Neuromorphic computing, which is inspired by the structure and function of the human brain, can be applied to a variety of real-world problems, including climate change, healthcare, and finance. Here’s how:

1. Climate Change:
   • Climate modeling and prediction: Neuromorphic systems can be used to model complex climate systems more accurately, as they can handle the non-linear and highly interconnected nature of climate data better than traditional computing approaches.
   • Energy-efficient solutions: Neuromorphic computing hardware can be designed to be highly energy-efficient, which could lead to improvements in renewable energy systems, smart grid management, and energy-efficient buildings.
   • Optimization of climate-related systems: Neuromorphic algorithms can be used to optimize the operation of complex systems, such as renewable energy grids, water management, and transportation networks, to reduce their environmental impact.
2. Healthcare:
   • Medical image analysis: Neuromorphic systems can be used for more accurate and efficient analysis of medical images, such as X-rays, MRI scans, and CT scans, which can aid in early disease detection and diagnosis.
   • Drug discovery and development: Neuromorphic computing can be applied to the complex task of identifying and developing new drugs, by simulating the interactions between drug candidates and biological targets.
   • Personalized medicine: Neuromorphic systems can help analyze and integrate large amounts of patient data, including genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors, to develop personalized treatment plans and predict disease risks.
3. Finance:
   • Financial modeling and prediction: Neuromorphic computing can be used to model and predict complex financial market behaviors, which could lead to improved investment strategies and risk management.
   • Fraud detection: Neuromorphic algorithms can be used to identify patterns in financial transactions, helping to detect and prevent fraudulent activities more effectively.
   • Portfolio optimization: Neuromorphic systems can be employed to optimize investment portfolios, taking into account various risk factors and market conditions, to maximize returns.
4. General applications:
   • Optimization and decision-making: Neuromorphic computing can be used to solve complex optimization problems and aid in decision-making processes across various domains, such as supply chain management, transportation logistics, and urban planning.
   • Pattern recognition and anomaly detection: Neuromorphic systems can excel at recognizing patterns and detecting anomalies in large datasets, which can be useful in areas like cybersecurity, industrial automation, and predictive maintenance.

To measure the success of a digital marketing campaign, organizations should track a combination of the following key metrics:

1. Website/Landing Page Metrics:
   • Sessions/Visitors: The number of users who visit the website or landing page.
   • Bounce Rate: The percentage of users who leave the website or landing page after viewing only one page.
   • Time on Site/Page: The average amount of time users spend on the website or a specific page.
   • Pages per Session: The average number of pages viewed per user session.
2. Lead Generation Metrics:
   • Leads Generated: The number of visitors who have submitted a form, signed up for a newsletter, or taken another desired action.
   • Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate: The percentage of leads that convert into paying customers.
   • Cost per Lead: The cost of acquiring each new lead.
3. Engagement Metrics:
   • Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of users who click on a specific link or call-to-action.
   • Social Media Engagement: Metrics like likes, shares, comments, and follower growth on social media platforms.
   • Email Open and Click-Through Rates: The percentage of email subscribers who open and interact with the email content.
4. Sales and Revenue Metrics:
   • Return on Investment (ROI): The ratio of the net profit generated from the campaign to the total investment.
   • Revenue Generated: The total revenue or sales attributable to the digital marketing campaign.
   • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The estimated value of a customer over their entire relationship with the business.
5. Reputation and Brand Metrics:
   • Sentiment Analysis: The overall positive or negative sentiment expressed by customers and audiences about the brand or campaign.
   • Brand Awareness: Measures of how familiar the target audience is with the brand or campaign.
   • Net Promoter Score (NPS): A metric that gauges customer loyalty and the likelihood of referrals.

According to the 20th Livestock Census, 2019, India’s livestock sector, with a total population of 535.82 million, is one of the largest in the world. This sector contributed 16 percent to the income of small farm households besides offering livelihoods to two-thirds of rural communities. It also provides employment to about 8.8% of the population in India. One of the biggest impediments to the growth of this sector is the large-scale prevalence of diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Anthrax, Classical Swine Fever (CSF), Avian Influenza (AI), etc., which pose the following challenges:

• Livestock diseases cause direct losses due to morbidity and mortality, reduced production in terms of milk, meat, wool, hide, and skins, as well as indirect losses due to abortions, subsequent infertility, sterility, and deterioration of semen quality.
• The diseases add to the economic losses of farmers, as they have to buy new livestock every now and then. Moreover, it also affects their income due to reduced consumption by consumers for certain time periods when there is a disease outbreak.
• They threaten poor families’ food security and livelihoods. At the same time, since poor smallholders often live in close proximity to their animals, diseases threaten these families health as well.
• The presence of diseases deters domestic and foreign investment in the livestock sector. These not only wreak havoc on the existing stock but also limit international trade.

In this regard, the government has taken various steps to tackle the risk of livestock diseases:

• Implementing the Livestock Health & Disease Control (LH & DC) Scheme, which envisages control and containment of economically important animal diseases by providing central financial assistance to the states, carrying out vaccination, strengthening veterinary services, and training veterinarians.
• Setting up Animal Quarantine and Certification Services Centers (AQCS) in the country to prevent the ingress of exotic animal diseases into the country through imported livestock and livestock products.
• Providing financial assistance for strengthening the five Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratories (RDDLs) at Jalandhar, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati, and a Centre for Animal Disease Research & Diagnosis (CADRAD) to enhance disease diagnostic facilities in the country.
• Launching the National Artificial Insemination Programme, which aims to suggest novel methods of bringing about impregnation in female breeds. It also aims to prevent the spread of certain diseases which are genital in nature, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the animal breed.
• Approval of the National Animal Disease Control Programme for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis (NADCP) for five years (2019-24).

The livestock sector can help alleviate rural poverty and improving this sector can go a long way in doubling farmers’ income besides providing an alternative source of livelihood. Thus, there is a need to work towards better disease control management and provide incentives for the same by the government.

India is not only self-sufficient in food-grain production (300 million tons in 2019-20) but is also a net food exporter (9th largest exporter of agriproducts). Despite this, nearly 16% of the population is undernourished, 35.5% of children are facing chronic hunger i.e., stunting and 19.3% are facing acute hunger i.e., wasting (NFHS-5 reports). It appears that the greater challenge to food security in India is not the actual shortage of food grain, but its poor management, because:

• Post-harvest losses: As per the Indian Grain Management and Research Institute, post-harvest losses in India due to unscientific storage, and infestation by insects, rodents, micro-organisms, etc. account for about 10% of total food grains. This amount could have fed one-third of India’s poor (World Bank).
• Lack of adequate storage Infrastructure with FCI and Warehousing corporations:
  • Due to the lack of covered godowns and silos, most of the procured foodgrains are kept under Cover and Plinth (CAP) storage, which does not fulfill the temperature and moisture requirements for longer shelf life.
  • During bumper harvest, many times the produced grains are kept in the open, this leads to damage and destruction due to seeping water and excessive exposure, spoiling the crops.
  • There are delays in disposing of the rotting grains, which leads to further contamination and loss.
• Procurement above buffer stock norms: It has been observed that the amount of foodgrain procured is much higher than the required buffer norms. For instance, at present, India has 227 lakh tons of wheat in government godowns against the required buffer norm of 205 lakh tons. It poses multiple issues, such as:
  • It reduces the budget for creating infrastructure.
  • In the absence of adequate storage facilities, the extra food grain is left to rot.
  • Such procurements distort the market price of food grains, creating accessibility issues for those poor who are not covered under PDS. Currently, only 67% of the country’s population is covered under NFSA.
• Issues in the distribution of food grains: Though the procurement of food grains is open-ended, its distribution is limited through PDS only, which puts the burden of infrastructure creation completely on the government. The private sector participation has been very limited in this regard.

To resolve the issue of food grain storage, the Indian government has come up with the Private Entrepreneurship Guarantee Scheme (2008) and an action plan for the construction of steel silos (2017-22) in PPP mode. It is expected that it will substantially reduce the unscientific storage of food grains from 2022, as adequate storage has been created. To further resolve the food security crisis the government must work on the recommendation of the Shanta Kumar Committee (2015).

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, there has been a 74% reduction in insurgency incidents an 89% decline in civilian deaths, and 60% in casualties of security forces in the Northeastern region in 2021 compared to 2014. From 2014 till July 15, 2022, a total of 6,070 cadres of various insurgent groups in the northeastern states surrendered with 1,404 arms and joined the mainstream of society.

Steps taken to promote peace in North East India:

• Major peace accords: Such as the Bodo Accord (2020), and the Karbi Anglong Agreement (2021).
• Bru-Reang Agreement (2020): To resolve the refugee crisis by settling the internally displaced people of western Mizoram in Tripura.
• Assam-Meghalaya Inter-State Boundary Agreement, 2022: To settle the dispute over six areas out of a total of twelve areas of the interstate boundary dispute between the two states.
• Power of mobility and connectivity: Itanagar, Agartala, and Imphal have been connected through Railways, and in the remaining five capitals connectivity projects are nearing completion. Over 38,000 km of rural roads have been completed. With 15 new airports, the region is a priority area under the UDAN scheme with 46 operational routes.

Roadblocks in the era of peace to dawn in North East:

• Ethnocentric disputes: Ethnic identity has been critical in sustaining armed movements in the region and even within individual states.
  • A major hurdle before the government while signing an accord is the demand over the same territory by two rebel groups. For example, the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation stepped up demand for Kamatapur state comprising some areas in the Bodoland region and in Bengal soon after the signing of the Bodo Accord in 2020.
• Splinter groups: New militant groups get created from the same region or community after one enters a ceasefire pact, starts dialogue or signs an agreement with the government.
  • For example, the delay in signing the final Naga Peace agreement is due to the power struggle between the NSCN-IM and NNPG (the conglomerate organization that represent 6 smaller Naga political groups including GPRN/NSCN, NSCN (R), etc.).
• Running a parallel government: Some groups under ceasefire have taken advantage of the agreements. For example, the NSCN (IM) had been permitted to establish camps in Nagaland and Manipur but it has used it to carry arms and almost run a parallel government.
• Military rule in Myanmar: Recent reports also indicate that the Myanmar army is utilizing Indian insurgent groups to fight those who are in opposition to the junta regime. The government is trying to bring economic progress to all in North-East India by making efforts in the direction of creating the North-East as the hub of sports in the world, a leading exporter of exotic horticultural products, and a hotbed of start-ups while fast becoming the most attractive tourist destination in India.