NEW YORK: A young Indian professor's research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has discovered drugs to improve outcomes for patients undergoing major operations including heart bypass surgery.

A team led by the Ram Sasisekharan, an asssociate professor at Biological Engineering Division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created designer drugs for preventing the blood clots that can cause strokes and heart disease during surgery.

For over 60 years doctors have used the drug heparin - the focus of the current research - during surgeries. Although safe, heparin and its smaller cousin, low molecular weight heparin, have shortcomings that limit their applications.

Those shortcomings are based on the fact that there's been no quick and easy way to determine the exact amounts of the active ingredients of the drugs.

"Simply put, low molecular weight heparins are essentially generated by chopping up heparin in a blender, which results in a mixture of large and small pieces with different amounts of active sites, or areas key to anti-coagulation," said Sasisekharan.

Courtesy: PTI, January 20, 2003

Bangalore, January 13. Work on a 'recoverable' satellite, that can be launched into space and brought back to Earth for possible reuse, is going on quietly and is in an "advanced stage" at the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Recoverable capsule technology is significant both because it cuts costs, since the recovered systems can be reused, and crucial for any manned space missions that India may plan in distant future, since humans going to outer space have to return.

India plans to launch, as of now, a 350 to 400 kg satellite with a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, allow it to orbit round Earth for some time and bring it back safely.

"I am hopeful that we will do this in 24 to 30 months," ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan said in an interview. "The capsule may carry an instrument for micro-gravity experiments."

He said after the capsule is launched its velocity will be "broken" at some point in the orbit, slowly brought closer to earth and finally parachuted down to a place from where it will be recovered.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com

New Delhi: Close on the heels of the discovery of 7 million cubic feet of gas reserves in deep waters of Krishna Godavari basin, Reliance Industries has struck significant oil and gas reserves in an exploration block offshore Gujarat. Reliance struck hydrocarbons in the very first well it drilled in the GK-OSJ/I block in shallow waters of Gulf of Cambay, senior company officials said here. No assessment of in place reserves has been done as the reserves are yet to be tested, they said, adding the company would make an announcement on the find in a month's time. The block is one of the five blocks Reliance Industries acquired from Tullow Oil of UK for just over 1 million. Sources, however indicated that gas production from the new find could be close to one million standard cubic metres per day as per the initial assessment. The block is close to the four-hydrocarbon discoveries Scottish explorer Cairn Energy PIc had made, off which Lakshmi gas find has started commercial production. The remaining (Gauri, Ambe and Parvati) are in different phases of development.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, January 10, 2003

BALASORE India on Thursday successfully test-fired the short-range variant of the nuclear-capable AGNI ballistic missile, which can strike targets up to a distance of 700 kms.

The surface-to-surface missile was test fired from a mobile launcher in clear weather, for the second time in one year, at 8.47 am from the coastal testing range at Chandipur-on-sea in Orissa.

The 15-metre tall 12-tonne missile with a 1-metre diameter is powered by solid fuel propulsion. The launch of the one-stage missile is expected to help defence scientists validate some crucial technologies like guidance and telemetry systems. The DRDO, which had launched its Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) in the 1980's, described the same as a technology demonstrator.

Defence sources said a few more tests of the shorter range variant of AGNI missiles were likely to take place in the next few weeks. Brahmos cruise missile, which is a Indo-Russian joint venture, other missiles like surface-to-air Akash and anti-tank Nag missile are also likely to be test fired in the near future.

Courtesy: PTI, January 09, 2003

BANGALORE: THE Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) plans to develop a series of high bandwidth agriculture satellites for thematic applications as part of its mission to develop frontier space technologies with societal relevance, Isro Chairman K Kasturirangan said here on Saturday.

The satellites planned would have high bandwidths with 55MB capability and are being planned specifically to track and monitor agricultural resources and development on the land, he said.

The mission also includes a series of satellites for ocean and atmospheric studies, he said in his address at the one-day space summit as part of the 90th Indian Science Congress. The Indian Remote Sensing satellites have already helped scientists and agriculturists maintain a database on the vegetation in the country. However, the planned series of agriculture-specific satellites would also help scientists analyse the data and formulate policies for the future.

Referring to the future of India's space programme, he said the lunar mission was planned for 2007 and by 2015, the Indian space scientists plan to be actively involved in space observation. He said space transportation would see a change in the future from the present multi stage to orbit to the single stage launchers by year 2050.

Courtesy: www.economictimes.com, January 05, 2003

Two Indian doctors may be on the verge of finding a limited cure, as opposed to controlled medication, for diabetes. Abhimanyu Garg and Anoop Misra have achieved a breakthrough in curing a rare fat disorder and the diabetes it causes.

This could indicate a cure for all diabetics.

"Our research is a gateway to understanding common obesity disorders and will help us understand the function of fat in the body and how it leads to insulin resistance," says Garg, who works at the University of Texas at Dallas. Misra is a professor of internal medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and the personal physician of the Prime Minister.

"The current thinking is that obesity and diabetes have a strong relationship. Adipose tissue (fat) causes insulin resistance leading to diabetes," Garg says. The middle and upper classes in India and other developing countries.

Garg and his team discovered that the therapy they have pioneered drastically reduces bad fat, which causes diabetes, bad cholesterol and a liver that can do you in. The current treatment consists of high-dose insulin and other fire-fighting medication. The new therapy has been found to control all these factors.

"While these are early days, we have clues to curing diabetes in obese people," says Misra. He assisted in the research in finding the role of a crucial gene. "We found that this gene produces certain proteins important for regulating fat in the body. The next step in the research is (finding out why this gene) acts only in certain portions of the body and how it behaves in obese people," he says.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, January 5, 2003

Forty Indian concepts including Veda, ayurveda and Gayatri have been found registered as trademarks in Germany, director of New Delhi-based Vastu Shastra Institute Ashwini Kumar Bansal said.

Last week Bansal had found out that Vastu --- an ancient Indian architectural concept --- had been registered as a trademark by a German organisation, Samhita, sometime between 1998 and 1999.

The various Indian trademarks have been registered by several organisations including Samhita, which is run by followers of spiritual guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Bansal said.

He added that Mahesh Yogi was using Maharishi Veda and Maharishi Ayurveda as registered trademarks since Veda and ayurveda had been already registered by other organisations in Germany. While Veda had been registered as early as in 1984, Gayatri had been registered very recently, he said.

Bansal, who is an arbitrator on the World Intellectual Property Organisation since 1996, said that he would soon approach the government and the WIPO on this issue.

"I have also recently floated an Intellectual Property Rights Forum for the protection of Indian concepts which will work as a watchdog against Indian concepts being used by foreigners abroad," he said.

Courtesy: www.indiaabroad.com