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India has at least 3,167 tigers, according to estimates from the latest tiger census made public on Sunday. While this is ostensibly an increase since the census of 2018, the numbers are not strictly comparable, as a key calculation to compute the maximum and minimum range of the tiger population is yet to be done.
There were 2,967 tigers recorded in 2018, and 2,226 in 2014. Sunday’s figures were provisional and could be revised, an official involved with the census.
The tiger population numbers were made public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mysuru on Sunday, at an event to mark the International Big Cat Alliance conference and the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger.
The tiger population has grown the most in the Shivalik hills and the Gangetic flood plains, followed by central India, the northeastern hills, the Brahmaputra flood plains, and the Sundarbans. There was a decline in the Western Ghats numbers, though “major populations”.
The tiger numbers are estimated by adding animals caught in camera traps, and those that may not have been captured in this way. The latter are estimated by statistical techniques.
In the last census, it was 2,603. However, for the latest census, we have not finished computing the estimates of tigers outside such traps as well as the State-wise break-up of tigers, so the numbers may differ.
In their four-year estimates, the scientists provide a range of the estimated tiger population, and the mean value is highlighted as the latest tiger population.
India to bridge the language gap with neighbours (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Looking to expand its cultural footprint in nations with which it has historical ties, including those in its immediate neighbourhood, India is planning to create a pool of experts in languages spoken in countries such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and Indonesia to facilitate better people-to-people exchanges.
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has envisaged a special project called ‘The Language Friendship Bridge’, which plans to train five to 10 people in the official languages of each of these countries.
As of now, the ICCR has zeroed in on 10 languages: Kazakh, Uzbek, Bhutanese, Ghoti (spoken in Tibet), Burmese, Khmer (spoken in Cambodia), Thai, Sinhalese and Bahasa (spoken in both Indonesia and Malaysia).
In India, the focus till now has been on learning European languages such as Spanish, French and German, along with the languages of major Asian economies such as China and Japan.
Though a number of universities and institutes offer courses in these languages, only a handful teach any of the 10 languages on the ICCR list. Sinhala, for example, is taught at Banaras Hindu University and the School of Foreign Languages (SFL) under the Ministry of Defence. The SFL also has courses in Bahasa, Burmese and Tibetan.
India requires translators, interpreters and teachers in the languages of these countries with which it shares a cultural history. The idea is to enable India to translate its epics and classics, as well as contemporary literature, into these languages so that people can read them.
The ICCR is in discussion with universities and institutes as well as experts offering foreign language courses in the country on the modalities of implementing the project.
Among those being consulted are the foreign language departments at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Hyderabad’s English and Foreign Languages University, Banaras Hindu University, and Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa Vidyalaya at Wardha.
Editorial
Awaiting lift-off into the Second Space Age (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
The Space Age began in 1957 with the launch of satellite Sputnik 1, and in 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the world’s first person in space. Neil Armstrong made history by walking on the moon in 1969. The First Space Age became reality.
Today, the Second Space Age is here. Though there is no precise date for its beginning, the contrast in today’s space domain is stark. Between the 1950s to 1991, a period dominated by the Cold War, 60 to 120 space launches took place annually and 93% of these were by the United States and the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) governments.
Three decades later, there are not only many more actors in the space scene, but a majority are also private companies. Last year, there were 180 rocket/space launches, 61 by Elon Musk’s Space X; 90% of global space launches since 2020 are by and for the private sector.
India made a modest entry into the First Space Age in the 1960s. The first sounding rocket, a U.S. supplied Nike-Apache, was launched at Thumba (Kerala) in 1963 and in 1969, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was set up.
It has come a long way since, with over 15,000 employees and an annual budget between ₹12,000 crore-₹14,000 crore in recent years. Through these decades, it has sought to prioritise societal objectives and benefits.
Its first major project was Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) that involved leasing a U.S. satellite in 1975-76 for educational outreach across 2,400 villages covering five million people.
Satellite technology was a new mass communication tool. This led to the INSAT series in the 1980s, followed by GSAT, that provided the backbone for the country’s tele-communication and broadcasting infrastructure.
This was followed by remote sensing capability development. The use of space-based imagery for weather forecasting, resource mapping of forests, analysing agricultural yields, groundwater and watersheds, gradually expanded to cover fisheries and urban management.
Following the Indian Remote Sensing programme, this plan grew with the Oceansat and Cartosat series. The field of satellite-aided navigation emerged later.
It began with GAGAN, a joint project between ISRO and the Airports Authority of India, to augment Global Positioning System (GPS) coverage of the region, to improve air traffic management over Indian airspace. This has now been expanded to a regional navigation satellite system called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC).
In parallel came the development of satellite launch capabilities. Beginning with the SLV-1 in the 1980s, it took a decade before ISRO developed the PSLV series that has become its workhorse with over 50 successful launches.
Directing AI for better and smarter legislation (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is attracting the attention of entrepreneurs, political leaders, and policymakers the world over. Most mature democracies are now using AI tools for better pieces of legislation and parliamentary procedures.
For instance, AI tools can assist parliamentarians in preparing responses for legislators, enhancing research quality, obtaining information about any Bill, preparing briefs, providing information on particular House rules, legislative drafting, amendments, interventions, etc.
They can also empower legislators to make informed decisions by having access to insights into citizen grievances, media opinions, and voices of citizen-centric associations.
For AI to work in India, we first need to codify our laws. The challenges with current laws are they are opaque, complex and there is a huge translation gap between law-making, law-implementing and law-interpreting organisations.
The Indian government has done well to set up the India Code portal, but it cannot be entirely relied upon as a ‘single source of truth’. The interface should contain a complete chain, right from the parent Act to the subordinate pieces of legislation passed by the central government and the amendment notifications, enabling any entity to get a 360° view.
Such a requirement becomes more critical in special situations such as COVID-19. For example, in measures related to COVID-19, the central government issued over 900 notifications while State governments issued over 6,000 notifications on the subject (Data as on September 20, 2020).
We need to make laws machine-consumable with a central law engine, which can be a single source of truth for all acts, subordinate pieces of legislation, gazettes, compliances, and regulations.
For example, AI can tell us if an entrepreneur wants to open a manufacturing unit in Maharashtra and what acts and compliances are applicable.
If a citizen wants to check the eligibility for welfare schemes, AI can recommend which schemes are eligible, based on details provided by citizens.
Compared to western democratic nations, in India, parliamentarians manage constituencies with a huge population. AI can analyse citizens’ grievances and social media responses, and flag issues and priorities that need immediate attention. It can also assist parliamentarians in seeking citizen inputs for public consultation of laws and preparing a manifesto.
Many Parliaments across the world are now actively experimenting with AI-powered assistants. The House of Representatives in the United States has introduced an AI tool to automate the process of analysing differences between Bills, amendments and current laws.
Text & Context
Why a non-invasive test for endometriosis is taking such a long time (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Endometriosis is a painful chronic disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus, or endometrium, grows outside of it. Despite its prevalence, popular awareness of endometriosis remains low even as its diagnosis is marred by experiences of medical misogyny and gaslighting.
This year, however, there may also be some (cautious) cheer: a U.S.-based company named DotLab has announced a blood test to reliably diagnose endometriosis.
The significance of this technology is highlighted by the fact that people have to wait for 6.7 years on average for a diagnosis, even as the number of people with endometriosis could be much higher than the estimated 190 million worldwide (about 42 million in India alone), due to the number of cases that go undiagnosed.
Doctors often struggle to diagnose endometriosis because of its variety of symptoms, including pain during menstruation, urination, sexual intercourse, bowel movements, fatigue, and sometimes infertility.
There are also no reliable non-invasive diagnostic tools (ultrasound can’t accurately detect all forms of endometriosis). Laparoscopic surgery is required for a definitive diagnosis.
DotLab has said that its blood test is the first of its kind: a non-invasive method to accurately diagnose endometriosis. This test relies on detecting microRNA, which are small, non-coding RNA segments that regulate gene expression.
Many studies have identified microRNAs that are expressed differently in people with endometriosis. So, on paper at least, researchers can use these unique expression patterns as a sign of the disease. Currently, researchers are exploring the use of microRNA from saliva and blood as diagnostic biomarkers.
The blood test by DotLab is the product of a study (published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in March 2020) in which researchers identified blood-based microRNAs that were expressed differently in people with endometriosis, relative to a group of people who didn’t have the disease.
The researchers then created an algorithm combining the expression values of these microRNAs to predict the presence or absence of endometriosis. They validated it with a different group of people and found that it was able to accurately identify those who did have endometriosis.
News
Centre plans revamp of livestock insurance scheme to raise coverage (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Pulled up recently by a Parliamentary Standing Committee for zero insurance coverage of livestock in 2022-23, the Centre is considering a comprehensive livestock insurance scheme modelled on the Prime Minister’s Fasal Bima Yojana.
The Union Animal Husbandry Ministry’s move is to roll out the scheme ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. There are initial proposals to waive off premium for cattle rearers from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. At present, less than 1% of the country’s cattle is insured and the average yearly premium is 4.5% of the insured amount.
The Animal Husbandry Ministry recently held a meeting with various insurance companies and other stakeholders on the matter.
The scheme is functional in 100 districts of the country. The Centrally sponsored scheme is being managed by the respective State Livestock Development Boards.
Recently, the Animal Husbandry Ministry had told the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Animal Husbandry that farmers are often caught in the fight between State government officials and insurance companies.
A report submitted to Parliament by the panel on Demands for Grants of the Ministry quoted an official, and said the Ministry prefers direct transfer of benefits to farmers’ accounts.
The panel said in the report that not even a single animal was insured during 2022-23, whereas during 2021-22, 1,74,061 were insured.
“The Committee were informed of the hardships faced by the livestock owners in getting their livestock insured and also about the measures being taken to ease the process of livestock insurance.
Expressing concern over no Insurance during 2022-23, the Committee recommended the Ministry to take effective steps so that the process of insurance of livestock is made easy for the beneficiaries.
The Committee would also like the Department to explore the possibility of developing an App-based Livestock Insurance facility for livestock owners. The Committee would like to be apprised of the total progress made by the Department in this regard.
Chidambaram says 83% of MUDRA loans too small for business (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
As the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) completed eight years, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said 83% of the loans given under the scheme were under ₹50,000, which left him wondering if any business could be done with such a meagre amount.
Banks and financial institutions had sanctioned ₹23.2 lakh crore to over 40.82 crore beneficiaries under the MUDRA Yojana, launched to fund the unsponsored.
The PMMY was launched in 2015 to facilitate easy collateral-free micro-credit of up to ₹10 lakh to non-corporate, non-farm small and micro-entrepreneurs, for income-generating activities.
In a tweet, Mr. Chidambaram said that under the scheme, ₹23.2 lakh crore had been given in the past eight years, which was “impressive” until you noticed that 83% of those loans were under ₹50,000.
That is ₹19,25,600 crore of loans have been given to borrowers at the rate of ₹50,000 or less. It leaves me wondering what kind of business can be done today with a loan of ₹50,000.
Loans under PMMY are provided by Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) — banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), microfinance institutions (MFIs) and other financial intermediaries.
Indian American C.R. Rao wins Nobel Prize equivalent in statistics at the age of 102 (Page no. 12)
(Miscellaneous)
The Indian-American statistician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao has been awarded the 2023 International Prize in Statistics — the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for statistics.
It is awarded once every two years to an individual or team “for major achievements using statistics to advance science, technology and human welfare.
The work of Professor Rao, 102, has influenced, in the words of the American Statistical Association, “not just statistics” but also “economics, genetics, anthropology, geology, national planning, demography, biometry and medicine”.
The citation for his new award calls him “a professor whose work more than 75 years ago continues to exert a profound influence on science”.
Professor Rao’s groundbreaking paper, “Information and accuracy attainable in the estimation of statistical parameters”, was published in 1945. It was an impressive achievement since he was only 25 at the time. He would go on to do his Ph.D. in 1946-1948 at King’s College, Cambridge University, under the supervision of Ronald Fisher, regarded as the father of modern statistics.
Professor Rao also contributed to orthogonal arrays, a concept in combinatorics used to design experiments whose results are qualitatively good, as early as 1949.
A 19-year-old Rao could not secure a scholarship at Andhra University for administrative reasons. He was also rejected for a job at an Army survey unit.
When he was staying in Calcutta, a chance meeting led him to enroll at the Indian Statistical Institute, where he spent the next four decades. After his retirement in 1979, he settled in the U.S.
The first half of the 20th century was the golden period of statistical theory in general, and Rao is one of the reasons for this. As the renowned statistician Erich Lehmann wrote, Rao was “the person who did the most to continue [P.C.] Mahalanobis’s work as a leader of statistics in India.”
Business
What is cyber insurance? Do small units need cover? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Businesses steadily rely on digital technology to operate, store data, and communicate with a more extensive customer base, propelling their growth.
Although this convergence of offline and online worlds is a boon, it also raises cyberattack risks, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses, micro, small, and medium enterprises and start-ups.
These businesses are more vulnerable as they are still in the process of establishing robust cybersecurity means and expertise to combat cyber risks.
Thus, with the current interconnectivity, it has become crucial for small businesses to financially safeguard themselves from cyberattacks by taking cyber insurance.
When a cyberattack causes a business to shut down or experience a disruption, cyber insurance can provide coverage for lost income and expenses.
If it results in damages to third parties, such as customers or partners, the insurance can cover legal defence costs and damages awarded.
Having a digital presence can sometimes be a catch-22 situation for small businesses. While it makes way for better efficiency, it also exposes companies to Internet-based perils.
These include data and security breaches, cyberattacks, intellectual property losses, cyber-safety hazards, financial fraud, etc.
Therefore, to mitigate such risks, start-ups and small businesses should purchase cyber insurance policy that has become more of a necessity than a choice.
Moreover, the policy is now gaining popularity in India as it covers the expenses of investigating and repairing damages such as restoring lost data, incurring forensic costs, providing indemnification for lawsuits, compensating clients for any loss resulting from cyber incidents.