Superbugs bug our healthcare : Kapil Khandelwal, EquNev Capital,
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c m y k c m y k Sony halts sales of PS3 jailbreak. Technomics Facebook sued over whether teens can ‘like’ ads. Boston Consulting to help in revamping MphasiS. DC 15 Bengaluru ● Monday ● 30 August 2010 Paul Allen’s firm sues Silicon Valley giants U S chipmaker Intel and Infineon are likely to announce an agreement on the future of the German chipmaker's wireless business this weekend, three people familiar with the matter said. The deal is likely to hap- pen within the next two days, the people told Reuters on Friday, adding talks were close to conclu- sion but could hinge on a detail. It was not clear whether the deal would involve a sale of the whole unit, gen- erating more than 1 billion euros ($1.27 billion), or just a stake in the business. Both Infineon and Intel declined to comment. Infineon shares were down 3.9 percent at 4.475 euros by 1416 GMT, recouping some of the loss- es they posted after Intel warned that its third-quar- ter revenue would fall short of expectations. Intel shares were largely flat at $18.182. Based in Neubiberg near Munich, Infineon said ear- lier this month it was in advanced talks with inter- ested parties about the future of its mobile chip unit, which had annual rev- enue of 917 million euros in Infineon's 2008/2009 fiscal year and now gener- ates around 30 percent of the company's total rev- enue. The business had been loss-making for years but Infineon Chief Executive Peter Bauer, who took the helm in mid-2008, man- aged to turn the unit around. It ranks No. 5 in the chipset industry, far behind sector giants Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Broadcom, and supplies chips to top manufacturers such as Nokia, LG and Apple. Getting access to Infi- neon's mobile chips would help Intel expand in the booming smartphone mar- ket. Intels’ Atom mobile chips took the low-cost, no-frills netbook market by storm but are rarely found in smartphones where other chipmakers dominate. “Infineon would make Intel an instant heavy- weight (in the mobile space) and buy them three, four years in R&D (research and develop- ment),” IDC analyst Flint Pulskamp has said. In addition, Infineon could use the money to invest in its other business- es: automotive, industrial and chip card security. — Reuters Infineon, Intel likely to finalise deal SANGEETHA CHENGAPPA DC| BENGALURU Aug. 29: Indian art and handicraft is widely appre- ciated all over the the world. Nearly 10 per cent of the 23 million artisans across the country,however abandon the pursuit of traditional craft handed to them over generations every 7-10 years. To save the rich her- itage of Indian handicraft from becoming extinct, a team of motivated young- sters with diverse work experience ranging from IT, hospitality, Management Consulting, Design and Luxury Management decid- ed to quit their cushy jobs and launch an online mar- ketplace that connects con- noisseurs of art from around the world with an eclectic collection of ancient, mod- ern and contemporary Indi- an art & handicraft from artisans across the country. Aporv.com was launched on June 5th, (World Envi- ronment Day), received 27,000 page views in the first 60 days and already has 500 dedicated fans on popu- lar social networking sites. The categories of handcraft- ed products on offer range from home décor, jewellery, handbags to gift items, natu- ral silk stoles, sarees and hand-embroidered bed- sheets that are priced between Rs 95 to Rs 9,900. “Aporv is Sanskrit for ‘unique’ and we make it a unique experience as each handcrafted product is sold as a story rather than for its face value. Every craft holds secrets, myths and fables that have become a part of it through generations.We bring these stories to con- noisseurs of handcrafted products” said Sudip Dutta, Founder & CEO, aporv.com. The zoom-in feature on the site allows one to see close- ups of products. One can read the story of the product — where it comes from, ingredients that go into making it and a link to the artisan who makes it. “If you click on the black pot- tery teaset on aporv.com, you will find that it is known as Longpi Ham pottery, which originates from the Thangkhul Naga tribes of Manipur, is made up of hard serpentine rock and was tra- ditionally used by noble families of Manipur to cook and serve meat dishes dur- ing marriages and festivals. We have unusual pieces of of wood marquetry, created exclusively for Aporv by a master craftsman, Vasant from Mysore, who mastered the craft from his father. Marquetry is the art of creat- ing decorative designs and pictures by skillfully utiliz- ing the wood grain, figure and colours of thin veneers and sometimes other materi- als such as shell or ivory” said Sudip. Artisans get their due for every work of art or craft that they produce and have access to a global market for their masterpieces as Aporv partners with Self Help Groups, NGOs and artists who are national award win- ners as well as freshers to promote their work. “Dying crafts get a fresh lease of life and art lovers get authentic handcrafted products with a story attached to each. We also partner with designers to combine the ancient art form with new designs” added Sudip. All the prod- ucts come with a certificate of authenticity from a panel of experts in Aporv. Cus- tomers can evaluate and rate products based on skills, uniqueness, aesthetics and craft form. “We offer a no- questions-asked, 7-day return policy if customers are not satisfied and under- take personalised packaging and messaging for cus- tomers in case of gifting. Shipping cost of products vary from Rs 50 to Rs 350” said Sudip, who is confident of breaking even in 18-24 months. The self funded company is now ready for the second phase of expan- sion to ramp up its sales and marketing, logistics and warehousing facilities. While 50 per cent of Aporv’s customers are from Indian cities, 32 per cent are NRIs from the US who gift to friends and family in India and the rest are from the UK. Intel reduces its 3rd-quarter sales forecast New York, Aug. 29: The chip maker Intel said Friday that it was cutting its sales forecast for the third quarter, evidence that a sluggish economy was putting a damper on the back-to- school shopping season. Intel is the world’s biggest provider of microprocessors for PCs and a bellwether for the broader technology industry. In a statement Friday, Intel said it was seeing “weaker- than-expected” demand for consumer PCs in mature markets,” like the United States and Europe. The warning comes a little more than a month after Intel reported its biggest quarterly profit in a decade. But those results were fueled by a rebound in tech- nology spending at corpora- tions, many of which held off replacing older comput- ers during the recession. Home computer purchases are another matter. Uncer- tainty about jobs is keeping consumer spending in check. Intel said it now expected revenue of $10.8 billion to $11.2 billion in the third quarter, compared with a previous forecast of $11.2 billion to $12 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected $11.5 billion. Intel is scheduled to report results on Oct. 12 and plans to update its fourth-quarter and full-year outlook then. Intel’s downgrade of its guidance was not entirely a surprise. Many investors simply did not believe that Intel would be able to hit the higher numbers because of signals from other PC indus- try suppliers that PC sales were collapsing. Those concerns were the main reason Intel’s stock had fallen about 13 percent since Intel issued its original guidance on July 13. After the company released its revised outlook, its shares rose 19 cents, or 1.05 percent, to $18.35. Last week, the PC makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard also raised red flags about what was normally a robust season for sales. Brian T. Gladden, Dell’s chief financial officer, said that the back-to-school shopping season had been “a little weaker than we would have expected.” — AP Exquisite Indian handicrafts are now just a click away Intel said it was seeing “weaker- than-expected” demand for consumer PCs in mature markets. Superbug ‘bugs’ our healthcare A dose of IT A dose of IT Kapil Khandelwal is a leading healthcare and ICT expert. [email protected] DAN LEVINE SAN FRANCISCO Aug. 29: A company linked to Microsoft Corp co- founder Paul Allen is suing 11 major corporations, including Apple, Google and Facebook, accusing them of infringing on tech- nology patents. Interval Licensing is asserting four patents against a cluster of defen- dants, including also AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and Google's YouTube, according to the suit. Google, Facebook and eBay said they will fight the accusations by Interval, which owns a portfolio of technology patents but does not manufacture. Apple, AOL, Office Depot, Netflix and OfficeMax declined to comment. The remaining companies did not respond to requests for comment. Experts say companies that lack production but utilize old patents to make broad infringement claims tend to raise red flags. But the law- suit points out Allen's deep history with Google, includ- ing early funding of founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, a likely attempt to distinguish this lawsuit from other opportunistic patent litigation, Stanford professor and IP litigator Mark Lemley said. “It's usually an indication either that the patents are invalid, or they’re over- claiming them,” said Lem- ley, whose law firm repre- sents Google and Netflix in unrelated matters. “Part of what’s going on here is the plaintiffs are going out of their way to say, ‘Hey, look, we’re really important people. We’re real innovators.” Allen, the 37th-richest per- son in the world according to Forbes, co-founded Inter- val Research in 1992 to develop communications and computer technology. The company, which employed more than 110 scientists and engineers at one point, filed patents over several years covering Inter- net search and display inno- vations, according to the lawsuit. Interval Licensing now owns those patents. Allen, who has been treat- ed for non-Hodgkin’s lym- phoma, in July pledged most of his estimated $13.5 bil- lion fortune to philanthropy after his death. He co-found- ed Microsoft in 1975 with Bill Gates but resigned as an executive in 1983 as he overcame a first bout with cancer. In the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the West- ern District of Washington, Interval is seeking damages and a halt to the alleged vio- lations of patents it said were fundamental to e-com- merce and search. “This lawsuit against some of America’s most innova- tive companies reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace,” a Google spokesman said in an emailed statement. “Innovation — not litiga- tion — is the way to bring to market the kinds of products and services that benefit millions of people around the world.” Interval spokesman David Postman said the lawsuit was necessary to protect its investment in innovation. “We are not asserting patents that other companies have filed, nor are we buy- ing patents originally assigned to someone else,” Postman said. “These are patents developed by and for Interval.” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said: “We believe this suit is complete- ly without merit and we will fight it vigorously.” — Reuters KAPIL KHANDELWAL N ew Delhi has got a Superbug named after it! A team of researchers in the UK named a multi- drug resistant superbug after our national capital New Delhi, Namma Bengaluru may not also be spared. Our city is host to thousands of expats who stay for short period of time or migrate to our city to work in the Bengaluru offices of their multina- tional companies. Unlike mandatory health checks that other countries' embassies impose on migrating expats from third-world countries like India, I am not sure if the same medical tests are being requested for expats vis- iting India. By doing it we can be sure if for- eigners visiting New Delhi or Bengaluru or any of our cities are car- rying the bugs and spreading it on Indian soil or vice versa. This would be one data point our Health Ministry can collaborate on with the External Affairs Min- istry in proving or dis proving such researchers who name superbugs after Indian cities and provide nega- tive opinion about India and its healthcare capa- bilities and medical tourism to the world at large. A superbug named after New Delhi is again an anti-thesis of sorts to me. Antibiotics have been used successfully for over 6 decades, but superbugs expressing resistance to them have emerged and have dis- seminated through the global ecosystem, with or without the New Delhi connection to reach infecting microor- ganisms, produce dis- ease, and seriously interfere with therapy, allowing infections to progress and fatalities despite antibiotic administration. The upsurge in prevalence of such superbugs in the bacterial population that colonize and infect peo- ple globally involves two processes, emer- gence and dissemina- tion, in both of which there have been positive contribution made from the developing world, where resistance is com- mon and increasing. If we were to look at per-capita consumption of antibiotics, India is at the bottom of the global list with one of the largest drug-naïve popu- lation in the world that the global life sciences majors would like to use as subjects for their clin- ical trials. The regula- tion on prescribing and dispensing of antibiotics has a double purpose: to enhance access to antibiotic treatment and to reduce the inappropri- ate use of antibiotic drugs. Nevertheless, incentives to dispensing doctors may lead to inefficiencies. Empirical evidence suggests that a greater proportion of dispensing practices is associated with higher levels of antibiotic use in the Western world. Hence to me the New Delhi connection to a superbug seems far- fetched and more of a political rather than sci- entific gimmick! However, Namma city’s health authorities cannot be complacent. We need an automated registry of hospital acquired infections that all hospitals, whether government or private can feed into for surveil- lance of emergence of such multi-drug resist- ant superbugs. Advanced computer technology is available to identify hospital- associated multi-drug resistant superbugs. Hospitals should be encouraged to imple- ment such systems as empirically, these tech- nology and systems help reduce the spread of such drug-resistant superbugs. The next issue to stop- ping the spread of such New Delhi named and styled superbugs will be identifying new cases early and insisting on good hygiene in hospi- tals: disinfecting med- ical instruments and ensuring doctors and nurses wash their hands with antibacterial soap. The only way, we can refute the zealous researchers in the West is by countering them with empirical data. IT is the solution to ensure that this data is available in the future! Sudip Dutta, Founder & CEO of aporv.com, holds up a handcrafted work entitled “Tree of Life” done on stretched goat leather which has its origins in Tholu Bom- malata (leather puppetry) dating back to the Vijayanagar Empire. — OM PRAKASH A company linked to Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen is sueing 11 corporations, accusing them of infringing on patents. bITs Microsoft appeals over i4i patent M icrosoft Corp asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to reconsider a lower court's ruling that upheld rival i4i's patent related to text manipulation technology. Microsoft filed a writ of certiorari with the court, effectively asking it to look for errors in the lower court's ruling and then toss it out. “This issue will not bene- fit from further percolating in the circuit” courts, Microsoft said in its appeal. The US Patent and Trade- mark Office upheld the validity of the i4i patent in April, about three years after the legal fight began. — Reuters The New Delhi connection to a superbug seems far-fetched and more of a political rather than scientific gimmick!
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Transcript of Superbugs bug our healthcare : Kapil Khandelwal, EquNev Capital,
c m y k c m y k
Sony haltssales of PS3 jailbreak. Technomics
Facebooksued overwhetherteens can‘like’ ads.
Boston Consultingto help inrevampingMphasiS.
DDCC 15Bengaluru ●● Monday ●● 30 August 2010
Paul Allen’s firm sues Silicon Valley giants
US chipmaker Inteland Infineon arelikely to announce
an agreement on the futureof the German chipmaker'swireless business thisweekend, three peoplefamiliar with the mattersaid.
The deal is likely to hap-pen within the next twodays, the people toldReuters on Friday, addingtalks were close to conclu-sion but could hinge on adetail.
It was not clear whetherthe deal would involve asale of the whole unit, gen-erating more than 1 billioneuros ($1.27 billion), orjust a stake in the business.
Both Infineon and Inteldeclined to comment.
Infineon shares weredown 3.9 percent at 4.475euros by 1416 GMT,recouping some of the loss-es they posted after Intelwarned that its third-quar-ter revenue would fall shortof expectations.
Intel shares were largelyflat at $18.182.
Based in Neubiberg nearMunich, Infineon said ear-lier this month it was inadvanced talks with inter-ested parties about thefuture of its mobile chipunit, which had annual rev-enue of 917 million eurosin Infineon's 2008/2009fiscal year and now gener-ates around 30 percent ofthe company's total rev-enue.
The business had beenloss-making for years butInfineon Chief ExecutivePeter Bauer, who took thehelm in mid-2008, man-aged to turn the unitaround.
It ranks No. 5 in thechipset industry, far behindsector giants Qualcomm,Texas Instruments andBroadcom, and supplieschips to top manufacturerssuch as Nokia, LG andApple.
Getting access to Infi-neon's mobile chips wouldhelp Intel expand in thebooming smartphone mar-ket.
Intels’Atom mobile chipstook the low-cost, no-frillsnetbook market by stormbut are rarely found insmartphones where otherchipmakers dominate.
“Infineon would makeIntel an instant heavy-weight (in the mobilespace) and buy them three,four years in R&D(research and develop-ment),” IDC analyst FlintPulskamp has said.
In addition, Infineoncould use the money toinvest in its other business-es: automotive, industrialand chip card security.
— Reuters
Infineon, Intel likely tofinalise deal
SANGEETHA CHENGAPPA
DC| BENGALURU
Aug. 29: Indian art andhandicraft is widely appre-ciated all over the the world.Nearly 10 per cent of the 23million artisans across thecountry,however abandonthe pursuit of traditionalcraft handed to them overgenerations every 7-10years. To save the rich her-itage of Indian handicraftfrom becoming extinct, ateam of motivated young-sters with diverse workexperience ranging from IT,hospitality, ManagementConsulting, Design andLuxury Management decid-ed to quit their cushy jobsand launch an online mar-ketplace that connects con-noisseurs of art from aroundthe world with an eclecticcollection of ancient, mod-ern and contemporary Indi-an art & handicraft fromartisans across the country.
Aporv.com was launchedon June 5th, (World Envi-ronment Day), received27,000 page views in thefirst 60 days and already has500 dedicated fans on popu-lar social networking sites.The categories of handcraft-ed products on offer rangefrom home décor, jewellery,handbags to gift items, natu-ral silk stoles, sarees andhand-embroidered bed-sheets that are pricedbetween Rs 95 to Rs 9,900.“Aporv is Sanskrit for‘unique’ and we make it aunique experience as eachhandcrafted product is soldas a story rather than for itsface value. Every craft holdssecrets, myths and fablesthat have become a part of itthrough generations.Webring these stories to con-noisseurs of handcraftedproducts” said Sudip Dutta,Founder & CEO,aporv.com.
The zoom-in feature on thesite allows one to see close-ups of products. One canread the story of the product
— where it comes from,ingredients that go intomaking it and a link to theartisan who makes it. “Ifyou click on the black pot-
tery teaset on aporv.com,you will find that it is knownas Longpi Ham pottery,which originates from theThangkhul Naga tribes of
Manipur, is made up of hardserpentine rock and was tra-ditionally used by noblefamilies of Manipur to cookand serve meat dishes dur-
ing marriages and festivals.We have unusual pieces ofof wood marquetry, createdexclusively for Aporv by amaster craftsman, Vasantfrom Mysore, who masteredthe craft from his father.Marquetry is the art of creat-ing decorative designs andpictures by skillfully utiliz-ing the wood grain, figureand colours of thin veneersand sometimes other materi-als such as shell or ivory”said Sudip.
Artisans get their due forevery work of art or craftthat they produce and haveaccess to a global market fortheir masterpieces as Aporvpartners with Self HelpGroups, NGOs and artistswho are national award win-ners as well as freshers topromote their work. “Dyingcrafts get a fresh lease of lifeand art lovers get authentichandcrafted products with astory attached to each. Wealso partner with designersto combine the ancient artform with new designs”added Sudip. All the prod-ucts come with a certificateof authenticity from a panelof experts in Aporv. Cus-tomers can evaluate and rateproducts based on skills,uniqueness, aesthetics andcraft form. “We offer a no-questions-asked, 7-dayreturn policy if customersare not satisfied and under-take personalised packagingand messaging for cus-tomers in case of gifting.Shipping cost of productsvary from Rs 50 to Rs 350”said Sudip, who is confidentof breaking even in 18-24months. The self fundedcompany is now ready forthe second phase of expan-sion to ramp up its sales andmarketing, logistics andwarehousing facilities.While 50 per cent ofAporv’s customers are fromIndian cities, 32 per cent areNRIs from the US who giftto friends and family in India and the restare from the UK.
Intel reduces its 3rd-quarter sales forecast New York, Aug. 29: Thechip maker Intel said Fridaythat it was cutting its salesforecast for the third quarter,evidence that a sluggisheconomy was putting adamper on the back-to-school shopping season.
Intel is the world’s biggestprovider of microprocessorsfor PCs and a bellwether forthe broader technologyindustry.
In a statement Friday, Intelsaid it was seeing “weaker-than-expected” demand forconsumer PCs in maturemarkets,” like the UnitedStates and Europe.
The warning comes a littlemore than a month afterIntel reported its biggestquarterly profit in a decade.But those results werefueled by a rebound in tech-nology spending at corpora-tions, many of which heldoff replacing older comput-ers during the recession.
Home computer purchasesare another matter. Uncer-tainty about jobs is keepingconsumer spending incheck.
Intel said it now expectedrevenue of $10.8 billion to$11.2 billion in the thirdquarter, compared with aprevious forecast of $11.2billion to $12 billion.
Analysts surveyed byThomson Reuters expected$11.5 billion.
Intel is scheduled to reportresults on Oct. 12 and plansto update its fourth-quarterand full-year outlook then.
Intel’s downgrade of its
guidance was not entirely asurprise. Many investorssimply did not believe thatIntel would be able to hit thehigher numbers because ofsignals from other PC indus-try suppliers that PC saleswere collapsing.
Those concerns were themain reason Intel’s stockhad fallen about 13 percentsince Intel issued its originalguidance on July 13.
After the companyreleased its revised outlook,its shares rose 19 cents, or1.05 percent, to $18.35.
Last week, the PC makersDell and Hewlett-Packardalso raised red flags aboutwhat was normally a robustseason for sales.
Brian T. Gladden, Dell’schief financial officer, saidthat the back-to-schoolshopping season had been“a little weaker than wewould have expected.”
— AP
Exquisite Indian handicraftsare now just a click away
Intel said it wasseeing “weaker-than-expected”demand forconsumer PCs inmature markets.
Superbug ‘bugs’our healthcare
A dose of IT
A dose of IT
Kapil Khandelwal is a leading healthcare andICT expert. [email protected]
DAN LEVINE
SAN FRANCISCO
Aug. 29: A company linkedto Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen is suing11 major corporations,including Apple, Googleand Facebook, accusingthem of infringing on tech-nology patents.
Interval Licensing isasserting four patentsagainst a cluster of defen-dants, including also AOL,eBay, Facebook, Netflix,Office Depot, OfficeMax,Staples, Yahoo and Google'sYouTube, according to thesuit.
Google, Facebook andeBay said they will fight theaccusations by Interval,which owns a portfolio oftechnology patents but doesnot manufacture. Apple,AOL, Office Depot, Netflixand OfficeMax declined tocomment. The remainingcompanies did not respondto requests for comment.
Experts say companies thatlack production but utilizeold patents to make broadinfringement claims tend toraise red flags. But the law-suit points out Allen's deephistory with Google, includ-ing early funding offounders Sergey Brin and
Larry Page, a likely attemptto distinguish this lawsuitfrom other opportunisticpatent litigation, Stanfordprofessor and IP litigatorMark Lemley said.
“It's usually an indicationeither that the patents areinvalid, or they’re over-claiming them,” said Lem-ley, whose law firm repre-sents Google and Netflix inunrelated matters.
“Part of what’s going onhere is the plaintiffs aregoing out of their way to say,‘Hey, look, we’re reallyimportant people. We’re realinnovators.”
Allen, the 37th-richest per-
son in the world accordingto Forbes, co-founded Inter-val Research in 1992 todevelop communicationsand computer technology.The company, whichemployed more than 110
scientists and engineers atone point, filed patents overseveral years covering Inter-net search and display inno-vations, according to thelawsuit.
Interval Licensing nowowns those patents.
Allen, who has been treat-ed for non-Hodgkin’s lym-phoma, in July pledged mostof his estimated $13.5 bil-lion fortune to philanthropyafter his death. He co-found-ed Microsoft in 1975 withBill Gates but resigned as anexecutive in 1983 as heovercame a first bout withcancer.
In the suit filed in the U.S.
District Court for the West-ern District of Washington,Interval is seeking damagesand a halt to the alleged vio-lations of patents it saidwere fundamental to e-com-merce and search.
“This lawsuit against someof America’s most innova-tive companies reflects anunfortunate trend of peopletrying to compete in thecourtroom instead of themarketplace,” a Googlespokesman said in anemailed statement.
“Innovation — not litiga-tion — is the way to bring tomarket the kinds of productsand services that benefit
millions of people aroundthe world.”
Interval spokesman DavidPostman said the lawsuitwas necessary to protect itsinvestment in innovation.
“We are not assertingpatents that other companieshave filed, nor are we buy-ing patents originallyassigned to someone else,”Postman said. “These arepatents developed by and forInterval.”
Facebook spokesmanAndrew Noyes said: “Webelieve this suit is complete-ly without merit and we willfight it vigorously.”
— Reuters
KAPIL KHANDELWAL
New Delhi has gota Superbugnamed after it! A
team of researchers inthe UK named a multi-drug resistant superbugafter our national capitalNew Delhi, NammaBengaluru may not alsobe spared. Our city ishost to thousands ofexpats who stay forshort period of time ormigrate to our city towork in the Bengaluruoffices of their multina-tional companies.Unlike mandatoryhealth checks that othercountries' embassiesimpose on migratingexpats from third-worldcountries like India, Iam not sure if the samemedical tests are beingrequested for expats vis-iting India. By doing itwe can be sure if for-eigners visiting NewDelhi or Bengaluru orany of our cities are car-rying the bugs andspreading it on Indiansoil or vice versa. Thiswould be one data pointour Health Ministry cancollaborate on with theExternal Affairs Min-istry in proving or disproving suchresearchers who namesuperbugs after Indiancities and provide nega-tive opinion about Indiaand its healthcare capa-bilities and medicaltourism to the world atlarge.
A superbug namedafter New Delhi is againan anti-thesis of sorts tome. Antibiotics havebeen used successfullyfor over 6 decades, butsuperbugs expressingresistance to them haveemerged and have dis-seminated through theglobal ecosystem, withor without the NewDelhi connection toreach infecting microor-ganisms, produce dis-ease, and seriouslyinterfere with therapy,allowing infections toprogress and fatalitiesdespite antibioticadministration. Theupsurge in prevalence ofsuch superbugs in thebacterial population thatcolonize and infect peo-ple globally involvestwo processes, emer-gence and dissemina-tion, in both of whichthere have been positivecontribution made fromthe developing world,where resistance is com-mon and increasing.
If we were to look atper-capita consumptionof antibiotics, India is atthe bottom of the global
list with one of thelargest drug-naïve popu-lation in the world thatthe global life sciencesmajors would like to useas subjects for their clin-ical trials. The regula-tion on prescribing anddispensing of antibioticshas a double purpose: toenhance access toantibiotic treatment andto reduce the inappropri-ate use of antibioticdrugs. Nevertheless,incentives to dispensingdoctors may lead toinefficiencies. Empiricalevidence suggests that agreater proportion ofdispensing practices isassociated with higher
levels of antibiotic usein the Western world.Hence to me the NewDelhi connection to asuperbug seems far-fetched and more of apolitical rather than sci-entific gimmick!
However, Nammacity’s health authoritiescannot be complacent.We need an automatedregistry of hospitalacquired infections thatall hospitals, whethergovernment or privatecan feed into for surveil-lance of emergence ofsuch multi-drug resist-ant superbugs.Advanced computertechnology is availableto identify hospital-associated multi-drugresistant superbugs.Hospitals should beencouraged to imple-ment such systems asempirically, these tech-nology and systems helpreduce the spread ofsuch drug-resistantsuperbugs.
The next issue to stop-ping the spread of suchNew Delhi named andstyled superbugs will beidentifying new casesearly and insisting ongood hygiene in hospi-tals: disinfecting med-ical instruments andensuring doctors andnurses wash their handswith antibacterial soap.
The only way, we canrefute the zealousresearchers in the Westis by countering themwith empirical data. ITis the solution to ensurethat this data is availablein the future!
Sudip Dutta, Founder & CEO of aporv.com, holds up a handcrafted work entitled“Tree of Life” done on stretched goat leather which has its origins in Tholu Bom-malata (leather puppetry) dating back to the Vijayanagar Empire. — OM PRAKASH
A company linkedto Microsoft Corpco-founder PaulAllen is sueing 11corporations,accusing them ofinfringing onpatents.
bITs
Microsoftappeals overi4i patent
Microsoft Corpasked the USSupreme Court on
Friday to reconsider alower court's ruling thatupheld rival i4i's patentrelated to text manipulationtechnology.
Microsoft filed a writ ofcertiorari with the court,effectively asking it to lookfor errors in the lowercourt's ruling and then tossit out.
“This issue will not bene-fit from further percolatingin the circuit” courts,Microsoft said in itsappeal.
The US Patent and Trade-mark Office upheld thevalidity of the i4i patent inApril, about three yearsafter the legal fight began.
— Reuters
The New Delhiconnection to asuperbug seemsfar-fetched andmore of apolitical ratherthan scientificgimmick!
