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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Tibetans, Nepalis worry, pray for kin

Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya Samithi students during a candle prayer vigil in Chennai on Friday for the victims and survivors of the flash floods in Nepal. Pic: PTI Mumbai: Thousands of Tibetans and Nepalis settled in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra are worried stiff about their relatives, friends and other citizens in their native countries hit by the devastating avalanche and floods in the Himalayan region. An estimated 1000 Tibetans and more than four-lakhs Nepalis live in Maharashtra and...

Tibetans, Nepalis worry, pray for kin

Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya Samithi students during a candle prayer vigil in Chennai on Friday for the victims and survivors of the flash floods in Nepal. Pic: PTI Mumbai: Thousands of Tibetans and Nepalis settled in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra are worried stiff about their relatives, friends and other citizens in their native countries hit by the devastating avalanche and floods in the Himalayan region. An estimated 1000 Tibetans and more than four-lakhs Nepalis live in Maharashtra and Mumbai engaged in various professions or academics. Friends of Tibet (FoT) Coordinator Tenzin Tsundue and United Nepali Organisation (UNO) Advisor Bharat Rawal are liaising with the Indian, Nepal and Tibetan authorities for information sought by their respective members. The Tibetans are particularly anxious as communication lines are still not restored or restricted by the local authorities, making contacts with families difficult, said Tsundue. “Though details are sketchy and blocked by the Chinese authorities, there is a suspicion that at least 14 small-to-medium hydro-power plants, including 5 under construction, on the rivers in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot areas, along with dams, diversion structures and cofferdams could have played a role in triggering or aggravating the situation,” Tsundue told ‘The Perfect Voice’. He claimed that in and around the Kyirong County – the lowest and greenest in Tibet’s southern region, where the avalanche and floods originated on Wednesday - “at least 400-500 are feared missing” although the official figures by China are different. “As per current information available, evidence points to the initial floods being generated upstream in Tibet, rather than the Nepal hydropower stations,” added Tsundue. Rawal said that so far one member from Thane, Santosh Niraula has confirmed that his niece, Richa Niraula, working as an engineer in the Upper Trishuli – one of the worst-hit regions – is missing and he has rushed there to join the search and rescue operations. “Following a request from Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Nepal’s dynamic GenZ leader and Rashtriya Swatantra Party MP, K. P. Khanal, 26, immediately helped in tracing, rescuing and arranging for the return of at least 37 pilgrims from Maharashtra stuck in the floods on the Tibet-Nepal borders,” Rawal told ‘The Perfect Voice’. No Information A Nepali eatery co-owner in Malad Geeta Rana said that her entire family of Ranas is stuck in Chitwan, a tourism haven, with little or no information reaching Mumbai as communication and power lines are affected, and there are reports of other Nepalis facing a similar ordeal in different parts of their homeland, especially in Dhading and Nuwakot districts. 290 tourists from Maharashtra stranded but safe Mumbai: As many as 290 people from Maharashtra are stranded but confirmed safe in various parts of Nepal following the devastating flash floods while 60 tourists are still untraceable, a state government official said on Friday. Further, 105 people from Maharashtra who were in Nepal at the time of the tragedy are on their way back to India, said the State Disaster Management Department official. Sixty people from the state who were on a Nepal tour organised by Mumbai-based Richa Tours Pvt Ltd could not be contacted, he said. “So far, 395 people from Maharashtra have been confirmed to be stuck in Nepal. Of these, 105 are on their way back to India, while our control room has established contact with the remaining 290 people, who are safe but stranded in various parts of Nepal,” he added. As many as 37 pilgrims who were stranded in Tibet after completing the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra left for Kathmandu on Friday morning following Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s intervention. According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the group, which includes pilgrims from Thane, Pune, Raigad, Alibag, and Dombivli, left Saga in Tibet around 6 am via the Nyalam check-post and is travelling towards the Nepalese capital. Their return flight from Kathmandu is scheduled for 2 pm on August 29, the CMO statement said.

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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