Topic 1 : How neuroscience reshapes marketing strategies in India
Context
Elon Musk’s N1 implant, introduced to facilitate operating devices by just intending it in the brain, has jolted many into realising how far seemingly exotic neuroscience has been put to practical, commercial use.
Brain- behaviour relationship
- What’s common and par for the course today is mapping the brain to understand and predict human responses with data and real insight.
- This is being used in India to solve business problems from why life insurance buyers typically stop paying premiums after the first two years to whether an online ad can be made to ensure the consumer hits the “buy” button.
- Neuroscientific techniques provide a scientific or objective understanding of the brain-behaviour relationship.
- Advertisements, product design, aesthetics, store layout, use of music, colour to attract attention, nudges and so on can all be tested with the use of neuroscientific tools to ensure their effectiveness before being launched.
- Neuroscience-based market research can give reliable hard data.
- Instead of questionnaires, neuroscience employs a range of instruments to directly get information on how the brain is being impacted and what decisions it will take.
Neuroscience – a breakthrough
- Neuroscience had a breakthrough more than 15 years ago in the U.S. when Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed that ads evoking 9/11 attacks triggered fear among voters but the brain activity was different among Republican versus Democratic voters.
- Neuromarketing experts say that opinion polls in India can be more accurate and probe voter minds better in today’s highly polarised, ideological politics by using the FACS (Facial Action Coding System). The fMRI would be prohibitively expensive in India.
Enabling devices
- An enabler of neuroscience in India and across the world is the rapid strides in bio instruments, making some of them cheaper and easier to use.
- The typical neuromarketing tool is an adaptation of an instrument originally intended for medical diagnostics.
- They can be broadly divided into those that measure the electrical impulses of the brain and those that generate heat maps through other means.
- The former set includes Electro Encephalo Gram (EEG), Quantitative Electro Encephalo Graphy (QEEG) and so on.
- EEGs were intended to measure health parameters such as detecting brain tumour and whether the medicine to treat them is working or not.
- Wearable EEG senses 21 points in the brain such as pleasure point, fear point, pain point and so on. It measures brain waves, typically beta waves while filtering alpha, gamma and others.
- The neuroscience scene in India features progressive digital companies including multinationals that use these tools for their business decisions, market research consultants who specialise in the subject, and institutions such as the IITs and IIMs that provide research support.
Ethical concerns
- Meanwhile, it raises concerns about the possible misuse of Neuralink data to manipulate consumer responses.
- Less exotic, more mundane applications of neuroscience have raised some concerns too. Besides these, the surveys are under the scanner.
- The Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMSBA) has introduced the first neuromarketing code of ethics.
- It covers areas such as privacy, consent and transparency.
- The key issue is informed consent of survey participants — whether they are aware of all the implications of their participation and whether they are being exploited.
- Using young people below 18 years as survey participants adds another layer of concern. The informed consent of their parent or guardian would be needed, notes NMSBA.
Way forward
With the advancement of technologies like brain-computer interfaces and deep brain stimulation, it is crucial to implement robust privacy protocols and ensure that consumers sensitive information is protected.
Topic 2 : The ART of India’s HIV/AIDS response
Context
Twenty years ago, on April 1, 2004, the Indian government had launched Free Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), for Persons living with HIV (PLHIV), a decision which has proven one of the successful and a key intervention in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS
- HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which is a virus that attacks the immune system in the human body.
- It primarily targets and damages CD4 immune cells, which are essential for the body’s ability to fight infections and diseases.
- HIV is primarily spread through the exchange of certain bodily fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk.
- Although there are no cures for the infection at present, the disease can be managed using antiretroviral therapy.
- The first antiretroviral drug, AZT (zidovudine), was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) in March 1987, three more drugs were approved soon after in 1988 and a new class of antiretroviral drugs, protease inhibitors were introduced in 1995.
- But access to these medicines remained limited for most of the world’s population except in some high-income countries.
The evolution to free ART
- Recognising this challenge, in 2000, at the UN General Assembly’s Millennium Summit, world leaders set a specific goal and issued the declaration to stop and reverse the spread of HIV.
- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created in 2002 which advocated universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.
- The key barrier to ART was high cost and unaffordability for individuals, and geographical access to treatment.
- In fact, the so-called “cocktail therapy’ or HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy), a combination of three or more anti-retroviral drugs, had become available starting in 1996, but costs were prohibitively high.
- Therefore, the decision to make free ART for any adult living with HIV was a path-breaking one.
- ART is not merely about starting a person living with HIV on treatment. It is equally important to keep the viral load down and suppressed to ensure that the transmission of diseases is also halted.
- As of the end of 2023, of all PLHIV, an estimated 82% knew their HIV status, 72% were on ART and 68% were virally suppressed.
- The annual new HIV infections in India have declined by 48% against the global average of 31%.
- The annual AIDS-related mortalities have declined by 82% against the global average of 47%.
Crossing the hurdles
- There are a number of challenges yet to be tackled. First, the delayed enrolment to the ART facilities is the biggest challenge to the national programme.
- In India, patients presenting with CD4 count <200 to ART centres constitute almost a third of total foot fall.
- Second, after starting on ART and continuing, the patient starts feeling well. But the moment this happens, they start missing doses and miss medicines for months or completely drop out. This results in the development of resistance as well.
- This ‘loss to follow up’ needs to be addressed.
- Third, the sustained supply and availability of ART needs to be ensured by the national programme, in every geography of the country and more so for tough terrain, hilly and remote areas.
- Fourth, there is a need to focus on the private sector engagement in care of PLHIV.
- Fifth, there is a need for constant training and capacity building of staff as science keeps evolving and should be focused more on hands-on training.
- Sixth, there is a need to focus on strengthening integration with other programmes such as hepatitis, non-communicable diseases (diabetes and hypertension) and mental health as PLHIV are living normal but have other health conditions that need to be addressed.
- Seventh, a focused approach needs to be adopted to reduce preventable mortality that includes systematic death reviews and availability of advanced diagnostics.
Way forward
- The 20 years of free ART and subsequent steps under the NACP have the potential to guide other public health programmes in the country. As an example, the learnings can and should be used to launch a nationwide free hepatitis C treatment initiative in India and accelerate progress towards hepatitis C elimination.
