Magsaysay award for Nepali ophthalmologist

Dr Sanduk Ruit has been awarded for peace and international understanding for the year 2006.

Noted Nepali ophthalmologist Dr Sanduk Ruit has been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay award for peace and international understanding for the year 2006.

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Dr Ruit, the director of the Kathmandu-based Tilganga Eye Centre, is the third Nepali to bag the prestigious award.

He is one of the six Asians chosen for this year's Magsaysay award, widely recognised as Asia's highest honour and referred to as the Nobel Prize of Asia.

Ruit is being honoured for "placing Nepal at the forefront of developing safe, effective and economical procedures for cataract surgery, enabling the needlessly blind in even the poorest countries to see again," a statement issued by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) said.

Other awardees selected this year include Ek Sonn Chan from Cambodia for Government Service, Park Won Soon from Korea for Public Service, Eugenia Duran Apostol from the Philippines in the Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, Arvind Kejriwal, from India for Emergent Leadership and Antonio Meloto from the Philippines in the Community Leadership category.