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By:

Akhilesh Sinha

25 June 2025 at 2:53:54 pm

Women’s Verdict, Modi’s Momentum

A surge in female turnout and a fractured opposition deliver the NDA a sweeping mandate and bury Bihar’s old spectre of jungle raj Patna: A powerful combination of record female turnout, a fractured opposition and voter preference for stability propelled the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to a sweeping victory in the Bihar Assembly election results on Friday. Years of targeted welfare for women, coupled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign pull and Nitish Kumar’s reputation for...

Women’s Verdict, Modi’s Momentum

A surge in female turnout and a fractured opposition deliver the NDA a sweeping mandate and bury Bihar’s old spectre of jungle raj Patna: A powerful combination of record female turnout, a fractured opposition and voter preference for stability propelled the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to a sweeping victory in the Bihar Assembly election results on Friday. Years of targeted welfare for women, coupled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign pull and Nitish Kumar’s reputation for orderly governance, crystallised into a decisive mandate for the BJP-JD (U) led NDA. In stark contrast, the opposition Mahagathbandhan led by Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD, hobbled by infighting and an incoherent message, collapsed to a little over 30 seats while the NDA surged past 200 – echoing its landslide win of 2010. The 2025 election was remarkable not merely for its outcome but for its mechanics. Turnout had reached an unprecedented 67 percent with women voting at staggering levels – 72 percent, roughly ten percentage points higher than men. For the first time, no booth required repolling, a rarity in a state once synonymous with intimidation and fraud. For the fifth time, Kumar secured the Chief Minister’s office, buoyed by female voters whose loyalty has only deepened after 18 years of his stewardship. The NDA’s parties - the BJP, the Janata Dal (United), the Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) and the Hindustan Awam Party - swept across the state’s cultural and linguistic belts, from Magadh and Shahabad to Angika, Mithilanchal, Tirhut and Seemanchal. The Mahagathbandhan comprising the RJD, Congress, Left parties and VIP was routed in each of these belts. Key electorate Women were the fulcrum of this realignment. Since 2005, a cocktail of welfare schemes, prohibition, expanded livelihoods through the ‘Didis’ and a nudge towards entrepreneurship has steadily detached women from memories of the lawlessness once tagged as jungle raj. The NDA’s slogans, including ‘Badhiya to hain Nitish Kumar,’ found their most enthusiastic audience among them. Wherever Modi campaigned, his rallies turned into consolidating machines. Voters also rewarded continuity as Nitish Kumar’s claims of good governance and steady development resonated more strongly than the RJD’s attempts to revive anxieties about their past. The RJD’s aggressive counter-narrative merely reminded voters, especially women, of the years when physical insecurity was routine. Migrant women in particular recoiled from any hint of that era returning. Some younger voters flirted with Tejashwi Yadav’s promise of a government job for every household, but the broader youth electorate dismissed it as implausible and instead favoured the NDA’s pledges of industrial expansion. The opposition’s disarray compounded its woes. Seat-sharing quarrels among alliance partners led to ‘friendly contests’ in at least 11 constituencies including Kahalgaon and Bachhwara in which the Mahagathbandhan failed to win a single seat. The Congress and the Left were sidelined by an RJD intent on maximising its own tally, resulting in lethal self-sabotage. Rahul Gandhi added to the alliance’s burdens. His attempts to stoke fears of ‘vote theft’ came a cropper and his messaging on OBC issues rang hollow in a state ruled for decades by leaders from those very communities. A poorly timed foreign trip and a clumsy remark about Chhath - one of Bihar’s most sacred festivals - further alienated voters. His rhetorical ‘hydrogen bomb’ misfired, leaving the Congress with just one seat. The Mahagathbandhan’s caste calculus, once its bedrock, was dismantled by voters who backed NDA candidates even in areas dominated by Yadavs and Muslims. Tejashwi Yadav himself faced an uncomfortably tight contest. Against this, the NDA’s cohesion and methodical alliance-building looked positively managerial. The win signals a decisive mandate delivered by electorate, which clearly privileged welfare and development over caste arithmetic, religious sentiment and nostalgia for strongmen.

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

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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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