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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 Red Thread Tightens

China weaves Colombia into its Belt and Road web, nudging Latin America further from Washington’s grasp.

Beijing’s courtship of Bogotá marks another stitch in its grand design for a multipolar world as Colombia becomes the latest Latin American country to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a sprawling vision launched by Xi Jinping in 2013 to position Beijing as the nerve centre of 21st-century infrastructure, trade and digital connectivity. The embrace is economic, but the message is unmistakably geopolitical: the Monroe Doctrine is past its expiry date.


President Gustavo Petro’s decision to align Colombia with the BRI was long in the making. But its timing is telling. Washington, once the uncontested arbiter of hemispheric affairs, has grown increasingly wary of China’s expanding footprint in its backyard. For years, it has leaned on partners like Panama to abandon Beijing’s orbit, with some success. Yet now, the entry of Colombia, a staunch American ally in past decades, signals a shifting tide.


At the signing ceremony in Beijing, President Xi spoke in the lofty rhetoric of anti-imperial solidarity. Petro, in turn, spoke of ending Colombia’s $14 billion trade deficit with China and transforming his country into a strategic AI and interoceanic data hub linking Asia and Europe. The language was utopian. The motives are anything but.


Trade between China and Latin America surpassed $500 billion last year. As Washington remains mired in internal political dysfunction and selective protectionism (its latest universal 10 percent tariff on most imports being a case in point), Latin America is seeking partners that offer money with fewer moral lectures. For Beijing, the BRI is a geopolitical scalpel disguised as a cheque book. For leaders like Petro, who fancy themselves as voices of the Global South, it offers infrastructure, capital and symbolic autonomy from American tutelage.


Obviously, the BRI has its critics. In Africa and parts of Asia, it has been accused of engineering debt traps, tilting contracts in favour of Chinese firms, and fostering corruption among local elites. But it has also delivered tangible gains: roads, ports, railways and digital backbones in places where Western lenders often dither or attach strings too steep. In Latin America, China has funded hydropower projects in Ecuador, railways in Argentina, and lithium extraction in Bolivia. Now it wants fibre-optic routes through the Andes, ports along the Caribbean, and digital sovereignty for the nations that host its servers.


Colombia’s role in this architecture is not minor. It straddles two oceans, abuts the Panama Canal, and harbours ambitions of becoming a logistics and technology hub for the continent. Petro’s vision of turning Colombia into a nexus for undersea cables connecting China and Europe is less fanciful than it sounds. In a world increasingly driven by data, such nodes are worth more than oil pipelines.


Latin America is becoming the latest arena in the slow-burning geopolitical contest between the United States and China. For decades, Washington’s influence in the region was cemented through trade deals, aid programmes and military cooperation. Colombia, in particular, was long a poster child for US security diplomacy, receiving billions in aid under Plan Colombia to combat narcotraffickers and Marxist rebels. But Petro, a former guerrilla himself, represents a break from that legacy.


The symbolism of Colombia’s accession to the BRI should not be overstated, but neither should it be dismissed. It reflects a broader reality which is that America’s dominance in Latin America is no longer assumed. Where Washington offers conditionality, Beijing promises partnership. Where the United States frets about ideological alignment, China focuses on pipelines and ports.


Some, like Panama, have backed out under pressure. But Colombia is not Panama. Its weight, location, and economic ambitions make it a more consequential addition to China’s vision of a ‘multipolar world.’ Washington will need more than warnings and tariffs to compete.


If America wants to hold its sway in the region, it must offer an alternative rooted not just in fear of China, but in genuine economic engagement.

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