The 9th of march was a proud day in the calendar of the Sankara Eye Care Institutions. The 225 bed super specialty eye hospital and training centre was inaugurated by the Chief Secretary in presence of the trustees from Sankara India and SEF, USA.

Shri Sudhakar Rao, IAS, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka, was the Chief guest. He lauded the efforts of Team Sankara , in its endeavor to eradicate curable blindness.

Visiting the Speciality Eye Care Services, Shri D R Kartikeyan, Former Director CBI was appreciative that the people of Karantaka would benefit from the blend of the best in infrastructure and expertise.

Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Managing Director and CEO of Infosys declared open the Infosys Community Eye Care Block with 200 beds which has been put up by Infosys Foundation. This centre will serve the rural poor who benefit from eye surgeries under the "Gift of Vision" rural outreach eye care programme in the districts of Bangalore, Bangalore rural, Mandya, Hassan, Mysore, Kolar, Tumkur and Chamrajnagar To meet the need for trained manpower, Robert Bosch Foundation, Germany , has supported the hospital in establishing a trainjing programme in community ophthalmology which will train medical, para medical and administrative staff.

Participating in the function Mr. Murali Krishnamurty, Chairman Sankara Eye Foundation USA, recognised the collective effort of several NRIs in USA and Kannadigas in particular who have contributed to the Bangalore Hospital through the Sankara Eye Foundation and the Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA).

Dr S V Balasubramaninam recognised the Partners in Service with a memento and the formal vote of thanks was proposed by our well wisher and Trustee Shri J M Chanrai.

All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) is the largest Associations of Eye Surgeons in India with around 10,000 Active Members. The annual conference was hosted at Bangalore and saw more than 6000 delegates from across india and invitees from USA, UK and other nations participating.

Our Consultants made presentations in the fields of Cataract, Lamellar Corneal Surgery and Refractive procedures. Dr JK Reddy, Director Technical , was invited to share his experience as a guest speaker in the session on Innovations in Ophthalmology.

The Mayor of Coimbatore, Shri. R. Venkatachalam and Mr N Karthik, the deputy mayor were the guests of honour. The formal function began with the welcome address by the Managing trustee, Dr R V Ramani , who introduced the gathering to the beginnings of the long service awards.

Dr S V Balasubramanaim, recollected the large strides Sankara has made over the past year towards achieving its mission of 20/20 by 2020. The deputy mayor recognized the work being done by Sankara in community eye care and called our institution the best maintained speciality care organization in the city. The mayor lauded the recipients of the award and has promised to further strengthen the public private partnership to enable vision all residing in the Coimbatore District.

The formal function concluded with the vote of thanksCoinciding with the annual day function, twenty six members of Team Sanakra from across the Cadres, from our anesthetist to  housekeeping and canteen staff, outreach workers, nursing and security staff received long service awards from the Mayor in a special presentation.

This was followed by a cultural extravaganza which included dances from our students and staff from Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Gujarat. Truly emphasizing the pan India organization, Sankara has today become.

As has been the tradition over the past decade, the fortnight preceding the function saw various events which displayed the talent and skills of our medical, paramedical and supportive staff. Today Sankara is a true representation of India, with staff from Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat working or being trained at Coimbatore.

A food festival was organized as a part of the celebrations at the hospital premises where our staff prepared and displayed various dishes from their traditional cuisines.

On behalf of Team Sankara we recognise the tremendous contribution made by the award recipients to our Mission and their commitment to patients over the years is greatly appreciated.

Today the Khumbhabhishekam of the newly-built  Sri Sudharshana Vinayaka temple at the Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore campus was performed today.

Kumbhabhishekam (reconsecration) is the process of infusing divinity and spiritual power into the vigrahas (images of the deities) of the temple. The various yagnas and rituals were performed over 3 days culminating in the consecration of the deity and the Kalasa pooja.

The idol of the Ganesha here is unique in that in its palms it holds an eye instead of the traditional modagam, hence the name of Sri. Sudharshana Vinayaka.

The kumbhabhishekam was performed by Avudayar, head priest of the Kamakshi temple before a large gathering of our donors and well wishers. Volunteers from India and SEF USA, apart from doctors, staff and trustees of Sankara participated.