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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.”

The Mines of Peace

A Trump-brokered accord between Rwanda and Congo seeks to end a bloody conflict and secure America’s stake in Africa’s critical minerals.

Few places in the world have bled so richly for their buried treasure as the eastern reaches of the Democratic Republic of Congo. For decades, bloodshed has clung to the region’s shimmering promise: tantalum, cobalt, copper, lithium, and gold, each as vital to the modern global economy as oil once was. Now, a fragile accord brokered by America’s most unpredictable statesman, Donald Trump, may signal a new chapter not only for central Africa, but for the geopolitics of green energy.


Last week, Rwanda and Congo signed what has been dubbed the ‘Washington Accord,’ a U.S.-engineered peace agreement that aims to end the latest iteration of a brutal and seemingly endless war. The deal commits Rwanda to withdraw its troops from Congolese soil within 90 days, and to initiate, alongside Kinshasa, a regional economic integration plan that might entice Western investors and development funds.


The timing and symbolism are both potent. The Trump administration, keen to shore up its foreign-policy credentials ahead of the 2024 U.S. election, cast itself as a peacemaker and a power broker. “We’re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it,” Trump boasted with characteristic bravado. His language may be crass, but the strategic calculus is clear: Congo’s minerals are indispensable for technologies like electric vehicles, smartphones, and semiconductors. America, locked in strategic rivalry with China, is racing to secure its place in the battery supply chain. Africa, long a pawn in global resource extraction, is once again central to the great power game.


The roots of Congo’s misery lie deep. The scars of Belgian colonialism, Mobutu’s kleptocracy, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide have not healed. That genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered in just 100 days, reverberated across the border. When genocidaires fled into eastern Congo, Rwanda, then led by Paul Kagame, launched incursions to hunt them down. These interventions morphed into full-scale invasions, economic pillage, and proxy wars that sucked in half a dozen countries in what many called ‘Africa’s World War.’


Though the guns fell mostly silent in the early 2000s, the peace was deceptive. Rwanda continued to support various rebel groups in eastern Congo, the most prominent being the M23, a Tutsi-led militia that resurfaced with alarming force in 2024, seizing key towns and mining regions in North Kivu. UN experts and Western diplomats allege that Rwanda’s backing for the group is both military and financial. Kigali denies it, but the presence of Rwandan soldiers in Congo is undeniable.


The recent M23 offensive threatened to escalate into another regional conflagration. Congo, under President Félix Tshisekedi, called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for help, while accusing Rwanda of naked aggression. Kigali, for its part, framed its involvement as pre-emptive defence and economic stabilisation. Amid the sabre-rattling, Washington spotted an opportunity.


Trump’s involvement, while unexpected, is not without precedent. His administration, ever eager to strike deals, has taken an unorthodox interest in Africa, particularly where minerals and optics align.


If the deal holds, it could unlock billions in Western investment and begin the long-overdue work of stabilising eastern Congo. But it is a big if. The Congolese government remains sceptical. Past peace agreements, like those signed in Lusaka (1999), Pretoria (2002), and Nairobi (2013), were quickly betrayed.


As demand for green technologies accelerates, Congo’s cobalt and lithium reserves become ever more valuable. China already dominates processing and refining; the West, if it is to decarbonise with strategic autonomy, needs new partners. The Washington Accord is a tentative step in that direction. Yet history counsels caution. Peace in central Africa has been declared before, often to the applause of foreign capitals and the silence of Congolese villages still haunted by war.


For now, though, the machetes are paused. Whether this moment becomes a turning point or just another entry in Africa’s long ledger of broken promises depends not just on Trump, but on what Kigali and Kinshasa do next.

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