Kolkata based cardiologist felicitated for path-breaking surgery

Records, All, Science & Technology

Kolkata :

Most patients with heart injuries caused by speeding missiles (bullets, daggers, knives) are deprived of treatment because they bleed to death on the way to hospital, or while being operated. A surgeon has been felicitated for correcting the rarest of accident-related heart injuries by the Central Asia Regional Congress of Medical Women in India.

Prof Sushila Mitra, former head department of cardio-thoracic surgery, SSKM Hospital, presented the cases at the congress in a city hotel on Saturday.

Her first presentation was on Jagadhish Khatua (26), who was hit on his right chest by an arrow during an in-fighting between tribal groups at Birbhadrapur village in Midnapore in 1989. Bleeding profusely, he was admitted to SSKM Hospital and the x-ray showed that the tip of the arrow was inside her heart. “We did purse-string sutures on him, and transfused six units of blood. He went home, cured. Today he is totally symptom free, leading a normal life,” Mitra told TOI.

In another case, 18-year-old Tanmoy Gayen, was hit on his left chest by a stray bullet while he was driving his cycle van. He was admitted under Mitra on 4 April, 1998. “Initially, the bullet was missing in his x-ray reports. His chest was opened and closed. A post-operative CT scan showed that the bullet was deep inside his heart. The bullet was finally removed through an open-heart surgery,” Mitra said. She showed pictures of the man, 17 years later to show his fitness.

The surgeon’s third presentation was about 21-year-old Mahesh Chand diagnosed with a hole in his heart. He was admitted on 18 Match, 1994. “During the corrective surgery, the catheter tip accidentally broke inside the heart and got stuck in the right upper chamber of the patient’s heart. He was immediately shifted to the cardiothoracic surgery department and we did an open heart surgery,” Mishra said, adding “the patient was admitted through the night. We removed the ‘foreign body’ first and then the hole in the heart was mended. Post surgery, the patient was on ventilator for two weeks.” Twenty-one years later, Mishra said, the patients is married with a child.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Ajanta Chakraborty, TNN / December 05th, 2015

Toy train service is back

Travel

ToyTrainKOLKATA04dec2015

The Northeast Frontier Railway restarted the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) toy train service between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling on Wednesday.

The service between NJP and Darjeeling was suspended on June 15, 2010, after a landslide near Paglajhora, about 35km from Siliguri, damaged the tracks. The tracks had caved in because of landslide and rain in Tindharia also.

The NFR resumed train services on June 12, 2015, but it was suspended again on June 15 because of landslides.

Repair was undertaken and finally, the service resumed on Wednesday.

According to NFR sources, a passenger special DHR train will leave Darjeeling at 10.15am and arrive at NJP at 5.45pm.

From NJP, the train will leave at 8.30am and reach Darjeeling at 4pm. Each train will have two first-class coaches and a luggage van and would be pulled by a diesel loco.

The toy train was flagged off by Purnabahadur Lepcha, a senior railway employee, at the Darjeeling railway station in the presence of Md. Jamshed, the general manager of NFR, and other senior officials at 9.30am.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Front Page> North Bengal> Story / Thursday – December 03rd, 2015

German precision for cardiac surgery

Records, All, Science & Technology

Kolkata :

Cardiac surgery and heart ailment detection techniques are set to take a leap ahead with the introduction of advanced systems that will shorten the diagnosis period and make it easier and more precise.

Surgical devices and methods, developed in Germany and launched by Dr Kunal Sarkar at Medica Superspecialty Hospital on Wednesday, will help to detect the extent of blood flow reduction in the arteries, provide cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are unable to function normally and make surgeries possible through small incisions.

The new methods include Transmit Time Flow Measurement (TTFM) -a diagnostic method that determines the level of blood flow reduction through vessels and helps in identifying vessels that are deeply embedded in the heart muscles. It can be used in transplantation surgery and other vascular procedures other than coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

The techniques also include one of the latest and most advanced procedures for conduit harvesting in CABG -endoscopic vessel harvesting (EVH). It requires a very small incision and apart from the cosmetic benefits, the pain is less compared to the open technique.

Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenator (ECMO) is another technique that is part of the package. It provides cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to sustain life. ECMO works by removing blood from the patient’s body and artificially removing the carbon dioxide and oxygenating red blood cells.

Fractional Flow Reserve is the final procedure on offer. It helps in accurate diagnosis of a heart block and significantly reduces unnecessary stenting revascularization and helps in optimizing the therapy for heart patients. It helps the cardiologist in making an informed decision, particularly in case of multi-vessel blocks. The procedure relies not on how severely constricted an artery appears to be, but on how the constriction is affecting the blood flow.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / December 03rd, 2015

IIT Madras helps KoPT to slash dredging costs by Rs.250 crore

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

The Kolkata Port Trust may implement a technology that will help it save Rs.250 crore annually through reduced dredging costs, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said.

Dredging costs at the country’s only riverine port is likely to get reduced from around Rs.400 crore to around Rs.150 crore due to a new process of dredging suggested by the IIT-Madras on the basis of recommendations made by the Boston Consulting Group. The two port systems of KoPT at Kolkata and Haldia have a draft of around 7.5 metres.

Within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would have a two per cent addition to GDP, says Nitin Gadkari. Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping. R.P.S.Kahlon, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust, is also seen.— PHOTO: PTI
Within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would have a two per cent addition to GDP, says Nitin Gadkari. Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping. R.P.S.Kahlon, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust, is also seen.— PHOTO: PTI

Boston Consulting, on the basis of a Ministry mandate, had made 120 recommendations on improving the performance of all the major Indian ports. “About 20 suggestions are being implemented and the rest would be put in place in two years,” Mr Gadkari said adding that it is not possible to improve exports without good ports.

“For this government, waterways had the highest priority in the logistics segment followed by railways and roadways.” Against the previous government’s pace of laying two km of roads daily, now 18 km of roadways were being laid, he said. The target is to increase it to 30 km a day by March 2016. The Minister also said that within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would contribute two per cent to the GDP.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Business / by Special Correspondent / Kolkata – December 02nd, 2015

Urban landscape honour for Eco Park

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Leaders, Records, All

Kolkata :

The central Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) has voted Eco Park at New Town as one of the top two projects in the country for innovative planning and design, bringing new accolades for the city in urban landscaping.

The project, developed by West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (Hidco), has won the second position under the `Landscape Planning and Design’ category . The first prize went for the development and revitalisation of Ranmal Lake at Jamnagar in Gujarat.”It is an encouraging recognition for the Hidco planning and engineering team.

The project was inspired by the CM,” said Hidco CMD Debashis Sen. Off the arterial road in New Town, Eco Park is spread over 480 acres, a 104-acre waterbody in its middle.

On July 19, 2011, on her way from airport, Mamata Banerjee reportedly alighted from her car as the waterbody caught her attention. On her instruction, the Hidco converted the area into an ecological garden.

New attractions, such as the Biswa Bangla Haat, a children’s play area, a butterfly garden, a musical fountain, a bamboo garden, a replica of the Ghum station and an adda zone, were added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Suman Chakraborti, TNN / November 30th, 2015

Women behind the wheel

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Sports

WomenWheelKOLKATA30nov2015

Manoj Verma, the commissioner of Siliguri metropolitan police, flagged off the Queen on Wheels 2015, the women’s car rally organised by Rotary Club of Siliguri Green in association with The Telegraph, at Siliguri Institute of Technology on Sunday.

According to the organisers, 71 cars, all driven by women, participated in the rally. However, most of the cars had men as navigators. The event was held with the help of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India.

The cars travelled for around 60km covering different terrains and reached finally at Uttarayon Township in Matigara. Suman Agarwal finished first in the rally that was held in Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) Format, while Shyamashree Mitra and Venus Baid came second and third, respectively. The top three were presented with trophies and prizes.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> North Bengal> Story / Monday- November 30th, 2015

App brings Kolkata’s history alive

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Travel

MemorialKOLKATA30nov2015

A smart phone application will enable users to explore rare archival images of more than 100 geographical points and heritage sites of the city.

If you are going past any colonial and historic monument of Kolkata, such as the Victoria Memorial, all you need to do to get information about it is to point your smart phone camera towards it.

Now, a smart phone application will enable users to explore rare archival images of more than 100 geographical points and heritage sites of the city.

The application, Timescape: Kolkata, put together by the University of Liverpool, the Jadavpur University and the British Library, creates an augmented reality that allows the users to imagine themselves in the environment.

Material from archives
Photographs dating back to the 19th century were provided by the British Library.

“These photographs in the mobile app are one of the earliest of Kolkata. The British Library has provided the photographs, which were taken by Bourne & Shepherd Company, which has set up the world’s second studio in the city, and two other photographers Frederick Fiebig and W G Stretton,” Sujaan Mukherjee, a researcher at the Jadavpur University told The Hindu.

The richness of Kolkata’s historical buildings, often half-hidden behind the facade of an expanding modern city, is reflected in the copious archives of images of the British Library collection, said John Falconer, lead curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the library.

The setting of the application launch in the galleries of the Victoria Memorial was also fitting as the monument is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent colonial buildings in the country. The mobile app will showcase the city in a way that brings Kolkata history to life, said Nandini Das, project lead from the University of Liverpool’s Department of English. “It will allow users to experience urban space in a fresh and exciting way,” she said.

However, those behind the initiative do not want it to remain confined to the city’s colonial heritage.

Professor Supriya Chowdhury of Jadavpur University said there was a lot of scope for augmenting the application with historical data of non-colonial landmarks as well.

“We have added layers of historical data, photographs and geographic coordinates to the application which is open source and universally accessible,” Prof. Chaudhury said.

Researchers and academicians behind the application describe it as an outcome of broader research titled ‘Envisioning the Indian City’ between different departments of the Liverpool University and the Jadavpur University.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – November 29th, 2015

Writers with Kolkata link in line for DSC award

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, World Opinion

Kolkata:

It is surely a proud moment for the city, which lays its claims to three of the six authors shortlisted for the DSC award for South Asian Literature 2016. While Neel Mukherjee and Raj Kamal Jha spent their childhood and youth in south Kolkata, Anuradha Roy had a brief stint with this city when she studied at Presidency College.

“Calcutta will always enter whatever I write because that’s the city I have walked the most, got lost the most in. ‘She Will Build Him A City’ is about the imagined cities inside our head, the magic that we need to live with reality,” said Jha, editor-in-chief of a national English daily. Jha, who was born in Bihar and had his schooling at St Joseph’s, put the city in his first novel ‘The Blue Bed Spread’ where the former IITian went beyond the cordons of the concrete city. Similar seemd to be the case with his fourth novel, where humans, under strain or facing irrevocable loss, find themselves deprived even of their names. Their narratives, fragmented and with a constantly shifting relationship to any recognisable version of events, are interspersed with characters allowed to keep their nominal identities.

Neel Mukherjee studied at Don Bosco School, Park Circus and then took up English at Jadavpur University before proceeding to University College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship where he graduated in 1992. He completed his PhD at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In his second novel, ‘The Lives of Others’, Mukherjee gives us finely-grained descriptions of daily life. It is a complete world, where political unrest is always visible on the fringes, casting ever-darker shadows over the domestic. The fragmented versions of families particularly in north Kolkata is carefully penned in his novel.

Anuradha Roy, novelist, journalist and editor, has been shortlisted for her ‘Sleeping on Jupiter’. Born in Uttarakhand and brought up in Sikkim and Hyderabad, she came to Kolkata to study English at Presidency College before moving to Cambridge University. The co-founder of publishing house Permanent Black said, “I did college in Kolkata, where I made lifelong friends, and became aware of a whole cultural universe. I have wonderful memories of wandering in the second-hand bookstores and films at Lighthouse and phuchkas and rolls in New Market.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Saibal Gupta, TNN / November 29th, 2015

Film fest starts in New Town

Arts, Culture & Entertainment
Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Debashis Sen inaugurate the Nazrul Tirtha chapter of the Kolkata International Film Festival on Sunday (Shubham Paul)
Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Debashis Sen inaugurate the Nazrul Tirtha chapter of the Kolkata International Film Festival on Sunday (Shubham Paul)

Actor Sabyasachi Chakraborty inaugurated the New Town chapter of the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) at Nazrul Tirtha on Sunday. Nazrul Tirtha is the only venue where the festival’s films are being screened in New Town.

“Please come and watch these films as they encourage us to keep making films and encourage the organisers of such festivals to keep hosting them,” said Chakraborty, adding that he wasn’t sure how many movies he himself would be able to make time for amidst his busy schedule.

This is the second year that Nazrul Tirtha has been a venue for the festival. “Last year we were screening two films a day and this time there would be three films a day,” said Debashis Sen, chairman cum managing director of Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) that is in charge of Nazrul Tirtha. “We have also installed dolby digital sound system in the auditorium this time for enhanced viewing experience.”

KathakKOLKATA29nov2015

Before the inauguration, kathak dancer Anurekha Ghosh, a resident of Salt Lake’s CB Block, performed (picture above).

Nazrul Tirtha, on the Major Arterial Road, was inaugurated last year to facilitate research on poet Kazi Nazrul Islam but from August this year it has also started screening films on a regular basis. “Ever since the movie hall opened here I’ve watched several good films,” said Kumkum Chattopadhyay, a resident of the nearby East Enclave Co-operative Housing Society who had come for the inauguration. “As for the festival, it was not possible to travel to far-off destinations to watch the films before. This venue is convenient and I hope to watch the Asian films on offer, especially the Bengali film 9 no. Peara Bagan Lane on Saturday.”

The festival will continue till November 21 and the timings at Nazrul Tirtha are 1pm, 3.30pm and 6pm. Tickets are priced at Rs 80 and 60.

In Salt Lake, KIFF films are being screened at Carnival Cinema in IB Block (11am, 3pm) and Inox City Centre (3pm, 5.30pm). Tickets cost Rs 80 at both venues. EZCC had been hosting KIFF for several years but has been discontinued this year.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Front Page> Salt Lake> Story / by A Staff Reporter / Friday – November 20th, 2015