Innovation centre soon for industrial clusters

Source: The Hindu Business Line, Mar 28, 2012

There are about 5,000 industrial clusters that have been doing their bit for the country and produce 45 per cent of goods, but remain largely unsung. Most of these are small and medium units that cannot hire consultants or technical and marketing expertise.

Now, the National Innovation Council (NIC) has stepped in. It has announced a ‘cluster innovation centre’ initiative to help these clusters improve their efficiency and competitiveness. To begin with, it has identified eight clusters, mainly small and medium enterprises, and is providing them necessary linkages to innovate and commercialise their products, Mr Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on innovation, infrastructure and information, told reporters here on Wednesday.

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Grassroot innovations draw India Inc

Source: Business Standard, May 23, 2011

Mumbai/ Ahmedabad: While so far the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) spearheaded innovations at grassroots level, the organisation is now getting a sound support from India Inc. With word spreading around about interesting innovations being discovered from across the country, corporates are queueing up at NIF to for commercial and social tie-ups.

Rs 1,000-cr innovation fund in three months

Source: Business standard, Mar 07, 2011

Chennai/ Hyderabad: The National Innovation Council (NIC) will create a Rs 1,000-crore national innovation fund in two to three months to provide venture capital for early-stage innovations, according to Arun Maira, member of NIC and the Planning Commission.

Do people really resist change?

We, time and again, find ourselves in situations where we try to carry out changes for which we need the agreement from third parties. Selling a new project in India or implementing an improvement initiative in our Department imply changes, either external or internal, which require conformity from clients, suppliers, colleagues, subordinates or superiors.

Similarly, in our personal lives, we frequently face contexts where we want to introduce changes and need to convince others in order to execute the same. To buy a new car, sleep over night at a friend’s home or decide on children education, we often need support from our partner, parents, children, friends…

In both environments we have experienced occasions when the others didn’t embrace with open arms the proposed idea. Our product or proposal was wonderful and, nevertheless, due to some obscure reason, the people we tried to convince didn’t quite understand the benefits of the change.

In many of these cases, after repeating, louder each time, the arguments which made our idea so wonderful, we not only didn’t get it accepted but ended up in sour discussions or, in extreme situations, in plain conflicts and resentment which, eventually, deteriorated the relationship with those people.

Do people, really, resist change? And, if they do, how to overcome it or, at least, how can we avoid that change proposals lead us to personal conflicts?

A brief animation video recently published by Goldratt Group in You Tube illustrates, in a simple and amusing way, an answer to these questions. It’s just 6 minutes video, which are really worth seeing:

Mario Gil

Director INDOLINK Consulting

World-class Innovation Park in Mumbai soon

Source: The Hindu Business Line, Sept 16, 2010

MUMBAI: Mumbai would soon have a world-class innovation park, where 25,000 scientific experts from over 100 countries will work.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Chavan, has given nod to set up the world-class innovation park in Mumbai, an official release said, adding that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will set up the park.

Indian iPad: India unveils prototype for $35 touch-screen computer

The Indian government has unveiled the prototype of an iPad-like touch-screen laptop, with a price tag of $35 (£23), which it hopes to roll out next year.

Aimed at students, the tablet supports web browsing, video conferencing and word processing, say developers.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said a manufacturer was being sought for the gadget, which was developed by India’s top IT colleges.

An earlier cheap laptop plan by the same ministry came to nothing.

India, Japan launch pilot project to monitor natural disasters

Hyderabad: India and Japan have begun a pilot project to test the procedures and systems to evolve a Network for Natural Disaster Mitigation and Recovery or DISANET.

It is aimed at monitoring natural disasters and developing an emergency communication system, using the information technology tools.

Funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), a Japanese Government agency, the DISANET project would involve Indian Institute of Technology (IIT: Hyderabad, Madras and Kanpur), National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and India Meteorological Department.

The five-year project was launched here on Sunday.