Doctors in Chennai use new method to treat giant cell tumour

By Express News Service | Published: 04th April 2018 03:26 AM |

CHENNAI: Doctors in the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital tried a new technique in treating giant cell tumour. The doctors used the method on 10 patients over one-and-a-half years and all patients are now doing well. The new method is almost a success, say the doctors at the Institute of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, RGGGH.

“The giant cell tumours around the knee joint are more common in women than men. Conventionally we used to fill the cavity on the knee bone after removing the tumour using a bone graft or knee implant. But, now we just gave support to the bone using small extra bone in the leg and left the cavity unfilled and the patients are doing well”, explained Dr V Singaravadivelu, Professor of Orthopaedics.

“Its an aggressive tumour, it erodes the bone and reduces the bone to a thin fragment. In 95 per cent of the cases the tumour recurs. Usually doctors fill the cavity in a fear that there would be no balance for leg. But we did this in 10 patients and it has been over a year and the patients are doing fine,” said Singaravadivelu.
These patients were also given Zoledromic acid injection before and after surgery to prevent recurrence. Even after a year now there was no recurrence in any patients. It’s non- cancerous. But, it shows characteristics of cancerous tumour. “We are planning to publish the method in a scientific journal soon,” said Singaravadivelu.

VTU files forgery case against former VC, registrar and 23 others

By Rashmi Belur | Express News Service | Published: 04th April 2018 03:50 AM |


 
BENGALURU: The Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has filed a cheating and forgery case against 25 people, including former vice-chancellor Dr H Maheshappa and then registrar, for misappropriation of university funds. Maheshappa is one of the ticket aspirants for the upcoming assembly elections from Harihara constituency.

“The misutilisation of funds came to light during the ongoing internal audit of the university and it is learnt that during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor Dr H Maheshappa had issued Demand Drafts to several people and even withdrew money from the university account,” varsity official who is privy to the audit, said.

“Maheshappa headed the varsity as VC for two terms and during the end of the second term he was suspended by the Governor following the inquiry committee report submitted by Justice Keshava Narayana wherein several allegations against him were proved. Now, the audit for two years has been completed and the amount goes up to `1.8 crore,” the official said.

Maheshappa had issued DDs to many people every month. “When we found that there were no bills for some of the payments made through the DD, we got suspicious,” the official said.

The varsity authorities placed the matter before the executive council, which then decided to file a police complaint. The Governor too ordered to file a criminal case against those involved. The registrar of the university subsequently filed a complaint at Belagavi Rural Police station on March 28, 2018. Senior police officials of Belagavi district confirmed the developments.

Former VC Maheshappa eyeing to contest polls

Former VTU VC Dr H Maheshappa is one of the ticket aspirants for the upcoming assembly elections from Harihara constituency.There is also a pending action against Maheshappa from the government based on the Governor’s recommendation. The Governor had placed Maheshappa under suspension until further orders following the report of Justice K N Keshavanarayana’s one-man committee. Maheshappa has the infamous reputation of being the first vice-chancellor of Karnataka’s only technological university — VTU — to be suspended.But, till date the government has not initiated any action.

Jio Payments Bank begins operations

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   04.04.2018

Mumbai: Jio Payments Bank has commenced operations with effect from April 3, 2018, the RBI said in a statement on Tuesday. Reliance Industries (RIL) was one of the 11 applicants which was issued inprinciple approval for setting up a payments bank.

SBI is a strategic shareholder in Jio Payments Bank with 30% stake. Although the RBI had initially granted licence to 11 applicants, only five have set up banks so far.

Besides Jio, the remaining four are Airtel, India Post, Fino Payments Bank and Paytm. H Srikrishnan, who was earlier with HDFC Bank and Yes Bank has been appointed MD and CEO of Jio Payments Bank. RIL plans to move customers of JioMoney to its payments bank.

The others who had received approval include Aditya Birla Nuvo, Cholamandalam, National Securities Depository, Vodafone M-Pesa, Tech Mahindra and a proposed joint venture of Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor. Of these companies, Tech Mahindra, Cholamandalam and the Shanghvi-IDFC-Telenor combine have already dropped out. The business case for payments lenders has shrunk considerably as most of the transactional services can be offered by digital wallets and regular bank accounts.

Venkaiah asks MPs to speak in Hindi

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   04.04.2018

New Delhi: Emphasising the need to make Hindi more prevalent in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday advised non-Hindi speaking MPs to talk in the language without hesitation and fear of making grammatical mistakes. He also suggested that north Indians should learn a south Indian language, to promote national unity.

Naidu, who was conducting the annual meeting of the Hindi Salahkar Samiti, also expressed concern over the three-year gap in holding the meeting. The RS chairman directed that the Samiti meet twice a year from now on. The committee was formed for the promotion of use of Hindi in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

Referring to his own experience, Naidu recalled that he did not know Hindi when he first came to Delhi but soon picked up the language by speaking without any hesitation. “King can do no wrong. You are members of Parliament and can speak freely without the fear of committing mistakes,” Naidu said.

Reiterating that the best way of propagating Hindi is encouraging its use instead of forcing others to adopt the language, Naidu said knowing different languages is an advantage.

IndiGo tyre burst: ‘Pilots may have landed with parking brakes engaged’

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com 04.04.2018

New Delhi: Touching down with the main landing gear’s hydraulic brakes reportedly engaged may have led to the tyres of an IndiGo ATR bursting in Hyderabad last Wednesday. The plane, which was flying in from Tirupati and had 72 passengers on board, had then remained stuck at the Hyderabad runway for several hours before it was removed.

A preliminary probe by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has revealed that the pilots of the turboprop inadvertently engaged the plane’s hydraulic parking brake during flight. Unlike, say a car, where the brake pedal needs to be pressed to slow down or stop it, engaging the ATR’s hydraulic parking brake meant that oil pressure — for braking effect — was built up in the main landing gear.

“Without realising this, the landing gear was lowered. Once the ATR touched down, the main landing gear already had brakes on and its tyres could not rotate freely due to that. The friction led to heat and all four tyres burst,” said sources.

“While the probe is on, the initial study suggests a major lapse on the pilots’ part. Touching down at a high speed with brakes of the main landing gear on, could have had serious consequences. Both the pilots were called for questioning,” said a source.

Asked to comment on this, an IndiGo spokesman said: “The matter has been reported by IndiGo to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This will be investigated both by the flight safety department of IndiGo as well as the DGCA. It is not appropriate for us to comment any further while the investigation is progressing. At IndiGo, safety of the passengers and crew is of utmost importance and cannot be compromised with.”

The mishap had happened last Wednesday during landing when 6E 7117 was on Tirupati-Hyderabad route. Once the ATR-72 tyres burst on touchdown, the plane had got stuck on the runway. Fortunately, passengers and crew on board were unhurt. But the runway’s closure for several hours severely disrupted flights at the busy Hyderabad airport.

Aviation minister Suresh Prabhu had ordered a probe into this incident.


PILOTS UNDER SCANNER

TN govt likely to move SC over PG med admissions

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   04.04.2018

Chennai : The state government is likely to move the Supreme Court urging amendments in the rules that will allow Tamil Nadu to retain 50% of the postgraduate medical seats from the state quota for in-service candidates for admissions this academic year. It will also urge the court to direct the Medical Council of India to amend rules for postgraduate admissions so that the state can use its traditional methods of incentives while admitting students, said state health minister C Vijaya Baskar.

The state selection committee is working on finalising the merit list based on PG NEET scores. The counselling process should be completed by the end of May. The state has already submitted a representation to the Medical Council of India and the Union health ministry, he said. The letter was based on the detailed study done by the six-member committee headed by Tamil Nadu Medical Service Corporation managing director P Umanath. “We have presented a copy of the report to them as well. If we don’t incentivise our doctors, we will not have adequate staff in rural areas and services will suffer,” said the minister.

The committee has put 16 of the 32 districts in the state in the backward list because of an inadequate doctor-patient ratio, high vacancies in government departments or poor health indices. Senior public health experts like Mumbai-based T Sundararaman of the Tata Institute of Social Studies say that incentive marks, higher salaries and infrastructure development will encourage more doctors to work in rural areas.

On Tuesday, a group of doctors from Doctors’ Association for Social Equality led by general secretary Dr GR Ravindranath met Union health minister J P Nadda to request NEET exemption for the state quota of seats.

“We have also sought reservations of seats for BC and MBC students like those for SC/ST students,” he said.

He secured borders, saved lives with valour & wisdom

K R A Narasiah 04.04.2018

TIMES OF INDIA

Former major general S P Mahadevan, a recipient of Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, was best known as the army officer who protected Mahatma Gandhi during the Calcutta riots in August 1946 and was later appointed by then Tamil Nadu CM M G Ramachandran as the chairman of Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). But Mahadevan, who passed away on Monday, has left behind a much larger story of a hero who has been less sung about.

Commissioned in the Royal Indian Army in 1946 at the age of 21, Mahadevan joined the first battalion of Madras regiment. His regiment was sent to Kashmir to help Maharaja Hari Singh fight tribal raiders from Pakistan when he acceded to the Indian dominion in 1947. In his very first action, Mahadevan was badly wounded.

He was also a part of the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo between July 1960 and June 1964. On March 4, 1961, the 99 (Independent) Brigade Group, designated as the Indian Independent Infantry Brigade Group, was tasked to capture Jadotville in Africa by January 1963. Mahadevan went to Congo as the officer commanding advance guard on December 31, 1962. As all the road and rail bridges between Elizabethville and Jadotville were demolished by the retreating Katangese Army, his party was left with the only option of crossing the crocodile-infested Lufira River. Mahadevan along with two of his team members managed to monkey crawl over the partially damaged rail bridge before ferrying across the rest of the advance guard over the river to establish a bridgehead.

Mahadevan was one of the youngest army officers to be promoted as major general at the age of 47. He retired as GOC of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Goa Area on June 30, 1982.

His presence of mind in the face of danger is what made him a great leader. In 1972, while on a visit to a picket in Siachen Glacier, his chopper crashed due to turbulent weather. He and his men were covered in snow. In such a situation, he ordered his men to pray to God.

He later admitted that he gave the order so that his men stretched their hands, and created space for more oxygen. It was the stretched fingers of the soldiers that helped the rescuers pull them out.

Not many know that he was an ardent devotee of Sri Satya Sai Baba. In his memoir, he recorded how he sought the counsel of the saint when pressure from politicians during his stint as the TNPSC chairman wore him out in 1983. “Bhagavan advised me not to resign and said, ‘you need not oblige all the time, but you can always speak obligingly’. This golden advice stood me well during my six-year tenure.”

(The writer is a culture enthusiast)

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MEETING HIS MATCH: Ati Vishisht Seva Medal awardee Major General S P Mahadevan with former CM M G Ramachandran