Sewage treatment plant at Worli, Mumbai

Sewage treatment is a difficult urban problem, is expensive and often unsatisfactorily delivered especially in India. Effective but simple technology has been developed by IITB (Prof.HSShankar, ChE Dept along with his students) that uses the ‘green’ Soil Bio-Technology (SBT). The Soil bio-Technology uses a carefully prepared and maintained soil bed as a highly aerated reactor containing bio-organisms for (i) filtering the suspended matter and its bioconversion to odourless bio-fertilizer, (ii) converting dissolved organics by adsorptionand oxidation/bioconversion, and (iii) oxidizing the dissolved inorganic substances leading to precipitation and bioconversion. The basic control apparently is to manage the soil chemistry with appropriate mineral based additives to maintain a near neutral pH andto keep it highly porous for good aeration. The root systems of the plants on the bed helpin keeping the soil porous and have a biotic relationship with the organisms.

m-cam.com

David E. Martin, is the founding CEO of M·CAM, Inc., dealing with intellectual property-based financial risk management. M·CAM developed the Technology and Vendor Qualification Programs™ to assist professionals involved in procurement efforts to acquire specific technologies for their organizations. The products provide critical assessment information on the validity of the proposed technology to be procured vis-á-vis the state-of-the-art within a specific technology sector. M·CAM Vendor Verification Certifications™ provide clients with an ability to verify whether or not a vendor/supplier of a technology actually has the legal right to the technology being procured.M·TRACE™ services consist of proprietary research analyses developed by M·CAM to illuminate knowledge-asset proliferation threats posed by proposed, current, or former employees of a client company. And several more path breaking services in IP- read on.

Fab Lab

Fablab is basically a collection of set of computerized high-tech tools, which can be used to fabricate instruments of any utility and configuration. A place that empowers innovators to make almost anything. Fablabs have been developed by Centre of Bits and Atoms of Masssachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), USA. One such a lab exists at Vigyan Ashram, Pune finded by MIT at a cost of $200,000/-. VA trains school drop outs to use FABLAB equipments. The students undergo a diploma course of one year where they work in different streams of engineering and get trained in various fields. Engineers at the Ashram train these students. R&D takes place at the Fablab where the students are asked to work on a project of their choice using the Fablab equipments. Interested- read on:

Here are background links on fab labs:

articles:

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060821/full/442862a.html

(copy at http://cba.mit.edu/~neilg/dist/nature.pdf) http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3786368 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-06-fab-lab_x.htm interviews:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2005/Nov/hour1_111105.html http://audio.theworld.org/wma/2005/09207.wma

book:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931027_mz005.htm

talks and presentations:

http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=n_gershenfeld http://cba.mit.edu/events/06.06.ZA/symposium.html http://cba.mit.edu/~neilg/dist/fab.pdf

CBA:

http://cba.mit.edu/events/06.10.review/

http://cba.mit.edu/docs/06.09.NSF/

demos:

http://cba.mit.edu/~neilg/demos

hardware:

http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/fab/inv.html

software:

http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/fab/

videoconference:

http://fab.cba.mit.edu/content/processes/video/index.html

First Internation Inventions Fair of the Middle East‎

Kuwait Science Club, under the patronage of International Exhibition of Inventions, New Techniques and Products of Geneva, is organizing the First International Invention Fair of the Middle East (IIFME) from the 23rd to the 26th of October 2007, In Kuwait City. Contact person:

Eyad J. Al-Kharafi

Chairman of Directors

Head of High Organizing Committee

Kuwait Science Club*

P.O. Box 23259 SAFAT*

13093 Kuwait*

Tel.: +965- 539 65 61/2/4/8*

Fax: +965-5396567*

Http://www.iifme.com

E-mail: er@iifme.com

President speaks at Maruti

Hon.Presidents speech at Maruti is one of the most logically structured talk I have come across. Maruti is no 2 in productivity and road map to become no 1 includes a heavy dose of investment in R&D. And Maruti is not short of cash, as the Hon.President pointed out - they had Rs1500 crore profit in 2006-7. Will they bite the bullet and be known as innovators in automobiles. It probably depends on the strategic intent of owners as exhibited by Hyundai a decade back with much smaller base of market and resources.

Assocham conference on Automation and Robotics

Assocham conference on Automation and Robotics held on 26th May brought together several experts working in this field. Systemantics based in Bangalore is one of the few Indian firms in this field, offering Pick and Place robots, Dr Jagannath Raju is Director of this firm. Rajesh Ananthakrishnan of IITB promoted Reflex Technologies Pvt Ltd ,Mumbai offering custom based automation and robotics projects. Much more activity is evident on research front with Prof Amarnath from IIT Mumbai, Prof Susmit Sen from IIT Kanpur, Dr SK Saha from IIT Delhi and Prof K Madhava Krishna from IIIT Hyderabad grooming several young students in this discipline. Anuj Sehgal is man behind India's only NGO in this field `Intelligent Unmanned Robotics Society'. Defence is a major player with CAIR doing pioneering work.

Motilal Oswal Venture Capital Advisors Private Limited (MOVCAPL)

Motilal Oswal Venture Capital Advisors Private Limited (MOVCAPL) , a subsidiary of Mumbai-based Motilal Oswal Financial Services, is investing in existing SMES. This private equity fund recently raised $42 million of a proposed $100 million. The deal size will be around $5 million . Read the interview at India Knowledge Wharton.

2007 Taipei International Invention Show and Technomart

Invitation received from Thomas Chang, Director,Taipei World Tradee Centre, Mumabai, inviting participation by Indian Innovators in the 2007 Taipei International Invention Show and Technomart to be held from September 27 to September 30 2007.

Inventors from across the world will use this venue to show their latest and most exciting breakthroughs for the innovation and research in the potential industries like technology, High Technology, Fiber Optics, Machinery, Construction, Safety Equipment, Environmental Protection, Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare, Transport and Communications, Household Electronic Appliances, Hardware, Agriculture, Food, Textiles, and Optoelectronics, Precision Machinery, Materials and Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Technology and much more.
Innovators interested in participation can contact me or call TWTC at 022- 22163074-77.

School in a Box

`School in a Box' is a software product developed by start-up, Pefect future, New delhi, promoted by Microsoft engr Tarun Anad. At Rs 15/- this may find wide acceptance among schools- another innovation for Bottom Of the Pyramid market from Inda. New york times carrys a story on the start-up.

Matsushita Buys India's Anchor

Forbes reports that Matsushita Electric Works, a subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. had bought 80% of leading Indian electrical equipment maker Anchor from the Mumbai-based Shah family for $480 million. The deal is important for several reasons:

1. Anchor manufactures simple products like electric switches, though Matsushita markets electrical wiring and related items in Japan, how it fares in India selling such a low unit products remain to be seen.

2. The products Anchor makes in India were once reserved for small scale industries and Anchor is credited with creating brands in an otherwise commodity market.

3. Will Matsushita ever be able to sell these low unit price products under its own name? Despite its name and resources , success in India eluded this Japanese top of the mind recall brand owner. National and Panasonic once dominated Indian grey market which disappeared with liberalisation and globalisation.

4. The deal is indicative of strengths of small scale industries that focused on design innovations and may be despair of Japanese firms who lost the race to Koreans in India .

Sunil Shaunak

Fortune's list of 24 top innovators include Sunil Shaunak , Professor of infectious diseases, London University's Imperial College, developing medicines for a fraction of what Big Pharma spends. His small biotech, PolyTherics, created a new hepatitis C medicine, which will undergo final testing this year. License was granted to Shanta biotechnics, a price warrior credited to bringing down prices of vaccines to a fraction in India.

Diaonics Automation

Diaonics Automation is a small unit promoted by design engineer Prashant. It has successfully developed wireless fire alarm, smoke/ heat detector etc. Detector has a monitoring LED that operates about every 16 seconds per cycle (flash) during stand-by status. When there is smoke, detector will issue fire signal after 16 consecutive times of confirmation on every 0.3 seconds. If any dust causes flashing or in consecutive signal, it will back to normal status after 32 confirmations.

Boron Rubbers Ltd

Boron Rubber is effective for shielding thermal neutrons and to get over the restrictions on supply, BARC supported a project to develop neutron shielding material for the neutron beam guide and other instruments. The project was assigned to Prof. R.V. Mehta and Prof. R.V. Upadhyay and Dr. G.M. Sutaria of the Department of Physics, Bhavnagar University. Successful development led industrialist Deepak Doshi to start this venture.

Succession of standards

I have referred to standards in my previous posts of December 6th, August 25th & August 15th 2006. Ken Krechmer in his paper `The Entrepreneur and Standards' which recd 2nd prize at IEC Centenary challenge , gives a historic account of standards and a peep into the future, `adaptable systems'. Adaptable systems occur when autonomous elements of a network can identify, negotiate and select among different capabilities to implement the most desired compatibility.

Orizon Technologies

Another successful start-up in RFID space. Incubated at NirmaLabs, a private incubator, based in Ahmedabad, mentored by Venkat Rajendran ex CDOT & co-founder of Deccanet Designs Pvt Ltd, promoted by two young graduates from NIT, Trichy Prashant and Palaniappan.

Multipurpose National Identity Cards (MNIC)

One of the major initiatives of government that created opportunities for local manufacturing is MNIC proposal.The main purpose of this project is to provide a credible individual identification system and simultaneous use for several multifarious socio-economic benefits and transactions within and outside the Government. This would form the basis of more efficient e-Governance. The system envisages preparation of a computerized National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), providing a unique National Identity Number (NIN) to each citizen of the country and issue of identity cards. The NRIC would be continuously updated by linking it to the registration of births and deaths carried out under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.
The Government has decided to conduct a pilot for the MNIC Project in selected areas of 13 districts in thirteen states/union territories in the country. ECIL is setting up a dedicated facility to manufacture MNIC at Tirupath.

MIC Electronics goes public

Mic Electronics ltd was promoted by Ramana rao, who had his engg graduation from Andhra Univerity, ME from PSG and PhD from JNU. Starting as a lecturer he started his entrepreneurial activties by developing moving display boards for railway stations, bus stands and became leader with LED display boards. A pioneering effort by a technocrat. For the financial year ended June 2006, the company reported revenues of 104.41 crore and a net profit of Rs 15.59 crore.

MIC Electronics Ltd is tapping the capital markets with a public issue for 51,00,000 shares at a price band of Rs 129 to Rs 150, to raise between Rs 65.79 crore and Rs 76.50 crore.

End of nuisance patents

Granting patents liberally in US created a situation that every successful product invites demands for royalty payments or threat of infringement from the patent owners. See paper on `covering patent infringement risks in technology transfer'. The statistics are revealing- in 2004, 150,000 patents were granted but lawsuits filed exceeded 300,000. Based on recent Supreme Court Judgment ` KSR INT’L CO. v. TELEFLEX INC'. Economic Times gives out the hope that many such patent claims would hence forth be considered obvious and not granted. (source: Economic Times)

The next 4 billion BOP market

Report on `The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid' was released on 26th April at CII-WRI function with presentation by author Allen L. Hammond. As per the report Indian BOP market size is in Trillions. There are discussions and debates on this BOP concept. One thing is clear, this market demands not only price & delivery innovations but also product innovations. TePP supported nearly 200 innovations for Bottom of Pyramid market. Interested?

Researh paper by school children

A research paper `Theoretical optimisation of constitution of alloys by decoding their densities' was published in `Materials letters' 61, 2007(2956-2960). What is remarkable about it- authors are students- not IIT - from S.S. Children’s Academy, Moradabad (Ms. Pratibha, student of Class XII and Ms. Bharati, Student of Class X). They have overcome several hurdles, skepticism is the main one, but perseverance of their mentor Dr BC Rathore paid off in the end. Source of inspiration for the school children- Hon.President of India, he made BIS to consider it as a test method.
The proposed Model successfully generates two different series of probable compositions for a given density of alloys. The model may be employed to optimise constitution of multi-component alloy even without the prior knowledge of constituent metal.

China’s 15 Year Science and Technology Plan

China’s “National Medium- and Long-Term Program for Scientific and Technological Development” (2006-2020) is more commonly known as the 15 Year Plan for Science and Technology. President Hu Jintao, supported by scientific leaders in the Chinese government, introduced the plan in January 2006. Its ultimate goal is to make China a preeminent power in science and technology by expanding its capacity to create “indigenous innovation.” Annual investment - over $100 billion. “indigenous innovation" means “independent, self-reliant, and indigenous” and combining three distinct elements: yuanshi (original, or genuinely new); jicheng (integrated, or combining existing technologies in new ways); and yinjin (assimilated, or making improvements to imported technologies). Americans are concerned and American Electronics Association has come with this report.

Any concern in our country?

Onio Design Pvt. Ltd,Pune

Onio Design was founded by alumnus of IIT Bombay and NID, Manoj Kothari,Prakash Khanzode, Anil Chowhan.Onio Design is focused on integrated design service on Product Design. Onio's work spans Design Research, Brand Design, Product Design, Design Engineering and Communication Design for SMEs to large multinationals. Apart from large firms like Godrej , it also works with small start-ups.

ISA- VSI Technovation Awards

ISA, in association with the VLSI Society of India (VSI) invites proposal for Technovation Awards:
ISA TechnoVisionary: Life time achievement award given to a global Indian or Person of Indian Origin (PIO) for their outstanding contributions in the field of semiconductors.
ISA-VSI TechnoMentor of the year award is given to an academic professional working in India for their mentoring and research.
ISA-VSI TechnoShield is a rolling shield for the best academic Institution in India for its remarkable work in semiconductor space.
See details.

ISA-VSI TechnoInventor of the year award given to young investigators recognizing outstanding Doctorate or Master research from Indian universities.

South Korea's mobile RFID technology

EE Times bring the news that the South Korean proprietary mobile radio-frequency ID technology, known here as Object Identifier (OID), has been adopted as an international standard by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This is another landmark achievement by the farsighted Koreans. They established beach head applications in port/ airport logistics with RFID, resisted the attempts of Americans to impose their (Savi) technology while accepting partner status in defense logistics. For all the efforts , they now are in a commanding position, they get patent fees and other first mover advantage. We are far behind, in passive tag era.

PCT patents from India on decline

A record 145,300 international patent applications were filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2006, an increase of 6.4 percent over the previous year. Philips topped the list with 2,495. India is not among the top 15 , China is at 8 with patent applications raising from 1018 in year 2002 to 3,910 in year 2006. India on the other hand has seen a steady decline from a high of 764 applications in 2003 to 627 in year 2006.

India on the raise???

The 2007 World Cup of Computer Implemented Inventions Semifinal

The 2007 World Cup of Computer Implemented Inventions Semifinal (CII 2007 SEMIFINAL) for Asia, Australia & Africa is scheduled in September 27-30, 2007at Taipei, Taiwan ,Organized by: International Federation of Inventor’s Associations (IFIA), Hosted by: National United University (NUU) &Taiwan Invention Products Promotion Association (TIPPA). CII 2007 SEMIFINAL is a worldwide competition and exhibition event organized by the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA).
Indian Innovators Association has been invited to select 5 nominations from India. Interested parties can write me.For details see: http://www.invention-ifia.ch/cii/cii.htm

eInfochips

eInfochips was promoted by Pratul Shroff. He holds a BS in Electronics Engineering from BITS - 1976, and a MS in Computer Engineering from Cornell - 1977. He has worked for 9 years at Intel and Daisy Systems. At Intel, he was one of the designers of the 80186 chip, fountainhead of the PC era. Pratul was one of the founders of Daisy. He founded eInfochips in 1995 with just one engineer, working out of his home. IPNetCam is their new offering, a Smart Surveillance Camera Reference Design based on TIDaVinci TM (TMS320DM6446 TM) technology with features like Object Detection, Classification & Tracking.

DC College of Automotive studies

For all those aspiring to design real cars, here is the opportunity. Designer Chhabria is opening a new school in pune. Read the article in Business Week.

Blow switch

Researcher Jayashree Santosh was covered in the stories `Sixty in sixty' brought out by Mint. Blow switch is the innovation of this researcher from IITD. This and many more technologies are available for transfer from FITT. Any takers?

Nano material based water filter

The efforts of Prof CNR Rao to bring Nano technology to market seems to be paying off sooner than expected. Business line broke the news of IITM developing nano material based water filter and bringing it to Indian houses thro Eureka Forbes. Read the research paper on coating of silver nano particles on PU foams - the science behind the technology.

Creativity Institute in India

Do U feel there is a need for an exclusive institute to work on creativity? Lot of churning is going on this topic right now. Join the community and post yr comments at http://icreative.wordpress.com/2007/

Satellite Imaging For Rail Navigation (SIMRAN)

SIMRAN, a GPS based Railway Network Mapping and Train Tracking system is joint project of IIT Kanpur, e-Logistis , Chennai and RDSO, Licknow. Trial are conducted between Allahabad-Kanpur, Kanpur–Lucknow and between Chennai – Bangalore sections.

Gemini Traze RFID Pvt ltd

India's first high volume automated RFID tag facility opened near Chennai. TRAZE products represent the most comprehensive range of RFID products and technology, from transponders and smart labels to readers, antennas, software and application support. The Company’s series of products comprises of

aLow frequency (134.2 kHz)

aHigh frequency (13.56 MHz)

aVery High Frequency (433 MHz) and

aUltra High Frequency (860-960 MHz) range.

exhibition of IP service firms

World IP day and 150th year of Indian Patent System will be celebrated on 25th & 26th April and IPO, Chennai is offering stalls free of cost to organisations offering IP services. Interested parties can contact Rengasamy, Asst.Controller of Patens & Designs on 044-22322824.

BioAsia Innovation Award for Young Scientists

BioAsia Innovation Award was introduced for the first time in BioAsia 2007 through Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) to promote Innovation among the young Scientists below the age of 35. The “BioAsia Innovation Award for Young Scientists (2007)”, was awarded to Dr. Madhusudan Reddy Nandineni’s proposal on “A Microbial Process for L-Arginine Production”.

Four Soft Limited (4S)

Srikanth Palem Reddy, CEO & MD, Four Soft, explains challenges faced by product developing IT firms in India, an island in a ocean of code writers. source: express computer.

2007 EE Times ACE Awards Winners

2007 EE Times ACE Awards Winners announced. Start-up of the year award goes to Ruckus wireless for pioneering broadcast quality multimedia to homes over Wi-Fi . Innovators of the year is Wan-Thai Hsu of Discera. Dr. Hsu is one of the pioneer researchers and inventors in the area of silicon and metal resonators. Part of his doctoral work led to the birth of Discera Inc. in 2001.

BestYoung Entrepreneurs from Business Week

Business week selected 14 best and brightest tech young entrepreneurs. See the slide show. Surprise in store for those that think Indians rule silicon valley- there are none in this list.

Regional Reserach Labs renamed

The name of all the five RRLs in Bhubaneswar, Jammu, Bhopal, Johrhat and Trivendrum have been changed.

• RRL Bhubaneswar’s name has been changed to Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT).
• RRL Bhopal’s name has been changed to Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (AMPRI), Bhopal.
• RRL Jammu’s name has been changed to Indian Institute of Integrated medicine (IIIM).
• RRL Trivendrum’s name has been changed to National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIST).
• RRL Johrhat’s name has been changed to North East Institute of Science and Technology.

Sensors Technology Private Limited

Sensors Technology Private Limited is promoted by Dr. Shyam Sunder Tiwari, research scientist from DAE, specializing in Sensors Technology products like Precision Delay Timers, Ion Beam Charge Amplifiers, water level meters, LPG/CNG leak arams.

Ten promising startt-ups from Business Today

Business Today (April 2007 edition) carried profiles ten start-ups.
24X7 Learning solutions - e-learning, -funding KITVEN and Anil Garg(angel investor-ex CTO, Sony)
Adventity -KPO, funding NVP
Drishtee Development & Communication Limited- ICT in rural India-Funding Acumen
Guruji.com- search engine-funding Sequoia
JiGrahak-M Commerce-funding Hellion Ventures
Asia Cryo-Cell - card blood-funding PS Pai(angel Wipro)
Nautanki.TV-online TV
Onyomo-P2A-funding Shailesh Mehta
Seventymm-movie rental-DFJ
UFO Moviez-digital cinema-3i

cost of patent litigation

Though it is well known patent litigation, specially for short life products benefits no one other than patent attorneys, there is little reporting on facts. This news item from EE Times gives clear picture of costs and lost opportunities. Read Magma Vs Synopsys case.

Creative future 2007 awards

Priya Patil , a fashion/accessory designer from Mumbai was announced Winner and India's Creative Future 2007. Aparna Rao, proprietor and senior designer of Applied Fiction, an interaction design studio based in Bangalore was awarded for the most Pioneering Vision and Sheetal Sudhir, Broadcast Designer and currently Head of on-air-promotions of Channel [V], Star India Pvt. Ltd was awarded for Outstanding Entrepreneurship.Creative Future is a joint program of Creative Future School at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and British Council. Further details at:

http://creativefuture.britishcouncil.org.in/home.htm

UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI)

UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) was announced by the Prime Minister Tony Blair during his visit to India in September 2005, and launched by him in April 2006. Under the initiative, United Kingdom has pledged ₤12 million through contributions by DfES, FCO, DTI and the British Council and the private sector has added ₤4 million through the 4 corporate champions BAE, BP, GSK and Shell to this fund. Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India has pledged matching funding for science related collaboration under the initiative.Under UKIERI upto 10 Scholarships will be available over the period 2007-2008 for Indians who have excellent academic background to carry out doctoral research leading to PhD, DPhil degrees in UK institutions. Closing date: 15 May 2007.

Erasmic Venture Fund

Most VC funds are too big for start-ups. Filling the gap for small fund is Erasmic Venture fund. Small Device Technologies is one such supported start-up. More information on Indian entrepreneurial eco system is available in article on Sai Gundavelli in Business Week.

Proto-in

For technology startups to showcase their products / technologies and attract VC capital Proto-in is emerging as an important event. The next gathering is scheduled on July 21st & 22nd at Chennai. For details see http://www.proto.in/.

Annual research awards from Ranbaxy Science Foundation

Ranbaxy Science Foundation, a non-profit organization established by Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, today announced its Annual Research Awards for the year 2005 to 6 scientists as listed below:
Dr. Sankar Ghosh, Professor, Section of Immunology and Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University School of Medicine, USA, received the award in Basic Research for his several ground-breaking discoveries in the broad field of cell signaling in immunology.

Dr. Nirbhay Kumar, Professor, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, USA, and Dr. B.C. Das, Director of Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICPO), India, jointly shared the award in the field of Medical Research.Dr. Nirbhay Kumar also received the award for his outstanding research in malaria that have led to novel approaches to the prevention of transmission of this important human infection.

Dr. B.C. Das was selected for the award for his original contributions in the early detection and control of cervical cancer which is a major cancer among Indian women and a public health problem.

Dr. Inderjit Singh Anand, Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, University of Minnesota, and Dr. Surendra K. Sharma, Professor & Head, Chief, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, were jointly conferred with the award in the field of Clinical Research.

Dr. Anand got the award for his contributions in the field of High Altitude Medicine and Biology and Dr. Sharma will receive the award for his outstanding contributions in the field of tuberculosis, HIV and interstitial lung disease.

Dr. Ahmed Kamal, Scientist, Biotransformation Laboratory, Division of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India, received the award in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences for his innovative contribution in designing the new molecules based on the receptor-fit mechanism particularly for DNA minor groove binding and DNA topoisomerase II inhibition.

American innovation proclamation

U.S. business and higher education leaders unveiled "The American Innovation Proclamation," urging Congress to move forward on critical legislation that promotes U.S. competitiveness and sustains U.S. innovation leadership. The proclamation is signed by more than 270 business and higher education leaders. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Chairman, House Science and Technology Committee and a Bipartisan Group of House and Senate Members received the proclamation at a well attended press event March 13 in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.
(source: Calesteous Juma)

Maketics Technologies

Maketics Technologies is a start-up , converting data into information, promoted by Sreenivasan Ramakrishnan, a product of SPJIMR. Read the fascinating story covered in rediffnews.

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.

The greatest innovations of all times

Business Week carries Greatest Innovations of all times nominated by Larry Keeley of Doblin Inc. Very interesting perspective. Take a look.

Small car from Lokesh Machines

Before Indica, all cars were of imported design. Tata Motors built on years of learning accrued from truck manufacturing. MLR motors promoted by Lokesh Machines does not fit in any accepted business model. He is a successful machine tool designer, who left HMT and started his own for the better in 1983. His machine tools are exported to many countries and most automobile firms are his users. He will have savings in capital costs with in-house supply and marketing front is covered by B V R Subbu (former president of Hyundai Motors India). What about the design? Tie-up with design houses is not revealed nor he exhibited any concept model. Success of his diesel Teja 3 wheeler can be an indication of functional, low cost car in offing.

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?

Neubauplan Machine Design Studio

Neubauplan Machine Design Studio was founded on 17th August 1981 in Pune, India, by Mr. Harshwardhan Gupta, a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering in First Class from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, from the 1976 Batch. He has been designing intricate machines since 1975.
Web resources:
www.neubauplan.com
http://www.neubauplan.com/Achievements.htm
http://www.linkedin.com/in/harshwardhangupta

Dr Dilip Mahalanabis

The medical Journal The Lancet has called ORT as “the 20th century’s most important medical discovery”.Late last year four medical professionals - three Americans and one Indian – got the Prince Mahidol Award 2006 for doing work that led to the use of ORT (Oral Rehydration Therapy) – “an inexpensive but effective treatment of severe diarrhoea.” These four men are Dr Dilip Mahalanabis, who is a director of a non-governmental research organisation in Calcutta, Dr David R Nalin, former director at Merck & Co’s Vaccine Division in Pennsylvania, Dr Richard A Cash, senior lecturer at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston.These four pioneers were chosen from among 59 nominees in 29 countries.

Read more at: http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2007/02/17/an-indian-doctor-gets-recognition/#comment-3843

LG wins bid for low-cost 3G phone

The GSM Association selected a low-cost 3G handset developed by LG Electronics in a project aimed at accelerating the adoption of 3G services worldwide.LG competed against eight other handset providers that offered up a total of 18 phones. The phone, known as the LG-KU250/U250,powered by Qualcomm's MSM 6425 chip set is based on common specifications and criteria drafted by 12 operators for a GSMA program called "3G For All." The criteria included functionality, usability, logistics, market acceptance, target price, service and support, strategic commitment and form factor.

The need for such a phone was discussed in the GSM association meeting held in Delhi.
It can be expected that with onset of 3G phones, 2G phone manufacturing will shift to countries like India.

Filtering Arsenic From Water Wells

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced winners of the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability. The contest sought innovative solutions for removing arsenic from drinking water that is slowly poisoning tens of millions of people in developing countries. Three prizes will be awarded from a field of more than 70 entries. The prize winners are recognized for the development, in-field verification, and dissemination of effective techniques for reducing arsenic levels in water. The systems must be affordable, reliable, easy to maintain, socially acceptable, and environmentally friendly. All of the winning systems meet or exceed the local government guidelines for arsenic removal and require no electricity.

Abul Hussam, an associate professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va., will receive the Grainger Challenge Gold Award of $1 million for his SONO filter, a household water treatment system.

Arup K. SenGupta, John E. Greenleaf, Lee M. Blaney, Owen E. Boyd, Arun K. Deb, and the nonprofit organization Water For People will share the Grainger Challenge Silver Award of $200,000 for their community water treatment system.
The Children's Safe Drinking Water Program at Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G), Cincinnati, will receive the Grainger Challenge Bronze Award of $100,000 for the PUR™ Purifier of Water coagulation and flocculation water treatment system.

The Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)

The European Union invited India to participate in its 54 billion Euro science and research programme (Fp7) that will run for five years. Researchers may look into the calls for proposals still open.

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.

Indian Semiconductors Association

New policy on Semiconductors is on the anvil. The chip makers are in the news and besides them there are large number of start-ups in this field. Check the members of Indian Semiconductors Association.

Philips Optical Media and. Technology (OM&T)

Moser Baer joins the battle for next generation DVDs by acquiring a majority stake in OM&T, the Netherlands based R&D arm of Philips. The E10 million OM&T specialises in optical media R&D betting on Blue Ray discs. These are the next generation optical discs, which offer higher storage capacities and will replace the current compact discs (CDs) and DVDs.

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.

GOOGLE PATENT SEARCH

Inventors and anyone interested in patents will be interested to know
that Google, as part of their apparent effort to patent every piece
of information on the planet, have put the entire corpus of the US
patent database on-line. It is an amazing collection of information.
Moreover, it is an extremely useful tool for inventors as it allows
you to search quickly for patents relevant to your ideas.

You can visit the Google Patent Search tool at
http://www.google.com/patents

Inside India 2007

As global focus shifts to the Indian market, there is a curiosity to understand Indian consumer trends, beyond statistics. This unique 2 day event targets European and American companies interested in gaining a deeper understanding of Indian consumers, from a 'traditions and trends' perspective.

Dates: March 15-16, 2007
Venue: Danish Design Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark
Organised by: Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies

Boston VC delegation in India

Silicon Valley based VCs cemented their relationship with Indian start-ups thru a series of deals. Now come a large delegation of 40 VCs from East coast of USA. TiE, New Delhi coordinated Interaction meet was held on 5th Feb in Delhi. Saurabh Srivasthava , Chairman of IVCA gave an overview of VC funding. Three entrepreneurs who had gone thro the fire, K Ganesh , Deep Kalra and Sanjay Swamy gave a personal account of their happy journey in this track.

CALL FOR BUSINESS PLANS 2007-New Ventures India

Information on New Ventures India is posted in this blog on November 18, 2006. Now communication recd from Anil Kumar Gade about their call for business plans. The first annual call for Business Plans for New Ventures India is open until April 15, 2007. New Ventures India will select at least ten finalists that deliver innovative,environmental benefits and are financially viable.Selected finalists will receive pro bono mentoring to improve the business plan to present at the first annual New Ventures India Investor Forum, October 9-11, 2007, in Mumbai.

Eligible companies Must have Operation in one of the following sectors:
o Agriculture/Organic Products
o Clean Technologies
o Eco-Tourism/Hospitality
o Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy
o Green Building Materials
o Rapidly Renewable Materials
o Resources,Reuse & Recycling
o Advance Technologies for Water Management
SMEs in the above line and seeking investment between INR 50Lacs to INR 25Crores can apply. For clarifications contact Anil Kumar Gade , email ID: anilkumar.gade@ciionline.org

Consumer Vision Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Consumer Vision Technologies Pvt. Ltd. an IITB -SINE incubated start-up in the news. Read the article`IIT grads make shopping more interactive'.
For more details:

Rohit Nalwade
CEO & Product Architect
Consumer Vision Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
SINE Technology Business Incubator
3rd Floor, CSRE Building
IIT Bombay, Powai
Mumbai 400 076
INDIA
Ph:  +91-22-3257-9854 (DD)
Fax: +91-22-2572-1220
Email: rohit@consumervision.co.in
            rohit.nalwade@iitb.ac.in 

TeCDAC07

This seminar held on 19th & 20th January 2007 presented a glimpse of the current trends in Communication and Information Technology and showcased some of the products and technologies developed by C-DAC(T) in recent years. Some of the commercially attractive technologies on offer include:

a) An intelligent area traffic control system, which adjusts the signal duration in accordance with traffic conditions -in real time. This was proven at Pune.
b) E- nose for Tea industry ( developed by CDAC , Calcutta)
c) Station indicator in AC coaches.

d)Digital hearing aid: The hardware-design group has developed a low-cost DPHA (digital programmable hearing aid) that a user wears on his body. The DPHA-1 device employs a proprietary ASIC and embedded DSP to deliver stable amplification characteristics over a wide dynamic range.CDAC's DPHA-1 features a digital volume control to eliminate the crackling-noise characteristic of conventional hearing aids and incorporates frequency-dependent filtering to match its output to the audiogram of the user. You can reprogram the device in the field with PC-based software to tailor the output to match the user's hearing characteristics over a period of time.Unlike conventional analog hearing aids, you can tailor DPHAs to improve clarity of speech, reduce background noise, and help control unwanted loudness. You can also program them to make automatic adjustments in a variety of settings.

e) Contact less smart card
f) 2500 KVA unified power controller
g) Hybrid electric vehicle
h) Ultrasonic liquid level sensor

Digibee Microsystems

Bangalore based Digibee Microsystem is all set to lunch an Indian made handset for mobiles for both GSM and CDMA networks. Both need taking in IP license from the European consortium and US proprietary firm. The Company's team of 140 has designed the chip, written all the software and prepared the handset design. Manufacture is the next step.

Patent battle: Small Indian Inventor takes on GM

Engineer –Innovator S.GOPALAKRISHNAN bagged the Far Eastern Economic Review Asian Innovation Award gold in 2001 for inventing Electronic catalytic converter. He received patent for " PROCESS AND SYNTHESIZER FOR MOLECULAR ENGINEERING OF MATERIALS" in U.K (Patent No.GB2397782) with 13.03.2002 as date of priority against his PCT application PCT/IN2002/000165/En07.08.2002. The National Phase of U.S Application No. is 10/494453 of PCT/IN02/00165 was filed on 04/30/2004. The inventor is aggrieved that ignoring his date of priority, USPTO granted patent to General Motors (US PATENT NO.7093429 dated August 22,2006) for " REFORMING DIESEL FUEL FOR NOx REDUCTION" .

Observers feel the question is not whether Gopalakrishnan will succeed in invalidating claims of GM as prior art but whether a small innovator like him can afford to fight the legal battle in USA.

COAI partners with Jataayu Software for IM services

Competing and Collaborating at the same time. This time tested method has come to Indian telecom with the GSM operators’ association, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), partnering with Jataayu Software for IM services for its nine member companies.This is probably the first time COAI is striking a deal on behalf of the members. The tie-up will provide subscribers with features such as presence-based address books, email, instant messaging and content-sharing IM buddies for events like ICC World Cup Cricket, says a statement. They also plan to create commercial opportunities such as person-to-person commerce and contextual advertising services.

Source: ContentSutra

World's Best Technologies

Indian Innovators Association signed affiliate agreement with Nine sigma.

As a proud sponsor of the World's Best Technologies Showcase, NineSigma invites you to apply to present your technology at their event in May 15-16, 2007 in Dallas, Texas. The deadline to submit an online application has been extended to feb 9, 2007. Technology submissions have already been received from top universities, federal labs, and technology entrepreneurs based in the US and a number of foreign countries. Each is supported by numerous federal R&D grants or private funding and is now poised for venture capital or commercial licensing. Exhibit space is limited to selected presenting technologies and event sponsors only. There is no cost to apply - for more information, please visit www.wbtshowcase.com

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.

TeCDAC 2007

CDAC, Trivendrum is organising a 2 day national seminar ` Technology For Industry, social & economic Empowerment on 19th & 20th January at Trivendrum. Several topics under Industrial electronics, VLSI, Power electronics, Defence, Wireless, Cyber security are listed for discussion. An exhibition of products and technologies recently developed by CDAC recently will also be showcased.

IDEA CONNECTION

IDEA CONNECTION is Internet's idea exchange website. On can post or view inventions, innovations, new products and patents for sale to an exclusive group of international buyers, or buy from an extensive, pre-screened database of quality postings. Links are provided on the Indian Innovators Association web page to post your ideas.
Try it and give us your feedback.

Dr Mashelkar takes over as President of Global Reserach Alliance

Dr RA Mashelkar laid down office as DG of CSIR and Secretary of DSIR on 31st December 2006 and has since taken over as President of Global Research Alliance. In his role as President Dr Mashelkar will, in association with the existing GRA structures, be responsible for the formulation of strategy and implementation, revenue generation, member participation and building the value proposition of the Alliance. Dr Mashelkar’s responsibilities will also include international positioning and relationship building.
He continues to work at NCL as CSIR Bhatnagar fellow and also took over as President of the Institute of Chemical Engineers of UK, President of Indian National Science Academy.

VC Deals In Digital Media In 2006

In the year 2006, Indian digital media business witnessed as many as 26 venture capital deals publicly announced. That has brought in about $175 million in VC money alone in 2006.For a compilation see ContentSutra.

Master resource list from IAMA

Under agreement to share information on resources, Indian Innovators Association hosts Don Kelly' favorite Internet based assistance resources for entrepreneurs/independent inventors. See them at http://www.indianinnovatorsforum.org/resource.htm

Hepta Fluropropane

The Centre for Fire, Explosive, and Environment Safety, a defence laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has developed a new gas called Hepta Fluropropane for firefighting systems. This gas would soon replace Halon gas, currently used in fire fighting systems for critical infrastructure. The DRDO has passed on the technology for this Halon alternative to Mechvac Fabricators (I) Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based engineering firm.
Source: Businessline

Helion Venture Partners

Helion Venture Partners is a stage independent, India-focused venture fund, investing in high growth technology powered businesses. Sanjeev Aggarwal(DEC, i-flex, Daksh fame), Ashish Gupta(Junglee fame) and others raised first fund, of $140m. Investments made-JiGrahak Mobility Solutions, makemytrip.com ,

Siemens Venture Capital (SVC)

Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) is the corporate venture organization for Siemens AG. The goal of SVC is to identify and fund investments in emerging and innovative technologies that will enhance the core business scope of Siemens, particularly in Information and Communications, Medical Solutions, Automation and Control, Power, Automotive Technology and Transportation Systems, and Lighting.To date, SVC has invested 700 million euros in more than 100 start-up companies and 30 venture capital funds mainly in the U.S., Europe and Israel. SVC is located in Germany (Munich), in the U.S. (San José, CA and Boston, MA) and is active through Siemens regional units in Israel, China and India. Siemens Venture Capital is focusing on technologies that overlap with Siemens’ activities: Information Technology, Medical Solutions, Automation and Control, Power, Automotive and Transportation Systems, and Lighting.
(Automation & Control)
Industrial automation and RFID systems
Wireless technologies for industrial applications
Networked machine control
Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
IT in industrial automation and building technology
(Transportation)
Automotive electronics and embedded systems
(Power)
Energy management
Alternative power technologies
(Water and waste water treatment technologies)
(Medical)
Imaging Technologies
Molecular imaging and optical imaging
Imaging agents and markers
Diagnostics
Laboratory and Point of care
In-Vitro
Computer aided diagnostics
Medical database and data mining technology
(Horizontal Technologies)
Intelligent sensors and actuators
Nanotechnology
Security technologies

Interested- send yr business plan today .

July Systems Awarded Patent for Rights Managed Peer-to-Peer Distribution of Mobile Content

Founded in 2001 by Ashok Narasimhan & Rajesh TS Reddy , July Systems with headquarters in Santa Clara, CA and Global Product Center in Bangalore offers smart mobile content retailing solutions. It recently secured US patent for `Authorized distribution of digital content over mobile networks'. What is the significance? Heard of `Song catcher' offered by Airtel licensed in from S Korea. It is patents like the one July has got that form the backbone of killer applications.

Chinese companies unveil video players with homegrown DVD technology

Technology Review reports that China's top electronics makers on Wednesday (6th Dec 2006) unveiled dozens of video players made with a homegrown DVD format in a campaign to promote a Chinese alternative to foreign technology. The DVD format, known as EVD, is part of state-backed efforts to create standards for mobile phones and other products and reduce dependence on foreign know-how and possibly reap licensing fees if they are adopted abroad.EVD, or Enhanced Versatile Disc, was first released in 2003, but an effort to promote it was dropped in 2004 after the players failed to catch on with consumers and producers squabbled over licensing fees.Now Chinese electronics makers have revived the campaign on a massive scale, saying they plan to switch completely to EVD by 2008 and stop producing DVD players. Electronics makers, film studios and retailers are promising to sell EVD discs and players.The move also adds a new twist to rivalry between the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc next-generation video standards being promoted by competing groups of U.S., Japanese and European companies.

This brings to light the structural chasms in Indian road map to develop Products. Standards as strategic tool have little appreciation in our country, Indian global business houses are comfortable with free ride on the standards wagon of Europeans, US and (now) Chinese consortiums.

lensless imaging system

QinetiQ has secured a two-year $5.0m research contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in support of its Large Area Coverage Optical Search While Track and Engage (LACOSTE) programme. This will investigate using first-of-their-kind sensors, like lensless imaging, to provide persistent tactical surveillance and precision tracking capabilities. Another disruptive technology in offing?

Earn by solving technical problems

Do you have solutions for technology problems - many companies are seeking them and paying for promising solutions.Visit

http://www.innocentive.com/
http://www.yourencore.com/jsp/index.html
http://www.ninesigma.net/

Technology Pioneers 2007

Several Indian firms have found place on the list of `Technology Pioneers 2007' prepared by World Economic Forum.
Strand Life Sciences promoted by Dr Vijay Chandru develops algorithms and solutions in the area of bioinformatics. It helps in accelerating the drug discovery process by developing a suite of products for genomics, proteomics, and in silico biology. The products called Oyster include micro arrays, sequence analysis, and structure analysis products.
Drishtee promoted by Mr Satyan Mishra is a rural network for delivering services and related information to the village community through an ICT (information and communication technologies) Center or Information Kiosk. The Kiosks are run by entrepreneurs selected from the villages and have been designed to follow a service-delivery based revenue model.
HelloSoft Inc promoted by Mr. Krishna Yarlagadda is the world’s leading provider of VoIP technologies for wireline and wireless devices. The company enables mass deployment of low-cost, power-efficient, fully-featured multi-mode wireline and wireless devices by providing highly optimized RISC-based VoIP products with superior voice quality, QoS, and efficient call switching specifically designed for next generation end-points.

Dr. V. Prakash, new DG CSIR & Secretary DSIR

Dr. V. Prakash,Director,CFTRI, Mysore will be taking over as DG CSIR & Scretary DSIR from 1st January 2007. CFTRI as prolific innovator has developed over 270 products, processes and equipment designs, and close to 1600 licensees have availed themselves of 160 of these technologies for commercial exploitation. Millions of Indian children grew up on CFTRI developed baffalo milk based baby food and every Indian house hold use CFTRI's technologies in one form or another.

Padma Shri Dr. Prakash was born on November 23, 1951 at Mysore, India and had early education at University of Mysore and got his Ph.D. degree in 1976. After Post doctoral fellowship during 1976 to 1980 at Texas Medical Centre at Houston and Brandies University, Boston, he returned to India during 1981 as a Pool Officer of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research at CFTRI and rose to the position of Director of CFTRI, Mysore during 1994.

He has more than 150 publications in National, International journals, more than 345 papers presented in conferences and is the author of 6 books and 22 chapters in books, in addition to 38 patents to his credit including Patents in US and Europe. He has guided a number of Ph.D. students and continues to be active in his laboratory work with his Research team. Under his leadership CFTRI alone has filed 1000 patents, an unique distinction for any organization or R&D institution or industry in India and abroad.

The Government of Karnataka has honoured him with 50th Anniversary of India's Independence Golden Jubilee Award for Science for the District of Mysore during 1997 and the Karnataka Rajyothsava Award for 1996. The DuPont Protein Technologies International bestowed on him the 2001 Protein Technologist and Nutrition Award. The prestigious FICCI-2001 award was awarded during December 2001 for his outstanding contribution in Life Sciences. The prestigious National Science award of India, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in the field of Biological Sciences was awarded to him for Biological Sciences was awarded to him for Biological Sciences. During 2003 he is elected as Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), UK.The Govt. of India has honoured Dr. Prakash by bestowing PADMA SHRI award in recognition of his outstanding service to the Nation.

Seedfund

Seedfund , smallest VC fund, is now at work and invites proposals from start-ups needing smaller amounts but heavy mentoring.The fund size is in the range of Rs 45-60 crore ($10-13 million), and they will invest any sum upto $500,000 (Rs 2.25 crore) in a venture. The fund has institutional investors like Motorola Ventures, Reliance Capital, SVB Financial Group, Sierra Ventures and individual investors like Kanwal Rekhi, K B Chandrasekhar, B V Jagadeesh and Sridar Iyengar. Seedfund’s Managing Partners include Pravin Gandhi, Bharati Jacob (ex-Infinity Venture Fund), and Mahesh Murthy (ex-Passionfund).
Source: Contentsutra.

Legacy Intellectual Property

Companies patent aggressively as a strategy and regularly discard patents that do not fit in. Delaware economic-development agency saw an opportunity in it, received 255 patents as donation from its resident firms DuPont Co. and Hercules Chemical Co. Inc and entrusted the responsibility to Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation to evaluate , assess and license. A new package for incubating firms, space+ facilities+ funds + raw technologies has emerged.
A pointer to emerging scenario in India! Should the labs donate the technologies to incubators?

Emerging Technologies in India

Cygnus Business Consulting & Research brought out a report on “Emerging Technologies in India”. This report, covers status of sixteen emerging technologies in India in terms of applications, education, research activities, patents filed in the country, major industry forums and profiles of major R&D centers. Sectors covered include Convergence,Display technology,Embedded systems (Hardware engineering), Enabling Technologies (Information Technology),Imaging technology,MEMS,Multimedia, Networking, Nanotech ,Optical technology, Photonics,Semiconductor,Speech and Signal Processing, Telecom,Technology on Indian Languages,Wireless,Smart Card,Broadband Technology, Electronic & Electrical Technology, Nuclear Sciences,Aerospace and Logistics.

Contact person: Debasish Banerjee, Senior Marketing Manager INFORMATION
TEL: 040-23430203 – 05, 23430209(D),(m) 9347004441

VC funds for North East

Worbus plans to invest in SMEs and in north east. Read the economic times news. It currently opeartes from Pune.

Structuring of venture capital investments into India

IVCA reports (4th Quarter 2006) that after a two-year lull, investors are showing renewed interest in early stage ventures. This throws up the question of the best option for an overseas investor, particularly an US investor, to structure his investment into the Indian start – up company. The report also caried an extract of paper by Sri SR Gopalan.There are two basic options :

Under the first option, (Option A) an overseas entity, often a Delaware corporation, is formed and the investors as well as the Indian founders take a stake in the US corporation. The investors get Preferred Stock while the Indian founders are offered Common Stock. To comply with regulatory requirements, founders’ stake is either through stock options or through a payment of less than $ 25,000 as permitted by Reserve Bank under the automatic route. The US Company carries out all the US based activities such as marketing and sales. A 100% sub is formed in India for delivery operations. Often an intermediary company in a tax-exempt jurisdiction is formed to make the investment from the US Company into the Indian company.

Under the second option, (Option B) the investments are made into the Indian entity, which then sets up a 100% subsidiary or branch in the US to carry out marketing and sales. In this case also, the US investor may form an intermediary company in a tax-exempt jurisdiction to make the investment into the Indian company. As per the report with maturing of exit route in Indian shore, Option B is gaining in popularity.

UTI Ventures invests USD 6 MN in Vallabhdas Kanji

Bangalore based UTI Venture Funds (UVF), the Private Equity arm of Unit Trust of India (UTI) group , has made a private equity investment worth USD six million in Vallabhdas Kanji Limited through its Ascent India Fund.VKL is part of the Rs 500 crore Kanji Morarji Group, that includes Kancor Flavours and Extracts and Auto Hangar (India). Presently, UVF manages two funds - Ascent India Fund and India Technology Venture Unit Scheme (ITVUS). Its portfolio includes Subex systems,HBL Nife Power systems, Ramakrishna Forgings.

Ruth Dreifuss asks Novartis to withdraw its Indian patent case

Former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss joins Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and 16 other organizations asking Novartis to withdraw its case filed in India.The challenge to India's patent law arose when an Indian patent bureau rejected an application for the Novartis cancer drug Gleevec on the grounds that the company wanted to patent a "trivial improvement". MNCs want to protect even trivial improvements , charge high prices but buy peace with NGOs by giving the medicines free or at discount. But people like Sigrid Sterckx, professor of ethics and an expert on patents at the University of Ghent in Belgium, do not agree. Read the article from asia Times Online.
Read also response from Novartis.
Rep. Henry Waxman chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, joins the debate and writes to Novartis`I do not dispute your right to apply for a patent or appeal a denial. I am concerned, however, that your attempt to influence domestic Indian law could have a severe impact on worldwide access to medicines."
Indian NGOs allege that while international support is pouring in , Indian government is considering recommendation of Mashelkar committee report advocating amendment to patent act, which could favour Novartis position.

New Ventures India

New Ventures India supports sustainable enterprise creation by accelerating the transfer of capital to outstanding investment opportunities in India that incorporate social and environmental benefits.New Ventures selects SMEs in fast-growth, environmental sectors such as ecotourism, non-timber forest products and certified wood, organic foods and fibers, renewable energy, sustainable fisheries management, and clean technologies. These SMEs are seeking capital in the range of Rs.50 lacs to Rs.15 crores. The program matches entrepreneurs with executive mentors and consultants and teams of graduate business students (MBA) to improve the enterprise's business plan to present at a New Ventures Investor Forum. It is promoted by World Resources Institute and the CII-Godrej Green Business Centre with USAID under the Global Development Alliance.

`Small is beautiful' fund

Buiness Line reported that `small is beautiful' (SIB), a Rs 231-crore private equity fund on Tuesday announced investments in three companies engaged in power generation amounting to Rs 51crore. SIB has invested in KVK Energy & Infrastructure Ltd, Hyderabad for its proposed 56-MW coal-washery-rejects-based power project in Chhattisgarh. The second investment is in Shalivana Projects Ltd for their two 10-MW biomass-based, power projects in Maharashtra. The third investment is in the Chamoli Hydro P Ltd for its five-MW hydel power project in Uttaranchal. The fund is managed by KSK Energy Ventures ltd, Hyderabad-KSK will identify, invest and develop power projects to help them achieve financial closure, after which the "Small is Beautiful" fund will invest in these projects, to finance and support their operations. KSK will also act as the Investment Manager of the fund.

Mass production of patents in China

Thompson Scientific study of patenting by Academics in 2005 has some interesting findings. Despite more than doubling in number over the six year period studied, academic inventions still represent only 5% of total inventions worldwide.The United States has seen a 21% growth in academic inventions from 2000 to 2005, with the University of California way ahead in terms of total numbers. Technology transfer here is managed by a central Office of Technology Transfer, with campus-based technology transfer offices. The inventions they lay claim to include nicotine patches, cochlear implants and atomic force microscopes.The flood has come from China- the top 10 from Asia are in China with patenting from 900 to 500- a very significant number considering that MIT score in 2005 was less than 200.

Moser Baer Photo Voltaic (MBPV) heralds new PV technology

Solar (Photo Voltaic) energy has been in the news for past few decades but has not made any significant dent due to low yield pushing capital costs to unsustainable level. The good news-Sensing new opportunities in solar energy business, IT major Moser Baer has invested Rs 350 crore in photovoltaic business, which it feels will fetch Rs 450 crore ($100 million) revenue in the next one year.It started with off shore research and strategic equity participation in two solar concentrator technology companies, Solaria and Solfocus followed by minority stake in Stion Corporation, a nanostructures technology company based in California. What is common to hard disks and PV- both use semiconductor process based on silica. The business model of MBPV is to offer clean power to villages without depending on government subsidy either to the firm or to the user.

Indians rule the US start-up arena

Immigrant entrepreneurs have taken the United States by a storm over the past decade and a half and leading the charge are Indian immigrants to the US.Indians account for 28 per cent of all foreign-founded private start-up companies in America, according to a first-of-its-kind study, 'American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on US Competitiveness.' Read the Rediff news.