Latest news with #Balachandran
The Star
5 days ago
- General
- The Star
Ageing water pipes in four Subang Jaya neighbourhoods to be replaced
Ng (centre) looking at plans for the SS13, SS14, SS15 and SS17 pipe replacement in Subang Jaya with Balachandran on her left while Anwar Ahmadi (far left) looks on. — AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star AGEING water pipes in SS13, SS14, SS15 and SS17 in Subang Jaya will be replaced at a cost of RM4.8mil. Subang Jaya assemblyman Michelle Ng said Air Selangor would start upgrading asbestos cement and mild steel pipes with ductile iron type pipes by the end of this month. She said the project, involving 43,000m of pipes and costing RM47.9mil, was expected to be completed within 12 months. 'Known as Package 86 of Air Selangor's Old Pipe Replacement Programme, it is part of the plan to replace old pipes, especially those made of asbestos cement. 'Similar pipe replacement was carried out in SS12/1 and SS12/1A in 2016,' she said. Ng said the four neighbourhoods comprised about 100,000 households and some of the pipes were now about 40 years old. 'The new ductile iron-type pipes will not only be larger in diameter but will also have a longer service life of between 50 and 70 years,' she said during a press conference at SS12 Rukun Tetangga cabin in Subang Jaya. Ng said Package 86 of the pipe replacement programme would cover most of the burst pipe hotspots in the four areas, which should lead to the reduction of such incidents, including leakage and non-revenue water. She said affected households would receive a notice from Air Selangor three days before contractors carry out the works. 'For residential areas, pipe works will be restricted to office hours, while commercial areas will see works done only at night. 'For safety, parking areas will be cordoned off until works are completed,' she said. Ng said seven contractors had been appointed for the project. 'All contractors will ensure that holes which have been dug up are patched up by evening to ensure safety.' She said that while the new pipes were being installed, the old ones would continue running and there would be no interruption in water supply. 'Water disruption will only take place when supply switches over from the old pipes. 'Throughout the project, roads will be temporarily repaired. 'Once the upgrade is completed, all stretches will be resurfaced from kerb to kerb,' she assured. Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ) councillor in-charge Balachandran Naicker will coordinate meetings with stakeholders. Also present was Air Selangor Petaling regional head Anwar Ahmadi Mahmud.
India Today
23-05-2025
- Business
- India Today
What makes venture capitalists bet big money on Indian start-ups?
Raising investment money is a theme that keeps entrepreneurs awake at night—a central point of discussion during the session 'Seeding Tomorrow: Big Ideas, Smart Capital' at the recent Indo-UAE Conclave 2025 organised by the India Today Group in Kumar, chairman of BharatPe and former chairman of the State Bank of India, highlighted how 'international capital, in particular, doesn't go anywhere for the love of that country'. 'It goes where it can earn a decent return—or rather, the best return—compared to any other opportunity,' he unpacked the term 'smart capital' as capital that not only spots opportunities and takes risks (as venture capitalists are known to do) but also blends entrepreneurship and young energy with seasoned experience. 'People with grey hair—or no hair,' he quipped, are essential to this mix. 'If you have a blend of experience, youthful energy, and fresh ideas—especially those solving real problems—then there are good returns to be made.'Kumar stressed that each venture capital (VC) fund has its own investment philosophy, which influences the sectors it focuses on. Some venture capitalists take a long-term view, examining governance structures, founders and institutional history before making bets. Others chase quick returns, looking for short-term gains. He elaborated on the key factors venture capitalists consider before investing in a start-up: the probability of the venture and how the company will be run and governed. Here, he noted, experienced leadership plays a crucial role in preventing governance pitfalls—something that has plagued a few Indian start-ups in recent there is a different type of capital on the demand side and a different type of company on the supply side. You have to match your investment philosophy with the opportunities available,' he Balachandran, executive chairman and CEO of Buimerc Corporation, shared his own philosophy of 'permanence', wherein he looks for democratic markets and institutions that reflect those values. His first investment in India was in the Bombay Stock Exchange, which grew from a market cap of Rs 2,000 crore to over Rs 1 trillion in just 15 also addressed the idea of risk, calling it 'a clichd and often misunderstood concept'. According to him, India's true potential isn't defined by currency values but by the scale and energy of its 1.4-plus billion identified banks and financial institutions as key sectors for both revenue generation and long-term wealth creation. He described them as a 'multi-tiered growth opportunity'—not limited to new-age or nationalised banks but spread across the entire sector. 'Every institution in that space is an explosion of wealth waiting to happen,' he said.'I've started accruing [investments] in this space, and my accrual process takes a few years. But I've begun—with SBI as my first, and LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India) as my second. These are the kind of big opportunities I'm looking at.'advertisementSubscribe to India Today MagazineMust Watch
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
TIME100 Health Panelists Talk ‘Curing Cancer'
Sara Sidner, anchor and senior national correspondent for CNN, told the audience at the TIME100 Health Impact Dinner on Tuesday night that she did 16 rounds of chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in 2023—and worked the entire time through it. The room erupted into loud applause. 'It is possible to live your life while trying to kill cancer,' Sidner said. 'We've come such a long way, and I just quickly want to say to this room: whoever is in this room that is a nurse, a doctor, a physician, a researcher, someone who is creating drugs for us—thank you. Thank you for the research. Thank you for your work; we need it so, so much.' Sidner was joined onstage by Dr. Vinod Balachandran, surgeon-scientist and director of the Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Victor Bulto, president of the U.S. unit for Novartis, which sponsored the event in New York City. The three appeared on a panel moderated by TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park to discuss the groundbreaking innovations in cancer detection, treatment, and prevention—and the research that still needs to be done. Sidner, who is a 2025 TIME Closers honoree, said she hadn't always planned on publicly sharing her cancer diagnosis. But when she learned she had stage III breast cancer, she realized she wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from everyone. 'You have spent your life telling other people's stories—maybe this is something you need to tell, and tell it in a really honest, sometimes embarrassing, way. Tell people what it's like going through this journey,' she recalled thinking. Balachandran, who is a 2025 TIME100 Health honoree, called cancer 'the most urgent health crisis of our lifetime.' In the United States, one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer during their life, according to the American Cancer Society. Part of what's challenging, he said, is that cancer is 'an intelligent cell that is constantly programmed to evolve.' 'We have historically been treating it with drugs that do not evolve with an evolving cancer,' Balachandran said. 'Even though cancer is intelligent, we do not fight it with a medicine that is intelligent. We've always envisioned developing intelligent medicines to diagnose and treat cancer, but we have not really been able to achieve this goal.' Now, though, Balachandran said he thinks the health industry has made progress on this. New technologies, including AI, and research advancements—such as understanding how the immune system recognizes cancer—could help medical providers diagnose cancer earlier and treat cancer more effectively, Balachandran said. Balachandran has used mRNA technology to create personalized vaccines that research has indicated could boost patients' immune systems to help treat pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Bulto said that it's imperative to continue making grounds on the medicine but also on understanding the patient experience. 'On the one hand, we have a lot to do on the science front, but also, the more we learn about the science, the more we are learning … that we have to become as good or as innovative in how we bring those medicines to patients as how innovative the medicines themselves are,' Bulto said. 'We have spent a lot of time trying to understand the lived experience of patients, the felt experience of patients.' He said that whatever innovations are developed for cancer treatment, it's critical to ensure they're distributed to all patients who need them—whether they live in New York City or in a rural community. At the same time that advancements are being made in the cancer field, research funding through the U.S. National Institutes of Health is at risk under the Trump Administration. Despite that, Balachandran said he is 'optimistic.' 'We've made so much progress, so it's really hard to stop this level of progress when results are really transformative and really sort of ushering in a next era of cancer care,' he said. 'If they work, how could you not support it? Because cancer is something that affects all of us.' To close out the discussion, Park asked the panelists: will we cure cancer? Balachandran replied immediately: Yes. 'We already are curing cancer,' he said. 'The question is: how more can we cure cancer, and how more effectively can we cure cancer, and how more simplistically can we cure cancer with less side effects or less medication, and for whom, and for more people?' 'The next revolution of cancer care is really about expanding access to more patients, expanding more treatments with less side effects for people,' he continued. Sidner and Bulto said they agreed with Balachandran, but Sidner added that it was critical to ensure that cancer is cured equitably. She pointed out that Black women are nearly 40% more likely than their white counterparts to die from breast cancer. 'Something's wrong there,' she said. 'And so for whom will cancer be cured is a huge question that needs to be addressed.' The TIME100 Impact Dinner: Leaders Shaping the Future of Health was sponsored by Novartis and FIGS. Contact us at letters@
Time Magazine
14-05-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
‘We Already Are Curing Cancer': TIME100 Health Panel Discusses How to Solve an ‘Evolving' Disease
Sara Sidner, anchor and senior national correspondent for CNN, told the audience at the TIME100 Health Impact Dinner on Tuesday night that she did 16 rounds of chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in 2023—and worked the entire time through it. The room erupted into loud applause. 'It is possible to live your life while trying to kill cancer,' Sidner said. 'We've come such a long way, and I just quickly want to say to this room: whoever is in this room that is a nurse, a doctor, a physician, a researcher, someone who is creating drugs for us—thank you. Thank you for the research. Thank you for your work; we need it so, so much.' Sidner was joined onstage by Dr. Vinod Balachandran, surgeon-scientist and director of the Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Victor Bulto, president of the U.S. unit for Novartis, which sponsored the event in New York City. The three appeared on a panel moderated by TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park to discuss the groundbreaking innovations in cancer detection, treatment, and prevention—and the research that still needs to be done. Sidner, who is a 2025 TIME Closers honoree, said she hadn't always planned on publicly sharing her cancer diagnosis. But when she learned she had stage III breast cancer, she realized she wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from everyone. 'You have spent your life telling other people's stories—maybe this is something you need to tell, and tell it in a really honest, sometimes embarrassing, way. Tell people what it's like going through this journey,' she recalled thinking. Balachandran, who is a 2025 TIME100 Health honoree, called cancer 'the most urgent health crisis of our lifetime.' In the United States, one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer during their life, according to the American Cancer Society. Part of what's challenging, he said, is that cancer is 'an intelligent cell that is constantly programmed to evolve.' 'We have historically been treating it with drugs that do not evolve with an evolving cancer,' Balachandran said. 'Even though cancer is intelligent, we do not fight it with a medicine that is intelligent. We've always envisioned developing intelligent medicines to diagnose and treat cancer, but we have not really been able to achieve this goal.' Now, though, Balachandran said he thinks the health industry has made progress on this. New technologies, including AI, and research advancements—such as understanding how the immune system recognizes cancer—could help medical providers diagnose cancer earlier and treat cancer more effectively, Balachandran said. Balachandran has used mRNA technology to create personalized vaccines that research has indicated could boost patients' immune systems to help treat pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Bulto said that it's imperative to continue making grounds on the medicine but also on understanding the patient experience. 'On the one hand, we have a lot to do on the science front, but also, the more we learn about the science, the more we are learning … that we have to become as good or as innovative in how we bring those medicines to patients as how innovative the medicines themselves are,' Bulto said. 'We have spent a lot of time trying to understand the lived experience of patients, the felt experience of patients.' He said that whatever innovations are developed for cancer treatment, it's critical to ensure they're distributed to all patients who need them—whether they live in New York City or in a rural community. At the same time that advancements are being made in the cancer field, research funding through the U.S. National Institutes of Health is at risk under the Trump Administration. Despite that, Balachandran said he is 'optimistic.' 'We've made so much progress, so it's really hard to stop this level of progress when results are really transformative and really sort of ushering in a next era of cancer care,' he said. 'If they work, how could you not support it? Because cancer is something that affects all of us.' To close out the discussion, Park asked the panelists: will we cure cancer? Balachandran replied immediately: Yes. 'We already are curing cancer,' he said. 'The question is: how more can we cure cancer, and how more effectively can we cure cancer, and how more simplistically can we cure cancer with less side effects or less medication, and for whom, and for more people?' 'The next revolution of cancer care is really about expanding access to more patients, expanding more treatments with less side effects for people,' he continued. Sidner and Bulto said they agreed with Balachandran, but Sidner added that it was critical to ensure that cancer is cured equitably. She pointed out that Black women are nearly 40% more likely than their white counterparts to die from breast cancer. 'Something's wrong there,' she said. 'And so for whom will cancer be cured is a huge question that needs to be addressed.'
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Major manufacturing sectors of Coimbatore hit by low demand
The main manufacturing sectors that contribute to the strong micro and cottage industry network in Coimbatore district are facing a slowdown in orders and drop in production. Wetgrinders, which have a Geographical Indication tag, have seen a sharp decline in orders. 'It is difficult to put a number to the drop in production. This is primarily because of lifestyle changes. Hardly any households make idli batter at home as consumers prefer to buy readymade batter. The demand is only for commercial grinders now,' said C. Balachandran, president of the Coimbatore Wetgrinder Accessories Manufacturers' Association. Industries that were manufacturing wetgrinders for households have reduced the volumes and very few are still in business, he said. The other major product manufactured in Coimbatore is pumpsets. It is also a product recognised for the one district one product initiative. Coimbatore used to boast of 40 % share in pumpsets made in the country. Substantial business moved to Rajkot because the manufacturers there are cost competitive. Usually, the first three months and last three months of a financial year are peak periods for pump manufacturers, because demand will be high when there are no rains, said Mithun Ramdass, president of the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers' Association. In 2024-2025, there was a revival of business in the first three months. This year, however, demand is down 10 % to 15 % and there is no specific reason. 'We are unable to point any reason. There are multiple factors such as unseasonal rains in some areas and liquidity crisis even for farmers that are affecting the pumpset industry. There is not much pull in the market,' Mr Ramdass said. According to him, export enquiries are, however, looking up. These will take time to firm up and may give the much-needed demand boost to the industry. Coimbatore Tiny and Small Foundry Owners' Association president A. Shiva Shanmughakumar said of the 600 foundries in Coimbatore, only 350-400 are active now. The demand from automobile sector is good. The other sectors are not doing well. 'Almost 40 % orders, mainly from the large industries, shifted to Gujarat as the foundries in Coimbatore are expensive by 10 %. Even for the orders that are available, there is more than 50 % labour shortage,' he said. Workers from the northern States are reluctant to return to work in Tamil Nadu and this is bringing down production now, he said.
