Basic Course This syllabus provides a foundational understanding of AI and ML concepts, preparing students for further exploration and specialization in the field. Lesson 1: Introduction to AI – Definition and history of AI – Types of AI (Narrow, General, Superintelligence) – Applications and industries impacted by AI Lesson 2: Machine Learning Fundamentals – Introduction to Machine Learning (ML) – Types of ML (Supervised, Unsupervised, Reinforcement Learning) – ML workflow and key concepts Lesson 3: Data Preprocessing – Importance of data quality and preprocessing – Handling missing data, outliers, and feature scaling – Data visualization and exploration Lesson 4: Supervised Learning – Regression and classification problems – Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, Decision Trees – Model evaluation metrics (accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score) Lesson 5: Unsupervised Learning – Clustering (K-Means, Hierarchical Clustering) – Dimensionality reduction (PCA, t-SNE) – Anomaly detection and applications Lesson 6: Neural Networks – Introduction to Neural Networks (NNs) – Feedforward NNs, activation functions, and backpropagation – Basic NN architectures (MLP, CNN, RNN) Lesson 7: Deep Learning – Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for image classification – Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) for sequence data – Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks Lesson 8: Natural Language Processing – Text preprocessing and feature extraction – Sentiment analysis, text classification, and topic modeling – Introduction to language models and chatbots Lesson 9: Model Deployment and Ethics – Deploying ML models in production – Model interpretability and explainability – AI ethics, bias, and fairness considerations Lesson 10: Project and Case Studies – Hands-on project: applying AI concepts to a real-world problem – Case studies: AI applications in various industries (healthcare, finance, transportation)

A baby elephant is saved by the power of an excavator in the hands of a skillful operator. After rescue, the elephant thanked the excavator profusely

Wildlife Officials rescue baby elephant from a ditch. Elephant herd salutes the men before leaving In Kerala, India, a baby elephant falls into a ditch (or an abandoned well) and gets trapped there. As the family of wild elephants watches and waits on the other side of the river, local people and forest officials use an earthmover to help the baby get out. Watch when they come running and welcoming the baby, checking whether it is fine. The incredible moment then occurs when the elephant family head turns and salutes the humans, thanking them for saving their little one.. There has been some confusion on whether the elephants were actually acknowledging the rescuers or not. Numerous scientific experiments have shown that elephants are emotional beings. Elephants are known to comfort other elephants in distress and stand beside them touching with trunks and making soft sounds. Here is a book by Virginia Morell - Animal Wise, which talks about the emotional intelligence of elephant

It has been now more than two years that the (third edition of the) National Health Policy 2017 (NHP-2017) 1 of India has been notified. The NHP-2017 notes the importance of digital health and it will be elaborated further below. The broad scope of Digital Health includes categories such as mobile health (mHealth), health information technology (IT), wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine, and personalized medicine. Digital health is about electronically connecting up the points of care so that health information can be shared securely. This is the first step to understanding how digital health can help deliver safer, better-quality healthcare. The proposed Global Strategy on Digital Health [2020-24]2 from WHO is defining digital health as “ the field of knowledge and practice associated with any aspect of adopting digital technologies to improve health, from inception to operation”.

It has been now more than a year that the (third edition of the) National Health Policy 2017 (NHP-2017)[1] of India has been notified. While the accompanying situation analysis [2] did not mention anything about digital health, the policy correctly identified [3] the need for creating many new institutions like the National Digital Health Authority (NDHA). Now, let us look at where do we stand 2 years later, regarding the ushering in of digital health in India. I am recapitulating what I had previously put up in my blog post [4] and updating the current status. First, let us glance at some of the key provisions of the NHP-2017 as mentioned in the various sections. Just beneath the quotes from the relevant sections of the NHP-2017, I'm commenting on certain issues for thought.

I am visiting the UK after 14 years. I have always been in awe with the expanse of greenery of this country. Despite the English weather that people despise, that even we despised when we were here, I am delighted to walk the streets and feel the air of this country!