The winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service for this year is Dr. V. Shantha, executive chairperson of the Cancer Institute (CI) in Adyar, Chennai. The award presented to her by the Magsaysay Foundation on August 3, saluted her “untiring leadership of the Cancer Institute (Women’s Indian Association), a centre of excellence and compassion for the study and treatment of cancer”.

This good news has spread joy and excitement among the CI hospital staff and their dynamic leader Dr. Shantha, for whom the individual and the institution has always been one homogeneous entity. “The award is international acknowledgement of the work the entire team at this institute has been doing all these years. It has given the institute considerable prestige and a much-needed image boost. I hope it will translate into greater support in terms of funds and committed researchers,” says the 78-year-old Shantha, who signed up with Cancer Institute before the first brick was laid at the Adyar centre.

An alumna of Madras Medical College, Shantha graduated in 1949, acquired a diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics in 1952 and completed her Masters in medicine (MD) in 1955. Immediately afterwards, she joined the then fledgling Cancer Institute established in 1955 as an autonomous, charitable comprehensive cancer care centre, as its first resident medical officer. Since then she has laboured relentlessly with Dr. Krishnamurti (son of Cancer Institute founder Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy) to make cancer care affordable and available to everyone irrespective of social standing or economic status.

Simultaneously the institute has grown from a cottage hospital of 12 beds in 1955, to a massive 428-bed hospital inclusive of 297 general beds made available to patients treated free of charge. “There has been phenomenal medical advancement in cancer care and treatment in the past half century and this institute was the first in India to introduce oncology and a multi-disciplinary approach to cancer treatment,” says Shantha who was also responsible for the recognition and practice of medical oncology as a speciality and established a separate medical oncology division at the Cancer Institute in 1970. In 1984, the Dr. Muthulakshmi College of Oncological Sciences which was the first to offer the super speciality course in surgical and medical oncology in India, was established within the institute. Today it trains three students in each speciality. Shantha also helped with the promotion of the first Hospital Tumour Registry and the first pediatric oncology unit in the country in 1960.

Half a century later, Shantha shows no signs of slowing down. To this day this indefatigable oncologist examines patients three days a week; operates on one day and utilises the rest of her time reading, writing, lecturing, doing PR work, fund raising and creating awareness about common cancers. “A cancer patient needs a lot of care and compassion and a committed doctor who empathises with her patients,” says Shantha who has reserved her gentle side for patients while driving herself with complete discipline, honesty and integrity.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Tourism education pioneer

Bangalore-based educationist Dr. Shaji Thomas believes that the Indian economy is poised on the threshold of a massive tourism boom. According to Thomas, in the past year ended March 31, 2005 an estimated 3.5 million foreign tourists visited India and twice the number of Indian tourists travelled abroad for rest and recreation. “This growing inflow and outflow of tourists will require a huge complement of tourism industry professionals,” says Thomas.

That’s why he has backed his forecast with the promotion of the Academy of Business Management Tourism and Research (ABMTR), on a spanking new 16,000 sq. ft compact campus in suburban Bangalore, at a capital cost of Rs.1.15 crore. The fully wired campus is equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure including two computer laboratories (one 20-workstation lab for internet and another 36-workstation hall for data processing and analysis), a library of 8,000 volumes, eight classrooms with electronic boards and projectors, a gymnasium, faculty rooms and an auditorium which can seat 150 people.

“In my decade and a half experience of teaching at the postgraduate level, I noticed that most colleges in the country are affiliated to universities and as such are compelled to follow outdated syllabuses prescribed by the affiliating university. Students who graduate from these colleges find it difficult to land satisfactory jobs. I wanted to break away from this vicious circle and decided to promote ABMTR as an autonomous B-school,” says Thomas, who has earned a slew of degrees in commerce and tourism management including B.Com from Kerala University, M.Com, PGDCA and Ph D from Manipur University and M.Phil and another doctorate in tourism studies from Madurai Kamaraj University.

A former head of the department of tourism at Christ College, Bangalore who has served as senior faculty in several B-schools across the country including Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship and Institute of Technology and Management (both in Bangalore) and Manipur University, Thomas believes that specialised skill sets apart, values such as work ethics and commitment to deadlines need to be incorporated into B-school curriculums.

The first batch of 22 students of this new tourism industry focused B-school which offers a one-year postgraduate diploma in international trade and two-year postgraduate programmes in business and tourism administration, commenced classes on August 16. Industry orientation and soft-skills training are an integral part of the programmes. “We have tied up with leading travel corporates including SOTC, Thomas Cook, Star Cruises etc to send their executives to spend 30-40 hours every trimester teaching our students. This will ensure that students derive the benefit of hands-on industry practices. Simultaneously our full-time faculty will provide the basic knowledge of management theory and practices,” he explains.

Looking to the future, Thomas has drawn up ambitious plans for ABMTR. Top of the agenda for action are exchange agreements with foreign universities, and establishment of a full-fledged campus which will house an integrated sports complex, hostel blocks, laboratories and separate libraries for each department. “We are currently finalising an agreement with Breda University (NHTV), Netherlands for student exchange. Under this agreement every year, five of our students will travel to NHTV and complete one trimester there and vice versa. Our aim is to be ranked among the top five B-schools in the country within the next five years,” says Thomas, who quite obviously doesn’t believe in half-measures.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)

Curriculum designer

The Cambridge (UK)-based Cambridge International Examinations board which offers its highly-respected IGCSE “O” and “A” level school-leaving examinations to over 6,158 schools in 158 countries worldwide and which is making a big comeback in private sector education in India (over 100 schools affiliated since 2004) has unveiled a new thoroughly contemporary curriculum for primary schools (classes I-VI). The Mumbai-based Podar World School will become the first school globally to introduce it in its primary classes beginning this month (September). This new primary curriculum designed by a team of seven educationists based in Cambridge aided by 20 consultants, is being offered only in Argentina and India.

“This is an adaptable and flexible international curriculum which can be accessed by affiliated schools on a secure website. It provides children in the age group six-12 a solid foundational education for the class X and XII school leaving examinations of CIE or any other secondary school board. Its distinguishing characteristics are that it is designed to develop the skills of learning, thinking and problem-solving and it clearly defines measurable learning outcomes. The objectives behind this primary school curriculum were to create thinking children with confidence in their powers of analysis and a willingness to explore new paths of knowledge acquisition,” says Sarah Maughan a psychology graduate of York University with teaching experience in several countries including Yemen, Turkey and Sri Lanka and currently deputy director (international curriculum and development) of CIE.

Another feature of this new primary school curriculum is that it is delivered only over the internet. All resources including schemes of work for every subject offered (English, maths and science), lesson plans, optional tests for teacher improvement etc are accessible via a secure website to affiliated schools which pay an annual subscription of £1,000 (Rs.85,000). “This is a first-of-its-type flagship product of CIE and we are being very selective about the schools to whom we offer it. We are looking for schools which are open to inspection, share our values and have the requisite IT infrastructure to access and utilise this curriculum fully. We are not in a hurry to mass market it,” says Maughan.

Initial response in the two countries- Argentina and India- where it is being test marketed is encouraging and over 60 schools have already subscribed to it. At a time when national and international attention is beginning to focus on high quality elementary schooling as a pre-condition of national development, CIE’s latest initiative which is likely to set new benchmarks in primary education is undoubtedly a welcome development.

Dilip Thakore (Bangalore)

Also read: CAIE’s Indian history

Directorial debutant

In a career spanning three decades in the performing arts, versatile Lillette Dubey has been a theatre actress, television director and Bollywood performer. She has played protagonist in theatrical productions spanning Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, musical comedies and farce to contemporary drama, and has recently turned feature film director.

Her new Hindi language feature film scheduled for release in 2006 is a full-length project based on a play by Mahesh Dattani. “It revolves around three women and their mutually reinforcing relationships. I want to create cinema that educates and has sincerity of purpose. More important to me than commercial success is a movie with a strong message which can change mindsets. This kind of cinema can never fail,” she says.

An alumnus of Delhi’s Lady Shriram College and an active participant in theatre during her college days and later at the National School of Drama (NSD), Dubey has had a long apprenticeship in theatre and cinema.

As producer and artistic director of the Primetime Theatre Company- launched in 1992 to promote original Indian writing- she has directed 20 stage plays, three of which have won Sahitya Kala Parishad awards and been staged around the world. She has also acted in a string of mainstream and parallel cinema films including Gadar, Kal Ho Na Ho, Chalte-Chalte and Mira Nair’s global hit Monsoon Wedding.

Dubey believes that contemporary Indian cinema is experiencing an overdue metamorphosis. “Cinema today is attempting to offer themes and sensibilities to which middle class audiences can relate. Film makers are moving away from formulaic fare and are evolving a fresh vocabulary to explore a whole new canvas of relationships, issues, current affairs and political themes in their films,” she says.

Currently working with a slew of new age filmmakers, Dubey is involved with exciting projects like Bengali filmmaker Bapaditya Roy’s thriller drama Sau Jhoot, Ek Sach; an English film, Bow Barracks Forever, a few untitled Bollywood and international movies such as When Harry Tries To Marry, for which the actress is shooting across America.

Neeta Lal (Delhi)