Here, I am giving brief introduction of the association of Gerontology (AGI), and in next few paras I have mentioned about the interesting events of this conference, some exciting news that I came to know. Prof. M.S. Kanungo founded the Association of Gerontology, India (AGI) in 1981, for the advancement of gerontology in India. This society’s work concerns all aspects of elderly population i.e., bio-gerontology, medical-gerontology and social-gerontology. Every two years AGI organises a meeting. This year it was at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Speakers came from BHU, AIIMS, JNU and many other research institutions.
Biogerontology session included talks on the effect of environmental and genetic factors on aging and age related disorders such as ameliorating effects of dietary restriction on aging, effects of natural compound and exercise on boosting the memory of diabetic and old mice. There was also one talk about reversing age related memory loss. Medical session included talks on ‘effect of aging on neuronal and glial population and on human pancreas’, use of serum sirtuin as frailty marker, and the tendency to fall in elderly people. Social session included talks on elderly abuse, elderly population in workforce, loneliness in elderly. There was many other interesting talks that I have not mentioned here.
There were some interesting informal discussions on making healthspan/lifespan ratio as possible as equal to one and AGI’s role in policy making for elderly population. On the second day of the conference, Minister of Social Welfare and Panchayats, Kerala, Dr. MK Muneer released Kerala Aging Survey and also discussed the Kerala Government’s motives to design policies to help growing elderly population.
I came across a great news for aging researchers during the conference: Government of India is going to establish two institutes on aging research: National Institute on Aging (NIA); one in Chennai, possibly within 3-4 years and another one in New Delhi maybe within a decade.
The next meet of AGI is going to be organized by Dr. A.B. Dey at AIIMS, New Delhi in September, 2016. I hope to present my work on the mechanisms of aging at the next meet.
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