Crazy 2009 Resolutions

Hello Friends,

Wish you all a happy New Year's Eve!! New Year's Eve has always been a time to look back to the past and fix few things right. It’s more importantly time to look forward the coming year. When I was asked to post on a ‘New Year's Resolutions’, I had lots of questions in my mind. Mainly, why are resolutions made on this day? Why not some other day? Is there any history for this?

When I have so many questions it is difficult for me to post. So with out wasting time, I Google-d for the info. Well, I got to read lots on the topic. You can know read it here.

Hey, New Year's Eve is a perfect day to echo the changes we want to bring in our lives. Sometimes our resolutions will bring changes in others lives too.

I donno how far people follow through those changes that they have vow to do.

I don’t make formal resolutions and follow them but will surely make changes accordingly. It’s heartrending not to follow something that we have vowed to pursue. Specially when we blog it and all our friends come to know what I am supposed to follow through, it’s difficult to BREAK THE RULE. A rule made by ourselves.

I was chased by one of our Crazy Bloggers to post on this topic. HE hEEE..

What I will do now is.. list the resolutions of our Crazy Bloggers and my friends!!

So that they can’t escape from what they have declared to follow.

Here it goes..

RockSta: It is for the first time that I gave some serious thought on new year resolutions. I really wanted to come with a list of resolutions that somehow reflect what I wanted to do (deep down under), something that was gnawing away sub-consciously. This is what I have managed to come up with:

When I go to sleep wrapped in a warm blanket, I will not forget that there are 78 million Indians without a home.

When I fill up my bike's petrol tank for Rs. 600, I will not forget that 26% of the Indian population earns less than Rs. 540.

When I look at my bulging tummy and decide not to eat the rest of my food, I will not forget that there are 200 million Indians living in hunger and that 47 per cent of Indian children are malnourished.

When I look at myself in the mirror, I will not forget who I am and who I could have been.

But, as always, there is that fear. When you have set yourself some goals too high and not able to meet them. Deeksh had a kind word on this. He advised me to go for what I really want. So here I am, revising my previous list of resolutions to just one:

Stay healthy, thereby reducing weight and enjoy life!

Wishing you all Happy New Year.

Hari: My new year resolutions are

Should learn car driving

I want to become slim

Encouraging people to help poor who are in need

Guruvardhan: My new year resolutions :

Be good and true to myself and my frens as much as possible...

Buy a vehicle..(a sports cycle and an Electric)

Blog more..

Give back something to society...donno what...but will start on it...

Geetha: My new year resolutions are very casual. I donno if I can call them as resolutions….. Might sound strange but true that I do not want to cry for small things. I should be daring enough to face any problem. I should try my best to keep my family happy, many more that I cant express.........

Prashanthi: My new year resolutions are

I wish to continue helping needy people in my day to day life as much as possible

Wish to save enough money for my brother’s dream bike

Wish to be with parents always and give support when required and do all possible things to keep them in comfort zone and happy

Arunava: Here are my new year resolutions -

Discover Karnataka on my Honda Activa with my girl friend on the back

To set up my planned Hotel Chain across parts of Maharashtra, Bengal, Bangalore and Ooty

To be at a higher position at EmPower

To contribute more to Nature and EmPower Eco Drives

To earn more...........

Karthik: My new year resolutions are

To have a decent hair cut

To have a 6 packs like Aamir Khan within March

The Inevitable Aftermath

Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian was gunned down by police men in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings. Jean had tried to run from the police and was unarmed.

Mohammed Mukarram Pasha, a 19-year-old first year B.Com student of Bangalore's Baldwin Methodist's College was fatally shot by the Army guards in the aftermath of the Mumbai mayhem. Mukarram had tried to flee from the army camp and was unarmed.

There are a lot of similarities between the two incidents. Armed authorities had taken extreme measures, something they would have normally avoided otherwise. Both incidents have taken place in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. It is a time when authorities prefer to put a bullet, instead of apprehending a suspect.

Mukarram had entered the Flag Staff House by jumping the compound wall, fleeing from the police. He was only guilty of drag racing and trespassing, as claimed by the police. However, when he ignored the army guards’ warnings and tried to flee from the army camp, he was fatally shot at and was declared dead on arrival by the doctors at the St Philomena's Hospital.

People close to Mukarram are seething with anger, accusing the army guards of being trigger happy. They argue that with six guards, they could have easily apprehended Mukarram instead of shooting at him.

Ironically, this incident has taken place hours after the Home Guards in Bangalore organized a rally to mark 'National Disaster Reduction Day' on Sunday, asking citizens to play a role in securing the city.

Do you think that the army guards were well within their rights to shoot or could they have shown some restraint? Should the guard who shot Mukarram be court marshalled?

Increased Illegal Fishing Driving Away Siberian Pelicans From Hebbal Lake, December 2008 - Are Karnataka Forest Officials Sleeping?

Increased Illegal Fishing Driving Away Siberian Pelicans From Hebbal Lake, December 2008 - Are Karnataka Forest Officials Sleeping?

On Thursday, 25/12/08, Praveen J wrote:

From: Praveen J
Subject: [keralabirder] Fwd: Wetland birds vanishing -Kerala
To: keralabirder@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, 25 December, 2008, 11:01 AM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jayadevan ek
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:46:38 +0530
Subject: Wetland birds vanishing -Kerala
To: Praveen J

Story: http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/21/stories/2008122153860700.html
Title: Wetland birds vanishing * K. S. Sudhi

KOCHI: Wetland birds may vanish from Kerala in the near future considering
their declining population trend. There has been an alarming drop in the
population as revealed during the recent water bird census.

The number of wetland birds in the State has dropped to 94,516 in 2007 from
1, 41,588 of 2004, according to the Asian Water Bird Census data for Kerala.

The situation has further worsened in 2008 in kole wetlands where the bird
population has come down to 30,618 against one lakh in 2004, said P.O.
Nameer, Kerala coordinator of Asian Water Bird Census.

The wetland bird census was held in kole wetlands, Vembanad Lake, Purathur,
Kattampally, Ashtamudi Lake and Kadalundi from 2004. These wetlands account
for the 95 per cent of the total water birds counted from Kerala.

All the wetlands except Purathur and Ashtamudi showed rapid decline in the
bird population.

In Purathur, the bird population increased to 29,837 from 11,272 of 2004. A
marginal increase was also observed at Vembanad where the population was
recorded as 26,801 against 24,744 of 2004, the survey revealed.

An alarming situation prevailed in Kattampally where the bird population
plummeted to 8,440 in 2007 against the 20,087 of 2004.

Of the 31 bird species of Kerala that are considered threatened as per the
International Union for Conservation of Nature standards, eight are
wetland-dependent ones.

These include Spot-billed Pelican, Oriental Darter, Black-headed Ibis and
Black-tailed Godwit, said Dr. Nameer. Dr. B. Sreekumar, coordinator of the
survey in Vembanad Lake, observed that there had been significant reduction
in the number of migratory birds that reach the region. Sandpipers,
Greenshanks and Stints could be hardly spotted during the surveys, he said.

It was also observed that the Cormorant population was on the increase.

Besides the habitat loss, there should be other factors that resulted in the
fall in number of migratory birds reaching the area, said Dr. Sreekumar who
also heads the Kottayam Nature Society.

2009 census in January

The 2009 Asian Water fowl census will be held during the first three weeks
of January.

The Census, to be held under the joint auspices of the Wetland
International, Kerala State Biodiversity Board and the Kerala Forest
Department, would commence at the kole wetland on January 4.

Purathur will be surveyed on January 11 and Vembanad on 18. Bird counting
would also be held at 25 other wetlands across the State.

The survey aims to "obtain, on an annual basis, information on waterbird
populations for most species, at wetlands in the region during the
non-breeding period as a basis for long term evaluation of sites and
monitoring of populations" , according to Wetland International.

During the survey, the status and condition of wetlands would be monitored.
It also attempts to create "greater interest in water birds and wetlands
amongst people, and thereby promote the conservation of wetlands and
waterbirds in the region."


In response,

Rightly said Praveen. Even Bangalore is facing the same problems.

Earlier Lalbagh lake used to be a home for some of the rarest migrants in the world. But due to increase in anthropogenic activities in the lake, making the lake utterly polluted (uncontrolled pollution due to tourism), and in addition to these, illegal fishing have made the lake unsuitable as a winter home and also an unsuitable breeding place for these birds.

More recently, in the month of November 2008 people was witness to a magnificent sight of cormorants, Siberian cranes and pelicans flocking the Hebbal lake. For information, fishing, boating and anthropogenic activities were banned this year in the lake by the Karnataka Forest Department. However, to the ire of nature lovers, bird watchers, researchers and wildlife photographers, the department is not paying any heed to the continuous reports we have prepared from Migrant Eco Watch of the illegal fishing going on in the area. But all such requests of stopping the illegal fishing have been turned to deaf ears. Initially around 500 pelicans were counted on a single day. Now due to increased illegal fishing (that is also encouraged by local people), the number of these birds have dwindled to a mere 50 - 60.

I am sending you some pictures taken by me during my last visit (last weekend) and also a rare photo of the illegal fishing activity that I managed to capture on my lens. I wish you can publish this news in leading dailies in and around Kerala.



Fig: Only 50 -60 pelicans remain on the central island, Hebbal Lake, Bangalore


Fig: A fishing hut visible on the farthest corner of the Hebbal Lake


Regards,
Arunava Das
Migrant Eco Watch
NCBS, Bangalore; Green Peace, Bangalore

&

Fellow,
WWF-Ooty and The Nilgiris Wildlife and Biodiversity Association

A font for the Eco-conscious!

Here’s a website offering a font that helps save ink. Please follow this link: http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html

SPRANQ has come up with this unique, innovative product. This font was developed based on a hunch of Colin Willems of SPRANQ.

The font is known as Ecofont and uses up to 20% less ink when compared to other fonts.

In the picture you can see how the Ecofont is created by omitting parts of the letter. At the shown size, this obviously is not very nice, but at a regular font size it is actually very usable. Naturally, the results vary depending on your software and the quality of your screen. The Ecofonts works best for OpenOffice, AppleWorks and MS Office 2007. Printing with a laser printer will give the best printing results.

The Ecofont is based on the Vera Sans, an Open Source letter, and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. The Ecofont works best when using font size 9 or 10. The results vary depending on your software. If you work on a Windows platform you could use ClearType.

This font is available for free download. Saving the toner used in ink cartridges is another small way in which we can give something back to the environment. I have marked the editorial team on this.

You can download this font for free at the Ecofont website: http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html

Source: Ecofont

Crazy Wish List

Dear Santa,

So far this year I have been good most of the time. I work very hard at my job. I am not wasting water unnecessarily. I am trying my best to reduce the usage of plastic papers. When you select my gifts, please remember my wish list.

Here is what I want most. Please do your best!

Pair of most trendy Watches (one formal and one casual looks)
A Television which telecasts my favorite programs when I need (As I reach home late from office, I miss many of my favorite programs like ‘World’s Amazing Videos’, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’)
A Magic Lamp (whenever I used to watch ‘Aladdin’ during my school days – I always wanted Magic Lamp. May be to do my homework – I don’t know if Genie’s handwriting matches mine.. he hee)

I understand that some of these things may be hard to deliver. A Magic Lamp, for instance, would be difficult to get from Aladdin. Now I am working, so Genie don’t worry you no need to write homework, instead I might ask you something else.

Here are some MORE things I want. Do your best, Santa!

I want no children to work in their schooling age
No children should be hurt, especially due to religion and economic status
Special transport facilities for our senior citizens
No corruption
School academics should have lessons that add moral values to kids’ lives
Fresh air
Increase the white tiger population

Santa, I am not being mean asking all these. I would like to be good, most of the time. So, I would also like to list Crazy Bloggers’ wish list.

Hari’s wish
Everyone should be happy and lead peaceful life
Help blind children and old age beggars
All should reach home safely daily
and last but not the least is that 2008 year should never repeat as under gone so many pains and has lost their jobs.

Sowjanya’s Wish
I wish, whole heartedly that my heartfelt wish come true
I wish, things to be fine, the way they are usually

RockSta’s Wish List:
Discover India on a Bullet
Sony Erickson W902 mobile phone
Drive a Bugati Veyron in Seychelles
Enlist for U.N. Peace Keeping Force for a year
Hope I am not too selfish/greedy ;-)

Jeshal’s wish list
Would like to take out more time for myself
Read and Write more
Do more socially useful work (work with kids and elderly)
Make lot of friends
Plant more trees
Buy a bicycle
Do more outdoor activities. (more jogging, more trekking)
Make a photobiography (Topic not decided yet. Readers can suggest something)
Take active participation to make India a clean green nation


Thank you,
Deeksh

Childhood Treasures

A pencil box, a geometry box and my favorite Hero fountain pen. These were my most prized possessions. Apart from these, Natraj pencils (good for drawing), Apsara pencils (good for writing), a green ink rubber, a sharpener, a blade for sharpening pencils (in case the sharpener did not work) and of course the white pencil rubber. I wouldn’t leave home without these.

Back those days, there were two kinds of students. Ones’ who would bring all the above mentioned items (pencils sharpened, pens filled with ink) and the ones’ whose sole purpose would be to borrow all the above said items. Unfortunately, I belonged to the former category. Most of the time, I ended up begging those students to return my stuff back, only to be labeled – stingy.

I used to do my homework religiously, revise and prepare for the lessons everyday. But somehow it did not translate into marks/ranks after the exams. I remained an average student, despite all my hard work. Strangely, I was never a teacher’s pet either.

I was kind of famous though, in my own right. I never used to talk in class. Not even a single word, unless the teacher asked me to read from my book. Snide remarks were passed, when the teacher asked other students to emulate me. I was labeled as a “dumb boy.” I did not bother because I knew they couldn’t be like me.

My record at school was almost clean, except for a couple of incidents. In the first case, I was sitting next to a very talkative student (who was also my namesake) and was punished because he was making enough noise for both of us. Even the teachers’ were shocked on hearing this. In the second case, I was punished for sneaking an extra textbook copy of a textbook to a student who had forgotten to bring his own, without the teacher’s permission.

I was below average in sports. My parents were very obliging (at that time I was their only kid and was pampered a lot, until my brother came along) and got me a doctor’s certificate declaring my inability to participate, the cause would be somehow different ever year. Funny no one noticed it though.

This would pretty much sum up my childhood in a nutshell. On a second thought, the trend pretty much sums up my life till now.

Damn!

What a waste!

I wish that I was a naughty boy who would forget his homework, borrow stuff from other students, play pranks, get punished a lot, talk in class (especially with the girls), excel in sports, bully other’s.

With the knowledge of knowing what I am now, I wish I could go back in time and change who I was.

I could have been someone else.

But, I guess I will never get to find out.

I also promise that I will not write another post that will contain so many repetitions of the alphabet ‘I’ (29 in all).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Scarlet Dreams Come True!

A mention of the word “Ferrari” would conjure up unimaginable fantasies in my mind as a 13 year old, sitting glued to the television set, home work lying unfinished. I was an ardent fan of Michael Schumacher and would listen in awe as my seniors at school would describe the legendary scraps Michael had with Aryton Senna. I guess, that was the time when I lost interest in comic superheroes and adopted my first real life superhero as an Idol.

Riding a bicycle to school was no longer a routine. It was a race, and I learnt a lot from watching Formula One. Looking back now, it would seem kiddish. Creeping up on a Bajaj scooter, on my bicycle; imitating the slipstream overtaking maneuver. Locking up my bicycle tires at the street corner’s, inviting angry stares from others around as there was no need for me to brake so hard. Did I forget to mention drag racing?

Being an ardent fan of motorsport, I was elated when I found out that Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo had announced that the Tata brand would appear on the Formula 1 cars in 2009.

If Vijay Mallya’s foray into Formula 1 was historic, then this is truly groundbreaking. However I did come across certain articles that lamented the state of Formula 1 (especially that of the Ferrari’s) to have a cheap car manufacturer sponsor one of the leading teams. That did really leave a sad aftertaste.

I guess the Indian stereotype is gradually being broken down. There is nothing that we can’t do, just like everyone else. People just need to accept the reality. The reality that is staring right in your face is that we are about to overtake China in terms of population and it will be inevitable that we would eventually be a part of every sphere. You just cant ask a country (with a population of billion plus) to sit tight and do nothing. It is impossible.

Its about time our dreams come true!

Working Model Of Antikythera - Just Amazing

I had an opportunity to watch this amazing video on how the Antikythera works. It is a mysterious clockwork thingy made up of many wheels (cogs) and was discovered more than a century ago in a shipwreck.

No wonder that they call this masterpiece as the world's first Computer! It was a built in calender, an astronomical reader and what not...

I would suggest you to watch this episode or a prologue on the Antikythera here and then watch the working model.

Lie!

Picture Source: Quizilla.com

Strange!

Bush Attacked By An Iraqi Shoe

Does he deserve this or doesn't he?

But an insult is an insult.. Got a few pics and a video on this incident.... check it out!

Here's the video:



Bad luck Bush!

Loopholes In BCCI Cricket Management

Loopholes In BCCI Cricket Management: Murali Kartik Still Ignored After Rich Match Winning Efforts For Middlesex: Best Spimmer Ever To Play For Middlesex Cricket History

When an all-time great retires finding an adequate replacement can be a difficult exercise. But given the rich tradition of Indian spin bowling there was really nothing to worry about when Anil Kumble called it a day. In the long established procedure there were ready replacements in Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha and Piyush Chawla all of whom had already played for India and exhibited their budding skills.

But, amidst the trio of young talent, one bowler who should have been in the forefront has become a largely forgotten man. Whatever has happened to Murali Kartik? For long in the shadow of the Kumble – Harbhajan duo he only got a place in the squad when one of them was injured or indisposed – or on one famous occasion when all three played on the minefield of a pitch at the Wankhede stadium against Australia in November 2004.

Kartik did better than either of the two senior men and ended up with a match haul of seven for 76 enough to earn him the man of the match award. This performance earned him plaudits aplenty but somehow he just played one more Test against South Africa later the same month and since then his appearances for India have been restricted to ODI’s the last of his 37 such matches being against Pakistan a year ago.

Has the younger brigade past him by? That would seem to be the case though Kartik at 32 is still fit, hungry for success and as competitive as ever. He is still determined to play for the country and is only eager to be given an opportunity. His overall figures are not bad – 24 wickets from eight Tests at just over 34 apiece. Moreover, he is a bowler in the classical mould. He is not afraid of throwing the ball up in the air but can be deceptive at the same time. He can make the ball dip and has admirable control. He is also a highly competitive cricketer and has as much aggression as any fast bowler while not allowing that aggression to get out of hand. He has to channel it in the right ways and Kartik does that perfectly.

Kartik's performances for Lancashire and Middlesex in the county championship have boosted his confidence. In fact, Kartik played a major role in Middlesex's improved outing in 2007. He was the most successful bowler taking 51 county championship wickets at just 25 apiece. Wisden noted that "in Murali Kartik Middlesex had one of their best overseas signings for some years. They had a world class left arm spinner. It was not just that he took 51 wickets it was when he took them claiming nine victims in each of the victories over Glamorgan and Leicestershire."

Indeed, in recent interviews former England off-spinners Shaun Udal and John Emburey have expressed surprise at how their Middlesex associate continues to be overlooked by Indian selectors. While, it was Emburey who brought Kartik to Middlesex in English county cricket in 2007 after he had been impressed by his performances for Lancashire, Udal now captains the left-arm spinner at the Lord's-based club. Despite continually impressing for Middlesex, Kartik is struggling for recognition from Indian selectors who picked three frontline spinners for the first Test against England at Chennai with Harbhajan Singh supported by leg-spinner Amit Mishra and Kartik’s more direct rival for a place, left-arm twirler Pragyan Ojha.

Kumble's retirement it was some thought in some circles would open up a greater chance for Kartik’s recall but that has not been the case. For Udal it is amazing that Kartik is continually overlooked by the Indian selectors. "It's very strange," says Udal, who played in the Stanford Super Series with Kartik last month. "As a character he is extremely competitive and you want your spin bowlers to have a bit of an edge and a bit of aggression and he has that in abundance. He is a player captains enjoy having on their team. I know that I can put him on at one end and that not many runs will come from there so he allows you to build up the pressure."

Emburey, England's premier spin bowler in the 80s and now a coach in the ICL is also a huge supporter of Kartik. "From my point of view, when we looked to bring a spinner to Middlesex he was the best who was available and he never let us down. The evidence of just how good he has been is in the fact the club has signed him again for next year. It is surprising he is not in the India squad and I can’t put a finger on why that is the case because he is a top quality spin bowler who has great variety, change of pace and the ability to get good players out on flat wickets, which we see at Lord's. We had problems with our spin department as Lord's isn't an easy place for spinners to take wickets. It's such a good wicket to bat on, but Murali has great patience and is prepared to wait for his opportunities, which he does create against good batsmen."

Emburey added that the main reason why Middlesex won the Twenty20 Cup this year was because of Kartik and Udal bowling together from overs 12-16, stemming the run rate at a time when the batsmen were looking to push on. Kartik was to have played in the Champions League for Middlesex this month but the terrorist attacks in Mumbai forced a postponement. Uniquely, he is the only player in the world to play in the IPL and Stanford 20/20 in the inaugural season. Now if only he could get the national recognition he so richly deserves.

By Arunava Das

EmPower Research: The Economics of Climate Change

EmPower Research: The Economics of Climate Change

Sayonara Honda

Honda’s has pulled the plug on its Formula One racing program. The company said that the global recession and its impact on the automotive industry had left the company with no choice but to withdraw from Formula One.

Takeo Fukui, President and CEO, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. made the announcement on December 5, 2008. He also indicated that the Honda team is for sale.

Honda’s ‘Earth Dreams’ has come to an end (hopefully for now).

What is more intriguing is the statement made by the FIA president Max Mosley who quoted saying that the Formula One teams are run by technicians who are better off playing video games. He made all the right noises about reducing the spiraling costs and also predicted the end of Formula One racing if his advice was not taken seriously.

Formula One and cost cutting do not gel together. They make F1 look pedestrian. Apart from the Big Two teams who have bottomless pockets to dip into, other teams are on a knife edge. Cost cutting measures would widen the gap between the have’s and the have not’s. The past two years have been close only because the Big Two have managed to continue development in spite of all the restrictions. If one takes them out of the equation, there would be no difference between a vintage car rally and Formula One.

Formula One is and should always be the pinnacle of motoring sport where cutting edge technology and speed are on proud display. It is the ultimate bragging right for the car manufacturers. But with all these cost cutting measures and restrictions, who would want to race in it?

Recession is hurting many teams and with this in mind, the F1 boss should put Formula One on hold until the teams tide it out. How noble would that be? But who would want to kill the golden goose? They would rather see F1 cars puttering round a track at 60mph (that would where all these cost cutting measures and restrictions would lead to).

However, I have a question. What will happen when the goose stops laying golden eggs?

Advantage Asia: Bloom Of CRO Industry

The CRO that sprung-up in Asia, particularly in India and China, about a decade ago, received its initial thrust from the escalating R&D costs that were immobilizing the R&D programs of many global pharmaceutical companies. The recent economic slowdown in some of the major western economies has further strengthened the need to outsource some parts of the developmental work to countries with cost advantages. The large patient pool, most of them treatment-naïve, was and still remains the most attractive feature of the CRO industry in Asia. This coupled with lower manpower costs, lower investigator costs and lower cost of overheads for conducting clinical trials in India and China, has driven the growth of this industry in the last few years.

The Asian CRO industry has been estimated to be around $1 billion in 2007 and is all set to double in size by 2010. The largest share of this industry will be held by India, China and Australia. Other Asian countries that are fast developing the technical expertise and trained personnel to cater to the growing global trend of outsourcing clinical research are South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

India is the fastest growing outsourced clinical research destination in the Asia Pacific region; with the clinical research market in India (which was about $100 million in 2005) estimated to triple in size by 2010. India’s big advantage remains the availability of large numbers of well-qualified personnel. The cost benefits of conducting a clinical trial in India are well proven by the whopping 50 percent savings in conducting phase I, and nearly 60 percent savings in conducting phase II & III trials in India. The government too has done its bit by signing the TRIPs agreement and setting up a regulation to protect intellectual property rights; by providing fiscal incentives to research-based companies and by allowing the same phase studies (as the country of origin) to be initiated in India. This growth is further augmented by the rapid advances made in the improvement of medical infrastructure in India. Local corporate hospitals like the Apollo group are expanding their presence in various parts of India and are adding several different types of specialties to each center. Also, International hospital chains like Columbia-Asia have entered India and are all set to scale-up the medical infrastructure in India to International levels. These changes have increased the confidence of global pharmaceutical companies in India being able to provide quality CRO services.

China is the next in line. According to some reports there is a 15 percent cost advantage in conducting phase I studies in China; and a 20 percent cost advantage for phase II & III studies. Like India, China too has abundance of well-qualified personnel and its government too is providing easy access to financial assistance to entrepreneurs interested in setting up R&D related businesses through grants and loans; in fact the Chinese government has set up International level pre-clinical facilities in Beijing and Shanghai. This commitment to R&D has resulted in China being able to attract some global players to increase their presence there; for instance, in early 2006, AstraZeneca announced its plans to add a further $100 million to its research program in China.

Recent Challenges

The Indian and Chinese CRO industry could have proliferated at a much faster pace had they not been held back by some of the issues that are unique to this part of the world. The major issue has long been the lack of skills (particularly among Indian and Chinese clinical research personnel) that are taken for granted among personnel of similar qualifications in the West. The other issues include the lack of adequate infrastructure required to ensure quality of the study; inaccuracies in the documentation; improper interpretation and implementation of global regulatory requirements and growing concerns regarding confidentiality of study outcomes.

Some of the more recent challenges that have been thrown at the Asian CRO industry are the need for global data, EU Clinical Trials Directive and Electronic Data Capture (EDC). Global pharmaceutical companies seek CROs with global presence because of their need for global data; this is often challenging to local CROs in Asia who have limited global presence. According to Gregory Holmes, Executive VP for Clinical Operations at SFBC, a contract research organization based in North America, “A lot of our business is driven from the US and North America but we continue to diversify. We find that it’s necessary to run clinical trials on all continents; it’s just part of the regulatory package.”

The EU Clinical Trials Directive has made the conduct of clinical trials in Europe increasingly complicated, thus driving the pharmaceutical industry to look for CROs who can provide greater regulatory support in this changing environment. Sources indicate that the complexity of conducting clinical trials has increased manifold; for instance, by 2005 the number of clinical procedures involved in a clinical trial had reached >85, a 70 percent increase over those required in 2000.

EDC has now become a way of life in the clinical research industry as this is believed to improve process efficiencies. This will require CROs to either create their own EDC software or partner with IT service providers that have the expertise to convert the paper-based records to electronic ones.

As safety has become the focus of most research, CROs who can partner with pharmaceutical companies to provide additional safety and efficacy data that will inevitably be requested by the large regulatory bodies like the FDA are now more sought-after. In this scenario, the Asian CROs now increasingly have to find global partners who can take them up the value chain.

Future outlook

Even as the pharmaceutical industry is evolving and adopting newer business models, by moving away from the blockbuster, me-too brands towards research in understanding disease pathways; the CRO industry remains the backbone of the pharmaceutical industry’s research efforts. This is reflected in the fact that the worldwide CRO industry which was believed to be about $18 billion in size in 2007, is all set to grow by 14-15 percent annually in the coming years. This is reflected in the confident statement by Greg Holmes, Executive Vice President of Clinical Operations, SFBC, who says, “There’s a huge surge right now and I think in terms of supply and demand, there’s more demand. It’s a great time to be a CRO. In turn, the number of drugs being developed through phases II-IV has also increased.”

The main drivers of this growth are early development and phase I activity. By outsourcing early stage development work to expert CROs, global pharmaceutical companies have been able to increase the number of targets that they can put through clinical development. “Pipeline trends highlight preclinical and phase I as the fastest-growing areas of drug development during the last two to three years. One of the factors driving this growth is a greater focus on eliminating drug candidates at an earlier and less costly stage of development,” says Simon Higginbotham, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Kendle.

As the pharmaceutical industry faces increasing scrutiny and tighter regulations, they in turn expect greater rigor out of their clinical research service providers. Since the CRO industry is very fragmented, global pharmaceutical companies often tend to create preferred service provider lists. While large groups like Quintiles, Covance and Parexel can find their way to the preferred vendor lists quite easily, some of the smaller CROs are now heading towards consolidation and forming strategic partnerships in order to compete for a position on these lists. Asian CROs have begun their quest for expansion through partnerships and one such alliance was formed in the second half of 2007 between the Russian, Synergy Research Group (SynRG) and Neeman Medical International (NMI), an India-based CRO, which established a new CRO Worldwide Network alliance to be “able to compete with global CROs in the bids for large international multi-center clinical studies.”

Several local CROs in Asia are now looking at expanding outwards. This trend is clearly visible from the recent acquisitions by Indian CROs of either parts of business or entire CRO set-ups in Europe. Take for instance the case of Synchron Research Services, an Ahmedabad, India-based CRO who announced in the first quarter of 2008 that they had acquired (for approximately $6.7 million) the stand-alone bio-analytical and bio-marker facility of Paraxel in France. This is touted as one of the significant acquisitions in CRO industry in India. Paraxel is also believed to have increased its stake in Synchron from 19.5 percent to 31 percent. This seems to be the perfect example of local focus and global reach.

It is estimated that in the period 2008 to 2012, the top 50 global pharmaceuticals companies are going to face patent expiries on $102 billion worth of brands (Source: Generic Series: Optimizing Brand Lifecycle Management: Winning Strategies to Maximize Revenue in the Face of Growing Generic Competition. DMHC2401 | Publication Date: 15 July 2008). This will further squeeze the margins of pharmaceutical companies that are already struggling with the prospect of low R&D productivity and low ROI on R&D investments. Thus, to save on developmental costs, global pharmaceutical companies are more likely to partner with full-service CROs rather than go about looking for a number of service providers who have proven abilities in several service areas related to clinical research. These services include preclinical/toxicology services; conduct of clinical trials from phase I to phase IV; site management services; regulatory affairs support; quality assurance; data management services; and laboratory analysis services. See figure 1 for services that form part of full-service CROs.

Emphasizing the emerging need for full-service CROs, Dr D’Sylva, CEO, Commonwealth Biotechnologies (CBI) said, at the Second Annual Global R&D Congress in Washington DC, “Simply adding affordable capacity by outsourcing to Asia is no longer sufficient,” and that drug companies are increasingly asking “CROs to provide more value by operating as full collaborators, with integrated service offerings, the ability to innovate and solve problems.”

However, even though full-service CROs are the order of the day, not all large CROs can provide all the specialty services and often this vertically integrated business model is not profitable for mid-sized and smaller CROs. Hence, large CROs are now looking at partnering with specialty CROs that have a proven track record in specialty services like clinical site management services; laboratory services; clinical data management services, etc. This is a win-win solution since it provides the pharmaceutical industry with a combination of the best possible service providers and the large and mid-sized CROs can join hands and gets a sizeable chunk of the business instead of competing for the same
piece of pie.

While the full-service model is followed by very few CROs in Asia, there are plenty of smaller CROs that specialize in and provide many of the associated services like clinical site management, data management, safety reporting, drug distribution and central laboratory services.

The following sections give further details regarding two key associated services of CROs in Asia; namely, clinical site management services and central laboratory services.

Clinical Site Management Services

Site management services include site initiation, site monitoring and project management.

Some of the advantages of using CROs with efficient clinical site management services are:

• Early study initiation due to ability to gain quick regulatory approvals and getting on board good study investigators because of presence of site coordinators.
• Quick ethics committee approval.
• Clinical research coordinators help in speedy patient enrolment and retention up to study closure.
• Constant supervision of site activities ensures quick resolution of issues and maintaining quality standards.
• Ensuring that ‘clean data’ is generated from the site thus reducing data management time and cost.
• Ensuring regular supply of investigational drug to the sites.
• Ensuring that sites comply with ICH GCP and other regulatory guidelines.

Central Laboratory Services

Laboratory services are required in order to analyze the body fluids or other specimens collected from the patients or study participants by the study investigators at the various sites at which the study is being conducted. Large CROs like Covance have central laboratory services that process shipments of specimens received from study sites across the world.

At the time of receipt these specimens are separated according to their storage requirements e.g., those that need to be frozen or refrigerated, need to be separated from those that are kept at room temperature. Once the specimen kit is received at the central laboratory, it is checked against a customized, protocol-specific database to verify the visit number, the tests required to be performed, any optional tests that may be required, patient demographic, time/date of specimen collection and also stability and appropriate storage history of the specimen kit.

When the specimen is being processed or analyzed, each kit containing the specimen and its accompanying tube is appropriately bar-coded to give it a unique identity which links it to the patient and the specific visit during which the specimen was collected.

Some CROs may also offer on-site testing for the simpler studies with short timelines. The larger CROs with well-equipped central laboratory services can offer a range of analytical options which address a variety of scientific disciplines starting from the basic ones like routine chemistry and pathology, microbiology, virology, immunology, hematology, flow cytometry, to the more complex ones like genomics.

In addition to central laboratory services, large global and full-service CROs can also offer what is known as ‘local laboratory services’ which allow the specimens to be processed at laboratories near the study sites but through a software link allow the specimen-related data to be sent to a central laboratory that collects specimen-data and not actual specimens on a real-time basis.

The advantages of having central laboratory services are:

• Quick, high-quality and uniform data availability
• Rapid access to safety data required for quick decision-making
• Laboratory results are consistent and conform to a single global standard that can be understood by investigators across geographies
• Real-time access to laboratory data saves data management time and costs

Enraged

By Pravda

Like most people who had an off for Thanksgiving, I was looking forward to enjoying 4 days of lazing about with the family and getting a refreshing break. But as fate would have it I woke up to the shocking news of Mumbai and indeed the whole of India being held to ransom by a bunch of audacious young men. And like most of my countrymen, I was glued to the television watching shots of one of the most memorable images of my childhood being dented by grenades and gunshots. At the end of it all, I feel relief, shock, fear a certain sense of numbness but above all of it, I am angry.

I am angry at the people who brainwash such intelligent, motivated young men into psychopaths who have no remorse whatsoever at carrying out such violent attacks on innocent men, women and children. What a waste of potential and to what purpose?

I am angry at the media for carrying sound bites of politicians like Modi, who without understanding that he is actually being a nuisance decides to visit the Oberoi when the encounter was on and makes absolutely unbelievable statements like “hum to car mein andar jaake bhi dekhna chahte the par in logon ne jaane nahin diya.” What did he think was going on there? Shooting for a Bollywood block buster. And to add salt to injury, he announces awards for martyrs like Hemant Karkare – the person whom Modi and his party had labeled anti national because he had implicated a “sadvi” in the Malegaon case. How hypocritical can they get? The media even went a little further. In one of the channels there was a discussion on whether Mr. Hemant Karkare had made a mistake in exposing himself to the terrorists even before the embers of his pyre had died down.

The politicians of our country have showed themselves in poor light throughout this incident. Vilasrao Deshmukh decides to invite Ram Gopal Verma and his son Ritesh for a guided tour of the now destructed Taj. Home Minister makes statements to the effect “Itne bade shahar mein ekhad hadsa ho jaaata hain.” Advani and company constantly saying that “PM should resign” as if that is going to help us solve terrorism. Not one of them seem to be in control of the situation. All are holding on to their pet lines. The government defending themselves and the opposition baying for their blood. Even the reaction from the Government is on predictable lines. They probably think that if they ask a few people to take “moral responsibility” and resign, we would be appeased. But I don’t think so. One think which is different here is that it is not the common, nameless dispensable people who have been victims or who have suffered damages. This time around there have been prominent faces and I am hoping that the hit that the top industrialists have taken will atleast force the government to take some concrete action. Our political class has been so hopeless, that I actually found the Pakistani foreign minister’s statements more attractive. Atleast he was defending his country with logic, clarity and passion and not just parroting lines.

Above all, I am angry with myself. I am not happy with the political system but what do I do. I stay indoors on election day and choose not to use the most powerful weapon I have, “My vote”. I know that many of my fellow citizens are stuck in the same situation. What is there to choose between a “bunch of losers?” But I think it’s time we found out whether there are other options available to us because as recent elections have shown even if there is a turn out of 15% someone will get elected. I think there is a provision where a citizen can tell the election officers that he wants to cast a blank vote or a protest vote to send a message that he doesn’t want any of the candidates who are contesting. I am not sure of the provisions, but am trying to find out the details. If any of my fellow citizens know about this, please let us know. I think the time has come for us to use this and show to all political parties that we want leaders who are a part of us and not act as if they have fallen straight from the skies!