{"id":3414,"date":"2025-12-30T18:56:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/?p=3414"},"modified":"2025-12-30T18:59:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:59:23","slug":"lab-dedicated-to-my-mothers-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/lab-dedicated-to-my-mothers-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab dedicated to my mother&#8217;s memory"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/\">https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/<\/a><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embedded post\" src=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/embed\/feed\/update\/urn:li:share:7403596225758834689\" width=\"504\" height=\"1359\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-116513421,imgsize-44766,width-400,height-225,resizemode-72\/116513421.jpg\" width=\"399\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p>I was googling my mother who died in Jan 1999 and thrilled to find <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/varanasi\/hi-tech-lab-to-boost-cancer-research\/articleshow\/116513423.cms\">this<\/a>. The article is a year old. She had no connection with Varanasi. Who I wonder was so kind to remember her work?<br \/>Putting aside the immense personal gratification and misplaced pride, I wondered why Varanasi, a holy place, a spiritually\u00a0moving\u00a0place, but not the most obvious location\u00a0for cancer research.<br \/>My mother&#8217;s home institute was the Cancer Research Institute\u00a0in Parel, Bombay&#8217;s medical district. The research\u00a0institute was a wing of Tata Memorial Hospital, the then go to place for cancer treatment in India.<br \/>Started by the farsighted Tatas both were, improbably, under the Atomic Energy Commission, rather than the Health Ministry &#8212; and thus under the Federal\/Central government rather than the State\/local government, like some of the other teaching hospitals in the &#8216;hood. (My sister went to GS Medical, a prestigious medical school attached to a municipal hospital.)<br \/>That was the pattern after Independence: creating a few showcase institutions under the Federal government, money no object.\u00a0Thus, five Indian Institutes of Technology (I attended one). Three Indian Institutes\u00a0of Management. The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi&#8230;<br \/>These showcases were &#8220;successful&#8221; in attracting the brightest\u00a0and best students. But the teaching was mediocre at best, and as far as the research goes, let&#8217;s say no Nobel prizes came from the immense investment made by the state.<br \/>Now, under political pressure, the showcases have proliferated. I have lost count of the number of new IITs and IIMs.\u00a0\u00a0The Tata Memorial Center &#8212; which remains under the control of Central Government&#8217;s Atomic Energy Commission &#8212; has started ten cancer treatment and research centers, many far from major urban centers.<br \/>Perhaps it&#8217;s because it&#8217;s cheaper to construct facilities there. But how many top-notch researchers will join.<br \/>More likely it\u2019s the more populist enthusiasms of the Modi government.\u00a0If the IITs and Tata memorial names are valued brands, spread the brands around!<br \/>And who is to say this is so wrong? Yes the brand is diluted &#8212; but they weren\u2019t doing great teaching or research to start with.<br \/>The policy is very like the National Institutes of Health&#8217;s in the US. The NIH operates 27 Institutes and Centers.\u00a0Many are in Bethesda but not all.\u00a0Spreading the goodies around helps attract political support.\u00a0In Defense procurement as well.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/ &nbsp; I was googling my mother who died in Jan 1999 and thrilled to find this. The article is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ruminations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3414"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3422,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414\/revisions\/3422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}