Technopark TBI’s Blog

TePP , DSIR  is participating in ‘Pride of India exhibition’ during the Indian Science Congress(ISC) at Trivandrum from Jan 3-7 , 2010. During the event Innovators from TePP Outreach Centres across the country will exhibit their innovations in the Exhibition Stalls. Technopark TUC will be co-ordinating the exhibition in Trivandrum  for TePP , DSIR .

This is the first time Trivandrum hosts the Science congress.

The 97^th Indian Science Congress will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 3, 2010. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the University of Kerala are hosting the science congress and the venue is Kariyavattom campus of the University of Kerala.. The total number of delegates to participate in the event is expected to touch 7,000, with 5,000-odd delegates coming for the main event and over 1,500 school students for the National Children’s Science Congress that will be held along with the mega event. The theme of the Congress is ‘Science and Technology of 21st century – National Perspective’. This is the first time Trivandrum hosts the Science congress.

Dr. A.S. Rao, former advisor, TePP, DSIR, has called for positive intervention by State as well as non-State players to ensure an entrepreneur-friendly system. 

 Delivering the inaugural address at the launch of Innovation Lab, aimed at promoting and nurturing entrepreneurship on Dec 15, 2009 at Kochi, Dr. Rao said that everyone should be given an equal opportunity and this will ensure that no bright ideas go untapped. He said that the fear of failure is the stumbling block in the creation of entrepreneurs. Dr. Rao reminded that in entrepreneurship there was no failure but a series of learning and urged youngsters not to be afraid of failure.

Delivering the presidential address, Mr. Mervin Alexander, CEO Technopark, said that if India were to sustain its leadership in the IT sector in the face of stiff competition from other countries that are offering cheaper service, it would need to focus on innovation and research. He said that the State government was promoting research in IT by offering fellowships under its Speed IT programme. The programme aimed at college students was launched in the last academic year. The objective was to assist students pursuing their Master’s degree or Ph.D. in projects relevant to information technology.  

“Technopark is playing the role of facilitator in organising interaction with the academia and the industry as part of this programme,” Mr. Alexander said. He expressed disappointment in discussions he had with the industry lamenting that even the top names were not interested in research and innovation but was more interested in “at the moment advantages”. He reminded that erasing failures was important for the start-ups as it would enable them to start afresh.  

Yathish G , Initiatives and Product Forum, NASSCOM; Arifa Khan, Founder and CEO, Genius Incubator; and Kris Nair, Executive Director, Opdrage Venture Partners offered felicitations. K.C. Chandrashekharan Nair, Registrar, Technopark TBI  welcomed the gathering, and Arun Balachandran, CEO Innovation Lab  proposed the vote of thanks.The programme progressed with various session on entrepreneurship by eminent personalities like Dr. Rao, Mr.Yathish, Mr.Mervin Alexander on topics like Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Support offered by NASSCOM to Start up companies and Experience in Promoting Technopark TBI. The session ended with experience sharing by Mr. Sanjay Vijayakumar, CEO, MobME, a succesfully graduated incubatee of T-TBI

A 3 member expert delegation from  National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research (NITTTR) visited  Technopark TBI. The team was led by Dr. Parijat De, Director, NITTTR and included Dr.S.K. Dhameja, Prof in Charge of Entrepreneurship Development & Industrial Co-ordination Dept. . The visit was aimed at exploring  first information regarding the establishment and functioning of TBI in the Institute at Chandigarh.

Religare Technova IT Services Ltd. a wholly owned subsidiary of Religare Technova Limited, today announced a strategic alliance with US based Akros TechLabs to act as a Value Added Reseller of Akros’ “CNBSignln Two Factor Authentication product in the Indian, US, European, Middle East and Asia Pacific markets.

Akros is a technology solutions company, focused on developing and marketing cutting- edge solutions for the global mobile technologies industry and has cleared for admission in Technopark TBI. CNBSignin is a patent-pending, software based Two Factor Authentication solution, as opposed to the hardware based solutions that are available in the market today. It uses a non-time based synchronization algorithm and is built using the latest Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). A software based Two Factor Authentication solution does not require dongles or hard tokens and the customers of Banks, Capital Market Companies, and other institutions can secure their online accounts just by using their mobiles.

The Companies now get the benefit of easy administration of this service by doing away with the hassles of maintaining and shipping hardware based dongies and hard tokens to their customer base. Another added advantage of this solution is that it easily integrates with the Company’s base application and eliminates the need to host separate authentication servers and the costs associated with such infrastructure.

Sanjay Padode, CEO, Religare Technova Ltd. stated, “E-Frauds are impeding the growth of e commerce, a second level authentication mechanism deployed by e-commerce providers can significantly reduce the Incidents of e-frauds thus providing the end users to transact securely in cyberspace. Religare Technova is pleased to announce its partnership with Akros and to introduce a superior and hassle free software based Two Factor Authentication solution that I am sure will enhance the security of cyberspace transactions”.

Sid Prasanna, Managing Director of Akros TechLabs commented, “We are pleased to work with Religare Technova as our exclusive partner for CNBSignin. I am confident that we will be able to capitalize on the reach and size of Religare Technova. Also, our product being a software based solution is positioned uniquely as opposed to the other hard token based solutions that are currently available. We believe our solution brings significant value to companies along with high level of cost savings.”

A Faculty Development Program(FDP) designed to train and develop professionals in the area of  Entrepreneurship Development was inaugurated by Technopark CEO Mr.Mervin Alexander on  December 8, 2009. The programme is jointly organised by National Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (NCIIE), the training arm of Technopark TBI in association with EDII Ahmedabad and is supported by Department of Science & Technology(DST) Govt of India

So many eminent personalities from both industry as well as academic community handled the FDP Sessions. The FDP will equip the participants to act as ‘Resource Persons’ and facilitators of the IEDC activities in the colleges and guide and motivate young students to take up entrepreneurship as their career. The participants were from Kerala and Tamilnadu.

During the inauguration Mr. V.S Sukumaran, Associate Senior faculty, EDII welcomed the participants , Mr. RC Dutt, Expert Consultant,T-TBI delivered the key note address and Mr.KCC  Nair, Secretary, T-TBI delivered the vote of thanks.

Technopreneur 2009 workshop organized by Technopark TBI in association with Innovation Lab, TechnoFIRST magazine and ITIH- TBI, intends to create awareness on Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, among the Innovators from every segment and the campuses of Academic Institutions across Central Kerala. The inspiration behind this initiative has been to utilize and effectively convert the skills and expertise of students and rural innovators to start entrepreneurial ventures. 

The first generation entrepreneurs need various support services like marketing, business facilitation, technical expertise, preparation of business plan, and resources for financing and managing businesses during their start-up phase, to enhance the prospects of their survival.  Incubators and similar mechanisms are intended to provide a conducive atmosphere, range of critical support services and facilities to nurture and support a start-up. Innovative ideas are incubated and are supported and nurtured into real innovations by various stages of pre-incubation and incubation providing them necessary technical support, infrastructural facilities, mentoring and so on. This programme aims to address these issues. 

This time we are aiming mainly at prospective Innovators, Faculty members of  Engineering Colleges, Teachers of Vocational Higher Secondary Schools and Technical Schools across Central Kerala, comprising the districts Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam and Thrissur.  

National Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (NCIIE) , the training arm of Technopark TBI in association with EDII Ahmedabad with the support of Department of Science & Technology(DST) Govt of India conducted a Faculty Development Program(FDP) designed to train and develop professionals in the area of  Entrepreneurship Development. The FDP will be held in Technopark from December 8-19, 2009. The programme is designed to train and develop professionals in the area of Entrepreneurship Development so that they can act as ‘Resource Persons’ in guiding and motivating young students, particularly from science, engineering and  technology stream, to take up entrepreneurship as their career.

For more details contact : NCIIE on 0471-2700222 or mail to register@technoparktbi.org