India's Invisible Innovation

Interesting talk. Never thought this way before

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv7JJZm3flU

Safari Ride...

He has single-handedly grown a sprawling forest on a 550-hectare sandbar in the middle of the Brahmaputra. It now has many endangered animals, including at least five tigers, one of which bore two cubs recently.

The place lies in Jorhat, some 350 km from Guwahati by road, and it wasn't easy for Sunday Times to access him. At one point on the stretch, a smaller road has to be taken for some 30 km to reach the riverbank. There, if one is lucky, boatmen will ferry you across to the north bank. A trek of another 7 km will then land you near Payeng's door. Locals call the place 'Molai Kathoni' (Molai's woods) after Payeng's pet name, Molai.
It all started way back in 1979 when floods washed a large number of snakes ashore on the sandbar. One day, after the waters had receded, Payeng , only 16 then, found the place dotted with the dead reptiles. That was the turning point of his life.
"The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage . I alerted the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. There was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested," says Payeng, now 47.
Leaving his education and home, he started living on the sandbar. Payeng willingly accepted a life of isolation. He watered the plants morning and evening and pruned them. After a few years, the sandbar was transformed into a bamboo thicket. "I then decided to grow proper trees. I collected and planted them. I also transported red ants from my village, and was stung many times. Red ants change the soil's properties . That was an experience," Payeng says, laughing.
Soon, there were a variety of flora and fauna which burst in the sandbar, including endangered animals like the one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal tiger. "After 12 years, we've seen vultures. Migratory birds, too, have started flocking here. Deer and cattle have attracted predators," claims Payeng . He says locals recently killed a rhino which was seen in his forest at another forest in Sibsagar district.
Payeng talks like a trained conservationist. "Nature has made a food chain; why can't we stick to it? Who would protect these animals if we, as superior beings, start hunting them?"
The Assam state forest department learnt about Payeng's forest only in 2008 when a herd of some 100 wild elephants strayed into it after a marauding spree in villages nearby. They also destroyed Payeng's hutment . It was then that assistant conservator of forests Gunin Saikia met Payeng for the first time.
"We were surprised to find such a dense forest on the sandbar. Locals, whose homes had been destroyed by the pachyderms, wanted to cut down the forest, but Payeng dared them to kill him instead. He treats the trees and animals like his own children. Seeing this, we, too, decided to pitch in," says Saikia. "We're amazed at Payeng. He has been at it for 30 years. Had he been in any other country, he would have been made a hero."

Help from the government wasn't forthcoming, though. It was only last year that the social forestry division took up plantation work on a 200-hectare plot.
Meanwhile, Congress MP from Jorhat, Bijoy Krishna Handique, took interest and said he would moot a proposal to the Centre to declare the area a conservation reserve under provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Payeng would be happy.

SOURCE: The Times of India

Made In...??

When drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, of the US Army fly over enemy territory, they use a technology developed by a little-known Bangalore company to send back crystal clear images to their command centre. This technology is used by armed forces around the world, except in India — the home of its developer Arvind Lakshmikumar, who founded Tonbo Imaging four years ago.

Tonbo developed this technology for Europe’s biggest defence company which, in turn, sold it to various armed forces. Lakshmikumar, 36, had been keen to sell such innovations to the Indian armed forces, but gave up after he realised the futility of trying to convince the authorities here that his products were among the best in the world.

He shifted his headquarters to Singapore, as he felt that he could crack the global market for his technologies better from the Southeast Asian city state. Lakshmikumar’s ordeal is just another example of the difficulties and frustrations that small Indian aerospace and defence companies have to go through, facing a hostile bureaucratic set up on the one side and a colonial mindset on the other.

“There is a serious colonial hangup for foreign products,” says Lakshmikumar. “For an Indian bidder they have millions of questions.” The milieu is skewed so against the local players that while an Indian bidder is asked to pay a security deposit, a foreign bidder is not.

“The system is structured in such a way that even if we need a pin, we prefer to import it rather than make it ourselves,” says Smita Purushottam of the New Delhi-based think tank Institute of Defence Studies & Analyses.

India imports more than 70 per cent of its weapons and technology for its defence needs, making it a sitting duck for security threats during wars. In contrast, even Pakistan has a more proactive policy that encourages domestic manufacturers. China is in a different league altogether. The mindset of those in power is also hurting the economy. India will spend $100-150 billion (about Rs 5.4-8.1 lakh crore) on defence modernisation programmes by 2022, according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. It will also become the fourth biggest defence spender in the world by 2020, behind the US, China and Russia, according to IHS, a US-based information and analytics provider.

“The best of our minds are utilised by other countries for their progress,” says A Sivathanu Pillai, a scientist and CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, the maker of BrahMos missile. “Put them on the same level field, and they will compete.” The government said its intention was to promote local companies when it unveiled its offset policy in 2005-2006, requiring foreign firms winning defence contracts to ensure that at least 30 per cent of the contracted value is invested in India. But most of it is still on paper.

“As of today not a single offset contract has been fulfilled,” says S Ravinarayanan, chairman of Axis Aerospace & Technologies. He points out that of the 18 offset contracts worth $15 billion that have been signed since 2006, offset commitments were made for deals worth $4.62 billion. “Original equipment manufacturers have repeatedly defaulted in discharging their offset obligations,” he says, suggesting that it is the responsibility of government to ensure that the obligations are met.

The government says it will take more time to see the effects of the new policies. “Rome was not built in a day,” Defence Minister AK Antony told reporters recently at Aero India 2013 in Bangalore. Text messages and phone calls to Jitendra Singh, minister of state for defence, were not answered. Small companies also complain that the government is doing little to encourage them, unlike in the United States or in Israel, where grants are given for companies with promising technologies.

“We are made to compete directly with multinationals for projects. A small entrepreneur cannot beat multinationals,” says Siddharth Amin of Swallow Systems which makes unmanned aerial vehicles. “The government procedure is so long, cumbersome.”

An engineer, Amin, 43, shut down his profitable computer hardware business to pursue his passion for making unmanned aerial vehicles. After more than a decade of research, he launched Swallow. But despite having cutting-edge products, his company is yet to find any takers in the government. On the other hand, Amin’s counterpart, Integrated Dynamics, in Pakistan, started about the same time as he did and has thrived due to government support. “It now makes combat drones,” says Amin, who now earns his living by providing mapping services to mining companies in India and overseas. “We have not lost hope,” he insists.

Tonbo’s Lakshmikumar, an alumnus of BITS Pilani and Carnegie Mellon University, worked at Intelligent Automation and HoneywellBSE -1.38 % in the US before returning home in 2003. There, he built various imaging technologies for major defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin. He was also a part of government-funded programmes like Future Combat Systems intended to prepare the US Army for modern warfare.

Lakshmikumar soon realised that India still does not have an ecosystem like the US or Israel, where government-run organisations fund young companies to develop new technologies. Indian entrepreneurs also face delays in payments. A foreign bidder gets a “letter of credit” before shipping the products, but an Indian bidder’s payment gets delayed for months on end.

Captronic Systems, a Bangalore-based venture that makes test equipment, had to face payment delays of over 120 days more than once. As a result, Vinod Mathews, 44, who runs Captronic, was forced to take a loan of Rs 2.2 crore to pay his vendors. Many small hi-tech companies are also facing intellectual property issues. If they co-develop a product with Defence Research and Development Organisation, they are asked to share their intellectual property. “It is like, if you are making a camera, you are asked to give its design as well,” says an entrepreneur who did not wish to be identified. “It does not happen in other countries like the US.”

Rajiv Chib, associate director of the aerospace and defence practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, says that Indian entrepreneurs have already overcome challenges on a global scale. “However, doing business is still not easy for them due to certain India-specific practical challenges.” Also, regulatory hurdles are time-consuming and can lead to missed opportunities.

Captronic Systems developed an indigenous in-flight data recorder at one-tenth the cost of imported ones. It offered the equipment to state-run Hindustan Aeronautics. Mathews was shunted between HAL and The Center for Military Airworthiness & Certification before giving up. Mathews, an electronics engineer who founded Captronic almost a decade ago, is finding interest in markets like Israel, Spain and France for his product.

“I applied for funding from Technology Development Board and found myself competing with a firm which makes detergent,” says Mathews.

Indian companies are capable of providing the bulk of the country’s requirements if they find the right environment and bold reforms are initiated. “Look at the talent pool. Many of them have done post-graduation related to this industry, but end up with sub-optimal employment as sales clerks. This needs to be urgently addressed,” says Purushottam of IDSA.

“No country has become a major technological power without nurturing an innovative, fast-growing manufacturing foundation.”

SOURCE: Economic Times

Towards the Moon...ARE YOU SERIOUS??

It will be a great loot, if we win it. A whopping $30 million in prize money is available to the first privately funded team that safely lands a robot/rover on the surface of the moon, have that travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send video, images and data back to the earth. And the only Indian entry in this prominent global challenge is Team Indus. Among the team comprising entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and explorers, is 24-year-old, Guruditya Sinha, the systems engineer, who is affirmative that the prize will be theirs.

A few years ago when boys and girls in his college had barely figured out what they wanted to do, Sinha was already on his way to designing, building and launching a satellite. A little nervous initially, he soon mastered control over his nerves and prepared himself for the challenge. “Everyone scoffed at the idea. They didn’t think this was possible. But my fortitude and hard work paid off and I proved to my family and friends that if one dreams big, things can, and do change. I am the biggest example,” he says.

The primary objective for this mission is to become a source of inspiration for an entire generation. To promote awareness and encourage higher scientific education, to showcase Indian private sector’s capability, capacity and tenacity in meeting millennial challenges, to encourage innovations in automation, space grade, systems research and development in the non-governmental domain. To design low cost aerospace/space sub-systems that can replace traditional hardware from developed economies, to manage a complex multi-disciplinary mission within a limited time span, to build a business plan that helps privately finance this mission, to create value for all participants and stakeholders of this mission and to foster an ecosystem that can support India’s Aerospace ambitions. “The above sounded as exciting to me as it does to you when I heard of it the first time. Ever since, I have diverted all my energies towards its implementation. During my second year at the SRM University, Chennai, I started working on a Nanosatellite project in collaboration with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). Soon after, the college launched the SRMSAT Nanosatellite. Even though the targeted mission lifetime of the Nanosatellite we developed was completed, it is still operational in orbit. It’s the first successful student Nanosatellite project in the country,” he says.

Sinha goes to bed at 5 am in the morning, wakes up at 8 am. Then travels across cities (Delhi to Noida) and gets down to designing systems for his Lunar mission. No wonder his friends and family think he is spaced out but let him be because they know they can’t get his attention till his project gets over. “I love my work. Rocket science is fun. I get back home, partake in our good-old family discussions, grab a hot cup of coffee and get back to my designs till 5 am on most days. That is what my average day turns out to be, which may sound crazy to people, but who said there isn’t a little bit of madness in all of us,” says Sinha with a smile.

Young Sinha dreams of being a terraformer. Of course he feels the need to explain what that is because he says not many people have heard of the term and if they have, don’t want to be one. “I want to be a terraformer—a person who makes other planets/moon habitable for life. I really think that is possible in this lifetime and maybe we could reside there. I have all these obscure ideas and the fact is that I actually believe in them coming true. I’m really into designing robots and mechanisms and cannot think beyond that,” he says with utter enthusiasm, adding that if he had a million dollars, he would probably spend it on creating a technology for the development of the country, like in the field of energy, robotics or space technology.

Not a minute to spare, Sinha doesn’t regret the loss of personal life. He is a man on a mission. A mission beyond the realms of our imagination. He doesn’t want to lose focus and stays calm, realistic and optimistic at all times. Amid all that, he is a regular boy who wants to have some fun every now and then. Sinha gets a lot of female attention, but doesn’t have a girlfriend. Like for every other thing, he has a ready explanation. “I would want a girlfriend who would be ‘out of this world’ but at the same time ‘down-to-earth’. She should give me my ‘space’ and in return I would get her the ‘stars’,” he says.

SOURCE: The New Indian Express

Tik Tok!!!

For Appajappa, a retired General Manager of HMT, life revolves round the clock even after his retirement. He has designed most clocks in the city, including  ‘Ambara Chumbana’ inaugurated on Saturday.

“I joined as a foreman and retired as a General Technical Manager at HMT watches. During my service, I have seen the development in designing as well as manufacturing of watches and clocks,” said Appajappa who quit his job at ISRO to join HMT Limited in 1978 in Tumkur.

“I quit my previous job (ISRO) only because HMT company was starting in my hometown,” he said. Appajappa studied engineering from Siddaganga Institute of Technology.

In 1978, Appajappa was sent to Japan to study analogue watch manufacturing. “We started manufacturing automatic watches. Those days, we used to manufacture 8,000 watches per day,” he said.

He was later sent to Switzerland to study electronic watches in 1981. “After a decade, I was transferred to Bangalore unit to design clocks,” he said.

“My assignment was to design Population Clock for Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This not only updates time, but also the population count. This was put up near Majestic in Bangalore which is now not functional. A similar clock was designed in New Delhi,” he said.

Later, in 1995, HMT watches introduced solar clock. “We had installed one near GPO, which was removed recently due to Metro work,” Appajappa said. He is also the brain behind the floral clock in Lalbagh, BBMP head office, K R Market main entrance, V V Towers, Raj Bhavan and other places in Bangalore. Huge clocks designed by Appajappa have been now displayed at Manjunathaswamy Temple in Dharmasthala, Krishna Temple in Guruvayur, Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, Mantralayam, Golden Temple in Amritsar and at many other places.

He is designing a huge clock with 25 feet radius for Adichunchanagiri Mutt. “At Bellur Cross, this clock will be put up atop a hill. This clock also has a five-feet doll which comes out of the clock every one hour to beat the drum,” he said.

SOURCE: The New Indian Express