Got Coverage from Hitavada English Daily, Nagpur

Hey I was surprised to find mention about me in an article in Hitavada by Ms Snehlata Shrivastav. Which said
http://news.hitavadaonline.com/news/index.php?mode=single&page=11&n=5599

For Patel need led to an innovation but for Balaji Sowmyanarayanan, a Masters in Computer Sciences, frustration to do anything creative that helps common people paved a path for an innovation. Balaji told ‘The Hitavada’ that he, after his education, went to USA but came back unsatisfied doing free lance software projects for even companies like Infosys. Although he continues to do some free lance work still for his livelihood, he is more into research now. He has developed a ‘electronic tagging’ for book like objects using the silk fabric or zari which conducts electricity. He has developed what is called as ‘Fabric Track’ which makes handling of objects easy. He has demonstrated the technology to TIFAC and asked for more funding.

The Times Group has the story and the CNBC is interested in a ‘Full Story’. Let us see where it goes!

Devesh’s Car Jack on the Go

Interacting with other innovators in stalls around me was an inspiring experience.One of the innovators was Devesh. He developed a car jack that is permenantly fit on the car itself. That way you can do minor servicing like tyre change hasself free.
The interesting aspect of the innovation is it is automatic. When you want to ‘jack up’ the car, you just operate the hydraulic valve in the bonnet, start the engine, press a control button in the dash board and ‘volia!’ the car is jacked up on one side. You want it jacked up on both the sides? Press another control and it is done.
This is very useful for ladies, disabled and lazy road warriors.
The ‘automatic’ is implemented using the car’s engine itself. That is why the engine is to be running while you press the button to jack the vehicle. The engine actually activates the hydraulic arrangement.
Devesh has several patents and working with several indian auto majors to get it factory fitted on their cars.
The hydraulic system has many built in safety features like inter-locking: The jack can be operated only when the bonnet is open, hand brake is applied.

Devesh can be reached at:
Mr Devesh Kulkarni
Satellite Garden, Phase II, L 301, III Floor
Gen A. K Vaidya Marg,
Filim City Road
Goregaon(E)
Mumbai 400 063

Phone: 022 3960 7635

email: daveshk At yahoo.com

Day 2 Indian Science Congress 2006

Today was a peaceful and non-VIP day( Read open for public). A lot of school children were queued through the stalls. Some ran all over the place. Some of them started playing with the computers and whatever they laid their hands.

On the exhibition stall I was able to get a cross section of people with different interest and different level of understanding. All of them were happy to see the demo and listen to my story of how craftsmen and artisans can be linked up to premium business product market. Many genuine issues were raised.

I was photographing Davesh’s innovation with Dr Abyankar. More about it when I get the photos.

Enabling Equity Through Innovational Empowerment

For some time now( From Mid 2003) I’ve been working on combining craft and technology to create products with high utility and aesthetic appeal. I strongly believe that it is the way to go to include the Indian comman man to the technology mainstream( Should I say, technology into mainstream?)

The Idea is to incorporate technology into livelyhood of craftsmen and artisans. More than the benefits to the craftsmen I as an inventor/innovator is interested in the rapid prototyping potential of craftsmen. The two-way conversation between craftsmen and technology players will create/facilitate interesting and useful innovations.

Now the effort has come to a shape where it can be shared. And I’m making use of the Indian Science Congress and the Pride of India Exhibition as a launch pad to throw the idea/experience open for like minded souls to comment/refine it.

I will post several aspects of this theme over the next few blogs.

Security measures, modelling and more…

As mentioned earlier I was waiting outside with no pass and all the banned electronic stuff which are no-no for the PM’s security. I was happy to find the media room and get free internet access.

Mala and Vasanthi were waiting in the barricade and was helped by the police officials to enter just after PM left. In good time to catch Dr. RA Mashelkar going through our stall. He was impressed and said so, asked Mala and Vasanthi to get a photo, shook hands with them and left.

Mala and Vasanthi were very excited about it.

Then came a reporter from Times of India. She was very meticulous in her interview and went through the details in depth. She was very systematic and keen for factual details. I was very impressed by her professionalism.

Then came the surprise of the Day. One Mr Satish Shetty a independent film maker from Mumbai asked me a strange favour. He wanted me to model in front of the much decorated ITC space. He wanted to get some visual effect.
He become very defensive when I asked if I am going to get paid for this. I can understand as a co-independent professional his situation. Then we exchanged cards. Let me see how this matures.

The other innovators in the nearby stalls visited and were excited to see the demo. I’m planning to post details of each one of their innovation soon.

Innaugration Day, thrills and the wait out side.

Oh Man, Prime Minister security is relly affecting my business in hand. At the security check we found that there are 2-passes needed the exhibitor pass and the delegate pass. I did’t have any – thanks to the online registration bungling by the organizers.

Laptops, camera and cell phones are not allowed! Simple. And I had all of them – some more than one too! A security person said – ‘It seems laptops have become cheap at Hydrabad’.

I was happy that I made the craft work and hung it porminently in the stall. I was happy I made the large prints and put it up in the stall. Even If I don’t demo it, still some aspects of my innovation will reach the beholder. I think it will stand out from the rest of the plastic and ’sub contracted’ jazzy displays all over. And My exhibit will fit well with the theme of the conference.

The conference food was very good. It was a royal buffet breakfast. I’m yet to try the lunch. Now I’m hungry- I’ll get my bite!
Couple of days back the link to the Indian Science Congress was down due to bandwidth issues. Now it is up. http://www.93isc.org

Indian Science Congress 2006

After a hectic week getting ready for the Indian Science Congress, I’m finally here. I landed up at Hydrabad yesterday. I’m very happy to get a good stall under the DSIR space. It is under Bharat Nirman hall. It is right at the intersection of the corridors connecting the several halls.

The registeration porcess was total chaos. No one knew what to do with the online registration. There was total lack of coordination and due to lack of coordination between the online payment and the ‘List’ they had.

Part of it is due to the ill adviced concept by ICICI bank that you can pay online or anywhere in India. It is like having a ‘Hundi’ ( Anonymous donation box – popular in many temples in India) in every point of presence of ICICI. But the organizers must know that to do things online they need lot more than just a hundi all over the world. They need to get the processes and procedures in place. And the exception handling mechanism/ command/responsibility mechanism.

One interesting aspect of it was, while I was running from pillar to post to get my ‘online registration’ validated, a heavy military truck pulled up and students were turning their heads and discussing about its content excitedly. Before I got a ‘verification’ of the online payment, the ‘Prithvi’ missile marked DRDO was all setup and ready for launch! Though I was annoyed with the online reg, I was very proud that the missile got set up quickly.

The food at near the exhibition hall was too expensive and too little. It was not tasty too.

With all the chaos it was an interesting day!!!

More as I get more time to blog!

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