BIOGRAPHY OF DR. V. SHANTA

    BIOGRAPHY OF DR. V. SHANTA

Dr. V. Shanta is an Indian oncologist who is best known for her efforts towards making quality and affordable cancer treatment accessible to all patients in the country. She dedicated her life to the research on the prevention and care of cancer and organizing care for cancer patients.

Dr. V. Shanta was born on 11th March 1927 at Mylapore, Chennai. She did her schooling from National Girls High School (now P. S Sivswamy Higher Secondary School). Despite the fact that she comes from a family of scientists and Nobel laureates - S. Chandrasekhar (her maternal uncle) and Dr. C. V. Raman (her grand uncle ) - Dr. Shanta decided to become a doctor, inspired by Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, the first woman medical graduate in the country.

She completed her graduation (M. B. B. S) from the Madras Medical College in 1949. She specialised in Gynaecology and obstetrics with a diploma in 1952 and a MD in 1955. In 1950, she had interned briefly with the Cancer Unit of the Government General Hospital.

In 1955, Post - MD, she decided the offer of a Post of Asst. Surgeon in the Women and Children's Hospital, Madras, to which she had been selected by the Madras Public Service Commission. In April that year, she joined Adyar Cancer Institute, established in 1954 by the Women's Indian Association Cancer Relief Fund as its Resident Medical Officer. Since then she has lived in an austere flat on the first floor of the Institute. In 1956-57, she trained in oncology in Toronto and in 1968, studied marrow transplantation in UK.

Dr. V. Shanta is at present chairperson of the Cancer Institute, Chennai. She has played an important role in the development of the institute from a cottage hospital of 12 beds to a major comprehensive Cancer Centre of national and international stature. Today, the Institute has 423 beds, of which 297 are free. Generally, 66% of patients get free or subsidised treatment. She is also credited for developing India's first programme for early detection of cancer in rural areas. She shas trained hundreds of village nurses to screen rural women to cervical cancer.

She has been Chairman of the I DO - US Collaborative group on Lymphoid Neoplasias (Indian chapter), member of many ICMR committees, member of the ICMR task force on Registries and president of the Indian Society of Oncology (88 - 90). She was the president of the Asian and Pacific Federation of Organisations for Cancer Control (97 - 99), President of the 15th Asian and Pacific Cancer Conference (1999) and member of the syndicate of the Anna University. She has participated in a number of scientific International Collaborative Programmes.

She was the recipient of major National and International Awards along with the awards from public and official organisations. In 1986, she was awarded with Padmashri and IARC Award - work for Development of Registries in India in 1997 and Dsc from Shri Venkateswara University for the contribution in the field of medicine in 1998. She received Dsc Tamil Nadu from Dr. M.G.R Medical University and Nazli - Gad - El - Mawla Award for cancer control in a resource poor country, Brussels in 2002.

In 2005, she was conferred with the Ramon Magsaysay Award, better known as the Nobel Prize of Asia and in 2006, Indian government feted her with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian awardin in the land. She was honoured with Avvaiyar Award by Government of Tamil Nadu, D. Sc from both Dr. NTR University of Health sciences and Sathyabhama University for Life Time Achievement in 2013. She was conferred Padma Vibhusan in 2016.

She has published over 95 papers in national and international journals, contributed chapters in oncology books, delivered many prestigious orations and participated in many international and national conferences.

SUCCESS STORIES OF INDIANS FROM THE FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

BINNY BANSAL AND SACHIN BANSAL – MEN BEHIND FLIPKART

 

Binny Bansal is an Indian technology entrepreneur and the co-founder of Flipkart, India’s favourite shopping website. He was born in 1981 in Chandigarh. He currently resides in Bangalore. His father is a retired chief manager at a bank and his mother is in the government sector. He has no siblings and is married to a homemaker. 

He got a graduation in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi where he met his friend Sachin Bansal. After being rejected by Google twice, Binny had worked with Sarnoff Corporation for a year and a half. Later he worked for Amazon and resigned after nine months along with Sachin Bansal to start their own venture.

 In October 2007, they started Flipkart as an online bookselling website with an initial capital of 400,000 rupees. They launched the website from an apartment in Koramangala, in Bangalore, India. For 10 days, the site did not see even a single sale until a customer from Andhra Pradesh placed the first order for the book, ‘Leaving Microsoft to Change the World’ by John Wood.  In the early days, Sachin and Binny used to deliver books on their own scooters. They used to give away pamphlets of their company outside bookstores to target their actual customers. Later,they expanded the website into other product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, and lifestyle products. Gradually Flipkart slowly grew in prominence.

 In 2016, Bansal became the CEO of Flipkart, where he worked on strategic development, direction and business management. In 2018, Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart group. After the acquisition, Bansal assumed the role of chairman and continued as Group CEO. His 5.5% stake in Flipkart was valued at $1 billion after the acquisition. He resigned from Flipkart in November 2018 on allegations of personal misconduct. He started to invest into new projects like image processing startup Terraview in 2019.

In September 2015 along with Sachin Bansal, he was named the 86th richest person in India with a net worth of $1.3 billion by Forbes India Rich List. India Today ranked them 26th in India's 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list. 

National Depositary Centres in India

NATIONAL DEPOSITORY CENTRES IN INDIA

Library is a dream place for a booklover. For them, it grows beyond the concept of mere collection of books. It takes a place in the heart of bookaholics who loves the feeling of reading in a massive library. With their nostalgic structure, libraries become more inspiring and beautiful. When knowledge combines with beauty, it becomes a worth visiting place where fantasy blends with reality. Today we are going to meet a list of libraries in India, which will leave you spell bound.

Have you ever been in a situation when the copy of your favorite book is not available in the library? Have you ever been disappointed that the periodicals you wanted to read is not handy in your library? Here is the solution.A library which contains the copies of all books and periodicals. Is it possible?  Yes.

A National Depository Centre is a public library in India which receives a copy of all books, newspapers and periodicals published in the country. There are four National Depository Centres in India which contain huge collections of rare books. They are:

Connemara Public Library in Chennai

Connemara Public Library is one of the four National Depository Libraries which is located in Egmore in Chennai, Tamilnadu. The library was established in 1890 and Lord Connemara the then Governor of Madras State laid the foundation stone for the present structure, on 5th December 1896 and the library named after Lord Connemara was formally opened. The library is in pantheon road, Egmore and adjucent to the Madras Museum and Art Gallery. The library has a colonial ambience with teak shelves and standard glass windows with a very tall ceiling built in a truncated semi-circle. Under the provision of Delivery of Books and Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act 1954, every publisher in India has to compulsorily send a copy of each publication to the library. Apart from this a good number of publications and periodicals of UN and its specialized organs and Asian Development Bank were also received. Furthermore, several books were added every year by purchasing from the funds made available by the state government budget. 

The library is open from 9am to 7.30pm {Mondays to Saturdays} and from 9.30am to 6pm {on Sundays}. Anyone who is over 17 years of age can become the member by paying an annual subscription of just Rs 50.

Asiatic Society of Bombay in Mumbai

The Asiatic Society of Mumbai is a rich repository of rare documents, books, periodicals, manuscripts and maps. It came into being in 1804 as the Literary Society of Bombay and moved into the Town Hall in 1830. It was founded by Sir James Mackintosh, a distinguished lawyer and built by Colonel Thomas Cowper. The library has nearly three lakhs books and periodicals including valuable items like a fourteenth-century manuscript of Dante’s The Divine Comedy and a nineteenth-century copy of Firdausi’s Persian epic poem  Shahnama. The magnificient structure of the library gives an experience full of interwoven textures of past and present. Membership to the library is open to all adult persons for Rs 125 per month and students are given special membership with lower fees.

National  Library, Calcutta

The National Library on the Belvedere Estate in Alipore, Kolkata, is the largest library in India by volume and 14th in the list of largest libraries. It is situated on the scenic 30-acre of Belvedere Estate with a collection  of 2.2 million books. The library was opened to the public on 1 February 1953 by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and B. S. Kesavan was appointed the first Librarian. The National Library is a result of the merging of the public library with the Imperial Library—several government libraries. The library is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on all the working days, and from 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and other holidays. Any person above 18 years of age, can become the member of the National Library.

Delhi Public Library, Delhi

Delhi Public Library is a national depository library in the Indian state of Delhi. It was established on 27 October 1951 as a pilot project sponsored by UNESCO and the Government of India. It was inaugurated by then Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The library contains a huge collection of more than 18 Lakh books. It has a network of Zonal Libraries, Branches & Sub-branches, R.C.Libraries, Community Libraries, Deposit Stations, Mobile Library, Braille library, etc. It is the busiest Public Library in South-East Asia. The users are free to use the library and books upon one time subscription. The library is open from 9.00am to 7.00pm on working days and from 10.00am to 5.00pm on Sundays/holidays.

 

 

As the national depository centres, these libraries work under the Government of India along with the collaboration of  UNESCO. They provide funds to these libraries each year to expand their facilities and purchase books. These libraries are highly useful to students, scholars, teachers, researchers and other bibliophiles who require a huge collection of books in variety topics. If you are searching for a rare book, then these libraries would be the best place to go.

It is a fit place for enlightenment and entertainment. The studious and quiet atmosphere with big tables and comfortable chairs opens the urge in readers to indulge themselves in the world of books. Finding a good library makes your quest through books easier and interesting. 

Hope you will find the best.

Thank you