My thoughts

Sundara Sastri Satyamurti, an Indian independence activist and leading Congress politician of Madras Presidency, was born on 19 August 1887 in Thirumayam (Pudukkottai) in present-day Tamil Nadu. Satyamurti completed his college education from the renowned Madras Christian College and later worked as a lawyer. He was attracted to the national movement from an early age and joined the Indian National Congress. He became known for his great oratory skills. In 1919, he was chosen by the Congress as its representative to Britain to protest the Rowlatt Act and the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms that were unpopular within India. Interestingly, he wrote for The Hindu when he was in London as the newspaper’s correspondent had gone on leave. Committed to constitutional ways, he opposed many Congress leaders’ view that Indians should boycott the colonial legislature. Satyamurti, along with senior Congress leaders like C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru, were Swarajists: they were in

Tuberculosis is one of the India’s major health problems. In spite of the commendable performance of National TB control programme, the incidence of TB has not declined significantly. With the emergence of MDR-TB, a different set of challenges and problems in the public health programme has set in. These challenges are even more daunting in the Northeast India, underlining the need to develop innovative intervention approaches. Due to varied geographical and ethnic diversity of North Eastern Region of India, the genetic makeup, transmission dynamics, virulence and drug resistance patterns of Mycobacterium strains circulating in this region need to be studied in depth so as to find ways to mitigate the TB situation. Therefore, DBT initiated “ MDR-TB in North East India: A Genomic Driven Approach." to address various scientific and societal issues of MDR-TB in NER and devise a long-term plan for disease management . This network programme involves scientists from the State G