GEI Industrail Systems for outsourcing engineering services in Heat Exchanger

GEI Industrial Systems, based in Bhopal specializes in heat transfer technology offering services in the areas of Heat Exchanger & Condenser Services, 33 KV / 11 KV Switchyards, Switchgear Applications and Transportation Systems.Client list includes:

• Dresser Rand, USA
• General Electric, USA
• G.S. Engineering, Dubai
• Hanover Middle East, Oman
• Oman Refinery Co., Oman
• Samsung Engineering Co. Ltd., Korea
• Solar Turbine, USA
• Transturbo Engineering Sdn Bhd, Malaysia
• Veco Engineering, Abudhabi 

Details: http://www.geiind.com/company.html#operations

WiLAN

WiLAN, founded in 1992, is a leading technology innovation and licensing company.  WiLAN has licensed its intellectual property to over 220 companies worldwide.  WiLAN licenses patented inventions in the following technology areas:

• Wireless technologies
• Wireline technologies
• V-Chip technologies

Envia systems

Envia systems , an early stage start-up, has developed proprietary cathode material  ( High capacity Manganese rich ) which promises to reduce cost of Lithium Ion batteries. The technology was jointly developed with Argonne national lab.The start-up received funding from DOE and recently from GM Venture fund. Dr. Sujeet Kumar founding CEO of Envia Systems Inc is a product of BHU (1990) , Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Rochester and is the inventor of over 40 patents.


A battery component manufacturer can start small but faces more hurdles.Will Kumar change the rules of the game? 

India's capabilities in fighter plane design

If aviation manufacturing is divided into eight key areas—airframes, propulsion, pneumatics, flight control, avionics, fuel, electrical power and hydraulics—India’s competence today varies considerably. Through a combination of domestic R&D and learning-by-doing in licensed production, India has slowly acquired expertise in pneumatics, fuel systems, electrical power, and hydraulics. It has gained proficiency in the manufacture of airframes and structures, though it still lags behind in advanced composites and in the development of digital flight control systems. India has yet to master propulsion, especially high-performance jet engines, which are among the most difficult technologies in the world, as well as avionics systems development and integration, which, again, remain among the most recondite capabilities,both at the level of hardware and source code.

Source: Ashley J. Tellis presentation at Carnegie

Farm Innovators 2010

Apart from innovations and scientific package of practices developed and transferred from R&D institutes, innovations in the form of grassroot level technologies and methodologies developed by some of the innovative farmers and rural youth are benefiting widely to farmers and have also been accepted across the system. Such innovative technologies and methodologies are largely confined to some locations. Benefits accrued from such innovative ideas need to be widely shared across the country. And the scientific talents behind such grassroot level innovations need to be encouraged and recognized. Valuable ideas and techniques generated by them largely go unnoticed owing to lack of proper documentation and opportunities for wider dissemination. An initial and pioneering attempt in this direction has been made by the Division of Agricultural Extension, ICAR, to document such innovations developed across the country in the form of this publication “Farm Innovators – 2010” for the benefit of various stakeholders.139 innovations were finalized under eight thematic areas—Crop improvement (13); Crop production (16); Crop diversification (8); Crop protection (14); Farm machinery (61); Water Management (8); Live stock and fisheries management (10) and Post harvest technology and value-addition (9)

Down load report from : http://www.icar.org.in/node/2248

JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011

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JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011

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Veol Labs-converting ideas to Medical equipment

Veol Labs is a contract product development company, focused exclusively on medical devices. The company was formed with a purpose of providing quality medical devices development servicesthat would (i) provide our clients with superior but cost effective medical device expertise & (ii) partner with our clients to improve the lives of the people who would be using their products.

The team comprises world class professionals who are specialists in the Contract Design, Development, Validation and Manufacture of Class II and Class III therapeutic, diagnostic and surgical devices.Mangesh Patankar, with years of experience at Johnson & Johnson started this venture.Products developed include Heart Monitor, Stress Urinary incontinence, Surgical Stapler.

India Fast Growth 25

AllWorld Network has created  “The India Fast Growth 25” uncovering the next wave of vetted, test-driven growth entrepreneurs from India.As a group, the India 25 grew an astonishing 481% between 2007 and 2009, much higher than other AllWorld Rankings in the Middle East and Africa.  These 25 emerging companies created 6,903 jobs since inception; most expect to grow 50% or more in the next six months, and the majority plan to start another company in the next two years.  Speaking to the global orientation of the companies, almost 50% of their revenues are generated from outside India.

• The winners for India 25 represent 10 Industries, and the top 5 itself indicate the diverse emerging high growth industries of India which are Information Technology, Travel and Tourism, Media and Entertainment, Agriculture and HealthCare.
  
• The number 1 company is Redbus.in, one stop shop for bus ticketing service across India, growing at 4823% between 2007 and 2009.  Co-Founded by Phanindra Sama and Charan Padmaraju, their vision is to maintain their market leadership position in next 5 years.
  
• India 25 represents 8 cities with Mumbai and Bangalore represented by 6 companies each.
  
• The Ranked Companies average of 650 million Rupees in revenue in 2009, and 279 employees, with the smallest applicant having 23 million Rupees in revenue and the largest close to 3.8 billion Rupees. The Companies to Watch are much smaller.
  
• The average cost of start Company was 9.1 million Rupees, 63% of the companies were self financed at the inception.
  
• The founders were an average of 28 years old when they started their company. The youngest founder was 17 when he started his business.
  
• India 25 also showcases the emerging focus on R&D in India, 40% of companies invest over 10% of the revenue in R&D activities.

PWC Medical Technology Innovation Scorecard

PwC’s Medical Technology Innovation Scorecard: The race for global leadership assesses nine countries’ capacity and capability for medical technology innovation: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, United Kingdom, United States. 

On a scale of 1 to 9, USA tops the list with score of 7.1, followed by Germany (5.4), UK(5.4), France (5.0), Japan (4.8), Israel (4.6), China (3.4) , Brazil (2.7) and India (2.7). India scores poorly on Innovative resources , Innovative output, Technology in market. India has 700 medical device companies as against 4,000 in China, India has 137 researchers per million of population while as China (only next to USA) has 1070 researchers per million.

We have a long way to catch up with China.

Breaking the Guinness world record

Memorandum submitted by Indian Innovators Association in response to Consultation Paper on Encouraging Telecom equipment manufacturing in India

RECOMMENDATIONS
Our recommendations on R&D/ Innovation take into consideration the lessons learned from earlier attempts supporting R&D/ Innovation of Indian Telecom Equipment manufacturers. Grants for start-ups are available from TePP program of DSIR, conditional grants available for pre-commercial stage R&D from TDDP program of DSIR and soft loans are available from TDB of DST for technology commercialization. None of the programs are sector specific.
a) Lessons from R&D projects ( handled by A.S.Rao at DSIR)

• Technology absorption ignores technology advances

A public sector undertaking in Chennai had successfully improved Teleprinter with ruggedized design but Fax entered as disruptive technology.

• Developing components while systems change

Technically challenging component innovations like ASICs for Line card /Conference card / STD-PCO had not generated revenues, as system level technology changes made these components redundant.

• Targeting current price leaves the firm cash less

A Bangalore based firm took up development of ADSL, starting from circuit design but by the time product is ready with test approval, Chinese prices crashed to below BOM cost.

• Technology Life Cycles do not follow predictable time table

Delhi based firm developed Multi Lingual Pager in several Indian languages but market never developed to the same scale as China.

• Incremental innovations do not matter

Due to limited R&D competence, Time-to-market is disproportionately large in a scenario of shortened Technology Life Cycle.

• Retaining R&D team is a challenge

For completion of any R&D project, there is need for a team of minimum 3 to work together for 3 years. Recruiting and retaining R&D people is a challenge faced by many SME due to disparities with service sector. Many R&D projects had to be short closed.

b) Characteristics of Telecom Innovations
Pathways of innovation adoption & diffusion in Telecom equipment are different from that of innovations for `plug and play’ devices. Standards and Network externalities play a critical role in influencing technology acceptance behavior. Due to Network externalities value of service improves with number of users, standards facilitate diffusion in short period and service firms reach tipping point by exploiting a proven technology riding on a dominant standard. Market economics act as strong disincentive for service players to adopt local innovations as their business model takes technology as a given parameter and not something to be experimented. Customers of telecom innovations need to be incentivized to test and adopt Indian innovations.
c) Issues for consideration regarding the R&D effort:
1. What should be the objective and focus of the R&D effort for the year 2020?
R&D efforts by telecom equipment manufacturers for market introduction in 2020 are visible today as academic papers. In other words, supporting academics now could generate required competencies for telecom equipment manufactures to take relevant R&D in 2020. We recommend large scale extra mural research funding by DST and other agencies giving preference to cross border academic partnerships.
2. Flowing from the above, what should be the objective and focus of the R&D effort for 2015?
IP accessed today will provide building blocks for R&D by manufacturing firms in 2015. We recommend liberal funding to established Indian manufacturers for accessing critical IP with strategic investment in university spin-off firms in USA and Europe. This investment has to be done in start-ups for technologies at fluid stage before emergence of dominant design/ standard.
3. What is the level of ‘Indian Products’ that we should attempt to achieve at the end of 2015 and 2020?
Market decides the winners and target of 10% by 2020 and 5% by 2015 is realistic.
4. What is the broad level of investment required for this effort?
RDDE Investment from Government: Rs 2,000 crores
Investment by VCs and equipment manufacturers: Rs 3,000 crores
5. Which Institutions, whether in the Public or private sector, are best suited to carry out this effort? And why?
For- profit-commercial firms are the most efficient convertors of knowledge to revenues. Others can only be enablers and facilitators.6. What can be the linkages established with Institutions or Indians abroad? Will this reduce time delays?

• Linkages between researchers to take up joint research program.

• Fast track funding of university spin-offs promoted by Indian origin students and faculty without condition of return home.

• Open innovation platform to tap global talent.

7. What should be the role of the Government and the Industry in regard to the R&D effort? In particular, what should be the investment, if any, by the Government?

• Technology Incubation fund: Rs 50 crores ( all by Government as grant)

• Pre-commercial stage technology development: Rs 500 crores (Rs 250 crores by Government as soft loans and matching R&D investment by commercial firms)

• Dedicated Telecom Venture Funds: Rs 2000 crores ( 10 baby funds, TDB investment Rs 1000 crore and VC investment Rs 1000crores)

8. Should an R&D fund be set up? If so, how can the fund be managed effectively to meet its objectives?

• Full collection and utilization of R&D Cess on Imported Technology and USO fund should take care of the needs. While technology is imported in the form of equipment, components, software, consultancy and license, R&D cess is levied only in the case of Joint Ventures with technology license agreement. This needs to be relooked and scope expanded to include all forms of technology imports.

• Though there are existing programs in DSIR, DST, DIT etc, the scope of support is narrow with application process time of 9 to 12 months, not congenial in fast changing technology. Man power costs, IP acquisition costs, market development costs etc are not supported under the existing programs.
• Telecom incubation Fund can be managed by professional bodies like incubator at IIMA to orchestrate the network of all stakeholders. A brief of Telecom Innovation Funnel is attached.

• Start-ups need seed funding and series funding at revenue stage and dedicated VC funds can be established with TDB co-investing 50%. These baby funds for young ventures can be managed by incubators at IIT/ IIITs.

• Established firms do not take equity funds from VCs and they need to be supported at pre-commercial stage with soft loans. In the present circumstances it is inconceivable for an established player to start from research stage. They need to be encouraged to take research from national and international bodies to the market, by adding value. This calls for liberal support to Indian telecom product firms to make strategic investment IP ofuniversity spin-offs in India and outside. Professional organizations like incubator at IIM, Banaglore , where most of equipment manufacturers are located, can manage the funds.

• The customers of telecom equipment need to be provided incentives to test and adopt Indian innovations. Purchase and price preference in public procurement seems out of place though implemented intelligently in USA, EU and China. There can be condition that 10% of equipment sourced is based on Indian IP.

9. What could be the fiscal incentives to be offered by the Government? Should such incentives be linked to any outcome?

• Fiscal incentives for R&D are liberal for profit making firms.

• If investment in Indian incubated start-up is included in tax savings, the public will take care of all investment needs of Indian innovators. Crowd funding is emerging as an alternate mechanism.

• There is need for fiscal incentives to innovation intermediataries, IP trading and bundling houses, Common facilities owners etc.

Discover STARS in ICT area

The pilot program has taken off with 60 students from Tier I technical institutes, IITs,BIT, IIITs. Thanks  to all the IP strategists that have come forward to support the students.


In the next phase the educational cum competition program on innovation processes will be rolled out to Tier-2 technical institutes and  also other areas like Bio-Medical equipment, Pharmacy, Agriculture, Embedded technology.


Stakeholders are invited to join.

Innovation activity in Asia

The 2010 State of Innovation Report is the second annual analysis of 12 key technology areas and their global innovation by the IP Solutions business of Thomson Reuters. The technology areas analyzed within this report are often those with significant volumes of patent activity, according to data in the Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPISM) database from Thomson Reuters.Patent activity is used as a barometer for innovation in this report. To measure patent activity, expert analysts studied the first instance or invention for published patent applications and granted patents in 2010, counting each invention only once, in the country where protection was first sought. Asian countries Japan, Korea and China had significant presence in Satellite Technologies, Alternative Powered vehicles, Smart media, Kitchen appliances,Fermentation , Semi conductor materials and mobile telephony.
Source:http://ip.thomsonreuters.com/InnovationReport2010/L-364963_online.pdf

Indian Innovators Association signs MOU with Helsinki Heke Inventors Association

Indian Innovators Association (IIA) entered into an MOU with Helsinki Heke Inventors Association to bring Indian & Finnish innovators together. IIA , a registered NGO in India and member of international federation, IFIA, has been providing information and mentoring support to Indian Innovators since 1992. Most services are provided free of charge. HEKE is active Innovators Association with large membership. It is expected that this cooperation between Indian Innovators and their Finnish counterparts would result in cross border partnerships bringing Finnish innovations to Indian market and Indian Innovations to EU market.

Energy & Dynamic Braking video

Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal

In Seizing the White Space, author Johnson lays out a compelling case for business model innovation as catalyst for robust growth, both through transformation of existing markets- the white spaces within- that every company has and through creation of tomorrows new markets- the white spaces beyond - that many companies find so hard to venture into.
A successful company becomes very good at growing its core.It secures resources, improves existing products and creates new ones, expand markets and increase efficiencies by improving processes, all to extract the most value for its core activities. It also continues to develop and refine the key business rules and metrics that ensure proper execution, establish discipline and exert control through out the organisation. Either explicitly or implicitly the company is operating according to a business model, which defines the way the company delivers value to a set of customers at a profit. What happens when an opportunity arises outside a company core, an opportunity to serve an wholly new customer or an existing customer in a radically new way?


White space- the range of potential activities not defined or addressed by the company's current business model , that is, the opportunities outside its core and beyond its adjacencies that require a different business model to exploit. A business model is a representation of how a business creates and delivers value, both for the customer and the company. The basic architecture underlying all successful business consists of four interdependent elements- Customer Value Proposition (CVP), Key resources, key Processes and Profit formula.


The author contributes significantly to our understanding of CVP- a product , service or combination thereof that helps customers do more effectively , conveniently or affordably a job they have been trying to do. How to maximise a CVP?

• identify an important -job-to-be-done that is poorly satisfied today for a customer.
• devise and develop an offering that does the job better than alternatives at the lowest of appropriate price.

Author highlights importance of behavioural norms  as critical processes. Business rules, bahaviour norms and success metrics connect the elements of a business model and keep the system in proper balance. They ensure that the business repeatedly and predictably deliver the customer value proposition and fulfill the profit formula.


Take home:
do not ask yr customer what he/she needs? find out what they are trying to get done.