January 19, 2002

    The Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. C. P. Thakur, announced renaming of the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) headquarters, situated in AIIMS complex, "Ramalingaswamy Bhavan". The late Ramaligaswamy, an eminent scientist, was Director General of ICMR. Dr. Thakur was speaking at the ICMR award function here last evening.

    Congratulating the award winners, Dr. Thakur lamented that there were very few awardees from smaller towns. He said that research facilities should be created in all institutions especially those in smaller towns to enable scientists in other areas to make valuable contributions in the field. He lamented that a recent ICMR study had revealed that as many as 20 per cent of medical colleges in the country did not publish a single research paper during the period 1990 - 1994. In order to create a congenial for increasing research activities, Government had undertaken measures like connecting all medical college libraries with the National Medical Library by Internet and sanctioning over 100 research projects on genome research. The X Plan allocation for research would be about Rs.1000 crore as against Rs.330 crore during the IX Plan. He added that the Government would also work out measures to remove all the obstacles for animal experimentation in consultation with the Department of Animal Care.

    Dr. Thakur said that another area being addressed severally by the Government was the capacity building to face the challenge of bio-terrorism. For this purpose, some ICMR laboratories were being upgraded with appropriate bio-safety levels in which micro-organisms of highly infectious nature could be handled and stored safely, he added.

    Earlier Dr. Thakur gave away the ICMR awards for bio-medical research for 1998 and 1999 to 24 scientists. Dr. Sandip K. Basu, Director, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi received the prestigious Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centenary Award for Excellence in Bio-medical Research for 1999. The award, instituted in 1991-92 as part of Dr. Ambedkar Birth Centenary Celebrations and carrying a cash award of Rs. One lakh, is given in alternate years. Dr. Basu delivered Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Award Oration on the theme - "Towards the Medicines of Tomorrow : Targeted Drugs"

    The other scientists who received the awards for the year 1999 were Dr. Manorama Bhargava, Professor & Head, Department of Haematology, AIIMS; Dr. Nancy Malla, Professor & Head, Department of Parasitology, PGI, Chandigarh; Dr. Vishwa Mohan Katoch, Deputy Director, Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy (ICMR), Agra; Dr. S.L. Choubisa, Lecturer, SBP Government College, Dungarpur; Dr. Siddhartha Majumdar, Professor & Head, Department of Experimental Medicine, PGI, Chandigarh; Dr. V.K. Dua, Deputy Director, Malaria Research Centre, Haridwar; Dr. Y.K. Chawla, Professor, Department of Hepatology, PGI, Chandigarh; Dr. Kamini Walia, Research Officer, ICMR, New Delhi; and Dr. Tapas Chandra Nag, Lecturer, Postgraduate Department of Zoology, Government College, Darjeeling.

    Those who received the awards for 1998 were Dr. Vishwanathan Mohan, Director, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai; Dr. Jagjit S. Saini, Additional Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, PGI, Chandigarh; Dr. Bhuvnesh Kumar Sharma, Deputy Director, Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology, New Delhi; Dr. Rajesh Kumar, Professor & Head, Department of Community Medicine, PGI, Chandigarh; Dr. Gopal Krushna Pal, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, JIPMER, Pondicherry; Dr. Ravindran Ankathil, Associate Professor, Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram; Dr. Subhash Chandra Parija, Professor & Head, Department of Microbiology, JIPMER, Pondicherry; Dr. Santosh Kumar Chaturvedi, Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore; Dr. P. Satishchandra, Professor of Neurology, NIMHANS, Bangalore; Dr. A.B. Dey, Additional Professor, Department of Medicine, AIIMS, New Delhi; Dr. Radha Krishan Dhiman, Associate Professor, Department of Hepatology, PGI, Chandigarh; Dr. Amita Aggarwal, Assistant Professor of Immunology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow; Dr. Prabha S. Chandra, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore; and Dr. Rakesh Aggarwal, Associate Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, SGPGIMS, Lucknow.