Adapted to live in some of our planet's most inhospitable mountainous regions, snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are the ultimate mountain climbers and an iconic big cat. A recent camera trapping study found that India is home to the most dense population of the black and white carnivores on Earth and most live in a remote northern region of the subcontinent. Here, they also appear to co-exist alongside rural communities, where they are respected by local human populations. The findings are detailed in a study published May 7 in the open-access journal PLOS One. Snow leopards are found in mountainous regions across 12 Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

In his new book The Last War: How AI Will Shape India's Final Showdown With China, Pravin Sawhney, the editor of FORCE magazine, disquietingly forebodes a grim scenario for 2024: "If India and China were to fight a war in the near future, India faces the prospect of losing the war within 10 days. China could take Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh with a minimum loss of life, and there is very little that India could do about it." Is it the imagination of a defence analyst running wild? Far from it -- such scenarios have been predicted by other analysts too. A US military blog, Mad Scientist, which looks at the future of warfare, visualised a similar scenario for 2035 in February 2020, wherein China, in collusion with Pakistan, defeats India in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

In his new book The Last War: How AI Will Shape India's Final Showdown With China, Pravin Sawhney, the editor of FORCE magazine, disquietingly forebodes a grim scenario for 2024: "If India and China were to fight a war in the near future, India faces the prospect of losing the war within 10 days. China could take Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh with a minimum loss of life, and there is very little that India could do about it." Is it the imagination of a defence analyst running wild? Far from it -- such scenarios have been predicted by other analysts too. A US military blog, Mad Scientist, which looks at the future of warfare, visualised a similar scenario for 2035 in February 2020, wherein China, in collusion with Pakistan, defeats India in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Wangchuk, who inspired Aamir Khan's character Phunsukh Wangdu in the film 3 Idiots, is the founding director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). Wangchuk said that SEMCOL was founded in 1988 by students who were, "victims of an alien education system foisted on Ladakh." He has set up the campus in Ladakh that runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for lighting, cooking, or heating. Talking about his courtship with innovation, he said, "I grew up in a place where innovation was all around and without it, life wouldn't have been possible." "I saw how in the trans-Himalayan cold desert of Ladakh where temperatures reach minus 30 degrees, our ancestors not only survived but also contributed to the thriving inter-mingled civilisations. So, the freezing winters were not something to fear but something to look forward to – the hard work of ploughing, farming, winnowing, and thrashing, became in the carrying out of these processes, a community festival," he added.