Regular clinical trials to test the toxicity of siddha drugs is essential, said Dr R S Ramasamy, director general, Central Council for Research in Siddha.
Delivering the 4th GCIM endowment oration at Sri Ramachandra University (SRU) on Saturday, he said, “Siddha medicines are being rigorously subjected to regular pharmacological studies to certify non-toxicity.” Referring to the recent uproar regarding toxicity in siddha medicines, he said constant research is being undertaken to identify toxicity in siddha medicines.
“There are fears that siddha medicine has toxicity. In order to prove them baseless and promote siddha medicine globally, we should encourage regular clinical trials,” said Dr Ramasamy.
He pointed out that 777 oil developed under siddha has been found to be effective against psoriasis and people from many parts of the country and abroad come to Chennai for treatment.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / TNN / March 09th, 2014
Ekki Pumps has bagged the ‘Indian Leadership Award for Industrial Development,’ instituted by the Indian Economic Development and Research Association (IEDRA) and All India Achievers Foundation.
The Coimbatore-based pumps and systems manufacturing major is a strategic business unit of the Deccan Pumps group. Senior Manager of Deccan Pumps group S Purushothaman received the award on behalf of the company from former Governor of Sikkim Balmiki Prasad Singh.
The award was given away at the 73rd National Economic Development and Social Responsibilities Conference held in New Delhi recently.
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News> National / by The Hindu Bureau / Coimbatore – March 11th, 2014
As part of its International Women’s Day celebrations, the Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE), conducted a one-day workshop on the theme Women Innovators in Growth of Science —WINGS ’14.
Dr V Shanta, chairperson, Cancer Institute, delivering the keynote address, said that women should aspire to be leaders and inspire the current generation that nothing is impossible for them to achieve.
Dr Avinash Chander, secretary, Department of Defence, DRDO, in his speech said that the role of women is changing from that of a home-maker to that of a nation builder and that science is one field that helps impart gender equality.
He also acknowledged the efforts of senior women scientists in defence missile and guidance programmes.
Following the inaugural session, there was a technical talk on safety management and a panel discussion on integration of women in decision-making.
The conference was attended by several women scientists among others in the DRDO.
Also, a panel discussion on how to harness the talent of women scientists and maintain gender balance in decision making, was conducted.
Besides, an infotainment session and a cycle rally highlighting the significance of CRVDE with live demonstrations of its various products, was conducted.
As a closing highlight of the day, cultural programmes by Kalakshetra were organised.
The workshop aimed at bringing together powerful women leaders in science, technology and management, dedicated in their respective spheres.
The event format featured technical and powerful presentations intended to inspire profound discussions, enabling participants to transform ideas into creative solutions.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / March 12th, 2014
Members of an African delegation interacting with office-bearers of Indian Cotton Federationduring a visit to the federation’s office as part of the Cotton Technical Assistance Programme,in Coimbatore, on Tuesday. / Photo: K. Ananthan / The Hindu
Sixteen-member delegation meets members of the Indian Cotton Federation
Members of an African delegation have urged the cotton traders and textile mill owners here to assist them in developing cotton trade from their countries.
A 16-member delegation including Government officials and private players in cotton and textile sectors from six African countries met the members of the Indian Cotton Federation here on Tuesday.
The delegates are visiting some of the textile clusters in India, including Tirupur and Coimbatore, and having a meeting with the textile industry in New Delhi.
Vice-presidents of the Indian Cotton Federation K.N. Viswanathan and P. Nataraj told the delegates that textile mills in Coimbatore region are sourcing substantial volume of cotton from Africa. However, it is through international merchants and traders and they are interested in buying cotton directly from the African farmers and traders.
Indian trade and industry will be interested in investing in Africa and buying cotton from the African nations. Textile mills in Coimbatore region need more than 10 million bales of cotton a year and they buy most of it from Gujarat now. In the case of African cotton, there were issues such as the time taken for delivery, contamination and shade variation.
The shipments need to be regular and the infrastructure problems should be sorted out.
They are willing to assist the African sector. However, they need to know more about the volume of production in each country, the marketing season, Government norms, taxation, and security. This is the fourth African cotton delegation to Coimbatore in the last three months.
Milan Sharma, head-Africa Initiatives of IL&FS Cluster Development Initiative, told presspersons that the visit is organised as part of the Central Government’s Cotton Technical Assistance Programme for Africa.
The IL & FS is the programme manager for the project that aims at capacity building and technology transfer for development of the cotton sector in seven African countries.
Project
The project is on till 2015. It includes establishing a knowledge cluster in Benin, bio pesticide laboratory in Uganda, and skill development schools in Nigeria and Malawi. These will be in association with agencies such as the Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology and the Directorate of Cotton Development. The programme has been extended for trade co-operation. An Indian delegation will visit the African countries this year, Ms. Sharma said.
Exposure
The visit is to give an exposure and create awareness on the cluster concept.
The delegates were from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria, Uganda, and Malawi. They explained about cotton cultivation in their countries, facilities available and steps taken to sell cotton directly to buyers in countries such as India.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Special Correspondent / Coimbatore – March 05th, 2014
Billionaire investor Ram Shriram is on a hush-hush trip to his hometown Chennai, where he delivered a lecture at the Indian Institute of Technology on Monday that was completely out of bounds for the media.
The founder of SherpaloVentures and one of the earliest investors in search giant Google spoke on “What Drives Innovation at Stanford and in Silicon Valley” at a closed-door event at the 620-acre campus that was open only to the faculty and students as well as a few special invitees.
source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> News> News By Industry> Services> Silicon Valley / ET Bureau / March 05th, 2014
A 59-year-old farmer got a new lease of life after doctors from JIPMER performed an eight-hour laparoscopy and one third of the liver affected with tumour was removed.
The surgery was performed on February 15 and the patient is fine after two weeks of the surgery, said Dr Biju Pottakkat, assistant professor of surgical gastroenterology.
The patient hailing from Cuddalore came to JIPMER with cancer of the large intestine four months ago. It was found that the cancer had also spread to one part of the liver.
The tumour in the large intestine was removed and was treated with chemotherapy. One tumour in the liver remained intact even after the chemotherapy.
The three-inch tumour was in the left part of the liver which the doctors planned to remove through laparoscopic surgery.
The operation was named anatomic left lateral liver sectionectomy and was performed by Dr Biju Pottakkat and Dr R Kalayarasan from the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and supported by anaesthesia team led by Dr S Adinarayanan.
Four small holes of one centimeter each were used for the operation. One third of the liver affected with the tumour was removed and the entire operation was completed through key hole laparoscopic surgery.
It took eight hours and the patient became conscious immediately after the surgery. Although the operation was complex, blood transfusion was not needed in this case.
Doctors used a special equipment named ‘laparoscopic ultrasonic surgical aspirator’ for the operation, which was recently purchased.
“The patient was made to walk a day after the surgery on February 16 and started taking food. A week after the surgery, he was discharged and is now doing well,” said Dr Biju Pottakkat.
The operation which would cost around `1.6 lakh in a private hospital was done free of cost.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service – Puducherry / March 02nd, 2014
A consultant-nephrologist attached to the Sri Narayani Hospital and Research Centre here has received a medal from the President of India Pranab Mukherjee at a function held recently in Delhi.
According to Dr K Venkatraman, the consultant- nephrologist and transplant physician, the award was conferred on him for topping the DM (Nephrology) course at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGMER) of the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi affiliated to the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. Pranab Mukherjee, who was the chief guest during the Founder’s Day celebrations at the institute, awarded the medal to Venkatraman for his performance in the three-year DM super specialty course where he studied before joining the Narayani Hospital here.
Thirtytwo-year-old Venkatraman, a native of Vellore, studied MBBS in Stanley Medical College, Chennai; was MD in Tanjavur Medical College before joining the PGMER.
He is heading the Nephrology Department in Narayani Hospital which is the second private hospital in the city to have a full-fledged kidney care and dialysis facility, other than the CMC Hospital.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service – Vellore / March 04th, 2014
Cochin Shipyard Limited today delivered ‘Abhiraj’, the fourth of the series of 20 Fast Patrol Vessels being built for the Indian Coast Guard.
The vessel will be operated by the Coast Guard station at Tuticorin.
It can move at a speed of 33 knots and will be very effective in supporting the Coast Guard in its anti smuggling, anti piracy operations, fisheries protection and monitoring, a CSL press release said.
Cochin Shipyard had signed the contract for construction of the 20 Fast Patrol Vessels for the Indian Coast Guard on October 20, 2010. The yard had earlier delivered three vessels — ‘Abheek’, ‘Aadesh’ and ‘Abhinav’.
The first protocol of delivery was signed by Ravi Kumar Roddam, Director (Finance), on behalf of CSL and commandant designate of Coast Guard Commander Ashok Kumar.
Apart from the 20 Fast Patrol Vessels for the Coast Guard, the yard is also constructing the country’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier, a Offshore Support Vessel for Norwegian owner and Buoy Tender Vessel for Directorate of Light Houses and Light Ships.
source: htttp://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> PTI Stories / by Press Trust of India / Kochi – March 04th, 2014
HRD minister MM Pallam Raju on Friday launched the Massive Open Online Courses of IIT-Madras that comprises distance education courses for a large number of participants through internet, video, text material, problem sets and will also provide an interactive platform for students and teachers.
Over four million engineering students can look forward to quality online distance education material rolled out by IITs in association with partners such as Nasscom and Google.
The “unique” part of the entire initiative is that students can get the chance to learn from the best professors. It’s aim is to provide IT industry-ready and job-ready courses to the students and emphasis has been given on foundation skills in IT and engineering proficiency programme, professors associated with the programme said, addding over four million students would be benefitted from it. One has to visit onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in and sign up for the programme that are of 10 weeks duration and the first offering has been prepared by IIT Madras.
“I hope that the expansion of the programme does not lead to deterioration of the quality of the content,” Raju said. Online courses will begin on March 3.
IIT Bombay has also entered into an agreement with Edx and will be launching the first MOOCs course in July this year. The online courses will be followed by an in-person protracted exam that will be held on the lines of GATE in various centres across the country. The scorecard from the certification exam and a course completion certificate will be issued to all the successful candidates.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Education> News / TNN / March 01dt, 2014
Two students of Vellore Institute of Technology ( VIT) University have developed a traffic management system, which functions automatically without manual intervention.
The system christened ‘VIT subway project’, which was installed on the campus in October last year, has been successfully functioning since then. The highlight of the system is that it distinguishes metal objects and people and even differentiates different types of vehicles.
Electronics and communication students Achintaya Kumar and Raghav Gupta used magnetic technology to develop the system under the guidance of an assistant professor in the school of electronics engineering, J Kathirvelan.
“Magnetic technology has not been used widely for vehicle identification. We used magnetic technology as we were particular to identify the vehicles and its movements. The system can identify and record any number of vehicles and we can retrieve information on the vehicles and its movement as and when required,” said Achintaya Kumar.
The students decided to embark on a project after witnessing frequent traffic snarls at a subway on the campus premises. The almost 100-metre long subway is just 3.5-metre wide and only one vehicle could pass through. Moreover, the subway has a blind curve making it difficult for traffic management. Presently, two security guards posted on both sides regulate traffic. But it has remained a Herculean task to streamline traffic.
“A railway track divides the academic zone and hostel zone on the campus. Traffic congestion at the narrow subway during peak hours posed several problems. So we decided to devise a manual-free method to streamline traffic and ease the congestion,” said Kathirvelan.
The system has boom barriers at both ends to prevent the people violating traffic rules. The barrier will lift only when the route is clear. The students developed exclusive software and used advanced equipment like programmable logic controller for overall integration and effective functioning of the system. They plan to seek a patent for their technology.
The students preferred to develop a controller based on their requirement that will work at high voltage (24 volts) when compared to controllers (five volts) generally used in traffic management.
“The system is not only simple but user-friendly and cost effective. It not only helps in reducing traffic congestion and control traffic movement ensuring safety of the people,” said Kathirvelan.
Installed in October last year the system has been functioning successfully without any breakdown.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Bosco Dominique, TNN / February 28th, 2014
