Innovation and India

Innovation is at the heart of all scientific activity. Yet in many developing countries, the investments in research and development institutions do not seem to yield any measurable results. While India has made rapid strides in the world of research and development in the last few years, but none of its innovations are world-beaters. Neither have any of their discoveries and inventions fundamentally changed how many of us live and work; or helped generate immeasurable wealth for companies, individuals and the nation.

I remember that this was one of the major concerns among the members of the nations Science and Technology Advisory Committee to Mrs Gandhi in the early seventies. As a member of this prestigious committee, we were asked to examine why despite major investments being made at the 26 national science laboratories, there had been no breakthroughs in any area over the past two decades based on their work. We found that laboratories had few financial resources, they had no linkages to industry, no capabilities for engineering and upscaling their work, no access to funds for marketing, in short no innovation infrastructure.

Arindam Bannerjee in his article makes the same points.

But the heart of all innovation is innovators. Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review, a magazine produced by MIT, have honored the young innovators from around the world whose inventions and research they find most exciting; a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35. Their work--spanning medicine, computing, communications, electronics, nanotechnology, and more--is expected to change our world. Among these innovators, there are a large number of Indians. Some of these Indians have already made their mark—Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of Hotmail, was selected in 1999. There are others in this list who will no doubt make their mark in the future. The question is are there some Indian organizations, industrial houses or entreprenaurs who will seek these budding Indian innovators out and provide the financing and support to convert these to world shaking discoveries and inventions?

In any case, here is the list of Indian who have over the past decade made the innovators of the year list selected by a distinguished panel assembled by Technology Review.

1999

Sabeer Bhatia, 30. With friend and co-worker Jack Smith, Bhatia founded Hotmail, the first free Web-based e-mail service.

Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, 28 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. made important contributions to research on asynchronous transfer mode, a protocol that permits high-speed network communications.

Jagdeep Singh, 32.Stanford University. WDM requires a sophisticated switch to direct multi-spectral traffic--and that’s just what Jagdeep Singh created at his 1998 startup, Lightera Networks.

Tejal Desai, 27.University of Illinois, Chicago is rapidly becoming one of the most established researchers in the biomedical applications of nanotechnology and bio-MEMS.

Akhil Madhani, 31. Walt Disney Imaging If robots are to play a larger role in our lives, we will need to make them more dexterous and responsive. As his doctoral project, Madhani created "Black Falcon," a robot that performed surgery under the command of a surgeon at a remote location.

Samir Mitragotri, 28. Sontra Medical Samir Mitragotri envisions a day when measuring glucose levels is bloodless--and ouchless. The Bombay native invented a way to use low-frequency ultrasound to make skin super-permeable (a process known as sonophoresis), then suck out interstitial fluid with a vacuum.

Amit Goyal, 34 Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His contribution: growing thin layers of ceramic superconductors on a polycrystalline metal template, using the highly aligned metal to line up grains of the superconductors. The resulting structure of the superconductor resembles a single crystal, and the method has allowed Goyal and his co-workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to form superconducting wires capable of very high current densities.

2002

Ramesh Hariharan, 32. Strand Genomics cofounded Strand Genomics in Bangalore, where he designs software tools to efficiently analyze the ever increasing volume of data about the makeup of genes. With colleagues from the university and from a local software firm, he started the nonprofit Simputer Trust to develop a simple, cheap (under $200), portable, battery-operated computer to bring the Internet to the developing world.

Vinay Gidwaney, 20. Control-F1 Gidwaney, chief technology officer of the 40-person company, calls his tools “better than being there.” That’s because a remote customer can continue to work on her computer while Control-F1 software is solving her support problem in the background: no need for her to step away from the computer for a human technician.

Vijay Pande, 31Stanford University.Pande is now using distributed computing to map the final folded structures of the proteins. On any given day, 35,000 PCs are providing the computing power.

Rajesh Reddy, 31.July Systems.By summer 2001 Reddy was back in Bangalore launching July Systems, to create software that integrates wireless networks and devices into a global superstructure. With the backing of investor Ashok Narasimhan, and with business lessons learned, Reddy is confident July Systems will become a significant player this summer.

Vivek Subramanian, 30.University of California, Berkeley. is an inventor’s inventor. His credits include a novel memory chip that led him to start Santa Clara, CA-based Matrix Semiconductor; a tiny, award-winning transistor; and his current project, ultracheap, flexible displays for note-taking gadgets.

2003

Shuvo Roy
Builds tiny machines that can warn of impending heart attack and monitor healing after surgery
Ram Samudrala
Wrote algorithms that can predict the functions of proteins from the sequence of a genome
Sangeeta Bhatia
Uses microchip-manufacturing tools to build artificial livers
Krishna Kumar
Improves the stability and effectiveness of protein-based drugs
Rueben Singh
Provides support services and startup money for entrepreneurs
Balaji Narasimhan
Devises time-release polymers to replace multiple vaccine injections
Ravikanth Pappu
Fights credit card forgery with glass-bead “keys”
Sanjay Parekh
Develops software that lets companies tailor services to their customers locations
Vipul Ved Prakash
Developed free and commercial software filters that fight spam
Nimmi Ramanujam
Uses light to help make diagnosing breast cancer and cervical cancer faster, more accurate and less invasive
Vic Gundotra
Sparked Microsofts change to .Net


2004

Ramesh Raskar
Built large computer display systems that seamlessly combine images from multiple projectors.
Anuj Batra
Leads one of the industrys top teams advancing ultrawideband wireless technology, which provides the high transmission speeds needed for streaming-media applications while consuming little power.
Chaitail Sengupta
Oversees the architecture of the communications chips used in advanced cellular systems now coming to market.
Vikram Sheel Kumar
Developed interactive software that motivates patients to manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and AIDS.
Mayank Bulsara
Developer of strained silicon.
Ravi Kane
Created a highly potent anthrax treatment in which each drug molecule blocks multiple toxin molecules rather than just one
Srinidhi Varadarajan
Conceived and built the worlds third-fastest supercomputer
Smruti Vidwans
Development of drugs to assist in the battle against TB.
Ananth Natarajan
Bridging the gap between research and patient care.

2005

Rajit Manohar
Taking the clocks out of computer chips
Anita Goel
Building novel pathogen detectors
Shiladitya Sengupta
Delivering drugs to cancer cells
Narashima Chari
Setting the mesh networking standard


2006

Anand Raghunathan
Making mobile secure
Prithwish Basu
His passion is finding ways to connect mobile devices, sensors, and robots directly--without the need for a base station. It's called "ad hoc" networking.
Ram K. Krishnamurthy
Cooler computers
Sumeet Singh
Faster defenses against computer viruses
Ashok Maliakal
The floppy screen

2007

Shetal Shah
Cushioning preemies
Sanjit Biswas
Cheap, easy Internet access
Tapan Parikh
Simple, powerful mobile tools for developing economies
Partha Ranganathan
Power-aware computing systems

2008

Bilal Shafi
Preventing congestive heart failure
Sundar Iyer
Making memory at Internet speed
Tanzeem Choudhury
Inferring social networks automatically

2009

Ashoke Ravi
Using software to send diverse radio signals
Vik Singh
Opening up search secrets to spur innovation
Ranjan Dash
Nanoporous carbon could help power hybrid cars
Pranav Mistry
A simple, wearable device enhances the real world with digital information
Cyrus Wadia
Identifying materials that could be unexpectedly useful in solar cells
Shwetak Patel
Simple sensors to detect residents’ activities