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By:

Bhalchandra Chorghade

11 August 2025 at 1:54:18 pm

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker,...

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker, mentor and philanthropist — Dr Samudra has balanced many roles with commitment. While she manages a busy medical practice, her deeper calling has always been service. For her, medicine is not merely a profession but a responsibility towards the people who depend on her guidance. Nagpur to Panvel Born and raised in Nagpur, Dr Samudra completed her medical education there before moving to Mumbai in search of better opportunities. The early years were challenging. With determination, she and her husband Girish Samudra, an entrepreneur involved in underwater pipeline projects, chose to build their life in Panvel. At a time when the town was still developing and healthcare awareness was limited, she decided to make it both her workplace and home. What began with modest resources gradually grew into a trusted medical practice built on long-standing relationships with patients. Fighting Diabetes Recognising the growing threat of diabetes, Dr Samudra dedicated her career to treating and educating patients about the disease. Over the years, she has registered nearly 30,000 patients from Panvel and nearby areas. Yet she believes treatment alone is not enough. “Diabetes is a lifelong disease. Medicines are important, but patient education is equally critical. If people understand the condition, they can manage it better and prevent complications,” she says. For more than 27 years, she has organised an Annual Patients’ Education Programme, offering diagnostic tests at concessional rates and sessions on lifestyle management. Family, Practice With her husband frequently travelling for business, much of the responsibility of raising their two children fell on Dr Samudra. Instead of expanding her practice aggressively, she kept it close to home and adjusted her OPD timings around her children’s schedules. “It was not easy,” she recalls, “but I wanted to fulfil my responsibilities as a mother while continuing to serve my patients.” Beyond Medicine Today, Dr Samudra also devotes time to social initiatives through the Bharat Vikas Parishad, where she serves as Regional Head. Her projects include  Plastic Mukta Vasundhara , which promotes reduced use of single-use plastic, and  Sainik Ho Tumchyasathi , an initiative that sends Diwali  faral  (snack hamper) to Indian soldiers posted at the borders. Last year alone, 15,000 boxes were sent to troops. Despite decades of service, she measures success not in wealth but in goodwill. “I may not have earned huge money,” she says, “but I have earned immense love and respect from my patients. That is something I will always be grateful for.”

Beijing’s Invisible Hand

The failed prosecution of Englishmen Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry underscores how Chinese espionage exploits the gaps in Western legal and investigative frameworks to operate effectively in plain sight.

Christopher Berry (L) and Christopher Cash have been accused of passing secrets to China.
Christopher Berry (L) and Christopher Cash have been accused of passing secrets to China.

When Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, laments the collapse of a high-profile espionage prosecution, his frustration reflects a deeper anxiety within Western intelligence communities that China’s espionage machine - diffuse and increasingly sophisticated - has learned to play the long game. The dropped case of Christopher Cash, a parliamentary researcher and Christopher Berry, a former civil servant, who were accused of spying for Beijing, underscored the disquieting truth that the reach of Chinese intelligence has become both harder to prove and harder to contain.


This mirrors other high-profile cases. Australian authorities in 2023 charged multiple academics for covertly funnelling research to Chinese institutions, while U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly targeted tech specialists suspected of aiding China’s state-backed industrial espionage programs.


For decades, Western intelligence regarded Chinese espionage as a plodding, bureaucratic cousin to Russia’s more flamboyant operations. Soviet and later Russian tradecraft relied on ideology, disinformation and the occasional theatrical poisoning. The Chinese model has been more patient and systemic: the quiet harvesting of information through academic exchanges, cyber intrusions and the cultivation of influence networks that blur the line between diplomacy and espionage.


McCallum’s admission that MI5 had disrupted another China-related plot in the past week suggested how pervasive the threat has become. The number of state-based investigations in Britain is up by more than a third in a year. The tempo mirrors trends across Europe, Australia and the United States, where the contest with Beijing has evolved into a struggle not just for military or economic supremacy, but for informational dominance.


To grasp the modern scale of Chinese espionage is to understand its origins. When Deng Xiaoping declared in 1978 that China must “hide its strength and bide its time,” his dictum applied as much to intelligence as to diplomacy. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Ministry of State Security (MSS) built a vast network of collectors: students, scientists, and businesspeople who, knowingly or not, became conduits of technology transfer. In the age of globalization, espionage ceased to be confined to shadowy operatives, becoming industrial policy by other means.


The result has been an espionage ecosystem both disciplined and decentralized. Chinese intelligence does not depend on spectacular agents embedded in the heart of Western government. Instead, it relies on a mosaic of sources - cyber hacks on government servers, insider leaks within technology firms, data scraped from social media, and pressure on diaspora communities to inform or influence.


That makes it particularly difficult for prosecutors to build cases that meet the standard of proof in open court. In espionage, much of what is known cannot be said; much of what can be said cannot be proved. The collapse of the Cash and Berry trial exposes this paradox. Intelligence can disrupt, but the law must convict. Between the two lies a chasm that Beijing has learned to exploit.


The United States has tightened scrutiny of Chinese students and researchers. Australia has passed sweeping foreign-interference laws. Britain is following suit, with new national security legislation expanding the definition of espionage to include ‘preparatory acts’ of foreign interference. Yet the more governments harden their systems, the more Beijing presents these measures as proof of Western paranoia and hypocrisy.


For China, espionage is not merely about stealing secrets but about shaping narratives and perceptions. Its intelligence apparatus is now intertwined with influence operations targeting media, think tanks, and even local councils. The objective is not only to know what others think, but to shape what they think about China. Espionage, after all, is not an aberration in China’s rise but an integral feature of it.


If the Cold War was fought in shadows cast by ideology, the new one is fought in the half-light of information. China has mastered that terrain. The West, still bound by the transparency it cherishes, must learn to navigate it without losing its way.

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