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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.”

Rock, Reef or Red Line?

China tests Japan’s maritime resolve near Okinotori, a speck of Pacific rock with outsized historical and geopolitical weight.

The tiny, uninhabited and nearly invisible Okinotori-shima, a pair of minuscule atolls some 1,700km south of Tokyo, is once again stirring storms in East Asian geopolitics.


Japan recently lodged a formal diplomatic protest after its coastguard observed a Chinese survey vessel deploying a wire-like object into the surrounding waters, 270km east of Okinotori.


Tokyo accused Beijing of conducting unauthorized maritime scientific research within Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Chinese vessel retreated later that evening, but not before reigniting a long-simmering dispute that transcends cartography and drills down into questions of sovereignty, security and shifting power balances in the Indo-Pacific.


Way back in 1931, as an aggressive and militaristic Japan tightened its imperial grip across East Asia, it formally claimed Okinotori-shima. At the time, Japan’s imperial navy had envisioned them as a remote watchtower in the Philippine Sea, guarding the maritime corridor to Micronesia and beyond. After defeat in the Second World War, Japan retained administrative control over the atoll, though the United States took up the regional security mantle. Today, that same rock finds itself at the centre of another contest for power in the Pacific.


UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, permits coastal states to claim a 200-nautical mile EEZ around islands capable of sustaining human habitation or economic life. Tokyo has poured millions into preserving Okinotori’s legal status as an island. In the early 2000s, it reinforced the coral reef with titanium nets, concrete walls and even artificially planted coral to prevent it from disappearing under the waves. Japan maintains a weather station and maritime monitoring facilities there, partly as symbolic sovereignty and partly as practical strategy. If it loses the legal argument, it forfeits claims to a 400,000 square kilometre swath of ocean - an area roughly the size of Germany.


China’s encroachment must be understood in light of its broader maritime ambitions. Since the early 2000s, Beijing has steadily expanded its reach in the Western Pacific, constructing artificial islands in the South China Sea and asserting ‘historic rights’ far beyond internationally recognised limits. The Philippines took Beijing to court and won in 2016 when UNCLOS’s arbitration tribunal ruled that China’s claims lacked legal foundation.


But Beijing simply ignored the ruling. It has since continued to press its advantage, not through overt force but through strategic ambiguity via coastguard patrols, fishing fleets and ‘scientific research’ vessels operating just on the edge of confrontation.


This maritime salami-slicing of pushing boundaries without triggering war has become a signature of the Chinese strategy of trying to wear down the resolve of its rivals and normalise its presence in disputed areas. The same tactic is now visible near Okinotori. Just as it has turned coral reefs into fortresses in the South China Sea, China may be testing Japan’s willingness to enforce its maritime rights far from its main islands.


The history of Japanese maritime posture adds another layer of complexity. In the decades after World War II, Japan renounced war but built up a formidable coastguard and maritime self-defence force, often in quiet partnership with the United States. The region around Okinotori lies between Taiwan and Guam - two linchpins of America’s Pacific strategy.


Submarine cables criss-cross the area, while U.S. naval assets depend on unimpeded access through these waters. Chinese mapping here could hint at intentions not just for surveillance, but for anti-submarine operations or cable interception. China alleges that Japan’s claim to an EEZ from Okinotori is an imperial relic dressed up in legal language. It has accused Tokyo of clinging to ‘sea-grabbing’ practices while denying similar claims by others. This line appeals to countries like Taiwan and South Korea, both of which have protested Japan’s interpretation of UNCLOS in the past.


The East China Sea, the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea are increasingly connected theatres in an Indo-Pacific defined today by confrontation rather than cooperation. If Japan cannot uphold its claims here, it risks losing influence elsewhere, particularly in the face of a Chinese government that blends power politics with legal reinterpretation.

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