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|In: Events|Last Updated:

3M India announced the launch of the second edition of the Young Innovators Challenge Awards 2015 in association with CII. The platform aims to support and encourage young technical innovators between the age of 18 – 30, across India to come up with inspiring and innovative ideas with a social relevance.

3M_Logo

The various themes are:

  • Productivity – Innovations that improve output or affordability
  • Sustainability – Innovations that leave a positive ecological and environmental impact
  • Disruptive – Innovations that represent breakthrough technology or help create a totally new market or way to deliver the impact

Speaking on the occasion, Amit Laroya, Managing Director, 3M India said

Innovative thinking forms an integral part of the 3M culture. Through this initiative we believe we are taking this belief a notch higher. 3M is looking to promote and invest in young ideas and talent to develop not only socially responsible innovations but ideas which could be prototyped with the capability to address social good at large.

Speaking on the occasion, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII and Chairman, India Innovation Summit & Co-Founder, Infosys said

3M-CII Young Innovators Challenge gives an opportunity for youth across India to showcase their innovations and get recognized. This recognition allows winners to get additional funding and scale up their innovations.

Why should you participate

The 10 best ideas will be invited for a pitch session on 23-24 July, based on which a reputed jury will choose 3 winning entries. The winners will then be felicitated at the 11th India Innovation Summit 2015, organized by CII in Bangalore on 6th ~ 7th August, where they will be given an opportunity to present their winning projects.

Contestants can submit the entries here or email their ideas to submissions@3Myounginnovatorschallenge.org

The winners will also receive grants [up to Rs 2 Lakhs] from 3M India to prototype their idea.

|In: Events|Last Updated:

CAMTech India, a United States Agency for International Development [USAID/India] funded public-private partnership which aims to accelerate medical technology innovation for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health [RMNCH] in India. It will hold its second annual hack-a-thon [Jugaad-a-thon] in Bengaluru on June 26-28, 2015.

Organized in partnership with Lattice Innovations and hosted by GE Healthcare India, the event brings together some of the world’s brightest minds to develop innovative and affordable health technologies that can help save the lives of women and children across India.

Jugaad

Speaking about the event, CAMTech’s Director, Elizabeth Bailey said

We are building on the success of last year’s Jugaad-a-thon by bringing together a highly motivated and diverse group of innovators to tackle important challenges like newborn survival, safe births and family planning,” said  “The CAMTech INDIA platform allows us to harness ground-breaking ideas from a talented community of innovators from all over the country who are united by a common goal of saving lives.

The CAMTech INDIA Jugaad-a-thon [derived from the Hindi word “jugaad” meaning an innovative fix or work-around], invites clinicians, engineers, entrepreneurs & end-users to co-create solutions to identified and pressing clinical challenges through an open innovation platform.

In 48 hours, teams will move from ideas to prototypes with early business models that have the potential to transform RMNCH outcomes in India and around the world.

The event will take place at GE’s John F. Welch Technology Centre in Bengaluru, the company’s largest innovation center. GE Healthcare is at work for a healthier India and is focusing on some of the toughest healthcare challenges faced by India today – lowering maternal and infant mortality rates, enabling early detection of cancer for early treatment and addressing heart diseases.

Speaking about the event, Milan Rao, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia said

We are pleased to partner with CAMTech once again to help spur the innovation of accessible, affordable healthcare solutions for a healthier world. As the leading innovator of healthcare technologies and solutions, we would like to offer our expertise, advanced laboratories and industrial design facilities to these budding innovators for forging a culture of open innovation and co-creation of healthcare technologies.

The Jugaad-a-thon will be directly preceded by a Clinical Summit, which will convene clinicians, healthcare workers, government public health experts and patients from across India to identify the most pressing RMNCH needs and best practices in delivering care.

The Summit will also include a Technology Showcase for early-stage and newly marketed medical technologies that aim to improve quality and access for RMNCH in India.

Highlights of Jugaad-a-thon

  • This year’s event includes monetary prizes of Rs. 9 Lacs for top innovations that focus on specific RMNCH challenges, including a USAID-sponsored award of Rs. 1.5 Lacs for the team that best addresses its challenge in the field of Family Planning and Reproductive Health.
  • Other awards include those sponsored by CAMTech/USAID, GE Healthcare, Merck for Mothers and a special post-Jugaad-a-thon award from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry [FICCI] & Terumo India for the top two innovations that make the most progress 30 days after the event.
  • Teams will be judged by a panel of experts from public health, engineering and business, reflecting CAMTech’s cross-sector approach to innovation.

Neha Kumar, a professor of international development and human-computer interaction at the Georgia Institute of Technology [and winner of last year’s winning team, Baby Steps] speaks about the event

In a world that is witnessing technological advancement take place at breakneck speed, the Jugaad-a-thon creates a space for researchers and practitioners to channel this growth – through exciting ideas and innovations – towards social good.

She’ll return this year not only as a participant, but also as a budding entrepreneur. Since 2012, CAMTech has brought together over 1,500 innovators from more than 300 clinical, academic and commercial organizations to participate in medtech hack-a-thons, award programs and entrepreneurial-building initiatives. These efforts have helped spawn nearly 350 new technologies addressing intractable problems such as newborn asphyxia, post-partum haemorrhage & cervical cancer.

CAMTech’s initiatives, including its newly launched Online Innovation Platform, help connect and support a global community of innovators working to improve health in developing and emerging markets.

About Lattice Innovations

Lattice Innovations offers medical technology design & development services. Their areas of expertise include bedside and wearable monitoring systems, imaging for tele-pathology and mHealth applications. The founding teams brings with it 20 years of sector specific skills in product development, marketing & sales, clinical research and regulatory compliance, complemented by technical and business degrees from Harvard, Wharton, Cornell and IIT. Learn more about Lattice Innovations here

For more information on Jugaad-a-thon, please visit the following link

[Image Credit – Manu-Sharma]

|In: Gaming|Last Updated:

TajRummyGrid Logic Software, a globally renowned company with ample expertise in the online gaming technology, announced its iOS app for their flagship brand ‘Taj Rummy’ on the rummy platform.

Features of Taj Rummy

  • The app offers multi-player games in several variants, including 101, 201 Pools Rummy, Points Rummy & Deals Rummy games for free to all members.
  • The gaming platform has a unique player protection system that ensures a secure gaming experience through Artificial Intelligence and extended Auto Play, both available on the mobile app.
  • It can be download on all iOS devices –iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with iOS versions 5 and above.
  • These unique features in the new app tackle the foremost complaint of game drops due to frequent internet disconnections.
  • Auto Play [AP] holds the fort by triggering up to five rounds of basic game play, thus buying the player time to get back online.

Furthermore, the innovative Artificial Intelligence [AI] kicks in if there is a disconnection at the climax of the game, and ensures it is played to the best advantage of the player. The algorithm is designed to be simple yet highly effective–the best sequence is analysed as per the user performance and their analytical ability, taking the calculated risk into account.

Speaking about the new technology introduced by Grid Logic, Parikshit Madishetty, MD and Founder said

The programming has been customized for iOS specifically and as a result the new technology as a revolutionary system triggers 30,000 – 40,000 unique users every month, making Grid Logic’s apprehensive venture ‘Taj Rummy’ into a successful virtual gaming zone.

This concept has added a new touch to the gaming experience and we aim to be India’s biggest Rummy gaming portal by 2015.

The R&D team at Grid Logic Software have tested consumer behaviour in their labs, specifically triggering beta tests which created AI by synchronizing the data & analysing the pattern as per human thinking, i.e. user response. Additionally, the app features a Player Mode for superior screen usage and a sleeker UI. It also offers chat and live feed options, thus making the overall user experience completely exclusive.

Background

The advent of online gaming in this market quickly saw the rummy game jump on the bandwagon, or dive into the internet, so to speak. Popular brands today offer everything from competitive user interfaces to players’ favourite variants to high-value promotions, in a bid to acquire players and engage/ retain their share of this enormous customer-base. With technology appearing to grow in leaps and bounds virtually every day, the mobile avenue is currently seen as the most lucrative for the game. More information about ‘Taj Rummy’ here & here

[Image Source – Taj Rummy]

|In: Management|Last Updated:

EdX, the online learning initiative founded by Harvard and MIT, had earlier announced its association with IIM Bangalore as the first Indian B-school member in its distinguished group of xConsortium members across the globe. As a result of this partnership, IIM Bangalore has now launched an exciting range of courses aimed at leveraging new technologies and delivering education via MOOCs with edX.

IIMB

Speaking about the association, Anant Agarwal, CEO, edX said

We are excited to announce the launch of these exciting and innovative courses by IIM Bangalore on the edX platform. India is an important market for us, and is home to the largest population of edX learners outside of the United States. We are pleased that IIM Bangalore has launched their courses on our platform. With this partnership, we aim to expand the learning horizon for our learners in India and around the world.

IIMBx is starting with four courses as its first offerings on edX, out of which two courses will be launching in July 2015 followed by one in August 2015 and one in October 2015. All courses are now open for enrolment. The courses will help students learn and acquire different skills for Business, IT, Statistics and Operations Management.

Courses offered via IIMBx

Innovation and IT Management, a 6-week course, will start in July 2015 and will teach key decision-making skills to better manage and implement IT and innovation in workplace. This course will cover basic concepts of information technology management and would be useful for anyone who is using IT in their organization, building or is planning to build IT-enabled products or services. Dr. Rahul De would be the instructor for this course, who is the Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor in ICT for Sustainable Economic Development at IIM Bangalore.

Statistics for Business, a 5-week course, starting in July, 2015 will be an introductory course to statistics and will examine data from the perspective of business scenarios and will demonstrate how to apply that data to make better decisions. It will be Part 1 of a 4-part series on Business Statistics, and would be ideal for learners who wish to enroll in business programs. This course will be taught by three instructors: Shankar Venkatagiri, Ishita Kumar and Sunil Kunduru.

Part-2 of this series, Statistics for Business – II, will be a 6-week course to examine data drawn from allied fields of business such as Finance and HR, and will teach how to simulate data to follow a specified distribution. It will launch later this year.

Apart from this, there is going to be another course, on Introduction to Operations Management, which will be a 7-week course starting in August, 2015 and will teach key aspects of business operations and lean management, including capacity, productivity, quality, and supply chain and will be taught by B. Mahadevan.

Students who register for these courses, will have the option to either pursue an honour code for free (with complete access to all course material, tests, and online discussion forum), or pursue a Verified Certificate of Achievement for about Rs. 1,500.

EdX offers more than 500 courses in many areas of study, including the arts and humanities, public health, law, maths & computer science. Faculty and staff from more than 70 partner institutions teach on the edX platform, and over 400,000 certificates have been earned by edX students.

More details about IIMBx are available here

About edX

EdX is a non-profit, open-source enterprise offering online courses from more than 60 member institutions, composed of both leading global universities and colleges and a diverse group of prominent organizations from around the world. Founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, edX is focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through ground breaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research on an open-source platform

[Image Credit – IIMB]

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

SAP SE announced the launch of a Startup Accelerator Program in partnership with CIIE to strengthen the local entrepreneurship ecosystem and provide mentorship to early-stage entrepreneurs. Through this program, SAP & CIIE aim to catalyse assistance from several support organizations such as angel networks, co-working spaces, fabrication labs, incubators, industry associations, and, technology and academic institutions, which have been working towards creating a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Gujarat.

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Speaking about the association, Adaire Fox-Martin, President, SAP Asia Pacific Japan said

Entrepreneurs are the emerging leaders of the Digital Economy. They generate tremendous employment opportunities and contribute to the country’s growth. The program seeks to help entrepreneurs from tier II and tier III towns drive sustainable economic growth and innovation, and make Digital India real.

The program will be a significant catalyst of growth for entrepreneurs from emerging towns. Entrepreneurs will undergo a three-month, non-residential boot camp and monthly training workshops. They will be paired with domain experts from SAP Labs Bangalore to get insights into the latest technology innovations. The Startup Accelerator Program aims to create a pipeline of investable startups from this region by scouting for entrepreneurs from Gujarat and providing them with mentorship opportunities.

Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, CIIE at IIM – Ahmedabad added

Innovation and economic growth are directly linked to Gujarat’s ability to develop individuals with the skills to become a successful entrepreneur. We are pleased to collaborate with SAP on this initiative, and we will support this by leveraging our past experience and expertise to fast-track startup growth through operational guidance, mentoring and access to capital.

Believing in the power of small business and enterprises to drive innovation and job creation, SAP India is committed to finding unique ways to accelerate the growth of enterprises across the nation through training and technology consulting.

Apart from establishing best practices in the area of entrepreneurship, the Startup Accelerator Program will work towards building stronger collaboration between entrepreneurs and different stakeholders. In addition, this program will help develop a robust ecosystem and support entrepreneurs in areas such as Social Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Education, Sports, Internet, Mobile, Internet of Things, Clean Technology, Smart City and Food & Agri Business by providing them with operational guidance and access to capital.

About CIIE

IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship [CIIE] helps entrepreneurs solve India’s most difficult problems in areas like energy, agriculture, healthcare and affordable technology. Set-up in collaboration with Government of India and Gujarat Government, CIIE is one of India’s leading entrepreneurship centre and operates different initiatives including incubators, accelerators and venture funds to support entrepreneurs. For more information, visit CIIE India

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

Intel in India and the Department of Science and Technology announced the call for entries for the Intel & DST- Innovate for Digital India Challenge. The challenge is aimed at fostering a culture of innovation, create solutions that can address local needs and build an empowered ecosystem for pervasive technology adoption in the country.

The challenge will be open to aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, innovators, academia, designers, engineers & makers from diverse backgrounds.

To participate in the challenge, candidates must log on to Innovate For India & register their projects at the earliest. The registration closes on June 22, 2015

innovate_for_digital_india

Participants of the Intel & DST- Innovate For Digital India Challenge will be mentored by industry stalwarts and Intel experts. The participants will be trained in technical know-how, will be provided access to product kits and infrastructure and multiple commercialization opportunities.

Some key insights of the Innovate for “Digital India Challenge” are:

  • IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship to execute the challenge. Intel, CIIE & MyGov to work together for application management, program facilitation and popularization.
  • The challenge, running from April 2015 to January 20161, is open to academia, aspiring entrepreneurs, innovators, and startups.
  • Total grant worth Rs.1.5 crs; top three to get access to seed fund of Rs. 20 Lakhs each.

Speaking about the challenge, Narendra Bhandari, Director, Software & Services Group, Intel Asia Pacific said

Innovation is part of Intel’s DNA. This challenge combines Intel’s history of creating innovative technology with government’s Digital India vision, complemented by entrepreneurial talent to create a sustainable technology ecosystem. Through this challenge, we aim to encourage people to come forward and participate and create solutions that will help make Digital India, a reality.

Naganand Doraswamy, EVP & co-founder SPAN Infotech & President TIE Bengaluru, said

It is wonderful to see Intel actively collaborating with the government in the product start-up space. The Intel & DST Innovate For Digital India Challenge will offer a platform to the young creative minds of Karnataka to showcase their ideas and build start-ups that can make a difference in the Indian market.

Speaking at the event, Shankar Maruwada, Co-founder & CEO Ekstep said

Innovate For Digital India Challenge promises to be a timely platform for young creative minds across the country and we are extremely excited to be part of this challenge as this is the right time for students, innovators, and aspiring entrepreneurs in Karnataka to come forward and pave the way for enabling an innovative ecosystem.

Detailed T&C on the challenge and prize money are available at InnovateForDigitalIndia

[Image Credit – InnovateForDigitalIndia]

|In: Business|Last Updated:

State Bank of India & PayPal, the world’s leading open digital payments company have entered into a strategic partnership to promote cross border trade and facilitate payments for SBI & PayPal users both in India and abroad.

The partnership will enable SBI Debit cardholders to use PayPal when buying products from overseas websites and allow SBI’s Micro Small and Medium Enterprise [MSME] customers to gain access to PayPal’s secure payment solutions.

PaypalSBI

The announcement reiterates the importance of India as a strategic market for PayPal. In addition to having a strong engineering workforce based out of India, PayPal also has a very robust and growing cross border business in the country.

The partnership will help PayPal work closely with SBI to make it easy for Indian exporters and consumers gain access to a global audience. One of the key aspects of the partnership is the impetus that will be provided to e-Governance projects of the Government of India.

Mentioning about the strategic-partnership Shri B. Sriram, Managing Director, SBI said

SBI has been bringing value to its customers by providing them innovative financial solutions. SBI is very pleased to have this tie-up as it provides a perfect opportunity to both of us to collaborate and offer a wide gamut of customized financial solutions to merchants across the board. This would bring new opportunities for our SME customer base.

Speaking at the event, Vikram Narayan, Managing Director and Country Manager (India), PayPal said

It is an honor for PayPal to partner with the State Bank of India which is India’s largest bank. We foresee exciting times ahead as the economy is poised to pick up and support Indian citizens and, businesses to evolve through global transactions.

We understand the Government’s focus on the MSME and believe PayPal has a strong role to play in the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Collaborating with us gives SBI’s customers global access to businesses and consumers alike.

Key highlights of the partnership

Helping SBI Debit Cardholders buy from global merchants using PayPal

PayPal & State Bank of India will work together to provide SBI debit cardholders additional options for international spending. The partnership will enrich customer experience and provide them safe and secure payments method through PayPal for buying goods from international merchants who offer PayPal as a payment option.

Helping Indian merchants gain a global audience

PayPal & SBI will work closely to offer PayPal’s payments solutions to SBI’s MSME customers who can reach PayPal’s 165 million active accounts globally. They would also work on providing innovative financial solutions to the merchants who are using PayPal services.

PayPal and SBI will also create a joint coordination committee to grow and implement this strategic partnership.

About PayPal

At PayPal, we put people at the center of everything we do. Founded in 1998, we continue to be at the forefront of the digital payments revolution, processing almost 11.6 million payments for our customers per day. PayPal gives people better ways to connect to their money and to each other, helping them send money without sharing financial information and with the flexibility to pay using their PayPal account balances, bank accounts, PayPal Credit and credit cards.

More information about PayPal can be found here & here.

|In: India|Last Updated:

Micromax is ready to shake the market this time with its latest smart phone at highly affordable price. The prices are quite competitive i.e. Rs.6999/- for the state of the art features it possesses. Let’s review the smart phone and find out is it actually value for money the way it is being claimed?

It is hosted by one of the biggest online players Amazon India exclusively having registrations opened. Micromax’s Yuphoria will be available for purchase on 28th May, 2015. It comes with a battery, data cable, adapter, earphone, screen guard and manual in the box.

AmazonYuphoria

Yuphoria, Dual SIM Smartphone, has 5 inch HD screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection and 720p resolution (294ppi). The display on the screen is awesome as it has 16.7 million colors. It’s perfect for watching movies, flipping pictures and gaming. It does also have better sunlight legibility making it better than the other smart phones available in market in this range.

Features contributing to its lightening fast speed are described as Cyanogen based Android OS, v5.0.2 (Lollipop) operating system the latest available in market, powered by Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410, Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and Adreno 306 GPU. Indians sick of the problem of getting smart phones hanged are given liberty to do multi-tasking with 2GB RAM.

Another attractive feature is 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, Autofocus Rear camera with LED flash. The camera also has Saturn rings around it adding to its beauty. Front camera of 5MP make it perfect for clicking selfies. It’s one more significant feature is health tracking service powered by HealtifyMe.

YuphoriaColors

Li-Ion 2230 mAh battery gets 60% charged in 45 minutes and possesses 160 hours standby time on 3G and 7 hours talk time. It has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot WLAN, Bluetooth v4.0 and GPS for connectivity. 85+ decibel of sound is also one of its highlight.

It has 16 GB internal memory and 2GB RAM which is expandable up to 32 GB using MicroSD card. It weighs 143 grams and the dimensions are 142.4 x 73 x 8.2-9.35 mm. Other minor features include Accelerometer, Gyrometer, Document viewer, Proximity sensor, Photo/video Editor, compass, MP4/H.264 player and MP3/eAAC+/WAV/Flac player etc.

All these features help customers make purchase decisions confidently. They can also use Amazon India coupons to make their shopping frugal. Amazon is an e-commerce giant and offers wide range of products to its customers with awesome discount deals and fast delivery services. Customers registering for Micromax’s Yuphoria will be delivered the smart phone soon after its launch on 28th May, 2015.