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Ottawa principal apologizes for playing Arabic song during Remembrance Day ceremony

An Ottawa high school principal has apologized for playing an Arabic song about peace during a Remembrance Day ceremony after facing swift backlash from critics calling it inappropriate and hurtful to members of the Jewish community.



  • News/Canada/Ottawa

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Preparing for a Billion Developers

With the vision of a billion developers, AI is evolving from a specialized tool to a platform that democratizes coding. As AI’s

The post Preparing for a Billion Developers appeared first on Gigaom.




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Foreign influence efforts reached a fever pitch during the 2024 elections

While some fake videos made by actors with Russian ties received millions of views, researchers say there's so far no indication that these efforts swayed U.S. election results.




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Anne Hathaway and Zendaya join Christopher Nolan’s next starring Matt Damon and Tom Holland

Nolan has set up his much-awaited ‘Oppenheimer’ follow-up at Universal Pictures, eyeing a mid-2026 IMAX release 




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Prabhas launches new website to support aspiring writers, ‘The Script Craft’

Founded by Thaalla Vaishnav and Pramod Uppalapati, ‘The Script Craft’ is backed by Prabhas to nurture new talent and provide emerging writers with valuable opportunities




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Ram Charan brings southern cinema’s fanfare to Lucknow as ‘Game Changer’ teaser arrives at Pratibha Theatre

From towering cutouts to fans dancing to the iconic Oscar-winning “Naatu Naatu” and the latest “Raa Macha Macha”, the teaser launch event was Ram Charan’s humble exhibition of the northern territories he has conquered in the wake of ‘RRR’




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‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ trailer: Jimmy Shergill untiringly investigates a diamond heist

Tamannaah Bhatia, Avinash Tiwary and Rajiv Mehta play three unlikely suspects in director Neeraj Pandey’s latest




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Imtiaz Ali brings the Dehradun Literature Festival 2024 to a close

The 6th edition of the Dehradun Literature Festival held at Doon International School, Curzon Road, had Imtiaz Ali talking about the raison d’etre behind storytelling




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Muzaffar Ali interview: On reviving ‘Zooni’ with son Shaad Ali and his enduring love for horses

The ‘Umrao Jaan’ director speaks about reviving his passion project ‘Zooni,’ which was shelved in 1989 due to the insurgency in Kashmir, and his artwork of the Kashmiri muse that evolved out of the sketches he made for the Dimple Kapadia-starrer




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Teenaged Shola Jimoh impresses at men's soccer training session, offering evidence of CPL development strategy

It didn't take long to see what makes 16-year-old Shola Jimoh a prospect for Canada's men's soccer team. In a frenzied training session on Wednesday, he was always on the attack, always on the balls of his feet, leaving coach Jesse Marsch impressed.



  • Sports/Soccer/CPL


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Dysmantle’s Final Major Update Is Now Live on iOS Bringing In Ark Level 4, Night Terrors, Link Towers, and Much More

Back in May, Dysmantle ($9.99) from 10tons Ltd. got its final major content update on Steam. Dysmantle version 1.4.0 titled …




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SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 20th, 2024. In today’s article, I’ve got a couple …




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‘Honkai Star Rail’ Version 2.5 “Flying Aureus Shot to Lupine Rue” Update Releases on September 10th, New Trailer Showcased During Livestream

HoYoverse’s Honkai Star Rail (Free) version 2.5 update titled “Flying Aureus Shot to Lupine Rue" was just showcased during a …




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SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Bakeru’ & ‘Peglin’, Plus Highlights From Nintendo’s Blockbuster Sale

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 2nd, 2024. I think it’s a holiday today in …







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SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku’, Plus New Releases, Sales, and Good-Byes

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 6th, 2024. Well, this is the last one. You’ll …




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Why thousands gathering around rancid 'dead whale' by world's biggest lake...


Why thousands gathering around rancid 'dead whale' by world's biggest lake...


(Third column, 18th story, link)





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Britain's soaring reliance on foreign power exposes great green energy scam...


Britain's soaring reliance on foreign power exposes great green energy scam...


(Third column, 5th story, link)






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Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce's homes burglarized during NFL game...


Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce's homes burglarized during NFL game...


(Second column, 3rd story, link)





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Judge Blocks Louisiana Law Requiring Schools to Display Ten Commandments...


Judge Blocks Louisiana Law Requiring Schools to Display Ten Commandments...


(First column, 11th story, link)





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How to stay healthy during quarantine

Eat well With isolation comes the three Bs: boredom, bingeing, and (can’t be) bothered. The evil accomplice of all three is comfort eating. While snacks and treats are okay now ...

The post How to stay healthy during quarantine appeared first on Star Observer.




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First ferret babies born from a clone bring new hope for their species

Sibert and Red Cloud, black-footed ferret siblings at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, are the first members of an endangered species born to a cloned animal.



  • Radio/As It Happens

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Are Libra and Capricorn Compatible? Exploring Their Relationship Dynamic

Libra and Capricorn compatibility blends charm and ambition. Discover how this air-earth duo balances romance and practicality in love, friendship, and relationships.




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Discord leaker Jack Teixeira gets 15-year sentence for sharing classified documents

Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira received a 15-year sentence in federal prison for leaking classified military documents on Discord in a Boston federal court, according to The Washington Post.

Teixeira appeared before the court earlier today and asked the judge for leniency. He also issued a statement apologizing for “all of the harm that I’ve caused, to my friends, family and those overseas.”

Defense attorney Michael Bachrach also claimed that Teixeira was subjected to bullying in high school and his military unit as an adjudicating factor for his actions. Judge Indira Talwani didn’t buy the defense’s bullying claims stating that the Air Force has already disciplined 15 other members connected to Teixeira for not taking more actions “that might have stopped him from doing this.”

Teixeira shared classified military documents as far back as late 2022 on a Discord server dedicated to the pixelated sandbox game Minecraft. The leak included information about the Ukrainian and Russian troop movements and military equipment used in the war in Ukraine and Russia's attempts to obtain more weapons from Egypt and Turkey. The documents eventually found their way to other Discord servers as well as 4chan and Telegram.

FBI officials arrested Teixeira at his home in April of last year. Teixeira originally agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in March that included a 16-year prison sentence for pleading guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information and violating the Espionage Act. If he stuck with his not guilty plea and received a guilty verdict, Teixeira faced a much steeper maximum prison term of 60 years.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/discord-leaker-jack-teixeira-gets-15-year-sentence-for-sharing-classified-documents-231319586.html?src=rss




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NISAR satellite to offer precise monitoring of Earth's surface movements

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 09, 2024
Data from NISAR will improve our understanding of such phenomena as earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides, as well as damage to infrastructure. Earth's surface is in a state of continuous motion, although often unnoticed. Scientists have utilized satellite and ground-based technology to observe movements linked to geological events such as earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity. A




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'Grueling and arduous': A look back at Canada-U.S. relations during the first Trump presidency

Canadian political leaders are congratulating Donald Trump on winning back the U.S. presidency — a victory that raises questions about what Canada-U.S. relations will look like over the next four years.




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Top Trump White House pick has strong view on Canada's government. It's not flattering

Mike Waltz, the man reportedly tapped for the top international role inside the Trump White House isn’t just predicting the impending defeat of Canada’s Trudeau government: He’s celebrating it.




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Mercedes steering health drive

You’ll start a daily workout when you get behind the wheel if you drive a Mercedes with the Fit & Healthy system.




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Phoenix soaring above the rest

‘Self-taught’ athlete Phoenix Martin is a gold medal winner thanks to his determination to succeed, and the help of his coach...his dad.




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Future stars bring home trophy

Seth Messingham from Hornsby North Public School and Zac “Nugget” Bovis from Berowra Public School represented North Sydney in the NSW PSSA Boy’s football State Carnival at Valentine Sports Park in Glenwood to secure a win North Sydney hasn’t seen since 1969.




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Karnataka Ayush sector upbeat on recent amendment to renew manufacturing & loan licenses to perpetuity

The recent amendments brought by the Union Ministry of Ayush to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 are significant, as they introduce new regulatory requirements for the manufacturing and sale of traditional




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Q&A: Bringing sustainability into the medical industry

Brightmark CEO Bob Powell discusses Plastics Renewal technology and how to bring sustainability into the medical industry.




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Ampacet ProVital+ Gamma-Protect preserves polypropylene-based medical plastics during sterilisation process

Ampacet has introduced ProVital+ Gamma-Protect, a medical-grade additive designed to preserve mechanical and optical properties of polypropylene-based medical and pharmaceutical articles during gamma and e-beam sterilisation processes.




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Clean Energy Is Bringing Electricity to Many in the Navajo Nation

Thousands of homes in Navajo and other tribal lands don’t have access to electricity. A $200-million federal funding effort aims to fix that problem with solar power and other clean energy




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The Pivotal Role of Technology in Delivering Effective Patient Services

Today’s guest post comes from George Moore, Chief Information Technology Officer at CareMetx.

As George explains using novel survey data, manufacturers view new technologies  as crucial for patient services. He then explains how digital technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) can be used to improve patient adherence and increase hub efficiencies.

To learn more, download CareMetx’s new 2024 Patient Services ReportRevealing Manufacturer Priorities: Patients Naturally Take Center Stage.

Read on for George’s insights.
Read more »
       




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FTC Finalizes “Click-to-Cancel” Rule to Make It Easier for Consumers to End Recurring Subscriptions and Memberships

Sorry, but you do not have permission to view this content.




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Cardiology Research: Business As Usual During the Pandemic

At this moment in time the pre-pandemic cardiology research agenda needs to be completely reprioritized. There are two broad areas that now take precedence over all existing research concerns. On the one hand, researchers need to achieve a better understanding of the staggering incidence of deferred or delayed treatment of cardiovascular events and conditions as...

Click here to continue reading...




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Government 'miscommunicated' PPE stock levels to pharmacies during first COVID-19 wave, MPs told

The government implied wholesalers had more personal protective equipment in stock than was the case during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Healthcare Distribution Association has said.




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Nearly 200 women were prescribed valproate during pregnancy between April 2018 and September 2020

Some 180 women were prescribed valproate, a medicine used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder, during their pregnancy within a 2.5 year interval, NHS data has revealed.




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Has Spring Sprouted New Growth in Immuno-Oncology?

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC As Boston’s weather has started its turn from the frigid darkness that is a northeast winter to the longer days and lighter conditions

The post Has Spring Sprouted New Growth in Immuno-Oncology? appeared first on LifeSciVC.




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Brazen Scofflaws? Are Pharma Companies Really Completely Ignoring FDAAA?

Results reporting requirements are pretty clear. Maybe critics should re-check their methods?

Ben Goldacre has rather famously described the clinical trial reporting requirements in the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 as a “fake fix” that was being thoroughly “ignored” by the pharmaceutical industry.

Pharma: breaking the law in broad daylight?
He makes this sweeping, unconditional proclamation about the industry and its regulators on the basis of  a single study in the BMJ, blithely ignoring the fact that a) the authors of the study admitted that they could not adequately determine the number of studies that were meeting FDAAA requirements and b) a subsequent FDA review that identified only 15 trials potentially out of compliance, out of a pool of thousands.


Despite the fact that the FDA, which has access to more data, says that only a tiny fraction of studies are potentially noncompliant, Goldacre's frequently repeated claims that the law is being ignored seems to have caught on in the general run of journalistic and academic discussions about FDAAA.

And now there appears to be additional support for the idea that a large percentage of studies are noncompliant with FDAAA results reporting requirements, in the form of a new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology: "Public Availability of Results of Trials Assessing Cancer Drugs in the United States" by Thi-Anh-Hoa Nguyen, et al.. In it, the authors report even lower levels of FDAAA compliance – a mere 20% of randomized clinical trials met requirements of posting results on clinicaltrials.gov within one year.

Unsurprisingly, the JCO results were immediately picked up and circulated uncritically by the usual suspects.

I have to admit not knowing much about pure academic and cooperative group trial operations, but I do know a lot about industry-run trials – simply put, I find the data as presented in the JCO study impossible to believe. Everyone I work with in pharma trials is painfully aware of the regulatory environment they work in. FDAAA compliance is a given, a no-brainer: large internal legal and compliance teams are everywhere, ensuring that the letter of the law is followed in clinical trial conduct. If anything, pharma sponsors are twitchily over-compliant with these kinds of regulations (for example, most still adhere to 100% verification of source documentation – sending monitors to physically examine every single record of every single enrolled patient - even after the FDA explicitly told them they didn't have to).

I realize that’s anecdotal evidence, but when such behavior is so pervasive, it’s difficult to buy into data that says it’s not happening at all. The idea that all pharmaceutical companies are ignoring a highly visible law that’s been on the books for 6 years is extraordinary. Are they really so brazenly breaking the rules? And is FDA abetting them by disseminating incorrect information?

Those are extraordinary claims, and would seem to require extraordinary evidence. The BMJ study had clear limitations that make its implications entirely unclear. Is the JCO article any better?

Some Issues


In fact, there appear to be at least two major issues that may have seriously compromised the JCO findings:

1. Studies that were certified as being eligible for delayed reporting requirements, but do not have their certification date listed.

The study authors make what I believe to be a completely unwarranted assumption:

In trials for approval of new drugs or approval for a new indication, a certification [permitting delayed results reporting] should be posted within 1 year and should be publicly available.

It’s unclear to me why the authors think the certifications “should be” publicly available. In re-reading FDAAA section 801, I don’t see any reference to that being a requirement. I suppose I could have missed it, but the authors provide a citation to a page that clearly does not list any such requirement.

But their methodology assumes that all trials that have a certification will have it posted:

If no results were posted at ClinicalTrials.gov, we determined whether the responsible party submitted a certification. In this case, we recorded the date of submission of the certification to ClinicalTrials.gov.

If a sponsor gets approval from FDA to delay reporting (as is routine for all drugs that are either not approved for any indication, or being studied for a new indication – i.e., the overwhelming majority of pharma drug trials), but doesn't post that approval on the registry, the JCO authors deem that trial “noncompliant”. This is not warranted: the company may have simply chosen not to post the certification despite being entirely FDAAA compliant.

2. Studies that were previously certified for delayed reporting and subsequently reported results

It is hard to tell how the authors treated this rather-substantial category of trials. If a trial was certified for delayed results reporting, but then subsequently published results, the certification date becomes difficult to find. Indeed, it appears in the case where there were results, the authors simply looked at the time from study completion to results posting. In effect, this would re-classify almost every single one of these trials from compliant to non-compliant. Consider this example trial:


  • Phase 3 trial completes January 2010
  • Certification of delayed results obtained December 2010 (compliant)
  • FDA approval June 2013
  • Results posted July 2013 (compliant)


In looking at the JCO paper's methods section, it really appears that this trial would be classified as reporting results 3.5 years after completion, and therefore be considered noncompliant with FDAAA. In fact, this trial is entirely kosher, and would be extremely typical for many phase 2 and 3 trials in industry.

Time for Some Data Transparency


The above two concerns may, in fact, be non-issues. They certainly appear to be implied in the JCO paper, but the wording isn't terribly detailed and could easily be giving me the wrong impression.

However, if either or both of these issues are real, they may affect the vast majority of "noncompliant" trials in this study. Given the fact that most clinical trials are either looking at new drugs, or looking at new indications for new drugs, these two issues may entirely explain the gap between the JCO study and the unequivocal FDA statements that contradict it.

I hope that, given the importance of transparency in research, the authors will be willing to post their data set publicly so that others can review their assumptions and independently verify their conclusions. It would be more than a bit ironic otherwise.

[Image credit: Shamless lawlessness via Flikr user willytronics.]


Thi-Anh-Hoa Nguyen, Agnes Dechartres, Soraya Belgherbi, and Philippe Ravaud (2013). Public Availability of Results of Trials Assessing Cancer Drugs in the United States JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2012.46.9577




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Microneedle Glucose Sensors Keep Monitoring Skin-Deep



For people with diabetes, glucose monitors are a valuable tool to monitor their blood sugar. The current generation of these biosensors detect glucose levels with thin, metallic filaments inserted in subcutaneous tissue, the deepest layer of the skin where most body fat is stored.

Medical technology company Biolinq is developing a new type of glucose sensor that doesn’t go deeper than the dermis, the middle layer of skin that sits above the subcutaneous tissue. The company’s “intradermal” biosensors take advantage of metabolic activity in shallower layers of skin, using an array of electrochemical microsensors to measure glucose—and other chemicals in the body—just beneath the skin’s surface.

Biolinq just concluded a pivotal clinical trial earlier this month, according to CEO Rich Yang, and the company plans to submit the device to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval at the end of the year. In April, Biolinq received US $58 million in funding to support the completion of its clinical trials and subsequent submission to the FDA.

Biolinq’s glucose sensor is “the world’s first intradermal sensor that is completely autonomous,” Yang says. While other glucose monitors require a smartphone or other reader to collect and display the data, Biolinq’s includes an LED display to show when the user’s glucose is within a healthy range (indicated by a blue light) or above that range (yellow light). “We’re providing real-time feedback for people who otherwise could not see or feel their symptoms,” Yang says. (In addition to this real-time feedback, the user can also load long-term data onto a smartphone by placing it next to the sensor, like Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre, another glucose monitor.)

More than 2,000 microsensor components are etched onto each 200-millimeter silicon wafer used to manufacture the biosensors.Biolinq

Biolinq’s hope is that its approach could lead to sustainable changes in behavior on the part of the individual using the sensor. The device is intentionally placed on the upper forearm to be in plain sight, so users can receive immediate feedback without manually checking a reader. “If you drink a glass of orange juice or soda, you’ll see this go from blue to yellow,” Yang explains. That could help users better understand how their actions—such as drinking a sugary beverage—change their blood sugar and take steps to reduce that effect.

Biolinq’s device consists of an array of microneedles etched onto a silicon wafer using semiconductor manufacturing. (Other glucose sensors’ filaments are inserted with an introducer needle.) Each chip has a small 2-millimeter by 2-millimeter footprint and contains seven independent microneedles, which are coated with membranes through a process similar to electroplating in jewelry making. One challenge the industry has faced is ensuring that microsensors do not break at this small scale. The key engineering insight Biolinq introduced, Yang says, was using semiconductor manufacturing to build the biosensors. Importantly, he says, silicon “is harder than titanium and steel at this scale.”

Miniaturization allows for sensing closer to the surface of the skin, where there is a high level of metabolic activity. That makes the shallow depth ideal for monitoring glucose, as well as other important biomarkers, Yang says. Due to this versatility, combined with the use of a sensor array, the device in development can also monitor lactate, an important indicator of muscle fatigue. With the addition of a third data point, ketones (which are produced when the body burns fat), Biolinq aims to “essentially have a metabolic panel on one chip,” Yang says.

Using an array of sensors also creates redundancy, improving the reliability of the device if one sensor fails or becomes less accurate. Glucose monitors tend to drift over the course of wear, but with multiple sensors, Yang says that drift can be better managed.

One downside to the autonomous display is the drain on battery life, Yang says. The battery life limits the biosensor’s wear time to 5 days in the first-generation device. Biolinq aims to extend that to 10 days of continuous wear in its second generation, which is currently in development, by using a custom chip optimized for low-power consumption rather than off-the-shelf components.

The company has collected nearly 1 million hours of human performance data, along with comparators including commercial glucose monitors and venous blood samples, Yang says. Biolinq aims to gain FDA approval first for use in people with type 2 diabetes not using insulin and later expand to other medical indications.

This article appears in the August 2024 print issue as “Glucose Monitor Takes Page From Chipmaking.”




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Gandhi Inspired a New Kind of Engineering



This article is part of our special report, “Reinventing Invention: Stories from Innovation’s Edge.”

The teachings of Mahatma Gandhi were arguably India’s greatest contribution to the 20th century. Raghunath Anant Mashelkar has borrowed some of that wisdom to devise a frugal new form of innovation he calls “Gandhian engineering.” Coming from humble beginnings, Mashelkar is driven to ensure that the benefits of science and technology are shared more equally. He sums up his philosophy with the epigram “more from less for more.” This engineer has led India’s preeminent R&D organization, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and he has advised successive governments.

What was the inspiration for Gandhian engineering?

Raghunath Anant Mashelkar: There are two quotes of Gandhi’s that were influential. The first was, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” He was saying that when resources are exhaustible, you should get more from less. He also said the benefits of science must reach all, even the poor. If you put them together, it becomes “more from less for more.”

My own life experience inspired me, too. I was born to a very poor family, and my father died when I was six. My mother was illiterate and brought me to Mumbai in search of a job. Two meals a day was a challenge, and I walked barefoot until I was 12 and studied under streetlights. So it also came from my personal experience of suffering because of a lack of resources.

How does Gandhian engineering differ from existing models of innovation?

Mashelkar: Conventional engineering is market or curiosity driven, but Gandhian engineering is application and impact driven. We look at the end user and what we want to achieve for the betterment of humanity.

Most engineering is about getting more from more. Take an iPhone: They keep creating better models and charging higher prices. For the poor it is less from less: Conventional engineering looks at removing features as the only way to reduce costs.

In Gandhian engineering, the idea is not to create affordable [second-rate] products, but to make high technology work for the poor. So we reinvent the product from the ground up. While the standard approach aims for premium price and high margins, Gandhian engineering will always look at affordable price, but high volumes.

The Jaipur foot is a light, durable, and affordable prosthetic.Gurinder Osan/AP

What is your favorite example of Gandhian engineering?

Mashelkar: My favorite is the Jaipur foot. Normally, a sophisticated prosthetic foot costs a few thousand dollars, but the Jaipur foot does it for [US] $20. And it’s very good technology; there is a video of a person wearing a Jaipur foot climbing a tree, and you can see the flexibility is like a normal foot. Then he runs one kilometer in 4 minutes, 30 seconds.

What is required for Gandhian engineering to become more widespread?

Mashelkar: In our young people, we see innovation and we see passion, but compassion is the key. We also need more soft funding [grants or zero-interest loans], because venture capital companies often turn out to be “vulture capital” in a way, because they want immediate returns.

We need a shift in the mindset of businesses—they can make money not just from premium products for those at the top of the pyramid, but also products with affordable excellence designed for large numbers of people.

This article appears in the November 2024 print issue as “The Gandhi Inspired Inventor.”




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Measuring Impact in Digital Youth Mental Health: What Investors Look For

Many companies are entering the digital youth mental health space, but it’s important to know which ones are effective, according to a panel of investors at the Behavioral Health Tech conference.

The post Measuring Impact in Digital Youth Mental Health: What Investors Look For appeared first on MedCity News.




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How 4 Health Systems Are Partnering with Microsoft

Here’s how four different health systems are partnering with Microsoft to save time for clinicians.

The post How 4 Health Systems Are Partnering with Microsoft appeared first on MedCity News.