73-year-old Tamil Nadu librarian donated Rs 30 crore to the uneducated poor 

TN activist Palam Kalyanasundaram remained a bachelor so that he could dedicate his life to the poor.

Thin, frail, emaciated and sporting a shy smile, Palam Kalyanasundaram looks like your next-door neighbour’s old, but affectionate grandpa. Once you get to talk to him, the fire and determination in him shines forth through his words. He speaks in a childlike manner, and his voice, too, is high-pitched, but as you listen, you are awestruck at the yeoman service he has done for humanity. He has received several awards and has donated Rs 30 crore of prize money he got from these honours.

Born at Melakarivelamkulam in Thirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, Kalyanasundaram lost his father at a very young age. It was his mother who inspired him to serve the poor.

A will to serve humanity has been 73-year-old Kalyanasundaram’s guiding principle throughout his life. A gold medalist in library science, he also holds a masters degree in literature and history. During his 35-year-long career at Kumarkurupara Arts College at Srivaikuntam, he diligently and willingly donated his salary month after month towards charity and did odd jobs to meet his daily needs. Even after retirement, he worked as a waiter in a hotel in exchange for two meals a day and a meagre salary so that he could continue to donate to orphanages and to children’s educational funds.

He was amply rewarded for his service to humanity. The Union government acclaimed him as the best librarian in India. The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, has honoured him as one of the ‘noblest of the world’ and the United Nations adjudged him as one of the most outstanding people of the 20th century. He also received Man of the Millenium award and Life Time of Service Award from Rotary Club of India in 2011.

“People think that I started doing charity when I was young by donating clothes and helping people study, and they attribute it to a public cause, but I insist it was for a private one. The place where I lived was a tiny village with no provision for roads, buses, schools, electricity, and there was not even a shop to buy a matchbox from. I had to walk 10km to school and back and walking all that way alone can be a pretty lonesome experience. Hence, I had this thought that if I could motivate most of the children to come with me to school, it would be great fun as well.”

Kalyanasundaram says with a twinkle in his eye. “In those days, children could not afford to pay school fees which were around Rs5. I offered to pay their school fees, got them books and clothes as well.”

Kalyanasundaram says money does not impress him at all. “One can get money in three possible ways. First, through earnings; secondly, through parents’ earnings, and thirdly, through money donated by someone. But there’s nothing more fulfilling than being able to donate money for charity out of your own earnings.”

Palam Kalyanasundaram lives a simple life all on his own in a small house in Saidapet, Chennai. He never married for the simple reason that he did not want to spend all that he earned on charity. Even today, he comes to office at Adyar regularly and does whatever he can for the uplift of the underprivileged people.

Source | http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-73-year-old-tamil-nadu-librarian-donated-rs-30-crore-to-the-uneducated-poor-1928555

SC rules for cheap cancer drug

Novartis Loses Battle To Block Indian Generics

Subodh Varma TIG (The Times of India, 02-04-2013, p.01)

    The Supreme Court on Monday rejected pharma giant Novartis AG’s plea to preserve its patent over a life-saving cancer drug, Glivec, drawing a huge sigh of relief from thousands of patients in India and in dozens of developing countries as the fear of an almost 15-fold escalation of drug costs 
receded. It is the biggest setback for multinational pharma companies, which have been denied patent protection for a series of life-saving drugs in recent years. 
    Invented in 1991, Glivec is a miracle cure for a type of blood cancer called chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In this form of cancer, certain bone marrow cells go rogue and produce excessive white blood cells, causing mild fatigue and hip pain initially, but slipping into an out-of-control crisis of zooming platelet and white cell counts. It used to be fatal, but with Glivec, the survival rate is over 95%. Imanitib, the active component, is on the National Essential Drugs List in India. 
    India has an estimated 3 lakh CML patients, with 20,000 added every year. Glivec is sold by Novartis for about Rs 1.2 lakh per month. Indian manufacturers sell the same drug at a monthly cost of Rs 8,000. This was the reason why Novartis launched a seven-year-long legal battle to protect its patent on the drug. 
    Novartis, which made a net profit of $9.6 billion in 2012, criticized the judgment. Ranjit Shahani, VC & MD, Novartis India, said, “It is a setback for patients that will hinder medical progress for diseases without effective treatment options.” 
MNCs blast verdict, say it’ll hit innovation 
    The SC’s decision has come as a big blow to MNCs’ ability to sell lucrative medicines in the country. The main beneficiaries of the ruling will be companies like Cipla, Natco Pharma and Sun Pharma which already market generic Glivec at a fraction of the cost of the Novartis product. The ruling cements the role of domestic firms as major suppliers of inexpensive generics not only to the Rs 70,000-crore domestic market, but also across the developing world, and further establishes India as “the pharmacy of the world”. P 20 Key section of law applies to Glivec: SC 
    When the drug was first commercially sold in 2001, India was moving over from the old patent regime to a new one after signing the international trade and patent related agreements in 1995. The new patent law came into force in 2005. Novartis could not get apatent on Glivec as it dated from an earlier time when a different patent law prevailed. It tried but the patent tribunal rejected the claim in 2006. 
    After going through various appeals, Novartis ended up in the apex court pleading that a crucial section 3 (d) of the new patent law was not applicable to Glivec. This section says that just discovering a new form of a substance is not enough to grant a patent, if it does not enhance its “known efficacy”. 
    Novartis was arguing that a new “beta crystalline” form of Glivec is more effective and hence qualifies as a new invention, and hence should get patent protection. 
    The Supreme Court, in a 112-page analysis of all the claims and counter-arguments disagreed. It said that the beta crystalline form was nothing new. It has always existed in the original amorphous form. 
    The landmark judgement means that Indian firms like Natco and Cipla can continue making and selling Glivec, not only for India but to most third world countries. The SC judgment dims hopes for some other pharma giants fighting legal battles on patents. Pfizer’s cancer drug Sutent and Roche’s hepatitis C treatment Pegasys and Merck & Co’s asthma treatment aerosol suspension formulation lost their patented status in India last year, decisions the companies are fighting to have reversed. 
    Many pharma giants are concentrating their legal firepower on India because it is an $11-billion-a-year market growing at 13-14% annually. Equally important is that India has emerged as the ‘pharmacy of the world”, selling over $26 billion worth of cheap generic (non-patent) drugs to most of the poor and still developing countries. It is estimated that about 80% of the HIV patients in the developing world are surviving because of cheap Indian drugs.

COLLEGE CHAOS

40k teachers to boycott exams over arrears

Yogita Rao TNN

Mumbai: It will be a testing time for students from colleges and universities across the state this exam season as over 40,000 college teachers have called a massive boycott of examination work, including practicals, supervision and evaluation.
    The boycott will affect not only the university exams, but also in-house college exams. Around 20,000 contractual teachers might also join the agitation.
    The Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation (MFUCTO) called the boycott as the state government had failed to meet its assurances on the Sixth Pay Commission arrears disbursal. On May 16 the state government had given a written assurance that teachers would get the cash
components in the arrears in two instalments. The teachers are demanding arrears for the 2006-2010 period.
    “We are trying to mobilize over 20,000 contractual teachers in the state who are not getting the minimum wages as per the new pay commission,” MFUCTO secretary Tapati Mukhopadhyay said. “While the new scale is around Rs 20,000-25,000, the contractual teachers are getting around Rs 8,000-10,000.”
    While a boycott had been called last year too, it was restricted to evaluation work.
    Higher and technical education minister Rajesh Tope said the state government was supposed to give only 20 per cent of the arrears and had asked the Centre to disburse the remainder. “Teachers should be more patient,” he said. “They should not take any steps that would hurt the career of students. We are also bringing up the issue in the cabinet in the coming week.” 

 

 

Source:::: The Times of India, 15-01-2013, p.5,  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1358247356515