CII Communique - October, 2010

knowledge & innovation initiativesshowcased and competed witheach other in the Western Regioni3 Regional Fair at IIT Bombay on24 September. The best 15 wereshort-listed, including one from an81 year old innovator!Mr. G. Sunderraman, VicePresident - Innovation, Godrej &Boyce Mfg Co Ltd, in his welcomeremarks, described the Fair as acatchment area to get more andmore Innovations. Prof. ShashikantSuryanarayanan, Founder,Sedemac Mechatronics, Mumbai,spoke about the challengesof converting an idea into abusiness.About 73 innovations were selectedto be displayed at the SouthernRegional Fair in Chennai on29 and 30 September. Mr. HariBhaskaran, Key Mentor, MemberStrategic Committee – Chennai Cluster, Mr M Ponnavaiko,Provost, SRM University and Mr S Sivagnanam,Director,MME – DI, Union Ministry of Small Scale Industries,were present at the inauguration.The innovators showcased innovations in prototypes,posters and video demonstrations.Twenty-two innovations were shortlistedfor the National Fair from theSouthern Region.Around 40 innovations in varioustechnology domains wereshowcased and competed witheach other in the Eastern Regionali3 Fair on 30 September in NITDurgapur. Significantly, most of theinnovators were ready with theirprototypes and proof of concept.The best 15 were short-listed forthe i3 National Fair.The i3 Eastern Regional Fairwas inaugurated by Prof.Swapan Bhattacharya, Director,NIT. Mr. Sanjay Bansal, ChiefExecutive Officer, Asansol DistrictDevelopment Authority (ADDA),Durgapur, was the chief guest.Some of the short-listed innovationsincluded simple products with immense potential forproblem-solving, such as an intelligent fan regulator, alift operating on potential energy, a grabbing bucket, anew kind of innovation on cancer research, a patentedproduct on hollow clay brick etc.India-US Innovation Exchange ForumThere is a robust desire to create partnerships ontechnology and innovation in both India and theUnited States. The goal is to create private-sectorcollaborations from the ‘bottom-up’ with governmentplaying a supportive role. The US-India InnovationExchange Forum has been conceived with this inmind.A high level US Innovation Delegation, led by MrAneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer, WhiteHouse, recently visited India to identify concreteprojects. Keen to get hands-on feel of the key issues,the US team visited a number of places in Delhi andRajasthan to interact with various stakeholders. Theirmeetings included an interaction with Mr NandanNilekani, architects involved in green buildings andyoung parliamentarians.Based on their interactions and experiences, an‘Innovation Roundtable’ was organized as a ‘wayforward meeting,’ jointly by the Department of Science& Technology, CII, and the US Embassy in India on14 September, in New Delhi. The delegation spelt outtheir experiences and discussed possible outcomeswith Mr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Ministeron Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations, DrT Ramasami, Secretary, Science & Technology, India,and CII.The discussions showed that while some projectscan be immediately started without any new budgetsand regulations, certain long term projects mayrequire greater governmental intervention, and hencethe projects need would be classified accordingly.Some areas of cooperation that have been identifiedfor immediate closer interaction between the twogovernments are cooperation with the NIC for thee-governance project, and projects in public health andin education to train a million teachers on the use ofIT as a leveraging tool. Some areas where the privatesector could possibly collaborate immediately are inCommuniqué October 2010 | 49