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23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Civilizational Confidence

For decades, independent India suffered from a peculiar form of historical insecurity. A nation that inherited one of the world’s oldest living civilizations often appeared reluctant to speak confidently about its own past. While political independence was achieved in 1947, intellectual independence remained elusive in the Nehruvian era and the decades thereafter. That is why the Ministry of Culture’s recent efforts to showcase India’s civilizational heritage on social media and other...

Civilizational Confidence

For decades, independent India suffered from a peculiar form of historical insecurity. A nation that inherited one of the world’s oldest living civilizations often appeared reluctant to speak confidently about its own past. While political independence was achieved in 1947, intellectual independence remained elusive in the Nehruvian era and the decades thereafter. That is why the Ministry of Culture’s recent efforts to showcase India’s civilizational heritage on social media and other platforms deserve applause. Consider the famous Pashupati Seal discovered at Mohenjo-daro. Dating back more than four millennia, the steatite seal depicts a seated figure in a yogic posture surrounded by animals, believed to be a proto-Shiva figure. While scholars may continue to debate its precise interpretation, what is impossible to deny is that India remains the living cultural inheritor of the civilization that produced such artefacts. Civilizational continuity is determined by living traditions. The yogic practices, Shaivite symbolism, ritual forms, philosophical concepts, and cultural motifs that emerged across millennia continue to animate Indian life today. The thread connecting ancient India to modern Bharat was never severed. The Ministry’s celebration on X of a 4,500-year-old terracotta dice from the Indus-Saraswati Civilization similarly highlights the important truth that cultural memory endures even when empires vanish. Predictably, these efforts have triggered outrage from a familiar ecosystem of professional contrarians, ideological activists masquerading as scholars, and academics who seem to regard any positive articulation of Indian civilization and Hinduism as a threat. For this crowd, India’s past must always be fragmented, contested, and stripped of continuity. The moment Indians speak of civilizational inheritance, they are accused of ‘myth-making.’ Any interpretation that strengthens a sense of civilizational continuity is treated with suspicion, while theories that sever Indians from their own historical inheritance are celebrated as sophisticated and progressive. For decades, this self-appointed priesthood of the Indian Left-liberal academy exercised an extraordinary monopoly over historical discourse. Their approach was remarkably consistent. Hindu traditions were to be endlessly deconstructed and disparaged. Civilizational pride was to be treated as inherently suspect. Meanwhile, fashionable western academic jargon was deployed to obscure what was often little more than ideological prejudice. What particularly irritates this ecosystem is that Bharat today is increasingly refusing to seek such permission. The return of Chola-era copper plates from the Netherlands, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, forms part of this larger civilizational recovery. These records illuminate the maritime power and global reach of the Chola Empire. Likewise, the documentation of more than 8.5 million manuscripts under the Gyan Bharatam National Survey of Manuscripts represents one of the most significant cultural preservation exercises in modern Indian history. Such initiatives expose the intellectual bankruptcy of those who spent decades insisting that India’s civilizational consciousness was little more than a modern political invention. The Ministry of Culture’s recent initiatives reflect something more important than mere government messaging. They reflect a nation rediscovering its historical confidence after decades of elite condescension.

AI in Sperm Sorting: An Unbiased Decision for A Better Outcome

Artificial Intelligence or AI is revolutionising fertility treatments of the future. The inclusion of AI enhances the accuracy, efficiency, and objectivity of sperm selection, hence potentially improving fertility outcomes by leaps and bounds. Traditionally, sperm sorting through manual methods is subjective to judgments. Processes like centrifugation and swim-up methods are used to separate sperm based on motility and morphology. Although they are effective, they have their limitations, leading to human errors that affect the success rates of fertility treatment. For instance, studies have shown that traditional sperm sorting techniques can have variability in success rates, with reported live birth rates ranging between 15 per cent to 25 per cent per cycle depending on the method and quality of sperm. Hence the introduction of AI helps in maintaining consistency in evaluations of sperm, using the same data set for every sample which leads to better judgments.


Automation and Standardisation- Automation of sperm selection and also introduction of AI in the process have improved the results in ART. AI-assisted sperm selection improves the accuracy in choosing high-quality sperm for fertilisation purposes, and also, pregnancy and live birth rates might be improved. Technologies like Intracytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection along with AI ensure the chances of pregnancies increase by about 10-20 per cent compared to the standard procedures. AI and Automation will decrease time taken to analyze sperm and increase opportunities to select better sperm with DNA integrity for better development and higher success rates in embryo selection. These processes ensure that the sperm selection process follows consistent criteria, reducing variability in outcomes caused by human error.


Analysing Complex Data for Better Outcomes- AI plays a crucial in improving IVF outcomes by analysing complex data and providing tailored recommendations. AI-driven tools and models such as those on SpOvum.ai point towards an opportunity to optimise ovarian stimulation decisions by assessing patient characteristics and follicle growth patterns. A study revealed that the use of AI in IVF improved egg yield and reduced medication costs. AI enables fertility specialists to make data-driven choices, improving overall IVF success rates and streamlining treatment processes.


Reducing Human Error- AI models can continuously learn and refine their performance by being trained on newer data. This adaptability ensures the technology remains unbiased and up-to-date with the latest scientific insights into sperm quality and fertility success rates. Studies have shown that AI-driven sperm sorting can decrease human-related errors by up to 25 per cent, improving sperm selection quality in terms of morphology and motility.


Reduction of Sperm Damage- The new AI-driven sperm sorting techniques also include microfluidic systems that are known to exhibit several advantages over the most commonly used conventional method, which is centrifugation. Traditional centrifugation methods, such as density gradient centrifugation, also cause severe oxidative stress and DNA fragmentation of the sperm because of the very high mechanical forces involved. The AI-infused microfluidic sorting minimises this damage significantly by involving gentler processes that mimic the natural pathway of sperm selection. The studies show that the process of microfluidic sorting decreases DNA fragmentation in sperm, which gives improved opportunities for success for IVF. For example, DNA fragmentation is 20 percent lower in sperm sorted using microfluidic processes than in traditional processing methods.


AI is bound to play an increasingly definitive role in fertility treatments, which will improve the outcomes for couples experiencing infertility.


(The author is a Co-Founder & CEO at SpOvum® Technologies. Views personal.)

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