India gives $500 mn aid to Mauritius
Countries agree on effective management of threats in the Indian Ocean, ink maritime pact
•India on Saturday announced a $500 million line of credit to Mauritius as the two countries decided to firm up cooperation in the field of maritime security in the Indian Ocean region.
•The two sides signed a maritime security agreement after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth.
•In a statement, Mr. Modi said he and Mr. Jugnauth agreed that effective management of conventional and non-conventional threats in the Indian Ocean is essential to pursue economic opportunities and provide security to the people of both the countries.
•“We have to keep up our vigil against piracy that impacts trade and tourism, trafficking of drugs and humans, illegal fishing, and other forms of illegal exploitation of marine resources,” the Prime Minister said. The bilateral maritime accord will strengthen cooperation and capacities, he said, noting that the two sides also agreed to strengthen their wide-ranging cooperation in hydrography for a secure and peaceful maritime domain.
•On his part, Mr. Jugnauth said the two countries need to ensure that the sea lanes of communications are safe and secure and regular patrolling is conducted to combat illegal activities such as piracy, illegal fishing in the territorial waters and drug trafficking.
•A decision to extend the operational life of Coast Guard ship Guardian, that was given by India to Mauritius under a grant assistance programme, was also taken.
•During his visit to Mauritius in March 2015, Mr. Modi had commissioned offshore patrol vessel (OPV) Barracuda, built and financed by India, into the Mauritian Coast Guard.
•Holding that Mauritius has “strong” defence and security ties with India, the visiting prime minister said the acquisition of such OPVs and fast interceptor boats from India has enhanced the operational capacities of its police and coast guard.
•Besides the maritime pact, three other agreements were also signed after talks between the two leaders. They were for setting up of a civil services college in Mauritius, one on cooperation in ocean research and the US dollar Credit Line Agreement between the SBM Mauritius Infrastructure Development Company and Export-Import Bank of India.
Line of credit
•Mr. Modi said the agreement on the line of credit to Mauritius was a good example of the strong and continuing commitment to the development of that country.
•The two sides also decided to ramp up cooperation in a number of areas including trade and investment.
•“India is proud to participate actively in the ongoing development activities in Mauritius,” Mr. Modi said.
Indian researchers develop 3D bioprinted cartilage
It is the first time that permanent cartilage similar to natural ones has been developed
•Millions of people around the world suffer from degenerative joint diseases such as arthritis. Despite attempting for the last 30 years, scientists across the world have not been able to produce in the lab cartilage-like tissues that are functionally and structurally similar to cartilages seen in human knees and have load-bearing capacity. For the first time, Indian researchers have been able to achieve a measure of success in developing cartilages that are molecularly similar to the ones seen in human knees.
•While scientists attempting to tissue-engineer cartilage have focussed on growing cells on porous scaffolds, in a paradigm shift, a team led by Prof. Sourabh Ghosh from the Department of Textile Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has been successful in 3D bioprinting of cartilage using a bioink.
•The bioink has high concentration of bone-marrow derived cartilage stem cells, silk proteins and a few factors. The chemical composition of the bioink supports cell growth and long-term survival of the cells. The cartilage developed in the lab has remained physically stable for up to six weeks. The results of the study were published in the journal Bioprinting.
•“This is the first study from India where any 3D bioprinted tissue has been developed in a lab,” says Shikha Chawla from the Department of Textile Technology at IIT Delhi and the first author of the paper.
•“The silk protein has different amino acids that closely resemble the amino acids present in human tissues. Just like cells are surrounded by proteins inside our body, the cells in the engineered cartilage are also surrounded by bioink that has a similar composition,” says Prof. Ghosh, who is one of the corresponding authors of the paper.
Transient cartilage
•While the cartilage found in the knee is an articular cartilage that is typically sponge-like and has a huge load-bearing capacity, the ones produced in the lab so far are of a different kind — transient cartilage. Unlike articular cartilage, transient cartilage becomes bone cells and, therefore, brittle within a short time. As a result, the engineered cartilage loses its capacity to bear huge load that is typically encountered in the knee.
•But the 3D bioprinting approach adopted by the team allows the high concentration of bone-marrow derived cartilage stem cells present in the bioink to gradually convert to chondrocyte-like cells (specialised cells which produce and maintain the extracellular matrix of cartilage).
•“We have succeeded in stopping this conversion of chondrocyte-like cells or stem cells into bone cells so that they remain as stable articular cartilage,” says Prof. Ghosh. This was done by optimising the bioink composition, 3D bioprinting process, and by using a combination of growth factors. The optimisation of the silk-gelatin bioink was done in such a manner that it activated two important signalling pathways that are responsible for minimising or inhibiting the conversion of the cartilage into bone-like tissue.
•“All earlier work never evaluated for the production of articular or permanent cartilage, while we assessed and found that our strategy leads to the production of permanent cartilage in the lab,” says Prof. Amitabha Bandyopadhyay of Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, and a corresponding author.
Stem-cell like nature
•The team was able to achieve this by combining the tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting expertise at IIT Delhi with developmental biology expertise at IIT Kanpur. Prof. Bandyopadhyay’s laboratory developed a well characterised, novel cell line from bone-marrow stem cells. The cell line retained its stem cell-like nature even after months of culturing under laboratory conditions.
•“As a next step, we would implant this 3D bioprinted cartilage into the knee joints of animals to see if it remains stable in the knee joint and is able to integrate with the surrounding cartilage tissue,” says Prof. Ghosh. This study also opens up platforms to use 3D bioprinted cartilage on in vitro model system for assessing drug delivery and pharmaceutical studies.
eMigrate violates our sovereignty: UAE envoy
Calls flagship scheme for Indian workers abroad ‘intrusive’
•The United Arab Emirates, one of the largest employers of Indians in the Gulf, has raised a red flag with the Ministry of External Affairs over the government’s flagship eMigrate programme over what it terms as “sovereignty issues.”
•After hundreds of complaints from workers about mistreatment, the MEA’s Overseas Affairs department (then a separate ministry) had in 2015 set up a database initiative called the eMigrate programme, that gathers extensive information on emigrants as well as foreign employers, their companies and recruiting agents.
Database issues
•“India wants to build a databank to extract information about these companies in the UAE. We consider this a breach of our sovereignty,” UAE Ambassador to India Dr. Ahmed Al Banna told The Hindu in an interview, confirming that he has raised it with the MEA’s Secretary for Overseas Indian Affairs Dnyaneshwar Mulay earlier this month.
•Dr. Banna also met with the Prime Minister’s Principal secretary Nripendra Mishra on May 15, where several outstanding issues were discussed.
•According to the UAE Ambassador, the concerns are not restricted to India’s database of foreign employers in that country, but includes the eMigrate programme’s mandate to inspect premises of UAE companies, which they want stopped immediately.
•“Some information only the UAE government or concerned ministry is allowed to [collect]. It is also not in the Embassy or Consulate’s ambit to conduct inspections, and we have taken strong objection to that. This is not India’s work, this is ours. We have offered Indian authorities that we will give them the information they desire,” Dr. Al Banna added.
•The MEA did not respond to several attempts by The Hindu to seek a response, and has not replied to a series of questions based on the Ambassador’s comments until this story went to press. Other Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, had also raised issues with the eMigrate system as soon as it was launched in July 2015.
A craving even cancer cannot stop
Surgeons grapple with tobacco relapse in an increasing number of patients who have suffered from oral and lung cancers
•Fifty-three-year-old Kanpur resident Madan Gupta was operated for oral cancer in 2014. A part of his jawbone had to be removed to get rid of the cancer he developed after being a heavy smoker since the age of 20. His treatment at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) included a jaw reconstruction procedure with a flap taken out of his chest, dental rehabilitation and therapy to talk, swallow and chew normally. The doctors were happy with his progress until last week when Mr. Gupta came down for a follow-up. He had started smoking again.
Not saying never again
•It is said that an unpleasant experience induces caution. But that definitely seems untrue when it comes to nicotine addiction. Cancer surgeons say that an increasing number of patients who have suffered from oral and lung cancers go back to smoking and chewing tobacco. “Nicotine works on the dopamine pathway in the brain and generates a reward phenomenon making a person feel good. The addiction is such that you want to keep going back,” says head and neck surgeon Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi who is attached to TMH, one of the biggest cancer hospitals in Asia. He says out of the 9,000-odd new head and neck cancer patients that he sees annually, 15% go back to their tobacco habits, mostly smoking. Chewing tobacco at times becomes difficult after an oral cancer surgery. “Going back to smoking is much easier,” he says. The relapse happens as early as six months post-surgery in some cases. Dr. Chaturvedi adds that 30% of tobacco-related cancer patients have a chance of getting a cancer for the second time, and it doubles with a smoking or chewing relapse.
•Behavioural therapy does help in quitting but only in 5% cases. Behavioural therapy clubbed with nicotine replacement therapy increases the chances to 10%. But 90% of addicts who are trying to quit fail. The relapse of addiction has made the doctors label tobacco addiction as a disease in itself. In 2006, a study published by the American Association for Cancer Research observing relapse patterns during the first year after treatment of early stage non-small-cell lung cancer revealed that nearly half of the patients returned to smoking if they had a history of recent smoking.
Cancer society study
•Another 2012 study by the American Cancer Society had revealed that at 12 months after surgery, 60% head and neck cancer patients who smoked during the week prior to surgery had resumed smoking while only 13% of patients who were abstinent prior to surgery had gone back to the habit. The study pointed towards the need of early cessation and extensive efforts for relapse prevention during the acute period following surgery.
•However, the problem with nicotine addiction is such that patients turn to it after a wider gap as well. Take the example of Dr. Rajendra Kerkar, head of the gynaecological oncology department at TMH and an oral cancer survivor. Dr. Kerkar went back to smoking after a gap of five and half years. More than 70% of his tongue had to be cut off as a part of the treatment in 1988. “The clasp of nicotine is a tough one,” says Dr. Kerkar.
•Mr. Gupta, who runs a shop in Kanpur, agrees. He feels that the craving is so maddening that the fear of cancer takes a back seat. “I sell cigarettes and tobacco in my shop — I just have to stretch my arm to get it,” he says, adding that the doctors at TMH are helping him enrol in a cessation programme to keep away from lighting up.
