According to the India Philanthropy Report 2017, “Every philanthropy segment—corporate, individual, government/public—is growing but individual philanthropy is on the fastest growth track,”

With more people in the country capable of and willing to give, online fundraising has found new meaning in digital India. Crowdfunding platforms have particularly benefited from this change, making it easier for people to participate in philanthropic activities. Crowdfunding platforms give people a chance to choose from a wide range of causes. They are categorised and verified, allowing people to see the direct impact of their participation in another’s life.

Raising funds is not a new phenomenon, taking it online is. People have always turned to friends and family for help, when a significant amount of money is required for an urgent need. We are only making it digital, and reducing the hassles involved, making it easier to give and receive help. This also opens up an array of challenges, mainly in terms disrupting conventional notions of the online space. Through the seven years that Milaap has been making online fundraising accessible to more and more people, we have faced three major challenges.

The first and major challenge is a set apprehension regarding the legitimacy of an online fundraiser. For an online crowdfunding platform, this directly translates to their reputation– the major factor that drives the donor community. To tackle this, Milaap has established a robust system to verify all fundraising request as soon as they are set up. The authenticity of the beneficiary and of the need are confirmed by dedicated teams, only after which the request is made public on the platform. Another factor towards establishing legitimacy is ensuring the funds are utilised for the exact purpose mentioned to donors. 

To assure donors, it is important to keep them posted through updates. Since Milaap allows campaign organisers to withdraw funds in multiple installments, as and when needed, they are encouraged to post updates, preferably with pictures, to let donors know how their contribution is really helping. We also have fellows on ground to visit beneficiaries for follow-up checks.

Secondly, a crowdfunding platform would receive a large number of payments on a daily basis, coming from various modes of payment. With this, the risk of fraudulent transactions and card details security also goes up. This could be dangerous and discouraging to people in a country that has just about started to embrace the use of debit and credit cards. In January 2017, a total of 28.8 million credit cards and 818 million debit cards were in operation, according to the Reserve Bank of India. 

Generally, this can be kept in check by securing your website with the highest level transaction security currently available on the Internet. These days, banks are already providing the 3D Secure password service for online transactions, providing an additional layer of security through identity verification.

It is best to have credit card and debit card payments processed through secure and trusted payment gateways managed by leading banks. Milaap has additionally also built sophisticated algorithms to filter suspicious cards, donors and devices for another level of scrutiny.

The final challenge is breaking the language barrier to reach out to communities where a certain need matters. Recent reports confirm that only about 10% of the Indian population can speak English. With fundraising appeals and pages mostly generated and shared in English everywhere, it only narrows the reach of a need further. There is also, of course, the risk of losing relatability of the cause to translation while people in dire need of funds struggle to express their situations in a language they are not most comfortable in. Here, the regional media plays a great role in extending a cause to the right people. Since the media knows it’s people best, it is always a good idea to seek the help of the press to not only communicate an urgent need to the right community, but also to reinforce the credibility of an appeal to people who are still apprehensive of the digital space.

Being an industry that is expanding rapidly, it is important to always be on the lookout for these challenges. It is best to come up with long term solutions to avoid any cracks in the system. The best way to do so is by constantly staying in touch with and taking feedback from the community, of individuals, groups and even NGOs who need funds, and those willing to help. This makes the identification of challenges simpler, and gives us enough time to be equipped with the right solutions. 

Milaap constantly stays in touch with their community, and are available to instantly resolve queries for over 15 hours a day, every day in a week. The platform is proactively reaching out to people, making the easier, digital way to raise funds better accessible to more and more people in their country!

(The Author is Co-founder of Milaap, a crowdfunding platform)

Vaccine Innovator Bharat Biotech has announced that its next-generation typhoid vaccine, Typbar-TCV, has demonstrated its safety and efficacy in a high-risk human challenge clinical study carried out at Oxford University. What is very significant is the clinical studies produced 87% effectiveness as per the trial results published in Lancet.

The study is the first to demonstrate that immunization with Typbar-TCV is safe, well tolerated and will have a significant impact on disease incidence in typhoid endemic areas that introduce the vaccine. This study was conducted in 112 adult volunteers and used a “controlled human infection model”.

According to the study published in Lancet vaccine is safe, 100% immunogenic, and prevents up to 87% of infections, when using real-life definitions of typhoid fever. Efficacy data from this trial will help to fill a long existing knowledge gap regarding Vi-conjugate vaccines.

This data is highly significant since the currently available vi-ps typhoid vaccines cannot be administered to children below 2 years, and do not confer long-term immunity. Typbar-TCV® can be administered to children below 2 years of age and does confer long-term immunity. Protection over a longer term reduces the need for repeat vaccinations.

Typhoid is caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi, and is responsible for around 20 million new infections and 200,000 deaths each year, mainly in South and South East Asia and Africa. Although typhoid as a disease is amenable to antibiotics treatment, increasing frequencies of multi-drug resistance among the invasive isolates is posing a serious threat and limiting the effectiveness of such treatments.

According to Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director the Company is pleased that the vaccine has been found to be extremely effective in the first ever high-risk human challenge studies. “The results of this study and the 87% effectiveness success endorse more than 10 years of R&D efforts to develop this vaccine and various clinical trials that have been carried out over the past 8 years”, he said.

“Multidrug-resistant Salmonella typhi has become a major public health problem, as more people are prescribed antibiotics for even common fever in developing nations,” Dr. Ella said while citing the example of drug resistance against typhoid fever found in Hyderabad city in Pakistan.

“We are proud being world-first to pursue a high-risk human challenge study and be successful. This paves way for an early realization of an effective vaccine that can help reduce the typhoid fever disease burden faced by millions of families,’’ he added.

The trial led by Prof. Andrew Pollard, Director, Oxford Vaccine Group, was designed based on human infection models where many of the participants, mostly University students, were to consume a drink containing bacteria.The results of the trial clearly show that the new Typhoid Conjugate vaccine gives significantly superior performance compared to the Typhoid Vi polysaccharide vaccine. 

It is unconscionable that children are still dying by the thousands every year from diseases like typhoid that are completely preventable,” said Anita Zaidi, director of the Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “The prevention and control of typhoid should be a global health priority and we are pleased to support the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium as part of our overall strategy to combat typhoid through an integrated approach including access to clean water, improved sanitation, and immunization.”

The Typbar TCV conjugated to tetanus toxoid vaccine human challenge study holds great promise particularly in of south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa which have a high burden of typhoid fever including the incidence of multidrug resistance challenge that cities like Hyderabad in Pakistan and Bangladesh are aiming to tackle currently. Bharat Biotech is working with the Consortium in carrying out field trials in different countries to evaluate the efficacy of TypbarTCV®.

The Product Summary File has been submitted to World Health Organisation for prequalification. WHO prequalification would allow for UNICEF to procure this vaccine for low-income countries where the disease burden is very high.

TypbarTCV is currently licensed in India, Nigeria, and Nepal, with registrations underway in Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand, Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, and 30 other countries.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is characterized by motor impairment and can also present with global, physical and mental dysfunction. It is the commonest physical disability in childhood, occurring in 2.0 to 2.5 per 1000 live births. About one half of paediatric patients have seizures. Growth problems are common, as well as neurologic abnormalities such as impaired vision or hearing and abnormal touch and pain perceptions.

CP by definition is non-progressive, therefore, children who show deterioration with respect to previously acquired skills and development should be evaluated for genetic, metabolic, muscular, or neuronal tumour disorders that precipitate neurodegenerative conditions. It is not possible to early diagnose CP in infants less than 6 months cases. Observation of slow motor development, abnormal muscle tone, and unusual posture are common initial clues to the diagnosis of cerebral palsy.

“CP is a chronic condition with considerable impact on affected individuals. Overall prevention of CP has not been successful. Mesenchymal stem cells are able to travel to and change the injured environment, increasing survival of neurons and making up for losses, thus proving to be a promising approach for treatment of CP,” said Dr Pradeep Mahajan, Regenerative medicine researcher, StemRx.

Spasticity is present in 70-80% of patients with CP. Affected limbs may demonstrate increased deep tendon reflexes, tremors, muscular hypertonicity, weakness, and a characteristic scissors gait with toe-walking. Some are characterised by abnormally slow, writhing movements of the hands, feet, arms, or legs that are exacerbated during periods of stress and absent during sleep. In few other instances, CP predominately impairs balance and coordination. These patients walk with a wide-based gait and have intention tremors that complicate performance of daily activities requiring fine-motor function. Intellectual impairment occurs in about two thirds of patients with CP.

About one half of paediatric patients have seizures. Growth problems are common, as well as neurologic abnormalities such as impaired vision or hearing and abnormal touch and pain perceptions. CP by definition is non-progressive, therefore, children who show deterioration with respect to previously acquired skills and development should be evaluated for genetic, metabolic, muscular, or neuronal tumour disorders that precipitate neurodegenerative conditions.

Bone marrow and umbilical cords are rich sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), which normally produce the tissues of the skeletal, muscle, and circulatory systems. Evidence suggests that MSCs can migrate to the brain and improve function following injury with the help of its strong self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation potentials. These cells can be induced to differentiate into neuron-like cells and glial cells. The mechanism underlying the function of stem cell transplantation in neurological conditions may involve cell replacement function and neurotrophic effect.

Additional modalities of physiotherapy, neuromuscular stimulation, oxygen therapy, yoga, diet modification, nutraceuticals also play an important supportive role in management of cases with CP. Studies have reported an improvement in spasticity, gait as well as cognitive and behavioural parameters following cellular therapy and rehabilitation programme.

A Case Study:

A rare case of Prathamesh Tanavade, 20 years old was experiencing recurrent seizures; he is a known case of hypoxic brain injury. He has been under anti-epileptic medications since his first seizure episode in 2008. Incidents of falls during seizures have also been reported. Prathamesh also had delayed developmental milestones and still speaks slowly and stammers while speaking. He had no medical history except for being kept in incubator for 15 minutes after birth, but no other pre or post-natal complications were reported.

“After meeting Dr Mahajan,  Prathamesh underwent 3 sessions of cell based therapy. He also underwent sessions of Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy as adjuvant to cell based therapy. He was also advised regular Yoga, Physiotherapy and Nutraceuticals. Improvement was noticed as the intensity of convulsions that Prathamesh suffered had reduced. No new incidents of falls were reported. Speech is also gradually improving,’’ said Pradeep Tanavade, Father of the patient.

Milder convulsion, no stammering, Matured look and reduced weight are signs of improvement in Prathamesh.

NEW DELHI: The first batch of women fighter-pilots will fly warplanes from December after finishing the final leg of their training, which is underway at Kalaikunda Air Force facility in West Bengal, Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said on Thursday. 

Addressing journalists ahead of the 85th Air Force Day, the Air Chief said, “Last year in July, we have moved a step forward by inducing the first batch of women pilots in fighter’s stream. You will be glad to know that their performance has been at par  with other pilots despite demanding nature of the flying.” 

“Consequently, the next batch of three women trainees were selected in the fighters stream in July and are presently undergoing the second stage of their training. On successful completion of the training, these three women pilots will be commissioned in December this year,” Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said. 

Bhawana Kanth, Mohana Singh, and Avani Chaturvedi were commissioned as flying officers in the IAF in June 2016. They are currently training on British Hawk advanced jet trainers.

These pilots were supposed to be assigned to fighter squadrons in June 2017 but the plan got delayed by four months due to training backlog and weather-related issues. 

On further inclusion of female pilots in the fighters stream, the Air Chief said, “Flying is gender neutral like driving. Women have to volunteer to become fighter pilots and also have to make the cut into aptitude as flying is the game of physics.”

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is capable of handling the threats from both the Eastern and Western fronts, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said on Thursday 

The IAF Chief was asked about operational preparedness in case of a two-front war scenario, the Air Chief Marshal said that the IAF is ready for a full spectrum operation but added that any decision on surgical strike involving the IAF has to be taken by the government.

“Air Force has the capability to locate, fix and strike across the border,” Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said on the issue of the tactical nuclear weapon of Pakistan.

On the required number of the fighter squadrons, the Air chief said, “We need to have 42 squadrons for full spectrum of war but it does not mean that we are not capable of handling the situation.

“We have a plan B which may be executed if needed,” he said while talking to journalists here ahead of the Air Force Day.

NEW DELHI:  Kanpur-based MKU Limited is all set to make Bullet Proof Jacket (BPJ) with the technology transfer from India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The Bullet Proof Jackets are manufactured for the use of Indian Army and Para-Military Forces personnel.

Chairman DRDO and Secretary Department of Defence R&D Dr. S Christopher handed over the technology at a function held in New Delhi on October 4, where documents and related license agreement between DRDO and M/S MKU Limited, Kanpur were exchanged.

The Indian Army General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR) No. – 1438 BPJ technology has been developed by Defence Materials & Stores Research & Development Establishment (DMSRDE), a Kanpur based premier laboratory of DRDO.

This technology is challenging and one of the most significant matured personal protection systems developed by DRDO among the various GSQRs of Indian Army meeting NIJ III+ Standard.

Dr. Christopher in his address urged MKU to maintain a strict vigil on the quality of the Bullet Proof Jackets for the Indian Army and the Paramilitary Forces and to collaborate with DRDO to absorb the Organisation-developed technologies.

Among the dignitaries who graced the handing over ceremony were Director General, Naval System & Materials Cluster of DRDO Dr. S V Kamat; Director of DMSRDE Kanpur, Dr. N Eswara Prasad; Managing Director of M/S MKU Limited Neeraj Gupta besides various corporate directors of DRDO headquarters.

New Delhi : Government appoints Rajnish Kumar as the Chairman of India’s largest state run lender State Bank of India for a period of three years. Arundhati Bhattacharya’s term as SBI chairman ends this week. Kumar currently holds the post of Managing Director at SBI.

At present, Rajnish Kumar is one of the MD of SBI. The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) had interviewed four managing directors for the post at the end of June and had recommended a name to the government.

The new head of the bank will have to lead it through the ongoing resolution of bad loans, while ensuring that it supports growth by stepping up lending. Bad loans are seen as a systemic risk while credit growth is a key element of India’s economic revival strategy. 

Appointed in 2013 as the bank’s first woman chairman, Bhattacharya got a one-year extension in October 2016 to maintain continuity as SBI was preparing to absorb five associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank in April. That was seen as kicking off a much-anticipated wave of consolidation in the public sector banking space. 

New Delhi : Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (Department of Health Research) has been made Deputy Director General (Programmes) at the World Health Organisation (WHO). This was announced by WHO Director-General  Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who named his senior leadership team.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan has more than 30 years of experience in clinical care, research and translating those findings into programs. She most recently served as Secretary of the Department of Health Research in India and as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

She is a paediatrician and an expert on Tuberculosis.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan will be Deputy Director General for Programmes (DDP) and Jane Ellison will be Deputy Director General for Corporate Operations (DDC).
 
The new team includes former ministers of health, some of the world’s leading physicians, scientists and researchers, and programmatic experts in universal health coverage, health emergencies, communicable and non-communicable diseases, climate and environmental health, and women’s, adolescents’ and children’s health. Individually and collectively, they have a wealth of experience across government, private sector, multilateral, civil society and academic organizations.
 
“The team represents 14 countries, including all WHO regions, and is more than 60% women, reflecting my deep-held belief that we need top talent, gender equity and a geographically diverse set of perspectives to fulfil our mission to keep the world safe,” said Dr Tedros.
 
Jane Ellison brings with her more than 30 years of experience in government, commerce and change management. Most recently, she was the Special Parliamentary Adviser to the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. She also served as the UK’s Public Health Minister from 2014 to 2016.

NEW DELHI: Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lamba is undertaking a three-day visit to Vietnam ‘to explore new avenues’ of defence cooperation and to further consolidate the cooperation between Indian and Vietnamese armed forces. 

During his visit from October 4 to 7, the Naval Chief will hold bilateral discussions with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich, Chief of the General Staff Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, and Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People’s Navy Rear Admiral Pham Hoai Nam.

The Admiral will also be visiting the National Defence Academy of Vietnam, where he will interact with student officers and faculty members and deliver a talk on the ‘Importance of Maritime Power’, Defence Ministry said in a statement here on Tuesday.

Besides, he will visit Vietnam People’s Navy ‘Naval Region 4’, Vietnam Naval Academy and lay a wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  

Defence cooperation between India and Vietnam has been robust with the primary focus being maritime cooperation. 

India signed a Protocol on Defence Cooperation Agreement in 1994. The partnership was thereafter elevated to Strategic Partnership in 2007 and a MoU on Defence Cooperation between the countries was signed on November 5, 2009. 

A ‘Joint Vision Statement for 2015-20’ was signed by the respective Defence Ministers in May 2015 and the Strategic Partnership was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2016, during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam.  

The Vietnam People’s Navy  participates in the ‘MILAN’ inter-Navy interactions organised at Port Blair by the Indian Navy. Warships from Indian Navy have been regularly visiting ports at Vietnam, with Indian Naval Ships Satpura and Kadmat recently making port call at Hai Phong from 23 to 27 September 2017. 

The Vietnamese Navy ship Dinh Tien Hoang, a Gepoard Class Frigate, also visited Visakhapatnam in February 2016, for participation in the ‘International Fleet Review – 2016’.

The Indian Army and Air Force also maintain robust cooperation with the Vietnamese Army and Air Force.  

On the International Day of the Older Person – 1 October – the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for a new approach to providing health services for older people.

Highlighting the role of primary care and the contribution of community health workers in keeping older people healthier for longer, the WHO has emphasized the importance of integrating services for different conditions.  
 
“By the year 2050, 1 in 5 people in the world will be aged 60 and older,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It is our goal to ensure that all older people can obtain the health services they need, whoever they are, wherever they live.”
 
Yet, even in the rich world, people may not be getting the integrated services they need.  In a survey of 11 high-income countries, up to 41% of older adults (aged  more than 65 years) reported care coordination problems in the past two years.
 
WHO’s new Guidelines on Integrated Care for Older People recommend ways community-based services can help prevent, slow or reverse declines in physical and mental capacities among older people. The guidelines also require health and social care providers to coordinate their services around the needs of older people through approaches such as comprehensive assessment and care plans. 

“Everyone at all levels of health and social care, from front-line providers through to senior leaders, has a role to play to help improve the health of older people. WHO’s new guidelines provide the evidence for primary care workers to put the comprehensive needs of older people, not just the diseases they come in to discuss, at the centre of the way they provide care,’’ says Dr John Beard, Director of the Ageing and Life Course at WHO. 

Older adults are more likely to experience chronic conditions and often multiple conditions at the same time. Yet today’s health systems generally focus on the detection and treatment of individual acute diseases. 

“If health systems are to meet the needs of older populations, they must provide ongoing care focused on the issues that matter to older people – chronic pain, and difficulties with hearing, seeing, walking or performing daily activities,” adds Dr Beard.  “This will require much better integration between care providers.” 

Some countries are already making smart investments guided by WHO’s Global Strategy on Ageing and Health.

Brazil has implemented comprehensive assessments and expanded its services for older adults;  Japan has  integrated long -term care insurance  to protect people from the costs of care; Thailand is strengthening the integration of health and social care as close as possible to where people live; while the Ministry of Health in Vietnam will build on its comprehensive health care system and the large number of elderly health care clubs to better meet the needs of older people in their communities. In Mauritius, the Ministry of Health provides universal health coverage for older adults including a network of health clubs and primary care clinics with more sophisticated services in hospitals. The United Arab Emirates are meeting the health needs of older people by creating more age-friendly cities.  In France, a new WHO Collaborating Centre called Gerontopole, located in the Toulouse University Hospital, is helping to advance research, clinical practice and training on Healthy Ageing.   

“Integrated care can help  foster inclusive economic growth, improve health and wellbeing,  and ensure older people have the opportunity to contribute to  development, instead of being left behind,” concluded Dr Beard.