IFC to invest $67.2 m in Max Healthcare

IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, will invest $67.2 million in Max Healthcare Institute, one of the fastest-growing health care providers in India over a period of next four years. IFC's investment will help Max Healthcare Institute, a subsidiary of Max India to expand its operations. It will also enable enhanced access to high-quality health care to a larger number of people. IFC's investment in Max Healthcare Institute will include about $11.2 million of common equity and about $56 million of preferred, cumulative, and redeemable equity.

Analjit Singh, chairman, Max India Ltd, said, "This partnership recognizes our efforts to establish benchmarks of medical excellence and outstanding quality of service. IFC's investment will help us realize our vision of emerging as one of India's leading health care providers."

FCG acquires Zorch

First Consulting Group, the parent company of FCG Software Services India, has announced the acquisition of Zorch, a Salt Lake City, Utah based company that has built a proprietary enterprise software solution to provide regulated content management and collaboration for the life sciences industry. The products and solutions by Zorch are built entirely on the Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server platform, and are designed to allow life sciences organizations to leverage their existing Microsoft platform investments while capitalizing on FCG's product innovations and industry-leading best-practices. The new offering acquired by FCG will be named FirstPoint.

Vadeesh Budramane, vice president, technology and COO, FCG India, commented, "This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to life science market. It also strengthens our leadership position in the technology space".

FCG India receives ISO 27001 certification

FCG Software Services India has been awarded ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification for all its operations. This internationally recognized information security certification recognizes FCG India for providing adequate security controls to protect global information assets.

"ISO 27001 certification is one of the most comprehensive, internationally accepted information security management certifications," said Vadeesh Budramane. Over the last eight years FCG India has created a niche position in IT and ITES-related activity for healthcare (health plan, health delivery, life sciences) and independent software vendors (ISVs).

Over 25,000 children vaccinated against pneumococcal disease

Over 25,000 children have been vaccinated against invasive pneumococcal disease in India.

Invasive pneumococcal disease is caused by a common bacterium, the pneumococcus, which can attack different parts of the body. In the lungs, it causes bacterial pneumonia while in the blood it causes bacteremia and in the brain it causes meningitis.

In the past, India had no vaccine against invasive pneumococcal disease for children. The bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of pneumonia. Pneumonia kills more children than any other illness, accounting for 19 percent of all under-five deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). India tops the list of 15 countries that account for three-quarters of childhood pneumonia cases worldwide.

"Reducing the burden of pneumococcal disease is a vital step toward achieving the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds by 2015," said Ranga Iyer, MD of Wyeth Ltd. "Broad adoption of the WHO position has the potential to save millions of children's lives around the world. Wyeth is dedicated to doing its part to create an awareness of pneumococcal disease and the need to protect children below two years of age, as they are most vulnerable."

New low-cost technology counters widespread Aflatoxin

African farmers and agriculture enterprises now have a fast and inexpensive way to detect and manage a costly, naturally occurring and potentially deadly poison (aflatoxin) that infects their crops via a common fungus that makes them unfit for consumption or export.

Scientists at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), have devised a fast, simple and affordable test kit for detecting the poison, which is known as aflatoxin.

The new detection kit developed by ICRISAT has changed the situation by cutting the cost of testing crops from $25 to $1 per sample. It's available as a small, simple kit that can be used even for most remote rural farms to monitor grains and nuts and improve storage techniques to avoid serious contaminations. The end result is safer products for consumers and higher returns for African farmers.

"We have put another strong weapon in the hands of poor farmers to fight a problem that was making it particularly hard for African agricultural products to get fair treatment in international markets," said Dr William Dar, director general of ICRISAT.