Category Archives: Science & Technology

Dental Surgeon from JMI Reports a Novel Discovery in a Human Lower Jaw

Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion, , , , , , , , ,

Ghaziabad, UTTAR PRADESH / NEW DELHI :

The complexity of a human body has been unraveled yet again, this time from an Oral & Maxillofacial surgeon from Faculty of Dentistry(FOD), Jamia Millia Islamia(JMI).

Dr Imran Khan / WhatsAp


Dr. Imran Khan who is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, FOD, JMI has recently published this interesting case report in a U.S based Scientific Journal “Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Cases” September-2020 edition.


His discovery is about a Novel Anatomical opening in the human lower jaw which generally are referred as Foramen in anatomical/medical terminology. This New opening or foramen has been named as Novel Aberrant Mandibular Angle Foramen (NAMAF).


As per the report published NAMAF was masquerading a fracture in the lower jaw, since no one else has ever reported any foramen in the described area of lower jaw it was only during the surgical procedure itself.


Dr.Imran and his team could identify and record this novel finding. These Foramens in the human body serve as passages through which various blood vessels and nerves supply different structures and organs of the human body.


The published novel report also involves Dr Deborah Sybil (Professor, Faculty of Dentistry, JMI), Dr Mandeep Kaur (Professor & Oral & Maxillofacial Radiologist, Faculty of dentistry, JMI), Dr. Nikhat Mansoor (Professor, Department of Biosciences, JMI), Dr. Ifra iftikhar
(Maxillofacial surgeon, New Delhi) Dr Rizwan Khan (Orthopedic Surgeon , Jamia Hamdard) & Dr Shubhangi Premchandani (Trainee Intern, Faculty of Dentistry, JMI).


The Dean, Faculty of Dentistry, JMI Prof(Dr) Sanjay Singh who himself is also a vastly experienced Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon has congratulated the research team on this novel finding and has expressed his pleasure on this unique discovery.


Prof (Dr) Sanjay Singh said that novel structures like the one reported here will make surgeons more alert to exercise utmost precaution while operating on the prescribed area. It will also help other surgeons & anaesthetists executing precise treatment protocols and avoid unexplained local anaesthesia failures.


The FOD, JMI has been ranked 19th best dental college in the country by the MHRD’s NIRF2020.

source: http://www.jmi.ac.in / Jamia Millia Islamia / Home / Ahmed Azeem , PRO, Media Corodinator / August 10th, 2020

Hyderabad startup makes devices for labs affordable

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, Useful / HEALTHCARE, , , , ,

Hyderabad, TELANGANA :

Livo develops three products for analysing blood samples

Dr Junaid Shaik (CEO) and Faisal Ahmed Sheikh (CTO) of Livo.

Hyderabad:

To help pathologists get access to high-end devices for their daily blood tests, Hyderabad-based startup Livo has developed three products in this space.

These devices include scanner, smearer and stainer which helps in getting a complete blood picture (CBP). The Livo A-1000 is a pathology scanner that scans the sample and also produces digital reports, thus helping pathologists to work remotely. “The scanner uses machine learning features and super resolution technology and is low priced when compared with the scanners available in the market,” said Dr Junaid Shaik, co-founder, Livo.

In addition, the AutoSmearer (A-700) is a device that is used to collect blood samples and smear to get a morphology report. The other product, Haematology Stainer, helps in staining the sample in to provide microscopy results in 90 seconds.

All the three devices have been developed by the company in-house and have been in the research and development for last two years. “We were planning to launch our product A-700 in April and A-1000 in August. However, due to the pandemic-led lockdown our whole supply chain broke down and we had to postpone our sales. We are getting a lot of interest from doctors and have received 25 pre-orders for A-700 and 11 for A-1000. Recently, we also closed a distribution deal for 800 devices in the South India region,” said Dr Shaik.

The other founders of the company include Faisal Sheikh and Professor Prasanth Kumar, head of mechanical department, IIT-Hyderabad. It recently raised Rs 1 crore from angel investors and industrialists Ravi Reddy, Dr Praveen Kumar and others. It is looking to raise another Rs 5 crore in the coming months which will be used to fund manufacturing of the devices

While moderate rains are very likely to occur at many places, thunderstorm accompanied with lightning will also occur at isolated places.

source: http://www.telanganatoday.com / Telangana Today / Home> Business / by Sruti Venugopal / August 14th, 2020

Al Hamd, Mesco commence COVID relief operations in Hyderabad

Community Involvement / Social Issues, COVID 19 - Community of Soldiers, Education, SCHOLARSHIPS, Science & Technology, Useful / HEALTHCARE, , , , , , ,

Hyderabad, TELANGANA :

“God forbid, if the patient dies, we have also kept arrangements in place to shift the body to the graveyard and also to look into other formalities like shroud, etc,” added Dr. Fakhruddin.

Hyderabad :

Al Hamd and Mesco led by Dr. Md. Fakhruddin Sahab and Abdul Azeem has initiated COVID relief operations. The team will function round the clock in the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad.

The team will be fully equipped with operational vehicles after a formal inauguration on 3 August, the operations then will begin in full swing. People can access their services through the helpline number 8008834011.

People of Hyderabad are panicked and confused with the way COVID is being managed in the state. Hospitals remain overcrowded with no beds available and the people are at a loss not knowing what to do. In such a scenario, Hyderabad is likely to explode, more so after Bakrid, predict some health care professionals.

Al Hamd and Mesco have jointly come to relief, especially the poor, marginalized sections of society from this mess. While several are unaware of being asymptotic or symptomatic others take it easy thinking they are invincible.

Equipment, arrangements in place

The team of Al Hamd and Mesco will focus more on preventing the spread of the disease. Talking to Clarion India, Dr. Fakhruddin, who is leading the team and is also the general secretary of the Mesco Foundation, said, “We will create awareness and educate the people on how to prevent the spread of the disease. And then among the identified cases, we will educate the attendants how to take care of themselves as they are taking care of the patient during home quarantine.”

“The medicinal sachets to be distributed in the containment zones will contain everything a COVID patient and his/her attendant needs. The sachet contains different packets for different uses such as a packet containing personal protection equipment such as soaps, gloves, masks, sanitisers. Another packet has immunity-boosting drugs such as tablets of vitamin C, Zinc, B complex, paracetamol, thermometer, pulse oxy-meter. The third packet will have virus-specific treatment medicines such as anti-biotic and other medicines as prescribed by the doctor.”

“Everything has been thought of. Even the attendant will be given a kit containing face shield, goggles, cap, shoe covers, masks. These will be available in the Mesco office and also delivered at doorstep as per the necessity,” added Dr. Fakhruddin.

Ambulance services are also available if the patient is critical. “And, God forbid, if the patient dies, we have also kept arrangements in place to shift the body to the graveyard and also to look into other formalities like shroud, etc,” added Dr. Fakhruddin keeping in mind the difficulties people are facing after the death of a COVID-infected person.

Since the team is operating low profile as of now, only people from the containment zones in the old city of Hyderabad are being taken care of as they are reluctant to get tested due to various rumours. The cost of test along with the treatment is crossing the margins of common men.

“The infection is spreading due to lack of knowledge, overconfidence among the people and carelessness. If one person in the family is infected, other family members are vulnerable. We plan to educate them about the initial symptoms which they should not ignore and start treatment soon even if they do not go for tests.”

“In 90% of the cases timely treatment has saved lives. Our main aim is to save patients from hospitalisation as much as possible. Many people are working to fight COVID and our work is also complementing these efforts. We have sought permission from the Drug Control Authority to supply oxygen as the Government of India has authorised the same,” said Dr Fakhruddin.

Call Centre

The volunteers at the call centre will receive the calls and counsel the people guiding them about the preventive methods and also train them to use the kits, especially using the thermometer and the pulse oxy-meter.

“Wrong readings of the oxy-meter have caused panic among the people. So, It is important to train the people on reading the thermometer, oxy-meter and ways to monitor the patient and sanitise as much as possible the articles used by the patient. We have also included tissues and wet wipes in the kit so they can dispose of them.” Dr Fakhruddin explained.

Economic situation analysed

“The medicinal sachets are given for a very nominal amount. Doorstep deliveries will be done to study the economic situation of the family. If the family is very poor, the team will also ensure they receive ration and other essentials. Thus, along with health care, even food supplies are provided,” Clarion India said.

For tests, the team has tied up with some diagnostic centres in the city which will charge the patients referred by the Al Hamd-Mesco team at a subsidised rate.

MPLAD funds

The team is also trying to rope in MLAs to use the MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) funds for this relief operation. Their work is already in the process of duplication in other states where the MLAs have come forward to provide financial assistance.

“A manual has been prepared which we have sent to other philanthropic institutions and doctors so they can also start relief operations at the earliest. We all need to work together irrespective of caste, creed and religion,” Dr Fakhruddin explained saying that the Mesco Foundation had been doing philanthropic activities for the past several decades now.

300 doctors and parademics

The organisation have a team of 300 doctors and trained paramedics as volunteers at the call centre to deliver the kits and to drive the vehicles.

The Al Hamd Charitable Trust which is sponsoring the entire operation cost is located in Secunderabad. The Trust chairperson and founder, Abdul Azeem Mohammed, said, “We are filling in the gap of the lapses in the way COVID is being handled by both the government and the corporate hospitals. While the corporate hospitals are fleecing the patients, the government hospitals are not fully quipped.”

“The relief operation process is very scientific but schematic. When a person calls on the helpline, it gets connected to the IT-based WhatsApp location logger and to the computer for the patient record maintenance. The coordinator who receives the call after taking the details connects to the doctor as per the need.

The required kit is then delivered to the home of the caller by the paramedics who will also check on the patient and see if there is a need for oxygen. The paramedics go along with oxygen concentrators if there is a need so that no time is wasted in making arrangements for an oxygen cylinder. Medicines for symptomatic or asymptomatic patients are prescribed by highly-qualified doctors,” said Abdul Azeem.

“We have no non-medical staff because every single person associated in this relief operation is trained. So we have medical and paramedical staff”, Abdul Azeem told Clarion India.

“We ensure sanitisation at the office. The staff is also in uniform and equipped with all precautionary devices. We want the attendant of the COVID patient also to be healthy so we have designed a kit for them as well.

The most important feature of this relief operation is a mobile ICU which is owned by a handful of hospitals in the city. The mobile ICU has a ventilator, defibrillator, ECG, Oxygen concentrator, etc.

Another important feature that has been designed for the mobile ICU is the dead body carrier which is a freezer and will be inserted perpendicular to the driver’s cabin,” Abdul Azeem added.

The Mesco Foundation runs 5 schools in Hyderabad. The foundation has Pharmacy College in Hyderabad. Apart from educational institutes, they also have healthcare services at nominal costs, and take up relief work during natural disasters.

Al Hamd Foundation is a charitable trust to help the poor, needy people through old-age homes, food distribution, healthcare, blood banks, scholarships for poor students, etc.

Both the foundations collaborate for most of their projects regarding healthcare. While Mesco provides technical support, the financing and manning are done by the Al Hamd Foundation.

source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Hyderabad / by Sana Sikander / July 07th, 2020

MP Inaugurates Comprehensive COVID Care At Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital

Community Involvement / Social Issues, COVID 19 - Community of Soldiers, Karnataka (under research project), Science & Technology, Useful / HEALTHCARE, , , , ,

Mysuru, KARNATAKA :

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, who heads COVID-19 Task Force for Narasimharaja Assembly Constituency, this morning inaugurated the Comprehensive COVID Care facility set up at Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital (BAMH) on Old Mysuru-Bengaluru Road. The Hospital has been converted into a modern 75-bed hospital and can be extended to 100 beds. 

Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital has tied up with Brindavan Hospital for this initiative and the facility will be entirely managed by Brindavan Hospital. It has facilities including Intensive Care Units, Surgery and Haemodialysis, ventilator support and even can handle child birth cases of COVID-infected pregnant women.

The Brindavan Hospital and the Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital will be treated as one hospital and as the State Government has mandated all Private Hospitals in the State to hand over their 50 percent of the beds to COVID care, all the beds at Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital will be reserved for COVID patients and all the non-COVID patients will be treated at Brindavan Hospital. 

MP Pratap Simha inaugurating the Comprehensive COVID Care facility at the hospital along with Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital President Iqbal Ahmed.

A team of specialist doctors, technicians and paramedical staff will run the Hospital with utmost precautions to help the District Administration in its efforts to control the pandemic. Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital President Iqbal Ahmed, Dr. M.R. Aiyappa, General Physician and Diabetologist and Dr. Ravindranath, Orthopaedician at Brindavan Hospital, Dr. K. Javed Nayeem, Dr. Mohan, Dr. Imran and others were present.

Disinfectant tunnel 

On the occasion, a unique disinfectant tunnel was inaugurated by the MP where liquid is not sprayed on the entrants but are fumigated with thick smoke. The smoke is, however safe to inhale. The tunnel has been installed by S3V Technologies and is called ‘3V Safe Tunnel’. Impressed by the tunnel, MP Pratap Simha asked the company representatives to demonstrate the tunnel to Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar so that such facilities can be installed at all the other COVID Care Centres, and hospitals. 

MP Pratap Simha seen exiting a unique disinfectant tunnel where people are fumigated at Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital this morning.

Protest held, withdrawn 

A group of five to six people claiming to be members of Waqf Board in Mysuru objected to the conversion of Bibi Ayesha Milli Hospital into a COVID Hospital. Claiming to be the owners of the building and the property where the hospital stands, the members protested. They objected for the commercial use of the Hospital and at the same time said that the hospital is located in a thickly populated area and there is a danger of virus spreading. 

Narasimharaja Sub-Division ACP Shivashankar, Inspector Shekhar and Pratap Simha intervened in the protest and asked the Waqf Board members to withdraw the stir. They told the protesters that real estate matters could be sorted out in other platforms later.

The Hospital has been taken over as COVID-19 is a national disaster and people who object to such issued can be booked under National Disaster Management Act, they said. The protest was later withdrawn. 

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Covid-19> News / July 24th, 2020

Ahmad Zaidi: A Brilliant Indian-American Success Story

Business & Economy, NRI's / PIO's, Science & Technology, World Opinion, , ,

Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH/ Panipat, HARYANA / California, U.S.A

Ahmad Zaidi

AHMAD ZAIDI, who is originally from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, and is a 1985 Electrical Engineering graduate from the Thapar Institute of Technology, Karnal, Haryana, epitomizes a brilliant success story in United States.

Zaidi is currently a vice-President at the world-renowned hi-tech giant, the Intel Corporation in the Silicon Valley in California, US.  He is among the very select band of bright young minds who migrated to US from India looking to contribute to the development of high technology and to making America great and India proud.

Zaidi holds nine patents in the field of microprocessor design and architecture. In US he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, in 1987.

In 2009, Zaidi was presented an award by the Malaysian minister for setting up the Embedded Silicon Design Center in Penang, Malaysia. In addition, he and his teams have been honored with multiple technical awards, including an Intel Software Quality Award in 2011 and an Intel Achievement Award in 2012.

Ahmad Zaidi is vice president of the Platform Engineering Group and general manager of the Embedded Subsystems and Intellectual Property (IP) Blocks Group at Intel Corporation. He is also responsible for Security Silicon Engineering and manages Security CPU and IP engineering for the Intel Security Group. He leads an organisation that spans sites in the United States, Malaysia, Israel, Poland and India, and is responsible for delivering hardware, software, firmware IP subsystems and soft IP blocks for Intel products across all product segments. His group is chartered with delivering IP in areas such as audio, voice, speech, sensors, security, Input/Output (I/O) technologies and software related to storage, communications and manageability.

Since joining Intel in 1987 as an engineer in the microprocessor unit at Cupertino, CA, Zaidi has progressed rapidly and has held a number of senior technical and management positions in microprocessor design, embedded systems and communications. Before assuming his current position, he was the general manager of the Chipset and System-on-Chip (SoC) IP Group where he was responsible for delivering chipset hardware, firmware and software for Intel’s client platforms in addition to leading the development of reusable IP blocks for Intel products across all segments.

Prior to that, Zaidi was the general manager at Intel Corporation of the Embedded and Communications Silicon Engineering Group, where he led a cross-geography team responsible for delivering SoC and chipset products for the embedded and communications market segment. Earlier in his Intel career, Zaidi served as director of the Silicon Engineering, Infrastructure and Network Processor divisions and as engineering manager on the first Intel® Itanium® processor.

Ahmad Zaidi lives in Cupertino, CA with his wife and two children.  His father was an engineering manager at the Fertilizer Corporation in Paniput, Haryana. As a young man, Zaidi grew up in Paniput.

source: http://www.clarionindia.net/ Clarion India / Home> Indian Muslims / by Kaleem Kawaja, Clarion India / July 18th, 2020

Malegaon shows the way

Community Involvement / Social Issues, COVID 19 - Community of Soldiers, Green Products, Leaders, Science & Technology, Useful / HEALTHCARE, , , , , , , ,

Malegaon (Nashik District) , MAHARASHTRA :

Life in Malegaon appears to have retur­ned to normal, even as Maharashtra struggles to contain the pandemic. As of July 15, the state had 107,963 active cases, with 10,695 deaths.

A new normal: Healthcare workers on a door-to-door Covid-19 test drive in Malegaon, July 14. / Photo by Milind Shelte

The covid-19 battle

On July 14, Malegaon’s Moha­mmad Ali Road, the city’s main commercial street, was full of shoppers, mirroring the sort of normalcy seen in days before the national lockdown in March, and presenting a stark contrast to the fearful retreat from public spaces seen in many areas of Maharashtra. The shops were open, selling everything from cutlery to electronics, and the restaurants and street food vendors were busy serving crowds of customers. Burqa-clad women thron­ged the ladies’ market. Life in Malegaon appears to have retur­ned to normal, even as Maharashtra struggles to contain the pandemic. As of July 15, the state had 107,963 active cases, with 10,695 deaths.

Malegaon’s return to normalcy is striking and worthy of note because, till recently, the city was one of the state’s five Covid hotspots, alongside Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad. Until May, the city had seen a daily average of five deaths due to Covid-19, and reported about 200 fresh cases in the early part of that month. Today, there are just 60 active cases in the city, most of them non-residents of Malegaon, with no coronavirus-linked deaths since May 25. The doubling period has improved from 2.2 days in April to 112 days on July 15, the best in Maharashtra. At 82 per cent, the rate of recovery in Malegaon is also much better than the state average (54 per cent). The turnaround was so hard to miss that, in the first week of July, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) sent a confidential letter to the state government, asking for permission to study the ‘Malegaon model’.

Mal­egaon is a Muslim-majority city (80 per cent residents are from the minority community), with a population of 750,000. The city administration’s success in controlling the pandemic is especially laudable given that the average population density here is 19,000 per sq. km, the state’s highest. In areas like Kamanipura, this goes up to 72,000 per sq. km, second only to Mumbai’s Dharavi, where 800,000 live in a 2.1 sq. km area. Maintaining physical distance, the standard-format safety protocol to avoid infection, is then practically impossible. The Malegaon Municipal Corporation (MMC) was also working with severe limitations, it still does not have a single ventilator.

Municipal commissioner Deepak Kasar says the MMC was struggling on two fronts. First, it had to tackle a staff shortage, with many workers refusing to report to work for fear of being infected. This even led to the MMC being unable to make use of the ambulances provided by the Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana, an NGO focused on disaster response. Second, Kasar says convincing people to come forward for screening, testing and quarantine was a Herculean task, especially since a communally sensitive environment had been created in the initial days of the pandemic.

The MMC’s task was made much more complicated by rumours on social media, one of which was that the coronavirus screening efforts were a conspiracy against Muslims. This led to people refusing to be tested and even attacks on MMC health workers who were conducting screening tests. In the last week of April and the first week of May, six ASHA (accredited social health activist) workers suff­ered burns after being attacked with boiling water. Many residents also reportedly refused to give their real names and symptoms to health workers. Superstition played its part, for instance, many believe the dead will not reach heaven if their eyes are open, leading to people touching infected bodies and increasing the risk of transmission. Another tradition requires women from households in which a death has taken place to isolate themselves for four months and eight days, this complicated contact tracing.

To address these problems, Kasar appealed to community leaders for help, especially the influential Mufti and local MLA Mohammad Ismail. Leaders like Ismail made appeals at mosques for people to stay at home and to cooperate with the MMC health workers. As a result, people increasingly came to see that the administration’s efforts were genuine, leading to more and more coming forward for testing. The success of the appeals to stay home was clearly visible on Eid-ul-Fitr (May 25). Malegaon’s Idgah Maidan was deserted, normally around 300,000 people gather here to offer prayers on the holy day.

Another initiative was to enlist community members for outreach, to spread information about the virus. Kasar roped in students of Ayurvedic and Unani medicine, aware that they were trusted within the communities. A Unani concoction called mansura kadha, with claimed immunity-boosting properties, prepared by the local Mohammadia Tibbia College, also played a bit role; the trust that runs the college has received requests for some 250,000 packets. The MMC also made short informational videos and uploaded them on YouTube, aiming to improve awareness about the coronavirus among Malegaon’s younger residents, especially women. Also important were the MMC’s efforts to give vulnerable households the resources they needed for home isolation. “We provided oxygen cylinders, though the police department was against the move,” says Kasar.

Maulana Imtiaz Ahmed Iqbal Ahmed, secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in Malegaon, says the comm­unity “scored over the fear factor…the mohalla clinics were the game-changer”. Kasar also points out that the success did not come at a major financial cost. “We did not send any patients to private hospitals, so the treatment bill was zero. We also spent less than Rs 20 lakh in the past two months on arrangements for quarantine and treatment,” he says. This stands in stark contrast to the efforts of other municipal corporations in the state; Pune has budgeted Rs 294 crore to fight Covid-19 for a population of about 4 million. Kasar says Malegaon has not only shown a decrease in Covid-19 cases but also other diseases, including those affecting the heart, lungs and kidneys. The ICMR study, once completed, will be submitted to a committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The MMC’s efforts have not only improved the health of Malegaon’s citizens, it has also rehabilitated the city’s reputation. Home to a local film indu­stry and a textile cluster with around 125,000 power looms, Malegaon attr­acted some bad press in the noughties for being communally charged, a riot in 2001 and bomb blasts in 2006 and 2008 seemed to lend credence to its reputation for being volatile. But it has moved on since, and now with the success of the ‘Malegaon model’, it has built a case for an image makeover.

source: http://www.indiatoday.in / India Today / Home> News> Magazine> UP Front / by Kiran D Tare / New Delhi, July 18th, 2020

Two Indian Muslim Women Bring Glory to the Community

Amazing Feats, Education, Leaders, Science & Technology

Aroha, UTTAR PRADESH / Sanghvi, MAHARASHTRA :

In India Muslims number about 180 million and are found in good numbers in most regions. After ruling for a period of about 600 years (1200 to 1857), during which beginning from limited footholds in north India they expanded their rule and the followers of their faith through most of the Indian subcontinent, from the Khyber pass in the west to Assam in the east, and from Kashmir in the north to Kerala at the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. At the end of the British colonial rule in 1947, when the Muslim population formed about one-third of India’s population, the subcontinent was divided between a Muslim majority Pakistan and a Hindu majority India.

Following the partition and the formation of the new India, the situation of the Muslim community, whose population was reduced to about 14 percent, has continued to decline. While discrimination in various walks of life from the government as a reaction to the partition of the country is a major factor for that, the lagging behind in education at all levels and the poor condition and standard of education in the community and the community’s schools has substantially reduced the ability of Muslims to compete with others in various walks of life. The educational backwardness is a lot more pronounced among Muslims in north and west India compared to south and east India

Since 2014 when BJP acquired power in New Delhi, the overall progress of Muslims has declined further due to substantial increase in governmental bias against them. However, every so often one comes across instances of remarkable successes. It is interesting to note that more Muslim young women compared to men are found among the list of high achievers. I recently came across two such instances.

Khushboo Mirza

One such instance is a relatively young Muslim woman by the name Khushboo Mirza from Amroha, a city in western Uttar Pradesh. Khushboo Mirza is an electronics engineer with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) since 2006 when she graduated from the engineering college of the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P. She was a bright student in high school and at the engineering college.

ISRO, headquartered at Bangalore, Karnataka, is one of India’s high performing, high technology organizations. At low budget it has achieved much success in launching several pathbreaking outer space exploration missions and satellites. ISRO launches a variety of communication and weather satellites on contract to various global space organizations like National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of US, Japanese Exploration Agency, Japan et al. This is in addition to space research satellites that they develop and build themselves. Some of the most notable recent ISRO missions include the Chandrayan 2, 2019, a moon orbiter that circled moon and sent data. And Chandrayan 1, 2008, that sent a satellite to impact the surface of moon.

Khushboo Mirza was a team member on the Chandrayan 1 mission. For that, she received good recognition from ISRO management. Just recently ISRO promoted Khushboo, where she will lead groups in challenging tasks.

In the last few decades several professional women in India have reached leadership positions in private sector companies, banks, Science & Technology organizations, universities and government bodies. But it is extremely rare to find a Muslim woman among them. There are two main reasons for this sad happening. One is the bias of the government authorities against Muslims and the other is the fact that a large number of Muslim families do not encourage their women to seriously focus on attaining leadership roles in their professional careers. Muslim families are happy with women becoming principal of a girl’s school.

Wasima Shaikh

The second instance that warmed my heart recently is the story of the young woman by the name Wasima Shaikh of village, Sanghavi, district Nanded, in Maharashtra. Wasima is among four children of a Muslim farm laborer in the village of Sanghavi. Her mother is also a farm labourer and they live in a small hut in the village. Her father has been sick for a few years and her mother is shouldering the responsibility for the family in these years. Wasima’s village is plagued with the problem of men habitually drinking liquor and indulging in violence. Wasima is a brilliant student who topped the list of successful candidates in in Nanded taluka in the Maharashtra State Secondary School Certificate examination. In 2015 studying on scholarship she obtained the BA degree from the Yashwant Chavan University, Nanded.

Then she sat in the tough competitive examination of the Maharashtra State Public Service Commission for an officer job in the state. To prepare for the competition she needed training from a coaching center and additional books that cost money, that her mother could not afford, especially since her brother was also studying for B.Sc. degree. To help Wasima with the coaching center fees, in her quest, her brother dropped out of college and started driving an auto-rickshaw. Wasima did succeed in the competitive examination but did not achieve a high enough rank. Due to that she was selected as a Class II sales tax officer for the Maharashtra Sales Tax Office in Nagpur.

However, both Wasima and her mother wanted that in view of her brilliant academic record she should get a better Class I Maharashtra State civil service job, like a Deputy Collector. Although her extended family members pushed strongly that she should get married now, her mother encouraged her to try the State Public Service Commission competition one more time. While working as a government Sales Tax officer Wasima prepared for and sat in the competition again in 2019. With her salary she also put her brother back in college to complete B.Sc. degree. This time her perseverance and merit paid off and she achieved third rank from top among all women competitors in Maharashtra. And just last month she has been selected for the position of a Deputy Collector in the state of Maharashtra.

On our part we Indian Muslims must strive to give better high quality educational opportunities to promising young women and men from our community. Women must be encouraged as much as men to try harder and achieve higher levels of success. That is the only way the Indian Muslim community is going to overcome the intense discrimination and injustice and deprivation from economic opportunities that is happening to them in India.

—The writer is the executive director of the Association of Indian Muslims of America, Washington DC.

source: http://www.milligazette.com / The Milli Gazette / Home> News> Education & Careers / by Kaleem Kawaja / June 30th, 2020

Foundation donates ₹10 cr to PM Cares Fund

Community Involvement / Social Issues, COVID 19 - Community of Soldiers, Karnataka (under research project), Science & Technology, , , ,

Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

The Bengaluru-based Dr. Majeed Foundation, a non-profit institution has contributed ₹10 crore to PM CARES Fund, to help combat the widespread outbreak of COVID-19, according to a press release. The Foundation was set up by Muhammed Majeed, Founder and Chairman of Sami-Sabinsa Group.

It contributed ₹2 crore to the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority.

The Foundation has been actively supporting people in distress, by ramping up its community outreach programmes to reach out to the poor and vulnerable communities. It helped those who have been most affected by the pandemic in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and provided them with essential food items, protective equipment, hand sanitizers and health supplements.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> State> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – June 19th, 2020

Indian Kashmiri inventor creates ventilator out of scraps

Amazing Feats, COVID 19 - Community of Soldiers, Science & Technology, , ,

JAMMU & KASHMIR :

Waseem Ahmad Nadaf, Inventor

A 22-year-old Indian Kashmiri has invented a ventilator made only from scrap parts: a soap box, a DVD drive, a bottle cap…

Even though the project is still at the prototype stage, the young inventor hopes his creation can contribute to India’s battle against the coronavirus.

source: http://www.arabnews.com / Arab News / Home / by AFP / June 19th, 2020

Despite risks, Muslim doctors in worst-hit Gujarat offer timely care, support to COVID-19 patients

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, COVID 19 - Community of Soldiers, Science & Technology, , , , , , , , , ,

GUJARAT :

Cured patients with Dr Muhammad Husain’s team

Gujarat:

Muslim medicos in worst-hit Gujarat have been going an extra mile to fulfil their medical-course pledge for helping and curing run-down patients and have proved that not all white-coats are money-grubbing pill-pushers and bone-benders.

On March 1, the state government asked the medical fraternity to gear up for the pandemic and the medics of the minority community rolled up their sleeves to swing into action for serving the sick-as-a-dog patients of the dreaded coronavirus disease.

Even during the holy month of Ramadan and after, Muslim interns and resident doctors of the overcrowded state-run hospitals or physicians of private clinics not only sacrificed their comforts and academic studies but also risked their own lives to save precious lives with the situation worsening day every passing day – as one infected person expired every hour.

Doctors have to wear suffocating PPE suits for several hours.

Wearing suffocating plastic PPE suits for as long as 12 hours, the dedicated doctors in the frontline of the fight against the mysterious pathogen work in frightful COVID centres near infectious patients. And yet, they offer their services and personalized care gratis to all castes for a noble cause, not to mention the fact that some healers have to work without PPE kits, N-95 masks and proper gloves.

Not surprisingly, in Ahmedabad alone, some 200 doctors have tested positive and at least 11 of them have died with their boots on even as Gujarat registered the highest mortality rate of 6.2 per cent in India on June 15.

Besides creating awareness and sensitizing unlettered patients about the viral infection and dealing with uncooperative relatives, the hard-pressed medicos have had to stay away from their dear one’s back home lest the latter get infected by the coronavirus.

Dr Muhammad Husain

Dr Muhammad Husain of Vadodara has been a great inspiration for doctors of his community. As the corona crisis escalated, the local administration was worried stiff after senior doctors washed their hands off the global pandemic and in turn, the juniors had to meet the challenge of treating the patients in municipal hospitals.

But Dr Husain, who is also the chairperson of the Baroda Muslim Doctors’ Association, decided to pick up the gauntlet and presented proposals to set up four up-to-the-minute COVID care centres in Gujarat’s cultural capital. The beleaguered civic body was too happy to give its go-ahead with the result that hundreds of patients recovered in quick succession in fewer days compared to the discharge rate at other state-run facilities, thanks to round-the-clock monitoring by him.

When blood banks in the city ran dry and patients’ relatives running from pillar to post for the vital fluid, Dr Husain went round Muslim mohallas and sought the help of youngsters who, for the first time, donated blood on the day of Eid al-Fitr at a quickly-organized camp where 300 bottles were collected within just a few hours.

Community leader Zuber Gopalani told TwoCircles.net that, “Dr Husain, along with his bleeding-heart doctor friends, has stood on the road under the scorching sun and distributed immunity-boosting tablets bought from his earnings. All this has made him a real corona warrior.”

Dr Muhammed Dohadwala (right)

In Dahod city in central Gujarat, Dr Mohammed Dohadwala, a diabetologist, and his 67-year-old father Dr Kaizar, a senior consultant physician, kept their clinics open during the lockdown to help their regular patients even though most of the private doctors remained inaccessible, fearing the deadly viral infection.

“We decided that the work must go on and formulated a foolproof strategy for the safety of staff and patients, and even devised a video consultation platform in our centre for outstation patients,” he said.

Conscious of their social responsibility in these tough times, the Dohadwalas, with the help of a local NGO, distributed special kits of daily essentials among migrants, workers and other needy families in the city.

Dr Shakeel Vadaliwala (left) in PPE suit (right)

Ahmedabad-based Dr Shakeel Vadaliwala is a neonatologist specializing in the care of newborns but the dutiful doctor was so busy in serving COVID patients that he could not be near his wife when she delivered a baby girl last month. Even though he was away from home during Ramadan, he observed his fast and performed prayers and made do with simple food but he is happy that as many as 400 of the 800 COVID patients under his care at a government hospital were cured and discharged within a week.

Members of Ittehad Medicos’ Academy have not only kept their clinics open but have also been offering free services to COVID-hit men and women at three hospitals in Ahmedabad.

According to Dr Junaid Shaikh, who has a hectic schedule taking daily rounds at all these three care centres, he had to rent a house for several days to keep his family away from infection.

“I also had to use a PPE suit for three or four days because of shortage,” he told TwoCircles.net.

Mona Desai, president of the Ahmedabad Medical Association, said that Muslim doctors like Dr Didar Kapadia, Dr Murtza and Dr Iftekhar and others are doing a yeoman’s service in these tough times but wondered why cases of assaults on doctors by patients’ relatives were on the rise.

Mujahid Nafees, convener of the Minorities Coordination Committee, Gujarat sums up and says, that, “The sacrifices made by Muslim doctors fighting the pandemic are greater than even those of a soldier battling the enemy troops on the border. A soldier can see the enemies but for doctors, the coronavirus is not visible.”

Dr Muhammad Husain (second from right) and Dr Zuber Gopalani (second from left)

source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> TCN Positive> Indian Muslim> Lead Story> Pandemic / June 15th, 2020