Bengal Student Duo Win DuPont The Power of Shunya

DuPont has  announced that Vivek Pandey from IIT, Kharagpur and Rahul Sharma from IIFT, Kolkata have won the first prize in the national university competition, DuPont: The Power of Shunya: Challenge for Zero Season 2. Their winning innovation, Micro Cold Storage, is a farm-level solar cold storage system can address the issue of food wastage. The Runners up prize was given to Zeta Nano Purifier, a new water-purifying product developed by contestants Devlina Das and Pushkin Kasat from VIT, Vellore & Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay.

Speaking on the announcement, Balvinder Singh Kalsi, President, South Asia & ASEAN, DuPont said, “DuPont has identified three specific global challenges that have emerged with a growing population: feeding the world, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and protecting people and the environment. These winning innovations focused on ‘zero food waste’ and ‘zero water-borne diseases’ reflect our belief that science powered solutions can play a vital role in addressing these challenges. We feel that adoption of such innovations can help India become one of the world’s leading and sustainable economies.”

 The winning innovation beat 15 other path-breaking innovations from India’s premier science & technology institutes and B-schools. The winner has received a grand prize of Rs 1,000,000 (Rupees Ten Lakhs only) and a paid experience to the global DuPont headquarters and the Experimental Station at Wilmington, Delaware, USA. The winners were announced at the grand finale of the show that aired last weekend on ET Now and the prize money was given away by Balvinder Singh Kalsi, President – South Asia & Asean, DuPont. The nine part series showcased 16 effective and relevant innovations for India, shortlisted from 500 entries.

Every year India loses 30% of the food production due to food wastage and contamination*. The winning idea, Micro Cold Storage can help increase shelf life of agricultural produce using solar powered cold storage. It uses a uniquely designed thermal storage methodology that will control compartment cooling in tandem with regular cooling. The Zeta Nano Purifier is a zinc oxide nano particle that has been modified by amine. This new purifying technique is designed to treat large water masses plagued with a wide array of pollutants, including various types of metals, dyes and pesticides.

Jury member, Dr. Homi Bhedwar said, “I was delighted to witness the ‘power of science’ and the passion of young students in technology and business to achieve India’s pursuit of Shunya. The students developed innovative approaches to address malnutrition, pain, energy deficiency, disability and a host of other challenges facing the country today. The innovations are compelling and as a jury member seeing them close-up, I can say confidently that the future of India is in good hands.”

 The series, DuPont The Power of Shunya: Challenge for Zero Season 2 was aired on ET NOW. 

Spice & Flipkart Join To Launch Flagship Products

Spice Retail Limited, India’s leading mobile internet company, has joined hands with Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce marketplace, wherein select Flagship smartphones from Spice will be made exclusively available on the e-commerce major’s portal for launch. Some of the Flagship products will be available starting mid-September and Flipkart is looking forward to selling 100,000 smartphones in the initial few days.

Spice has identified key products that it intends to launch through Flipkart and is looking at an exclusive online store on Flipkart’s portal. This will include a dedicated store on flipkart for Spice products that will allow its customers to choose from a variety of offerings.

Spice aims to capture 10% market share of the overall online sales for smartphones. Flipkart has established itself as the leading e-commerce platform in the Indian market and enjoys major share of Mobile Category sales amongst all e-commerce portals and treats Spice as an invaluable global player & partner.

Both, Spice and Flipkart, through this association hope to give the customers a varied choice of products with best in class experience and after sales service.

Eye Institute Set Up Computer Training For Visually Impaired

L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) and Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC) of Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd today announced the launch of a Computer Training Centre for the visually challenged at LVPEI’s GMR Varalakshmi Campus, Hanumanthawaka Junction here. This is the third joint initiative completely funded by monetary contributions received through the Employee Giving Campaign at Microsoft India Development Center, the first two being the Mobility & Sensory Stimulation Park LVPEI Kode Venkatadri Chowdary Campus in Vijayawada and a Helpline for Visually Impaired launched last September.

The Computer Training Center, launched by Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder & Chair, L V Prasad Eye Institute, and Mr Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC), is open to any visually impaired student who wants to learn computer skills for educational and employment purposes.  The three-month program uses assistive technology in the form of screen reading software such as JAWS, MAGic and Window-Eyes, and teaches Microsoft Office such as Word, Excel, Power Point, Internet Explorer, accounting packages such as Tally and software languages such as C,C++, Java, HTML and SQL. Combined with soft skills and communication training, the course helps build confidence and increase the employability of the visually impaired students. The center aims to train a total of 128 students including blind (n=32) and low vision (n=96) in the next 12 months.

Explaining the potential of the initiative, Dr. Rao said: “LVPEI is one of the very few organizations in India running a dedicated hands-on training program for the visually challenged with the support of assistive software. We have always been committed to providing world class facilities to prevent blindness and provide vision rehabilitation. While we have made considerable progress in bringing the best of eye care services, we felt a need to establish a computer training center for the visually impaired. The center will help them acquire the required skill set to compete in a technologically advanced society and become financially independent. We would like to thank Microsoft India Development Center for its continued support of our initiatives.”

 There are several screen reading software developed for use by visually impaired, but most of these are extremely expensive, limiting their usage to a very small percentage of the needy.  However, Microsoft’s Window-Eyes screen reader is offered as a free download to all licensed users of Office 2010 and 2013, a great benefit for the visually impaired. Recounting his experience, Mohan, a computer training instructor at the Vishakhapatnam center, said: “I felt the impact of my vision loss doubling when I lost the privilege of using computers.  Thanks to LVPEI’s rehabilitation team, I learnt how to access computers with assistive software, and could connect back to the world again. Now I have the privilege of teaching the skills that I learnt as I have been given an opportunity to work as an IT instructor for the center.”

Elaborating on MSIDC’s contribution, Anil Bhansali said: “Every year, Microsoft runs a dedicated global program encouraging employees to give back to the community. Since the year 2000, MSIDC employees have been supporting various social causes they are passionate about. Many of our initiatives align to Microsoft’s long history of commitment to accessibility where the company builds accessibility features into several products and services and partners with others to discover new ways of using technology to transform people’s lives and have a long term impact. In 2012, to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of our Giving Campaign, we decided to take up eye health and support for the visually challenged as a special initiative, given the long term adverse consequences visual impairment has on a person’s education, employment, mobility, socialization and mental health.”

 “We chose to partner with LVPEI and Sankara Eye Care Institutions, given their commendable achievement in this field. We have achieved quite a bit. Thanks to LVPEI efforts, more than 4000 sighted and visually impaired individuals visited the Mobility and Sensory Stimulation Park while the helpline successfully answered 1500 enquiries regarding medical intervention, assistive devices, employment opportunities, mobile applications, audio books, educational courses, etc. The numbers are growing month on month. Our contributions helped Sankara achieve quite a bit since November 2013—they conducted vision screening for more than 71,000 school going children, 300 pediatric cataract surgeries, delivered spectacles to 1100 plus kids with refractive error and successfully treated nine cases of retinoblastoma. I am thankful to our employees for their generous donations towards such a noble cause,” Bhansali said. 

PayPal Start Tank & TiE Invite Startups for Incubation Challenge

PayPal India, in partnership with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Chennai, today announced that it is launching the Start Tank Incubation Challenge through which it will induct up to five startup companies into the Start Tank Incubation Center located within PayPal’s premises in Chennai. The unique challenge aims to identify and nurture some of the country’s next generation technology-centric startups.

 Applications are open for startups across India with qualifying rounds in Chennai (September 20), Madurai (September 27), Salem (October 11), Bangalore (October 18), and Tuticorin (October 18). Up to five of the shortlisted applicants will be finally selected through a joint selection process by PayPal and TiE as part of PitchFest 2014.

PayPal’s Start Tank provides an obligation-free environment for select startups to evolve. The exclusive facility in PayPal’s Chennai development center has an office area of more than 11,000 square feet with a world-class incubation space, state-of-the-art conference rooms and other amenities. 

Pre-venture-funded, seed or early-stage technology startups can benefit from TiE’s business mentorship leveraging its seasoned entrepreneur pool, PayPal’s technical mentors and eBay Inc.’s global technology and product competency.

Anupam Pahuja, General Manager, PayPal Development Centers, India, said, “We are excited to launch the third wave of applications from tech startups for Start Tank Chennai through the Incubation Challenge at TiE’s PitchFest. Our aim is to foster the entrepreneurial spirit and focus on building an ecosystem that nurtures entrepreneurship and innovation.”

“TiE Chennai is proud to be associated with PayPal in its mission to create a vibrant startup ecosystem. The incubation center created in PayPal facility – mentored by TiE Charter members and PayPal executives has made a difference to young entrepreneurs. Our dream is to the see the emergence of recognizable brands from Start Tank,” Lakshmi Narayanan, President, TiE Chennai, said.

Start Tank runs globally across PayPal offices in Boston, London and Chennai, and provides access to global mentors, angel investors and venture capitalists. PayPal formally launched its Chennai startup incubator in association with TiE Chennai in November 2013 and currently hosts four startups: DoPartTime, Fantain, Hey Feedback, and Kobster.com.

“We are grateful to PayPal for constantly giving us mentorship support, technical expertise, and the business connects for customer acquisition. When our mobile application was in the pre-beta stage, we launched it internally among the PayPal employees, which helped us assess the app for technology and sustenance,” Aravind Ramachandran, co-founder of Fantain, a sports fan engagement and management company, said. Vineet Neeraj, co-founder of another incubatee Kobster.com, an office supplies company, said, “PayPal’s global ecommerce and payments expertise has enabled us to enhance our online platform and attract more visitors to our portal to eventually generate revenues. Associating with the brand also helped us tap great talent into our growing company.”

                                                          

Interested applicants can register for Start Tank Incubation Challenge at http://chennai.starttank.com/apply or at http://tiechennai.com/pitchfest/application.