Category: Women / Girls
** Indian-origin researcher makes splitters for ventilator
iSAVE re-purposes flow valves to support two patients
A team of researchers in the United States has come up with splitters for ventilators that will address the shortage of the life-saving equipment. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Bengaluru, recently approved the equipment. IndVentr is the Indian partner making the device.
Earlier this year, Shriya S. Srinivasan and her team were in discussion with Indian health officials. But the interest in their equipment was low.
Dr. Srinivasan, a biomedical engineer, is the daughter of immigrant parents. She visits India frequently to give bharatanatyam performances. She did her Ph.D in medical engineering and medical physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. She took up Project Prana on the sidelines of her ongoing post-doctoral work.
** This Chennai girl used Tinder to help with a blood donation drive
WhatsApp. Riya Gupta
Her Instagram page, Blood Donor Connect, helps amplify the message. “It takes about 30-60 minutes each to find a donor after we get the initial request. We now do around 10 successful cases a day,” she adds.
** Data consultant launches website to ease plasma donation process
Divya Jain, who had been amplifying requirements of oxygen and plasma on social media, roped in a tech-savvy friend and created the website fightagainstcovid19.org after buying a domain.
“I was getting a lot of requests for oxygen, plasma, hospital and medicines and I thought I have a good social media presence so should put it to good use.
I thought of doing it on small scale but then it grew to a seven-member team,” she said, adding that all the members are her colleagues and friends.
** Times Group chairperson Indu Jain dies
Indu Jain was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the third highest civilian honour in the country, in 2016.
She set up The Times Foundation in 2000, with sustainable development and transformational change as its key goals. One of India’s most respected non-profits, it provides community services and runs the Times Relief Fund to offer assistance during cyclones, earthquakes, floods, epidemics and other crises.
She was the founder president of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), established in 1983 to promote entrepreneurship and professional excellence among women in India. From 1999, she also served as chairperson of Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust, founded in 1944 by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, her father-in-law, to promote literature in Indian languages.
** Using tyres, this Indian architect has built 250-plus playgrounds across the country
Pooja Rai’s NGO, Anthill Creations, builds sustainable playgrounds for kids
Two little boys were engrossed in a game of badminton: their slippers served as racquets. Nearby, two other kids played atop broken sewer pipes. This sight made Pooja Rai think: “Playgrounds should not be a luxury. It is something every child should have access to for free.”
And that is when the then 23-year-old student of architecture in IIT-Kharagpur made her first playground for children within her institution’s campus, using colourful tyres from cars and two wheelers re-purposed as play equipment.
** Ranchi girl to study at Harvard University
17-year-old Seema Kumari bags full scholarship for undergraduate course.
A girl from a Jharkhand village is preparing for study at Harvard University unlike many of her contemporaries in the area who are usually married off early.
Seema Kumari, aged 17, from Dahu village under Ormanjhi block of Ranchi district, has earned a full scholarship for pursuing an undergraduate course at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and plans to leave for the US in August.
“Not only that, Seema also got selected in some other well known universities and institutions like Ashoka University, Middlebury College and Trinity College,” said Franz Gastler, who along
with some friends had established Yuva School at Hutup village in Ormanjhi about a decade ago that groomed girls like Seema.
** The Univer-cell Alchemist: Dr Subhadra Dravida’s breakthrough research on novel stem cell treatment for Covid patients
Bio-entrepreneur Dr Subhadra Dravida is inspired by Paulo Coelho.
Her favourite line is from The Alchemist “When you seek something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Says the scientist and owner of healthcare startup Transcell Oncologics,
“Since the news of the virus erupted in March 2020, I had been thinking on these lines. And in three months it happened. If everything goes well, our solution will actually get implemented in a month or two in India.”
The Universe did step in and Dravida is the new medical star whose breakthrough research on a novel stem cell treatment holds promise for Covid patients.
Hyderabad
** World-renowned infectious disease expert Dr Rajendra Kapila dies at 81 of Covid-19
Dr Kapila and his wife Dr Deepti Saxena Kapila had got both the doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the US. The couple had returned to India in March and stayed in Ghaziabad.
Dr Rajendra Kapila, a world-renowned infectious disease expert, succumbed to the coronavirus in New Delhi on April 28, it has emerged. The Rutgers University professor, known for his extensive works on HIV-AIDS, was 81 years of age, reported the Hindustan Times.
** This woman-run startup uses crop residue to create bio-batteries
Solving three problems at once, Odisha startup Nexus Power uses crop remnants to create bio-organic, fast-charging batteries for electric vehicles.
An old Biochemistry book from their grandfather’s library was the inspiration for Odisha-born sisters Nikita and Nishita Baliarsingh to create an electric vehicle (EV) battery from crop residue.
Odisha