• Ayush 2005' -Portal to The Realm of India's Medicinal Plant Culture
• NASA Sends Kalpana Into Space Again
• India Beats US in Science
• Phototherapy For Skin Disease
• Indian Doctor to Operate in pakistan
• Kerala Fast Emerging as IT Hub
• Holiday in India Good For Health

• Indian at MIT Develops Anti-Cancer 'Smart Bomb'
• India Tests Surface-to-air Trishul Missile
• The N-Option: India Sees Export Market For Reactors
• Cure For Diabetic Foot Ulcer Launched
• Garments With Medicinal Values Unveiled
• Another IT Bigwig Ready to Take The World by Storm

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has engineered what it calls an "anti-cancer smart bomb", thanks to some pioneering work by a team of researchers, led by an Indian professor. A nanocell, designed by Prof Ram Sasisekharan and his team, has opened the way for a new, effective way to administer existing anti-cancer drugs. The new therapy, successfully tried out on mice, has been found to be safe and potent against the widely prevalent lung and skin (melanoma) cancers. Now, a cancer drug can burrow into a tumour, seal the exits and detonate a lethal dose of anti-cancer toxins, all of this while leaving the healthy cells unscathed, says an MIT announcement. The finding, being reported in the July 28 issue of Nature, describes how the new methodology has prolonged the life of afflicted mice. "Eighty per cent of the nanocell mice survived beyond 65 days, while mice treated with the best current therapy survived 30 days. Untreated animals died at 20." Speaking to Hindustan Times from Boston, Sasisekharan said he will be evaluating options over the next few months for fast track human trials. Since the procedure uses existing drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he does not anticipate the time-lags usually associated with human trials. "The fundamental challenges in cancer chemotherapy are its toxicity to healthy cells and drug resistance by cancer cells...You can't deliver chemotherapy to tumours if you have destroyed the vessels that take it there," he says while explaining how the nanocell procedure takes care of these problems. "Once the nanocell is inside the tumour, its outer membrane disintegrates, rapidly deploying the anti-angiogenic drug. The blood vessels feeding the tumour then collapse, trapping the loaded nanoparticle in the tumour, while it slowly releases the chemotherapy." The professor of biological engineering says the patient survival chances and quality of life inspire his team's research, bringing together three elements: cancer biology, pharmacology and engineering. His team consists of another Indian, Shiladitya Sengupta, a post-doctoral associate, and five other researchers.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times: July 28, 2005

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Do you know there are plants matching all 27 `nakshatras' (stars) and 12 houses in Vedic astrology? These plants, if grown according to the `janma nakshatra' (birth star) of the family members, could keep them healthy, claims J. Venkatesh, a Siddha physician. Of course, there is much more to it than meets the eye. One ought to learn the art of preparing potions with the help of medicinal plants to overcome oppressing ailments. This was revealed at `Ayush 2005,' an exposition of traditional medicines organised by the Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association, last week. It opened to the public the portals of medicinal plant culture, a rich heritage of India. The expo revealed how the country, more specifically the Western Ghats, is one of the richest medicinal plant spots in the world. It drove home the message that medicinal plants could ensure the health security of millions of people and that if raised on vast tracts of land they could provide new and safe herbal drugs for the entire world. Visitors viewed an array of medicinal plants and herbs useful in treating various ailments at the exposition. `Marudam' (Terminalia arjuna), `siriyanangai,' `periyanangai,' `arogiapatchai,' `kodampuli' and cinnamon were among the 450 medicinal plants displayed at the exposition, according to J. Venkatesh, who managed to display 100 rare plant species with the help of students and philanthropists. He has planned to establish a herbal museum at Kokila Hospital and Herbal Training Centre, Jaihindpuram, to conserve medicinal plants. He has also proposed to train members of self-help groups to raise medicinal plants for commercial purposes. A compact disc has been brought out on medicinal plants and their applications. The MADITSSIA brought out a directory of exhibitors. "Of course, as a follow up to the exposition, we would like to explore the possibilities of encouraging farmers to take up the cultivation of medicinal plants," said S. Aravind, its president.

Courtesy: The Hindu, July 28, 2005

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India on Tuesday tested the surface-to-air Trishul missile from a test range in Orissa, defence sources said.The short-range missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher at the integrated test range in Chandipur in Balasore district, 230 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, in eastern India, at 11.56 am.The Trishul is part of India's integrated guided missile development programme. Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the solid fuel propelled missile has a triple battlefield role for the Army, Air Force and Navy.It has a range of nine kilometres and carries a 15-kg warhead. Trishul is about three metres in length and 200 cm in diameter and flies at supersonic speed. Designed as an all-weather missile, the Trishul's sea-skimming capability is meant to aid its ability to intercept anti-ship missiles.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, July 27, 2005

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With the breakthrough achieved over the highly-contentious issue of US co-operation in nuclear energy, a potentially huge international market has opened up for India - the export of low-cost, small and medium-sized nuclear power reactors (SMRs). The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), the nodal agency for developing and implementing nuclear power programmes in the country, is said to be keen on selling its indigenously-developed small-sized reactor technology in the international market. India and China are the only two countries in the world which develop SMRs (less than 600 mw). The developed world is focused on large-scale nuclear reactors with capacities over 900 mw. Compared to international standards, India's cost in developing its nuclear reactor is also less - Rs 5-6 crore per mega watt. India was unable to purchase or sell its nuclear technology and nuclear fuel in the international market due to the sanctions and restrictions imposed by Washington following the 1974 Pokhran nuclear test. Now, the US has agreed to complete civil nuclear energy co-operation with India as the latter realises its goals of promoting nuclear power and achieving energy security. It will also seek Congress nod to adjust US laws and policies, and will work with friends and allies to adjust international regimes to enable full civil nuclear energy co-operation and trade with India, including, but not limited to, expeditious consideration of fuel supplies for safeguarded nuclear reactors at Tarapur.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, July 20, 2005

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Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, a manufacturer of vaccines and biotherapeutics, on Friday launched 'Regen-D' therapeutic in the market for treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, burns and skin grafts. Addressing a press conference, Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Krishna M Ella claimed that the new product, developed after nearly five years and Rs 18 crore worth of research, had nearly 90 per cent healing rate. He said in India alone, nearly 40,000 limbs were amputated due to diabetes and throughout the world, upto 70 per cent of all leg amputations happened to people with uncontrolled diabetes. Nearly 1.20 lakh deaths occurred due to burns every year in the country. Ella said this was the first time in the country or in the world that a product to treat diabetic foot ulcers had been developed, which could be used even for burns and skin grafts. He expected a Rs 500 crore market for this new product in the country in the years to come. The company, which had already launched four vaccines in the market in the last few years including for hepatitis-B and typhoid, has a state-of-the-art facility in Genome Valley in Hyderabad put up on an investment of Rs 120 crore.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, July 16, 2005

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Imagine a garment that will also act as a medicine. Arun Baid's Aura Herbal Wear has launched herbal garments that do just that. The Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at 11M-Ahmedabad has extended support to Arun Baid for his "novel method of dyeing textile articles from medicinally rich herbs." Explaining its process of making herbal garments, Baid said, "We dye 100 per cent natural fabrics by immersing them in the herbs such as myraballam (harade), catechu (kaththa), pomegranate rind (anar chal), madder (majeeth), castor oil (arandi teI). Even the bleaching done on the fabrics is naturally done with sunlight and laying the fabric on grass." Aura Herbal Wear posted sales of Rs 35 lakh in the past fiscal and expects sales of around Rs 60 lakh this year. Explaining further Baid said, "All the garments are made of natural fibres such as cotton, linen, silk and wool woven on handloom. Herbal wear has medicinal properties. It is anti-allergic, anti-microbial and has antiseptic properties and wearing such garments facilitates transpiration or breathing from the skin. The fabric is also eco-friendly as the waste from such herbal dyeing can be converted into manure." On promotion of pollution free environment, Baid said, "Whenever one can buy herbal wear, the person is automatically promoting vegetation as herbs get used and have to be re-grown." In herbal dyeing, colours are derived directly from different herbs, flowers, stems and roots. Some the herbs used are turmeric, pomegranate, tulsi, bay leaves and sandalwood, Baid added.'

Courtesy: www.business-standard.com, July 13, 2005

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A photograph of Kalpana Chawla, the Indian-born space icon, will travel to space this week on NASA's first shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster nearly two and a half years ago. The picture on board the Discovery shuttle will show Kalpana from her college days in India, sitting in her dorm surrounded by snapshots of aircraft and a space shuttle. It as been handpicked by husband JP Harrison, who has set up a foundation in her memory. Preparations for Discovery's Wednesday afternoon launch from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral are on in full throttle, despite a fierce hurricane that is set to lash the Florida coast later on Sunday. Keen as it is to live down the Columbia catastrophe, NASA has been raring to go. It says new safety techniques are in place after implementation of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's recommendations. Reports say that engineers have redesigned the shuttle's external fuel tank, built a new boom sensor to look under the wings and enlisted spy satellites to take pictures of the shuttle in flight -- all part of a colossal effort to see that Discovery's 13-day odyssey remains flawless from launch to splashdown. It's a woman astronaut who will be commanding Discovery's seven-member crew. For 48-year-old Eileen Collins, it's the second time at the controls. In 1999, she had become the first woman to lead a US space mission. Collins and her crew have planned a special tribute to their Columbia colleagues from space, the details of which have not been disclosed. For their part, the bereaved families of the seven Columbia astronauts are saying silent prayers for a safe Discovery mission. Several of them, including Kalpana's husband, plan to attend the Discovery lunch. But Evelyn Husband, widow of Columbia's commander Rick Husband, will not be among them. Going to Florida for the lift-off or landing would be too painful, she says.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, July 11, 2005

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For the first time in India a city-based homeopath, Dr Rajesh Shah has introduced a novel method to cure recurring skin diseases like vitiligo and psoriasis. He has introduced a therapy, which is a combination of targeted phototherapy with homeopathy, to combat skin disfiguring diseases. Medical statistics show that at least eight out of 100 persons have vitiligo and 10 out of every 100 are affected with psoriasis in India. The figure is the same for Mumbai and is rising in the city as these diseases are caused by stress. Dr Shah of the Life Force Centre, Homeopathic Research Centre, says: " Life Force participated in a clinical study at one of the leading allopathic hospitals in Mumbai and discovered that the combination of homoeopathic medicines and phototherapy for skin diseases was effective. The healing too was quicker as compared to phototherapy or homoeopathy used in isolation." Homeopathy addresses emotional and psychological problems of patients, whereas targeted phototherapy allows administration of doses of specialised and targeted UVA, UVB and blue light to the affected skin in a calculated manner without affecting the surrounding healthy tissues. Here, the treatment eliminates the root cause of the skin disease that are genetically inherited, as well as allergy, stress and hormonal problems. The duration of the treatment for every disease varies from five to 30 sittings depending on the progress of the disease. Homoeopathic treatment is considered 100 per cent safe without side effects and the same is true for targeted phototherapy.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, July 09, 2005

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More than half a century of US dominance in science and engineering may be slipping as America's share of graduates in these fields falls relative to Europe and developing nations such as India, a study released on Friday says. The study, written by Richard Freeman at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Washington, warned that changes in the global science and engineering job market may require a long period of adjustment for US workers. Moves by international companies to move jobs in information technology, high-tech manufacturing and research and development to low-income developing countries were just "harbingers" of that longer-term adjustment, Freeman said. Urgent action was needed to ensure that slippage in science and engineering education and research, a bulwark of the US productivity boom and resurgence during the 1990s, did not undermine America's global economic leadership, he added. The United States has had a substantial lead in science and technology since World War Two. With just 5 per cent of the world's population, it employs almost a third of science and engineering researchers, accounts for 40 per cent of research and development spending and publishes 35 per cent of science and engineering research papers. Many of the world's top high-tech firms are American, and government spending on defense-related technology ensures the US military's technological dominance on battlefields. But the roots of this lead may be eroding, Freeman said. Numbers of science and engineering graduates from European and Asian universities are soaring while new degrees in the United States have stagnated -- cutting its overall share. In 2000, the paper said, 17 per cent of university bachelor degrees in the US were in science and engineering compared with a world average of 27 per cent and 52 per cent in China. The picture among doctorates -- key to advanced scientific research -- was more striking. In 2001, universities in the European Union granted 40 per cent more science and engineering doctorates than the United States, with that figure expected to reach nearly 100 per cent by about 2010, the study showed.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, July 09, 2005

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He may have been born with an inquisitive and highly innovative mind. Close on the heels of getting the Infosys Foundation-sponsored Young Achievers Award, 19-year-old Suhas Gopinath is off to Islamabad representing India at the International Youth Leaders' Conference. "Even as a 10-year-old schoolboy, he was a wizard with computers," his teachers at the Air Force School in Hebbal recall. Getting into complicated software and using it came easily to him. This was at a time when Microsoft Windows was making waves in our country. High-speed computing fascinated young Suhas and eventually led to the creation of his own enterprise; he is now perhaps the youngest CEO in our burgeoning information technology (IT) sector. He heads Globals Inc., which has offices in the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, Europe and South Africa. This growing company's latest offering is a school management system called "eScola," which is considered one of the most cost-effective student information system and assessment tool. The interesting thing is Suhas led the team that developed the system while he is still studying telecommunications engineering at the M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology. A few days ago, Suhas called on the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the Minister for Human Resources Development, Arjun Singh, in New Delhi. He discussed with them the wider usage of school management systems and the introduction of basic IT infrastructure in all Central Government-run schools. As he explained to them: "School management systems can reduce a lot of drudgery for teachers and school staff and spare them the time and energy to focus on their core strength: that of strengthening academic standards." The main agenda of his meeting was to discuss the non-profit programme adopted by his organisation called "Building Entrepreneurial Skills in Youngsters." Through this programme, Suhas and his team members are addressing students of various educational institutions in India and overseas. They have created a 85-minute interactive presentation in which the team speaks on leadership qualities, and students attending it can clarify doubts on setting up an enterprise, tips on crisis management and issues which may face a new business. He suggested to Mr. Arjun Singh that an entrepreneurship cell could be set up at the national level so that more youth from across India can be reached.

Courtesy: The Hindu, July 04, 2005

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A doctor from India is on a mission to Pakistan. Dr Shakir Husain, a neurocardiologist from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, will be operating upon 10 patients in Pakistan. Dr Husain is the first Indian neurocardiologist to operate in Pakistani soil. He is invited by the Neurological Society of Pakistan to deliberate on the issue to local surgeons, who have already mailed him about the topics that would like to know more about. "I am honoured that I have been invited by the society to operate there. The main aim of this visit is to disseminate information regarding the field, where surgery is suppose to be very complicated," said Dr Husain who has performed some very complex surgeries in the country. He will also participate in a three day long workshop in Lahore, where he will speak about the specialisation happening in the field of neurocardiology and the latest techniques used in the field of surgery. The workshop will see doctors from both private and public hospitals including that from legendary cricketer Imran Khan's cancer hospital. Some of the participating hospitals are Lahore General Hospital, Mayo Hospital and Shaukhat Khanum Cancer Hospital. "These two patients are at a stage where surgery is must as they are not in a very good condition. I am more keen in knowing about their condition. It is a real tough job to operate on infants," said Dr Husain who will be training Pakistani doctors on the selection procedure of the surgery and the in-depth information about the procedures.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, July 02, 2005

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With IT, ITeS and BPO companies flocking to the state, Kerala is fast emerging as a hot IT destination. IT experts say increasing costs in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, are prompting many IT companies to look at Kerala which offers infrastructure at low costs, better quality of life and easy availablity of quality manpower. Recently, a high level delegation from Qatar, led by minister of state for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, had visited Kerala and expressed its intention to invest in several projects, including the third stage expansion of Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram. Technopark, launched in 1992, was the first of its kind in India offering ready-to-use infrastructure exclusively for IT companies. With 75 companies and 7,500 people, the 15 lakh square feet structure, spread over about 156 acres of land cannot take in any more companies, prompting authorities to chart out a Rs 1000-crore expansion plan.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, July 02, 2005

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A bone marrow transplant in the US costs over $250,000. In India, the bill would hardly cross $26,000. While an uncemented hip surgery in UK would require nearly £10,000, the same would cost not more than £1,500 in India. In order to use these figures to their advantage, the tourism ministry, which is determined to portray India as a modern medical superpower and not just the land of Ayurveda, has decided to ask tour operators and Indian tourist bureaus abroad to aggressively market and promote India as a leading destination for the unhealthy. Busy, price branding treatments making them available within a particular price limit, the ministry is also preparing a ready reckoner for foreign tourists wanting to meet specialists in India. The document will mention India's best hospitals along with their prices for treatments, something Kerala has already completed doing. Kerala has already shortlisted 14 hospitals, ready to attend to foreign tourists come to the state especially for treatments. According to its medical tourism ready reckoner, a bypass surgery at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences will cost between 1,450 and 2,370 pounds or 2,145 Euros and plastic surgery will cost just 290 pounds. Goa too has started marketing dental tourism. The ministry of health and welfare too has come forward and decided to accreditate Indian hospitals. A draft report regarding accreditation was submitted by Dr Naresh Trehan, chairman of CII's National Healthcare Committee, to the Quality Council of India on Monday night. The draft is presently being studied by a technical committee which will finalise the accreditation policy by the end of November. A National Acrreditation Board for Hospitals will also be formed then. Dr Trehan said the standards will apply to all nursing homes and top tertiary care hospitals. The accreditation would be an indicator. There would be checks and measures so that there is accountability in the standards hospitals maintain. Tourists from abroad can now be sure they are getting the best treatment for the lowest price in India. Committee chairman Dr Y P Bhatia, who is also the CEO of the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, said that many standards were studied such as the Joint Commission International (JCI), Australian and Thai accreditation standards before the draft was prepared. A recent study by CII-McKinsey on healthcare said that medical tourism would contribute Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore as additional revenue for upmarket tertiary hospitals by 2012 in India and would account for 3-5% of the total healthcare delivery market. The study said the current market for medical tourism in India was small and mainly limited to patients from the Middle East and South Asia.

Courtesy: The Times of India, July 01, 2005

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