Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:58:53 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun@mssrf.res.in> Friends:=0D In the US, there is a growing awareness among scientists, librarians, the g= eneral public and even the Congressmen that all publicly-funded research mu= st be available through open access. The UK, Australia and Europe are not f= ar behind. Ironically, in developing countries where the need for free and = open access to information is much greater, awareness is rather slow in com= ing. Enlightened librarians and other professionals can play a central role= in not only bringing about such awareness but also in making open access a= reality. =0D Open access to knowledge is especially important in the area of medicine an= d even more important in areas such as community health and cost-effective = rural healthcare delivery. The last two days I was listening to some excell= ent talks at the ICICI Knowledge Park sponsored Conference on "Improving Pu= blic Health in India: Need for Innovative Solutions in Healthcare Delivery.= " My friends Abhay and Rani Bang have perfected and IMPLEMENTED a low-cost = method of delivering babies in remote villages and hamlets of Gadchiroli di= strict of Maharashtra with the help of LOCAL WOMEN whom they have trained. = And Mr Amarjit Singh, Commissionar of Health, Government of Gujarat, told u= s about a public-private partnership (between the state government and priv= ate practitioners) that has reduced infant and birth-related mother mortali= ty rates considerably in the first ten months of the programme. Two differe= nt solutions to the same problem. The Bangs' programme is replicated in UP.= The Gujarat programme, which was started as a pilot in five backward distr= icts of the state, is now being expanded to cover the entire state. To be h= onest I have known the Gadchiroli programme for about a year, because Abhay= was featured in Time. Abhay's work was done in India and I live and work i= n India and I am considered a very well-informed person and yet I had to kn= ow his work from Time magazine! I have not heard about the Gujarat governme= nt programme at all till I heard Mr Singh. I am sure that is the case with = most of us including policy makers, bureaucrats, civil societies and doctor= s. =0D There were two talks on diabetes in India. Dr Mohan from Chennai spoke abou= t how his own group of institutions - a money-earning profit-oriented hospi= tal, a research foundation and a charitable arm - is able to deal with poor= patients who cannot afford to get diagnosed in the first place and get tre= ated later on. His team has developed a simple test which includes three or= four questions and a waist measurement to predict diabetes. Dr C S Yajnik = of KEM, Pune, told us that it was adiposity rather than obesity one should = worry about. Although most Indian babies are thinner (and looking weaker) t= han babies born in the UK and Europe, our babies have a much higher body fa= t content. He also told us about the futility of giving high doses of folat= e to pregnant mothers (after a few weeks of the onset of pregnancy); instea= d we should be giving them vitamin B12. Both are excellent research effort= s and more so relevant to India. I am sure both Mohan and Yajnik have publi= shed their work in good international journals and it is more than likely m= any Indian diabetologists and general practitioners do not have access to t= hose journals. =0D Whether it is regular academic/clinical research or it is research aimed at= democratising access to low-cost healthcare delivery, what we need in comm= on is to democratise knowledge - making knowledge reach everyone cocerned. = I am glad that Mr Vaghul and friends who founded the Park called it the ICI= CI KNOWLEDGE Park acknowledging the central role knowledge plays in industr= y, economy, healthcare, agriculture and everything else we do and we need t= o do. =0D Both Vaghul and Dr Nachiket Mor, the chairman of the Steering Committee of = the two-day conference, talked briefly about the reach of the ICICI Bank (a= nd group of companies) in rural India. Thanks to the reach, one could take = the message (and knowledge) to the rural poor. But there is another great c= hallenge. Taking knowledge to the educated elite - the scientists and resea= rchers, policy makers, captains of industry, the professors and professiona= ls, practising doctors. Fortunately, thanks to developments in the area of = Internet and web technologies, that challenge could be met in a cost effect= ive manner. =0D Each research and higher education institution performing research should b= e persuaded to set up what is called an interoperable institutional open ac= cess archive. I will not go into the details now, but will just say that th= e software for setting up such interconnected archive is ABSOLUTELY FREE an= d the expertise is available in India. The Indian Institute of Science, for= example, has its own institutional archive. Every paper Mohan or Yajnik wr= ites cn be deposited in such archives {as full text and metadata} and anyon= e anywhere with an Internet connection can access those papers. Both Amarji= t Singh and Abahy can deposit a writeup on their work for the rest of the w= orld to read. =0D I have made a submission to the National Knowledge Commission and the idea = has been accepted and I hope will be implemented eventually. I suggest that= ICICI Knowledge Park and those who attended the Hyderabad Conference need = not wait till the government accepts the idea and acts on it and move ahaed= and facilitate not only setting up such archives but also other initiative= s to democratise knowledge. =0D Best wishes.=0D Subbiah Arunachalam=0D