Liver team at Pandorum Technologies: Dr. Abdullah Chand, senior scientist (left); Arun Chandru, co-founder and managing director (centre); and Dr. Sivarajan T., senior scientist / @ABHINAV_MAURYA
Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :
Pandorum Technologies, a Bengaluru-based biotech startup, has developed an artificial tissue that performs the functions of the human liver.
Pandorum said these 3D printed living tissues made of human cells would enable affordable medical research with reduced dependence on animal and human trials. It will also eventually lead to full scale transplantable organs.
Arun Chandru, 30-year-old co-founder of Pandorum, said liver toxicity and drug metabolism are the key hurdles, and contributors to failed human trials.
Pandorum’s 3D bio-printed mini-livers that mimic the human liver will serve as test platforms for discovery and development of drugs and vaccines. The firm said these drugs would have better efficacy, less side-effects and be developed at lower costs.
“We developed everything here in India,” said Mr. Chandru. “We can grow thousands of these tissues in the laboratory and test the efficacy of drugs on them for diseases including cancer.”
He said large pharma companies on an average spend about $10 billion (Rs. 66,290 crore) and 10 years on research and development to get a single new drug to the market.
Tuhin Bhowmick (34), another co-founder of Pandorum, said development of artificial organs has numerous clinical uses. The cell-based miniature organs can be used to develop bio-artificial liver support systems for preserving life in patients who have developed liver failure.
“In the near future, such bio-printed organs will address the acute shortage of human organs available for surgical transplantation,” said Dr. Bhowmick, who holds a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science.
Pandorum was founded by a group of friends in 2011 who were pursuing their higher studies at IISc. They came together to work on the development of artificial human organs after winning a business competition.
Surviving initially on money from friends and family, the team approached the Department of Biotechnology with their vision. The company was awarded funding support by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council in 2012. The same year, the company got incubated by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms in Bengaluru.
Mr. Chandru said they created the innovation with a funding of about Rs. 1 crore, more than half of which came from the government.
Scientists and startups across the globe are growing artificial organs made of human cells to better study diseases and help test drugs. A team of researchers led by Hebrew University professor Eduardo Mitrani is growing pancreas in a petri dish to better regulate blood sugar in diabetic patients.
The global artificial organ and bionics market is expected to reach $38.75 billion (Rs 2.5 lakh crore) by 2020 at an estimated CAGR of 9.3% from 2014 to 2020, according to a study by Grand View Research.
Pandorum’s ultimate aim is to make personalised human organs such as lungs, liver, kidney and pancreas on demand, according to Mr. Chandru.
Pandorum’s innovation takes the area of making artificial organs to the next level. Bengaluru-based bioinformatics firm Strand Life Sciences founded by IISc. professors had earlier developed a virtual liver that mimics the functions of liver through software simulation. It is a predictive method that integrates data and insights for deeper understanding of the impact of a drug on the liver. The platform can predict the toxicity of several known drugs and toxins and explain the mechanism.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech / by Peerzada Abrar / Bengaluru – December 23rd, 2015
Internationally-renowned mime artist Irshad Panjatam left job at Begumpet airport to follow his dream.— Photo: G. Ramakrishna
Hyderabad, TELANGANA / Berlin, GERMANY :
When 85-year old mime artist Irshad Panjatam was about 18-years-old, he had joined the Begumpet airport as a ground apprentice engineer. Getting such a job back then was perhaps not easy, which is why many at his workplace advised him against quitting, when he took the decision a year after joining.
“I left the job because tightening nuts and bolts, was not what I wanted to do,” recalled Mr. Panjatam, who is in Hyderabad currently. Though he eventually become an artiste, it was not until 1958 that he discovered his true calling in pantomime, which then changed his life and has made him the internationally renowned mime artiste that he is.
Remembering that crucial moment, Mr. Panjatam takes a ride through memory lane during an interview to YUNUS Y. LASANIA .
Excerpts:
How did you get introduced to and develop your skills? Was the art form present in India back then?
I never knew the word pantomime. When I was working with the Hindustani Theatre in New Delhi, I was part of famous Sanskrit play. During rehearsals in the third act, the main actor was not there, so I took stage in his place. Dr. Charles Fabri, a very famous art critic, was present in the rehearsal room.
I started performing, but the musicians were not ready to support me, hence my movements were absolutely silent; without music and without song. Dr. Fabri said it was a very good pantomime act, and then he gave me a book on it. I read the introductory lines and learnt what mime was. It was 1958, and the art form was not present here. I learnt everything on my own.
What was your first performance like? How was the reception to your performances?
I started with short stories like Aesop’s Fables. I showed it to some of my good friends who were also my critics. In 1962, the Indian Arts and Crafts Society, a prestigious organisation of Delhi at that time, put me on stage for my first mime performance. The house was full, and it was well received. After that my friends told me that I was alone here (as an artiste), and that I had to go abroad and perform to know where I stood.
Your first international performance took place in the neighbouring Pakistan. How did that happen?
When I was performing in Delhi, a delegation from the Women’s College in Lahore was present. One of the girls asked me when I was coming to perform in Pakistan, and gave me her college’s address. So my journey began with Pakistan in 1963. I left with Rs.5 in my pocket on the Amritsar Express train, and performed at her college, for which I earned Rs.350 (Pakistani currency).
From there on, I travelled to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Yugoslavia (currently Bosnia and Herzegova, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), Germany, France, and Britain, where I had performed. It was always about luck, as I was received well and nobody had has criticised my work.
You settled in Berlin, Germany, and have also acted in German movies. Did you come to India often after you shifted from Hyderabad?
I met my wife Ingrid in Bombay. She had come to India as an Indian art student, and was doing archive work in Uttar Pradesh between 1971/72. We settled in Berlin where I started a school called the ‘Pantomime Workshop of Irshad Panjatan’. I used to visit India once in three or four years.
I closed my school in 1995 after the doctor’s advice to not perform. Later, I started my career in German films, and the one that made me famous is ‘Der Schuh des Manitu (Manitu’s Shoe), which broke all records, as it was viewed about 40 million times. I was doing about one or two movies in a year after that.
How would you describe pantomime is your words?
It is an art of telling a story, experiencing a mood or emotions without resorting to words and only with body movements. I never play with any music or dialogues – I am a pure mime. Silence has power.
My German film ‘Der Schuh des Manitu (Manitu’s Shoe) was viewed about 40 million times
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by Yunus Y. Lasania / January 05th, 2016
The top seeds quelled the challenge of German wildcards Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic 7-5, 6-1 in mere 69 minutes.
Hyderabad, TELANGANA :
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis carried the dominance of 2015 into the new season, winning their sixth consecutive title by lifting the WTA Brisbane trophy, in Brisbane on Saturday.
The top seeds quelled the challenge of German wildcards Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic 7-5, 6-1 in mere 69 minutes.
Sania and Martina, the world number one team, have now stitched a 26-match winning streak together, which has brought them six titles in a row at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing, WTA Finals and now here.
It is the longest winning streak since Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci’s 25 in a row in 2012. Sara and Roberta had won five titles in a row.
The top seeds drew the first blood by breaking the rivals in the second game but the joy was short-lived as Kerber and Petkovic reeled off four straight games to take a 4-2 lead in the opening set.
Sania and Martina though were not perturbed, having defused such situations many times in the last few months.
They went about their business calmly and restored the parity with another break.
Soon it was 4-4 and the Indo-Swiss combination held the ninth game, forcing Kerber and Petkovic to serve under pressure and remain alive in the set. The unseeded team though did not crack and stayed solid to make it 5-5.
Kerber and Petkovic again served at 5-6 to stretch it to a tie-breaker but offered two break chances to Sania and Martina and the top seeds obliged on second to nose ahead.
The top seeds controlled the game better in the second set, racing to a 3-0 lead by breaking their rivals in the second game.
It was a cakewalk for them from there, losing only one game before closing the match in their favour.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Tennis / PTI / Brisbane – January 09th, 2016
Princess Niloufer, the beloved daughter-in-law of the last Nizam of Hyderabad, may have left the city shortly after the Police Action in 1948. But even a good six decades later, she continues to be an enigma that at once intrigues and haunts Hyderabadis. On her centenary year, even as a photo exhibition by Birad Rajaram Yagnik attempts to reveal unknown vignettes of her life, and a documentary film on her is being worked on by historian Arvind Acharya, Hyderabad Times looks back at the dramatic life of the much loved princess of the city of Pearls. Surely, it was nothing short of a movie!
A fairytale set in 19th Century
When Niloufer Farhat Begum Sahiba was born in Istanbul, in January 1916, the Ottoman Empire was already fast crumbling. When she was barely a toddler, the Ottoman surrender was formalised aboard a British warship (October 1918). And by the time she was seven, the 700 year-old empire had officially fallen. In the backdrop of this downfall, the princess had to leave her fairytale life in Istanbul behind, and move to France with her mother in 1924, never to return. aged eight at that time, Niloufer would go on to lead a very ordinary life, learning to read and write French along with Urdu. Her exercise books had her learning about geography of the world. she stuck bits and pieces of the map in separate pages, oblivious to what the future held for her — a future where she would be remembered as the beloved princess of three cities. And yet, hold reign over none.
The romance with Hyderabad
Cut to 1931. In Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam — also the world’s richest man — was looking for suitable brides for his sons. And that’s how Niloufer, just 15, found herself in Hyderabad. In a grand, royal wedding held in Nice in November 1931, Niloufer married Moazzam Jah, the Nizam’s younger son.
The Nizam had chosen Durru Shehvar (Niloufer’s first cousin) for his elder son — so the shift to a foreign land was less daunting perhaps. Another reason that made Hyderabad feel like home was that the Princess found a father figure in the Nizam. Though known to be officious and keen on protocol otherwise, the Nizam considered Niloufer his daughter. He even let her call him ‘father’. Life in the Hill Fort Palace was grand, Hyderabad was at its cultural peak, and the Princess took on many avatars — fashionista, socialite, philanthropist.
The sartorial queen
Between 1933 and 1948, Niloufer became a fashionista through whom the world got acquainted with Hyderabad. Her sarees, her choice of jewellery, her lifestyle became a talking point. Photographers, especially a crafty portrait photographer, Antony Beauchamp, loved her easy beauty. the international press adored her. Niloufer is credited with adding Parisian grace to the Indian saree. Her sarees were crafted specially for her, by Madhav Das in Mumbai. She loved chiffons and crepes, and wore them often with a broad woven Banaras brocade border. In fact, Mme. Fernande Cecithe, who was originally hired as a midwife for the princess, later created excellent designs to be embroidered on her sarees too. Her wardrobe is still studied by fashion students across the globe and her collection of sarees are now treasured at the New York Institute of Fashion Technology.
The socialite princess with a golden heart
One of the very prominent facets of Niloufer’s social life was the Lady Hydari Club, through which she also initiatied events and dos to raise funds. In 1941, Niloufer decided to organise the staging of a play Ondine (by dramatist Jean Giraudoux) to raise funds for London, which was recuperating from the damages of World War II. She was told by her father-in-law that a princess must not be seen acting in a play. So, her secretary at that time, Fatima Ghani, who would accompany her all the time and therefore even knew the dialogues, took on the princess’ role of a knight-errant Hans von Wittenstein zu Wittenstein.
But it wasn’t until 1949, that Niloufer’s biggest contribution to Hyderabad was going to emerge. When her maid, Rafath Unnisa Begum, died in childbirth, she was so shattered that she decided to ensure that no more such deaths take place. she decided to set up a maternity hospital, which stands today as Niloufer Hospital in Nampally.
The truth behind the glamourous veneer
She was one of the most beautiful women of her time. She was a much loved princess, both at home and overseas. But Niloufer had long learned that the glamour of all this was just that — an eyewash at best. At the heart of it all, there was pain and emptiness. She spent her best years in Hyderabad, craving to experience motherhood — a desire that was never fulfilled.
By this time, Niloufer had already witnessed her first cousin Durru Shehvar give birth to two sons, Prince Mukarram Jah in 1933 and Prince Muffakham Jah in 1939. Her childlessness put much strain on her marriage. In 1948, Moazzam took a second wife, Razia Begum. And by 1951, Niloufer had decided to split from her Hyderabadi commitments.
She moved back to France with her mother. Nice, back then had many members of royalty in exile, allowing Niloufer to still be socially active. As she aged gracefully, her photos from the era show her wearing the string of pearls that her mother had gifted her at birth.
However, irrespective of where she was based, Niloufer never severed her Indian ties. Her friendship with Jawharlal Nehru was one such connection. One of her letters following the assassination of Gandhi read: “Dear Pandit, You have heard and read the cry of so many millions of hearts — you have felt perhaps more than anyone else that great silence that set the void and the loneliness after he (Gandhi) was no more”. The duo continued to stay in touch, Niloufer wrote to Nehru even during the elections and Nehru who was on the road canvasing for the polls, replied, “But I want to tell you that you will always be welcome here whenever you care to come.”
Finding love again
After a good 11 years of being single, Niloufer met Edward Pope and found love once again. In February 1964, she married Pope in the presence of Nawab Ali Yawar Jung who was the Best Man.
Niloufer died in 1989 and was buried in a grave in Bobigny near Paris. The Muslims-only cemetery that is a two-hour drive from Paris not only has her mother resting there, but also all the members of her Seljuk dynasty. Surely, a life as romantic, as magnanimous, and as dramatic as Niloufer’s, deserves to be immortalised.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / by Samyuktha K, TNN / January 06th, 2015
At the age of 104, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan continues to enthral music lovers across the country with his vocal stamina, virtuosity and lyricism.Vandana Shukla has the honour of meeting the maestro
As he is brought to the stage, resplendent in silk kurtaadorned with gold chains, the audience gapes. His age alone makes him a phenomenon worth watching. By the end of his 90-minute recital, they are awestruck—Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan’s gamak taan can make a 25 year-old sulk for want of stamina. But there is no arrogance, only a childlike simplicity when the 104 year-old Ustad removes his black topi and shows us a layer of black hair sprouting from beneath his glorious silver. We wonder about his teeth; after a 100 years, the teeth are said to reappear as well. “The new ones will come only when the old ones fall,” chirps his grandson Bilal Khan, who accompanies him on the tabla.
A direct descendant and proponent of the third son of Miyan Tansen, Surat Sen, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan sings like autumn leaves surrendered to the winds—in complete abandon. Sitting cross-legged while rendering Puriya Dhanashree, his arms spread like wings, releasing permutations of notes that even connoisseurs find hard to keep track of, floating across labyrinthine octaves. Those who came to the show to satisfy their curiosity about his age now find themselves impelled to stay mesmerised by his artistry. “He enjoys God’s blessings,” says eminent vocalist Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar. “Most vocalists can’t sing beyond the age of 80 years but he still sings with so much power.”
Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan has no concrete answers to offer on his longevity or mastery over music. All he allows us is a glimpse of an amazing mind and soul that live in complete surrender to the Almighty. He is creative like a child, energetic like a young man, and wise like a wizard. Two years ago, while arriving for a concert in Brindavan, he found people greeting each other with ‘Radhe Radhe’. He didn’t have any compositions using the term Radhe, though there were many with references to Krishna. Within 10 minutes of the drive that took him from the hotel to the concert hall, he composed two beautiful bandish.
The amazing vigour that defines Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan’s voice is as remarkable as his mesmerising control over complex notes
He still travels extensively, his concert tours sometimes running for a month at a stretch. We meet him in Chandigarh a day after he has performed at Kamani Auditorium in Delhi; the day before that, he was in Lucknow. In the days ahead, he will go back to Delhi for two consecutive concerts, and then to Varanasi and Allahabad. He attempts an explanation: “When I sing, only God is with me, I do not see anything; I do not do anything; everything is done by Allah!” His faith in the divine was reinforced many years ago. “I was close to
50 when I was given mercury in my food at Khagra in West Bengal,” he recounts. “In those days, when two artists engaged in a duel; one had to lose. The person who lost poisoned me out of envy. I lost my fingers and toes; how my vocal cords were spared was a miracle. I live so that I can sing, and it is His will.”
Ustad refuses to dwell upon what has been lost. “I don’t take any medication. I have only heard of older, and younger, people suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure,” he says with a chuckle. Still, he is a stickler for his routine—he doesn’t eat lunch because it interferes with his namaaz. He compensates with a good breakfast and dinner, which includes chicken, meat and a sweet, preferably rasmalai or gulab jamun.
His appetite for rhythm and rhyme is equally hearty. Gifted with a natural mastery over words—he has penned thousands of verses and compositions under the pen name Rasan Piya—Ford Foundation and ITC Sangeet Research Academy (ITCSRA) have recorded about 2,000 of his compositions for their archives. In the view of Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan of the Kirana gharana, it is these recordings that enabled the world to learn about Ustad’s talent. “Once people heard him in Kolkata, they realised what a reservoir of knowledge he has,” he says. “It was then that ITCSRA decided to invite him to Kolkata. He has produced many shagird. He is an amazing vocalist; for his age it is no less than a miracle. This apart, he is an extraordinary composer.”
How many of his compositions does the Ustad remember? “Arre baap re!” he chortles. “I don’t remember anything. I just remember Allah.” Hundreds of bandish were, in fact, chewed by a goat, Bilal tells us teasingly and adds, “People plagiarise his compositions; somebody earned thousands of dollars by fusing his Bhairavi composition with French music, and recently I heard a group from Pakistan sing his composition as their own.” With his characteristically naughty smile, Ustad dismisses Bilal and says, “Let them steal; I will compose 10 new ones. Why should I feel sad over such triviality?”
As a child, he was forced by his father to leave kushti (wrestling), his great passion, fearing he might pull a muscle in the neck that might affect his vocal cords. “I had to leave akhada, I could not disobey,” he says. “He was my father and guru. In those days, discipline was foremost and so was obedience. My grandfather Ustad Bade Yusuf Khan was given the stage after 22 years of taleem. We were made to see that each raga had a personality, and you could not disrespect it by hurting its character, by singing it at a wrong time and season.” Those roots continue to nourish him. “Music has been my life and it has given me everything,” he says with candour. “Bismillah Khan, whom I revere, once asked violinist Dr M Rajam, who was heading the music department at Benaras Hindu University, to wait till he arrived. He wanted to hear my concert.” This is something he misses today, the paucity of good listeners who truly appreciated the value of music.
Does he, then, worry that the tradition is being diluted? “No,” he replies firmly. “There are organisations like ITCSRA, Devi Foundation and SPICMACAY [Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Among Youth] that are doing a lot to save this tradition.” Part of this effort is to embrace change. For instance, girls were not taught music in his gharana—he deprived his own daughters of musical training—and his sons grew up to become contractors. But today, Ustad is proud of his female disciples, who include Rupali Kulkarni, Pampa Banerjee and Shashi Tripathi. “I was nine when Baba started teaching me,” recalls Kulkarni, a station director with Vividh Bharati. “He was as loving as a father while being an exacting teacher. He would get mejalebi, yet lay a lot of emphasis on varjish [exercise], telling me that controlling one’s breath and singing require a lot of stamina. He composed such difficult yet beautiful compositions for me.”
Ustad’s grandson Asad Ali Khan is equally fulsome in his praise—he is the only grandchild that Ustad has trained vocally and lives and travels with him, like Bilal. “In my opinion, there is no teacher in India more knowledgeable than Baba,” he says in a tone that borders on reverence. “He is my Baba; at the same time, he is the best teacher one could have. He never gave me special treatment and treated me like any other disciple. He never loses his temper, yet he makes us do what he wants. He is also fun to be with.”
Ustad too revels in the company of his disciples, particularly when they tour together for concerts. He speaks to them well into the night, not letting them sleep! “Why waste the night sleeping when there is so much to say and sing?” he wonders. When he is not on the road, he teaches music at Kolkata ITCSRA from 11 am to 4 pm. Ustad’s memory remains as active as the maestro himself. He still remembers all his students (past and present), the names of his 15 grandchildren, who all live in Rae Bareilly, and all the dates and places of significance to his life. He is reticent, though, on the subject of his wife—he lost her when his children were young and he appears to have drawn a gentle veil over that chapter. Indeed, setbacks or successes, the Ustad has handled them all with consummate dignity—and faith. As he tells us, “Himmat… sirf himmat se hi safar tay hota hai, aur himmat voh deta hai. (Only courage takes you along, and courage comes with His grace).
Featured in Harmony Magazine
December 2010
source: http://www.harmonyindia.org / Harmony India.org / Home> H People> Diary 100 / Featured in Harmony – Celebrate Age magazine, December 2010
Moin Junnedi, is not your average 18-year-old, he has won seven national gold medals and one international level in para swimming competitions.
Moin suffers from osteogenesis imperfect, a brittle bone disease which makes him prone to fractures. Nevertheless, he has a will of steel that inspires every one of us. The Karnataka government honoured him on World Disability Day.
Moin’s daily struggles include that he cannot eat with his hands as both of them are turned backwards. His legs are weak and fused together. Initially, Kausar, Moin’s mother lost all hope after knowing his incurable disease, but the lost hope was recovered thanks to Umesh Kalaghatag. Umesh is a swimming coach for the disabled.
Image courtesy: Facebook
‘One should learn to never give up, no matter what the situation is. I do not feel I am disabled or have any sort of shortcoming. I love swimming and I want to be the best swimmer in the world,’ says, a visibly enthusiastic Moin.
He trained Moin for the past seven years which made him win a lot of laurels for our country.
Image courtesy: Facebook
Moin is also a hardcore fan of Shah Rukh Khan and even the Bollywood Baadshah met the boy and spend time with him.
Image courtesy: Facebook
Mushtaque Junnedi his father told Times of India, “We never felt ever that Moin is disabled and never imagine house without him. He is a friend, elder and motivational force to everybody in home. All this happened thanks to his coach Umesh Kalaghatagi.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by Online Desk / December 30th, 2015
While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) plans to introduce stringent measures in the city to ensure proper waste segregation by Bengaluru’s citizens, 33-year-old Mansoor Ahmed, waste-picker from the city, will be in Paris for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP (Conference Of Parties) 21, scheduled to be held from November 30 to December 11.
His hard work and vision in spreading awareness about waste management among the citizens has led him to Paris to present a talk to participants from across the world.
During his visit to Paris, he will talk about the importance of waste segregation and how he was able to create awareness and convince 75 per cent of his customers to segregate waste at source.
Mansoor speaks three languages: Tamil, Hindi and Kannada. He admits he cannot utter a single sentence in English. “English is not a problem as long as my work talks for me. I’m genuine and there is sincerity in my work which will speak for me. Besides, I will have a translator. As part of my talk, I will be narrating my journey from a seven-year old rag-picker to what I’m today,” he says. He has a team of 12 members at the Jayanagar DWCC who manage an inventory of 10-12 tonnes of dry waste every month.
Mansoor’s talk will be translated by Kabir Arora, who coordinates Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers (AIW) – an informal network of organisations, cooperatives, and companies working on waste management with the help of waste-pickers. Hasiru Dala, which is a coalition member the AIW and an organisation of waste-pickers and waste workers, is sponsoring Mansoor’s 10-day trip.
“The team from Hasiru Dala asked me if I was interested in going to Paris for a conference. I was elated and immediately said yes. My passport and visa had to be made,” says an excited Mansoor. He flew to Delhi from Bengaluru on Monday and will reach Paris later in the day.
Mansoor operates the Dry Waste Collection Centre (DWCC) (recyclables and inorganic waste aggregation and sorting unit) in ward 168 of Jayanagar in. He went door-to-door in the area around the centre to encourage residents to segregate their wastes and drop it at the DWCC.
The daily collection of the DWCC is about 120 kg from waste-pickers. The DWCC receives one tonne of waste from apartment collection. Mansoor uses a rotating fund of `3,000 to buy wastes from the apartments.
He will be part of a joint delegation of Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) and Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers (AIW) for COP 21.
The IYCN is a network uniting Indian youth and youth-oriented organisations who are concerned about climate change and environment issues. The network works to generate awareness about and establish consensus on what role India should play in the global debate of climate change and how it should address its domestic issues.
Mansoor was just a seven-year-old when he began helping his parents collect waste by sorting it. At that time, he used to manage around 500 kg of waste every month.
He attended a small government school near his home but had to drop out of school in Class 5 when his father passed away.
He is the oldest among nine siblings (he has six sisters and two brothers), and the burden of responsibility to take care of them brothers and sisters feel upon his young shoulders.
He joined the informal waste sector with his mother to help supplement the family income.
They ran a small scrap shop near their home where all the waste-pickers from their slum would bring their daily collection. They would manage around 500 kg of waste every day.
Working with waste has therefore been the only job that Mansoor has known, but it has provided for him and his family. Thanks to the use of technology and people his people-management skills, Mansoor has been able to scale new heights.
He says he is eager to learn the concepts of solid waste management followed in Paris and will find ways to implement it at his centre too.
From the conference, he wants the countries to pursue the agenda of recycling (Waste to energy) in their climate action commitments as opposed to incineration of waste — which is currently being proposed as a climate solution by many governments. Incineration is being perceived as a threat to Mansoor’s and many other green entrepreneurs’ livelihood.
For his visit, he was asked to buy a pair of thermal wear as Paris would be freezing at this point of time. “I didn’t know that we could find thermal wear here. I was asked to buy them; but one pair costs `2,000. But it’s going to keep me warm when I land there. I have already purchased my formal wear two months ago. I am too excited about my trip. It all feels surreal,” he says.
With his contagious smile he has been easily able to build excellent relationships with his customers to whom he provides waste collection services. The last few days he has been flooded with congratulatory messages from them for this prestigious trip.
Today, with the Paris trip materialising, he feels his hard work has paid off although he claims never to have imagined that he would be able to visit a foreign country. “This is my first visit to a foreign country…and in an airplane. I’m feeling ecstatic and proud. Never in my life had I imagined that I would get such an opportunity. This would not be possible if it were not for the people who supported me throughout my life. I really want to thank my well-wishers, friends and relatives,” says Mansoor, who has three children: two boys and a girl.
He has enrolled his children in Oxford School in JP Nagar. And his aim now: To give his children a solid education … and the freedom to follow their dreams.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Civiv / Bangalore Mirror Bureau / November 30th, 2015
East African Asian society was complex and contradictory as any truly multicultural society needs to be, and perhaps as only Indians can make it
Toronto, CANADA :
It is amusing to contemplate that if an Indian man, one afternoon in March 1498, had been able to swim, he would have escaped capture by Vasco da Gama off the Mozambique coast, and the world might have been different. The Indian, whose companions had managed to swim away, was called “Davane” by his captors; he was from the Gujarati city of Khambat (Cambay). Davane gave advice to da Gama on local matters and even assisted him in outwitting the local sultan, so that the Portuguese ships eventually anchored safely in Malindi, up north in present-day Kenya. Here he took a pilot, who was possibly a Gujarati, and reached the Malabar coast.
Portuguese sailors plying the Indian Ocean thereafter often wrote about the presence of Indians and Indian ships in Kilwa, Mombasa, and Malindi. Around 1500, Captain Duarte Barbosa observed, “These ships of Cambay are so many and so large, and with so much merchandise, that it is terrible to think of so great an expenditure of cotton stuffs as they bring.” The trading connection between India and East Africa is actually even older, as the carving of a giraffe on a wall of the Konark sun temple indicates.
The arrival of Indians in South Africa by boat. / The Hindu Archives
It was in the nineteenth century, however, that Indians began arriving in numbers to trade and settle in Zanzibar, which was by then a major metropolis in the Indian Ocean with international connections, and home to the ruling Omani sultans. The more enterprising men ventured off to the small towns dotting the mainland coast. Most Indians arrived penniless from their drought-prone villages in Kathiawad and Kutch, and remained modest traders, but a few of them went on to become veritable merchant princes with spectacular wealth. Among them were Jairam Sewji, Ladha Damji, and Tharia Topan, to whose firms the sultans farmed out their customs collection and to whom they were often in debt.
Generation of tycoons
With the advent of British and German colonialism in the early twentieth century, Zanzibar’s commercial power and political influence waned, while the interior of East Africa opened up with new infrastructure and increasing trade. As a result, the Indians spread out all over the mainland, which now consisted of the three colonies of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika. (In 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to form Tanzania. The Indians went on to be called “Asians”.) The new generation of tycoons included Sewa HajiParoo, whose caravans went from Bagamoyo (near Dar es Salaam) all the way north to the Kilimanjaro region. His apprentice, Allidina Visram, topped him to become “the uncrowned king of Mombasa,” supplying the dukas (shops) that had sprung up from Mombasa to Uganda, and further in eastern Congo and southern Sudan. In 1890 A.M. Jeevanjee, a Bohra from Karachi, arrived in Mombasa and made his fortune supplying goods (and workers) to the Uganda Railway. Much of early wood-and-iron Nairobi was constructed by his firm; the city’s Jeevanjee Gardens was his donation.
By the mid-twentieth century every small town in East Africa had the characteristic Indian strip of shops, and in even the smallest village you would find an Indian family branch running the solitary Indian shop. The Asian population totalled 366,000, with the highest number, 176,000, in Kenya with its total population of around 9 million. Unlike elsewhere, Indians had settled in East Africa as communities; there were Bhatias and Khojas, Jains, Shahs, Patels, Lohanas, Sikhs, Bohras, Memons, Kumbhads, and others. In the cities, the larger communities like the Khojas had their own primary and secondary schools for girls and boys, hospitals, dispensaries, and community halls. Dar es Salaam, with roughly 100,000 people at the end of the 1950s, had at least five Asian cricket teams. Abject poverty was rare, and even the most straitened household could afford three simple meals a day. For us growing up in East Africa, it was India that was poor and backward, as revealed to us in the newsreels and Indian films of the period.
Complex and multicultural
East African Asian society was complex and contradictory as any truly multicultural society needs to be (and perhaps as only Indians can make it). Asians tended to live close to their own communities; caste discrimination persisted, as did Muslims sectarian differences. Yet by the standards we see today in the world, East Africans were largely tolerant. It was understood that you did your thing. The azaan would go off in the mosques, the Khoja ginans would blare out over loudspeakers from their jamat khanas, a temple procession would block a road, the Diwali fatakdas would explode in the Hindu sections (and elsewhere). There was hardly any inter-communal violence, and nothing to compare remotely with the communal and caste slaughter that seems so routine in India.
Undoubtedly the Asians were racist — looking up to the “Europeans” and down on the Africans, by whom, as middlemen, they were often resented. Intermarriage between communities and races was a taboo that was just beginning to yield as I emerged from my teen years. Because the poorest people were among the Africans, it has been broadly claimed and often in Shylockian language that Asians were their exploiters. Asian liberals like to wallow in self-guilt. I have often retorted that my widowed mother worked from eight in the morning to ten at night, running her small shop, barely making ends meet while raising five children; whom did she exploit? Today many Tanzanian African women run small businesses similar to my mother’s. We often forget the wealthy and sophisticated African peoples who owned land and cattle; and while many Africans had homes in their villages, most Asians in Africa did not. If Asians did not marry Africans, the Africans, with ancient traditions of their own, had their own taboos; to imply that they panted to lay hands on Asian women is itself racist.
At the end of the 1960s
Be that as it may, around East Africa’s independence, in the early 1960s, there was a thriving community of Asians who saw themselves as Africans. In Tanzania most would speak two Indian languages plus Swahili and English. Among the elite there was excited talk of the “new African Asian” identity. There were Asian politicians and budding writers — Wole Soyinka’s Poems of Black Africa (1975) includes, significantly, three young Asian poets from Kenya; Africa’s most influential and exciting literary magazine of the 1960s, Transition, was founded and edited by Rajat Neogy of Kampala; and Amir Jamal, Tanzania’s beloved minister of finance for many years, was elected in African constituencies. At the end of the 1960s, there was no doubt in my generation that Africa was our home and we were in the vanguard.
The first set of Ugandan refugees to arrive at Stansted Airport near London after then Ugandan President Idi Amin ordered them on September 18, 1972 to leave the country. / The Hindu Archives
And yet in the 1970s it all fell apart. Kenya’s Asians who had not renounced their British citizenships in time had to leave en masse. In Uganda, Idi Amin had a dream and expelled all the Asians in another “Asian exodus”. In Tanzania, in spite of Nyerere’s enlightened policies, his socialism, combined with the Idi Amin scare, drove out many Asians. What remains of the Asians today is a somewhat insecure and aggrieved population, though most appear dedicated to where they live. Racism of the old sort is gone; intermarriages do happen. At crowded kabab and bhajia restaurants in Dar es Salaam, it is truly pleasing to see Indians and Africans squeezed together at the tables. Indian cuisine has made a big headway especially in Tanzania; country bus stops often have a stand making chapatis; “pilau,” “biriyani” and “sambusa” are Swahili words. What thwarts complete integration is the Asians’ distinct features and cultures, often reinforced by their religious traditions.
A new crop of young Indians has started to arrive. When I see them, they seem foreign and lost. At times I get xenophobic — what are they doing here? do they even speak the language? — when I myself am now Canadian, but also an African Asian.
(M.G. Vassanji is the author of A Place Within: Rediscovering India, and most recently, of And Home Was Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa. He lives in Toronto. www.mgvassanji.com)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Opinion / by M. G. Vassanji / December 27th, 2015
The Bengaluru solution – Triaminopyrimidine (TAP) comes with many advantages over existing drugs
Bengaluru :
Three scientists from Bengaluru, who led a team of global reserchers looking for an antimalarial drug, have found a fast-killing solution. After completing some tests, it’ll go in for clinical trials on humans. That this drug has the potential to cure the dreaded disease in one dose makes it more attractive to healthcare providers.
The Bengaluru solution — Triaminopyrimidine (TAP) — comes with many advantages over existing drugs. Vasan Sambandamurthy, one of the senior authors of the research paper, said: “It’s a fast-killing and long-acting antimalarial clinical candidate. TAP acts exclusively on the blood stage of Plasmodium falciparum (the stage responsible for clinical symptoms) in a relevant mouse model. This candidate is equally active against causative agent Plasmodium vivax.”
He added, “The compound has shown good safety margins in guinea pigs and rats. With a predicted half-life of 36 hours in humans, TAP offers potential for a single dose combination.”
The rapid spread of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite which causes malaria in humans, has left nations battling it with a weakened arsenal and coping with thousands of deaths every year. This parasite has gradually become resistant to available medication.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 3.2 billion people in 97 countries, including India, are at risk of being infected with malaria. In 2013, WHO reported an estimated 198 million cases and the disease was responsible for an estimated 5.84 lakh deaths, including 4.53 lakh children less than five years old.
Every person infected with malaria has to deal with millions of parasites and existing drugs have a limited effect in humans. “The half-life, which isn’t more than 2 hours, means it allows parasites to bounce back. Existing drugs are not fast-killing, which means that not only does a human need more doses but each dose is capable of only killing a few parasites,” he said.
Besides, a potential side-effect of existing drugs is liver damage. “This doesn’t happen all the time, but the possibility does exist. Also, the parasites have become resistant to these drugs. With TAP, there are now known side-effects and the parasites are unable to develop resistance at the same pace as they do for existing drugs,” he said.
TAP was discovered by a team at pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. “The main research happened in its R&D centre in Bengaluru between 2011 and 2014, which has since been shut down. It took us three years of rigorous work by teams across the globe. Today, we confidently nominate TAPs as a clinical candidate to treat drug-resistant malaria,” Vasan said. Shahul Hameed and Suresh Solapure were the two other team leaders.
Times View
The discovery of a malaria drug, yet again, highlights Bengaluru’s leadership in scientific research. The promise that the new medicine can kill the virus in a single stroke and act for a long time is good news for malaria patients. While the scientists deserve compliments on working towards a remedy free of side-effects, the companies that will eventually massproduce the drug should look at making it affordable to the aam aadmi. For their part, public health administrators must renew their battle to prevent vector-borne diseases, which cause untold suffering.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore / by Chetan Kumar, TNN / April 01st, 2015
Solapur (Maharashtra): In an attempt to highlight the great work that Muslims have done in the field of science, an Assistant Teacher of Urdu High School has written a book called‘Muslim Scienedano ki Scienci Khidmat’.
The 92-page book of Junaid A. Qayyum Shaikh, 37, an Assistant Teacher at Social Urdu High School and Junior College of Science, Solapur, was launched by Prof. Dr. N N Maldar, Vice Chancelor of Solapur University.
Shaikh, who has completed Masters in Science (MSc) and Bachelor of Education (B Ed) wrote this book in Urdu. In order to reach out to more readers, he plans to translate it into other languages. He says he has received several requests for translation of the book into other languages and many are ready to even offer help.
The author used many sources in compiling the present book. Shaikh claims “Book of Knowledge by Al Jazari” an Arabic book in original that was translated by Hill and Donald in English is one of the main source for his work.
He also referred : ‘Invention in the medieval Islamic World’ by Rotlink, ‘Introduction to Historyof Science’ by Sarton and George, ’The Muslim Scientist’ by Muhammad Yasin Owadally, Article on Muslim Scientist by Altaf Hussain Memon Tahari, Muslim Sciencedan by M A Siddiqui & Fayeza Siddique, Musalmano ke Scienci Karname by Muhammad Zakriya Virk and Biography- W Hazmy,Zainurashid Z, Hussain R.
The book presents brief information of Muslim scientists’ contribution in the fields of Mechanical Technology, Transport technology, Gun powder technology, Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Optics, etc.
Speaking with TwoCircles.net, Shaikh said, “Today most of us presume that the progress of science and technology is the contribution of Europe and American scientists only. In fact it is our lack of knowledge. The truth is that hundreds of Muslim Scientists have many inventions to their names in the field of science for centuries.”
“I felt that the newer generation is going far from the scientific history of Muslims and therefore thought that they must be reminded of contributions of Muslim Scientists so as to make it guideline and torchbearer for others who are interested in science and technology”, he said while replying to the question of trigger for him to write such book.
“This book is especially written for young Muslims, whose way of thinking is scientific and who are intersected in the research and findings related to science so that they can be motivated”, he added.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home / by A. Mirsab / December 13th, 2015
