AIIMS docs successfully operate on 'miracle baby'

NEW DELHI: Doctors at AIIMS successfully operated on the 10-day-old miracle baby, who was born with his heart protruding through his chest, on

Thursday. In this path-breaking surgery, the doctors have created a new world record by doing the surgery without suspending his body functions.

"We decided to do the surgery without suspending his body functions. As there was no space in his body to accommodate the heart, we created a window between the chest and abdomen to place the heart. Then gradually rotated the heart and put it back in the newly created space," said Dr AK Bisoi, additional cardiothoracic surgeon, AIIMS, who led the team.

The baby has been shifted to Cardiac Care Unit and doctors say that every hour now is critical for the baby. "We have to closely monitor the baby. Every hour is crucial. We have to see how he responds to the surgery. Every stage was a challenge and the fact that he has survived for 10 days itself is an achievement," said Dr Bisoi.

But the biggest achievement for the doctors is that they could operate upon him on while his heart was beating. Initially, the doctors had planned that the baby will be put on a heart-and-lung machine and his body temperature would be lowered to 18 degree Celsius thereby suspending his body functions for a period of 30 minutes.

The surgery started at 9 am on Thursday and was completed in three-and-half-hours.

In India, this 10-day-old is the first baby to have survived this rare medical condition -- Ectopia Cordis -- for such a long period and to successfully survive the complicated surgery.

The baby was born with a rare medical condition called Ectopia Cordis. Worldwide, 230 such cases have been reported and only three people have survived this condition.

Force India makes F1 history

Vijay Mallya-owned Force India finishes second in the Belgium Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella secured Force India's 1st ever podium position coming in 2nd at the Belgian Grand Prix. Fisichella started from pole position but Ferrari's Kimi Kaikkonen passed him at the end of the safety car period early on.

Fisichella though drove an inch perfect race not putting a tyre out of line at Spa to come in 2nd at the historical Spa circuit. In fact, this is the 1st ever time that Vijay Mallya's team has scored points in Formula One. This is truely an outstanding performance from the 36-year old Fisichella and it will now boost the teams's performance for the season ahead.

After securing the 1st ever pole position for Force India, Fisichella made a perfect start and sped away from the field at the historical Spa circuit. While Fisichella safely opened up a gap in the lead a collision down the order meant that defending Champion Lewis Hamilton and Championship leader Jenson Button both crashed out which saw the safety car come out. However, since the restart Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has taken over the race lead with Fisichella fighting hard in 2nd position.

‘Missile woman’ to head Agni-V too

It’s indeed rocket science. And Tessy Thomas is going great guns at unravelling all its complexities. Although women and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles usually don’t go together, Thomas is systematically breaking all glass ceilings in the avowedly male bastion of ‘strategic weapons’.

Thomas has now been appointed the project director (mission) of India’s most ambitious missile, Agni-V, which has a strike range of 5,000 km and which is slated to be tested for the first time next year. Thomas, 46, was made the project director of the new advanced version of the 2,500-km Agni-II missile last year after she played a crucial role in the successful firing of the 3,500-km range Agni-III missile as an associate project director, as reported by TOI earlier.

Now, she has added another feather to her cap by being assigned the Agni-V, the test-firing of which will propel India towards having potent ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities, largely the preserve of the Big 5 countries until now.

Thomas did her BTech from Thrissur Engineering College and her MTech from the Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technologies.

Wrestler Sushil Kumar Wins Gold At German Grand Prix

In his first major international match since winning bronze at the Beijing Olympics last year, Sushil Kumar has now won gold at the German Grand Prix.

India ended the championship on a high with five wrestlers winning medals to kick-off preparation for the World Championship in Finland in September.

Rahul Balasaheb won gold in the 55kg, while Rajiv Tomar bagged silver in the 120 kg category. Ramesh Kumar (74kg) and Ravinder Singh (60 kg, Greco-Roman) won bronze medals.

Sushil's performance is creditable as it came when he is under huge pressure after his fall-out with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) last month. Sushil was served a show-cause notice by the WFI after he was disqualified from the Asian Championships at Pattaya, Thailand, for being 400 gm overweight in the 66kg category.

Sushil, who has been unhappy with the WFI over his training and competition schedule after the Olympics, was let off with a warning in February for pulling out of a tournament in the US at the last-minute.

The WFI even censured him, saying he had not been living up to his reputation as an iconic sportsperson.

Sushil's coach Yashvir, who was also served a show-cause notice for the Pattaya incident, said that this was his first major international assignment. After the Pattaya incident, Sushil was determined to prove himself and there is no better way than winning gold.

Yashvir further said that many people thought that he was losing his way after winning the Olympic bronze medal, but he has always been sincere and focussed. The field in Germany was tough as there were wrestlers from Uzbekistan, Thailand and other top wrestling nations. It is a good way to start his preparation for the World Championship.

Bandra-Worli sea link opens tommorow.

After years of delays and legal wrangling, India's first "sea bridge" opens to traffic this week, aiming to ease chronic congestion on
Bandra-Worli sea link

The Bandra-Worli sea link dazzles during light and laser pyrotechnics show in Mumbai. (TOI Photo)
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Mumbai's notoriously choked roads.

It is hoped that the 16.5-billion-rupee (340-million-dollar) eight-lane freeway will help cut the 40-minute journey between the suburbs of Bandra and Worli to just eight minutes.

But as the bridge opens on Tuesday, to ease the bottleneck of honking cars, lorries and motorbikes on the mainland, there are hopes, too, that as well as showing off India's engineering prowess, it can inspire other projects elsewhere.

"Undoubtedly the Bandra-Worli Sea Link is an engineering marvel which shows that Indian construction players have come of age, and are capable of matching global counterparts," said Hitesh Agrawal, head of research with Angel Broking.

"However, the government needs to look into critical issues to ensure infrastructure projects are not delayed," he said.

India's infrastructure is in desperate need of an overhaul but road, rail, airport and power schemes have often been delayed by tortuous state bureaucracy, a lack of private sector funding and land ownership disputes.

The sweeping, 5.6-kilometre (3.5-mile) Bandra-Worli Sea Link was first commissioned in 2000 but work was held up until 2004 because of litigation and protests from the local fishing community.

Like many of India's cities, upgrading Mumbai's road system is a must.

Currently, about 125,000 vehicles criss-cross Mumbai north to south in each direction every day, according to the bridge's builders, the Hindustan Construction Company Limited.

As private car ownership increases on the back of India's economic boom and more people move to cities, 250 more vehicles are expected to drive the route every day, it added.

The city's suburban rail network is also under pressure from a population of 18 million that is growing by the year.

Further phases of the bridge are planned, eventually stretching to the commercial business district in the city's southern tip.

Construction of the first phase of a much-needed suburban metro system is also under way.

India's economy grew by 6.7 percent in 2008-09, down from nine percent a year earlier, hit by the effects of the global economic downturn. GDP could be between 6.0 percent and 6.3 percent in 2010, according to analysts.

Policy makers have identified infrastructure projects as key to helping the economy bounce back to the near double-digit growth of recent years.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimates that more than 500 billion dollars' worth of investment will flow towards India's infrastructure sector by 2012, to upgrade or build more roads, ports, railway lines and airports.

"Funding this is likely to go beyond the means of total government spending," Ravi Bhamidipathi, PwC's head of engineering and construction in India, said in a recent report.

PwC identified public-private partnerships (PPPs) involving domestic and foreign investors as one possible way of funding the shortfall.

Unlike in China, where new infrastructure projects have taken off in recent years, the pace of change in India has been slow.

In the past four years cash has been awarded for 11,502 kilometres of new roads. But only 4,575 kilometres have been completed in the past two years, according to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

As of March, nearly 16,000 kilometres of new road projects were waiting for funding. More than 200 national road projects -- equivalent to 13,000 kilometres -- are out to tender.

Elsewhere, about 10 billion dollars' worth of investment in new or existing airports has been proposed to cater for an increase in air traffic and rising tourism.

India's new road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath is aware of the problem and wants to speed up funding awards.

"The greater the outlay on construction of roads, the greater the impetus to the economy," he has said.

But analysts say funding is not the only hurdle that needs to be overcome. "The government needs to give attention to issues like land acquisition issues, a major reason for delay in many projects," said Angel Broking's Agrawal.

Despite the problems, analysts remain optimistic that the infrastructure projects will get off the ground.

"The opportunities to develop a significant business in India are extremely promising for construction firms if they have carefully selected local partners and structured contracts sensibly to maximise tax benefits," PwC's Bhamidipathi said.

SC issues notice to 'Behenji' govt on statues' issue

The Supreme Court on Monday issued showcause notice to the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government for using money meant for the state's development for installing statues of the chief minister and sought a reply on the matter in four weeks.

A notice was also sent to chief minister Mayawati.

"Notice (has been issued) to the state to showcause why the petition should not be admitted," a bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Ganguli said, PTI reported.

The petitioner Ravi Kant, a Supreme Court advocate, alleged that the total money used by Mayawati from the state budget for 2008-09 and 2009-10 for such projects was to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore to "falsely glorify" the chief minister.

The court passed the order on a PIL seeking its direction to restrain Mayawati from installing her statues and party symbol at public places at the cost of public fund and demanded a CBI probe into the misuse of state exchequer.

The court, after hearing the petitioner's contentions, granted four weeks to the state government to file its reply.

Last week, Mayawati had received much criticism from Opposition parties for unveiling statues and parks of Dalit leaders ahead of schedule, saying it was aimed at pre-empting the Supreme Court from putting these projects on hold.

Mayawati had unveiled the 15 statues, which included that of BSP founder late Kanshi Ram and her own, and parks at a hurriedly-organised function on June 25, nine days ahead of schedule.

This was seen as an attempt to pre-empt the apex court from putting on hold all such projects and a bid to upstage Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who planned to stage protests on July 3, the day Mayawati was slated to unveil the statues, besides memorials of dalit icons and open parks.

Last night, slamming Mayawati for spending Rs 1,000 crore to install her own statues, Union home minister P Chidambaram said the amount could have been used to provide basic amenities to the people and wipe out poverty.

"She is spending Rs 1000 crore on establishing statues of elephants and herself. Can there be something more shameful than this in Indian politics," he asked.

"Of what use will be the statues in UP. The Rs 1000 crore could have helped wipe out poverty of thousands of people, provide basic amenities and education," he said, addressing a meeting to thank voters of his constituency Sivaganga last night.

PM picks Nilekani to head national ID card scheme

Three weeks after celebrating his 55th birthday, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani will step down from the board of Infosys Technologies, of which he is co-chairman, on July 9 to take over as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the government’s ambitious project to provide every citizen with a unique biometric identity card.

Nilekani, who was selected by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will hold a post equivalent to the rank of a Cabinet minister.

The project — for which a Rs 100 crore pilot was announced by Pranab Mukherjee in the interim budget on February 16 -- provides the underpinnings of the United Progressive Alliance government’s election promise of delivering services more efficiently to citizens below the poverty line.

The project will eventually become the basis of the Citizens Smart Card Project, recommended by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, to enable citizens to avail of subsidies on food, energy, education, etc., depending on their entitlements.Industry estimates put the size of the entire project at Rs 10,000 crore.

Most of the major IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and Infosys are tipped to bid for this project.

Nilekani and his family hold 3.45 per cent (worth Rs 3,472.55 crore at today’s closing price on the Bombay Stock Exchange) in Infosys. Nilekani has said he may recuse himself from the bidding process if Infosys were to bid for this project.

“I will have a clear idea of the magnitude of work, and the nature of what will be exactly required in 2-3 weeks,” Nilekani told Business Standard.

Nilekani co-founded Infosys with N R Narayana Murthy, now chairman and chief mentor, and five others in 1981, a story that has since become part of domestic corporate folklore. He has been its chief operating officer, chief executive officer and managing director (March 2002 and June 2007), and co-chairman of the board of directors.

“We are glad that an extraordinary individual like Nandan has got an opportunity to add value to India through this position. Infosys will accept his absence with a sense of duty to a larger cause, but with deep sadness at the departure of one of her most illustrious sons,” Narayana Murthy said:

“We will definitely miss him,” added S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD of Infosys Technologies, and a co-founder.

Apart from his role as board member and co-chairman, Gopalakrishnan said Nilekani was responsible for managing certain clients and overseas branding. “He was also spearheading some key initiatives we have taken up internally in terms of investment for the future. All his executive roles will now transition to other people with immediate effect,” he added.

Gopalakrishnan did not, however, name who would replace him on Infosys board.

An alumnus of IIT-Bombay from the 1978 batch, Nilekani, whose net worth is $1.3 billion, has been active in public life. For instance, he is a member of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and also part of the National Advisory Group on e-governance. He is also a member of the review committee of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. He took over as the elected President of NCAER (the independent, applied economics research institute in India) in April 2008.

Nilekani has also chaired the government’s IT Task Force for Power.

“We are delighted by this news and congratulate Nandan Nilekani on his appointment. This once again demonstrates the commitment of the UPA government to fast-track the implementation of their election manifesto, which had UID as a key project,” said Som Mittal, president of software body Nasscom.