Posts tagged India

After eradication: India’s post-polio problem

By Neena Bhandari

New Delhi, 31.03.2014 (BMJ): As India celebrates three years of being polio free there is an urgent need to invest in medical care for the thousands of people who made the most of life after having had poliomyelitis but are now facing the debilitating post-polio syndrome (PPS).1 2 PPS describes the sudden onset of muscle weakness or fatigability in people with a history of acute paralytic poliomyelitis, usually occurring 15 to 40 years later.3 Many thousands of polio survivors experience muscle weakness, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, intolerance to cold, and difficulties in sleeping, breathing, or swallowing.

The March of Dimes, an international non-profit agency based in the United States and founded in 1938 by President and polio survivor Franklin D Roosevelt, warned in 2001 that as many as 20 million people worldwide are at risk of PPS, which could leave them using wheelchairs or ventilators for the rest of their lives.

After eradication_ India’s post-polio problem _ BMJ

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Di Bella coffee set to enter India by January

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 21.01.2013 (Business Standard): Australia’s fastest-growing and most-awarded coffee company, Di Bella Coffee, plans to enter the Indian market with, at least, six cafés in Mumbai in January. It would be followed with cafés in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

A core team of eight, headed by general manager Rahul Leekha, is in Mumbai preparing for the launch and interviewing people with high-end food and beverage skill sets.

“We will employ 50 people, who would undergo two to four weeks training under our baristas from Australia,” said Sachin Sabharwal, managing director, Di Bella Coffee India Pvt Ltd, and a partner in the Australian company.

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Sydney breaks bread with Sangrur – the wheat link

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 21.01.2013 (Business Standard): Wheat collaboration between Australia and India is likely to be extended, after experiments combining strengths in each other’s varieties show rising promise.

India and Australia are collaborating on research to enhance the volume and quality of grown wheat. The five-year bilateral programme on marker-assisted wheat breeding concludes in May 2012 but is set to be extended.

It has been exploring molecular technologies, management practices and more heat-tolerant cultivars, to face the challenges of climate change. India and Australia are particularly vulnerable to increasing temperatures, warns a leading Australian wheat scientist.

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