Category: Science & Technology

Surgical Cuts

 

With the NHS facing unprecedented financial pressures, Radio 4 presents a season of special programmes examining how it can meet growing demand with greater efficiency.

Dr Devi ShettyIn the first programme Mukti Jain Campion reports from the Indian city of Bangalore, home to Narayana Hrudayalaya, one of the biggest cardiac hospitals in the world. Founded by NHS trained surgeon Dr Devi Shetty, it has been attracting global attention for its pioneering approach to delivering high quality affordable healthcare. Could its cost-cutting innovations offer any lessons for the NHS? (1 x 28′)

Hearing ear

First broadcast September 2013 BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Daily Telegraph, The Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Schumacher’s Big Society

 

smallbeautifulJonathon Porritt delves into the archives to assess the legacy of economist E.F. Schumacher on David Cameron’s ideas for the Big Society. Described as “one of the few original thinkers of the 20th Century”, Fritz Schumacher was the author of the seminal 1973 book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if people mattered. The programme includes extracts from Schumacher’s 1976 speech to the Findhorn Community in Scotland. It was his last UK public lecture before his death, here digitally remastered and broadcast for the first time for Archive on 4. (1 x 57′)

First broadcast July 2011 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Satish Kumar of Schumacher College and editor of Resurgence Magazine, George McCrobie co-founder of Practical Action, Wilfred Beckerman author of Small is Stupid and members of the Schumacher family.

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

Executive Producer Mukti Jain Campion

 

Radio choice: The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

 

Plumbers and Penguins

 

SONY DSCIn 2009 British Antarctic Survey ran a huge publicity campaign to recruit tradesmen to spend 18 months working in their most southerly research stations. 2000 people applied for the 43 jobs which promised “the most exhilarating experience of a life time”. Chris Eldon Lee follows the frozen fortunes of some of the lucky few who were selected. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast December 2010 BBC Radio 4 

Producer Chris Eldon Lee                 

A well told programme about something most of us know little about                                                    – Elizabeth Mahoney, The Guardian

 

 A super documentary. .. a vibrant and vivid depiction of life at the end of the world                          – Chris Maume, The Independent on Sunday

 

Radio choice: The Times, The Daily Mail, Radio Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

The New Global Indians

 

Prajit Datta with sculpture by Debanjan Roy Aicon Gallery MayfairThey’re smart, they’re ambitious and they’re everywhere. As India’s economy grows at an unparalleled rate, a highly mobile elite of professional Indians is making its mark across the world as engineers, bankers, entrepreneurs and executives at the very top of multinational companies. Mukti Jain Campion finds out what lies behind their success and the impact they are making in India as well as abroad. (3 x 28′)

First broadcast  March 2010 BBC Radio 4

illuminating and impressive – Chris Campling, The Times

 

1: Indians Shining

Equipped with the English language and higher degrees from top universities, their ambitions go far beyond being call centre operators or back office workers for the West. Instead they’re making it big as entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, as analysts and bankers on Wall Street and Canary Wharf, buying up British businesses and running global companies.

2: Uniquely Indian?

India has the largest number of illiterate people in the world, yet it also produces some of the most numerate and ambitious graduates at world-famous establishments such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). On a visit to the campus of IIT Kanpur during recruitment week we find out why the students there are so highly sought-after by multinational companies.

3: Payback

The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it as his country’s brain gain: the increasing number of successful expatriate Indians who are returning to India to start businesses and run philanthropic projects. Why is India now so attractive to them and what impact are they making?

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Executive Producer Charles Miller

New Shoots, Old Tips (Series 2)

 

CarolineMore weird and wise gardening tips from the past two thousand years, sifted for modern day practical tips by garden historian Caroline Holmes with horticultural experts. (5 x 14′)

First broadcast November 2002 BBC Radio 4

Readings by Christopher Holmes & Anni Kurmis

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

A luscious mini series – Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph

 

  1. Weeding: A Fascinating Employment?
  2. Boundaries of Taste
  3. The Fruits of Your Labour
  4. Good Husbandry Goeth Not All By Much Expense
  5. A Dose of Wholeseome Horehound

Radio choice: The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Radio Times, The English Garden

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Antarcticans

 

antTo mark the centenary of Roald Amundsen’s arrival at the South Pole (to be followed a month later by Captain Scott), Radio 3’s The Essay each night is presented by professionals who have lived and worked in Antarctica. (5 x 14′)

First broadcast December 2011  BBC Radio 3

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

These essays are delights, full of extraordinary details and brimming with passion   – Elizabeth Mahoney, The Guardian.

 

Read Elizabeth Mahoney’s  full review

  1. Glaciologist David Drewry recalls his adventurous efforts to survey Antarctica’s landscape.
  2. Writer Meredith Hooper witnesses the plight of penguins affected by climate change.
  3. John Sweeny relives his desperate efforts to find a new home for Antarctica’s last huskies.
  4. Geologist Jane Francis struggles to make ice cream freeze in the Antarctic.
  5. David Walton describes the tricky legal struggle to protect Antarctica from humans.

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

 

One Billion Digitally Identified Indians

 

obdiiIndia is rolling out the largest and most technologically ambitious national identity scheme in the world. It aims to enrol each of the country’s billion residents with a unique identity number using biometric data from their fingerprint and iris scans.

Mukti Jain Campion reports from India on the hopes and fears sparked by the scheme and the global interest it has attracted.  (1 x 28′)

First broadcast July 2013 BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion    Executive Producer Charles Miller

Radio Choice: The Radio Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, The Observer

Hearing ear