Indore, Dec.10 (ANI): An Indore based artificial pacemaker manufacturing company is offering pre-programmed artificial pacemakers for heart patients that are priced almost half the price of the imported devices available in the market.

Developed by Shree Pacetronix Limited, an ISO certified firm, the indigenously developed pacemakers compare with the best available abroad, are claimed to be suitable for the lifestyle of the common working class of the country.

The indigenously built peacemaker comes at rupees 25,000 as against the imported device which costs rupees 45,000-50,000. The former lasts about 20 years in comparison to imported ones that lasts a mere four to five years.

"When we introduced our pacemaker, the imported pacemakers used to cost around 1,500 dollars. We launched pacemakers at a price of 550 dollars. After that, some of the multinational companies closed their operations and some reduced the price of their products. Our product has given the common men another alternative," claimed Atul Sethi, the owner of Shree Pacetronix Ltd.

The artificial pacemaker, when implanted in the human body through surgery, stimulates cardiac contraction, and sets the pace of heartbeat of patients who experience irregular or no heartbeat.

The manufacturing company is ranked seventh globally in the pacemaking industry, exports its products to many countries, including Egypt, Turkey, China and Venezuela.

Rajat Shanti, the Chief Technical Coordinator (CTO) of the company, claims that a device made in this unit has a 20-year lifespan, where as international brands have a lifespan of five to seven years. Thus, the Indore device saves both on the cost of replacement and the pain of undergoing a surgery.

"We have developed a multi-programmable pacemaker. After implantation of our pacemaker, the patient can go for a check up even after two years. This is good for Indians as most of them are working. Pacemakers having complicated computerised programmes are not suitable for Indians. Besides, those complicated devices need regular check up and battery replacement. On the other hand, our pacemakers work for 14 to20 years," said Rajat Shanti, Chief Technical Coordinator, Shree Pacetronix Ltd.

Besides manufacturing cost-effective single chamber pacemakers, the company manufactures sophisticated devices such as bi-ventricle, pinnacle, auto-capture, duel chamber pacemakers as well.

Many cardiac surgeons in the country have approved the quality of the indigenously manufactured pacemakers.

"These indigenous pacemakers are equally competent with the international brands. So far, around 250 pacemakers have been implanted in Indore and around 20,000 all over the world. Patients having pacemakers implanted from here have been doing well even for the past 10 years. No technical problems have occurred so far," Rajiv Khare, a cardiologist at CHL Apollo Hospital, Indore.

" The second important thing is that these pacemakers cost around half of the price of the imported ones. Apart from other qualities, these pacemakers work according to the requirement of the patients and it make the difference of 500 dollars in terms of total cost," said Khare.

Recently, the company has got an assignment from the West Bengal Government to manufacture pacemakers for patients living Below the Poverty Line (BPL).

The decade old company has plans to launch Neoro-Stimulators, Dental Implants and various other implantable medical devices in near future. (ANI)

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/91481.php/
A-cost-effective-artificial-peacemaker-developed-in-India

IRIS (Initiative for Research & Innovation in Science), a joint initiative by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Intel, was inaugurated yesterday at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Campus in New Delhi.

IRIS aims at promoting Science and Scientific Research amongst young Indian innovators by recognizing and rewarding outstanding projects, and providing a platform for the young innovators at International events like the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and the International Exhibition for Young Inventors (IEYI).

The event will be held through Dec 9 at the IIT Campus, and is set to see participation from a record number of young students and inventors from across the country.

This year, the competition has been divided into 4 categories based on age groups. The first category comprises the 6 to 12 year olds, the second category includes 13 to 16 year olds, the third category consists of those in the age group of 17 to 20 years, while the last category is constituted by 21 to 35 year olds.

Around 180 projects have been submitted by participants competing to represent India at ISEF and IEYI.

Franklin Jones, President of Intel India, said, "We are glad to partner with DST & CII to encourage the spirit of discovery in school children and increase their interest in Science and Technology. IRIS provides a wonderful platform for students to display their scientific aptitude and win recognition not only at the national but international level as well."

Anuj Sinha, Advisor & Head of the Department of Science & Technology, said, "This is an important forum, which reaches grass root educational institutions and provides space for inventions and innovations. We need to continue the strategic partnership in order to encourage ideas with the potential for commercialization."

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/
Science_Fair_IRIS_Kicks_Off/551-77706-547.html

Akula launched SKS Microfinance in 1998. It is one of the fastest growing microfinance organisations in the world, having provided over $33 million in loans and helping over 300,000 people in becoming economically self reliant.

By RxPG News Service, New York, Dec 5 - Ten young innovators of Indian origin, working at the cutting edge of technology, have been awarded the Global Indus Technovators Awards 2006, an initiative of the Indian Business Club - at Massachusetts Institute of Technology -.

This year's winners are: Adam Rasheed, Rajeev Ram, Aref Chowdhury, Krishna Kumar, Shiladitya Sengupta, Anita Goel, Sameer Sawarkar, Vikram Akula, Anuj Batra and Rajit Manohar.

IBC is a student-run organisation chaired by graduate students at MIT. It was established in 2002 as an initiative of Sangam, the Indian student's organisation at MIT.

Dr. Anita Goel -, Dr. Krishna Kumar - and Dr. Shiladitya Sengupta - won the awards in the area of biotechnology/medicine/healthcare.

Goel is the president of Nanobiosym Labs and Nanobiosym Diagnostics Inc., which focus on developing next-generation diagnostic capabilities.

Kumar, chairperson of the department of chemistry at Tufts University, is an expert on peptide therapies and has authored patents with an immense potential to impact cancer management.

Sengupta, co-founder of ANGENIX Ltd. won the award for one of his biggest innovations, the nano cell, according to a press release.

Dr. Aref Chowdhury -, Dr. Rajeev V. Ram - and Dr. Adam Rasheed - are the three recipients of the materials and devices awards.

Chowdhury is a technical staff member at Bell Labs and his innovations are in the field of nonlinear optics, a field critical to improving long-haul optical transport networks.

Ram, currently a faculty member at MIT, is widely acknowledged for his work in the field of optoelectronics and is one of the pioneers in the semiconductor based laser science and technology.

Rasheed, a research engineer at GE Global Research Center, is widely recognised for his work in the GE-NASA project on pulsed detection engine feeding an axial turbine, for which he received the innovator award.

Dr. Anuj Batra and Dr. Rajit Manohar - won the award in the field of information technology.

Batra, who currently works on highspeed digital communication technology at Texas Instruments -, is highly acknowledged for his developmental efforts of ultra wideband - technology.

Manohar, cofounder of Achronix Semiconductor, is currently an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University and is a pioneer in asynchronous semiconductor design.

The winners of this year's Grassroots category award are Vikram Akula - and Sameer Sawarkar -.

Akula launched SKS Microfinance in 1998. It is one of the fastest growing microfinance organisations in the world, having provided over $33 million in loans and helping over 300,000 people in becoming economically self reliant.

Sawarkar, founder of Neurosynaptic Communications Pvt, Ltd, works in the areas of remote medical diagnostics and telemedicine.

http://www.rxpgnews.com/india/
MIT-Technovators-awards-for-10-Indians_7345.shtml

BANGALORE, India - A U.S. official leading a business delegation here called India's patent and copyright laws antiquated and unable to offer protections necessary for foreign companies to operate here.

"Patent and copyright laws in India are old and back-dated and they no where match the world standards," said Franklin Lavin, undersecretary of Commerce for international trade. India and the U.S. "need to sit and work out a proper regulatory framework by identifying the weak areas. India needs to seek more participation by U.S. companies."

Addressing a business seminar in New Delhi, Lavin said India needs to modernize its patent and copyright laws to attract more foreign capital. Lavin is leading a business delegation that includes 225 U.S. corporate executives from about 100 companies such as IBM, AT&T and Motorola.

Along with New Delhi, the delegation was scheduled to visit Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata (Calcutta) and Mumbai.

India has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 1995. Intellectual property provisions of the trade body require members to protect a range of IP including semiconductor layouts and designs.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml
?articleID=196601164

New Delhi, Dec 4. (PTI): India's technology prowess is not just limited to software services exports, as is reflected from the massive surge in the number of filed patent applications to a whopping 24,000 over the last five years.

According to a list prepared by the Department of Information Technology, the inflow of patent applications has gone up from less than 5000 in 1999-2000 to 24,000 in 2005-06 and the number of patents granted in these years were 1881 and 4320 respectively.

The technology areas covered include primarily mechanicals, chemicals, computer/electronics, general items, drugs, electricals, biotechnology and food items, it said.

The list includes both the private and public sector.

Officials said the Government through the Department of IT, bio-technology and others dealing with different areas of knowledge economy attaches priority with R&D efforts, specially in the knowledge sector.

The National Knowledge Commission, was set up last June to transform India into a strong knowledge economy through R&D efforts in science & technology labs and agriculture.

Many Knowledge Process Outsourcing hubs are also coming up in the country and many sectors have developed their own full-fledged knowledge assets to empower their knowledge workers to use IT.

The 2nd tech revolution in village India

The government's ambitious project of setting up 1,00,000 Common Service Centres takes technology to the doorstep of the common citizen

Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr Delhi

The next stage of Information Technology (IT), it seems, will now happen in the countryside, if the Manmohan Singh government's decision to create a network of 1,00,000 e-kiosks, to be known as Common Services Centre (CSCs), in the rural areas in 2007 is to become a reality. E-kiosk is seen as a nodal point to make e-governance meaningful. It is when villagers can transact official business through the network of e-kiosks that it can be claimed digitalisation of governance has been achieved.

E-kiosk is being seen as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) unit that includes personal computers (PCs), printers, digital cameras, scanners, projection system and tele-medicine equipment. It certainly looks a lot more ambitious than the PCOs or the private cellular operators who increased telecommunication connectivity by leaps and bounds. It was during the first flush of young Rajiv Gandhi's call for marching into the 21st century, and Sam Pitroda, who undertook the telecomunication mission, delivered it with a quiet panache. In many ways, e-kiosk can be seen as a more sophisticated expansion and upgradation of the PCO of the 1980s.

The kiosk project is being structured as a three-tier system, with the village-level entrepreneur (VLE), who will manage the kiosk, and who is being seen as a franchisee. The next level is that of the Service Level Agency (SLA), with an apex agency facilitating the service at the state level. To work out the modalities, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has chosen Infrastructure Lending and Financial Services (IL&FS) as the national level agency (NLA). The mission-mode is the favoured means to implement the scheme.

A private document of IL&FS looking at the implementation of the CSC project argues for a bottom-up model that "can allow like-minded public and private enterprises-through a collaborative framework-to integrate their goals of profit as well as social objectives, into a sustainable business model for achieving rapid socio-economic change in rural India." The basic model on offer is a public-private partnership.

It is clear that government alone will not be able to create the 1,00,000 e-kiosk network because lack of funds will remain an obstacle. Private-sector participation will enable the scheme to be a sustainable one by creating an appropriate business model.

An interesting aspect of the IL&FS report is the argument that private sector can be used effectively in the delivery of public service systems. Until now, policy pundits in the government as well as in the private sector had argued that public services should be left to the government, and that private sector should be allowed to grow and expand and generate wealth, which, then, would trickle down to the others.

There is a change of heart in the private sector as the realisation dawns that public service delivery systems need not necessarily mean an all-expenditure scheme, and that there are returns as well. It will be something on the lines of the private health services system, which generates handsome income as people are willing to pay. Of course, the money to be charged has to remain within reasonable limits. The report also argues that the business model for the CSC scheme facilitates creation of employment and generation of incomes, which will have a positive cascading effect on the rural economy, which has remained at the subsistence level for a majority of people living in villages.

It is argued that this is not the first time that private sector has played a key role in the rural sector, especially in spreading rural connectivity through satellite technology and by offering entertainment through cable network. So, it does make sense to harness the capability and expertise of private sector to spread IT-enabled services in the rural sector.

The promising part of the scheme is its employment potential. It is projected that the scheme would create 2,25,000 direct jobs in the villages, apart from the indirect job opportunities through the expansion of rural markets. The exact figure is certainly modest, but it need not be faulted on that count. The 1,00,000 e-kiosk scheme can only be the first stage, and there is potential for enormous growth in the future.

The scheme also conforms to the long-term plan of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's economic reform agenda that the net should be cast wide to bring in beneficiaries. The focus on rural areas is not out of place.

The main criticism against the present government has been that it is trying to pursue populism, on the one hand, through programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NRGS), economic packages to relieve farmers in distress et al, and, on the other hand, it wants to push big-ticket reforms through schemes like Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Critics of the government are sure to describe the exercise as one of riding two horses, while the government will defend itself saying that it is adopting a two-pronged approach.

The IL&FS report cites some interesting data with regard to progress of e-governance in some of the states. It notes: "Several State Governments, too, have been at the forefront of e-government innovation, especially in the rural areas. The Bhoomi project has computerised 20,000,000 rural land records covering 67,00,000 farmers in the state of Karnataka. The CARD project in Andhra Pradesh has registered over 10 million

citizens in three years. The Rajiv Project has reportedly recorded transactions worth Rs21 crore in the last five months only on electricity bill payments in rural Andhra Pradesh."

The CSC scheme is a necessary complement to e-government. The e-kiosk will enable the villager to access the information and services that government offers through its e-government windows. Instead of doing the endless and fruitless rounds of government offices in the village and in the district headquarters, where the hierarchy-based bureaucracy throws its weight around, villagers can access information as well as get work done more efficiently through IT modes.

The CSC scheme is both feasible and attractive. There is much in it for the private sector, especially the business model. It now realises that there are profits to be made in the rural sector as well, which is what drives the private sector. There is nothing wrong with that. But what the private sector will have to ensure is the efficient qualitative delivery of services.

If more than one service provider exists, then competition will keep prices down as well as ensure that people are not taken for a ride. Monopolies, whether in public or private sector, are to be avoided like plague.

More importantly, it is one of the best ways of empowering economically and socially weak villagers. The maxim that knowledge is power could be suitably changed to "Information is power". Give information to the poor. This could serve as a better catalyst to remove illiteracy. Through the ITinterface, people will see the direct reward for turning literate.

http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2006/12/686