Gastroenterologist T.S. Chandrasekar, the founding chairman of MedIndia Hospital, said he felt honoured to be chosen for the award for his medico-social work in the field of gastroenterology.
Dr. Chandrasekar, who has several firsts to his credit including the Braille chart on hygiene that he created last year, is also the founder of the MedIndia Charitable Trust. A graduate of Madurai Medical College, Dr. Chandrasekar also founded the department of medical gastroenterology at Coimbatore Medical College.
His hospital is affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University to offer post-doctoral fellowship programme in advanced GI endoscopy.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / January 26th, 2016
Tamilnad Kidney Research (TANKER) Foundation presents its 23rd annual charity and awards night on January 25. The evening is dedicated to Malathi Venkatesan, a trustee of the foundation, who passed away last year. The chief guest for the function will be Vikram Kapur, IAS.
The keynote address, titled ‘Living a normal life despite being on dialysis’, will be delivered by Kamal D Shah, director, patient services, Nephro Plus Dialysis Centres.
The foundation has completed 22 years of service for the underprivileged with kidney ailments. From June 1993, the foundation has provided 1.74 lakh free and subsidised dialysis for 883 patients. N The foundation has four subsidised dialysis units across the State. These units have 42 dialysis stations. It conducts 1,933 dialyses per month, of which 1,749 are free of cost with help from the Chief Minister’s health insurance scheme and other donors.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / January 23rd, 2016
A.G. Murugesan receiving the national award from Union Minister for Chemicals Anantkumar in New Delhi recently. Joint Secretory of Ministery of Petrochemicals Avinash Joshi looks on.
A.G. Murugesan, Professor and Head, Sri Paramakalyani Centre of Excellence in Environmental Sciences, Alwarkurichi, a satellite centre of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, has won the national award of the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Petrochemicals for his innovative research in polymer from natural resources.
He received the award from Union Minister for Petrochemicals Ananthkumar at a function in New Delhi recently. The Ministry is recognising scientists and innovators by giving national awards for the past five years.
Dr. Murugesan was selected for the sixth national award under the category ‘Innovation in Polymeric Material’ for his research in biopolymer from natural resources. The award includes a memento, citation and a shawl.
The awardees were selected by a high-level juries committee under the chairmanship of S.K. Nayak, Director General of Central Institutes of Plastic Engineering and Technology, Haryana.
Prof. Murugesan is doing research in different aspects of industrial toxicology, natural resources management, environmental impact assessment, bio-remediation and bio-energy generation using microbial technologies.
He has produced a biopolymer – Poly Hydroxy Butyrate B – from water hyacinth.
Dr. Murugesan, who has received several State awards, has guided 34 research scholars so far, published more than 675 research papers and authored six books on environment. He is a Fellow in several top-level academies of the country. He has also served as expert member in several high-level environmental committees, including the Ministry of Environment and Forest’s State-level expert appraisal committee for two consecutive terms.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / Tirunelvelli – January 23rd, 2016
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has awarded a research project to physicist R. Radha, Director, Centre for Nonlinear Science, Government Arts College, Kumbakonam.
The CSIR will fund the project to the tune of Rs. 25 lakh and Dr. Radha is one of the eight physicists to be awarded the prestigious research project in Physical Sciences in 2015.
The Centre had come out with 30 international publications in the last five years while Dr. Radha received international recognition for pioneering research work from fora such as INSA Royal Society of London Visiting Fellow, INSA Polish Academy of Science Visiting Fellow, Third World Academy of Sciences UNESCO Association Award and is a Visiting Scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / Kumbakonam – January 18th, 2015
Coimbatore :
S Krishnakumar, 31, was pursuing his third year engineering at National Institute of Technology in Trichy in 2005 when he suddenly found himself bed ridden. He and his family did not realise that he had a tumour in his spinal chord, and weeks of neglect led to it suffering permanent damage.
Five years later, in 2010, that he was operated in Hosmat Hospital, but his lifestyle did not improve. Today, the man has a job and moves around independently in a wheelchair.
As many as 256 patients, like Krishnakumar, suffering from spine injuries have been rehabilitated in the city-based Ganga Spine Injury and Rehabilitation Centre in its very first year. This is only the third centre in the country, the other two being in New Delhi and Christian Medical College, Vellore, that specializes in rehabilitating spine injury patients and the largest in many ways.
“Spine injuries are the worst to suffer during an accident because it leaves you dependent for the rest of your life, and it paralyses the entire family,” said the centre’s director Dr S Rajasekaran at the centre’s annual day event on Monday evening.
“At least three people are required to lift them on and off the bed, move them and take care of them,” he said.
“Our centre aims at making them as independent as possible and take care of their needs from morning till night themselves, so that the other family members can go to work,” he added.
However, for patients who have suffered spine and neck injuries even sitting upright on a wheelchair, using their hands or getting off a bed requires weeks of physiotherapy. “For 10 years I was bed-ridden and would be lifted only to a chair. I never moved around or used a wheelchair because my body had no balance and my legs were like rods,” he said.
“It took me four months of treatment to learn how to transfer myself from a bed to a wheelchair myself and use a toilet,” he added.
Doctors say the 33-bedded hospital’s treatment goes anywhere between two to three months since it is a slow procedure. The treatments which costs around Rs 5 lakh includes seven to eight hours of intensive physiotherapy a day. “We, however, treat one patient free a month and give a concession of more than four lakh for every patient with the help of donors and benefactors,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / by Pratiksha Ramkumar, TNN / January 11th, 2016
Kamini Dhandapani, on holiday here from the U.S., writes to tell me that on a nostalgic visit to the Monegar Choultry, she found it anything but run-down, in fact much of it looked spick and span. The nostalgia relates to the fact that her grandfather, a doctor, was the Superintendent in charge of the choultry for many years and that as children, she and her siblings spent a lot of time in the institution while visiting him every Sunday.
The main building of Monegar Choultry
Monegar Choultry is probably the oldest organised charity in India; it certainly is in the South, what was once the Madras Presidency. Following the famine of 1781, the choultry was established in 1782 by a Committee comprising members of the Government and of the St. Mary’s-in-the-Fort congregation taking over a private gruel centre just outside the northern town wall. In 1808, the Government took over responsibility from the Committee and has ever since run the choultry.
The entrance of Monegar Choultry
Initially a poor-feeding centre, the choultry was developed as an old age home for the destitute, primarily for women, but later with accommodation for men. Today, it has around 60 residents, most of them women. And it is the women who virtually run the place, cooking and serving the food — Kamini says it is food of the quality and variety you would get at home — keeping the premises clean, and looking after the cubicles. Kamini’s picture of the dormitory reflects how well the premises are kept. I wonder how many other Government institutions are as well kept.
Inside Monegar Choultry
In 1799, Company Surgeon John Underwood established facilities in the choultry to treat the aged there and this soon grew into the ‘Native Infirmary’, the first formal Western medical facilities for Indians. Amalgamating it in 1809 with a younger Native Hospital in Purasawalkam, Monegar Choultry Hospital was developed by the Government to become the first organised hospital in North Madras for Indians. In 1909, the Government took over the facility and renamed it the Royapuram Hospital. In due course it was to become Stanley Medical College and Hospital.
When the Government established the Royapuram Hospital, the old age home moved into the adjoining premises by which came up the like-minded Rajah of Venkatagiri Choultry. Eighty years later, around 1990, many of the dilapidated old buildings of the Monegar Choultry were pulled down and today’s tidy campus developed. It is today an institution you can hardly find any fault with, says Kamini.
A visit to Grayshott
The other day, I called on friends at a rather handsome gated community named Ceebros Grayshott,which boasts of 110 apartments. When they asked me where the name came from, I remembered a developer once asking me what could be done to the house called Grayshott which was in the midst of a nearly three-acre property he planned to develop. I had suggested he make it a clubhouse for the development, particularly keeping in mind its history. He, however, sadly demolished it and another magnificent garden house vanished from the Madras heritage scene.
J.O. Robinson and Stanley Edwards
Once, the Grayshott property was part of a huge acreage called Bishop’s Gardens, the first and only building in the Gardens dating to 1817. At some point in time the gardens came into the hands of P. Venkatachellum, the famous condiment maker in the European market but better known in Madras for the 100 or so properties he owned in some of the best areas in town. In 1927, Venkatachellum’s son P.V. Subramaniam sold Bishop’s Gardens in a distress sale, to whom and how much being not traceable. What is known is that the property was parcelled out and sold to different buyers. John Oakshott Robinson, the Chairman of Spencer’s and possibly the first takeover king in India, bought nearly three acres during the division for Rs.14,750 and gifted it to his son-in-law and fellow director Stanley Edwards as a wedding present. Another large acreage with the original house — Bishop’s Gardens — in it, was bought for the philosopher-guru, Annie Besant’s messiah, J. Krishnamurthi, by some of his followers in 1934 and renamed Vasantha Vihar. It today serves as the Krishnamurthi Foundation’s Study Centre.
The neighbouring plot was named Grayshott when Edward and his wife built their mansion in it, the name deriving from the village where they had got married, her father having settled there. The 7,000 sq.ft. mansion Grayshott the Edwards’ built in art deco style was moved into in 1929/30 and remained their home till they left in 1957. Edwards was a racing man and also a very popular extrovert. The racing parties he held on racing weekends and others he held during the rest of the year were remembered as “memorable” by those who attended them. That is why I had suggested to the developer of the gated community that he retain it as a clubhouse where the residents’ association could hold more memorable parties. Neither happened.
When the Edwards’ left, Spencer’s took over the property for Rs.1,50,000 and successive managing directors occupied it — but without the flair of Edwards. When Spencer’s began to downsize operations in the 1990s and was trying to sell the property, the Income Tax Department bought it for Rs.191.8 million. What they sold it for I do not know, but how the property values had appreciated in 70 years!
When the postman knocked…
* Eagle-eyed N.S. Yogananda Rao, with an elephantine memory, takes me to task for repeating in Miscellany December 21, 2015 an item that appeared in The Hindu on December 25, 2011. He was referring to the letter to the Editor of The Hindu appealing to Srinivasa Ramanujan, who had run away from home, to return. Rao wonders whether it was an “oversight” or “mere repetition”. I would say neither.
Much of what appears in this column, which is based on factual information, and not being fiction or literary creativity, would have appeared somewhere else in the past, in The Hindu itself, perhaps in the columns of other newspapers, in journals and books. Someone might have come across a particular bit of information elsewhere but to most readers it would be ‘new-s’. As this bit of information was to me; I for one had not come across it till the Sreedharan biography was sent to me. And I’m sure that the information, even in ‘re-use’, would have been ‘new-s’ to many a reader of this column, particularly in the context of much else about Ramanujan being offered in it. I wonder whether Rao had come across the “attempted suicide” story before; I hadn’t.
* My little tale last week about playing fortune-teller reminded Dr. N Sreedharan that Khushwant Singh had confessed to the same experience some 30 years ago during a speech at IISc, Bangalore. Narrating what he did, when he was Editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India, whenever astrologer Bejan Daruwala’s forecasts did not reach him in time, Singh said that to avoid disappointing readers who looked forward to the column, he wrote the predictions himself. “I was quite familiar with the jargon,” he had added. And then related that there would often be Letters to the Editor after each week stating that the predictions in the last issue were better than usual!
* Did the British ride to the hounds in Madras was an e-mail query I received from a chronicler in Britain, E. Jameson. They certainly did, but for jackals and not foxes. And the hounds came out once a year in an East Indiaman and were kennelled not far from wherever the Madras / Adyar Clubs were located. There was a Madras Hunt which assembled at either of the Clubs and rode to the hounds south of St. Thomas’ Mount or in the west in the Koyambedu area. There are references to a Madras Hunting Society as early as 1776, which would make the Madras Hunt the oldest in the country. The sport seems to have died out soon after the Great War, in the 1920s. Work and Sport in the Old ICS by W.O. Horne (1928) paints some nice word pictures of the sport in Madras.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Madras Miscellany / by S. Muthiah / Chennai – January 09th, 2016
They did not want to follow the masses and hence, took the path less travelled. And then, nothing could deter them from making the headlines in 2015. Here are a few Kovaiites who thought out of the box and won the hearts of many in Coimbatore.
Shradha Prasad While students her age were burning the midnight oil to prep for their examinations, Shradha Prasad had a different agenda in the mind. This space enthusiast and mechanical engineering student from Amrita University was short-listed for the Mars-One mission. She is the only one from India residing in the country to be part of the final selection round of the mission that aims to establish a permanent human settlement on the red planet by offering a one-way trip to the chosen ones. “I want to do ample justice to the mission by being a thorough help in the scientific experiment. Once I reach there, I want to give my best to make the conditions favourable for human settlement.”
Aravind P Right from his childhood, Aravind P was sure that he would not settle for a nine-to-five job like many of his friends. And he did stand apart from the rest, by making it to the Guinness Book of World Records for memorizing the longest binary sequence of 270 digits. For this language teacher, it was a chance encounter with a record for memorizing the longest binary digit sequence a couple of years ago that pushed him to take up the challenge and surpass the record. “Every morning I would spend three hours staring at my laptop trying to recall sequences on the screen. I started with 90 numbers and gradually started increasing the sequences.” Aravind has started a memory club in the city to help students reduce learning time.” He is also contemplating working on memory enhancement techniques for adults.
Auto Chandran When M Chandra Kumar (‘Auto’ Chandran as he is fondly known) returned to Coimbatore after walking the red carpet at the 72 Venice Film Festival in September, he received a hero’s welcome. The auto driver from the Hopes auto stand was in Venice for the screening of the film Visaaranai, which was based on his book Lockup. The film won the Amnesty International Italy’s Cinema for Human Rights Award and became the first Tamil film to have won the honour. The book Lock up published in 2006, chronicles Chandran’s first-hand experience in police brutality as a young man when was working in Guntur. “We have to stop glorifying encounters on screen. Police enquiries have to be done in a fair manner and for that, we have to make some changes in the constitution itself.”
Sakthi B When Sakthi B, a civil engineering student from Coimbatore, did backward skips with his hands clasped, many made jaws drop. The 20-year-old made it to the Guinness Book of World Records by doing the maximum number of backward skips- 46 skips in a minute, a record hitherto held by Brittany Boffo, an Australian (40 skips in one minute). The attempt was recorded in front of a large gathering at a mall in the city. “When I first started working toward it, I was a tad doubtful if I would be able to achieve the feat. I used to wonder ‘Will this ever happen’? But after a few days, I decided to work hard and give it my best.” He is now awaiting the results for 25 skips in 30 seconds, which is expected to come in January.
Rathi Punithavathiyar The transgender community seems to be going places in the city. While Padmini Prakash (country’s first transgender newsreader) made headlines in 2014, it was the turn of author Rathi Punithavathiyar to hog the limelight in 2015. Ostracized by her family at the age of 14, Rathi became the first author from the city to have penned a book. But the journey wasn’t a cakewalk & she even resorted to begging for survival at a point of time. Despite the fact that she had studied only till Class 10, Rani was confident that she would author a book. Her book revolves around stories of transgenders and is expected to hit screens in January. “I hope one day the society would treat us as equals.”
Sabari Venkat 12-year-old Sabari Venkat has no vision in his right eye, and has partial vision in his left. But that didn’t deter the Class VIII student from being winning with the ‘Creative Child with Disabilities’ award by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. “I want to eradicate corruption & illiteracy. I want India to become a leading nation by 2016. I enjoy addressing those issues through my speeches,” says Sabari, who aspires to become a journalist when he grows up. Sabari was also featured in a calendar titled I’m special’.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / P. Sangeetha, TNN / December 31st, 2016
The woman from a fishing hamlet in Ramanathapuram, who won the coveted Seacology Prize from Berkeley in California, has donated one third of her prize money (2 lakh) to a local school specifying that the amount should be used to construct more classrooms and develop the playground.
The beneficiary was the Chinnapaalam Government Middle School.
M Lakshmi, 46, a seaweed collector was chosen for the prize for her contribution to the development of her community by the non-profit environment organisation, Seacology, which is committed to conserving island environments and cultures. She travelled all the way to the US to receive her prize money of $10,000, the equivalent to 6.48 lakh, on October 9 this year.
Lakshmi, also a ward member of the Chinnapaalam panchayat near the coastal town of Pamban, had never gone to school.
She started collecting seaweed at the age of seven. Then she went on to cultivate the seaweed and also educate local women on the same, using methods that did not harm the marine life in the Gulf of Mannar, where her profession was based.
According to Lakshmi, women could achieve their goals in life and become instruments of development if given higher education. “This is a small contribution with which I hope to enhance the chances of children, especially girls, in the region to pursue higher education,” she said.
Local people, who are already proud of Lakshmi for putting their tiny village on the global map, lauded her effort to help the local school.
“She is committed to developing this backward village and we will do everything possible to help her,” they said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Madurai / TNN / December 26th, 2015
The Kolkata Port Trust may implement a technology that will help it save Rs.250 crore annually through reduced dredging costs, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said.
Dredging costs at the country’s only riverine port is likely to get reduced from around Rs.400 crore to around Rs.150 crore due to a new process of dredging suggested by the IIT-Madras on the basis of recommendations made by the Boston Consulting Group. The two port systems of KoPT at Kolkata and Haldia have a draft of around 7.5 metres.
Within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would have a two per cent addition to GDP, says Nitin Gadkari. Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping. R.P.S.Kahlon, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust, is also seen.— PHOTO: PTI
Boston Consulting, on the basis of a Ministry mandate, had made 120 recommendations on improving the performance of all the major Indian ports. “About 20 suggestions are being implemented and the rest would be put in place in two years,” Mr Gadkari said adding that it is not possible to improve exports without good ports.
“For this government, waterways had the highest priority in the logistics segment followed by railways and roadways.” Against the previous government’s pace of laying two km of roads daily, now 18 km of roadways were being laid, he said. The target is to increase it to 30 km a day by March 2016. The Minister also said that within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would contribute two per cent to the GDP.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Business / by Special Correspondent / Kolkata – December 02nd, 2015
A 53-year-old businessman with end-stage liver failure has received a fresh chance at normal life, thanks to the efforts of a team of doctors from a private hospital in the city and the timely reception of organs from a liver and brain dead man.
Motilal Jain from Jodhpur in Rajasthan was admitted at Cethar Hospital in the city a couple of weeks ago. He was suffering from an acute case of Hepatitis B. He also had abdominal swelling due to fluid collection, blood in the motion and jaundice and renal failure.
A team of doctors, including transplant surgeon Dr G Rajarathinam, transplant anesthetist Dr Rasweth Krishnamoorthy and interventional radiologist Dr Bavuharan, assessed the patient and decided that he had to undergo a liver transplant if he was to live, even though the process would be very risky.
The organ of a liver and brain dead man was chosen, and the surgery commenced. It took 16 long hours, since the condition of the patient was volatile, but the doctors emerged successful in the end.
Motilal is now recovering. Doctors and the patient met the media on Sunday to brief them on his condition and explain the technological advancement that had made the surgery possible.
“Humans come in contact with Hepatitis B virus through non-sterilized injections and other reasons. So, it is highly risky to operate on such patients. Despite the difficulties, our doctors pulled it off,” said executive director of Cethar hospital Karthick Sivakumar on Sunday.
A liver transplant usually costs around Rs15 lakh, but in Motilal’s case the expense ran up to Rs23 lakh because he required the expensive ‘immuno suppress’ injection twice, Karthick added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Trichy / TNN / November 24th, 2015
