The kit is being used by over one lakh students in 16 states of India, according to an official of PROSOC Innovators Pvt Ltd, a start-up incubated at IIT-Kanpur.(sourced)
A start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) has come up with a unique solution to check the problem of bad posture among students. ‘Deskit’ — a study table-cum school bag — is being used by over one lakh students hailing from the economically weaker section in 16 states of the country, said an official of the start-up.
“Our company is incubated in the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) at IIT-K. The centre, a launch pad for purpose-driven entrepreneurs, provided our start-up, PROSOC Innovators Pvt Ltd, a platform to come up with this innovation,” said Eshan Sadasivan, founder and CEO of the company. He explained that PROSOC stood for ‘products for society’.
Explaining how he first got the idea for the kit, he said, “I was teaching children of marginalised communities as a volunteer as part of an initiative of IIT-K students. I saw students sitting in a wrong posture while studying. When I surveyed the market for existing solutions, I found that the products were not ergonomically well-designed.”
“I took the help of some friends, a few team members from PROSOC and the technical staff of IIT-K’s design programme to develop more than 40 prototypes before finalising the design that was eventually commercialised,” said Sadasivan.
He said the idea behind attaching the desk to the bag was to make it simpler for students to carry it to school. “Also, in many government schools in our country, children still sit on the floor to study. The kit would be of great help to them,” said Sadasivan adding that recently the Telangana government had placed an order for these special kits with PROSOC.
“Each bag costs around Rs 500. The funding and incubation support we got from the Invent Social Incubation Programme by the technology development board, Government of India, in association with Villgro and UK Aid, was very helpful while we were scaling up,” he said.
‘Deskit’ has design registration and trademark protection. “The PROSOC team is working on taking the kit to more than three crore students,” said Sadasivan.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Lucknow / by Rajeev Mullick / November 27th, 2019
Dr Ashok Jain is the founder of Roshni Eye bank and Charitable Eye Hospital running in Saharanpur since past many years.
Roshni Eye Bank and Charitable Hospital in Saharanpur (L). Dr Ashok Jain in Hospital. (SNS)
The eye man of the area, Dr Ashok Jain, who served the society selflessly by bringing the vision back to the eyes of hundreds of people was lying on his death bed in the absence of medical help until the Divisional Commissioner of Saharanpur Sanjay Kumar initiated help and ensured that he gets the best of treatment.
Dr Ashok Jain, 72, was admitted to Saksham Hospital on Thursday morning by the district health officials of Saharanpur.
“My father has been moved to the hospital and would be getting proper treatment,” his son Suraj said adding that he is grateful to the Divisional Commissioner Sanjay Kumar for his kind gesture.
Dr Ashok Jain is the founder of Roshni Eye bank and Charitable Eye Hospital running in Saharanpur since past many years. Its brand ambassador is Bollywood actress Kainaat Arora who also hails from Saharanpur.
“So far I have extracted 648 Retinas and given to the Himalayan Institute Jolly Grant and earlier LLRM Medical College of Meerut,” said Dr Jain in a faint voice adding that, however, he could not extract any retina since past four months.
Dr Jain is suffering from the cancer of food pipe and is not able to swallow food due to which he is on a liquid diet. Living in a state of poverty, the family of Dr Jain, which comprises of son Suraj, his wife Anshu, and a seven-year-old grandson is finding itself helpless in getting any relief for him.
Unfortunately, the man who had served the society for years was not reciprocated in kind by society.
“People come here, click photos, and then vanish but no one came forward for any help,” told daughter-in-law Anshu. Suraj is the only breadwinner for the family who makes a living by working as an electrician. Hence, he could not afford to provide better treatment to his father. He was on Ayurvedic treatment, told Anshu.
The family lives in a three-storied charitable eye hospital in Preet Vihar colony of Saharanpur.
“Though Suraj has been trained to extract retina by me the mission has received a serious jolt after the news of my illness spread,” claimed Dr Jain, saying that his desire is to extract one last retina before his death.
The news of the illness of Dr Jain and his poor condition somehow reached the commissioner Saharanpur who immediately called the district health officials and instructed them to visit Dr Jain and report to him. AD health and City Magistrate Saharanpur reached there with a team which performed the check-up and reported to the commissioner. “He is also having heart problem besides cancer and is in a poor condition,” told Kumar, on whose instructions Dr Jain was taken to the hospital on Thursday in an ambulance and his treatment started.
The life of Dr Ashok Jain is truly inspirational. He originally hails from Moga of Punjab. Inspired by his father who was in the Navy, Ashok became a boxer. In the early years of his life, he lost his vision in a boxing match. He experienced the world of blindness and turmoil faced by the visually impaired. He somehow got donors of the retina and got back his vision. It was then that he started working to create awareness about eye donation. In this mission, he got the love and support of his wife Kusum who died in an accident a few years back.
Dr Jain toured the entire country on a bicycle and encouraged people for eye donation. He got a pledge of eye donation from many celebrities as well. Meanwhile, he did a course of paramedical from LLRM Medical College of Meerut and learnt to extract the retina. He settled in Saharanpur and opened Roshni Eye Bank in which he got the support of his wife as well.
Impressed by his selfless service to mankind, DM Saharanpur Alok Kumar helped him in forming a trust and getting funds to build Roshni Charitable Eye Bank and Hospital. Dr Jain continued to provide his services. He used to extract retinas and give them to Himalayan Hospital of Jolly Grant for which he would get Rs 500 each. From Saharanpur to Jolly Grant, Dehradun, he would go on a bike which was also given to him in charity. OPD for Rs 20 per head is still functional and free check-up is done for the extremely poor.
Dr Jain has no bank balance or property but lives with the satisfaction of bringing the vision to the lives of 648 people.
source: http://www.thestatesman.com / The Statesman / Home> India / by Swati Sharma / Meerut / August 22nd, 2019
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur developed a motion planning and mapping generation software for the Chandrayaan-2 mission which is now on its intended path towards the moon.
This software will help the rover Pragyan in its landing and movement on the lunar surface, reports New Indian Express.
The IIT Kanpur team comprised of Prof Ashish Datta of the Mechanical Engineering Department and Prof KS Venkatesh of Electrical Engineering wing. The 27 kg rover runs on 50 W of solar power and can travel up to 500 m at a speed of 1 cm per second and communicates directly with the lander.
The made in India software would help the rover in drilling the lunar surface, to explore for traces of water and minerals before beaming back its findings for further research and examination.
The rover is expected to soft-land on the lunar surface in the first week of September.
source: http://www.swarajyamag.com / Swarajya Magazine / Home / by Swarajya Staff / July 24th, 2019
The mission director for Chandrayaan-2 Ritu Karidhal Srivastava did her MSc in Physics from the University of Lucknow in 1996.
Lucknow :
As the nation celebrated the launch of Chandrayaan-2, people in Lucknow are over the moon revelling in mission director Ritu Karidhal Srivastava’s connection to the city.
Congratulatory messages poured in for teachers, batchmates and relatives of Ritu Karidhal Srivastava in Lucknow.
“The entire department is feeling proud on the achievements of Ritu Karidhal, who did her MSc in Physics from this department in 1996,” Poonam Tandon, head of the Physics department at the University of Lucknow, said.
“She was a very bright student and is certainly a role model for the current batch of students. The entire department is excited over her success and that of the ISRO. She is indeed a proud alumnus of the department,” she said.
Ms Tandon said the department is chalking out a programme to felicitate the Chandrayaan-2 mission director.
In the state assembly on Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lauded ISRO scientists, specifically mentioning Ritu Karidhal Srivastava.
Meanwhile, a batchmate of hers recalled the ISRO scientist’s days at the University of Lucknow. “She was a brilliant student and had a good command over the subject,” said Vikal Saxena, who teaches Physics at a private university in the city.
“In fact, on couple of occasions she cleared my doubts as well,” he said, recalling that she helped all students and was also popular with those from the junior batches.
Ritu Karidhal’s cousin Ajay Srivastava shared the sentiment. “She is very polite by nature and used to encourage her siblings in every aspect of life. She guided us. Be it her educational qualifications or behavioural attributes, she is very good,” he said.
India’s moon mission Chandrayaan 2 lifted off from its launch pad at Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota at 2:43 pm on Monday on board a giant heavy-lift rocket. India’s space scientists had a narrow one-minute window for their second attempt at launching the moon mission, a week after the mission was aborted 56 minutes before lift-off.COMMENT
The success of Chandrayaan 2 mission will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to pull off a soft landing on the moon.
source: http://www.ndtv.com / NDTV / Home> Sections> Lucknow / by Press Trust of India / July 23rd, 2019
Multitasking molecule: Unlike the molecules now being tested, our peptide molecule also reduces the amount of IL-6 being released, say Arun Shukla (right) and Shubhi Pandey.
Hyper inflammation compromises pathogen-clearing ability, also destroys the tissues surrounding the inflamed area
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur have identified and characterised a novel small protein molecule that can effectively control inflammation leading to better treatment outcomes. In contrast, inflammation control by molecules that are undergoing clinical trials may not be optimal due to inherent drawbacks. The work was done in collaboration with the University of Queensland.
Hyper inflammation
While some amount of inflammation at the site of infection is required for effective clearance of pathogens, too much inflammation compromises pathogen-clearing ability. Hyper inflammation also destroys the tissues surrounding the inflamed area leading to inflammation disorders such as sepsis, inflammatory bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.
A small protein (C5a) that is a part of the innate immunity (immediate defence against pathogens that have never been encountered before) gets activated when a pathogen enters the body. The C5a protein then binds to a particular receptor (C5aR1) found on the surface of certain cells such as macrophages and neutrophils to begin the process of inflammation and pathogen clearance.
Neutrophiles are already present in the body and circulate in the blood. Once the small protein binds to the C5aR1 receptor found on neutrophils, there is increased migration towards the site of infection leading to hyper inflammation. At the same time, binding of the small protein to the receptor on macrophages reduces the amount of a pro-inflammatory cytokine called interleukin-6 (IL-6) that is released, which is desirable to overcome inflammatory symptoms.
Therapeutic agents now undergoing clinical testing prevent the C5a protein from binding to the receptor found on neutrophils leading to reduced migration of neutrophils to the site of infection. Hyper inflammation is thus prevented. However, it has the opposite effect on interleukin-6 release. Unlike the C5a protein, the drug candidate molecules do not reduce the amount of IL-6 being released thereby causing more inflammation.
Role of IL-6
“There is more inflammation when the amount of IL-6 at the site of infection is more. So it is desirable to reduce the amount of IL-6 being released to overcome the inflammatory symptoms,” says Arun Shukla from the institute’s Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering. He is one of the corresponding authors of a paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The small protein molecule identified by IIT Kanpur researchers addresses the shortcomings seen with the drug molecules now undergoing clinical testing. The drug molecule that IIT Kanpur team used for this study is already known to bind to the C5aR1 receptor. But its effects were not characterised in term of IL-6 release and neutrophil migration.
“Our peptide molecule binds to the C5aR1 receptor found on neutrophils and reduces their migration to the site of infection. And unlike the molecules now being tested, our peptide molecule also reduces the amount of IL-6 being released,” says Prof. Shukla. Under in vitro conditions, the combined effect may lead to reduced inflammation.
“The molecule only reduces and not blocks neutrophil migration. There should be sufficient inflammation at the infection site to clear the pathogens,” says Shubhi Pandey from IIT Kanpur and first author of the paper.
The peptide molecule identified by the team is smaller than the C5a protein so the binding to the receptor is weak. “So we have to use higher concentration of our synthetic peptide to achieve better results. Future work would be to increase the strength of binding by improving the molecule so that less concentration is needed,” Prof. Shukla says. The team plans to carry out animal studies in future to measure the therapeutic potential of the molecule.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Science / by R. Prasad / May 04th, 2019
The Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre in Varanasi is a unit of Tata Memorial Centre.
Cancer centre built in record 10 months; takes load off Tata Memorial Hospital in city
Built in 10 months, the 352-bed Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre in Varanasi has made it to the India Book of Records for being the largest cancer hospital built in the least amount of time. While the hospital will take a large amount of patient load off Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), it is the TMH doctors who have played a crucial role in setting up the Varanasi hospital.
Dedicated staff
Spread across 5.86 lakh sq. ft, the hospital was built in record time, from April 4, 2018, to February 7, 2019, and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after. “The Tata Trusts carried out the civil work while the doctors from TMH played a role in the instrumentation, designing and training the medical staff,” said Dr. Rajendra Badwe, director of Tata Memorial Centre (TMC). He said that the Varanasi hospital now has a dedicated medical staff of 15 surgeons, six radiation oncologists, and five medical oncologists. “While the staff is now equipped to handle all routine cases, doctors from TMH will visit the hospital for four days every fortnight for intervention in complex cases,” said Dr. Badwe.
The hospital, he said, will cater to people from eastern and central Uttar Pradesh, northern Bihar and parts of Chhattisgarh. “We had also started a cancer registry in Varanasi and Muzaffarnagar to understand the magnitude of the problem there,” said Dr. Badwe.
Last year, a 180-bed Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital was opened in Varanasi in place of a dilapidated railway cancer hospital. The Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre has come up in the campus of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), which is about seven km away from the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital. “Normally, a project like this would take over three years to complete. What the Tata Trusts has managed to achieve is great,” said Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck cancer surgeon from TMH. The Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital will focus on blood, bone and paediatric cancers and the Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre will be a dedicated facility for solid tumours in adults. “The TMC had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the BHU after which the land was transferred to the Department of Atomic Energy to make way for the hospital,” explained Dr. Chaturvedi.
Nearly one million new cancer cases are diagnosed in India annually. Mumbai’s TMH handles the highest load of patients, with over 65,000 new registrations every year. According to Dr. Chaturvedi, the incidence of cancer is 100 per lakh people in urban areas and 80 per lakh in rural India.
“With the lifestyle choices that we are making, the incidence is going to rise exponentially. Thus, the best way to offer cancer care would be decentralising it,” said Dr. Chaturvedi. Two-thirds of cancer patients coming to TMH are from out of the city, and this leads to huge out-of-pocket expenditure in terms of travel and stay. He said, “By 2021, the TMC will be running at least six hospitals across the country with over 3,500 beds.”
‘Project buddies’
As per a conventional plan, the Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre was to be ready by 2021. How did the team manage to construct the hospital in merely 10 months then? A member of the Tata Trusts said cross-functional teams with diverse portfolios were set up to collaborate and execute the plan. The team members were called ‘project buddies’.
“Meticulous planning of logistics, material and manpower was done. A dedicated team of engineers and workers were on the job round the clock. We ensured that they were highly motivated and self-driven,” he said.
Resources were integrated and milestones were mapped judiciously. The construction work also involved using the dry composite method instead of the conventional brick-and-mortar technology.
The dry composite technology meant that the walls and wood work were pre-fabricated and brought to the site.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mumbai / by Jyoti Shelar / March 13th, 2019
The Uttar Pradesh government claimed that the digital land project of the Board of Revenue won the national gold award for 2018-19 for e-governance at an award ceremony at Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.
The award was given away by Union Minister of State (Independent charge) Jitendra Singh.
“Our digital land project also formed foundation for successful implementation of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana under which Rs 2,000 was directly transferred to the accounts of more than one crore farmers in the state by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 24,” a government spokesman said in Lucknow on Thursday
The spokesman said that the success of the project could be gauged by the fact that this portal received more than a crore hits per day. During the peak period (on 13-2-2019), the portal received more than 5.30 crore hits in a single day.
The national gold award-2018-19 for e-governance was presented to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by a Revenue department team in Lucknow on Thursday.
source: http://www.dailypioneer.com / The Pioneer / Home> State Editions> Lucknow / PNS Lucknow / March 01st, 2019
A pot burial site, quite rare in the north-east, was recently found at a construction site in Muallungthu village, 20km from Mizoram’s capital Aizawal.
Two skulls and bones placed in a pot were found in a Mizo village(Sourced)
Pot burial and ‘strange’ burial practices of megalithic culture that dates way back to 1500 Bc all set to be unleashed. City’s prime Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotony (BSIP) is going to decode the mysteries of megalithic culture by extracting DNA from the skulls, it discovered recently during an construction work in Mizoram.
Pot burial site that is quite a rare in North East India, was recently found during a construction site in village Muallungthu, 20km from Mizoram capital Aizawal. On the rare discovery, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Aizawal, sought expertise from the scientists from city based BSIP institute, helping them in unleashing pot burial culture, quite common practice during megalithic culture.
“We found two skulls and bones, placed in a pot. We are studying the skulls that were found more than 10 feet below the ground. Besides we are also trying to study the femur bones that were also recovered from the burial pot,” said Dr Niraj Rai, senior scientist with Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotony (BSIP) while talking to HT.
Though they are yet to assess the age of the skulls, but Rai said from the pattern of soil deposition on the skulls and archaeological findings, it could be said that the skulls may be around 2000 year old. However, now the institute is going to extract the DNA from the remains, which they say will unleash many untold mysteries related to this particular tribe that has such strange burial practices.
“DNA extraction from the remains would help us in understanding the cultural continuity of these tribes, which so far is unknown. The DNA extraction exercise would be carried out early next month after which the DNA would be matched to our modern population DNA data base of more than 400 population group, from different ethnic backgrounds and different linguistic families. We would try to match the DNA to assess the cultural continuity of this community,” he added.
Such burial practices he said was quite a common in Asian counties and in India, it is common in south India and North East India.
He said the findings would further help in understanding the migration and mixing pattern of this community and also the population of this community at that time.
Dr Sujeet Nayan, deputy superintending archaeologist Aizawal circle, the search is on, there are more than three burials there. “We are now planning to go for carbon dating. The research and excavation is on. It’s a rare discovery,”
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Education / by HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times – Lucknow / February 26th, 2019
Northwestern Memorial used the da Vinci Xi Surgical System to perform the first robotic-assisted lung volume reduction surgery in the U.S.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital has become the first provider in the U.S. to perform robotic-assisted lung volume reduction surgery, using the da Vinci Xi Surgical System.
The system was used by hospital staff to precisely target and remove the diseased, emphysematous tissue within the lungs of a patient with severe emphysema, reducing pain, scarring and risk of infection, and providing a shorter recovery time.
“Milestones such as these give us great pride in the relentless pursuit to always provide better surgical treatment options for patients who are in need,” Dr. Ankit Bharat, MD, surgical director of the Lung Transplant Program & ECMO at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, told HCB News. “I’m ecstatic to be able to now offer this minimally invasive option to our patients who are seeking a surgical treatment option for COPD. Combining this medical innovation with exemplary patient care opens doors for more patients to become good candidates for robotic lung volume reduction surgery because of the decrease in risk.”
Emphysema is a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that affects 16 million Americans currently, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Traditional surgical techniques require a larger chest incision to access the lungs, whereas robotic LVRS relies on three eight-millimeter incisions which reduces scarring, risk of infection and potentially, the length of stay within a hospital following the procedure.
The system enables surgeons with specialized training in robotic surgery to oversee procedures from a computer console, looking through a stereoscopic, high-definition monitor to peer inside the patient. This provides a more detailed 3D view of the operating area compared to the human eye.
Comprising the solution is a tower containing four arms. One carries the system’s 3D cameras, while the other three can hold a multitude of surgical equipment, with a computer controlling and replicating each one’s movement to match those of an operating surgeon.
During surgery, the tower is placed directly over the patient. Using master controls, the surgeon directs the arms to make three small incisions on the right side of the chest to access the lungs and remove the diseased cysts. This allows the remaining, healthy lung tissue to support optimal breathing, with the diaphragm, chest wall and rib cage returning to a more normal state.
“Surgical therapies are evolving to enhance precision using minimally invasive platforms,” said Bharat. “Incorporating artificial intelligence in the imminent future is likely to enhance our surgical decision-making and better manage intraoperative variability. Additionally, the multidisciplinary approach used in our case, incorporating experts from both pulmonary medicine and thoracic surgery, will be increasingly incorporated to provide the most effective and improved treatment options to our patients.”
The system was adoptedd just a little over a year ago by the Montreal Heart Institute for use in cardiac surgery.
It is FDA-cleared and CE-marked.
source: http://www.dotmed.com / Health Care Business, Daily News / Home> News Home> Operating Room / by John R Fischer, Staff Reporter / January 23rd, 2019
Professor S N Tirpathi said usually a sensor of this calibre costs around Rs 1-2 crore in the international market, but the scientists at IIT-Kanpur have made it in just Rs 50,000.
A traffic policeman wears an anti-pollution mask to protect himself from growing level of air pollution in New Delhi. (File | PTI)
Kanpur :
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology here said they have developed an air pollution sensor which they claim costs much less than similar instruments worldwide.
The sensor will measure the level of harmful gases, including ozone and nitrogen oxides, said professor S N Tirpathi.
The professor said usually a sensor of this calibre costs around Rs 1-2 crore in the international market, but the scientists at IIT-Kanpur have made it in just Rs 50,000.
Testing of the sensor will be done in June and if it passes the test, then the sensors will be installed in 150 cities of the country, he told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.
The first 25 sensors will be installed at IIT-Kanpur campus, while 15 sensors will be installed at IIT-Bombay, the professor said.
After the testing of data, 50-60 sensors will be installed in Varanasi, Tripathi said.
He said the success was gained in developing a reliable and cheaper monitoring sensor under a India-US project.
The Union government’s Department of Science and Technology has contributed Rs 6 crore for the project, Tripathi said.
During a press conference, the institute’s dean research and alumni professor, B V Fadi, said the continuous increase in the level of pollution in the country is a cause for concern.
“So everyone has decided that they will work together to decrease pollution,” he added.
Quoting a report of the WHO, he said 1.60 lakh people died worldwide last year due to pollution and the death rate is increasing.
IIT-K alumni association president Pradeep Bhargava claimed that in the next phase of the project, countries like Singapore, Japan, China and the UAE will also be included.
He said former students of the institute living in these countries will work on the project.
