It is a pleasure to release this latest issue of IJHBT. The editorial team hopes that it will continue to meet the high standards we have all come to expect of it.

Since the last issue, we have sadly, and irreplaceably, lost one of the senior teachers in hematology in India, Prof. K.C. Das of Chandigarh. Two of his ex-students and colleagues pay a tribute to him in an obituary in this issue. Our readers should use the journal as a forum to disseminate information about important events in the field, especially in India and the neighborhood. These will be published based on decision taken by the Editorial Board.

This issue includes one article by Philip et al. which discusses the awareness of transfusion medicine among resident doctors. Extrapolating this interesting concept to the broader field of hematology itself, I think we have all seen a sea-change in awareness levels and interest in this discipline among trainees (both laboratory and clinical) over the last 20 years. The reasons for this could be many; ranging from the excitement of working in a bridge discipline that arches across the clinics and the labs, rapid advancements in technology, especially molecular and immunophenotyping services and stem cell transplantation, the availability of higher qualifications promising better career prospects and pay packages to even active promotion by existing hematologists by means of quizzes, travel grants etc. In any case, this has had the desirable outcome of bright and enthusiastic minds being attracted to hematology and allied disciplines, and that is reassuring for the future of the speciality.

A Sri Lankan study in this issue challenges the established fact that the prothrombin gene mutation G20210 is virtually non-existent in the Indian sub-continent. Perhaps the results of the analysis by Dissanayake and colleagues should prompt those working in the extreme southern parts of India to relook at this variant as a significant player in inherited thrombophilia, considering that it is a very commonly detected risk factor in the Western world. The challenge of genetic markers of risk lies both in determining the degree of causation, if any, as well as the fascinating anthropological tales they reveal of human migrations, inter-mixing and survival advantages conferred in hostile environments.

With best wishes to everyone,

HP Pati,

Editor-in-Chief.