Unexpected cold catches Delhiites on wrong foot

NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Agencies): The unexpectedly colder end of January this year is taking its toll on Delhiites.

People with history of bronchitis and asthma have been flocking outpatients' departments of healthcare centres with cold-related problems.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), for instance, has noticed an extra rush of people arriving with deteriorated conditions especially asthma attacks.

"The prolonged, continuous chill Delhi has been experiencing the past week has aggravated the situation of those who had thought the period of winter-related ailments was over," said Dr Randeep Guleria, professor of medicine at AIIMS.

The most common problem was that patients were finding it difficult to acclimatise with cold, which has become intense suddenly in the past week after a brief reprieve.

"People who usually dread the winter because of prevailing medical conditions came to me saying they did not anticipate this chill at the fag end of the season," he said.

Agreed Dr Anil Bansal of Delhi Medical Council.

"Last one week has seen a spurt in various winter-related cases.

Common cold and cough, attacks of bronchitis and aggravating of pre-existing ailments give the impression that it is still the peak of winter," Dr Bansal said.

Another ailment that has resurfaced during the ongoing cold wave is hypothermia.

"People have visited with conditions of decreased body temperatures.

The week before last, the trend in visiting patients indicated that winter was on its way out.

But things changed as the mercury kept falling," he said.

According to Dr Guleri, hypothermia is a major concern as thousands of people in Delhi sleep in the open.

"Timely attention is the key to treating hypothermia," he said.

Is this January colder than usual? The average minimum temperature this January so far has been 6.9 degrees Celsius, lower than the average minimum recorded for January in the past several years.

From 1960 to 2002, the 42-year average minimum temperature of January in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon area is 7.01 degrees Celsius.

Last January, the average chill was as much as 6.9 degrees Celsius.

With three more days to go, will this become the coldest January in past few decades? Kalam to attend first board meeting of Nalanda university PATNA, Jan 30 (Agencies): A plan of action for setting up the ambitious Nalanda International University modelled after the famed ancient seat of Buddhist learning in Bihar is set to be chalked out during the first board meeting in February, an official said Wednesday.

Former president A.P.J.

Abdul Kalam, who was appointed the first Visitor of the proposed Nalanda International University last year, will attend the first board meeting Feb 8.

'The first meeting of the nine-member board, including Kalam, will be held in Patna for preliminary discussions and will chalk out a plan of action for setting up the university in Nalanda,' the official said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had appointed Kalam last year as the first Visitor of the proposed university under the University of Nalanda Act, 2007.

According to the act, the visitor will play a key role in the constitution of the governing body - the supreme body of the university.

The visitor will also have the power to inspect the varsity and appoint one or more people to review its work and progress.

The chairman of the nine-member board, Y.S.

Rajan, former advisor to the president of India, will also attend the first meeting.

'The board headed by Rajan was set up by the state government with approved budget of Rs.10 million to prepare a roadmap for the university and will function till its formal establishment,' a senior official of the state human resource development department told IANS.

Rajan played a major role in preparing the draft of the University of Nalanda Act, 2007 that was passed by the state legislative assembly last year, the official said.

According to official sources, the first board meeting of the proposed university was fixed keeping in view the two-day Bihar visit of Kalam, who would deliver the inaugural 'Arya Bhatt Popular Science Lecture' here Feb 8.

The state science and technology department will organise the lecture.

It will be Kalam's maiden visit to Bihar after leaving the country's highest office last year.

The idea of the university was first mooted in the late 1990s, but it was Kalam's initiative in 2006 that gave shape to the project at the ancient seat of Buddhist learning.

'Kalam along with Rajan will also visit the site of proposed university in Nalanda,' the source told IANS.

The dream to revive Nalanda University moved a step closer to reality with the mentor group headed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen meeting twice in the last six months.

The Nalanda Mentor Group, constituted by the External Affairs Ministry at the request of the government of Bihar last year, is aimed at spurring the revival of Nalanda as a centre of intellectual excellence.

Besides Sen, the group comprises Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo, Harvard historian Sugata Bose, academician and writer Lord Meghnad Desai and scholars and experts from Japan and China.

The university, to be located in Bihar, will have 46 faculty members hired from abroad initially and their number will increase to 582 by the end of the 10-year project.

The Bihar government has sanctioned Rs.10 million for setting up a board and establishment of an office in New Delhi, which will carry out the liaison work of the proposed university.

The university will be built at a cost of Rs.6.3 billion and the Bihar government has already completed acquisition of land (448.0957 acres) required for the campus.

Students and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey, besides India, attended the original Nalanda University, which existed until 1197 AD.