Sibal presents India Innovation Pioneers Challenge Awards

New Delhi, July 21 (UNI) Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal today presented the India Innovation Pioneers Challenge Awards for 2006-07 to the three teams of young innovators.

Presenting the awards, the Minister called for the creation of innovation ecology in India and urged the industry to join in the efforts of the government.

He said, ''We need to focus on building more incubators that will help the freshest of new ideas to see the light of day and become an economic reality.'' Congratulating the young innovators, Mr Sibal expressed hope that such innovations would provide solutions that are accessible to those who are at the bottom of the pyramid.

National Science&Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), DST, Intel and Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) jointly organised the 'DST-Intel India Innovation Pioneers Challenge,' an innovative business plan competition for educational institutions, organisations and entrepreneurs across India with the objectives to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Indian academia and scientific enterprises through the Business Plan competitions.

DST-Intel and IUSSTF have jointly invested over Rs. 2.1 crore under the current entrepreneurial programmes.

Mr Sibal also launched the India Innovation Pioneers Challenge 2007-08 to continue the journey embarked by DST, Intel and IUSSTF to boost the entrepreneurial spirit in India.

The Sparsha team consisting of Mr Rohit Singhal and Mr Soumyajit Dey of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur bagged the first prize of Rs 3 lakh for their project called Sanyog, a vernacular iconic communication system in which the user selects icons as input and a complete sentence in the target language chosen by the user is generated.

This technology enables disabled people, who are unable to speak, write or move, to communicate effectively in English and Indian regional languages.

The Singularis team of Mr Ravi Saraogi and Mr Umesh Sachdev from Jaypee Institute of Information and Technology, Delhi got the second prize of Rs 1 lakh for their project called MATS (Mobile Anti Theft Software), and innovative solution for curbing increasing cell phone thefts across the world.

The third prize of Rs. 50,000 went to Interface of Mr Tarun Janardhan Siripurapu from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata for developing a computer interface that enables a blind person to use a computer.

UNI