India is emerging as a vaccine manufacturing hub, thanks to the biotechnology solutions, noted Dr Renu Swarup, advisor to the Department of Bio-technology (DBT), Government of India, who is also the managing director of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the DBT.
She was delivering the Kunthala Jayaraman Endowment Lecture as part of the third edition of the Bio Summit at VIT on Thursday. She said, “Successful trials of vaccines for rotavirus, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, dengue, typhoid, malaria, leprosy, anthrax and cholera were underway in collaboration with many national and international agencies.”
She said the goal of the department was to develop 100 billion US dollar industry in biotechnology in the country by the year 2025, to fuel economic development and employment generation. “A dynamic and vibrant biotech industry is one of the main engines of innovation,” she pointed out, adding, “We have the potential and capacity, and what is needed is collaboration to move forward.”
The infrastructure support and research capacity building by the Indian Government had helped the country to be looked upon by other developed countries as a capable partner, to collaborate in the field of biotechnology. The genome initiative undertaken by India had helped in making considerable progress in the sequencing, she added. She said biotech science clusters were being developed at Faridabad, Mohali and Bangalore, to enable integrated growth of science, engineering, agriculture and medicine in a multi-disciplinary environment. Dr Shrikant Anant from the University of Kansas School of Medicine spoke about cancer stem cells. Abhaya Kumar, CEO and MD of Shasun Pharmaceuticals, Chennai, spoke on entrepreneurship, while Dr Ganesh Sambasivam spoke about his company Anthem.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / August 08th, 2014
This innovator made a kit that frees women in many parts of the world of the threat of infection during childbirth.
Zubaida Bai at the production facility of ayzh, 30km from Chennai. Photo: Nathan G/Mint
Freedom from risky childbirth | Zubaida Bai
Growing up in Chennai, a young Zubaida Bai wanted to study further after completing class XII. A reasonable request, except that in her family, nobody—male or female—had made it to college. The women in her family were usually married in their teens. Plus, Zubaida’s father did not have the finances to put her through college.
Undeterred, she decided to fight fate.
At 33, Zubaida Bai was the founder-CEO of ayzh (pronounced “eyes”), a low-cost women’s healthcare company based in Chennai and Colorado, US. Her biggest achievement: JANMA, a birthing kit sold and distributed through non-governmental organizations and healthcare companies.
JANMA (birth in Hindi) kits consist of six things: an apron, a sheet, a hand sanitizer, an antiseptic soap, a cord clip and a surgical blade. They meet the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of “six cleans” during childbirth—clean hands of the attendant, clean surface, clean blade, clean cord tie, clean towels to dry the baby and wrap it, and clean cloth to wrap the mother. A jute purse in five colours contains the kit and and it can be used as a purse after delivery.
From mundane struggles with a traditional Muslim family to being a successful innovator, Zubaida Bai’s journey has been one about exercising the right to free choice although that involved selling her jewellery to get ayzh off the ground.
Soon after school, Zubaida took a year off, selling retail banking services door-to-door for ABN Amro, cold-calling customers and earning her first pay cheque when she was 17. Soon she was in college, studying mechanical engineering, and went on to become the first graduate in her entire family. After graduation, she dreamt of designing cars, but ended up at auto-parts company Sundram Fasteners. “I was the only girl on the entire floor, all I did every day was change the dimensions on a CAD design or take printouts. I was getting fat from all the thayir saadam (curd rice),” she recalls.
She was soon planning her escape. Scouring the Internet for a master’s degree, she secretly applied to various universities. After an acceptance letter for a fully funded scholarship to an M.Tech programme at Dalarna University, Sweden, arrived, she told her parents. Her father thought this was one of those infamous scams that promised you a job and ended up hiring you as domestic labour. But finally, Zubaida left home.
In the summer of her first semester in college, she took a road trip, was part of a students’ exchange programme, visited Poland and, during a period of self-discovery, she decided to start wearing the hijab, though no one in her family did.
Back in Chennai before her second semester ended and coaxed to meet a potential suitor, Habib Anwar, she feared the worst. “(But) he said that he was looking for an educated girl, who he would like to work rather than sit at home and squabble with his relatives,” says Zubaida.
Anwar supported Zubaida’s plan to study further as well. Soon they were married. Much later, he would be instrumental in providing the necessary support to make ayzh a success.
In 2006, Zubaida gave birth to the first of her three sons, Yasin. It was a painful experience. She needed surgery, was forced to rest for two months and took close to a year to recover fully. In her childhood, she had witnessed the lack of healthcare facilities for her mother, close relatives and community, and the lack of financial resources to pay for these if they did happen to be available.
Sometime in 2009, as part of a master’s in business administration in global social and sustainable enterprises at the University of Colorado, US, Zubaida came to India to research ideas that could be developed into products. She worked with Chennai-based non-profit Rural Innovations Network (RIN), making the JS Milker, a vacuum-driven cow-milking machine, low-cost and commercially viable. In Rajasthan, she met a village dai (midwife) who had just delivered a baby with a grass-cutting sickle.
This was her a-ha moment. She started reading up on institutional childbirth. She stumbled upon a clean birth kit (CBK) while attending a tech event in Denver, US, promoted by the non-profit healthcare organization PATH. The kit had a plastic sheet, a Topaz blade, a piece of thread, a small square of soap, and a plastic coin. All this was wrapped in a box with instructions. She then travelled halfway across the world to Nepal, where a group of women was assembling the kit.
Unimpressed with the quality of the kit, she searched for more samples, but found none that matched her expectations. But she knew she was on to something, and started building her own improved version, using off-the-shelf components and assembling them.
By 2010, she had put together a rudimentary clean birthing kit called JANMA, which she tested in Bangalore, through her gynaecologist. The innovation won the Global Social Venture Competition for business plans at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad in March 2010, and followed it up by topping the Camino Real Venture Competition at the University of Texas at El Paso, US, later that month.
Zubaida Bai also received a 2010-11 fellowship related to maternal health from Ashoka, an organization which identifies and invests in social entrepreneurs. At one event, she met the who’s who of the world of maternal health. “They were folks who were shaping the future of maternal health. These are people I would have found impossible to meet, especially Wendy Graham, who does research on how clean birth kits prevent infections,” she says. Her interactions confirmed her belief that a product such as JANMA would have a market.
By 2011, they had sold 2,000-3,000 JANMA kits, priced at $2-5 (now around Rs.120-300), in India and had made some inroads into the US.
After the initial success, though, Zubaida Bai hit a wall. Ayzh needed funds for operating costs, scaling up and distribution channels. Forced to return to India after completing her course at the University of Colorado, Zubaida and Anwar had two MBAs and two children between them, and no jobs. Those were trying times.
Even as friends and family advised one of them to get a job, Zubaida and Anwar calculated that they needed $300,000 for one-and-a-half years for ayzh to get off the ground. A social impact firm assured them of $50,000 if they could raise $100,000 and $20,000 if they raised nothing. Everything hung in the balance till the end of 2012, when they were awarded the $80,000 Echoing Green fellowship. They also got a Canadian government grant for another $100,000, while an individual investor put in another $100,000.
This was the turning point. In 2013, they clocked $100,000 in revenue, and sold 50,000 kits in India, Haiti, Laos, Afghanistan and Africa.
The JANMA kit’s relevance is irrefutable. According to the UN, India’s maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births reduced by 65%, from 560 in 1990 to 190 in 2013. But that still means 50,000 women die every year in India while giving birth. Seventeen per cent of the women die from preventable infections. More than 300,000 infants in India die the day they are born, according to the report “Ending Newborn Deaths, Ensuring Every Baby Survives”, by the non-profit Save the Children and Joy Lawn, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
Zubaida’s goal for ayzh is three-pronged. She wants women to have power over their health by introducing new products for post-partum haemorrhage, a new-born kit, maternity pad and other innovations in reproductive health and family planning. Instead of creating products from scratch she wants to leverage the ayzh distribution platform to aggregate and sell products already available in the market. And, finally, she wants to launch an innovation lab for low-cost healthcare products, so that an entrepreneur with an idea does not have to go through the same grind that they did.
To realize this ambition they are currently in the process of raising $3 million in funding—a huge sum for a social enterprise selling low-cost products to bottom-of-the-pyramid customers—from social impact investors.
“We want to build a corporate entity, with a group of companies that will focus on women’s health and empowerment. Habib saw his mother struggle doing sewing and embroidery and I saw my mother struggle as well. They always brought in money, but were not appreciated and treated as an asset,” says Zubaida.
Nelson Vinod Moses is a Bangalore-based freelance journalist who writes on social entrepreneurship.
source: http://www.livemint.com / Live Mint & The Wall Street Journal / Home> Lounge> Business of Life> Indulge / Home – Leisure / by Nelson Vinod Moses / Saturday – August 09th, 2014
GH tops the country with the most number of cadaver donor transplants performed free of cost
On July 1, 27-year-old K. Ilavarasi, who donated one of her kidneys to her husband R. Kalairasan, became the 1,000 live donor of the renal transplant programme at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Four months ago, Kalaivarasan, who works as a gardener in Singapore, was diagnosed with high blood pressure and a kidney ailment.
“He was put on dialysis there, but the doctors told him to go to Chennai,” said Ilavarasi.
The couple, from Tiruvarur district, initially came to the hospital for dialysis, but when Ilavarasi was found to be a match, she decided to donate one of her kidneys.
Both husband and wife are doing well post surgery, said doctors at GH.
“Tamil Nadu is the first State in the country to offer free transplant services,” said dean R. Vimala, at a programme held on Tuesday to mark the hospital’s milestone.
N. Gopalakrishnan, head of the hospital’s nephrology department, said they had performed a total of 1,143 renal transplants since 1986, with 1,003 being live related donor transplants and 140 cadaver donor renal transplants.
“As it is World Organ Donation Day on August 6, we would like to create more awareness of organ donation,” he said.
The hospital topped the country with the most number of cadaver donor transplants performed free of cost, said Dr. Gopalakrishnan.
“We have even had 57 beneficiaries from other States, including Bihar and West Bengal, and three patients from Sri Lanka and Nepal,” said Dr. Gopalakrishnan.
The pre-transplant evaluation and post transplant follow-ups are also free, as are the expensive immunosuppressive medicines that patients have to take all their lives, he said.
The patients’ survival rate for the first year was 92 per cent, and for the third, 85 per cent, he said.
“It is difficult to follow up beyond that, as many beneficiaries are not from the city. But our longest surviving recipient is a man from Villupuram, who received a kidney in 1993,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – August 06th, 2014
V.Vaikunth and S.Christopher pose with their rooftop solar panels and solar devices. (Photo: DC)
Chennai:
S.Christopher and V.Vaikunth are no ordinary engineering students. They are creating a revolution in the solar power industry, designing and manufacturing their own solar powered devices. These third year engineering students at Sathyabama University have started to make waves in the industry. They have installed their devices in more than 10 educational institutions and commercial establishments.
“There are several misconceptions about solar energy such as they can be used only for a short period. We wanted to disprove these, so we began a company to produce and install solar powered devices. We have been working together for six years on solar research and have done several installations,” Christopher, the mechanical engineering student said.
Asked about their unique selling proposition (USP), the young entrepreneurs instantaneously said, “We refurbish solar panels which are as old as 10 years and reuse it, which brings down the cost of the project, as people think solar is expensive.” The two young students started a company “Vaik & Chris Stalz” to commercialise their products. Vaik & Chris Stalz, which has a gamut of solar household products also plans to produce solar bike, solar car and solar quadrapros.
Continuing their success story, Vaikunth said that they had not only ventured into the solar power industry but computer accessories too. “We have come up with a change in the computer’s printer, according to which a person need not use the printer’s inbuilt cartridge, and can instead use an external toner, which we have developed so that your ink does not get exhausted,” Vaikunth, a third year electronics and instrumentation student said.
Presently, these young entrepreneurs have installed solar powered street lights at Sathyabama University, and a solar power generation unit at a voluntary service organisation in Chengalpattu.
Let’s make history in solar power and become a global leader in this technology to make India’s flag fly high, was what these students said when asked about their ambitions.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC Correspondent / August 03rd, 2014
It can make a breakthrough in the field of regeneration of organs
What is common between earthworms and liver, a lot says researchers.
Since liver, like earthworm, has got regenerating capacity even though 80 per cent of the glandular organ gets damaged, it is believed that some of the crucial findings of the research being done on the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University campus on earthworm’s regenerative capacity and its genome may help in devising a bio-artificial liver through the researches going on in the highly sophisticated laboratories of the Cedars — Sinai campus in the United States.
The MSU research has attracted the attention of Prof. Vaithi Arumugaswami of Regenerative Medicine Institute, Cedars — Sinai, U.S., who is actively working with a team of scientists on bio-artificial liver through stem cell research for the past few years. Manonmaniam Sundaranar University’s Department of Biotechnology, that has established one of the well-equipped labs in the country, is conducting researches on earthworm and mice to study their regenerative capacity after almost completing the gene mapping of earthworm by a team of researchers led by S. Sudhakar, Head, Department of Biotechnology, MSU.
“Since many of the genes of the earthworm resemble the gene found in humans, we, through the stem cell research, can make a breakthrough in the field of regeneration of organs like liver. We’re working towards this direction,” says Dr. Sudhakar, who had worked in the U.S. for several years.
When he recently met Prof. Vaithi Arumugaswami, the meeting gave a lot of confidence for both sides about significant progress in their respective researches and taking it to the next level with their findings.
“Since viral infection or alcoholism cause liver cirrhosis and liver cancer that ultimately leads to death, we’ve to look for liver transplantation involving huge sum of money and have to wait indefinitely for cadaveric transplantation or for a brain-dead patient. As liver has got regeneration capacity, we, through our researches, try to devise a bio artificial liver,” says Dr. Vaithi, who was at MSU for delivering lectures for the students of biotechnology on Monday.
Towards this direction, Dr. Vaithi, who hails from Kadayam in Tirunelveli district and did his master’s degree in veterinary science Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, and his team are now conducting researches on mice, rat and pig by overloading its liver with liver-toxic medicines like paracetamol or dimethyl-nitro-amine.
“With the gene mapping we have the basis to show a lot of similarities between earthworm, mice and pig, we hope that we can take the research on realising the dream of bio artificial liver to the next level,” hope Dr. Vaithi and Dr. Sudhakar.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by Special Correspondent / Tirunelveli – August 06th, 2014
N. Manikkam at his hand-composing unit at Green and Company Photo: K.V. Srinivasan / The Hindu
Despite all odds C.N. Manikkam and his 82-year-old binding and printing machines hang on stubbornly, refusing to be swept away by modernity
Manikkam sits still in his dimly lit office, gazing at the bustle of Triplicane outside. He has no one for company, except the ancient binding and printing machines he inherited from his grandfather. Together, man and machine seem to be in a trance. Tucked behind a bus stop on Triplicane High Road, Green & Co. is almost invisible to the eye. It’s the rusted name board that attracts the observant passerby. It fights for space with those of the neighbours’, but is determined to announce the shop’s presence. The board just won’t give up; it hasn’t been dusted or painted; no one cares much for it. But it goes on with its job — much like C.N. Manikkam.
“The company was started by my grandfather S. Chengalvaraya in 1932,” says the 55-year-old. A native of Chengalpattu, Chengalvaraya travelled to Burma and Bombay for work and arrived at Madras to set up a company to employ the skills he acquired from his travels. “The chunk of his earnings was obtained from binding school books and bill books, and printing wedding cards and posters,” explains Manikkam. “He rented an office for Rs. 3. The property belongs to the Nawab of Arcot. It was once a stable for royal horses,” he claims.
Chengalvaraya composed every word by hand, as was the technology in his time. “He had 20 people working for him. There were five in each department such as printing, binding, and cutting,” says Manikkam. Chengalvaraya would sit by the wooden table at the entrance, overseeing the work. His son Nagalinga took his place in 1950 — his workforce was cut by half due to falling demand. Today, Manikkam sits at the same table — he is the boss, he is the worker. “Sometimes, my brothers give me a hand,” he says. “My sons are in the IT field. They are not interested in printing,” he adds.
“Technology has advanced. People have moved on,” says Manikkam. Everything in his office, from the rooms where the printing and binding work is done to the high Bombay terrace with teakwood beams, is just as it was during his grandfather’s time. The type cases with their small cabinets and types in varying sizes and alphabets, the Indo-Europa Trading Company’s binding machine from Punjab…they stand in the same positions that they did over 80 years ago.
Manikkam hand-binds books using his grandfather’s method. “Hand-bound books withstand wear and tear,” he says. “We do not use pins. The pages are stitched together by hand.” Such books are known to last for over 50 years, he says. “It depends on how well it is maintained. We have seen hand-bound dictionaries and ledgers outlive men.”
Orders have dwindled and Manikkam leads a lonely life at work. But he refuses to progress to advanced machines. “The technology that I use requires skill. A man has to work for at least 15 years to become an expert at the job. We still have our regular customers who are not comfortable with the current crop of printing units,” he says. But why is he so unrelenting? “I tried,” he sighs. “I tried to learn to use a computer. But my mind won’t cooperate,” he shrugs. “I’m happy doing this. This is what I know; this is what I respect.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Akila Kannadasan / August 04th, 2014
Prof Ghosh and his students discussing the conceptual design at the VIT University | Express
Vellore :
House on Mars will be in cuboidal form with a curved roof! With Mangalyan all set to land on the red planet, a group of students of VIT University here have come up with a conceptual design to construct houses for human settlements on Mars.
The curved roof design is to facilitate light from the sky to be positioned appropriately to optimise solar gains.
“The wall in the building comprises Titanium Aluminium alloys, fibre glass and insulating aerogels. This unique man- made fabric associated with a unique building form ensures that the temperature in the dwelling never gets cold below 25 degree Celsius,” Pranav Sanghavi, one of the designers said.
Combining design components with planetary climate for the first time, the students Pranav Sanghavi, Ashutosh Jadeja and Manu Manish Jaiswal along with their guide Prof. Satyajit Ghosh, have sucessfully simulated Martian climate.
They have presented the findings in a research paper, “A nuanced thermal analysis of a proposed living space on Mars” at a conference on Mars at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, U.S.A.
The students pointed out that with Mangalyan the country was poised to be in the forefront of the Martian explorations.
Prof. Ghosh at VIT’s School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, said the student team had successfully simulated the Martian climate with a state-of-the-art code to help optimise the housing design. ‘As we had mechanical engineers in our team, they presented a robust design using the most sophisticated architectural tools,’ he noted.
The team will soon construct a prototype of the house in the campus, Ghosh added.
VIT chancellor G.Viswanathan appreciated the efforts taken by the team and assured them of all necessary support.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / August 03rd, 2014
A three-day exposition on computers and consumer items ‘The Great Vellore Bazaar’, organised by the Vellore Association for Information Technology (VAIT) was inaugurated by Collector R Nanthagopal here on Friday.
“This is the ninth edition of the exposition being organised this year to create awareness on the latest developments in the field of consumer electronics,” said C Arumugam, one of the organisers of the event attached to the VAIT. This time, entrepreneurs from other parts of the district had been invited to join the exhibition.
Sujith Kumar, zonal sales manager of an electronics goods-manufacturer from Chennai, said, “Vellore is developing as an education hub, we are looking forward to explore new avenues to push our products here.”
The new 29-inch ultra-wide monitor launched recently attracted the attention of local businessmen. Youngsters were seen hovering around the low-cost all-In-One PC. A new range of smart power banks, solar chargers for mobile phones, laptops, bluetooth devices were on display. Some stalls were also selling low-cost software for billing and inventory management for business outlets.
Some stalls to promoted domestic solar power plants with latest technology, to reduce dependence on electricity. Latest range of water purifiers, domestic security systems and multi-brand computer consumables are also on display.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / August 02nd, 2014
HTC Global Solutions, a US-based IT and IT-enabled services provider, has set up a `100 crore delivery facility at Vandalur in the city. It is part of the company’s expansion drive to increase its global business in the next few years.
Company’s president and CEO Madhava Reddy told reporters here that the facility was capable of housing 4,500 employees and would support its ITO and BPO growth. “We have invested about `100 crore in this facility so far and are planning to recruit 10,000 more people globally in the next few years,” he said.
The IT giant is also considering acquiring new units.
HTC Global Services provides its clients services ranging from Mobility, ERP, Integration, Big Data Analytics, Infrastructure Services and so on. It currently has more than 6,500 employees in India operations.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / July 30th, 2014
Picture for representational purpose (Photo: PTI/File)
Chennai:
The city based Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE) would soon come up with a futuristic battle tank that would trace an incoming missile from the enemy camp and retaliate with its own missile combining passive and active protection systems.
CVRDE director Dr P. Sivakumar on Monday said that their laboratory had embarked on a mission to develop a futuristic battle tank that would come with active protection system to safeguard the tank from Fin Stabilized Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) ammunition, the most lethal kinetic energy ammunition, capable of destroying all known tank armour. FSA PDS travels at a speed of over 1,700 metres per second and no country in the world has developed a technology to protect their tanks from such a lethal kinetic weapon.
“Countries like Israel, Russia, Germany and Sweden have technology for ammunition that travels at 1,000 metres per second and we are the first country to work in kinetic energy threats (missiles that travel at over 1,700 metres per second),” Dr Sivakumar said while speaking to DC on the sidelines of an international conference on energy materials at Sathyabama University.
Pointing out that CVR DE had incorporated softkill technology (passive protection technology) in main battle tank Arjun Mark 2, the eminent scientist said that if the enemy fires a missile using an infrared weapon, softkill passive technology in Arjun mark 2 would jam the infrared rays as it had only passive technology.
“Suppose the enemy fires a laser guided missile or a beam rider missile (BRM), etc, in such cases the futuristic battle tank will have laser sensors, which will identify whether it is fired from laser guided machine or BRM. The active protection system would launch grenades, which will generate smoke. By this process, we are going to hide our tank and the tank would also retaliate at the enemy by launching a missile. This way we are combining passive protection system and active protection system in a battle tank,” he said.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC / N. Arun Kumar / July 29th, 2014
