Ruchira Karnik talks about Work Better and how it works better

Ruchira Karnik helped in establishing Work Better as one of the leading  companies in the Executive training space. She has been instrumental in bringing the firm where it stands now. Back in 2008, Ruchira  and her husband Swapnil Kamat establised Work Better, after having been on the receiving side of several boring, theoretical and irrelevant training programmes in their respective corporate jobs. Before taking the entrepreneurial plunge, Ruchira worked as the Advertising Manager for Ogaan Publications.

A perfectionist by nature, Ruchira has bird’s eye on little big things necessary to run the business. She also loves travelling with her husband and is an ardent Cricket fan. She is currently the Head of Business Development at Work Better. She graduated from Goa university with an honours in Bio – Technology in 2002. Prior to Work Better, she founded a Travel Portal called Trip2Goa.com and built it to a sizeable scale before exiting the venture.
Achievements

Ruchira has developed a highly prestigious list of clientele with some of the biggest corporates counting Work Better as long term partners in training. She has been instrumental  in driving innovative practical training solutions which  has helped give Work Better a definitive edge over its competitors.

Lasting relationship
Ruchira has managed to build strong relationships with clients and partners associated with Work Better with her unbeatable focus and dedication and she has  even built an extremely competent team at Work Better Training as well a solid pool of trainers PAN India. Ruchira has set up strong  internal processes leading Work Better of reputation of one one of the most reliable organisations with flawless execution skills. She has been featured on the Economic Times, the Times of India and various other national media as a  successful entrepreneur and businesswoman.
Perfectionist
Ruchira is a perfectionist by nature and has eye on little big things necessary to run the business. She also loves travelling with her husband and is an ardent Cricket fan, especially of Sachin Tendulkar.

In an informal chat, Ruchira speaks to Jayashankar Menon more about Work Better and how it works better. Excerpts:

JM: Can you talk about Work Better and how it works better?
RK: Work Better Training is one of India’s fastest growing Executive Education and Training firm. We provide customised training solutions in the soft skills, behaviour and management domain. Since it’s inception half a decade ago, we have  partnered with some of the biggest organisations on our people development initiatives and trained in excess of 75,000 executives across the country.

JM: What made to start Work Better?
RK: The question that If learning is such an integral part of a professional’s development and an organisation’s progress, why can’t it be done better? led us to do our research, our study and launch Work Better Training. We started Work Better to fundamentally change the way executive training was delivered in India and help professionals Work Better.

JM: How do you define Work Better programme?
RK: Practical, Real and Implementable are the three words that define a Work Better programme. We have created a huge impact through our holistic approach to training which involved doing extensive groundwork, creating customised content, conducting training on Adult Learning principles and engaging participants through post programme tools.
What is more, a dedicated content team invests time and effort in researching, creating various techniques and analysing what module will work best in which format. Besides that, we also provide some of the world’s best tools to engage and involve participants up to six months after the classroom workshop through our various initiatives like online and mobile learning.

JM: What is the kind of growth you predict?
RK: With a solid client base, a full time team of ten people and an empaneled network of over 50 trainers across the country, Work Better is poised to grow by 40 percent year on year in terms of revenue in this financial year.

JM: What verticals Work Better had specialised?
RK: Work Better specialises in six verticals such as leadership development programmes, customer service excellence, business communication and presentation skills, sales and negotiation skills training, personal effectiveness training and innovation. Learning

JM: Can you reveal few major clients?
RK: Essar, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, IDBI Bank, National Stock Exchange, ING Life Insurance, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, Ingram Micro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Schneider Electric, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Trident Hotels and more.

Omron Automation India to focus on Automotive, F&B, FMCG and Textile segments in 2014

Reiterating its contribution towards India’s manufacturing prowess and the society, Omron Automation India, part of Omron Group of Japan –  a global leader in automation technology announced that it would focus on Automotive, F&B, FMCG, Pharma and Textile sectors this year, according to a company statement.

With new alignments and an aggressive `total solutions` approach,  OMRON will focus on its robotic, vision systems and a wide spectrum of its advanced technology based product portfolio to cater to the advanced requirements of the manufacturing segment like productivity, quality, efficiency and safety.

Sameer Gandhi, Managing Director, OMRON Automation, said: “OMRON is well-known for its quality products and application strength in the industrial automation segment globally. In India, as an automation partner, we understand the challenges of the manufacturing sector. We provide a complete range of offerings based on our ‘sensing and control’ technologies that are apt to assist by bringing in substantial improvements in operations. The manufacturing sector in the country is on its way to witness a boost in investments driven by the rise in consumerism and promising growth in the exports sector”.
The company has been working with clients in a broad range of manufacturing with world-class products, integrated solutions and innovative technologies.  Headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, OMRON Corporation is a multi-billion-dollar, diversified company.  Established in 1933 and headed by President Yoshihito Yamada, OMRON has more than 30,000 employees in over 35 countries working to provide products and services to customers in a variety of fields including industrial automation, electronic components, social systems, healthcare, and the environment. The company has regional head offices in Singapore (Asia Pacific), Beijing (Greater China), Amsterdam (Europe, Africa, and the Middle East), Chicago (North America), Gurgaon (India), and Sao Paulo (Latin America).
Omron Industrial Automation is a global leader providing complete automation solutions for industrial applications. Incepted in 1993, OMRON AUTOMATION INDIA caters to over eight industrial segment namely packaging, automotive, material handling, solar, food and beverages, textile and panel handling applications. The product portfolio includes Industrial components, Automation Systems, Sensing and Safety, Motion and Drivers and Software.

Centering on the themes of quality, safety and the environment, it supports manufacturing innovation worldwide with unique sensing and controlling technologies. Of late, Omron has been concentrating on the solution business which solves management problems on diverse production sites.

It is rapidly expanding its operations with focus on major cities namely Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai. It is also making its presence felt across the other parts of India by appointing resident engineers to address the ever challenging requirements of the clients. A major factor in Omron’s progress in the domestic as well has overseas markets has been the strong commitment towards its customers keeping ‘Quality First’.

Pharma Pro & Pack Expo 2014 to be held at Mumbai Exhibition Centre from April 24-26

The second edition of Pharma Pro & Pack Expo 2014, organised by IPMMA will be held at Mumbai Exhibition Centre, Mumbai from April 24-26. This event is supported by 14 national and international associations.

Since the first edition of Pharma Pro & Pack Expo 2013 received a humungous response. Having said that, the expectation of the whole pharmaceuitcal industry is pretty high on this second edition. In excess of 78 percent of the total space has been booked by all major domestic players. An estimated 480 pharma firms from 18 countries are taking part at the Pharma Pro & Pack Expo 2014 and iPHEX 2014. One of the unique features of Pharma Pro & Pack Expo 2014 is that there are more than 20,000 potential buyers including 1,400 buyers for 105 countries will make their presence in both the exhibitions.
PHARMA Pro & Pack Expo 2014 offers an excellent opportunity to expand the businesses in India and international pharma industry. In the machineries and equipment segment, pharma processing companies, packaging firms and lab equipment manufacturers will take part in the trade fair. In the materials segment, packaging materials and conumable firms, besides lab glasswares and consumable firms are attending the expo. In the pharma chemicals segment, API players, Bulk Actives manufacturers and Excipients players apart from Lab Reagents and Chemical firms are also taking part in this exhibition. In the project management, utilities, consultants, turn key contractors and envrironment control products and services firms are attending the show.

In the pharma manufacturing services segment, contract manufacturers, CRO and Research Institutes, testing labs and services firms are taking part. As far as the trade promotion activities are concerned, various trade associations, trade promotion councils and trade publications are also participating.
Established in 1997, GPE Expo Pvt Ltd (GPEEPL) has attained an international recognition worldwide including, India, Malaysia, Syria, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Nepal, and have become specialized in providing event planning and consultation services, event marketing & management for country specific international Exhibitions, along with for corporations, associations and individual organizations of exclusively pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors for more than 14 years. GPEEPL is one of the IPMMA Member Companies since the formation of the Association. The core strength is in the logistical details of organizing and executing large events involving multiple players, while integrating diverse services. Based on the experience in the industry, GPEEPL has established an expertise, which enables to produce a top rated event in all areas and timely execution.

GPEEPL, the Show Organisers of the most reputed pharma events internationally. GPEEPL enjoys the credits of highly successful organization (marketing, management, and execution) of several country specific international exhibitions for pharmaceutical industry to emphasise the significance of the local pharma industry on the global platform:

Asia Pharma Expo (Malaysia & Bangladesh)
Nigeria Pharma Manufacturers Expo (Nigeria)
Pak Pharma Expo (Pakistan)
Nepal Pharma Expo (Nepal)
Global Pharma Expo (India)

GPEEPL is having co-ordeal relationship with various national trade associations of pharma industry inculding, like, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Malaysia and Nepal. Besides servicing medical and healthcare segment, GPEEPL has been associated with Medical and Healthacre segments, including Association of Surgeons of India, Society of Gastroenterology (India), Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India, Association of Colon and Rectum Surgeons of India, Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India, Indian Society of Knee and Hip Surgeons, Association of Physicians of India, Urologist Society of India and more. For futher information, visit pharmapropack.com/index.aspx.

Dr Mukesh Batra to address Pharmaleaders 2013 Summit on Challenges of Globalisation of Homeopathic Medicines

According to World health Organisation, Homeopathy is the fastest-growing and second-most widely-used system of medicine in the world and no wonder the man in action at the 6th Annual Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit & Business Leadership Awards 2013 (pharmaleaders2013.com ), organised by Network 7 Media Group’s media outfit Pharmaleaders (pharmaleaders.tv ) is Asia’s most respected expert in alternative health, homoeopathy, is Dr Mukesh Batra.

According to a PRNewswire statement, Dr Batra will address the Pharmaleaders 2013 summit on Challenges of Globalisation of Homeopathic Medicines. Dr Batra is the Chairman of Dr Batra’s positive health clinic, which is fast spreading its wings in global map. Established in 1982 by Dr Batra, the Clinic has come a long way today with 126 clinics spread across 64 cities in India, Dubai, UAE and the UK. What is more, the health clinic also provides state-of-the-art services to more than half a million people from all over the world, with the numbers growing steadily.

To the credit of india and in an era of difficult times where the Indian pharmaceutical industry is facing an uphill task in the allopathic medicine, Dr Batra’s efforts are commendable but the real test lies in taking the brand to the global map specially to the developed market where regulators and price will be a major challenge, the statement points out.
Dr Batra told Satya Brahma, Editor-In-Chief of Pharmaleaders, Dr Batra summed up briefly the major points of his key-note Address that of building India as a worldwide base of creating an ideal destination in Homeopathic Research.
Second largest system of medicine
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed Homeopathy as the second largest system of medicine. According to US-based The National Centre for Homeopathy, by 2017 the Homeopathy market will be equivalent to the alternative healthcare market, which is Rs 52,000 crore currently.
Challenges
“My first predicament when I started my practice back in 1974 was how could I make money out of other peoples sufferings. A doctor was then seen as a healer, a family physician, a friend – even a match maker. This was more so in case of homeopathy. When the missionary bought homeopathy to India they set up many free clinics. These mushroomed over the years and together with a large number of amateur practitioners led to the belief that homeopathy was good for free. If you had to pay for it, you better consult a specialist”, Dr Batra concurred.
“The number one challenge for us as a start-up was to legitimise homeopathy as a paid professional service. It has been said that, ‘The science of medicine is the art of healing’. It was thought that homeopathy was more an art than science – A hit and miss method that works for some, and doesn’t work for others.Second challenge was to correctly position homeopathy as a modern medical tool and to increase its acceptance. It was also believed that homeopathy works only with experience. It was a perception that you have to have white hairs to prescribe white pills.Third challenge was to change the fuddy duddy perception of homeopathy into a modern therapy practiced by young progressive doctors. Medicine gets easily outdated as new technology and even newer diseases make old knowledge irrelevant. During my time there was no swine flu, bird flu, aids, not even chickengunya. The next challenge came from the personalised and individualistic nature of homeopathy treatment. This imposes a growth limit since there are only so many patients that one doctor can handle. Thus, the fourth challenge was to professionalise the service and create a scalable replicable business that could work independently of me and reach economies of scale”.
Homeopathic entrepreneurship
On organisational matrix, Dr Batra said: “I wanted to build an institution and institutionalise my practice of homeopathy so that my medical experience does not die with me, as people die but institutions outlive, evolve and grow. This proved a huge challenge and has taken me more than ten years to build a strong organisation that can not only continue the present entrepreneurship model in an auto mode but also be able to drive growth”.

First mover disadvantage
“Marketing gurus speak of a first mover advantage. But it can also be a disadvantage when there is no path to follow and you have to create your own path. The cost of experimentation is sometimes high and we learnt the ropes the hard way. It can be an expensive learning curve for the pioneer. Secondly, while we grow the market at our cost others copy and just move in”, he pointed out.
Advertising
“How much is too much: In an industry where word of mouth is the prime reason for decision-making by the consumer – advertising is not often well received. We sometimes hear people say, they advertise so much, they must be making a lot of money, or if they can spend so much they must be very expensive”, he said.
Loosing trained doctors
Gone are the days when people would start and end their careers in one company. Undoubtedly, today, for any HR in the healthcare industry, retaining medical professionals is the major challenge. At Dr Batra’s the attrition rate of doctors is just 2 per cent. What keeps them back are great salaries backed by performance incentives, good working conditions, and 500 hours of CME every year and a watertight contract.
Rentals in retail
All the retailers would agree that with property prices soaring at an unbelievable rate, it hampers our rent-to-revenue ratio, thereby making business un-viable. The scalability challenges: How did we overcome it?  Achieve standardisation throughout Infrastructure, Services, Medicines, and Treatment Treatment at Dr Batra’s is standardised through standardised training as well as processes which all doctors follow. The medical audit department also does a regular review of treatments. Medicines are centrally purchased through approved vendors as per international standards and dispatched to every clinic; no clinic is allowed to buy local medicines. Layouts, designs are as per written manual including the right colour of red and blue of our brand and GSM of stationary used across the organisation. “We believe that we are part of a knowledge industry and we have to regularly update our knowledge. To achieve this we introduced intensive and continual medical training for doctors and measure their KPA’s and KRA’s for after training efficiency.We remained patient centric and tracked and recorded customer satisfaction and responded to it. We measure customer advocacy through repeat business and references. A recent Nielsen study showed that as much as 2/3 of our patients would recommend Dr Batra’s very strongly. Also, 90 per cent of Dr Batra’s hair patients won’t change to any other brand of treatment. Another study revealed that 73 percent of the patients taking allopathy and homeopathy treatment say that Dr. Batra’s is the best solution in homeopathy”, Dr Batra said..
Print & Electronic Media
Dr Batra’s does consistent media campaigns through various channels to ensure maximum brand visibility and growth. About PR, he said: “We have successfully built our brand and increased credibility by utilising varied PR channels for our annual events, launch of new clinics, products, technology, success stories etc. Dr Batras is today the most trusted brand in homeopathy in India according to Brand Trust Report 2012”.
Market research
The company from time to time to get a better insight into the consumers mind has carried out both qualitative and quantitative research studies. This shapes the internal communication to our patients at the clinics and is also reflected in our advertising. In fact the Clinic pioneered the use of Internet to treat patients online. “We introduced the brick and click method for the first in homeopathy. We have treated 4.5 lakh patients in 2005 through the Internet from 86 countries that got us a mention in the Limca book of records for treating the highest number of patients on line”, Dr Batra said.
Transparency
“It was Mark Twain who said: ‘Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest’. No prescriptions are coded but are transparently put through our computers to doctors and patients alike. Similarly all payments are through cheques. There are no under the table remuneration for any employee in the company. We have also refused properties which had a cash component. We, in fact followed the best business practices and became the first homeopathic clinic in the world to earn ISO 9001. Furthermore, we are now into TQM, Six Sigma and balanced scorecard. We have recently developed our own ERP programme to help us run our business better”, Dr Batra continued.
Innovations
Dr. Batras’ is the first homeopathic institute in India to introduce blister packing of the traditional white pills to retain the medicinal properties in the purest form till it is consumed. “We introduced m-health to enable patients to get treatment through their mobile. We were the first to pioneer Tele-Homeopathy Clinic in homeopathy to facilitate doctor-patient interaction through video-conferencing for consultation or a second opinion across various geographies”.
Standardisation of treatment
“Our cutting edge ERP system stores patients’ medical histories and treatment details online, enabling standardisation of treatment. Third-party mystery customers visit the clinics and audit every person involved with the company to help keep track of their performance as well as to maintain the value of the brand. Dr Batra’s is the first to maintain online records of patients’ case histories and seamlessly integrate network access to patients’ databases for research and evaluation studies across its clinics. The Clinic has in place well-defined disease protocols for measuring medical outcomes through scientific parametres. There is also a system where cases are escalated for a second opinion with an expert medical committee”, he said.
International alliance
Establishing international partnership is one of the major challenges in expanding business internationally. For example, most countries have 51/49 percent share holding norm for partnership with local partners holding maximum share in any venture. However, understanding the critical challenges in this, we refused to do business in this kind of share holding pattern till date. Dr Batra’s today has 100 per cent ownership in all its international ventures, Dr Batra said.
Distance & Time zones
Managing clinics miles away is a hurdle. Also, different time zones creates difficulty in smooth functioning. Crisis management becomes extremely difficult in international ventures, as it becomes difficult to commute and take on the spot decisions when business demands. Different countries have vivid laws and regulations. In Dubai for example, there are separate regulations for foreign partners in Dubai and Dubai Healthcare City. Thus, it is mandatory to take approvals from both the regulatory authorities, which can be a time consuming and difficult process. For instance, it took us 14 months to get license to practice in Jumeirah, he stated.
CSR Initiatives
“As doctors, we see so much of pain suffering and death that we become insensitive. I walked and complained that I had no shoes till I came across a man who had no feet. To keep our sensitivity alive we work with the under privileged, the old age homes, orphanages and animal shelters. We have a one percent formula for our foundation, one percent of salary, vendor billing and profits of the company. Rs 2 for every paid patient is donated to an animal shelter every month. It motivates us to create wealth so that we can share it. We have initiated the positive health awards for people who have fought impossible medical odds to recover”, Dr Batra said and added: “Conclusively, with the phenomenal growth that homeopathy is currently enjoying all over the world, we believe we have just touched the tip of the iceberg. Management buffs often ask me about our five-year business plan and the future of our company. I believe that in a dynamic fast changing world the only constant is change. We have to adapt to change according to ground realities and have to be flexible and responsive to market conditions. Therefore while on paper we do have a business plan in practice we change it every day”.
Pharmaleaders believe that while the industry today is at the loggerheads with the Government and various statutory authorities including the regulators such as the Drug Administration, Market watchdog SEBI and host of other organisations, there is a lack of meaningful dialogue and interaction between the Industry and the Government leading to the bigger uncertainty of the overseas players coming to India with the basket of products and investments in the absence of a weak law and virtual policy paralysis.
Pricing
The issue of Pricing is the biggest factor leading to the discontentment of the Pharma Companies. The unavailability of medicines seen across the country is the major challenge as well the declining research and drug discovery, Clinical trials are seen as major deterrents”. The Pharmaleaders platform therefore attempts to build these crucial gap of trust deficit and infuse the sense of confidence of the country’s drug makers, policy makers and the government.
Pharmaleaders is an independent Media that aims to ventilate the views of the common man through its magazine and digital version. Pharmaleaders is India’s first opinion based and research driven Healthcare Communication media and has a decade of relentless reporting in Pharma Journalism in an unbiased, fearless and independent way. Over the last one decade, Pharmaleaders has covered some of the biggest voices in healthcare Industry.

Indegene® and DrugLogic® to offer Full Lifecycle Drug Monitoring (FLDM)

Indegene and DrugLogic (druglogic.com) announced a joint offering for pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organisations that would combine the extensive medical expertise of Indegene with the sophisticated Big-Data analysis capabilities of DrugLogic’s Qscan®. According to a statement released by Indegene, the knowledge and expertise-based offering combines sophisticated evidence-based statistical results, with experience-based physician monitoring, to help decipher a drug’s clinical behavior and detect signals related to its safety and interactions with other factors.

Today, Clinical Development, Regulatory and Safety divisions within pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies face rapidly increasing expectations and many new challenges to detect and characterize the evolving safety profile of their products. This expanding challenge is driven by the rapidly expanding volume of data (“big-data”) as well as the increasing complexity of medication regimens.  Never has the need for integrated and insightful expert analysis and interpretation been greater.  Traditionally, consultants to drug companies have largely relied on either medical teams to assess drug risk, or statisticians with data and tools to augment in-house teams. “Drug monitoring requires the integration of medical review coupled with sophisticated signaling and analytic systems,” said Dr. Sheila Weiss, Chief Science Officer of DrugLogic. “By joining together we can rapidly deploy expert teams with immediate access to data and the analytic capabilities that drug safety requires.”
The joint solution draws synergistically upon the expertise and experience of Indegene’s team of 400+ in-house physicians and the 14+ years of application legacy of Drug Logic’s Qscan. The Indegene-DrugLogic team will offer the best of both approaches during drug discovery, through clinical trials, and post-launch. The team will provide speedy and efficient pharmacovigilance based on many years of experience, and models to address challenging questions. The solution will use the analytical capabilities of DrugLogic’s Qscan—an application that has been used with over 12 different databases and billions of records—and extensive knowledge and expertise of Indegene’s TrialPedia™ platform—the most comprehensive clinical trial analytics platform with over 200,000 trials across 200+ clinical indications. The team will adapt the best data from adverse events, claims, medical records and prescription monitoring programs that are both publically and privately available. “By putting massive amounts of data and insightful statistics in the hands of clinical experts, we will quickly, accurately, and efficiently shorten the time to understand and react to a drug’s behavior and safety profile,” said Dr. Rajesh Nair, President – Indegene.

DrugLogic’s Qscan is a platform that has been applied to several different types of databases. These include the FAERS, VAERS, and WHO databases. It has also been applied to larger medical record and claims databases, such as Medicare, Medicaid, private, and de-identified medical data. Victor Gogolak, DrugLogic’s founder and President, stated, “with not just a few, but a deep bench of hundreds of trained physicians, the power of analytics can be used with speed and confidence. Without the interpretive experience, statistics can be bewildering, or even misleading. With just one database, there is danger of systematic biases that can be mitigated by viewing drug behavior from multiple angles.”
“Indegene’s collaboration with DrugLogic is testament to our philosophy of continually combining scientific expertise with innovative technology to solve pressing challenges in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. We believe our existing and future clients will benefit tremendously from this approach.”, Dr. Nair summarized. Indegene is a leading provider of Clinical, Commercial and Marketing solutions to global pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations. We partner with clients to drive both productivity and revenues by delivering better patient outcomes; optimizing cost; enhancing R&D agility and improving sales and marketing effectiveness. We apply deep scientific knowledge, flexible delivery models, proprietary technology, and a client-centric approach to drive transformational initiatives.
With offices in US, UK, China, India, and Australia, Indegene can partner globally with clients, leverage a global talent pool of clinicians, technologists, creative specialists, domain experts, business process specialists, deploy global infrastructure assets, and harness global healthcare knowledge to solve client challenges. DrugLogic®, Inc. specializes in developing analytical tools and enterprise process support systems for managing risks related to drug safety issues.  DrugLogic designs, develops and delivers products that provide the latest innovations and state-of-the art solutions in support of patient and drug safety surveillance practices for Health Care and Pharmaceutical enterprises. Its proprietary Qscan® product monitors both patient, adverse event, claims, outcomes and publicly available data sources. For more information, visit druglogic.com.

Ace FinePack provides a niche in the packaging & Coding solutions in India

ACE FinePack, the Ernakulam-based company involved in the business of packaging and coding machines has created a niche in the industrial packaging and coding machine industry in India.

Product blitz
The company has machines like strapping machine, fully automatic carton sealing machine, shrink wrapper, carton wrapper, band sealing machinges, bag closer, stretch wrapping machine, induction sealing machines, inducation capper, Sauven inkjet coding machines, solid ink coding machines, Citronix inkjet printing sytem from the US and more.
Ace FinePack, the Ernakulam-based company, which has regional headquarters in Chennai is involved in the business of industrial packaging and coding solution provider has created a niche in the Indian packaging horizon since it inception back in 1988. The genesis of this ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company can be traced back to 1988, ever since its inception in Ernakulam, Kerala.
The firm has transformed packaging into an art in itself. Using innovative and latest technologies, adequately backed by a dedicated and self motivated professional sales and service team, with a sense of commitment towards their clients. Ace Finepack has emerged as top notch player in the packaging and coding solution player the country. The company boasts off having a slew of industrial Packaging and Coding and Marking Equipment, Inks,  Packaging materials and machines, Inkjet coding machines and more.
Suresh Kumar, Head (South India Operations), Ace FinePack said: “We import the end of the line continuous inkjet coding systems from the overseas destinations including the US, the UK and Far East. We have not only created a niche in the domestic arena, but also have established our major presence in all the BRIC nations”.
Speaking about the southern Indian market, Kumar pointed out: “We are witnessing an exponential growth in segments in the manufacturing sector including automobile, FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, Marine Development, Logistics and other related industries. In fact, we have logged 20-25 percent year on year growth”. For further information, you might as well send a mail to kumar@finepackindia.com or reach him on +91 9600055136. You may also visit the website: finepackindia.com.

RSSDI undertaking first Indian study to find indigenous ways to prevent the burgeoning diabetes situation in India

With more than 63 million diabetic patients, India is second only to China in the number of people living with the ailment. With a racial predisposition to diabetes and rapidly changing lifestyles, India is certainly on course to become the diabetes capital of the world. What is more worrying is that we have 77 millions prediabetic, one third of whom may get converted to diabetes if preventive strategies are not implemented. However, the concept of preventive measures has still not taken root in the Indian society, according to a press note issued by RSSDI.

The Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) is India’s premiere organization in diabetes research whose objective is to promote indigenous research in the country that will enable the medical fraternity devise solutions more indigenous to the country.
RSSDI today announced their National Annual Conference for 2013, scheduled to be held from November 8-10, 2013. The conference will see a gathering of top experts from across the country and will unfold new findings and studies in the field of diabetes based on researches.
As part of its efforts to augment research and advocacy, RSSDI is undertaking a major country-wide research project to find indigenous ways to cut the risks of diabetes and prevent the growing population of prediabetics from acquiring type 2 diabetes.
The Indian Prevention of Diabetes Study (IPDS) being conducted across five centers in India – Bangalore, Mumbai, Pudducherry, Hyderabad and being coordinated from Delhi (the nodal centre) by Dr Madhu – would analyze the long term impact of administration of fenugreek powder and adoption of a fixed yoga module in preventing diabetes. The study being conducted on 1500 subjects over three years is aimed at finding the benefits of yoga in preventing prediabetics from advancing to a higher stage of diabetes.

“This study has been undertaken after a pilot study found encouraging correlation between yoga and reduced risk of developing diabetes in high risk people. This is the first of its kind study to find indigenous ways to prevent diabetes,” said Dr Prof SV Madhu, Organising Chairman, RSSDI, at the press conference today.

Prof V Madhu, who is also Head, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University College of Medical Science, Delhi also informed that an ICMR funded study conducted at his centre had provided evidence and support for a significant role of stress in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The comprehensive study on the development and prevention of type 2 diabetes conducted at the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi concluded that people with more stressful life events would be at higher risk of developing diabetes mellitus.
Given its heredity run, diabetes can “run in families”. Researchers believe that certain genes affecting immune response can play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes, while genes affecting insulin function can contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, Indians as a race are believed to have a greater insulin resistance and hence a predisposition towards type 2 diabetes, emphasized Dr Rajeev Chawla, Organizing Secretary, RSSDI.
The three-day conference to be held in November will be the 41st annual conference of RSSDI which invites latest research in the field of diabetes from across the country. RSSDI will also conduct a Diabetes Walk coinciding with the conference to spread awareness about the ailment.
Apart from Prof. Madhu and Dr Chawla, Dr BM Makkar, Honorary Treasurer, RSSDI also addressed the press conference and shared his latest findings in the field.

In a study of more than 600 patients conducted at the Diabetes & Obesity Centre, it was found that almost 85 per cent of the type 2 diabetics were overweight. However, only 6-10 per cent of the obese people were aware that they were overweight and that it was a medical condition that put them in a higher risk bracket for diabetes.

“Our survey found that despite obesity being a major driver to type 2 diabetes, the level of awareness among overweight people was dangerously abysmal. Only 6-10 pc knew that they were overweight while almost 90 pc did not even admit they had a problem with weight,” said Dr Makkar, talking about the study conducted at the Diabetes & Obesity Centre, which he heads.

“Even if your parents and forefathers have had diabetes there are preventive measures that could still help you have a diabetes-free life and have future generations with a lower risk of getting diagnosed with diabetes. It is time that we do not make-believe that we are a race pre-disposed to diabetes and nothing much can be done. With RSSDI’s constant efforts, interventions, researches and findings, all of us should believe in possibilities to win over diabetes,” he added.

While we all that we are sitting on a diabetes time bomb. But, within this there are several issues that are not much talked about, for example, the fact that lakhs of women acquire diabetes during pregnancy, that urbanization is a factor in the growing incidence of diabetes and that there are a series of myths still associated with diabetes in India.

“To address these issues of concern, it is crucial to promote more and more local research in the country and analyze our findings in the local context, rather than depending on western studies. Our annual conference is a major step in that direction and through our platform many credible findings have emerged over the years,” added Dr Madhu, Head, Department of Endocrinology & Medicine, University College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital, Delhi.

RSSDI is the largest organization of diabetes health care professionals and researchers in Asia. Currently, it has more than 5500 life members from across the country representing 29 Indian States and Union Territories.

RSSDI funds research proposals from Indian scientists, interested in conducting research in the field of Diabetes Mellitus. Furthermore, limited grants are also available for the students of medical colleges for smaller projects

Every year, RSSDI organises a national conference which not only provides a platform for its members to listen to the leaders in the field of diabetes from within the country as well as from abroad but also to interact among themselves, exchange knowledge and ideas. Annual conferences of RSSDI have been regular feature for last 40 years and are very well attended.

Recent Studies:

–A study conducted under Prof S V Madhu, Head, Endocrinology & Metabolism, University College of Medical Science, Delhi provided evidence and support for a significant role of stress in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Newly detected diabetes subjects were found to display higher chronic environmental stress and poor stress coping that could have lead to central adiposity, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance, an observation of 1500 subjects concluded. It also found that Yoga, when adopted on a long term was found significantly efficacious in improving the medical profiles of type 2 diabetes patients.

— Another study conducted under Dr Madhu found on 400 women in Delhi found that women experience significant psychological and practical conflicts living with diabetes in India where traditional gender roles define women’s service to others, and as a result had poor glucose control generally. It also found a high percentage of women with diabetes had depression as well as anxiety disorder as serious comorbity.

— In a study of more than 600 patients conducted at the Diabetes & Obesity Centre under Dr B M Makkar, it was found that almost 85 per cent of the type 2 diabetics were overweight. However, only 6-10 per cent of the obese people were aware that they were overweight and that it was a medical condition that put them in a higher risk bracket for diabetes. Despite the visible correlation between obesity and diabetes, the lack of awareness among people that being overweight puts them in a higher risk bracket is glaring and disturbing.

–A study conducted by Dr Rajeev Chawla and others found that out of 200 pregnant women, a total of 16 were found to have gestational diabetes mellitus making it an overall incidence of 8 per cent. While 88 out of 200 (44%) were at risk of developing GDM during early pregnancy only 18.18% of patients were finally diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. The study showed that the maternal inflammatory response as detected by elevated HsCRP level may not be an important factor in the development of GDM in later months of pregnancy. Besides, it was established that if you are a woman in a high risk group for diabetes, your chances of getting afflicted with gestational diabetes increases.

–Another study conducted by Dr Rajeev Chawla and others in Delhi sought to assess the proportion of various subtypes of diabetes among the young subjects in North Indian population. The study concluded that Screening of high-risk groups may help in the early detection of youth-onset type 2 diabetes and prevention of its complications.

Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad to organise India’s first summit on ‘Managing Health Communications’ from February 12-14, 2014

Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), India’s premier communications management institute, is organising India’s first International conference on the important issue of ‘Managing Health Communications’, with a focus on people, programnes and products. Quoting a statement issued by MICA, PR Newswire said that the event will be held at its campus between February 12-14, 2014.

The conference will bring together around 150 delegates from India and abroad. Besides eminent academicians in the area of healthcare communications, it will have distinguished personalities from the pharma industry, hospitals, high ranking government officials and representatives from important international and national bodies, besides NGOs in healthcare arena.

The Advisory Board of the conference already enjoys reputed names like Prof. Arvindh Singhal (University of Texas), Prof James Daering (Michigan State University), Dr KK Kalra (CEO, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers), Prof Michael Krzeminski (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg Unievrsity), Prof Mohan Dutta (NUS, Singapore), Pradeep Kashyap (Founder-CEO, MART) and Dr Rajiv Tandon, (Save The Children). Some more eminent personalities from the government and industry are expected to join. The Indian film fraternity has also responded to this initiative, with Mr. Rahul Bose having already confirmed his presence as a Guest Speaker.

MICA has called for submission of papers for the conference by November 1, 2013 and hopes to make this a platform to discuss frontier developments in communications theory and practice. Some of the sub-themes around which papers are likely to be presented (but not limited to it) include:

People: Patients, providers, policy makers, artistes

Programmes: Information and programme delivery, Health Safety, Positive Deviance, Surrogacy, Capacity Building and Utilisation Support.

Products: Pharmaceutical, vitamins, fitness centres.

People dealing with important theoretical and methodological issues, and critiques and interpretations of various theories, are also been invited. MICA has in the recent past organised two successful Management Development Programmes (MDPs) in the area of healthcare, viz. ‘Managing Hospital Communications (Programme Director: Dr Nagesh Rao) and ‘Bridging Health Communication Gaps’ (Program Director: Dr Arbind Sinha), which were met with a great response. The International conference is another step forward in the series of initiatives MICA has been taking in Development and Health Communications.

For more information and to register as a delegate visit http://www.mica.ac.in/icmc or write to icmc@micamail.in, or speak with Sethu Iyer/Himanshu Dandotiya at +91-2717-308250. Primary Media Contact: Vaneet Chhibber, vaneet@micamail.in, 91-8000098787.

IndegeneConnect, the cloud-based platform launched for the Indian pharmaceutical industry

Indegene, a leading R&D, commercial, and marketing solutions provider to top global pharmaceutical and healthcare firms, yesterday announced the launch of IndegeneConnect™ — a cloud-based digital asset production, collaboration, and workflow management platform. According to a company statement, the platform enables global teams to significantly reduce wasteful creative and design costs arising from duplication, lack of information, and conflicting communication between stakeholders during the digital production lifecycle. IndegeneConnect™ increases productivity across the existing ecosystem comprising numerous Agencies of Record (AoR), local agencies, and brand teams that are managed across multiple geographies.

Global pharmaceutical companies commonly work with multiple global agencies, and this often results in significant duplication of efforts in creating assets; errors following brand guidelines; reduced visibility throughout the production process; limited knowledge and access to assets created in other markets that can be reused; and decreased productivity. In addition, meaningful data and analytics that can drive process improvement efforts and satisfy audit-trail requirements are typically missing, incomplete, or challenging to obtain.

IndegeneConnect™ creates a catalytic ecosystem through which a brand or a digital factory can manage all of its creative assets, the entire production workflow including internal and external stakeholders, promote collaboration and sharing, and cut wasteful cost from the budgets, all the while maintaining regulatory and audit compliance.

Dr Rajesh Nair, President – Indegene, said: “Indegene is committed to developing transformational technology and platforms that serve the pharmaceutical and lifescience industry. IndegeneConnect™ is a revolutionary way to effectively manage digital production at the enterprise level, while significantly empowering local and regional teams. This represents a significant addition to Indegene’s intellectual property portfolio”.

IndegeneConnect™ is a proprietary cloud-based enterprise digital-asset production, collaboration and workflow management platform, specifically designed to address the unique needs of the pharmaceutical industry. The platform increases transparency, and control over the entire process, while providing meaningful and real-time data to drive process improvements and compliance initiatives. The system’s integrated digital asset management system (DAMS), and collaboration and workflow management components are seamlessly unified through a simple, customizable, user-interface that can be accessed by multiple stakeholders across geographies and languages. It is available through licensed, SaaS, and integrated delivery (SaaS + Global Content Factory) models.

Health care provider Indegene releases TrialPedia 2.0 clinical trial analytics and benchmarking platform

Indegene, a leading global pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions provider, today announced a new release of TrialPedia 2.0, its flagship clinical trial analytics and benchmarking platform.

According to a company statement, the enhanced version has analytics and benchmarking algorithms spanning over 200,000 trials across 200 indications, making it the most comprehensive and effective clinical trial analysis platform in the marketplace.

Manish Gupta, CEO of Indegene said: “Today’s Research and Development (R&D), Clinical, Medical Affairs, Health Outcomes, and Business Development and Licensing divisions face dramatic challenges in designing trial programs, formulating clinical development strategies, and forecasting the future ‘claim space’ in order to benchmark and maximise the value of their pipeline. Operational challenges as well as, time and cost delays in clinical trials can have a significant impact on revenues and future profitability. TrialPedia 2.0 further enhances the quality, speed, and effectiveness of the clinical development and strategic planning process for global pharmaceutical, device, and biotech organisations. This new release includes improved granular search, advanced sub-disease classification, expanded trial and indication coverage, increased geographical scope, and disease-specific interventions”.
What is more, the platform makes the identification of gaps, and development of appropriate benchmarks for the clinical development process more efficient. This is particularly important, given the increase in regulatory thresholds and challenges surrounding adverse events. It helps minimise this by identifying industry best practices vis-à-vis safety and efficacy, thereby avoiding costly late-stage delays and failures. The new release marks advanced analytics and benchmarking tools to provide for an aggressive strategy of label leadership across sub-indications, biomarkers, and launch preparations.
Indegene is a leading provider of R&D, commercial and marketing solutions to global pharmaceutical and healthcare organisations. We partner with clients to drive both productivity and revenues by delivering better patient outcomes, optimising cost, enhancing R&D agility and improving sales and marketing effectiveness. The company applies deep scientific knowledge, flexible delivery models, proprietary technology, and a client-centric approach to drive transformational initiatives.
With offices in the US, the UK, China, India, and Australia, Indegene can partner globally with clients, leverage a global talent pool of clinicians, technologists, creative specialists, domain experts, business process specialists, deploy global infrastructure assets and harness global healthcare knowledge to solve client challenges.