MONEYMAKERS

COMPU RECORDS: The staff at River Hills West Healthcare Center in Pewaukee, Wis.,in the US are done forever with the tiresome patient logbook, where they maintained the minutest details of the multiple doses of the myriad drugs that the 245 resident patients have to be administered daily. Now all they have to do is tap on CompuScriber, an electronic notepad developed by the Atlanta-based firm CompuPharm Inc., fill up the list of choices that that appears on the screen and information is automatically zapped to over a 900 Mhz wireless link to the River Hills net-work server. Records are instantly updated, thereby eliminating about five stages of paper work. "To say it has made life easier is an understatement," raves Assistant Director of Nursing, Martha Kath.

SOUTHWARD HO: It is time to move "south-wards"! The clarion call has been given by the authorities of Hanson, the UK-based conglomerate and its top brasses are earnestly looking for investment possibilities in power generation projects in the developing world. "We are interested in taking equity positions in new generating plant if it would result in us getting long term supply contracts," declared Irl Engelhardt, chairman of Peabody, the company's US-based coal subsidiary. According to Engelhardt, discussions are on at least with five or six different utilities but nothing has been finalised as yet. Hanson, however, has its eyes focussed on India, Indonesia and China, where it claims opportunities are aplenty.

BRITISH JOYRIDERS: The British government is taking a step back to the future. In an astounding traffic by-law drafted by the Oxford City Council cycle rickshaws have been permitted in the city and the service is about to start in early July. The authorities are quite taken by this environment-friendly vehicle and a fleet of 24 two-seater rickshaws are being imported from India to run on a fixed route. Each trip will cost around USL14 and will last for 45 minutes.

FIGHTING MS: A message of hope for the multiple sclerosis patients....Ares-Serono, the Swiss pharmaceutical company has come up with a new drug which may not be able to cure them completely, but will certainly provide immense relief. The elixir, named Rebif, which is a beta-interferon, has achieved 60 per cent reduction in the rate of attacks in a group of patients with a version of the disease called relapsing-remitting MS.

INFINITE INTELLIGENCE: For people with loads of grey matter, South Asia's first 'Intelligent City' -- a collaboration between the West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (Webel), Bikram Dasgupta's Global Synergies Ltd and Singapore Technologies Construction Pvt Ltd -- is coming up in Calcutta's Salt Lake area. The Rs 350 crore project, named Infinity, will consist of 2 computer-integrated buildings (Infinity-Intelli-centres) and 1,200 studio homes (Infinity-Intelli-homes). The workspace will have global terminals, enabling the city's skilled professionals to work in high technology areas.

AIDING DIAGNOSIS: The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi claims to have developed a cost effective and 100 per cent accurate AIDS test kit. The kit, costing less than Rs 3, detects both HIV-1 and HIV-2 viruses. According to ICGEB scientists, independent evaluation of the kit has shown that "it is 100 per cent sensitive and 98.7 per cent specific". The manufacturing of the kit has been undertaken by Lupin Laboratories of India.

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