Bharat Operating Systems Solutions

BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) released version3.0.BOSS GNU/Linux Desktop is available in almost all the Indian Languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani, Manipuri. Down load or get CD.

50 Best Innovations from TIME

TIME's picks for the top innovations of 2008 range from a genetic testing service to an invisibility cloak to an ingenious public bike system to the world's first moving skyscraper. See the list

9 web tools to kickstart your creativity

Lyndi Lawson lists 9 web tools to kick start creativity. Details at gottaquirk.

Openness of western nations to adopt creativity tools is perplexing considering our belief Creativity is given (comes with birth), which cannot be improved by training, tools, techniques.
After seeing about 10,000 ideas I was disappointed at the quality of our creative thinking. It is easier to come to the conclusion that there are great stock of creative ideas , hidden somewhere, only people like us entrusted with the responsibility of nurturing those creative ideas are unable to reach them. It goes against national pride to accept that we are not creative enough to build an innovative nation. I am trying to push a proposal to establish a center for training trainers in creativity.

If you feel that country desperately needs one such an institute, write to me.

Bharat Biotech’s REVAC-B+TM – Hepatitis B Vaccine Crosses 150 million Mark

Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL/Bharat Biotech) www.bharatbiotech.com the multi-dimensional biotechnology company specializing in product-oriented research, development and manufacturing of vaccines and bio-therapeutics announced today that it has crossed production and delivery of morethanthan 150 million doses of REVAC-B^+TM, recombinant hepatitis B vaccine since its launch in October 1998. REVAC-B^+TM has been marketed and sold in more than 30 countries worldwide with manufacturing and quality standards on par with USFDA, EMEA and WHO guidelines. The Vaccine has established an excellent safety and efficacy profile since its launch 10 years ago.
In his comments, Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech said, “The success of REVAC-B^+TM bears testimony to our solid emphasis on R&D to develop vaccines that carry excellent safety and efficacy profiles. The Next Generation REVAC-Bmcf (Thiomersol and Cesium Chloride Free^*) Recombinant Hepatitis-B Vaccine manufactured by us are cost-effective and address the safety concerns expressed by parents and members of the medical profession.” He added.

Bharat Biotech is a major supplier of the Cesium Chloride Free Hepatitis-B Vaccines, It has taken steps to ensure a smooth transition for customers from the traditional Hepatitis-B vaccine to the new preservative-free REVAC-Bmcf (Thiomersol and Cesium Chloride Free^*) vaccine apart from effectively upgrading and optimizing production technologies to ensure the phasing out of thiomersol as preservative in some of BBIL products.

REVAC-Bmcf (Thiomersol and Cesium Chloride Free^*) vaccine contains the same components utilized in BBIL’s previous Hepatitis-B vaccine, but now it is supplied preservative-free in a single-dose vial. Bharat Biotech had successfully manufactured a preservative-free pediatric vaccine of a highly reputed MNC on a contract basis and the product was exported to a regulated market in Far East.

A great success story of an Indian innovator who returned to India to make India the global centre for affordable heath care.

Eco Chamber

The travails of innovators begin after end of innovation process-i.e. adoption. The biggest challenge is how to get early adopters. An interesting article on marketing to the Eco Chamber from techcrunch. Convincing customers is more difficult for physical/ embedded products as there is no alpha version. This blog is one such Eco Chamber for embedded products.

Globalisation of knowledge development and delivery

International conference on `Globalisation of Knowledge Development and Delivery' was held on 16-17th October. Papers can be downloaded from Forum for Global Knowledge Sharing.

Deepawali Greetings

May this Deepavali warm your heart and home with ever blossoming happiness, never ending success and ever lasting peace.

INDEX:AWARD 2009

The INDEX: award is the world’s largest monetary design award (five prizes each 100,000 euroes) and recognizes design that improves life for people. INDEX: AWARD accepts nominations from all design disciplines, including industrial design, service design, architecture and graphic design. Everybody can nominate designs for INDEX: AWARD 2009 through the online nomination site at www.indexaward.dk. The deadline for submissions is December 8, 2008.
For information contact:Niels Jarler, Information officer,nj@indexaward.dk

Carbon advisory services

Agrinergy Counsultancy Pvt ltd, Mumbai and Emergent Ventures India Pvt Ltd, Gurgaon provide carbon advisory services. Agrinergy has a successful track record in registering and transacting CDM projects. The company has developed successful methodology submissions, registered the first bagasse CDM project. Services from Emergent Ventures India include facilitation for CDM registration, financing based on certified emissions reduction (CER), verified emissions reduction (VER), carbon trading, carbon assets management and evaluation and selection of appropriate clean technologies.

IP management in Health and agriculture innovation

This online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. All documents can be downloaded free.
site: http://www.iphandbook.org/

Play quotient of children

Play Quotient reflects the child's ability to get the most enjoyment and enrichment out of play time. Dr Toy, a frequent visitor to India, is an authority on this subject. Her book `Smart Play Smart Toys' is published in India too.

Chandrayan and Indian engineering

Spin-offs from space technology to industry and military are well known. The Indian moon mission also provided an opportunity to several engineering units in India to come out with state-of-art capabilities. L&T is one of the prominent suppliers. Motor case was manufactured at Aero space shop of Heavy Engineering Division.Honeycomb panels used as heat shield are manufactured by L&Ts advanced composite facility. Tracking Antenna Mount structure and C-band precision Monopulse tracking radar are other supplies from L&T.

Ratemyideas

A new service from a new start-up. Ratemyideas is founded by Tommy Nguyen. Take a look:
http://www.ratemyideas.com/

NVI finalists 2008

Several clean technologies were exhibited during the Investor Forum 2008 organised by New Ventures India. Ecoreco Eco_recycling Limted is an e-waste management company. Eco Vehicles is electric bike manufacturer, Accura Bikes is another one. Calcium Silicate insulation is manufactured by Megha Insulations Private Limited.
Start-up Polymeric Sensors Private Limited developed sensors to test potability of water.Pro Nature produces a comprehnsive range of branded certified organic food products.skyshade brings day light to indoors. Unidyne Energy Environment offers systems for aste heat recovery. Discarded marine contaiers are modified into portable offices, toilets etc by Visakha Trades. Autoboxx provides smart building management systems for small area site from 100 square feet onwards.

TI Beagle Board for Indian open source developers and hobbyists

Texas Instruments recently introduced the pocket-size, USB-powered Beagle Board based on TI's OMAP3530 applications processor. It features an ARM Cortex-A8 core, 2D/3D graphics engine and high-performance TMS320C64x+ digital signal processor (DSP) core.This will help open source developers and hobbyists in India to realize their creative design ideas without being restricted by expensive hardware development tools, lackluster performance capabilities, high power consumption or stifled design environments.
Source: Pradeep Chakraborty blog

EMPI Indian Express Indian Innovation awards

EMPI Group of Institutions along with The Indian Express Group invites Organisations operating in India to participate in the Awards Programme aimed at promoting a ‘culture of innovation’ in India by showcasing their innovative actions.

Important Dates:

Closing Date for Submission of Participation Form: 30^th October, 2008
Awards Ceremony: 3^rd December, 2008

awards page: http://innovation.empi.in/

Techfest 2009

Techfest is the annual international Science & Technology festival of IIT Mumbai. There will be competitions,lectures, exhibitions etc. Some 20,000 students are expected to visit. Innovators can take exhibition space. Contact: Someshwar ,Manager, Events,Techfest 2009,IIT Bombay
+91 98338 25645

Hical Technologies

Hical was established in 1988 and became a 100% EOU from 1997. It is the partner of choice for leading corporations across Europe, USA and Asia, supplying professional grade transformers and other complex wound components. Commenced electronic manufacturing services in response to customer demand for a single, accountable source and successfully transferred complete manufacturing lines to Hical for cameras, telecom modules, telecom components and power converters.
The firm is also working with engineering colleges to develop curriculum for Magnetic Engineering.

Maker Faire

Celebrating creativity is at the heart of innovation eco system in USA. Maker Faire is one such an event.Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It's for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things. When can we see similar celebrations in India?

Movico Technologies

Pratap Vikram Singh profiles start-up Movico Technologies in Express Computer. Movico offers digital asset management solutions , a software to manage and distribute video assets, called Media Baron, which runs on a Pentium PC in a normal LAN environment, allowing all users to access a low-resolution database to identify the pieces that they want to add to their current project, and helps them take it back and forth from the editing station. This can free up the expensive editing station by up to 80%, and hence reduces the need for numerous editing stations.

Cool Jacket for traffic police

Road rage, a common symptom in Delhi, describes violent reaction from persons driving AC cars on traffic violations by fellow car drivers. Mute witness is traffic police standing in sun and heat. One innovator Kranti Kiran is working to provide a cool jacket for traffic police. Read the story in Mint by Jacob Koshy. Photo from www.vasanth.in

SIIPM, Chennai, Deember 2-5, 2008

WIPO is organising seminar ' Strategic Innovation, Product Design & Development and Intellectual Property Management' at Chennai from 2nd December to 5th December 2008. This four-day intensive program is designed for middle to senior level executives who wish to learn how to strategically use the intellectual property regime to fuel innovation, maximize return on investment in R&D and move their firm up the technology ladder.

DESHPANDE CENTER 2008 RESEARCH GRANTS

The Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT announced it is awarding $700,000 in grants to nine MIT research teams currently working on early-stage discoveries. These projects have the potential to make a significant impact on our quality of life by revolutionizing disease therapies, allergy diagnosis, HIV care in the developing world , drug discovery, energy efficient displays, energy storage, and nano-scale imaging.

L-Ramp Awards 2008

The 4th L-RAMP Award of Excellence seeks to recognise achievers in the following categories:

Grassroot Innovator (For innovators who have no access to technology, funds and markets);Young Innovator (for innovator below 21years of age) ;Woman Innovator (for women innovators);Enterprise (for innovation-based and commercially viable enterprise);Investor (for extending financial support to convert an outstanding innovation(s) into a successful enterprise);Media (for encouraging/ featuring issues related to innovators and innovations in print and electronic media);Lifetime Achievement (for a lifetime of contribution to innovation and entrepreneurship development sector in the country). Applications close on November 5 2008

International Conference on Business Incubation.ISBA 2009

TREC-STEP and ISBA are jointly organigin the third annual conference of ISBA 2009 as “The International Conference on Business Incubation: Creating an Innovation Economy through Entrepreneurs and Incubation” during 29th to 31st January, 2009 at Chennai.

Curry Stone Design Prize

A South African architectural firm with simple design for low-income housing for a Cape Town shantytown, was named the winner of $100,000 Curry Stone Design Prize. Shawn Frayne, inventor of the world’s first non-turbine wind-powered generator is one of the finalist.Shawn Frayne is an entrepreneur and the inventor of the world’s first non-turbine wind-powered generator. Frayne’s invention, an elegant hand held device harnesses what is known ast, known as “aeroelastic flutter,” by using tensioned membranes to capture small pockets of wind energy. The membranes oscillate magnets linearly past wire coils, which creates an electrical flow.

Renuka Ramnath

Business Today's `Most powerful women in Indian Business' includes one person who pioneered venture finance . She is Renuka Ramnath. Read profile at Business Today. My vote goes to her.

Community Computer K-Yan

Professor Kirti Trivedi at the Indian Institute of Technology, has built what he calls a "compact media center" for schools without enough computer equipment to go around. It puts a range of home entertainment systems and a PC in a single black box about 1 cubic foot in volume. It has a 120-GB hard disk, a Pentium 4 processor, a modem, a hard disk, a DVD drive, four USB ports to connect external devices and a television tuner. It is a television and a personal computer rolled into one, but it does not have a monitor. Instead, the black box contains a projector with SVGA resolution that can beam a 300-inch-high image sharply on a wall.

The device, which comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, is being marketed as K-yan by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, a group made up of several Indian banks. Priced at about $3,200, a single K-yan can tutor a large classroom of nearly 100 students in schools that cannot afford multiple personal computers.

Source: Wired.com

The Right Livelihood award 2008

Krishnammal Jagannathan and Sankaralingam Jagannathan are two lifelong activists for social justice, and for sustainable human development, working with those who are at the lowest rung of the social ladder. They have carried the Gandhian legacy into the 21st century, never ceasing to serve the needs of Dalits, landless and those threatened by the greed of landlords and multinational corporations.They received The Right Livelihood Award for 2008.