• Chennai Hospital Designs World's Smallest Needle
• Indian American Scientist Earns US Patent
• India Putting in Place Indigenous Tsunami Warning System
• Auirobindo Pharma Drug in WHO List
• World's 1st Voice e-mail From India

• Insat-4A Heralds a DTH Revolution
• Gentle Yoga may Soothe Cronic Back Pain
• 'Automated Software to Revolutionise BPO Sector'
• India Patents Yoga, Ayurveda

Ever since the phaco procedures, featuring surgical incisions of barely 3 mm to remove the cataract mass, arrived in the 70s, the area of incisions employed to correct the leading cause of blindness in the country has been shrinking. Now a leading private ophthalmic hospital in Chennai has designed a 0.7 mm phaco needle tip that works in tandem with a matching irrigating chopper to provide ophthalmologists the smallest tools ever used for cataract surgery. Billed as the world's smallest needle in a recent issue of EyeWorld, a publication of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the micro incision surgery (Microphakonit) has been pioneered by Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital. Microphakonit is basically an improvement on the 1 mm Phakonit (needle incision technology) developed by the hospital in 1998. The team led by its director Amar Agarwal used gas-forced infusion through an air pump to ensure that adequate quantity of fluid is injected through the reduced diameter of the needle and the critical aspiration flow rate is maintained. The disintegrated cataract nucleus is vacuumed out through the aspiration needle. "Despite the reduced incision loop, the operating time for cataract is under five minutes for a skilled hand," said Dr. Amar Agarwal. At present, an incision of 1.5 mm is made for the foldable lens implant to pass through and anchor inside the eye. The onus is now on industry to come up with even smaller versions of foldable lenses. If it took 20 years after phaco for the 3 mm foldable lens to be developed, it hardly took three years for 1.5 mm rollable lens to hit the market since Phakonit procedures were pioneered in 1998.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, December 24, 2005

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The successful launch of the advanced Insat-4A satellite from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on Thursday is likely to usher in a revolution in the fledgling direct-to-home television broadcasting services. According to officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation, Insat-4A has a 12-Ku band transponder to accommodate 150 channels. That is, the satellite with very high power of 52 dbw can be accessed through small 0.6 meter diameter dish antennas from anywhere in India. "Compared to earlier satellites, this communication satellite has been provided with very high power, and therefore people can get 150 channels with the help of small 0.6 meter diameter dish," the official explained. At present a DTH box costs around Rs 2,500, but with the small dish antenna this can come down drastically, say experts. At present, Doordarshan and a private channel are jointly offering DTH services in India by using the NSS-6 satellite. The Ariane-5g rocket launched a rocket that soared majestically at 4.03 am IST as planned and minutes after liftoff placed Insat-4A in the geosynchronous transfer orbit in 3-axis stabilised mode, drawing cheers from Arianespace and Isro officials. Tata-Sky, a joint venture of the Tatas and the Rupert Murdoch-owned Star group, has booked all the Ku-band transponders on the Rs 350-crore satellite. Isro paid an additional $50 million to Arianespace, the European commercial launch services provider, as launch cost. The Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka acquired the first signals from Insat-4A, which has a design life of 12 years, at 4.32 am, and the initial checks on the satellite indicated normal health of the spacecraft, which is expected to become operational by the end of next month, Isro officials clarified. Insat-4a, which would provide coverage over the Indian subcontinent, is being tracked, monitored and controlled by MCF and, in the coming days, it would be manoeuvred to its final geostationary orbit, which is 36,000 km above the equator, by firing its 440 newton liquid apogee motor (lam). The satellite, which has two deployable antennas and one fixed antenna for various transmit and receive functions, would be positioned at 83 degree east longitude as spacemates to Insat-2E and Insat-3B, officials said.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, December 23, 2005

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An Indian American scientist has earned a US patent for his unique research work involving the synthesis of chemical processes and compounds in an environment friendly manner. TK Vinod, professor of Chemistry at Western Illinois University, earned his first-ever US patent, which was awarded for the synthesis of a water-soluble reagent named modified o-iodoxybenzoic acid and its demonstration as an effective oxidizing agent. The discovery, according to Vinod, began in a unique way. His son, Arun Thottumkara, who was in eighth grade then had to work for a science project for his school fair. The goal was to create DEET, the active ingredient in many insect repellents, in an eco-friendly fashion. All went well, Arun presented an impressive project, but did not win a single prize. "Seeing how disappointed he was, I was determined to help Arun find a science project that would teach him a significant amount of chemistry, and more importantly, help him regain his confidence," Vinod said. "Originally I thought it would merely be a small science project in which I could teach Arun chemistry and laboratory techniques. "This is the work for which Arun and I recently received a US patent," Vinod said. The US Patent and Trademark Office allowed the issuance of the patent to Western Illinois University based on this research. The actual patent will be issued within the next few months.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, December 22, 2005

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People plagued by chronic lower backaches may find some relief in yoga class, researchers reported Monday. Their study of 101 adults with persistent low back pain found that a gentle yoga class seemed to be a better alternative to either general exercise or a self-help book. Though people in the exercise class eventually improved to a similar degree as their yoga-practicing counterparts, yoga class brought quicker results. It's possible that yoga's benefits for both the body and mind explain the effects on lower back pain, the study's lead author, Dr. Karen J. Sherman, said. She stressed, though, that the study participants took a slower-moving form of yoga that was designed for people with lower back problems. Vigorous styles of yoga that include more-advanced poses could potentially make chronic back pain worse. Sherman, a researcher at the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, and her colleagues report the findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine this week. It's estimated that 14 million Americans practice yoga, often as a way to treat chronic aches and pains. But, in the Western medical literature at least, there have been no published studies on the effects of yoga on chronic back pain, Sherman said. To look at the question, she and her colleagues randomly assigned 101 adults to take either 12 weeks of yoga class or 12 weeks of a standard therapeutic exercise class, or to follow the advice of a self-care book. The yoga class was conducted in what's known as the viniyoga style, which goes by the philosophy that poses should be adapted to the individual's needs. The instructor was experienced in therapeutic yoga, and the class was limited to basic poses that would not put too much strain on the back, Sherman explained. After 12 weeks, the yoga practitioners reported better back function than their peers in either of the other two groups. After another three months, those in the exercise group had improved to a similar degree as the yogis. The findings don't clearly show whether yoga or standard, therapy-focused exercise is better for low back pain, Sherman said. But, she added, given the choice, "I'd pick yoga." She pointed to one difference between the yoga practitioners and other two groups that remained over the long haul: At the last evaluation, the yogis were using less than half the amount of pain medication their peers were. Why this is, and why yoga showed a quicker benefit for low back pain, is an open question. But Sherman speculated that yoga's "mind and body effects" are at work. Viniyoga, like other forms of yoga, focuses on coordinating movement with the breath and focusing the mind. It's possible, according to Sherman, that yoga allowed the back pain sufferers to become more aware of their habitual movements and postures that may have been contributing to their back problems in the first place. Certain back problems, like spinal disc injuries, might not respond well to yoga, Sherman noted. But most people, she added, have "non-specific" back pain involving muscles, soft tissue and nerves, and for them, herapeutic yoga could be worth a try.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, December 20, 2005

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A year after the devastating tsu-nami of December 26, 2004, India is moving to put in place its very own tsunami-warning system, for which the government insists it will not use overseas help and which will be ready with no time and cost overruns by September 2007. Last year, 240,000 people lost their lives to the catastrophic wave, 15,000 in India alone. The worst affected regions of the country were the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the southern Indian coasts skirting the Bay of Bengal. The government gave formal approval for the Rs 125 crore plan in October and has allocated Rs 20 crore for use in the current financial year. Under the ambitious plan, India will install tsunami warning sensors close to the ocean floor at appropriate locations in the Indian Ocean with real-time connectivity and will create a network of tide gauges and data buoys to determine the time when tsunami waves could hit land. ''The Indian system is the best system for our country,'' says Union Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development Kapil Sibal, who asserts that ''there is no assistance being taken from foreign firms in this regard''. The 24/7 tsunami early warning centre will be housed at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, and will be a multi-hazard monitoring point that will also look at the storm surges that develop due to cyclones. To bolster already-existing monitoring networks through a multi-institutional approach, the Indian government wants, over the next two years, to augment the 12 online tide gauges with 50 more, of which eight are now online. It also plans to hike the number of seismic stations from 51 to over 170, with 17 of them being broadband online stations. The first such station was commissioned in May 2005 at Port Blair on the notorious Andaman-Sunda fault. India will also install 10 to 12 tsunamimeters, or Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) data buoys-each costing around Rs 1 crore-in the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the southern Indian Ocean. Talks are on with US and Italian firms for these buoys. The National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai, is already on the job. India's objective is to bring down the time taken for assessing earthquake parameters from the current 40 minutes to 10 minutes. Suitable numerical models and inundation scenarios are being developed at the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa. This is a vital exercise since warnings will be issued based on the findings of these scenario generators. All this will happen within a matter of minutes says Prem Shanker Goel, space technologist and secretary, Department of Ocean Development.

Courtesy: The Indian Express, December 23, 2005

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IMAGINE clarifying your mobile rate plan or bill without being put on hold. Or filling up a form online while chatting. Automated software and SIP-based applications will change the way information is exchanged between users and providers. "Automated speech recognition applications, that recognise a `yes' or `no', will help in faster customer surveys and telemarketing," said Mr Pramod Ratwani, Vice-President, Asia Pacific and West Asia, Aspect Software. US-based Aspect is a $650-million company that makes contact centre solutions and employs 200 in India and around 1.2 million worldwide. Internet will soon be included as a medium to interact with BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing). If you want to apply for a service, and prefer online as a medium, page-push technology integrated with chat software (instant messengers) will allow the executive to send it to you instantly. "The new generation is more Internet-savvy and prefer this medium," said Mr Ratwani. The form will pop-up on your monitor and you can fill it in. The executive at the BPO will be able to see the form simultaneously and help you fill it out as you type," he elucidated.

Courtesy: www.thehindubusinessline.com, December 19, 2005

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Aurobindo Pharma's Nevirapine, a key anti-retroviral (ARV) drug used in the treatment of HIV-1 infection, has been included in the World Health Organisation's pre-qualification list. The global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria disburses money for medicines that have been pre-qualified by the WHO process. According to a press release here on Monday, Nevirapine 200 mg is the company's fourth product to be included in WHO list and belongs to the class of drugs called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). It is used in combination with other anti-retroviral agents in the treatment of HIV.

Courtesy: The Hindu, December 13, 2005

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India is publishing a bulky encyclopedia, running into 30 million pages, which would extensively cover its vast traditional knowledge as part of efforts to keep out intellectual property invaders from patenting its indigenous wealth. Work on the book, which would be in electronic format, is progressing at a feverish pace and already one-third of it has been completed. "Ten million pages have been digitised," Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ajay Dua informed a FICCI-WIPO organised seminar on strategically using patents for wealth creation in the life sciences industry. The work, christened Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), seeks to repel attempts by people abroad to patent traditional Indian knowledge, be it yoga or medicine systems like ayurveda. "Even as this exercise (TKDL) is going on, 150 yoga asanas (postures) have been patented abroad...134 of these asanas were granted patent by the US Patent and Trademark office," dua said. "Close to 1,500 (postures) have been given trademark (elsewhere)," he said, but added that this was not the mistake of patent offices abroad. While traditional knoweldge has been in public domain in India in various vernacular languages, the same was not accessible by patent examiners abroad, he noted.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, December 06, 2005

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In three weeks from now, a next-generation e-mail service will hit the market. Called NowPos (now possible), this will be the world's first voice mail service, indigenously developed by Hyderabad-based NowPos Online Services, a subsidiary of TrulyIntelligent Technologies Pvt Ltd. This service has the potential to make text format e-mails redundant. This technology will enable users to record and send voice messages as mails. The fact that users will be able to send mails in the text format as well is just incidental. Speaking to Business Standard, Ayyappa Nagubandi, leader (title equal to a CEO), TrulyIntelligent Technologies, said, "We took nine months to develop the technology and will launch it in the next three weeks. It will be a free e-mail service. While the sender will need to register with NowPos to send a voice message (up to three minutes), the receiver will not." Incidentally, advertisers will also find a new format to market products and services through NowPos. "We plan to allow advertisers to play commercials before receivers listen to their mails. This will, therefore, work as a radio commercial in an online medium," Nagubandi said, adding that the firm would, however, permit only one commercial before a message and that too not exceeding 10 seconds. "We will also use the AJAX technology that will enable users to customise their inbox and pages. This means, users will be able to drag and place an item of their pages anywhere they like, or even ensure that it is out of sight," Nagubandi said. AJAX or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a web development technique that helps in creating interactive web applications. Rediff, for instance, is using this technology to enable users to drag and drop mails into the trash folder. "Besides, another feature that the e-mail service will have is a tracking mechanism. So, if you send a voice mail to someone who in turn forwards it to another person, you will be informed about it so that you can delete it before it is heard by a third person," he added.

Courtesy: rediff.com, November 05, 2005

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