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NT Bureau
Chennai, Apr 22:
 

Finance Minister P Chidambaram presenting the Sankara Ratna Award to ISRO chairman N Madhavan Nair at a function in Chennai yesterday. Also seen are Sankara Nethralaya chairman Dr S S Badrinath and Indian Overseas Bank CMD T Narayanasami.

        Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked the citizens to develop scientific temper and make attempts to understand the rapid progress of Indian space programme, even as thousands of ISRO scientists have done the nation proud in space technology.

        'In the line up of eminent scientists, ISRO chairman N Madhavan Nair is serving the nation with dedication and the organisation has won a competitive bidding among nations to launch an Italian satellite which is something to be proud of,' he said. He was speaking after giving away Sankara Ratna Award to Madhavan Nair at a function yesterday for his pioneering effort in establishing a tele-ophthalmic network of Sankara Nethralaya in Bangalore six years ago. 'India has now the capability to launch commercial satellites and the credit should go to thousands of young scientists at ISRO who had worked for the love of the country. The fact that a developed country like Italy is now looking at India showed our progress in space technology,' he said.

        As the space programmes grew and expanded, they would touch every aspect of livelihood, even as Indians could take a 'sense of collective pride' for there were 16 satellites in operations with 200 transponders available for meteorology, DTH, communication, earth observation, agriculture, geo-mapping and forestry, and perhaps for spying too, Chidambaram stated.

        In his acceptance speech, Madhavan Nair informed that there were dozen mobile vans for the tele-ophthalmic network and nearly 200 rural hospitals in remote areas linked to Sankara Nethralaya through satellite. Many patients in the Northeast were being diagnosed through teleconsultancy and till now, two lakh patients, mostly in rural areas, have benefited from the tele-ophthalmic network in Bangalore which offered healthcare at the door steps of people living in hinterland.

        To make telemedicine affordable to rural clusters, Nair said more Village Resource Centres (VRCs) would be set up by roping in M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) which has been running nearly 250 VRCs across the country. More mobile vans and remote hospitals would be inducted into the tele-ophthalmic network in the coming years.

        Reaffirming that India has achieved self-reliance in building and launching satellites through indigenous rocket systems, he said this achievement was possible due to the 'tireless efforts of 16,000-strong scientists at ISRO' and the space programme has fulfilled the grand vision of VSSC founder- chairman Vikram Sarabhai, the Indian pioneer in space technology.

        Dr S S Badrinath, founder-chairman, Sankara Nethralaya, in his citation said Nair as ISRO director led the development of GSLV — geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle — that was capable of putting into orbit heavier satellites into a much higher orbit. Giving an overview of the growth of Sankara Nethralaya as a premier eye-care and research institute, Dr Prema Padmanabhan, its medical director, said the hospital had benefited from the extended help provided by ISRO in establishing the tele-ophthalmic network at Bangalore in 2002 through satellite linkages.

        Having begun with a single ophthalmologist in 1978, Sankara Nethralaya has grown into an organisation with over thousands working to improve the ophthalmic care in the country. There at least 1,500 patients getting treatment at the out patient wards, out of which half of them were diagnosed freely. Nearly 120 surgeries were being done on a single day. Shortly, a new building at a cost of Rs 36 crore would be commissioned that would house the National Institute for Research in Vision Science and Ophthalmology (NIRVO) which would focus on high-end science like nanotech and stem-cell research. Among the future projects were an institute for training in cataract surgery, a school for dispensing optics and R&D initiative for optometrists and expanding the hospital network.

        Presenting a cheque of Rs one crore to the hospital, Indian Overseas Bank CMD T Narayanasami said the bank was sensitive to the healthcare needs of the poor and rural people.

        Dr Lingam Gopal, president, Medical Research Foundation, spoke on the significance of the Sankara Ratna Award, while S V Acharya, treasurer, SNOM Trust, US, felicitated the hospital and the award recipient.