Some good out of Satyam

V Chowdary Jampala reports inRacchabanda:
"I did get a chance to visit Emergency Medicine Reseach Institute (EMRI), the not-for-profit organization founded by Ramalinga Raju that operates the 108 service which is similar to the US 911 service (as it was mentioned in this forum before, my brother is part of the leadership of this organization from the very begining). Actually, I had to call 108 a few days ago myself when I witnessed a scooteraccident with minor injuries (it turned out that I was not the only one to make the call).

When my brother first discussed this concept with me exactly four years ago, I was quite skeptical about the utility and feasibility of such a service in India. Now, I find that the use of this number has become ubiquitous throughout the state. The 108 ambulances at the ready are visible at major junctions and urban sites. The service which started about August 2005, now operates about 1650 ambulances and expanded to eight states through out the nation.

EMRI Headquarters is located near Kompalli, and exurb of Hyderabad in a large campus. It houses the corporate headquarters, the Call center for AP, and the national training center for EMTs. The call center has five physicians at any given time who are available to guide the EMTs regarding medical management of these emergencies (our 911 service does not have this). The call center handles about 65,000 calls per day including medical, police and fire emergencies with automated dispatch systems. It has excellent quality control and data gathering mechanisms in place as well as a system for feedback to callers regarding what happened with the incident that was called about. I got to see operatives taking calls and dispatching
ambulances and their case-report forms. In one of the incidents I reviewed, a person that attempted suicide by ingesting acid was taken by the ambulance and handed over to a teaching hospital that was 30 kilometers away within 60 minutes of the initial call - quite impressive by any standards. Both the call center and the ambulances meet the accreditation standards of international bodies. I got to examine both the well designed and well equipped ambulances as well as the training center for the EMTs. I am quite impressed. EMRI is an excellent operation and is an example of what
we are capable of achieving with the right vision and leadership and not compromising with mediocrity.

The truth about Ramalingaraju's actions and culpability with regards to the Satyam debacle will eventually emerge and the rumors and charges floating around may eventually be proven right. However, his contributions to the Indian society with EMRI certainly deserves commendation. His family has contributed about 10 million dollars to start up this operation and keep it running. Even after the state governments began to take over 95% of the cost of maintaining the ambulances, Satyam and Ramalingaraju's foundations were funding about 5% of the costs. Besides the monetary contibution itself, it was Ramalingaraju's insistence that this has to be a state of the art operation meeting the highest international standards that everybody at EMRI credits as being the key for this operation.

Now, it is not clear how that 5% would be made up with contributions from Satyam likely to be unavailable. For the sake of every citizen and resident of India, I hope that EMRI and 108 services continue to go on at the same level of quality."