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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we learn and teach. It is playing a significant role in enhancing the quality of education and making it more accessible to people. The application of AI tools in education is opening up new horizons of learning, personalization, and accessibility. AI-powered tools are revolutionizing education by providing a personalized and accessible learning experience. In the past, education was often a one-size-fits-all approach, with students expected to learn at the same pace and in the same way. However, with the integration of AI, education is becoming more personalized, adapting to individual learning styles and abilities. This has resulted in improved learning outcomes and greater student engagement. AI-powered platforms can analyse a student’s learning style and create a customized learning path accordingly. The system can analyse a student’s performance, their strengths and weaknesses, and provide feedback that helps them improve. This personalized approach can help students learn at their own pace and fill any gaps in their knowledge. In this article, we will discuss how AI tools can help in enhancing education. Personalized Learning: One of the significant benefits of AI in education is that it enables personalized learning. AI-powered platforms can analyse a student’s learning style and create a customized learning path accordingly. The system can analyse student’s performance, their strengths and weaknesses, and provide feedback that helps them improve. This personalized approach can help students learn at their own pace and fill any gaps in their knowledge. Enhanced Learning Experience: AI tools can create an immersive learning experience by providing interactive content, simulations, and virtual reality. These tools can help students visualize complex concepts and engage in active learning. It also enables them to learn from real-world scenarios, which can be more engaging and memorable than traditional teaching methods. Intelligent Tutoring Systems: AI-powered intelligent tutoring systems can provide students with one-on-one guidance and support. These systems can identify areas where a student is struggling and provide targeted feedback and assistance. This approach can help students overcome their learning challenges and stay motivated. Automated Grading: Grading can be time-consuming for teachers, especially for assignments that require subjective judgment. AI-powered grading tools can automate the process and provide fast and accurate grading. It can also analyse patterns in student’s responses and provide feedback that can help students improve. Adaptive Testing: AI-powered adaptive testing can help teachers assess a student’s knowledge and skills more accurately. These tests can adjust to the student’s level of knowledge and provide questions that match their skill level. This approach can help teachers identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses more accurately and provide targeted feedback. Intelligent Content Creation: AI tools can help teachers create high-quality educational content faster and more efficiently. These tools can analyse existing content, identify knowledge gaps, and create content to fill those gaps. It can also help teachers create content that matches a student’s learning style, making it more engaging and effective. Accessibility: AI-powered tools can make education more accessible to people with disabilities. For example, text-to-speech software can help visually impaired students access written content, and voice recognition software can help students with mobility issues interact with digital platforms. Conclusion: AI-powered tools are transforming education by providing personalized learning, enhancing the learning experience, and making it more accessible. These tools can also help teachers provide targeted feedback, automate grading, and create high-quality content. The integration of AI in education is creating new opportunities for students, teachers, and educational institutions. It is time to embrace these tools and unlock the full potential of education. The author, Pratik Ghosh is associated with ArdorComm Media

In order to create uniform guidelines for registration, allocation, and other components of the process, the Union Health Ministry is developing a “One Nation, One Organ Allocation” policy in collaboration with the states, according to official sources. Recently, the Supreme Court directed the Health Ministry to investigate and take appropriate measures over some states’ requirements that patients seeking to register in the cadaver transplant registry for organ transplantation submit copies of their domicile certificates. “A uniform policy will help patients in seeking transplant from deceased donors at any hospital in the country giving them a lot of flexibility,” an official source said. The ministry has already recommended states to remove the domicile criterion for registering people who want organs from deceased donors for transplant procedures as part of its efforts to strengthen the policy. Also, it has removed the 65-year-old age limit for people registering to receive organs from deceased donors. The National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) has made the required adjustments to the regulations, enabling patients 65 years of age and older to register for organ transplants from deceased donors. “For registering patients requiring organs of deceased donors, earlier the upper age limit was 65 years. With this restriction removed, patients of all age groups can register for deceased donor organs. The changed guidelines have been put on the website of the NOTTO,” an official source said. Additionally, noting that some states have been charging fees ranging from Rs 5,000 to 10,000 for registering such patients, the Union Health Ministry has requested that they not do so, stating that doing so is against the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules, 2014’s provisions. This was noted by official sources on Thursday. According to an official, states including Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Kerala have been charging such fees. Organ transplants increased from 4,990 in 2013 to 15,561 in 2022, according to official data. From 2013 to 2022, there has been a total of 9,834 kidney transplants from living donors, up from 3,495 in 2013, and 1,589 transplants from deceased donors which has increased from 542. The total number of liver transplants from living donors has increased from 658 in 2013 to 2,957 in 2022 and from 240 to 761 in 2022 from deceased donor. The total number of heart transplants have increased from 30 in 2013 to 250 in 2022 while lung transplants from 23 to 138. Source: PTI

Eight of the top ten “best jobs” this year were in the technology sector, demonstrating that demand for tech positions has not decreased even as tech companies continue to layoff employees. Full-stack developers are in high demand for IT jobs, according to data from the job site Indeed. They are followed in favour by data engineers, cloud engineers, senior product managers, and back-end developers. According to CNBC, who cited the data, over half of the top 25 positions in the US market—or 44 percent—were in the technology sector. Indeed’s annual list features all positions that “pay annual salaries that are above the national average.” At least 10% of roles that are advertised allow for remote or hybrid employment. Tech-skilled workers are in demand in sectors like retail, finance, professional services, travel, government, aerospace, and healthcare. The report was released when large layoffs were being reported by such companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, IBM, SAP, Salesforce, Spotify, and others. After the renowned US tech giant IBM announced it was eliminating approximately 3,900 jobs, the European software giant SAP joined the parade of tech firms laying off employees on Thursday. In 2023, there will be more substantial layoffs as most business economists anticipate that their organisations would reduce payrolls in the near future. CNN reported that only 12% of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) believe employment would rise at their companies during the next three months, “down from 22% this fall.” For the first time since the early stages of the Covid pandemic, more business executives foresee job losses at their companies. Julia Coronado, president of NABE, said the data show “widespread concern about entering a recession this year.”

The CEO of Google parent Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, informed employees via email on January 20 that the company plans to eliminate 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, as tech layoffs intensifies across companies. Pichai added that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” adding that the cuts will effect employees globally and across the entire company. Pichai continued, “These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities.” Teams from across the organisation, including recruiting, some corporate functions, some engineering, and product teams, are impacted by the job losses. According to Google, the layoffs are global and immediately affect US employees. With the layoffs, Google joins a plethora of other tech giants that have significantly reduced operations in the face of a failing global economy and surging inflation. Twitter, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Twitter have all reduced workforce. Pichai stated that the tech giant will “support employees as they look for their next opportunity” in the announcement. Pichai said the company will pay workers for the entire notice period in the US (minimum 60 days). Along with accelerating at least 16 weeks of GSU vesting, Google will also provide a severance compensation that starts at 16 weeks of salary plus two extra weeks for each consecutive year of employment. For those impacted, the company will pay incentives for 2022 and any unused vacation time, as well as provide 6 months of healthcare, job placement assistance, and immigration support. Additionally, outside of the US, the search engine giant will support staff in accordance with local practices. As part of the transition to a new performance management system, Google is delaying a chunk of its employees’ year-end incentives, according to a recent Reuters report. According to a corporate spokesperson who talked to Reuters, the company will initially pay eligible employees an advance bonus of 80% and the remaining amount will follow in later months. The move was announced to the personnel last year. The company, however, posted earnings and revenue in October that fell short of analyst expectations. Compared to the prior year, profit dropped by 27% to $13.9 billion. At that time, Pichai said that Google will cut costs, and Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer, predicted that the number of new positions would decrease by more than half from the third quarter to the fourth. Source: Reuters

According to the first official estimate made by the Statistics Ministry on Friday, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will slip to 7% in the current fiscal year ending in March 2023 as a result of weak demand. India’s GDP grew by 8.7% between 2021 and 2022. If the National Statistical Office’s (NSO) prediction comes true, India’s GDP growth will be less than the 7.6% expansion Saudi Arabia is predicted to have. The projections are higher than the Reserve Bank’s 6.8% projection even though they are substantially below than the government’s prior forecast of 8–8.5% growth. The NSO estimated that the manufacturing sector’s output would slow to 1.6% from a 9.9% increase in FY22. Similar estimates place mining industry growth at 2.4% in the current fiscal year against 11.5% in 2021–22. According to the NSO, “Real GDP or GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in the year 2022-23 is estimated at Rs 157.60 lakh crore, as against the Provisional Estimate of GDP for the year 2021-22 of Rs 147.36 lakh crore, released on 31st May, 2022.” According to the report, real GDP growth is expected to slow to 7% in 2022–2023 from 8.7% in 2021–2022 period. Nominal GDP or GDP at Current Prices is projected to be ₹273.08 lakh crore in 2022–2023 as opposed to the Provisional Estimate of GDP for the year 2021–2022 of ₹236.65 lakh crore, published on May 31, 2022. According to the NSO’s announcement, nominal GDP growth is projected to be 15.4% in 2022–2023 compared to 19.5% in 2021–2022 The RBI had reduced the country’s GDP growth prediction for the current fiscal year from 7% to 6.8% in December due to the persistence of geopolitical concerns and tightening of global financial conditions. The NSO also provided growth predictions for many industries. In comparison to the 3 percent growth seen in the previous fiscal year, the agriculture industry is expected to rise by 3.5% in FY2022-23. According to estimates, the trade, hotel, transportation, communication, and services connected to broadcasting segment will increase by 13.7% from 11.14% in 2021–2022. Though growth in the construction sector is anticipated to slow from 11.5 to 9.1% from a year ago.

At its “Google for India” event on December 19, 2022, the American technology giant Google introduced a number of new features. The company announced a new endeavour to digitise doctor’s prescriptions and expand its search functionality. Additionally, the tech behemoth unveiled its Multi Search feature, which would let users add text, screenshots, and images to their inquiries. Additionally, Google included the “Search in Video feature,” which gives users of smart devices the chance to search inside of videos. The tech giant has additionally stated that its Files by Google app for Android would offer secure access to Digilocker documents. The tech giant unveiled an AI and ML model that can interpret handwritten prescriptions at the Google for India conference. According to a blog post by Google, this technology will let users understand handwritten prescriptions and help pharmacists digitise handwritten medical records. This function is currently being developed, and no choice will be made solely based on the judgement of AI and ML technology. Google also intends to add a Multisearch feature to its search engine. Users will be able to take screenshots or photographs and add text to their search terms for quick results. The feature will be accessible in several Indian languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, and others, according to a Google announcement. During the Google for India event in New Delhi, the company also unveiled a new search feature. It is presently being tested with the beta version, which will allow users to search for specific sections of a YouTube video. A specific location, item, or moment may now be searched for by viewers thanks to the technology company within a YouTube video. The users would benefit from time savings as they can find items they were looking for right away. This feature is still being tested but is shortly to be available to everyone. “We’re piloting the ability to search within videos on your phone’s Search app. Just type in your query using the ‘Search in video’ feature and find exactly what you’re looking for,” the company stated. Speaking of accessing Digilocker documents, Google disclosed that it will assist customers in using Digilocker on Android to securely access genuine digital documents. Starting today, users will have access to their Digilocker digital documents via the Files by Google app for Android. It was created in cooperation with the National eGovernment Division, says the tech giant.

A parliamentary committee expressed concern about the decline in membership at the Delhi Public Library and suggested that the government create a virtual library through large-scale text digitization. According to the 328th report of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture, ‘Action Taken by the Government on the Recommendations/Observations of the Committee contained in its 310th report on the subject Functioning of Central Libraries in the Country,’ the Delhi Public Library has seen a decrease in membership in recent times, with the COVID-19 pandemic being one of the reasons. “It has come down to 1.5 lakh membership from what it was prior to coronavirus period i.e. 1.85 lakh. Being a model library created in 1951 in Asia with UNESCO’s technical, financial assistance, it should lead other libraries in country and extend all possible help in their growth. Delhi Public Library should make all out efforts to increase its membership/viewership in the interest of general public,” according to the report. In their response, the Ministry of Culture acknowledged that there has been a “perceptible decline” in the membership of the Delhi Public Library (DPL) over the last two years.  “This was mainly due to the Covid situation and also absence of reading habit among the society. However, Delhi Public Library has been striving to increase its membership by conducting outreach activities, approaching schools/ colleges/ RWAs, distributing membership forms and waiving of membership fee,” the ministry said. The Committee also proposed that the Indian public library system be changed while keeping current advancements in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in mind, in order to provide minimum network-based services to the urban and rural populations. Libraries should be created as Community Information Centre models, and computerization of libraries should be implemented quickly to improve them, according to the report. In their reply, the culture ministry stated that it has already built the Indian Culture Portal, where knowledge and cultural resources from diverse Ministry of Culture institutions are now available in the public domain on a single platform. “This project is part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative to showcase information about India’s rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage both at home and abroad,” according to the ministry. This portal contains documents, photographs, audio-visual files, and other data from archives, museums, academies, and libraries throughout the country. It contains around 2.5 lakh digital artefacts with metadata. It also has around 9 lakh bibliographic entries. The content is divided into 19 categories, including rare books, e-books, archives, paintings, and union catalogues, among others. It also contains nine content categories, including stories, snippets, historical cities, and forts. Currently, the portal is available in English and Hindi. It is accessible via the Indian Culture App, which is available for both Android and iPhone.

The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), an apex-level autonomous institution of the Government of India, has begun capacity building programmes for senior officers in the Jammu and Kashmir administration, according to a Personnel Ministry statement issued on Tuesday. According to the statement, the capacity building initiative is scientifically designed to enable civil servants in Jammu and Kashmir to provide robust and seamless services to the people. The cutting-edge knowledge and new skill set obtained throughout this programme will assist these civil servants in providing efficient public service delivery to better people’s lives, according to the statement. In July 2021, it was decided to train 2,000 senior Jammu and Kashmir government officials, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the J&K Institute of Management, Public Administration, and Rural Development (J&KIMPARD) and the NCGG to promote excellence in capacity building and reorient officers of the Jammu and Kashmir government. In order to put this MoU into action, the NCGG has already held three such capacity-building programmes for Jammu and Kashmir officials. In his inaugural address, NCGG Director General Bharat Lal emphasised the importance of translating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of good governance into concrete action. He emphasised the importance of changing the strategy and acting as facilitators to attract investment, encourage entrepreneurship, and increase job creation by assuring public service delivery. According to Lal, “we are living in a highly competitive and globalised world” and as a result, businesses need to be supported in order to attract investment. He asserted that everyone’s time is valuable and that rapid service delivery and time value must go hand in hand. Lal emphasised the obstacles and stated that the reorientation programme will enable officers to give technology-enabled solutions to people’s problems. “The aim is to reorient the officers to enable them to work with single-mindedness to improve the quality of life and create opportunities for the people of Jammu & Kashmir. The officers are given exposure to the best practices in governance from across the country to emulate these practices of good governance, transparency and efficient service delivery in Jammu & Kashmir,” the statement said. The fourth capacity-building programme is set at the NCGG campus in Mussoorie from November 28 to December 9. The training modules are produced by practitioners, experts, and academicians in the fields of public administration and good governance, including e-government. The NCGG, established by the Centre in 2014, is tasked with training civil servants from India and other nations. The Centre has also trained a substantial number of officers from Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Gambia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Laos, Vietnam, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Cambodia in recent years.

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) find it challenging to make eye contact with others in everyday situations. The difficulty of simultaneously scanning the brains of two people has prevented scientists from studying the neurological basis of live social interaction involving eye contact in ASD, despite the fact that eye contact is an essential component of everyday interactions. However, Yale researchers have pinpointed particular brain regions in the dorsal parietal region of the brain connected to the social symptomatology of autism utilising cutting-edge technology that enables imaging of two individuals while they are in live and natural situations. According to the study, these brain responses to live face and eye contact may serve as a diagnostic for the diagnosis of ASD and a gauge of how effectively autism treatments are working. The study’s results were released in the PLOS ONE journal. Joy Hirsch, co-corresponding author and the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, Comparative Medicine, and Neuroscience at Yale, said, “Our brains are hungry for information about other people, and we need to understand how these social mechanisms operate in the context of a real and interactive world in both typically developed individuals as well as individuals with ASD.” Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a non-invasive optical neuroimaging technique, the Yale team, led by Hirsch and James McPartland, Harris Professor at the Yale Child Study Center, examined brain activity during brief social interactions between pairs of adults, each of whom included a typical participant and one with ASD. Both individuals wore caps with numerous sensors that both transmitted light into the brain and captured changes in light signals with data on brain activity during face-to-face and other types of eye contact. The researchers discovered that persons with ASD displayed considerably less dorsal parietal cortex activity during eye contact than participants without ASD. Additionally, the less activity in this area of the brain was seen, the more severe the overall social symptoms of ASD as determined by ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition) scores. During genuine eye-to-eye contact but not while looking at a video face, neural activity in these regions was synchronised between normal participants. The absence of this expected increase in neural connectivity in ASD is consistent with the challenges faced in social interactions. We now know more about the neurological underpinnings of typical social interactions as well as the neurobiology of autism and social differences, according to Hirsch. Source: ANI

The first “National Credit Framework” (NCrF), which integrates credits acquired via school education, higher education, and vocational and skill education, was launched by the Union ministry of education on Wednesday. The draft of the NCrF was made available for public feedback by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who referred to it as a “game-changer.” “It will open numerous options for further progression of students and inter-mingling of school and higher education with vocational education and experiential learning, thus mainstreaming skilling and vocational education. NCrFwill also enable students who have dropped out of mainstream education to re-enter the education ecosystem,” he said. While there is already a credit-based system in place for technical and higher education, school and vocational education will be integrated for the first time. The NCrF seeks to integrate learning across all areas, including academics, career-related skills, and experiential learning, which includes relevant experience and professional levels attained. A high-level committee made up of representatives from the UGC, AICTE, NCVET, NIOS, CBSE, NCERT, education ministry, DGT, and skill development ministry prepared the draft NCrF. According to Pradhan, who emphasised that NCrF will aid in making India’s economy $5 trillion in the next 25 years, NCrF will be the most essential instrument under NEP 2020 for realising these goals. India is embracing technology at an unprecedented rate. Reforms must be implemented to reward education, training, and experience. A crucial step toward obtaining 100% literacy in the following two to three years will be to give credit for learning new information, receiving practical training, and having positive social effects. The draft states that credits will be granted based on learning hours from the fifth grade to the PhD level. As of now, 30 total learning hours per credit are being evaluated. In order to assign credits and credit levels, the draft stated that “NCrF recognises no hard separation between different areas of learning, i.e. arts and sciences, vocational and academic streams, curricular and extra-curricular for the purpose of assignment of credits and credit levels.” Every learning can be “creditized” under NCrF if it has been assessed. Exams, class tests, training and skilling, field trips for skill education, on-the-job training, internships, apprenticeships, experiential learning, and relevant experience are all ways to earn credits in addition to traditional classroom instruction and learning. Other ways to earn credits include laboratory work, innovation labs, sports, games, yoga, physical activity, performing arts, music, handicraft work, social work, NCC, bag-less days, and examinations. By converting classroom instruction to competency- and learning-outcome-based education and learning, such a strategy would also narrow the achievement gap in learning outcomes, according to the draft. The Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) will be used to operate the NCrF. An ACB for higher education was introduced last year by the University Grants Commission, which oversees higher education in India. The ABC serves as a digital database for student credits. It is currently only applicable to higher education. ABC may digitally record the academic and other credits obtained from accredited institutions, allowing for the redemption of credits and the granting of the appropriate award while taking into consideration the credits obtained at different NCrF levels. To facilitate quick verification and portability, the credits may also be connected to Digi locker. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which advocates for “no hard separations” between vocational and academic streams, will be put into effect in part by the NCrF. According to the policy, through 2025, at least 50% of students in the K–12 and higher education systems must have access to vocational education. Additionally, in order to increase open and distance learning options, credits will be given to students who participate in online programmes. This would aid in overcoming the limitations of physical infrastructure & scalability while boosting access, equity, and affordability and assuring quality and accountability, according to the draft. Source: PIB