Rare honour for Prof Nagi
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19
Prof O.N. Nagi, Head of the Orthopaedic Surgery Department at the PGI, has been nominated as a Trustee to the internationally acclaimed Association of Osteosynthesis and Association for Study of Internal Fixation Foundation (AO/AISF), Norway.

The decision to nominate Prof Nagi to the Foundation was taken at the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of AO/AISF Foundation, at Norway recently. Prof Nagi, was selected from the few senior-most and renowned names in the field of orthopaedics surgery in India.

“This is the highest honour and acclaim that an orthopaedic surgeon can ever dream of, and more importantly it will bring the PGI into international focus,” remarked Prof Nagi. This Foundation is a unique non-profit surgeon-driven organisation, dedicated to the progress in research, development and education in the field of trauma and corrective surgery, world over.

The Foundation, based at Davos (Switzerland), was started in 1958, under the leadership of Prof Muller, to improve fracture care by developing innovative techniques through experimental and clinical research. Prof Nagi, was bestowed with this honour due to his extensive academic and research experience and his original contributions in the field of orthopaedic trauma.

Prof Nagi, has the distinction of being qualified from Oxford University and has worked in teaching cadre at places like Royal National Hospital, London and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Department of Oxford University. He is also the life member of many international scientific societies and the “Test Surgeon”, for the new hip replacement implant being developed in Europe.

He has more than 200 scientific publications with more than 60 publications in international journals. His original innovative surgical techniques in the field of trauma have been included in the standard text books read throughout the world in orthopaedic surgery and have also been included in the multi media teaching programme of American Academy of orthopaedic surgeons.

‘Need to develop effective anti-malaria drug’
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, august 19
With malaria being a poor man’s disease, limited to the Third World countries, the endeavour to find an anti-malaria drug, would have to come from India, as the multinational drug companies are shying away from it due to its poor economic viability.

“With India being the most advanced amongst the developing nations, we have to address our own problems, as the western world’s concern is only confined to Africa, as far as malaria is concerned,” opined Prof G. Padmanaban , who was here to deliver the fifth Prof B. K. Bachhawat Memorial Lecture, at the Institute of Microbial Technology, here today.

Terming his proposition of treating malaria with anti-tubercular drugs, as provocative, he said so far its efficacy on mice had proved it to be effective. “It can be tested on a human body and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), could study this aspect by asking the TB patients if they show malarial symptoms, while they are on anti-malarial drugs,” revealed Dr Padmanaban.

He added that this novel proposition could have a major impact, since developing a new drug involved a huge investment of $ 500 million, which most of the drug companies were reluctant to do, due to poor economic viability, as anti-malarial drugs are low priced. “ We in India need to have better testing and human trial efforts as it was futile to look towards the West to formulate drugs for diseases afflicting our population,” he stressed.

Sounding a word of caution, Professor Padmanaban, said till now in India, there was higher morbidity than mortality due to the presence of “plasmodium vivax” parasite, which was curable, but now the trend was changing. The “plasmodium falciparum” parasite, which was till now mostly confined to Africa, is being detected in very high percentage in India, which could lead to many more deaths on account of malaria,” he remarked.

Professor Padmanaban, said even one person carrying the Falciparum parasite from Africa to India was enough for its rapid increase, as the ratio of this parasite had already touched 40 per cent.

“It is in the states of North East, pockets of Karnataka and Orissa and Rajasthan, where the situation was becoming serious, due to the transference of this bacteria from Africa, which was virtually its reservoir,” he revealed.

Professor Padmanaban, said the vaccine for malaria, would have to be a “cocktail” as nobody was sure of its success, as people had been working on it for over three decades. He added that the scenario in Africa was different from India, as people there had developed natural immunity against malaria. In Africa, the incidence of malaria was so high that out of the total deaths on account of this disease in the world, 90 per cent were from this continent.

Professor Padmanaban, is amongst the few, who have started recombinant DNA research in the country, way back in 1980. His contribution has been recognised internationally and the research he is doing could lead to developing of a DNA vaccine for rabies , which would be the first in the world to be commercialised world wide.

Others, who were present at the function, included Dr C.M. Gupta, Director, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow and Prof Kasturi Datta, Dean, School of Environmental Sciences, JNU, Delhi. 

SPORTS

Junior girls football meet begins today
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, August 19
The second Chandigarh Junior Girls Football Championships will begin at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45 here tomorrow at 9.30 am. This four-day meet is being organised by the Chandigarh Football Association. Mr Rakesh Bakshi, secretary of the association, said 12 girls’ teams would take part. The defending champions, St Stephen’s School, will play its first match on August 21.

The opening match will be played between St Soldier’s International School, Sector 28, and Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22. On the basis of this meet, 25 probables will be selected for a coaching camp to be held immediately after the meet for the second Junior National Football Championship under the aegis of the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) to be held at Diphu in Assam from September 17.

Expedition team returns: Fifty members of the Chandigarh Adventure Association returned here on Sunday after completing its expedition to the world’s highest villages — Kibber and Komic. The team also included five women.

According to Mr Kulbir Singh Gaba, president of the association, Komic is situated at 15,800 feet. Earlier, the expedition was flagged off by Ms Lalit Joshi, Mayor, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, on August 11. Mr Gaba said the expedition had to change its route due to land sliding at the Mailing nullah.

He said the expedition reached Kibber on August 15 where they hoisted the National Flag. Mr P.N. Nagi, ADC, Kaza, was the chief guest. Then the team moved to Komic where the SDM, Mr Yashpal Sharma, hoisted the National Flag. He said Mr Nagi gave a testimonial certifying the team visited Komic.

Powerlifting team: The Chandigarh Powerlifting Association has selected a 12-member UT team for its participation in the XVIIIth Senior Men and Women National Powerlifting Championships to be held at Patiala from August 21 to 26. Members of the team are: Iqbal Singh, Vikramjit Singh, Sandeep Singh, Romesh Kumar, Harjit Singh, Hussan Lal, Jagdish Singh (Captain), Paramjit Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Sharanjit Singh, Jaspreet Singh, Rajpal Singh and Amit Sharma (both stand-byes).

Mr D.S. Bains, a senior SAI coach, and Mr H.S. Bansal will accompany the team as coach and manager, respectively.

Cricket meet: An inaugural Shirdi Sai Cup Cash Prize Cricket Tournament will be held at the Gursagar grounds and Government Senior Secondary School grounds, Sector 19, from August 30. The matches will be played on Saturdays, Sundays and on gazetted holidays. Entries close on August 24 with Deepak Lohatia, 401, Sector 33.

Shivalik school win: The Chandigarh Youth Basketball Championship began at Shivalik Public school, Sector 41, here on Monday. In the opening match, Shivalik Public School beat Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, 9-20. The half-time score was 15-6 in favour of Carmel girls. Divya with nine, Ganimat five, Komal two, Muskan two and Harman netted two points. For the losers, Simranjeet scored four, Harsimran three and Parneet scored two points.

In the boys’ section, Guru Harkishan Public School, Sector 38, defeated Shishu Niketan Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, 45-11. The half-time score was 29-4 with main scorers for the winners were: Arshdeep Singh (12), Suraj (12), Vikramjit (10), Sandeep (9) and Simranjit netted two points. For the losers, Abhinav Aggarwal scored six points, Sahil three and Pradeep scored two points.

Earlier, Dr S.P. Shergill, Principal, Kendriya Vidyalya School, Sector 31, inaugurated the meet. Mr Teja Singh, vice-president of the Basketball Federation of India, and Col KS Cheema, national basketball coach, were also present on the occasion among others. The matches will begin tomorrow at 6.30 am.

SDM’s direction to councillors
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, August 19
The SDM has asked municipal councillors to give lists of names of eligible persons who have not yet been registered as voters.

An exercise in connection with the special revision of votes for the Kharar constituency is going on for which one week’s extension has been given by the government. Earlier the work was to be completed by August 14 but now the last date is August 21.

The SDM, Mr Darshan Singh Sandhu, who was addressing a meeting of councillors at the civic body office today, said in case the councillors were not interested in giving the lists they could contact the staff on duty and get the votes made. He said the aim was to register all eligible persons as voters.

SDM (East) office shifted
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19
As a first step towards reaching out to members of the public, the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (East) will shift to the CTU workshop in Industrial Area, Phase I, tomorrow morning.

At present the office is located at the DC office in Sector 17. The idea of the Chandigarh Administration is to have the offices of the SDMs in their respective areas of operations. The SDM will sit in the administrative wing of the workshop where the Director Transport also has his office. This has a separate entrance from the CTU workshop. The shifting of the SDMs to their respective area of operations would allow people to deal with all schemes of the admn.