NIRF ranking 2017

Top 25 pharmacy colleges in India: NIRF ranking 2017

On Tuesday, 4th April the HRD ministry published the all India rankings for higher educational institutions with HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar announcing Jamia Hamdard the best institute among all pharmaceutical colleges in India in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings this year.

The Delhi-based institution is closely followed by the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali and the University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani also ranked among the top ten, settling at the sixth rank.

Taking a jibe at protesters at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jadavpur University, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said these institutions got top positions in the India Ranking Report 2017 not because of Afzal Guru Slogans but for the good research work done by the students.

Releasing the rankings, Javadekar said, “JNU and Jadavpur University have done some good work especially in the field of science and therefore bagged top position, and not because of pro-Afzal slogans or for keeping their Vice Chancellor under siege.”

Top 10 pharmaceutical institutions in India:

1. Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi
2. National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali
3. University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chandigarh
4. Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai
5. National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad
6. Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani
7. Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences
8. Poona College of Pharmacy, Erandwane, Pune
9. SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai
10. JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysore
11. Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar
12. Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi
13. Annamalai University, Annamalainagar
14. Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, New Delhi
15. Bombay College of Pharmacy, Mumbai
16. Nirma University, Ahmedabad
17. JSS College of Pharmacy, Ootacamund
18. Andhra University, Visakhapatnam
19. Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai
20. Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali
21. ISF College of Pharmacy, Moga
22. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dibrugarh University
23. LM College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad
24. YB Chavan College of Pharmacy, Aurangabad
25. Integral University, Lucknow

Nalanda University's 'autonomy hit', chancellor George Yeo quits

 Nalanda University chancellor George Yeo resigned on Friday, saying that the varsity's autonomy was being affected as he was "not even given notice" of the change in the governing board that was announced on Monday.

"The circumstances under which the leadership change in Nalanda University has been suddenly and summarily effected is disturbing and possibly harmful to the university's development," Yeo said in a statement to members of the earlier board of the university.

Yeo is a former foreign minister of Singapore and India might have to expend some diplomatic capital to smooth things with the city-state, one of India's closest international partners.

The board was reconstituted by President Pranab Mukherjee as its visitor on November 21, which ended Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's long association with the university he had helped set up.

"It is puzzling why I, as chancellor, was not even given notice of it. When I was invited to take over the responsibility from Amartya Sen last year, I was repeatedly assured that the university would have autonomy.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's long association with Nalanda University, which he had helped set up, was ended when the board was reconstituted on November 21. "It is puzzling why I, as chancellor, was not even given notice of it. When I was invited to take over the responsibility from Amartya Sen last year, I was repeatedly assured that the university would have autonomy. This appears not to be the case now. Accordingly, and with deep sadness, I have submitted my letter of resignation as chancellor to the visitor," George Yeo said.

Yeo also clashed with the government on the reappointment of vice-chancellor Gopa Sabharwal. He had approved an extension to her tenure until a new V-C was found. The government overruled that. The new governing board, which was announced earlier this week , only has one member, N K Singh, from the previous Nalanda mentor group .

Yeo, along with other members of the governing board, wanted the Nalanda Act to be amended to broaden participation of other East Asian countries, apart from those which had contributed financially. "For reasons not entirely clear to me, the government of India has decided to form the new governing board with immediate effect before the act is amended," Yeo said.

The amended act, he said, would have removed a "major flaw" .

"This provision, which was never recommended by the Nalanda mentor group (NMG), would not have been a good way to constitute the governing board and was the reason the government of India requested the NMG to continue functioning as the governing board for a number of years until the act could be amended," he said.

                                     Delay in Patents can Slow Down Development in Medicine

In India, the delay in the patents for various innovations can slow down the improvement in the field of medicine, said health experts.

   Although the government has started indulging in many schemes and provisions, patients are yet to reap benefits from them and hence many physicians themselves have indulged in creating innovative therapies or treatments that can be made available to patients at a very economical cost, experts said. 

      "Patents for innovations by the doctors should be speeded up in India. These out-of-the-box ideas by the physicians will ensure that the expenses of all the treatments do not put a load on the patient's pocket and some innovations help generate a positive relation between the patient and the hospital," said Ram Prabhoo, President of the Indian Orthopaedic Association.

Prashant Jha from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said that he has created a Feto Maternal device that can assess fetal distress, and can be helpful for patients as well as doctors. 

"We have come up with a app named TNM that helps standardise the diagnosis for different types of cancer and its stages. This app has a 20-second Questionnaire which needs to be filled with just a yes or no and immediate diagnosis of the node of cancer and its stage is revealed," said Palak Popat, associated with city based Tata Memorial Hospital. 

According to Popat, the app will become helpful for junior doctors, radiologists and general practitioners who are not specialists in Oncology. 

"This app will help provide immediate information to the patients and their family," said Popat. 

 

                       SOURCE- medindia.net by Julia Samuel on  October 17, 2016 at 10:26 PM

IIT Bombay researchers a step closer to treating                                         Parkinson’s disease

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT B) have taken the first successful step at regenerating neurons in a Parkinson mouse model by using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) encapsulated in an amyloid hydrogel. The hydrogels which provide scaffolding for stem cells to develop into neurons when implanted in the brain are developed from a special class of proteins called amyloids. The results were published in the journal NPG Asia Materials.

      The hydrogel enabled the delivery and engraftment of mesenchymal stem cells in two regions of the mice brain - substantia nigra and striatum - where the cells were injected. “We do not have direct proof that mesenchymal stem cells have become neurons. But the stem cells transplanted at the substantia nigra site were differentiating into neuron-like cells,” says Subhadeep Das from IITB-Monash Research Academy, IIT Bombay and the first author of the paper.

“We wanted to first know if the cells were surviving and were contained at the site. So the time point was short, and we sacrificed the animals at the end of the seventh day after transplantation,” he says. “Further studies for prolonged periods will tell if the mesenchymal stem cells become matured neurons.”

In the case of Parkinson’s, neurons based in the substantia nigra region of the brain release dopamine at the striatum. Since the connection between the two regions is lost in the case of Parkinson’s, the researchers implanted the stem cells at both the sites.

But before transplanting the stem cells encapsulated in the hydrogel into the brain of the mice, the researchers tested the hydrogel in the lab for toxicity. Both neural precursor cell lines and mesenchymal stem cells were cultured in the amyloid hydrogel. And 2D and 3D culture tests for toxicity were carried out for both short (24 hours) and long (120 hours) term and the results compared with a collagen hydrogel, which served as control. “The compatibility of amyloid hydrogel was similar to collagen,” says Das.

Besides being a good scaffold that facilitates the differentiation of stem cells into neurons and not being toxic, the hydrogel should also not trigger the immune system from mounting a violent reaction against it when implanted into the brain. So the researchers injected the hydrogel into rat brain to test for any possible inflammatory response or immune rejection of the amyloid hydrogel. While two types of inflammatory cells - microglia and atrocytes - accumulated near the hydrogel, their levels subsided by 21 days.

In a next step, they implanted the hydrogel containing the mesenchymal stem cells in the brain of the Parkinson mouse model. “The hydrogel was able to improve the viability of the transplanted cells and were able to contain them at the site where they were implanted,” says Das. The control cells that were not contained in hydrogel were three times less viable than the cells contained in the hydrogel.

“Amyloids are among the most robust protein/peptide-based materials ever evolved in nature. We just utilised these superior materials property of amyloids for targeting stem cell delivery in the brain and their differentiation to neurons. On the one hand, amyloid-based hydrogels are capable of protecting delicate stem cells within the hydrogels matrix, while on the other hand, they are able to guide the differentiation of stem cells towards neurons,” Samir K. Maji from the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay and the corresponding author of the paper says in a release.

There are three major challenges when stem cells are transplanted or injected into the brain - the cells should survive, should not migrate to different places where they are not required, and should become functional neurons and integrate with the existing neural circuit. “Our material has solved the first two challenges. We are now working on the third one,” says Das confidently.

                                                            SOURCE- THE HINDU October 16, 2016 18:52 IST

Dear Professional Colleagues and students wishing u happy Christmas and New Year.

                  अम्माँ की गोदी में

मैं न जाने कहाँ कहाँ भटका इस दुनिया की बोगी में,

जब आँख खुली तो खुद पाया अम्माँ की गोदी में.

मुझे  नया संसार मिला था,

एक अनोखा प्यार मिला था,

मानव तन मुझको प्रकृति से उपहार मिला था.

मेरे आने की खबर सुनकर नानी  मौसी आयीं थी,

मेरी खतिर वो खूब खिलोने लायीं थी.

मुझको उठा के मेरी मौसी फिर गांठ लगाई चोटी में,

जब आँख खुली तो खुद को पाया अम्माँ की गोदी में.

एक दिन मेरी हट पर चंदा धरती पर आया था,

मैंने ही तो हांथी को भुरके में बंद कराया था.

जब जब मैं अपनी इन नटखट यादों में खो जाता हूँ ,

बैठ के घर के कोने में अंखियों से अश्रु बहाता हूँ.

हर गलती मेरी माँफ हुई, मैं जब जब पकड़ा जाता चोरी में,

जब आँख खली तो खुद को पाया अम्माँ की गोदी में.

जब  पहली बार मैं जीता था,

जीत नही वो मेरी थी,वो अम्मा मेरी जीती थी,

एक दिन जीत के आऊंगा एसा अम्माँ मेरी कहती थी.

ऐसी मेरी लाखों जीते अम्मा को मेरी अर्पित हैं,

ऐसे मेरे सौ सौ जीवन अम्माँ को मेरी समर्पित हैं.

अम्माँ की मेरी इच्छा थी मैं बिलकुल अशोक महान

बनू,

एक विनय है मेरे मालिक हर जन्म मैं अपनी अम्माँ  का लाल बनू.

याद मुझे अब भी वो दिन है जब पहली बार अम्माँ ने गांठ लगाई थी मेरी लंगोटी में,

जब आँख खुली तो खुद को पाया अम्माँ की गोदी में.

                       सौरभ जयसवाल

                             बी फार्म थर्ड इयर

Teacher's Day Celebrations

Teachers have always been the guiding force for the students, who have inspired them to move ahead and achieve much in life. Teacher's Day is the right time for the students to express their feelings of thankfulness and gratitude towards the teachers. It is a time when students show their affection to them. They play a crucial part in wishing the teachers and expressing all your heartfelt feelings.

All across the world, Teacher's Day celebrations are undertaken to honor teachers for their sincere efforts to impart knowledge to their students. By having celebrations on Teacher's Day, we convey the message that we care for our teachers, just as they do. Celebrating the festival is the recognition of the devotion, with which, teachers undertake the responsibility of educating a child academically as well as morally. On this day, college students dress up like their teachers and teach their juniors, the same way as their teachers do. Sometimes, the teachers also sit in the classes acting like students, reliving the time, when they themselves were students. This creates an understanding between the teachers and their students. Apart from being the day when we give recognition to our teacher's hard work, the festival brings out a healthy interaction between students and teachers, wherein the latter recognizes the teaching capability of the former. Even if it is simple celebrations, they reflect the fact that we care for our teachers.