Bharat Rao

IIT Madras Alumnus, Dr. R Bharat Rao (1985 BTEE), wins the Siemens 'Inventor of the Year' award. The award has been presented every year (since 1995) to twelve outstanding Siemens employees for outstanding contributions to improving the technical expertise and the economic success of the company (Siemens).
Bharat is the Senior Director, Engineering Research Development, Computer-Aided Diagnosis and Therapy Group, Siemens Medical Solutions.
The award is a recognition of his pioneering work in development of an automated data collection and analysis tool known as REMIND (Reliable Extraction and Meaningful Inference from Nonstructured Data), which enables caregivers to utilize disparate healthcare information to personalize patient care plans and enhance patient outcomes.
Bharat received his B.Tech in Electrical Engg. from IIT Madras in 1985, and his Master's and Doctoral degrees in Electrical Engg. from University of Illinois (UIUC).
http://www.iitmadras.org/news/2006/jan11B/

when to sell your start-up

VC Seth Levine has a nice post on when to sell your startup that jibes with our experience.
click http://sethlevine.typepad.com/vc_adventure/2006/01/when_should_you.html

Engineer Sreedharan

Execution is the bane of Indian projects for long. The one person, who proved that planned execution is possible and is among many other changes sweeping India is engineer Sreedharan. Read his fascinating story at
http://www.muraleedharan.com/legends_sreedharan.html

2000 software applications filed for patents in 2005

The number of applications for patents filed in the software sector has seen a huge increase in the last two years. Recent changes in the patents law have made this possible, as evident in 2,000 applications being filed in the last one year alone. The number of applications was as many between 2000-2003.
The number of patents granted has also shot up from 110 between 2000-03, to about 600 in 2004. In 2005, about 1,100 patent applications are awaiting opposition proceedings.
Recent changes made in the Indian patents law allow patents for computer-related inventions like applied software —software used in cars, washing machines and music systems. Till recently, only embedded software—where software is intrinsically linked with hardware — was allowed patents.
The pace is likely to pick up even more in the coming year with more and more MNCs setting up research labs in India.
(source : Business Standard, January 4, 2006)

Star of Asia award for Dr RA Mashelkar

Every year, Business Week of USA honours 25 eminent Asians, who have been path breakers in their own field. These awards generally go to Businessmen , Politicians etc. For the first time, a scientist was honoured, he was Dr R.A. Mashelkar from India. He received the award from Goerge Bush, former US President on 16th November 2005 in Beijing.

Roche sub-license for Tamiflu

Roche,the mfr of patented drug Oseltamivir, considered effective for treating avian influenza, sub-licensed production to Indian firm Hetero Drugs Limited for supply in India and other developing countries. A wise decision considering the fact that Hetero beagn investing in Oseltaminvir two and half years ago and recd Indian govt approval for production and marketing. Strategic Partnering with fast caching-up Indian firms is a new trend and can be expected to continue in the same way firms partner with competitors in fast moving consumer elctronic products.