Scientists Discover Brain Messaging, Hinting At Greater Processing Power

Scientists have uncovered a new way brain cells talk to each other, hinting at a far more complex and powerful human brain than we previously understood. This discovery, detailed in a 2020 study, reveals a unique type of signal using calcium ions, adding another layer to the brain's communication toolbox, according to a report by Sciencealert.

Researchers observed this novel messaging system in the outer layer of the brain's cortex. By analysing brain tissue samples from epilepsy surgery patients, they found individual cells firing signals using not only the usual sodium ions but also calcium ions. This unexpected combination creates entirely new electrical waves called calcium-mediated dendritic action potentials (dCaAPs), the news outlet mentioned.

The human brain is often likened to a computer, both relying on electrical signals for processing information. In computers, this involves a simple flow of electrons, while neurons use a cascade of opening and closing channels to exchange charged particles. This exchange, known as an action potential, is how neurons traditionally communicate. The newly discovered dCaAPs offer an additional communication channel, potentially enabling more complex information processing within the brain.

"The dendrites are central to understanding the brain because they are at the core of what determines the computational power of single neurons," Humboldt University neuroscientist Matthew Larkum told Walter Beckwith at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in January 2020.

Dendrites are the traffic lights of our nervous system. If an action potential is significant enough, it can be passed on to other nerves, which can block or pass on the message.

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Driver Was Watching Cricket: Minister On Andhra Train Crash That Killed 14

The driver and the assistant driver of one of the two passenger trains that collided leading to death of 14 passengers on October 29, 2023 were watching a cricket match on phone, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday while highlighting the cause of the accident.

The Rayagada Passenger train hit the Visakhapatnam Palasa train from behind at 7 pm that day on the Howrah-Chennai line in Kantakapalli in Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. Over 50 passengers were injured.

Mr Vaishnaw referred to the Andhra train accident while talking about new safety measures that Indian Railways has been working on.

"The recent case in Andhra Pradesh happened because both the loco pilot and co-pilot were distracted by the cricket match which was going on. Now we are installing systems which can detect any such distraction and make sure that the pilots and the assistant pilots are fully focussed on running the train," Mr Vaishnaw told PTI Videos.

He added, "We will continue to put our focus on safety. We try to find out the root cause of every incident and we come up with a solution so that it is not repeated." While the probe report conducted by the Commissioners of Railway Safety (CRS) is yet to be made public, a preliminary railway probe, a day after the accident, had held the driver and the assistant driver of Rayagada Passenger train responsible for the collision as it passed two defective auto signals violating norms. Both crew members were killed in the accident.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Chief Justice Spotlights "Tareekh Pe Tareekh" Syndrome In Judicial System

The perception that adjournment has become a part of the judicial system is disheartening, underlined Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Saturday, adding that it prolongs the agony of litigants and perpetuates the cycle of backlog.

"One of the major issues is that of "adjournment culture." This practice, characterized by repeated requests for delays in proceedings, has far-reaching implications for the efficiency and integrity of our legal system," said the Chief Justice addressing the All India District Judges Conference at Dhordo in Gujarat's Kutch.

"The issue of adjournment and tareekh pe tareekh prolongs the agony of litigants. Common citizen feels that adjournment is part of judicial process and my experience is that it is easy to decide a complex case with a judgment than to persuade a lawyer to argue a case," he said.

The Chief Justice also expressed concern that the longstanding principle of "bail is the rule, jail is the exception" is losing ground with district courts hesitating to deal with matters involving personal liberty.

"Imagine a victim of sexual assault whose case remains unresolved in the courts for several years. Isn't this a clear violation of their fundamental right to access justice? The concept of access to justice should extend beyond mere access to the courts; it should also guarantee that citizens receive timely judgments from courts of law," said the Chief Justice.

While even one adjournment might look like a routine affair, it can have severe ramifications for the litigants, said the Chief Justice.

"Often, the outcome of the legal battle never comes to light during the farmer's lifetime. Instead, the burden falls upon their legal heirs, who find themselves embroiled in protracted legal proceedings long after their loved one's passing. We should not wait for our citizens to die for their case to be decided by a court of law," the Chief Justice said.

Courts nationwide, the Chief Justice noted, are grappling with a significant backlog and an "alarming level of pending cases". This backlog and pendency of cases present a formidable challenge to the efficient administration of justice and the timely resolution of legal disputes, he said.

"Addressing the backlog and pendency of cases requires a multi-faceted approach encompassing systemic reforms, procedural enhancements, and the deployment of technological solutions. Efforts to streamline court procedures, expedite case disposal, and promote alternative dispute resolution mechanisms can help alleviate the burden on the judicial system," said the Chief Justice.

Technology can be a great tool for improving efficiency, the Chief Justice noted.

"Just as sunshine is said to be the best disinfectant, I believe that technology is the best tool at our disposal to eliminate the inefficiency and opacity surrounding judicial processes," he said.

Emphasising the importance of inclusivity and diversity in the judiciary, Chief Justice Chandrachud said much improvement has been made towards achieving greater gender representation with women now constituting 36.3 per cent of the working strength of the district judiciary.

"However, while progress has been made in terms of gender representation, there remains a pressing need to ensure that our judicial institutions are truly inclusive and accommodating for all," he added.

Judges should not be unduly affected by criticism and commentary on social media, he said.

"In recent times, there has been a noticeable increase in judges facing criticisms and commentary on social media platforms. And let me tell you, I have had my fair share of scrutiny too! Even if I say just a single word on the bench, it seems to get reported faster than a speeding bullet. But, should we, judges, be unduly affected by this? The role of a judge is to dispense justice impartially, without being swayed by external pressures or public opinions," said the Chief Justice.

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Amid Spike In "Digital House Arrest" Cases In Delhi, A Warning By Police

Cyber crooks are now adopting a new modus operandi called 'digital house arrest', causing serious concern for Delhi Police with over 200 such cases recorded every month in the national capital, officials said.

According to a police officer, 'digital house arrest' refers to a fraud where impostors impersonating law enforcement officers deceive the victims into believing that their bank account, SIM card, Aadhaar card, or other cards linked to their bank account has been used unlawfully.

The fraudsters then virtually restrain the victims from moving out of the house and coerce them into paying them money, the officer said.

"Digital house arrest has become a major concern nowadays. However, our special unit only investigates those cases where the cheated amount is above Rs 50 lakh," a senior police officer of the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police said.

The officer said such 'cyber thugs' are technically sound and know how to convince their targets and drain their hard-earned money.

According to the report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), cases of cybercrime in the national capital nearly doubled in 2022.

The number of such cases rose from 345 in 2021 to 685 cases in 2022, NCRB's comprehensive crime data for 2022 showed.

In 2020, the count was much lower with only 166 cybercrime cases, it added.

Giving an example of a recent case, the officer said, "A man was getting ready for his office on December 30, last year when he got a call at around 8.43 am. The caller took his name and said he was speaking from the Crime Branch of Mumbai. He told the victim that his Aadhar card was used to transport drugs in some courier packages which were seized by the crime branch." The accused also started interrogating him, which created fear in the mind of the victim. They also asked the victim to not move out of his house for around 8 hours during the "questioning", the officer said.

"The victim had told police that he heard some voices coming from behind which were voices similar to wireless radio transmission of police. Later the accused asked him to download a Skype application and remote access to the desktop. A man appeared before him wearing a cop dress, interrogated him for hours, and asked the victim to show his bank account details to see if he had received any 'foreign funds'. Meanwhile, they hacked his system and drained his account completely," said the officer.

The complainant later lodged an FIR and police are further investigating the matter.

Another police officer said several such cases are being registered in the national capital region of late with over 200 registered every month.

These fraudsters use translation tools for better English to send threatening letters and forge letterheads of police departments. They usually procure Aadhar cards from other sources, the officer said.

"They usually target old people. In such situations, the victims must immediately call the police helpline numbers to report the matter and to get help," said the officer.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Manipur Police Warn Armed Group Arambai Tenggol After Attack On Senior Cop

The Manipur Police have named an armed group whose members call themselves "village defence volunteers" as responsible for the attack on the house of a senior police officer in the state capital Imphal on Tuesday night.

Following the attack, the state called in central forces including the army to Imphal city, from where the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act, or AFSPA, had been removed years ago. This law allows the security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without a warrant. The AFSPA is active in the hill areas due to presence of insurgents of several ethnicities along the border with troubled Myanmar.

The police in a statement on Thursday said members of the Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei youth organisation whose members face allegations of looting weapons from state armouries, "carried out a targeted attack" on the house of senior police officer Moirangthem Amit Singh, who along with his team had seized two stolen cars on Tuesday.

This was the first time the Manipur Police openly admitted to the involvement of the Arambai Tenggol, or AT, in a violent act.

Manipur Police commandos in a symbolic "arms down" protest against the attack on a police officer by Arambai Tenggol

The AT enjoys wide support in the valley areas. Their supporters say the AT acts as a layer of defence in the absence of state forces in the foothills, where the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis have clashed the most.

"Police officers Moirangthem Amit Singh, P Achouba Meitei, and others have been working tirelessly and contributing to efforts to ensure law and order in the state," the police said in the statement, condemning the attack at the officer's house near Imphal East area.

The armed members of the Arambai Tenggol had also vandalised vehicles and a clinic that belongs to Mr Singh's family, whose seven members are doctors, the police said.

"Officer Was Only Doing Duty"

Inspector Generals of Police K Muivah and K Jayanta Singh in a joint media briefing said the targeting of the senior police officer who was only doing his duty in tough conditions was "extremely unfortunate".

"It is our appeal to the public to give maximum cooperation to the police. Civil society organisations should also understand the situation because if we are not able to perform, other security agencies have to come to our aid, and we have experienced all those things in the past decades, how it was like. We don't want to return to the past," Mr Muivah told reporters in Imphal on Thursday.

"If the civil police are not able to perform their duties due to lack of cooperation from the public, or obstruction by civil society organisations, then normally what happens, as in all other states, the central security forces have to automatically come in to help," he said.

"That means the CRPF, the BSF, the Assam Rifles, the army, all have to come in to assist. And then resolve the situation in a way that may be far more undesirable, far more different than what the police would do in a normal situation," Mr Muivah said, also referring to the Central Reserve Police Force, and the Border Security Force.

The police in the statement that was released to the media after the briefing said the AT is "engaged in many anti-social activities such as assaulting civilians, and snatching vehicles from the public and government officials."

"They are also involved in extortion from the public and traders. They are gathering false support from the public in the garb of protecting them, but are committing many anti-social and criminal acts. The public must not be misled, and instead cooperate with the Manipur Police in bringing peace and tranquillity in the state," the police said in the statement.

To prevent law and order issues as a fallout of the violence in Imphal linked to the AT, the district magistrates in two Kuki-Zo tribes-dominated hill districts of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi, and two Meitei-dominated valley districts of Bishnupur and Thoubal have called in the army to help in maintaining law and order. NDTV has seen copies of the orders issued by the four magistrates.

When AT "Asked" Political Leaders To Work For People

The AT on January 24 called over 35 MLAs and other leaders to the Kangla Fort in the heart of Imphal, and made them take an oath to protect Manipur's territorial integrity. The fort served as the seat of power of the Manipur kingdom before Independence, and so held a symbolic meaning for the Meiteis to keep Manipur intact for all communities amid the demand by the Kuki-Zo tribes for a separate administration carved out of Manipur.

The optics of the oath-taking event, however, drew criticism over the fact that a group that had taken up arms - whatever be their name - coerced elected representatives to obey them, sources in the Manipur Police told NDTV.

The violence between the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis in the northeast state bordering Myanmar - which itself is struggling not to break into pieces as the junta has been surrounded by pro-democracy armed groups - has dragged on for 10 months now. The Kuki-Zo people share ethnic and familial ties with Myanmar's Chin people. The key factors of the Manipur tensions include disagreements over sharing land, resources, political representation, and affirmative action policies.

"Police Ineffective In Protecting Us": AT Supporters

The AT's supporters in the valley say the police are ineffective in dealing with attacks by suspected Kuki-Zo insurgents in the foothills. Over two dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups come under two umbrella groups - the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), and the United People's Front (UPF) - and these two have signed what is known as the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre and the state government.

Broadly, the SoO agreement - reviewed every year - says the insurgents are to stay at designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly. However, insurgents who are part of the SoO agreement have been allegedly taking part in the Manipur violence, with many missing during attendance calls at their designated camps.

The Manipur assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution asking the Centre to scrap the controversial SoO agreement. The deadline for extension of the SoO agreement also ended on Thursday.

"This decision comes in the interest of ensuring peace and security in the region," Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who the Kuki-Zo tribes hold responsible for the Manipur violence, said in a post on X on Thursday.

Ten months since May 2023, the Kuki-Zo tribes accuse the Meiteis of razing their vacant buildings and occupying them in and around Imphal valley, while the Meiteis have pointed at entire localities of their community flattened and erased in the hill district Churachandpur.

Both sides accuse each other of atrocities. The Kuki-Zo tribes say their "village defence volunteers" have been repelling attacks by armed groups from the valley, who come to the hills across the "sensitive zone" with obvious intentions.

Both call themselves "village defence volunteers", a definition of the belligerents in Manipur that has become the most controversial since nothing stops these "volunteers" from killing people under the insurance provided by "in self-defence".

A similarity between the "village defence volunteers" of both sides is that they appear to be well-armed and well-equipped with modern battle gear. The security forces have frequently recovered Russian-origin AK and US-origin M series assault rifles, and gun models commonly used by both the junta's army and pro-democracy insurgents in neighbouring Myanmar.

Over 200 have died in the violence and thousands have been internally displaced.

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Panipuri Vendor Turns Matchmaker, Sparks Hilarious Online Thread

A social media thread in India has gone viral after a woman shared a funny encounter with a Panipuri vendor who was pressured by customers to find a groom for their daughter.

The woman, identified as @prakritea17 on the platform 'X', narrated how she witnessed a group of women having a serious conversation with the vendor. As they left, the vendor began venting his frustration to her, revealing that the woman had requested that he find a suitable groom among his customers.

They have asked him to find a a groom for their youngest daughter. He was telling me about this last week too, but I didn't pay much attention to it and today I witnessed it lmaoo

— Prakriti (@prakritea17) February 28, 2024

Surprisingly, the vendor took their request seriously and identified a regular customer, a software engineer earning a good salary, as a potential match. However, the situation turned comical when the women insisted on finding a different groom.

They even suggested the vendor check the customer's details, highlighting their determination to find a specific match. The incident left the vendor flustered, and he expressed his annoyance at being pressured into matchmaking with such specific criteria.

The experience left the vendor so upset; he felt pressured to inquire about marriage, only to face rejection for the prospects he presented.

“And he went on to say, ‘Agar kal bhi aakar puchne lag gaye toh main puch lunga pani puri wala kyu nahi chalega' (If they start pestering me again tomorrow, I'll ask them why isn't a Panipuri vendor okay for them).” 

The user's post, titled "My contribution to India is not for beginners," has garnered significant attention online, with many users finding humor in the situation.

"You can suggest that the panipuri guy charge 2k for finding grooms and 20k if the suggested groom actually becomes the husband," commented a user.
 
"Well, thanks for the idea. I was trying to find a way to ask out a girl who repeatedly visits Thela," wrote another user.

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Watch: IT Minister's Masterclass On India's Semiconductor Ecosystem

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw explained how his ministry is working to create an all-inclusive semi-conductor ecosystem in India in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make-in-India" vision.

In a little over four-minute-long video, the minister charts up the plan to develop a comprehensive semiconductor setup in India, complete with a talent pool of thousands and a research system encompassing over a hundred universities in the country.

During his media interaction today after the cabinet approved three more semiconductor units, the minister laid out the plan on a whiteboard, drawing up each step with a marker in great detail.

"There are four main components in the entire process - Design, fabrication, or FAB, assembly-testing-marking-packaging, or ATMP, and electronics manufacturing, or circuit," the minister explained.

"The primary thing we are developing for this is a talent pool. The second big thing we are doing is research and development, or R&D," he added. 

What steps are being taken to augment the talent pool and for research and development? The minister explained: "The most difficult and the most expensive tools, called Electronic Design Automation, or EDA, tools, are supplied by Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens. These are very expensive. If you go to buy one, you will have to shell out Rs 10 crore - Rs 15 crore for just one license. So, we have spoken to these three companies and have taken their EDA tools and given them to 104 universities in the country."

"We have given the license and login to not just the IITs, but also to the tier-II and tier-III universities so they can expose and train their students on how to use these tools live and not just in theory. The students can now take up a project and design a new mobile chip and make it. This will give birth to new start-ups and will add to our talent pool. This talent pool of some three lakhs will feed into Design, FAB, and ATMP aspects," he said.

The programme is a very comprehensive one and hence, the foundation is very important, the minister said, adding, "What we have been able to achieve in two years, many countries have not been able to do that in five years. "

"We have the Design and the ATMP components and have started work on developing FAB. Now, Applied Materials is the largest manufacturer of equipment. They have started setting up a plant in India. They are designing in India and manufacturing in India. So, all of this will finally come together and aid manufacturing, in line with PM's "Make-in-India" vision," Mr Vishnaw asserted.

Earlier today, the Union cabinet approved the setting up of three semiconductor-making units at an investment of Rs 1.26 lakh crore as part of an attempt to cut India's dependence on imports to meet the requirements of chips.

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