Ajit Lalvani wins Science Awar
London, March. 26, 2006
PTI
Ajit Lalvani, a leading NRI consultant physician and pioneer
in Tuberculosis research, has won an award for Excellence
in Science instituted by London-based India International
Foundation.
His father Kartar Lalvani, founder of Vitabiots, received
the award on his behalf from Deputy High Commissioner of
India Ranjan Mathai at a gala function organised by the
Foundation at Radisson Hotel here last night.
Reading the citation for Ajit Lalvani, Hardyal Singh Luther,
President of the India International Foundation, said the
winner of the award for 2006 could not be present as he
was currently on an important lecture tour of Switzerland.
Ajit Lalvani provided a key weapon in the fight against
the worldwide rise in tuberculosis by offering a rapid blood
test to detect TB infection, designed to replace the century-old
skin test for TB. Named T SPOT-TB, the test comes from discoveries
made by him and his collaborators at Oxford University's
Nuffield Department of Medicine.
The test is currently approved for clinical use in Europe
and can identify people who are carrying TB infection, but
who have not yet gone on to develop the disease. Since 1998,
Ajit Lalvani has used the rapid blood test in double-blinded,
randomised studies to prove its effectiveness in over 2,000
TB patients and health controls in 8 countries, including
India.
"Our findings show that children can be protected
against TB infected by vaccination," Lalvani, recipient
of the Scientific Prize of the International Union Against
Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said in a statement.
According to the WHO, Ajit Lalvani's latest discovery shows
how the 60-year-old BCG vaccine functions.
Other winners:
Others who received awards last night included Keith Vaz,
a leading NRI and the longest serving member of the House
of Commons since 1987 and former Minister for Foreign and
Commonwealth office, for his excellence as a Parliamentarian.
Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Centennial Professor of the London
School of Economics and a former Vice Chancellor of the
Baroda University, was conferred the 'Pride of India' award
for his distinction in the field of literature and education.
Both Luther and Mathai, in their brief address, referred
to the rapid strides made by India in various walks of life
and said the time has come to recognise the contributions
made by Indians abroad.
Mathai commended the NRIs for their dedication, determination
and sense of identity with the motherland and inculcation
of the spirit of family values. He also lauded Indians for
their "splendid tradition of participatory democracy
and their contribution to the growth of the India-UK friendship."
Lord Parekh said because of the equal opportunities provided
in Britain, the children of NRIs would be judged here not
by their colour of skin but by their achievements.
Luther said the Foundation had organised three eye camps,
arranging cataract operations for 250 people in Bihar and
Jharkhand and given 50 scholarships to poor children in
Jharkhand last year. It would continue to do more this year,
he said.
Other recipients:
Among the recipients of awards for distinction were Tarique
Ghaffur, CBE, Assistant Commissioner - Specialist Crime,
Metropolitan Police, (Administration); Lord Meghnad Desai,
Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Director
of Centre for the Study of Global Governance (Education);
Raj Loomba, Founder and Chairman of Pushpawati Loomba Memorial
Trust championing the cause of education of children of
widows in India (Social Services); and Rabinder Singh, QC,
Vice Chairman of the Constitutional and Administrative Law
Bar Association (Judiciary).
Others who got the awards were Kailash Puri, author, novelist
and poet (Literature); Pushkala Gopal, Bharatanatyam exponent
(Art and Culture); Rajan Sehgal, Chief of Skylord Travels
(Business); Bharat Jassani, Head of Department of Pathology,
Cardiff University and Histopathology Service, University
Hospital of Wales and Cardiff (Medicine); and Fauja Singh,
92-year-old Marathon runner (sports).
Prominent among those present included Stephen Pound, MP,
Chairman of the Labour Friends of India; Justice Mota Singh,
QC, former judge; Manick Dalal, Chairman of the Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan; Capt. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, Regional Director
for Air India in UK and Europe; Rami Ranger, MBE, NRI industrialist;
and Saeed Jaffrey, actor.
Spin-out company Oxford Immunotec has turned these into
a patented technology. It recently received major funding
to continue developing and selling diagnostic products that
provide a simple and extremely accurate way of studying
a person’s cellular immune response to an infection.
When someone becomes infected with TB the disease induces
a strong response by immune cells in the blood called T-cells.
The new test looks to see if the body has produced these
cells in response to TB and monitors how their numbers change
over time. In this way, it is possible to determine if a
person is infected and whether they are effectively fighting
the infection. This powerful technique can be used not only
for diagnosis of infections but also for prognosis of disease
and monitoring of treatment.
Crucially, the T SPOT-TB test, currently approved for clinical
use in Europe, can identify people who are carrying TB infection
and could therefore spread it, but who have not yet gone
on to develop disease. TB kills between two and three million
people each year, and the death toll is rising.
“The tools currently used to diagnose TB are 50-100
years old; this disease has been neglected for decades.
I am pleased that we have finally brought the benefits of
modern scientific research to the front-line to fight this
age-old disease,” said Dr Lalvani. “In contrast
to the crude and inaccurate skin test, this new blood test
is fast, accurate and convenient. It is a 100-year upgrade
for diagnosing TB and I believe it will significantly improve
the way we manage the disease.”
Since 1998, Dr Lalvani has used this rapid blood test in
double-blinded, randomised studies to prove its effectiveness
in more than 2,000 TB patients and healthy controls in eight
countries.
Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith, chief executive officer of Oxford
Immunotec, said: “The huge amount of clinical data
gathered proves this technology works. We have approval
in the European Union and in many other countries further
afield and we have strong prospects for the use of our patented
technology for the diagnosis of other infectious diseases
where the cellular immune response is critical, such as
HIV, hepatitis C and cancer.”
Ajit Lalvani is just one of many thousands of researchers
in the UK, India, China and throughout the world who are,
or at some time have been, financially supported in their
work by the UK-based international bio-medical charity the
Wellcome Trust.
Thanks to Wellcome for instance, scientists in China working
on an important genome sequencing project are using high-tech
equipment worth 3.5 million pounds donated by the UK charity.
The 34 gene-sequencing machines re-installed at the Beijing
Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have helped
in decoding the genome of the chicken.
Evolutionarily closer (300 million years) to mammals than
other vertebrates such as fish and amphibians, the chicken
has already proved to be an important vertebrate model for
biologists researching neurogenesis, as well as immunology
and limb development. It has also been used to study gene
defects causing blindness in humans - retinitis pigmentosa
and age-related macular degeneration - as well as growth
and obesity.
The specialised machines, which are able to provide vast
amounts of data at high speed, were initially used in the
human genome project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
in Cambridge, England. Dr Bin Liu, head of Research &
Collaboration at the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), that
is also contributing to a genome project being led by Washington
University, said at the time the donation was announced
(November 2003): “These machines will allow us to take
part in one of the most important genome projects and gives
us the opportunity to work with other high-class researchers
around the world. This is a big step forward for the institute
and for China and we hope it will be just one of many valuable
collaborative schemes with colleagues in the UK.”
Dr Michael Morgan, former chief executive of the Wellcome
Trust Genome Campus, and who led negotiations with Dr Liu,
added: “It is marvellous that we have been able to
collaborate by providing these machines to the BGI. We hope
it will lead to their participation in other such projects
which are important in both scientific and health terms.”
Apart from supplying the machines the Wellcome Trust also
donated chemical reagents needed to set them up, and paid
for the shipping costs. The BGI paid the installation bill
and takes care of the running expenses.
The Wellcome Trust’s senior international research
fellowship scheme supports outstanding researchers in many
countries. Launched in 1985 for scientists who wished to
return to establish their research careers in Australia,
the scheme was later extended and the first awards were
made to India in 1999. Since then the trust has supported
37 fellows in India. Over the past five years it has provided
funding totalling more than 150 million pounds in 44 countries,
including more than one million pounds in China and about
14 million pounds in India.
Altogether during the past decade Wellcome has funded some
six million pounds’ worth of research in China. Last
year alone it spent 70 millions on its international programmes.
There are 15 scientists supported in India as Wellcome international
senior research fellows, working on projects as diverse
as malaria, the brain and aspects of genetics.
Another reflection of the importance of UK scientific links
with China and India can be found in the Dorothy Hodgkin
Postgraduate Awards (DHPA) scheme inaugurated in 2004 to
bring high-quality PhD students from “China, Hong Kong,
India, Russia and the developing world” to top UK universities
to study science.
In the first year, more than half the 129 participants
arrived from China/Hong Kong and India. In an initial evaluation
the recipient universities were unanimously praised. It
is planned that the second intake in October 2005 will provide
fully-funded scholarships for another 158 students. Joint
funding will be provided by the UK government through the
Office of Science & Technology and by the private sector.
Companies contributing to the scheme include Hutchison Whampoa;
BP; Vodafone; GlaxoSmithKline and Scottish Power. Their
contributions are matched by allocations from the government-funded
research councils.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “The scheme has been
a great success and is attracting the highest calibre of
students from overseas to study for their PhDs in the UK.
I am delighted that it is continuing in 2005/2006 and am
grateful to the research councils and the companies who
are continuing to fund the scheme. I applaud their vision
in recognising the importance of building on the UK’s
scientific and technological expertise. These students are
a welcome ‘brain gain’ for the UK during their
time here and will also provide an important boost to north-south
capacity building when they return to their home countries.”
A government spokesman added: “Hopefully, future research
and commercial collaboration with participating countries
will be made possible. Essential scientific expertise will
be gained around the world when they return, to tackle issues
such as clean water provision, secure energy supplies and
to combat diseases such as Aids and malaria.”
The idea behind the awards has also been boosted by a UK
Home Office scheme that allows foreign nationals who have
studied maths, science or engineering in the UK to remain
in the country and work for a year following graduation.
The awards are named in honour of Professor Dorothy Hodgkin
who was a pioneering crystallographer, awarded the Nobel
Prize for chemistry in 1964 for her work in determining
the structure of important biochemical molecules. Advances
in insulin treatment for diabetics are a direct result.
Medicine and bio-science are by no means the only areas
of study in which the UK has close links with China. Last
year, for example, Queen Mary, University of London launched
two innovative joint-venture projects with China’s
Ministry of Information, under which its staff are helping
to set the electrical engineering curriculum at Beijing
University of Posts & Telecommunications.
More than 1,000 students are expected to enrol by 2006.
The course will be taught entirely in China but will be
based on the existing UK curriculum and subject to University
of London quality assurance. Initial programmes will be
offered in telecommunications with business management and
e-commerce engineering with management and law - areas of
priority for China and combinations of subjects not available
at Chinese universities. A joint master’s programme
in materials is also planned with Beihang University (BUAA),
involving one year of study in Beijing and one in London.
Meanwhile the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC) has awarded the School of Computing &
Engineering at Huddersfield University, England, a grant
to manage an Anglo-Chinese bilateral exchange programme
on nanometrology that began on 15 August.
The programme’s aim is to promote cooperative research
in nanometrology between the UK and China. As well as providing
an opportunity for UK scientists to open a forum for exchange
of ideas and to showcase UK research to a Chinese audience,
the programme aims to bring together leading scientists
to identify key research areas conducive to long term cooperation
and also to develop an Anglo-Chinese nanometrology network
capable of using joint sponsorship by both the EPSRC and
the Natural Science Foundation of China.
These are just examples of the many instances of cooperation
between the two countries. Science links with India are
equally strong across a similarly range of disciplines.
“Relations between India and the UK today are at their
best ever and encompass a wide range of political, economic,
cultural, scientific and technological and other dimensions,”
said a statement from the Indian government’s Department
of Science & Technology.
Useful links:
Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University
Oxford Immunotec
Wellcome Trust
Source: LPS
NRI
Kartar Lalvani provide 20,000 pounds for Everest Sukhi's
training
June 13, 2005 10:26 IST
London, June 13, 2005
UK based NRI Kartar Lalvani offered to fund the training
of Sukhwinder Kaur (Sukhi) , an amateur Indian mountaineer,
in one of the mountaineering schools in Switzerland or
Austria.
Sukhwinder Kaur (Sukhi) , an amateur Indian mountaineer
But despite fellow climbers’ scorn, more stinging
than the icy winds, 34-year-old amateur mountaineer Sukhwinder
Kaur refuses to abandon her 8,848-metre Everest dream.
“Not sufficient climbing experience to summit, no
stamina, no speed, no skills, no balance, she is the worst
climber on the mountain,” Duncan Chassell, an Australian
member of the expedition, wrote on its website project-himalaya.com
yesterday.
He said Sukhwinder, alias Sukhi — looking to scale
the world’s highest peak without oxygen — had
twice tried to climb above 7,700 metres. “But each
time she crawls about 50 metres with her Sherpa, then
back again over about two hours like the most pathetic
climber ever.”
Is it the fear of a loss of face that keeps the carpenter’s
daughter from Punjab from throwing in the towel? After
all, the town of Muktsar raised Rs 7 lakh to send its
home-grown daredevil on the journey.
Or is it pressure from her family, who are alleged to
have told her to either return a conqueror or not at all?
So thinks Jamie McGuinness, manager of the expedition,
Project Himalaya. He fears for her life.
Chassell has appealed to Sukhi’s family to allow
her to return.
Tej Kaur and a weeping Jagat Singh deny they ever pressured
their daughter. “I just want to touch her and feel
she is safe,” Singh said.
“She could have gone again, the people of Muktsar
would have ensured the funds…. She is not just my
daughter but of the town,” Kaur sobbed.
Sukhi today made it back to the advance base camp at
6,400 metres. She is “completely exhausted but she
will recover”, says the website. Late night reports
said she had abandoned the climb.
“Nobody from the expedition’s office in Kathmandu
has contacted the family,” said Paramjit Kaur, Sukhi’s
friend and partner in several adventures. “We tried
to contact her on the satellite phone (No: 0088163154814)
but couldn’t get through.”
Sukhi is no stranger to 7,700-plus heights, though. She
had scaled India’s third-highest peak, Mount Kamet
(7,756m), in 1998 and Sasar Kangri (7,672m) in 2002. With
Paramjit, she had cycled to Kashmir’s Khardungla
Pass in 2000 and again on a bike.
“All of a sudden, we are told she was a bad climber
when till May 28 her climb was being described as ‘graceful’,”
Paramjit said. “I have no idea what sort of gear
she has been provided with.”
Gursewak Singh Preet, a relative, is equally puzzled.
“Sukhi always revelled in doing things that others
kept away from. The website said yesterday she did very
well considering it was her first attempt at 8,000m. It
also said the weather was one of the worst on record for
the Everest.”
Dr
Kartar Lalvani won the 2005 Asian Business Award for Innovation.
London, April 10, 2005
Leading Non-Resident Indian, Dr Kartar Lalvani, founder
of Britain's first specialist vitamin supplement company,
Vitabiotics, has won the 2005 Asian Business Award for
Innovation.
Britain's Parliamentary under-secretary for Science and
Innovation, Lord Sainsbury presented the DTI (Department
of Trade and Industries) Innovation Award to 73-year-old
Lalvani at a glittering function organized by the Eastern
Eye, a publication house, at the London Hilton here.
Lalvani's discovery of Immunace will play a very important
role in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, according to
the official International Journal of AIDS.
Immunace was invented as the first synergistic formula
of antioxidants, nutrients and co-factors to demonstrate
a dramatic improvement in the immune system, building
up resistance to infection with optimal cell defence.
Lalvani told PTI last night that the discovery would
help save lives of thousands of people and help AIDS victims
to get the medicine at an affordable price.
Others who received awards were: Neil Sikka, Dentistry
(Entrepreneur of the Year), Suresh Ruia, Textiles (Businessman
of the Year), Ravi Gehlot, Office Services (Young Achiever
of the Year), Asad and Neelam Nazir, Retail (Best Newcomer
of the year), and Safia Minney, Fair Trade (The Community
Award). (PTI)
London, December 1, 2004
PTI
A Non-Resident Indian entrepreneur on Wednesday offered
to pay for the "restoration" of the 300-year-old
door at the Golden Temple and opposed any move to replace
it.
"The door, known as Darshani Deori at the main entrance
to the sanctum sanctorum, has a historic significance and
I am prepared to pay for its conservation and restoration,"
said Dr Kartar Singh Lalvani.
73-Year-old Lalvani, founder chairman of Vitabiotics, Britain's
first specialist vitamin supplement company, who is also
interested in the preservation of artefacts, said the door
was originally part of the historic Somnath Temple in Gujarat
before it was plundered by raiders from Afghanistan.
Lalvani, winner of the Asian of the Year Award last year,
said it was Maharaja Ranjit Singh who secured the door from
the then ruler of Afghanistan Shah Zaman as part of a treaty
after he defeated the marauders from Kabul. The door first
offered to Somnath Temple but it was turned down.
A report quoted to SGPC executive member Kiranjot Kaur said
the committee had recently decided to replace the door because
its condition has deteriorated over the years.
The work was to be entrusted to the Birmingham-based Sikh
Missionary Organisation Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewa Jatha and
plans had already been drawn up to import special timber
from Africa.
However, everything came to a grinding halt after leading
conservation experts began questioning the wisdom of the
SGPC's decision.
Lalvani, who supports many art events and foundations such
as the local community theatre 'Open For All', concurred
with Gurmit Rai, a leading expert on conservation of historical
monuments, that the Darshani Deori was of great historical
importance and efforts must first be directed at ascertaining
whether it was possible to restore it.
Experts feel there is a greater need to conserve elements
of Sikh history today, when the Golden Temple is being considered
by the UNESCO as a possible world heritage site.
