Government to permit Scientists, Technologists and Academicians to get associated with Knowledge Enterprises

The Union Cabinet today approved a proposal from Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) on “Encouraging development and commercialization of inventions and innovations; a new impetus” comprising a package of measures viz. a) Permitting the researchers to have an equity stake in scientific enterprises / spin offs while in professional employment with their research and academic organizations; b) Permitting the Scientific Establishment to invest knowledgebase as equity in the enterprises; c) Encouraging the Scientific Establishment to set up incubation centres; and d) Facilitating mobility of researchers between industry and scientific establishment.

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.

support to reserach institutes

DBT issued calls for proposals on several subject areas-the recent is for establishing centers of excellence at research institutes. see http://dbtindia.nic.in/oldwebsite/proposals/proposalmain.html

Ministry of Micro, Samll & Medium Enterprises also invited proposals from institutes for setting up incubators. see
http://www.dcmsme.gov.in/schemes/

non enzymic detergents from MDU

This report from merinews covers research from a lesser known research body- Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. As per this report, Dr Chander Shekhar Pundir , Dean Life Sciences and his students, Sarita and Sandhya Arya developed a process for non enzymic detergents.
According to research carried out at biochemistry department, an enzyme, lipase is immobilised onto the inner wall of a plastic beaker with the help of some specific chemicals, which provided the reuse of enzyme. This enzyme can also be immobilised onto the inner wall of washing chamber of a washing machine, which is generally made up of plastic. By immobilising this enzyme onto the lower part of sidewall or onto the bottom of washing chamber, if the clothes are washed with an ordinary and cheapen detergent (non enzymic detergent), the results are even better than those by costly detergents.

Garuda-nationwide computer grid

Nation wide computing grid, brainchild of Ramky, DG, CDAC seems ready for take-off. Seema in MINT reports "the 100 megabits per second grid is currently up and running with 500 processors connected to it and C-DAC intends to upgrade the network to operational speeds of 10 gigabits per second within a year.".

Setting up and Managing a Business Incubator in an academic environment

SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) , the incubator at IIT Mumbai is organizing this workshop on 21/12/2007 at IIT. There is no registration fee.

The workshop aims to share the experiences of IIT Bombay for setting up & managing a business incubator in an academic environment.
Contact:

Poyni Bhatt
Chief Administrative Officer
Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
IIT Bombay
Powai, Mumbai - 400 076
Tel.: +91 22 25767072, 25767016
Fax: +91 22 25721220
www.sineiitb.org

Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Program 2008

FICCI, jointly with the Lockheed Martin Corporation and IC2 Institute, University of Texas at Austin, USA announces the Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Program 2008, which is in continuum with the Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Program 2007. The aim of this program is to accelerate innovative new Indian technologies into global markets. The India Innovation Growth Program is the only program of its kind, because of its focus on teaching and using world-class commercialization strategies. The Program is wholly funded by Lockheed Martin Corporation, and developed with the assistance of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and FICCI. Best of all, there is no cost to participate.

Program is open to technologies from a wide range of fields including Aeronautics, Agriculture, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Communications, Computing, Defense, Electronics, Environmental, IT, Manufacturing, Marine, Materials, Medical / Life Sciences, Nanotech, Petrochemical, Semiconductors and Transportation. Applicants who are selected to participate in the program can look forward to the following benefits:

Training in technology commercialization strategies and entrepreneurship

Analysis of commercial potential of their technology

Participation in a technology competition judged by an international panel of experts

Program finalists will receive these additional benefits:

Professional business development assistance

Access to US and global markets

Other details are mentioned on the program website www.indiainnovates.in. For any further information, please contact my colleague Ms. Eittee Gupta, Research Analyst, Ph: 011-23325158, email: lm@ficci.com, eittee.gupta@ficci.com

Torque Technology Solution

Torque a pioneering technology incubated business venture started by aspiring entrepreneurs came into existence on 3 August, 2005. The first technology incubated company at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, a vibrant startup by engineering students and a complete student initiative, Torque has forayed and made its presence felt in the wireless sphere as a complete solutions provider - integrating innovative technologies into the corporate sector, the end user market and the community at large. Established its role as a mobile content aggregator and provider, provided short-code back-end solutions (SMS gateways) to interactive television campaigns, a community initiative reiterating our commitment to the society, hosted star portals and successfully forayed into the realm of M-Commerce.

Faculty innovations from IIT Mumbai

Path breaker Prof Jhunjhunwala gets international coverage. Read the article in Seattle Post Intelligencer .

Impact of budget on innovations

The budget anounced on 28th evoked mixed responses from the innovator community.
Extending fiscal incentives for 5 years: Biotech,Pharma and automobile are beneficiaries. This facilities investment on long term basis.
Clinical reserach: gets a boost with service tax ecemption for testing of new drugs, including vaccines and herbal remedies as well as on human trials.
Incubators: They get recognition for the first time with service tax exemptions. See CNN video for SINE views.
VCs: Indian VCs are unhappy with passthrough benefits restricted to selected few sectors. They feel it is unwarranted as passthrough is not an incentive.
ITI: Skill set gets a boost with ITIs getting investment to update their facilities. This is probably the best news but least covered. Any reason?

India Innovation Growth Program

Lockheed Martin announced establishing the India Innovation Growth Program as a two-year project to expand global export opportunities for new Indian technologies. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI)and the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin are partners in this program.Approximately 30 Indian companies will then be selected to participate in an Entrepreneurship Workshop to be delivered by faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin. In the final phase of the program, a select group of six finalist companies will receive more intense business development training.

DuPont Knowledge Center in India

DuPont announced plans to invest over $22.5 million to construct its first research and development center in India. The DuPont Knowledge Center will be located in Hyderabad and is expected to accommodate more than 300 scientists and other employees.Research at the site will focus on “integrated science” – the addition of biology to traditional strengths in chemistry and materials science – to develop the company’s application pipeline in India and other emerging markets. The site initially will focus on molecular biology, bio-informatics and polymer synthesis, with further R&D in the company’s application pipeline across all five of its business growth platforms.

Incubation news from FITT

FITT at IIT, Delhi has been incubating several pomising start-ups like Virtual Wire Technologies, Mechartes Researchers Pvt Ltd,On Yo Mo,Elfsys Embedded Solutons,Sanmotech Labs, Tensor Technologies. Read more about them in FITT newsletter.