Lab dedicated to my mother’s memory

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

I was googling my mother who died in Jan 1999 and thrilled to find this. The article is a year old. She had no connection with Varanasi. Who I wonder was so kind to remember her work?
Putting aside the immense personal gratification and misplaced pride, I wondered why Varanasi, a holy place, a spiritually moving place, but not the most obvious location for cancer research.
My mother’s home institute was the Cancer Research Institute in Parel, Bombay’s medical district. The research institute was a wing of Tata Memorial Hospital, the then go to place for cancer treatment in India.
Started by the farsighted Tatas both were, improbably, under the Atomic Energy Commission, rather than the Health Ministry — and thus under the Federal/Central government rather than the State/local government, like some of the other teaching hospitals in the ‘hood. (My sister went to GS Medical, a prestigious medical school attached to a municipal hospital.)
That was the pattern after Independence: creating a few showcase institutions under the Federal government, money no object. Thus, five Indian Institutes of Technology (I attended one). Three Indian Institutes of Management. The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi…
These showcases were “successful” in attracting the brightest and best students. But the teaching was mediocre at best, and as far as the research goes, let’s say no Nobel prizes came from the immense investment made by the state.
Now, under political pressure, the showcases have proliferated. I have lost count of the number of new IITs and IIMs.  The Tata Memorial Center — which remains under the control of Central Government’s Atomic Energy Commission — has started ten cancer treatment and research centers, many far from major urban centers.
Perhaps it’s because it’s cheaper to construct facilities there. But how many top-notch researchers will join.
More likely it’s the more populist enthusiasms of the Modi government. If the IITs and Tata memorial names are valued brands, spread the brands around!
And who is to say this is so wrong? Yes the brand is diluted — but they weren’t doing great teaching or research to start with.
The policy is very like the National Institutes of Health’s in the US. The NIH operates 27 Institutes and Centers. Many are in Bethesda but not all. Spreading the goodies around helps attract political support. In Defense procurement as well.