of considering the level of fulfilled social needs in planning the policy interventions.

In pursuit of socialization which invariably leads to emotional well-being of an individual and society at large, the present dispensation at the Centre is striving hard to bring in transformative changes in how an individual should be treated where all dimensions of life is well taken care of. Ayurveda and Naturopathy are the holistic answers to it, which bring harmony into one’s life by striking a beautiful balance among people, society and nature.

In fact, Ayurveda has turned into a ‘slice of life’ from a ‘science of life’ with its ability to heal from within and for all. The ever increasing importance of Ayurveda has put it in the centre of millions of lives’ in India and across the globe. This oldest healing method is based on the science of life. Ayurvedic practices have become truly global with its drugs being used as food supplements in USA, EU, Japan and other countries. Many physicians practice Ayurveda in many parts of the world like USA, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Russia, UK, Israel, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka among others.

Similarly, Naturopathy also relies upon nature and inherent power of human body and mind. This most ancient health care mechanism has a holistic approach to human wellness and healthy living. Relying on the healing power of nature, Naturopathy stimulates the human body’s ability to heal itself with different kinds of therapies like diet therapy, fasting therapy, mud therapy, hydrotherapy, masso (massage) therapy, acupressure, chromo therapy, air therapy, magnet therapy. Naturopathy successfully treats all aspects of the human body like mental, physical, social and spiritual, believing that performing a prayer based on one’s spiritual faith is also an important part of treatment.

Relevance and Prudence for Sustainable Growth

Fiscal prudence is pre-requisite to sustainable growth, a lesson that the island nation of Sri Lanka is, unfortunately, showcasing from it’s ongoing economic upheaval. Every commitment, economic, strategic, bilateral or otherwise, has to be made taking into account the financial, political and growth realities of the country. In order to become advanced, powerful, empowered, glamorous, well-equipped, and similar adjectives, a nation must first strive to become relevant, a mantra being rightly followed by democracies like India. Relevance has now become the ultimate aim, everything else follows.

The island nation of Sri Lanka is in shreds, with protesters taking to the streets in defiance of curfews and cabinet ministers resigning en masse amidst crippling inflation. The South Asian republic has become a classic example of a twin deficits economy, with national expenditure exceeding national income and imports greater than exports. Though, It has sought loans from the Asian Development Bank, India and China to survive the crisis, it would be back-breaking for the country to carry a debt that mounts to billions now, due to accumulated borrowings, record inflation, lack of foreign currency, crucial sectors witnessing a sharp fall in demand thanks to the pandemic. Alleged government mismanagement is another parallel factor that has dragged Sri Lanka into not just an unprecedented economic crisis but also a massive political turmoil.

The Sri Lankan government over the last decade borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders to fund public services, which has landed the nation in a debt trap when hit by disasters, both natural, such as heavy monsoons, to man-made, including a government ban on chemical fertilizers that crippled farmers’ harvests. In addition to this, a severe shortage of foreign currency has left the country unable to pay for essential imports, including fuel, leading to debilitating power cuts that lasted up to 13 hours.

The crisis has turned real severe in matter of days, with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa now under a pressure to resign as protests escalate across the country. Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, one of the major contributors to its economy, which was already on a slow-down, reviving slowly after the COVID outbreak, has now been hit hard yet again. The Sri Lankan rupee is fast depreciating against the dollar and foreign debt is mounting. Government’s income has also taken a big hit due to a drop in tourism that has given rise to gas and fuel shortages, leading to massive power cuts. As a result, citizens of Sri Lanka have been facing the brunt of shortages and soaring inflation, waiting in lines for basic goods, skyrocketing prices of basic amenities, shortage of fuel and a defunct administration. This soon led to aggressive protests by the citizens and forced President Rajapaksa to declare national emergency in the state on April 1, followed by blocking of social media platforms across the nation.

To address the worsening situations, the country had to seek support from IMF and neighbour India. A consignment of 40,000 MT of diesel under Indian assistance through a Line of Credit of $500 mn was handed over to Colombo by India on 2nd April. Earlier in January, India had confirmed a $400 million currency swap with Sri Lanka while deferring another $500 million due for settlement to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU). India continues to provide fuel and goods assistance to the crisis-hit nation as it grapples to bring the situation under control. Sri Lanka has been provided with more than 270,000 MT of petrol and diesel by India so far. India also announced another $1 billion as a credit to Sri Lanka to help shore up the sinking economy of the island nation. The $1 billion lines of credit to Colombo will help in keeping their food prices and fuel costs under check.

Light, Camera – Transformation!

“Brothers and sisters, you must be getting shocked to hear the Prime Minister speaking of cleanliness and the need to build toilets from the ramparts of the Red Fort… I want to make a beginning today itself and that is – all schools in the country should have toilets with separate toilets for girls…” these were the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he delivered his first-ever I-Day speech in 2014. What seemed like a far-fetched dream has actually turned out to be such a massive reality, a national movement, an unprecedented success. 75 years down the line, country’s youth today is playing a major role in setting a tone for the New India’s persona. Their level of awareness and sense of activism is so fierce that it has started becoming a core of all the decision-making and stage-setting, political, administrative, creative or otherwise. So much so that thought leaders like policy makers or even film makers are left with no choice but to notice the mood of the youth, their needs, aspirations and agitation.

Filmmakers are picking up subjects as diverse as – open defecation (Toilet Ek Prem Katha), the growth trajectory of Entrepreneurship in India (Sui Dhaga), India’s success story of scaling space (Mission Mangal), tackling an age-old taboo subject like menstruation (Padman) or Educating the Politician (Dasvi). Movie ‘Padman’ captured the zeitgeist of orthodox India. ‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’ showcased how toilets are important to maintain the hygiene of India and the security of its women citizenry. Other recent movies like ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan’ took up the cause of gender inclusivity.

The above-mentioned movies are bound by a force named “Social Cause/Responsibility” and all are based on some of the recent laws and policies that have come into being in last few years. Content makers seem to have cracked a code to producing unassailable content now but the message has to be genuine, the implications being projected have to be in sync with real-life frameworks and scenarios, in order to reflect that ‘Change’ in their final product. Though, reformist policies and ideas provide a great base to start building on to, one cannot lose the sight of the bigger picture in the process also and there is absolutely no room for sensationalism. In the end, it is this criticality (bigger picture) that the audience is looking forward to analyze, waiting to get soaked in the many realities that such movies can so easily offer, eager to learn and have a glimpse of all the possibilities of building a better society for all.

Cinema is said to be a reflection of society. The progress and growth of civilisation when adapted on-screen paves the way forward, it becomes what the audience seeks. From rickety single screens to plush multiplexes, cinema has changed from being a mere source of “Entertainment” to promoting “Social and Responsible” content. As an audience, we have majorly been exposed to movies where the protagonist is often seen fighting against inequality and mending the flawed system. But last couple of years have witnessed an unprecedented change in terms of projection with focus now being kept on the flawed system and ways of fixing it, rather than on the adherent character – simply put – taking the odyssey from reel to real! The audience has decided now to not clap at the stardom but demand realities of life on the screen. Hence, now mainstreaming new ideas and changes, especially positive laws and policies, that connect to a large section of society, has become the formula for success as more and more folks find relevance in such a content.

Tackling the Menace of Substance Abuse

The world needs to address the importance of developing a healthy mindset with a sense of urgency now as cases of depressions, liquor intake, and especially ‘Substance Abuse’ rise exponentially across the globe. Any material in nature which possesses physical properties is called a substance. However, things are not as simple as that. Here, we are discussing the substances that have the potential to make an abnormal change to body and mind in the guise of giving a pleasurable high. These substances are something which falsely claim to ease our stress or help avoid real problems of life. In common parlance, substances or drugs are termed as psychoactive substances, which when taken, affect mental processes like – perception, consciousness, mood and emotions. Substance abuse is a menace causing a great deal of trouble to the real world amid a figment of an unreal world. The threat can be perceived from the fact that in India, 272 districts of the country have been found to be vulnerable based on the data available from various sources.

According to the World Drug Report 2021, globally around 27.5 million people used drugs last year and over 3.6 million people suffered from drug use disorders during the period. The latest global estimates also say- about 5.5% of the people between 15 and 64 years of age used drugs at least once in 2020 (perhaps due to Covid-induced stress). This is the reason why production, distribution, sale or non-medical use of many psychoactive drugs are either strictly controlled or prohibited outside legally sanctioned channels by law in several countries. WHO says, around 5 lakh deaths annually are attributed to drug use with 3,50,000 male and 1,50,000 female deaths.

The sharp rise in substance abuse may be attributed to various factors like fast changing cultural values, breaking down of the social and family system where everyone feels free to do whatever he/she wants, fierce competition in the fields of education and employment and declining support systems or supportive bonds for especially adolescents. However, there is little denying the fact that substance abuse causes long standing mental, physical and emotional problems to people of all age and a damage to the larger society which is in a case irreparable. Substances include Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana among others, which are highly unhealthy. The use of psychoactive drugs may cause an increase in morbidity and mortality in individuals. They also cause upheavals in personal, family, social, educational and professional life. Its social and economic coats are unimaginable as drug addicts are normally low in productivity and cause big disruptions in family, social and economic life. They also face increased health care expenditure which further affects their economic well being.

Seeing a sharp rise in substance abuse cases, Indian government has also taken several policy measures and initiatives. The ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan’ or a ‘Drugs-Free India Campaign’ was flagged off on 15th August, 2020 across vulnerable 272 districts of the country. Ministry of Health is running a National ‘Drug De-Addiction Programme (DDAP)’ with the objectives to provide affordable, easily accessible and evidence-based treatment for all substance use disorders. The ministry has also released the ‘Standard Treatment Guidelines for the Management of Substance Use Disorders and Behavioural Addictions’. National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse has been created to meet the expenditure incurred in connection with combating illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs, rehabilitating addicts and educating public against drug abuse, etc. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implemented National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR), under which financial assistance is provided to state governments/UT for preventive education and awareness generation, livelihood support of ex-drug addicts, programmes for drug demand reduction, etc. The ministry also provides financial support for setting up of District De-addiction Centre (DDAC).

A healthy society needs health practices and for that all societal forces need to roped in with the responsibility to make people, especially the youth aware of the evil effects of substance abuse. Drugs may give a rush of good feelings in the beginning, but when the effects wear off, everything slows down for one good chunk of population, people who could have proven to be a lot beneficial for the country otherwise.

Imagining Health Services in Metaverse

Benefits of Meditation are innumerable and it surely is hot topic in fight against mental stress and illness induced during pandemic. Group meditation is considered even more helpful, especially for beginners, as it helps in garnering feedback and developing the habit. Digital media allowed virtual sessions and on-screen presence to overcome the barriers of physical meetings. Taking a cue from gaming world, an encounter in the virtual world of metaverse can add all together new dimensions to these intensely personal experiences, hitherto available only in physical reality.

First usage of the term metaverse came in Snow Crash, a 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson. This was used by him to describe the successor of the Internet, a vision of how a virtual reality–based Internet might evolve in the near future. This concept in the novel along with William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which describes a virtual reality dataspace called the matrix, created a genre of literature in itself which went on to changing the gaming industry. With availability of Virtual Reality(VR), Augmented Reality(AR), Brain-Computer Interfaces(BCI), AI/ML tools explosion, big data and quantum computing, these imagined concepts are now ripe to change the way we play, meet and even remain healthy.

Not just video calls, but AR has also been actively used to impart training to COVID-19 respondents. VR has also been used now by medical education institutions as well as mental health experts for treating post-traumatic stress (PTS). Metaverse is likely to build on these experiences for treatment of various brain issues like Phobia, anxiety, delusions etc. Treatment of addiction to VR using metaverse is certainly an interesting proposition.

Metaverse holds huge potential for the domain of medical education, training as well as diagnostics part of a treatment. In a lab setting, creating human body via AR can make the examination of anatomy altogether a different experience. Usage of electrodes along with VR headset to real-time provision of body vitals to Metaverse can remove the need of travel and related expenses .

As a concept, metaverse has already started to incorporate Web3 technology enabled through blockchain technology (like NFTs and Cryptos). It will soon be replacing phones and desktops as the central platforms of our daily lives. Hence, it is not difficult to predict that the future metaverse would be very similar to real world in many aspects and even replace real-world activities like gaming, working or even hanging out. The strong sense of mutual presence will transform the doctor-patient relationship in unimaginable ways.

Samir Kumar – Head PBNS

Tech Powered Judicial Empowerment

“Indian judicial system is 200 years behind compared to developed countries”, says Justice Krishna Iyer in his book ‘Law, Lawyers and Justice’. Time has come to put despair aside and take these kind of remarks as seeking opportunities to improve processes adjudication of plethora of pending and upcoming cases. For timely and fair mannered justice delivery, these processes need to be efficient, effective, and equitable.

It is timely to acknowledge the need of directly adopting tech solutions for empowering Indian judicial system as it requires fast processing and delivery mechanisms. AI, machine learning, natural language processing, digital sharing and record-keeping, etc. are some of the solutions that are already being explored and examined. “To explore the use of AI in judicial domain, the Supreme Court of India has constituted Artificial Intelligence Committee which has mainly identified application of AI technology in Translation of judicial documents; Legal research assistance and Process automation,” Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated recently in Parliament conveying about implementation of phase two of the eCourts projects of the government.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one technology that has gained a lot of relevance in last couple of years with the government of India trying to incorporate it even in the day-to-day functioning of the three pillars of Indian Democracy. However small the percentage may be, making the procedures and functioning public is another bold attempt that will rightly help in taking masses in confidence and building a parallel bridge to digital connectivity and setup of an overall advanced working judicial system.

Another stepping stone towards this new-age judicial ecosystem was set with the launch of the AI-driven research portal SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Courts Efficiency) last year. The portal deals with large chunks of case data through machine-learning. However, SUPACE does not participate in decision-making as its AI mechanisms are focused on collection and analysis of data. “We are not going to let AI spill over to decision-making… It fully retains the autonomy and the discretion of the judge in deciding the case, though at a much, much faster pace because of the readiness with which the information is made available by the AI,” former CJI SA Bobde had said while launching the portal.

Apart from tech solutions, efforts are also being invested in enabling greater digital connectivity and better focus on easy and secured usage of electronic data and record-keeping. Ensuring the same, CJI N.V. Ramana has launched ‘Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records’ or FASTER, a digital platform that will assist court officials to instantly send e-copies of the orders through a secured electronic communication channel to intended parties. This was followed by the launch of a new divyang-friendly website by the department of justice, providing all citizens with a one-stop platform for all digital initiatives of the Justice Department. This will allow public to view High Courts judgements and orders, view case status, settle traffic violations, and even view Live streaming of court proceedings of High Courts of Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna and MP. The website will also keep other important information for public about eCourts Mission Mode Project, appointment of Judges, fast-track special Courts, Nyaya Bandhu, Gram Nyayalaya, DISHA scheme, Tele Law, etc.

Amidst ongoing debates on right manner to address judicial inefficiencies by extending working hours, reducing public holidays, setting up more courts, appointing more judges, filling up the vacancies etc, Technology adoption is surely looking like the winner. Further, changes in laws and social structure are easier to incorporate in these tech solutions.