Innovation vital to kick start economies: GII 2020

07/09/2020 0 Comments read Health & Science

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne (Australia). Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 07.09.2020 (SciDev.Net): The innovation landscape is moving towards Asia from the high-income economies of North America and Europe while funding for innovation is drying up globally, according to the Global Innovation Index 2020 (GII).

While the annual rankings, co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialised agency of the UN, continue to be dominated by developed countries led by Switzerland and followed by Sweden, the US, UK and the Netherlands, innovation is becoming more prominent and important in Asia.

There are 131 economies included in the 2020 GII with nine Asian countries in the top 50, up from seven last year. Included this year are Singapore (8^th), the Republic of Korea (10^th), China (14^th), Japan (16^th), Malaysia (33^rd), Vietnam (42^nd), Thailand (44^th), India (48^th) and the Philippines (50^th).

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Vaccines essential for reducing burden of infectious diseases, says Gagandeep Kang

31/08/2020 1 Comment read Gender, Health & Science

Photo Credit: © Gagandeep Kang

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 31.08.2020 (SciDev.Net): Internationally renowned for her inter-disciplinary research on transmission, development and prevention of enteric infections and their sequelae in children in India, Gagandeep Kang is the first Indian woman scientist to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. She is a member of the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety.

Currently, a professor of microbiology in the Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences in her alma mater, the Christian Medical College Vellore, Kang grew up in a science-oriented household, reading Isaac Asimov. She attended 10 schools in 12 years as her father, a mechanical engineer in the Indian Railways, was transferred across northern and eastern India.

The frequent transfers taught her to be adaptable and learn outside the classroom. She spent time learning on her own with help from her parents. They would visit mines to understand about minerals and chemicals. Her father would bring home lenses, concave mirrors and Woulfe bottles and they set up their own lab and herbarium.

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Medics with disabilities call for medicine to be inclusive

21/08/2020 4 Comments read Disability, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 21.08.2020 (SciDev.Net): Doctors treat and heal patients, but they are seldom seen as people who may themselves require care or accommodation. Medics with disabilities are now calling for a paradigm shift in the mindset to make medical education and the profession more inclusive.

“Being a doctor is a privilege. We have the opportunity to play a part in a person’s most significant of journeys. We have the sacred trust of the public. We have also been thought leaders on many historical issues. For these reasons the medical profession needs to lead the way in inclusivity,” says Dinesh Palipana, a Sri Lanka-born Australian doctor who was left severely disabled after a road accident.

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