Dr. Gian Carlo Falcinelli’s ‘Modified Osteo Odonto Kerato Prosthesis’ (M.O.O.K.P.) technique has helped hundreds of patients in several countries see the world again in all its colours and light.

Dr. Falcinelli, currently working for San Camillo Hospital in Rome (Italy), has been imparting training in the procedure to ophthalmologists in India, which houses one-third of the estimated 11 million corneal blind population in the world.

Under his guidance, Sankara Nethralaya is establishing an exclusive centre for M.O.O.K.P. procedures to be headed by Dr. G. Sithalakshmi.

Tour d'Afrique, the 12, 000-kilometer (7,500-mile) bicycle expedition/race from Cairo to Cape Town, began on January 13, 2007.

Now in its fifth year, it travels through 10 African countries taking approximately 120 days, of which 96 are cycling days, averaging 124 kilometre each day.

A group of 45 men and women from all over the world are part of the journey. Amongst them is, Douglas Sidialo of Kenya, an avid blind cyclist, a mountain climber and a motivation speaker.

An amazing group of visually impaired youngsters catch your attention at the Pan-I.I.T. meet, at Bandra Kurla Complex in suburban Mumbai. They are handling tele-networking for Pan-I.I.T. meet and are in charge of answering your queries and helping out the delegates at the venue.

"We have been working with Pan-I.I.T. for about a month now. It has been a fantastic experience. Our job entails calling up people and informing them about the event. I.I.T.ians are very polite and interesting people to work with," says Arundhati Viswanathan.

When Nagamani, Mahadevi, Kavitha, Sushma, Rachana, class 10th students at C.S.I. Victoria Girls' School drew pictures using crayons at a workshop held recently, people assembled were surprised and appreciated the efforts of visually impaired students and Mustafa Khan. The students made use of ‘pop-up symbolism,’ a new technique of drawing conceived by Mustafa Khan for visually impaired people. Khan, a recipient of the Bimal Roy Award, developed the technique after working with the medium for nearly four years.

The new stainless steel coin can be easily mistaken for a one-rupee coin, as it is round in shape and does not have sharper edges like the old two rupee coin. The new coin has the number '2' boldly embossed on one side and a symbol for 'Unity in Diversity' on the other.

When handed the new two-rupee coin, Shanti Gawde, a blind woman who sells pass covers at Andheri Station (Mumbai) said in disbelief, "No it can't be, I think you have given me a one rupee coin."

Aimed at identifying and solving the basic issues being faced by visually impaired people while using computers, a model Information Communication Technology (I.C.T.) centre will be set up in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

The centre plans to provide a complete ‘Free Software-based solution’, which gives the users complete freedom to adapt the entire solution for their needs. It also gives the freedom to use, modify and redistribute copies of the software. So, the total cost per user is very low compared to the proprietary solutions.

The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye. "What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise blind eye and allow patients to see," said Professor Mark Humayun, from the University of Southern California.

When openers from the National Association for the Blind (N.A.B.) team from Silvassa, making its debut at the ‘All-Gujarat Blind Peoples' Cricket Tournament’ held in Vadodara, (Gujarat) stepped on the field in the finals, no one knew it was a brand new champion in the making.

The Silvassa team, chasing the 101-run target put up by N.A.B. Idar, won the title with eight wickets in hand, winding up the game in just 10 overs.