Rajiv Gandhi International Airport: Speed bumps to airport

March 9, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, March 8: It's utter chaos and confusion. With just a week left for
the new international airport at Shamshabad to become commercially operational, things do not appear as bright as they are projected.
First traffic chaos rules the connecting roads. Secondly, passengers, particularly domestic, are confused. Thirdly, low-cost airline operators are unhappy fearing loss of domestic business. And finally, pilots and airline crew find it really tiresome to report for duties at the new airport, 35 km away from their residence back in Hyderabad.
GMR Group, which executed India's first private-public partnership airport, may hail the Shamshabad airport as the best in its class in the country, but the changeover does not appear to be a smooth affair. The new airport may provide one of the best world class infrastructure for both domestic and international passengers, but to avail of such facilities the travelling public need to spend a few hours more, travelling more than 30 km through bottlenecks and dug-up roads.
Come March 16 and Hyderabad will get India's newest airport with a runway extending to more than four km facilitating quick landings and takeoffs. The flight delays may become a thing of the past and the passengers be able to reach their destination in time. But the only hitch is the road connectivity.
Though the State government is working over time to provide one of the best road connectivity for air passengers, procedural delays have come as a major hurdle in early completion. As things stand today, passengers will have to negotiate through traffic chaos for at least one year. The PVN Expressway is way behind schedule and is unlikely to be completed before May next year.
Apart from traffic problems, passengers will have to put up with confusion for at least a couple of months, till they get used to the fact that the airport had been shifted from Begumpet to Shamshabad. The GMR Group has made arrangements for passenger pick-ups but does not guarantee quick service as it cannot vouchsafe for free movement of vehicles. It's for the traffic police and the State government to act on this count.
If one leaves these initial hiccups behind, the facilities that are being offered
at Shamshabad are truly of world class. For the first time, the airport will have a real duty free shopping arcade. The retail offer in the international terminal will comprise a total of three stores, covering 2,500 sq mts. One of these stores is a 1,277 sq mts arrival store. Domestic retail will consist of three stores and a total of 310 sq mts.
Moreover, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport will have world class food and beverage counters in the arrival, departure areas and the airport village, a new concept being introduced for the first time in India. International brands like HMS Host, Blue Foods Private Limited, Café Coffee Day, Hard Rock Café and Cookie Man will be serving the passengers at the airport.
As the GMR Groups gets ready for the grand opening of the airport, several groups have advocated that the present airport at Begumpet could be utilised for domestic and short-distance services. Officials, however, point out that this is not going to be economically feasible and only add to the confusion of passengers. Those coming to Hyderabad from small cities to board international flights will have to face the additional problem of changing from domestic to international airports, 35 km apart.
The new airport, it is argued, has been developed keeping in mind the future demand of Hyderabad, which is all set to become an international hub in south east Asia. The present problems are just temporary and as the outer ring road and expressway become operational, the sailing, nay flying will be a smoother affair.

Cancer Atlas: Indian women more prone to cancers

March 9, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, March 8: Women are at more risk of developing cancers than men,
says a study conducted in major cities across the country.
The lifetime risk of developing 10 major cancers in India is 0.04 to 2.4
per cent for women and 0.05 per cent to 0.95 per cent for men. The study conducted by
health experts L Satyanarayana and A Smita based on the data collected from the
National Cancer Registry Programme of India showed significant increasing trends
for breast, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (cancer of white blood cells), gallbladder, thyroid and ovary cancers among women. The cancers of cervix, mouth, stomach, oesophagus and tongue showed a reverse trend.
In the case of men, there is increase in the incidence of cancers of white
blood cells and prostate, but decline in stomach, liver, hypopharynx and tongue cancers. Oral cancer in men and breast cancer in women dominated major cancer sites
(types) in Hyderabad. Oral cancer accounted for 25 per cent of all cancers among
Hyderabadi men. Breast cancer made up 35 per cent of all cancers in women. Increasing
trends were observed in oral cancer, throat cancer and lung cancer among men while
there was a declining trend for cancers of colon, rectal, oesophageal, prostate and
lymphoma.
Breast cancer overtook the cancer of cervix among women in Hyderabad. "There's a clear-cut 10 per cent difference between breast and cervix cancers in Hyderabad. Better sanitary practices have led to the decline in the cancer of cervix," explains Dr Vijay Anand Reddy, director of Apollo Cancer Hospital.
The study included 10 major cancers of breast, cervix, tongue, mouth, oesophagus,
stomach, gall bladder, ovary, thyroid, NHL for women and lungs, hypopharynx, liver,
larynx, tongue, mouth, oesophagus, stomach, prostate, NHL for men. Like in Hyderabad, Bangalore too recorded high incidence of breast cancer, but in the case of men there was decline in mouth cancer.
However, cancer of cervix dominated all cancer types in Chennai among women. There
is decline in the cancer of cervix but increase in the cancer of breast. Among men
significant increasing trends were observed for oesophagus and prostate cancers.
Both breast and cervical cancers top the list among women in Mumbai and Delhi. Lung
and oesophagus cancer top the list among men cancers. "The chance of developing breast cancer is higher in Delhi compared to other cities, with the risk of 1 in 40 women likely to develop the disease in her lifetime.
Next to breast cancer was cancer of the cervix, which was high in magnitude, with 1 in 60 women on an average with chance of developing cancer, in different cities," point out Satyanarayana and Smita.
Lung cancer among men occupies the third position in most of the Indian cities, with 1 in 180 males at risk of developing this cancer in his lifetime. Mouth cancer showed
declining trends in Bangalore in both the sexes. Chennai also observed significant
declining trends for this cancer type in females, whereas Delhi showed an increasing
trend in mouth cancer among males. This might be due high tobacco usage in this
region, they added.

Indo-US nuclear deal: Mulford sets June deadline

March 8, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, March 7: US Ambassador to India David C Mulford said on Friday that the US government was not "pushing" the Indo-US civil nuclear deal on India, but he sets a deadline of June.
"I do not want to comment on the political process in India. We are not pushing the deal. We are only explaining the time table. We want to make it clear that there's misunderstanding," Mulford told a select group of reporters here.
Mulford is currently in the city to review the arrangements for the proposed US consulate in Hyderabad, and participate in a private programme on the eve of the International Women's Day organised by Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences and Usha Vijaylakshmi Foundation. He is accompanied by his wife Jenny Mulford.
He said the US was for early signing of the agreement to gain the international approval through the IAEA Board of Governors, the Nuclear Suppliers Group as well as the US Congress to bring it to operation before the term of the Congress ends. "We have Presidential elections later this year.
There's a timeline and things have to start happening now," he said adding that the political process is late. The US Ambassador made it clear that his government would not interfere in the internal politics. "We respect the Indian political process. But the deal has to be in place by June so that the US Congress can act on it," he said.
Referring to the proposed US Consulate in the city, Mulford hoped that it would process about a lakh visa applications a year. "It's pretty good business," he added.
The Hyderabad office will provide full range of consul services. In future it may handle some of the diplomatic services now being looked after by US embassy in New Delhi. "We have 23 federal government representatives dealing with different subjects in New Delhi. Some of these entities can be brought to Hyderabad. I do not know which will come first," he said.
He said the Hyderabad consulate would be ready in October-November this year, though technically it's already operational. It would be pretty large in the next five years. The Hyderabad office will have 14 to 15 visa windows and substantial staff. It will be a full-fledged consulate.
To a question he said there was no decrease in business visits to the US following depreciation of US dollar. He said the US embassy in India had processed 7,25,000 visa applications last year. The US mission in India stands at No. 2 after Mexico and 65 per cent of H1B visas issued in the world are from India. "We expect there will be 20 to 30 per cent increase in US visa applications," he said.
Mulford said the US mission in India had taken steps to reduce the numbers of days for visa interviews from 187 days in 2006 to 110 days now. The Hyderabad office will further bring down the waiting period since it will reduce the travel time to Chennai.
The US consulate in Chennai will be expanded as also the New Delhi embassy where there will be 50 visa windows.

Murky Politics: Babu rubs shoulders with BJP leaders

March 3, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, March 2: Former chief minister and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday rubbed shoulders with BJP leaders for the first time in four years after he dumped the BJP as a "communal" party pursuing a "dangerous cause".
Chandrababu Naidu also mobilised the support of the Left parties as well as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi for the Telugu Desam's maha dharna against "sale" of lands by the Congress government. The TD supremo shared the common dais with BJP State president Bandaru Dattatreya, CPI State secretary K Narayana, CPM senior leader YV
Rao and TRS official spokesperson V Prakash. They were together for more than four hours criticising Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy one after another.
The mobilisation of support of the Left and the BJP by the Telugu Desam gains political significance as the State Assembly elections are just 13 months away. Soon after the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections in May 2004, Chandrababu Naidu cut off political and electoral relations with the BJP. A few months before the May 2004
polls, the Left parties deserted the Telugu Desam to join hands with the Congress.
Now that the Congress leadership including the chief minister has jumped into election mode, Chandrababu Naidu has been devising ways to come closer to the Left. With no positive signs coming from the Communists, he has now involved the BJP too in his campaign against the Congress.
"We have come together despite ideological differences for the cause of the poor. The Congress government sold away 30,000 acres of prime land in and around Hyderabad in the last four years. We will take back the lands sold by the government to industrialist and the rich. We will distribute them among the poor after we come to power in 2009," Chandrababu Naidu said.
Later Chandrababu Naidu along with Dattatreya signed a "declaration" warning that after they come to power they would take back lands sold by the Congress regime.
The sharing of dais by the Communists and the BJP is not unexpected.
Chandrababu Naidu personally coordinated the dharna and informed the two ideologically opposed political parties to share the platform "for the sake of people".
"We know that the BJP is participating. But it is issue-based. Whenever some major public issue crops up, we do not hesitate to share the platform with other political parties," YV Rao said.

IICT develops nasal insulin using nanotechnology

March 3, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, March 2: Researchers at the city-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have developed a method for delivery of insulin through the nasal route using nanotechnology with 98 per cent success rate.
This will put an end to daily painful insulin injections. Since insulin is delivered through nose using very minute or nanoparticles, the delivery is quite effective without side effects.
Scientists the world over have been researching on alternative delivery systems for insulin for diabetics who need daily insulin intake from outside. Several methods including oral and nasal routes have been developed but most of them have been provide ineffective and with side effects.
A team of IICT researchers from the pharmacology division including AK Jain and PV Diwan developed muco-adhesive nanoparticles that could be an exciting prospect for trans-nasal insulin delivery, as they have higher surface area to cover highly vascularised nasal absorptive area providing a greater concentration gradient.
The team prepared starch nanoparticles by different cross linkers using various methodologies and loaded them with insulin. Emulsion cross linked particles are smaller in size compared to the existing gel method. The team successfully reduced the size further using epichlorohydrin as cross linking agent.
Nanoparticles of epichlorohydrin emulsion were further optimised with variable cross linking to evaluate the effect of degree of cross linking on in vivo (animal subjects) performance.
In the laboratory tests (in vitro), a size dependent first order diffusion controlled insulin release with an initial burst effect was found. It is higher
with nanoparticles of small size and least cross linking.
The IICT's formulation sodium glycocholate showed a superior hypoglycaemic (lower sugar levels) action compared to other nanoparticles formulations.
"The hypoglycaemic effects were more pronounced with medium cross linked nanoparticles, which showed a nadir of 70 per cent reduction of plasma glucose and significant effects until six hours," they pointed out.
The peak plasma insulin level of IICT's formulation vindicates the pharmacodynamic effect, which was fo und to be superior compared to all other formulations. The release rate and higher associated surface area might work in tandem, and could be greatly amplified when combined with permeation enhancers to make starch nanoparticles an efficient trans-nasal muco-adhesive carrier of insulin.

System developed to identify new mosquito species

Syed Akba

Hyderabad:  The city-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology has developed a system to identify newer species of mosquitoes that cause malaria and filaria.

The system based on artificial intelligence is accurate and helps in rapid identification of mosquito species to enable public health planners and medical experts to take up vector control measures. Mosquito is a vector and transmits harmful organism from one person to another. Timely recognition of new species of Culex (filaria carrying mosquito) and Anopheles (malaria transmitting mosquito) will help in better planning to counter the type of diseases they transmit.

Mosquitoes are responsible for the death of one quarter of humanity since the advent of man on the Earth. Early and fast identification of newer species of disease-conveying mosquitoes will help in controlling dangerous ailments like malaria, yellow fever, encephalitis and filariasis.

The IICT's mosquito identification programme is an online expert system which helps not only in vector identification but also in disease management. It produces a "decision tree" for identification of common Culex and Anopheles species of mosquitoes.

At present pictorial keys of mosquito species are used for identification of new mosquito species. However, this old approach is not very effective, according to Dr US Murthy.

Vector identification is a basic preventive strategy to control mosquito borne diseases. Generally, experienced taxonomists are involved in the identification and characterisation of disease-causing mosquito species. "However, identification of mosquito species using visual inspection of pictorial keys is time consuming and error prone. Hence, it is desirable to have a computerised mosquito identification system for the accurate identification of unknown species," he points out.