Water problem

There are enough indications that availability of water is going to be the biggest crisis in India. Read this article from Economist - the map tells all.

2009 Social Innovation Competition

The RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas is organising The Social Innovation Competition , open for participation by students any where. The competition is a real-world exercise in developing skills in plan development, pitching ideas to investors, developing networks and receiving constructive feedback for increasing the probability of successfully launching a venture. The competition operates like a business plan competition, awarding seed funding directly to the student-led venture that best meets the judges' criteria.
In the final event, held at the University of Texas at Austin, a single winner is chosen and awarded $50,000 to launch their venture.
Deadline for round one: February 6th 2009

The Tech Museum Awards 2008

Each year, 25 Tech Award Laureates are honored at a black-tie Gala at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. Laureates are recognized onstage and presented with an award trophy to celebrate their accomplishment. One Laureate in each award category receives a $50,000 cash prize. This year the celebration will be on November 12th.
Several Indian organisations figured in Tech Award Laureates 2008.
DESI Power helps poor villages in India build local power plants and launch micro-enterprises to alleviate poverty.
Digital StudyHall uses digital video technology to extend the reach of skilled teachers into underprivileged classrooms in India and Bangladesh.
In LifeLines India project, OneWorld South Asia employs telephone and database technology to connect poor farmers to critical agricultural information.
SKG Sangha fuses biogas and composting technologies, empowering women to earn money and live in healthier environments.

Biotechnews

Biotech News brought out by DBT in Volume III, no 4, August 2008, covered several success stories of Bioventures. It also carried articles on government funding mechanisms like TePP,SBIRI,NMITLI. Download copy from:
http://www.biotechnews.in/

Most of the information on supported projects is otherwise not in public domain and that makes this issue a collectors volume.

Appulse Technologies

Want training in Enterprise 2.o. Evangelists at Appulse would arrange a complimentary need analysis workshop for you and your team. This workshop would take around 2-4 hours and would give you a complete mapping on how Enterprise 2.0 can benefit you in achieving your business goals.
Contact: Vikas Banga, VP-Sales and Marketing,vikas.banga@appulse.com

Google Prize-Project 10 to the 100th

Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.Submission dead line is October 20th 2008.Criteria:

• Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
• Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
• Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
• Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
• Longevity: How long will the idea's impact last?

Google committed $10 million to implement selected ideas.

Download application.

Eureka 2008

This year Eureka the Business Plan Competition organised by Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Mumbai offers several cash prizes.

Cash Prizes:
• First Prize : INR 5,00,000
• Second Prize : INR 2,50,000
• Third Prize : INR 1,50,000

Best Entry in Cleantech Category : INR 2,00,000

Best Student Entry: INR 50,000

Last date for submitting executive summery- 4th October.

Contract laboratory testing of oilseed meal to determine the fat profile(s) of extractable residual oil

NineSigma, representing a Multinational Agricultural Products Corporation, invites proposals for the contract laboratory testing of oilseed meal to determine the fat profile(s) of extractable residual oil. NineSigma’s client is seeking partners to conduct solvent extraction, composition analysis, and lipid profiling on the residual vegetable oil present in various oilseed meals.

NineSigma Request #50745-1

Interested Indian organisations can submit proposal and mark copy to Indian Innovators Association for tracking.

Simple asphalt tester

Good news for drivers on Delhi roads. Sang-Soo Kim, an associate professor of civil engineering in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, developed the Asphalt Binder Cracking Device (ABCD) in a quest to find a reliable way to determine which types of pavement hold up to the stress of highway traffic and cold weather extremes. Read report at: http://www.rdmag.com/
Kim received a patent on the device in August 2007. In January, the Federal Highway Administration (USA) provided $239,000 in funding to help him commercialize the technology.

Electrolux Design Lab 2008 Finalists

The design competition received 600 entries from 49 countries and 9 made it to the final. This none will compete for the 1st place on 9th October 2008. Watch Videos on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7aN9aAJV4c

E Bag created by Apor Püspöki, a product design student at Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design in Budapest,has a rotating handle attached to a dynamo that charges a storage battery via arm motion. The cooling system uses Peltier technology, that transfers heat from one side of the device to the other side. Cooling status is indicated by three LED lights. The capacity of the bag is approximately three liters. The longer the walk, the cooler the refreshment at the end, thanks to E-bag, a handbag whose cooling system gets its power from being swung back and forth as its owner walks.
Guopeng Liang, a design student at Tongji University in China created I Basket-The see-through iBasket stores dirty clothes and automatically washes them when it fills up.Sung Bae Chang, a design student at Sejong University in South Korea created a portable Toaster Printer. See details of all finalists at:
http://newsroom.electrolux.com/designlab/design-lab-2008-finalists/

4th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2009)

The 4th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC2009) is scheduled to be held February 27 to March 1, 2009 (a Friday-Saturday-Sunday in springtime/late-winter, as usual) , in the sylvan spaces of Sattal Estate, just above Bhimtal, near Nainital, in the Lower Kumaon of the new Himalayan Indian state of Uttarakhand.

A basic webpage on this has now been posted up at

http://www.theaea.org/cec_cac/cec09/index.htm,

Contact person:

Shankar Barua

Managing Trustee ~ The Academy of e-Arts

The 2nd Last Resort, on The Chill Street

near Nal Damyanti Tal / Sattal

Bhimtal (Uttarakhand) - 236136

INDIA

tel: (91-5942) 247598, mobile: (91) 9868732876

Insight India 2008

Insight India 2008 is a round table on trends and design strategy. Venue: IIT, Mumbai. Dates: 4th & 5th November 2008.This unique two day event targets Indian and International companies interested in gaining a deeper understanding of Indian consumers, from a 'Trends to Design Strategy' perspective. Contact person:pratima@oniodesign.com

GreyB-IP services

GreyB is a leading patent research company based in India. They have been providing patent prosecution and patent litigation support to law firms in New York and other places. For innovators, start-ups and organisations they offer services such as:

• Patent portfolio analysis
• White space mapping.
• Patent to product/patent mapping.

Contact person: Chakshu Kalra
Co-Founder GreyB
Web: www.GreyB.com
E-mail: Chakshu.Kalra@GreyB.com

Resources for Innovators

Resource page of Indian Innovators Association has been updated. Take a look at:
http://www.indianinnovatorsforum.org/resource.htm

Want more?

Faculty Entrepreneurship Policy, IIT Kanpur

IIT Kanpur has come out with the simplest document (I have come across) on matters related to IP. It allows Faculty to begin their entrepreneurial journey with incubation in SIDBI funded incubtor, take pre-seed grant amount from TePP to cover technology risk , prepare business plan with suport from Prof BV Phani and become VC eligible big player. They can take this as full time (sabbatical) or work part time on their project. For use of institutes IP , developed by the promotors as students/ faculty and for continued use of lab, library and other facilities, the faculty company has to give the institute a liability free equity of 10%.
An example of `unleashing innovation'?

ideaForge

ideaForge is a start-up founded by three IIT Bombay alumni (Ankit Mehta, Rahul Singh,Ashish Bhat) in Feb'2007. Incubated in the Technology Business Incubator, SINE, IIT Bombay and supported under TePP. Manual charger is in the market and several more are in the pipe line.