In partnership with Indian Innovators Association, SkyQuest launched `Inspire to Innovate' contest on World IP day. Details:
Who Inspired your innovation and how? It could be a childhood story you read or a conversation in the lab. Share it and inspire the community to innovate.
Eligibility All innovators (individual or groups) can apply.
Mandate
The story should be about an innovation either work in progress or a past project. It can be at any stage of development.* The innovation should be beyond just an idea, vision or a dream.
My name is Ajit, and I am a founder of Invention Labs. I started Invention Labs in June 2007 with three of my friends from college. We felt that the culture of institutionalized Invention, which has contributed so much to the power of countries like the US and Japan, is lacking in India today. We started Invention Labs with the intention of creating innovative products for an Indian market, by building a team of highly talented engineers and business people with a strong India focus.
The concept for Invention Labs has been in my head for many, many years now. As a child, my thinking was shaped by a keen interest in science and mathematics, and a love for science fiction. My father was a scientist, and both my parents encouraged me to experiment at home. My childhood toys included various chemistry sets, a microscope and an electronics kit.
I think it was from science fiction books, movies and TV serials that I developed the dream of becoming an inventor. I had an excellent education in school, where my teachers encouraged and appreciated my interest in science. I briefly considered a career in mathematics, but I decided in favor of Electrical Engineering when into IIT Madras in 1998. In IIT Madras, I found a very warm and conducive atmosphere to fully explore my interest in creating things. I also had a very close circle of friends who were all keen about starting up their own companies. Those were the days when people like Sabeer Bhatia became famous for making a lot of money through entrepreneurship. Many of those friends today have their own companies, or are with leading venture capitalists, or are on the verge of starting up themselves.
I got a job in the US directly after my education in IIT Madras, but while waiting for my visa, I worked under Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala as a project officer. I teamed up with L Kannan, another IIT Madras alumnus and inventor, who had just begun work on a rural ATM. We were a great team, combining my knowledge of electronics with his knowledge of mechanical engineering. The rural ATM we began in 2003 is now being developed by Kannan's company Vortex, and is undergoing pilots in various places around the country. Kannan was also developing a novel spinning machine with TePP funding, and that was the first I heard of Government support for innovation.
When I went to the US, I was very clear that I would return in three years to start up. As it happened, I spent four years there, learning the realities of Engineering. I was very fortunate to have a good manager in the US, who took pains to guide me into becoming a mature engineer. I was also fortunate that the division of the company that I joined in the US had just begun work on a new product. In four years, I experienced first-hand what goes into taking a product from an idea to the market.
I kept my eyes open in the US for a strong team to start up with. Eventually, I found my partners through old IIT contacts. One friend was a batch-mate of mine who went on to do his MBA and was working in Dubai for KPMG. He went on to head the products marketing team at Invention Labs. Another friend was my junior, who was excellent at organizing things and getting things done, and was working for a leading financial company in the US. He is now the CEO of Invention Labs. A third friend is the best mechanical engineer I know, and he shares the responsibilities of engineering new products at Invention Labs with me.
One day, one of my professors in IIT Madras came to us with a request to help an organization called Vidyasagar to develop some innovative teaching aids. Vidyasagar is a school for spastic children. Many spastic children are quadriplegic, that is, they have no control over their limbs below the neck. Many of them are also unable to talk, and more than half of them have visual impairments. These children find communicating with their teachers and caregivers very challenging. Vidyasagar wanted to know if we could find a way of augmenting their communication skills through technology.
This was a project that excited us immediately, because it had a social impact, involved the latest technology, and contributed tremendously to the economic productivity of spastic people. However, this was not a product that could appeal immediately to a venture capitalist or a private equity shop, because we knew the returns would take a few years to materialize. We contacted TePP for funding, and are pleased to know that they are considering our application favorably. We hope to complete the product in early 2009, and after field trials at Vidyasagar, it will begin sales in mid 2009. The product has been code-named 'KAVI'.
I am determined that KAVI will not be the only product of Invention Labs. India needs Inventors, and Inventors need an environment where they can see their inventions being turned into useful and marketable products. I have dreamt of Invention Labs as being a company that provides that environment. I am lucky to have a team that is well-rounded in its ability to bring out products and take them to market, but as for me, I will always be an engineer first and an entrepreneur second. The thrill that I get from conceptualizing an idea, fleshing it out, constructing prototypes, and finally making it work, is unparalleled. If I am able to get this thrill again and again, and if I am able to see this same thrill in my colleagues at Invention Labs, I think our company will prosper -- and so will our nation.
All of us moved back to Chennai, got in touch with our alma mater, IIT Madras, and took the plunge. We had a few projects to start off with, that some of our contacts had generously offered us. So we were profitable from day 1! The cushion of money that these projects brought us gave us the time to pursue our own product ideas. We kept on the lookout for products that would be highly relevant in India, highly oriented toward technology, and which would make us rich soon.
As the year ends, it is time to reflect on the contributions made by independent innovators-most of them unknown yet their contributions are not insignificant. First in this series is story of Dr PT Ajit kumar, incubated at Technopark and supported under TePP.
I am a Ph. D holder in holography with international reputation in technology development and have more than 20 years of R&D experience in advanced areas of holographic imaging. I have conceived, designed and developed commercial holographic systems leading to production of holograms. I was a Senior Research Fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Head of the Holography Team of Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), a Government autonomous Research and Production Centre. I have published many international level research papers and widely invited for paper presentation in Holography by international bodies.
My first entrepreneurial bug bit me when I was a research student in the CochinUniversity of science and Technology. I designed and optimized a set of tuned Yagi antennae for fringe and super fringe area television reception. An SSI Unit named Pic- Sharp was started under the financial support of my father S. Thankappan. The product was a big success in remote area TV reception. This was in 1986. Later in 2001, I designed several high gain dish antennae for satellite TV reception and initiated fabrication. This lead to the starting of a new SSI Unit named Webs Electronics, in Trivandrum and this unit manufactured the biggest satellite dish ever manufactured in the State of Kerala, as part of a project funded by the Lakshadweep Administration, Government of India.
It took about three years to start the company from the idea level to the practical realization. Motivation of the colleagues and friends of C-DIT was a great reason and fuelled the starting of the company. Requirement of huge financial commitment as capital investment was a real challenge for the scientist turned entrepreneur like me. In 2007 Light Logics was practically initiated under the financial support from family and a set of NRI friends. Both the Directors are the close relatives of me and my continuous interaction convinced them of the immense potential in this field and the inevitability to have a techno-intensive company that functions in advanced areas of holographic imaging, rather than only in the security label production.
Several times I envied on Chinese and Russian friends for the excellent Governmental support they receive through the InnovationCenters and IncubationCenters. It was a pleasant surprise and a great help for all of us when we came to know about the Technopark Technology Business Incubation programme. The support from Technopark TBI helped the company in having a better positioning for international marketing of our products and services. As a company initiated by a Techno-prenure, our biggest hurdle was the marketing. We get excellent guidance from the Technopark for this and the guidelines that the Technopark strictly adhere to helped us to remold the company in its marketing, leading to result. Our presence in the TBI helped us to know about the TePP Scheme of DSIR, Govt of India and lead to the financial support from TePP scheme. This fuelled our initiative to have the first Holography Studio of the country. Our presence in the Technopark gives us an international reputation and the official and administrative help from the Technopark plays a vital role in our success and our whole functioning.
The Company plans to grow as the most techno-intensive holography company of the globe with a spectrum of unique higher end products. The first phase of growth is planned for three years and during this, the company is planning to accommodate about five Ph.Ds , 12 engineers and fifteen technicians, apart from the marketing and sales team. The company targets a turn over of 75 million USD by the end of the first phase.
The small car developed by Tata Motors is another milestone in evolution of automobile sector in India from imitators to innovators. The number of patents filed by the six top local auto makers in the country jumped 85 per cent in just 18 months since January 2005 against the 10-year period between Januray 1995 and December 2004, according to data from Evalueserve, a firm that tracks patent filings.In contrast, companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda and Ashok Leyland (which has a tie-up with Iveco) that depend on their global partners for the bulk of their technology account for just 2 per cent of all patents filed.
Among the companies, Chennai-based TVS Motors, is the leader in terms of the sheer volume of patent filings in Indi - the company has filed 131 patents to the Indian Patent Office since January 1995, of which 70 per cent have been filed since January 2005, speeding up after its joint venture with Suzuki ended in 2001.However, when it comes to the success rate, Tata Motors takes the top honours, with the ratio between patents filed and issued at 60 per cent.
Dr. P. K. Sethi, who invented the affordable prosthesis called the Jaipur foot, which has helped millions of amputees in developing countries to lead normal lives, died Sunday in Jaipur, India. He was 80.The Jaipur foot, which has never been patented, is available in more than 25 countries, most of them poor, many of them with great numbers of land-mine victims. Unlike many high-priced prostheses in developed countries, it can be made by traditional craftsmen, lasts more than five years and costs about $30, making it affordable for mass distribution.Pramod Karan Sethi was born on Nov. 28, 1927, in the ancient northern Indian city of Benares (now Varanasi), on the banks of the Ganges. His father was a professor of physics at Benares Hindu University. On completing his medical education in India and Britain, he became a lecturer in surgery at Sawai Man Singh Medical College and Hospital in Jaipur.Dr. Sethi came up with his invention after years of extensive research. He was helped by Ramachandra Sharma, a semiliterate craftsman who had been teaching lepers to make handicrafts and who became his assistant....read
Innovation Predictions 2008 by BW includes the Indian favorite `mobile application' besides charting larger territory for Innovation consultancy from BD (Business Design) curriculum for B-schools to IM (Innovation Management) for Executive Training. May be enterprising Innovation Consultants can begin training CEO's at the retreat designed by Mumbai Architects, winner of Design for Asia awards.
"ion", the company, was founded by Vikram V Chadaga, Niara Ahmed and Swaroop C H. It all started one fine day when Vikram wanted to charge his iPod but didn't want to keep the computer on overnight just for that (it's a waste of electricity, and there might be powercuts too). So he went looking for the official Apple iPod charger but found it to be rather expensive. The other chargers in the market at that time were not good enough, especially keeping in mind the safety of the expensive iPod, and many of them were unbranded which made them even more risky to use. Being an electronics geek, he took one of the circuits which he had made previously to power some instruments in his home (the circuit was in live use in his home for nearly 5 years) and then use it to create a charger with a USB port. He put in a regulator to make sure his iPod is safe from power surges.He got excited and showed it to his friends and mentioned a crazy idea of producing more of these and selling them. Fortunately or unfortunately, Niara took him seriously and over a period of many months, encouraged him to really follow that idea. Together, they turned the idea to execution (investment and costing, sourcing of raw materials, finding an assembler, etc), and then Swaroop joined them to help them out with the marketing, the design and the website. The rest, as they say, is history.
