Conditional nod from WHO for new drug to treat MDR TB

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed a new drug to stem the global spread of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, but has cautioned that its use must follow a set of guidelines issued by it.

Pointing out that since information about this new drug, Delamanid, remains limited, as it has only been through Phase IIb trial [the phase specifically designed to study efficacy — how well the drug works at the prescribed dosage] and studies for safety and efficacy, the WHO has issued interim policy guidance that lists five conditions that must be in place if the new drug is used to for treatment of MDR-TB.

According to the WHO 4,80,000 people developed MDR-TB in the world in 2013 and more than half of these cases occurred in India, China and the Russian federation. Almost 84,000 patients with MDR-TB were notified to the WHO globally in 2012, up from 62,000 in 2011. The biggest increases were in India, South Africa and Ukraine. The new drug is being described as “a novel mechanism of action” for treatment of adults with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). (MDR-TB is TB that does not respond to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-TB drugs.)

Delamanid has been granted conditional approval by the European Medicine Agency in April 2014 and can be used for the treatment of tuberculosis resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the main first-line drugs.

The WHO has advocated “special caution” for the use of Delamanid in people aged 65 and over, in adults living with HIV, patients with diabetes, hepatic or severe renal impairment, or those who use alcohol or substances.

WHO has cautioned that “When Delamanid is included in treatment, all principles on which the WHO-recommended MDR-TB treatment regimens are based must be followed, particularly the inclusion of four effective second-line drugs as well as pyrazinamide. Delamanid should not be introduced alone into a regimen in which the companion drugs are failing to show effectiveness.”

India slips further in ease of business ranking

India ranked 142 among the 189 countries surveyed for the latest World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report released recently, a drop by two places from the last year’s ranking, as Singapore topped the list.

The fall in ranking from last year’s 140 is mainly because other nations performed much better, Bank officials said. India’s ranking originally stood at 134 last year, but was adjusted to 140 to account for fresh data.

In the 2014 report, India had 52.78 points and this year it scored 53.97 points.

The latest ranking, however, does not take into account a slew of measures taken by the New government to make India a business friendly destination.

Appreciative of the steps taken by the new government, World Bank officials said that there was a very high likelihood of India significantly jumping up the ladder in the next report

How do we know where is what? The ‘inner GPS’ in our brains

Identification of each location-specific place cell and the map built up by them was a major starting point in neural mapping

How do we know where is what? Recognize places and directions? Where do we store such information and recall them from memory? Today, thanks to the power of information technology, speedy computation and communication, we no longer need to ask a passer-by where a given place is, but use a Google Map on geographic positioning system (GPS). But how does the brain do all this? Animals such as rats or dogs, or even we humans before the computer age, did not have this facility and yet we carried on quite well. We stored such information in our brains and recalled them when needed. How does all this happen? Where is this ‘inner GPS’ in our brain?

Answers to some of these questions have come from the study of three scientists — John O’Keefe at the University College London, UK, May-Britt Moser and her husband Edvard Moser, both from Trondheim Norway — the trio whom were awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

It had been known for some time that the brain’s memory centre is the hippocampus, a seahorse shaped component (hippo means horse and kampus a sea monster, hence the name) lying below the cerebral cortex. It was in the late 1960s that John O’Keefe began working in the area of how the brain controls behaviour and how rats learn to navigate across a maze in a room. He placed rats in a large cage, stuck electrodes in chosen parts of their brain, notably the hippocampus and recorded the electrical signals coming out as the rats moved across space. When a rat goes to a particular place in the cage (say a corner or a bump), certain specific nerve cells were found to be activated. When it went to another location, yet another set of cells were activated. Gradually then, O’Keefe could identify what he termed as location-specific ‘place cells’ and a map built up by such place cells in the hippocampus, each place cell activated in a specific location or environment. This was a major starting point in neural mapping.

It was during this time that the Norwegian couple May-Britt and Edvard Moser finished their PhD degrees from the University of Oslo and went first to the University of Edinburgh and then to the O’Keefe lab at London as postdoctoral fellows to be mentored by him. Here they decided to take further neurophysiology of the inner GPS in rats. Upon winning a competitive research grant from the Kavli Foundation at California, U.S., they returned to Norway to set up a research centre at Trondheim. Their aim was to find out where the signals for the firing of the place cells are located in the brain.

Towards this, they implanted electrodes directly into the hippocampus and the surrounding region of a rat that was allowed to run around freely in a large box. The signals from the electrodes were analyzed using a computer, as the rat ran around the box, thus generating a map of its movements. Next, they chemically inactivated (numbed) chosen regions of the hippocampus and the surrounding region, a thin strip of a tissue called the entorhinal cortex (ERC) and watched. To their surprise, they found that the message to fire place cells in the hippocampus actually flowed from cells in the ERC.

Studying these ERC cells and their signals as a rat goes to a specific spot in the box, they found that the signals on the computer screen were not simple but arranged in a grid-like arrangement’— a hexagonal pattern much like a honeycomb!

As Dr Alison Abbot points out in her lucid summary of the work in the 9 October 2014 issue of the journal Nature, there are no physical hexagons traced on the floor of the box; these shapes are abstractly created in the rat’s brain and imposed on the environment — the code in the brain language, using which the rat navigates space and locations.

Even more striking is the arrangement of the grid-generating cells (called the grid cells) in the ERC. AS we move from the top part of the ERC strip to the bottom, the pattern expands from narrow spacing to bigger grids in steps or modules. And they expand by a constant factor (of 1.4) in each step of the module!

The mathematical features of the hexagonal patterns and the definite modules have attracted theoreticians. Dr Alison Abbot quotes the computational neuroscientist Dr. Andreas Herz of Munich, Germany who exclaims: “It (these findings) was so unexpected that the brain would use the same simple geometric forms that we have been describing in mathematics for millennia.” It suggests also that babies, humans and rats, are born with a very primitive sense of where they are in space and that this sense develops as the brain adapts to the world. The poet talked about the “mind’s eye”. See how prescient this phrase has been.

Finally, the work also highlights how important working with animals as models is. The recent banning of animal experiments in schools and colleges has been a bad move, and needs to be rescinded.

Project 75I

Recently, a decision was taken by the Defence Minister relating to build six state-of-the-art submarines for the navy under Project 75I.

About Project 75I:

Under Project 75I India will purchase 6 next generation diesel submarines with Air Independent Propulsion System (AIP) technology for the Indian Navy by 2022.

Conventional diesel-electric submarines have to surface every few days to get oxygen to recharge their batteries. With AIP systems, they can stay submerged for much longer periods.

Project 75-I will have both vertical launched BrahMos for the sea & land targets and tube-launched torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. The new Project 75-I submarines are huge in value, estimated at around $10 billion-plus, depending upon the offsets and transfer of technology (ToT). The defense offsets policy mandates a minimum investment of 30 per cent to be put back in a related defence industrial venture in India.

Acceptance of Necessity for acquisition of six submarines under Project-75(I) has been accorded by the Defence Acquisition Council in August 2010. The case is being progressed in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure.

The Indian navy requested information from firms who had independently designed and constructed a complete modern conventional submarine which is currently in service / undergoing sea trials. The submarine should be capable of operating in open ocean and littoral / shallow waters in dense environment and able to undertake following missions:-

• anti surface and anti submarine warfare.
• supporting operations ashore.
• ISR missions.    
• special force and mining ops

Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana

Centre has launched Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY) for welfare of Tribals. The scheme was launched on the occasion of the meeting of the Tribal Welfare Ministers of States/UTs. The scheme is aimed at improving the infrastructure and human development indices of the tribal population.

The scheme been launched on pilot basis in one block each of the States of AP, MP, HP, Telangana, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Under the scheme centre will provide Rs. 10 crore for each block for the development of various facilities for the Tribals. These blocks have been selected on the recommendations of the concerned States and have very low literacy rate.

This scheme mainly focuses on bridging infrastructural gaps and gap in human development indices between Schedule tribes and other social groups. VKY also envisages to focus on convergence of different schemes of development of Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments with outcome oriented approach. Initially the blocks having at least 33% of tribal population in comparison to total population of the block will be targeted.

Gender equality still a far cry in India

Indian women still face some of the world’s worst inequality in access to health care, education and work, despite years of rapid economic growth, according to a survey of 142 nations released on Tuesday.

The annual Gender Gap Index by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum showed India falling to 114th place, after being ranked 101st out of 136 countries surveyed last year. That puts India below other fast-developing nations including China, ranked 87th, and Brazil at 71.

Nordic nations led the world in promoting equality of the sexes, as they have for many years, with Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark occupying the top five spots.

The United States climbed three places to 20th, thanks to a narrowing wage gap and more women occupying political offices.

“Achieving gender equality is obviously necessary for economic reasons. Only those economies who have full access to all their talent will remain competitive and will prosper,” Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman, said in a statement.

Yemen, Pakistan and Chad remained at the bottom of the index, which ranks countries based on government statistics in four categories- health and survival, access to education, economic opportunity and political participation. India ranked an impressive 15th for female political participation, given a large number of women holding public office. But it was among the bottom 20 in terms of income, literacy, work force participation and infant survival.

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India falls from 101 to 114 in annual Gender Gap Index

Inequality exists in access to health care, education and work

Surprisingly, nation ranks 15th in female political participation

Right at the bottom in income, literacy, work force participation

India, which ranks low on narrowing the gender gap in education, health and equal pay for equal work, has, however, taken a high position on the political empowerment sub-index, shows the annual gender survey of the World Economic Forum.

Placing India at 114 out of 142 countries vis-à-vis removing gender-based disparities, the survey puts the country at number 15 on the scorecard for political empowerment. India also tops the list of countries on the years with woman head of state (over the past 50 years). While it fell 13 places to 114th slot, politically it is ranked higher than the United States and the United Kingdom. It ranks 111 on the list of countries which have women in Parliament and 107 on the list of countries with women ministers.

“India experienced a drop [in absolute and relative value] on the health and survival sub-index compared with 2006, mainly due to a decrease in the female-to-male sex ratio at birth. In 2014, it also performed below average on the Economic Participation and Opportunity and Educational Attainment sub-indexes,” the report says.

On economic participation and opportunity, India ranks 134, while on educational attainment it ranks 126. But on the health and survival parameter India’s rank is among the lowest at 142.

Owing to its low sex ratio at birth India slumps to 114th position overall, which makes it the lowest-ranked BRICS nation and one of the few countries where female labour force participation is shrinking, the report states.

Pointing out that it will take 81 years for gender parity at the workplace, the report shows Nordic nations dominate the Global Gender Gap Index in 2014; Nicaragua, Rwanda and the Philippines all make the top 10.

The index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. The index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health criteria.

The report says on average, in 2014, over 96 per cent of the gap in health outcomes, 94 per cent of the gap in educational attainment, 60 per cent of the gap in economic participation and 21 per cent of the gap in political empowerment has been closed. No country in the world has achieved gender equality.

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Bangalore Railway Station Becomes the First Station in the Country to Have Wifi Facility

Bangalore Railway Station Becomes the First Station in the Country to Have Wifi Facility

The Indian Railways has successfully implemented Wi-Fi facility in Bangalore City Railway station for providing high speed internet to the passengers. “RailWire” - the retail Broadband distribution model of RailTel Corporation of India Ltd, a PSU of the Ministry of Railways, is the powering engine for distributing internet bandwidth through WiFi. The facility at Bangalore is taken up as a pilot project. The Minister of Railways Shri D.V.Sadananda Gowda recently inaugurated the facility and dedicated the service for passengers. This service will be great help for the commuters at Bangalore City Railway station to stay connected and surf internet on the go. With the implementation of this service, Bangalore railway station becomes the first station in the country to have WiFi facility for passengers. RailTel has been mandated by Railways to provide Wi-Fi facility at A1 & A category stations and Bangalore is the first such stations being taken up this facility by RailTel as a pilot. The facility has been created by RailTel with a Gigabit Ethernet network using Optic Fibre in a ring. 17 such GE switches deliver to 46 Nos of Wireless Access Points (AP), which are commissioned strategically at all 10 Platforms including concourse area. OFC cable has been laid in all the platforms at Bangalore City Station, including FOB & Subway. Wi-Fi facility shall be available to the passengers on their Mobile Phones free of charges initially for a period of 30 minutes. For usage beyond 30 minutes, the user may purchase scratch cards, which will be made available at the WiFi Help Desk. These are priced at Rs.25 for 30 minutes and Rs.35 for 1 Hour and are valid through 24 hours.Additional browsing time can also be purchased on-line using Credit/Debit cards. RailTel Corporation a "Mini Ratna (Category-I)" PSU is the largest neutral telecom services providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fiber network covering all important towns & cities of the country and several rural areas covering 70% of India’s population. RailTel is in the forefront in providing nationwide Broadband Telecom & Multimedia Network in all parts of the country in addition to modernization of Train operations and administration network systems for Indian Railways. With its Pan India high capacity network, RailTel is working towards creating a knowledge society at various fronts and has been selected for implementation of various.