And then there was this one about Dr Devi Shetty’s Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore, titled ‘Heart in the right place.’ Dr Devi Shetty must be awesome human being, and is living the adage, where there is a will, there is a way.
In his interview he recounts how, as a doctor in a Calcutta in 1989, out of every 100 patients he saw, 99 could not afford heart surgery. He realized that to really solve the problem, he had to look at how to reduce the cost. Hence was born his idea of Narayana Hrudayalaya- a hospital with state of the art medical facilities, available at a fraction of their costs at other hospitals. This is achieved by staggering the cost across the day. So a brain scan that costs Rs 5000 at 2 pm, will cost only Rs 500 at 2 am- this is possible because the equipment is a one time cost. Coupled with the micro-health insurance scheme adopted by the Karnataka government, that is based on a model of economies of scale, modern healthcare has now been made possible for 80 percent of the state’s population. To quote from the article, ‘since they are so large, and can accommodate so many, the notional cost of each procedure drops drastically- a benefit they can pass on to those who really need it.’
This is a wonderful model, but can only work if welfare, and not only profits, stays a priority. And yet it is important to make it a sustainable model, for it to stay on course and not fall prey to corruption as many government welfare schemes do.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
What an idea sirji!
Every once in awhile, I come across a news item that makes my day… maybe that’s why I religiously start the day with a newspaper… in the last week, it happened twice, thanks to the Hindustan Times’ Inspired India series.
The first one that I am writing about appeared in the Mumbai edition of Aug 7, and was titled, ‘An idea could change your life’. It was one of those news items that you read with a sense of excitement, and pride, and finish with a sense of hope. It spoke about the many simple ideas many simple people across the country regularly come up with. Some of them get implemented, and are able to make a difference to the people who they are able to reach out to, and others suffer a quiet burial in the idea makers’ mind, or as a thesis in a library, or government paperwork…
I can easily understand one of the examples given in the article… that of Same Language Subtitling, as a teaching tool. It’s ingenious… ask me, I know. Many years ago, when I was working with TARAgyan, I was involved in the development of an English Speaking course, under the guidance of Dr Jalaluddin. We developed this course and tested it in a centre (a slum school) in Delhi, before launching it in our local centres in Bathinda and Jhansi. We were always on the lookout for simple but effective ideas such as this, which would be interesting for the student, and help with language skills. And this exactly fits the bill, though admittedly for Hindi/ a familiar language, for a semi literate person. We all know how much Indians love to watch films and television… We produce the maximum number of films in the world every year! Now if people who already have a spoken knowledge of Hindi, but rudimentary writing/ spelling/ grammar skills, are regularly shown films or television programmes with Hindi subtitles, its bound to improve their language skills… the constant exposure to the written word in a language already familiar to them will make it stick in their heads better than any forced reading of unfamiliar text can. I don’t know if this idea has been tested, though the report suggested that it has, but based on my little experience in the classroom , I think I can safely say that it would be very effective. It can be adapted and used for any language teaching, in fact, at a later stage.
What an idea sirji!!
And to think that every engineering student in every engineering college in this country submits such an idea as her thesis at the end of her degree, not to mention the hundreds and thousands of other smart people who are brimming with such simple but wonderful ideas… we could transform this country if only we could tap into all that potential. How many of us have even heard of the National Innovation Foundation, the government body that is supposed to encourage such ideas, and facilitate their implementation on a larger scale. The annual funds available to the NIF is 1.5 crores?! That is ridiculous! If studies could be conducted to scale the benefits, both monetary and the more intangible, we’d find that many of these innovative ideas would probably pay for themselves, and beyond… why then is such a miniscule amount dedicated to finding and tapping them?
Our country is so incredible in so many ways, and it is a tragedy indeed that so many people are never able to attain their true potential.
The first one that I am writing about appeared in the Mumbai edition of Aug 7, and was titled, ‘An idea could change your life’. It was one of those news items that you read with a sense of excitement, and pride, and finish with a sense of hope. It spoke about the many simple ideas many simple people across the country regularly come up with. Some of them get implemented, and are able to make a difference to the people who they are able to reach out to, and others suffer a quiet burial in the idea makers’ mind, or as a thesis in a library, or government paperwork…
I can easily understand one of the examples given in the article… that of Same Language Subtitling, as a teaching tool. It’s ingenious… ask me, I know. Many years ago, when I was working with TARAgyan, I was involved in the development of an English Speaking course, under the guidance of Dr Jalaluddin. We developed this course and tested it in a centre (a slum school) in Delhi, before launching it in our local centres in Bathinda and Jhansi. We were always on the lookout for simple but effective ideas such as this, which would be interesting for the student, and help with language skills. And this exactly fits the bill, though admittedly for Hindi/ a familiar language, for a semi literate person. We all know how much Indians love to watch films and television… We produce the maximum number of films in the world every year! Now if people who already have a spoken knowledge of Hindi, but rudimentary writing/ spelling/ grammar skills, are regularly shown films or television programmes with Hindi subtitles, its bound to improve their language skills… the constant exposure to the written word in a language already familiar to them will make it stick in their heads better than any forced reading of unfamiliar text can. I don’t know if this idea has been tested, though the report suggested that it has, but based on my little experience in the classroom , I think I can safely say that it would be very effective. It can be adapted and used for any language teaching, in fact, at a later stage.
What an idea sirji!!
And to think that every engineering student in every engineering college in this country submits such an idea as her thesis at the end of her degree, not to mention the hundreds and thousands of other smart people who are brimming with such simple but wonderful ideas… we could transform this country if only we could tap into all that potential. How many of us have even heard of the National Innovation Foundation, the government body that is supposed to encourage such ideas, and facilitate their implementation on a larger scale. The annual funds available to the NIF is 1.5 crores?! That is ridiculous! If studies could be conducted to scale the benefits, both monetary and the more intangible, we’d find that many of these innovative ideas would probably pay for themselves, and beyond… why then is such a miniscule amount dedicated to finding and tapping them?
Our country is so incredible in so many ways, and it is a tragedy indeed that so many people are never able to attain their true potential.
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