Of Careers, Carriage and Computer Coolie College
Sid Harth
Can you walk that walk, talk that talk
By Rahul Chandawarkar
MASTERED Java, C++ and Visual Basic? Confident you can take on the
world? Hold your horses, buddy, today's changing times demand that you
see eye-to-eye with the pros in Texas, Chicago and New York and be as
much at home there as in good old Pune.
What we are trying to tell you is that as important as your computer
skills is your ability to understand that in US-speak a pay-phone means
a public phone, bucks means dollars, a cab means a taxi and that an
apartment is our good old desi flat. And no, they cannot download this
info from their computer screens!
No wonder then that a new breed of management trainers here are being
hired to equip young recruits with a combination of customer interface
skills, foreign catchphrases and personal grooming.
Shashank Patkar, president of the Software Exporters Association of
Pune (SEAP), says that maximum importance is being given in providing
customer interface skills, what with the rapid increase in
transcontinental business. Says Patkar, "Young professionals might be
either too cryptic or too verbose while communicating the status of a
project report. The customer has limited time and the communication has
to be brief, yet clear."
Emmanuel Braggs, human resources development manager at Indus Software,
gives equal importance to both customer interface skills and technology
skills. Says Braggs, "Our foreign-bound workforce is given an exposure
to the everything foreign, from environment to table manners to eating
habits and communication skills."
According to Alan Doulton, city-based consultant trainer, people are
different all around the world. While the Americans are direct and
precise in their communication, the Japanese prefer to hide their
emotions and we Indians tend to beat around the bush. Doulton makes
young pros aware of this.
The other problem that Doulton is trying to rectify is the case of
Indians speaking too fast. According to him, while the Americans speak
just 60 words per minute, we zoom along at 80 to 100 wpm. Therefore,
when teleconferencing skills are taught, Doulton takes pains to make
his students speak slowly and in short sentences. "I train them to say
the same thing in three different ways, so that the Americans can
understand easily," he adds.
Doulton also attaches importance to non-verbal skills and gives
instances of how a vigorous shake of the head from side to side, which
to us Indians is a confirmatory nod, could easily be construed as the
opposite by the Americans, leading to numerous communication problems.
Another city-based trainer Minocher Patel feels it is important for
travelling software pros to understand the body language of the
Americans. "The Americans may appear loud in their gestures and we tend
to get overawed by this. It is important to assert ourselves in a quiet
and confident manner."
Minocher films his students and shows them what is right and wrong with
audio-visual aids. He also encourages his students to watch American
and British films and serials before embarking on their first overseas
trip.
Stressing the importance of grooming, Minocher cites examples of how
young software executives could make basic mistakes; like the case of
one Pune youngster who went for a meeting in the US, straight from the
airport, without shaving, and in a crumpled shirt.
Minocher feels that we Indians also have problems interacting with
women in the western world. He cites the case of a young Pune software
executive was sent back from the US for allegedly misbehaving with an
American woman. Keeping such incidents in mind, Minocher says that he
warns his students not to misinterpret a greeting from a woman as
anything more than a greeting.
The teachings seem to be soaking in, what with two young programmer
analysts, Jyotsna Chauhan and Himanshu Deshpande of Cognizant
Technology Solutions, presently undergoing one such session singing
praises of the same. Says Jyotsna, "Most of us are technology savvy but
deficient in social skills. Workshops like these help us absorb the
culture shock of visiting the US for the first time." Himanshu
agrees: "The grooming sessions prepare us to handle a western business
environment effectively, without making fools of ourselves."
As can be seen, there is lot more than bits, bytes and blackouts that
software pros need to contend with.
http://www.atip.or.jp/ATIP/public/atip.reports.96/atip96.106r.html
ATIP96.106 : Computer Society of India (CSI'96) Bangalore
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
ASIAN TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION PROGRAM (ATIP)
REPORT: ATIP96.106 : Computer Society of India (CSI'96) Bangalore
To: Distribution
From: D.K.Kahaner, [kah...@atip.or.jp]
This is file name "atip96.106"
Date: 9 Dec 1996
ATIP96.106 : Computer Society of India (CSI'96) Bangalore
ABSTRACT: The 31st annual meeting of the Computer Society of India,
CSI'96, was held 30 Oct -- 3 Nov 1996 in Bangalore India. This report
summarizes some aspects of meeting. We also briefly describe some
related high technology activities in India, including, the Asian &
Pacific Center For Transfer of Technology (APCTT), the Indian National
Scientific Documentation Center (INSDOC), the Council of Scientific &
Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Center for Artificial Intelligence
and Robotics (CAIR).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------START OF REPORT ATIP96.106--------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1996 by the Asian Technology Information Program (ATIP)
This material may not be published, modified or otherwise redistributed
in whole or part, in any form, without prior approval by ATIP, which
reserves all rights.
CONTENTS
1. COMPUTER SOCIETY OF INDIA (CSI'96)
2. CSI'96 PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS
3. CSI'96 COMMENTS
4. COMPUTER & SOFTWARE SITUATION IN INDIA, OVERVIEW
5. OTHER SOURCES OF TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION IN INDIA
5.1 Asian & Pacific Center For Transfer Of Technology (APCTT)
5.2 Indian National Scientific Documentation Center (INSDOC)
5.3 Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)
5.4 Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR)
6. CONTACTS
1. COMPUTER SOCIETY OF INDIA (CSI'96)
This year, 1996, was the 31st annual meeting of the Computer Society of
India, held in Bangalore 30 Oct -- 3 Nov 1996. CSI's meetings fall
midway between a trade show and an academic conference. With a low
registration fee (by western standards), a full range of tutorials
(nine), multi-track refereed paper presentations, and a large
exhibition with more than three dozen vendors, CSI is trying to bridge
the gap between theory and practice. This year approximately 2,000
Indians along
with a very small smattering of others were in attendance, with about
600 of these participating in the tutorials during the first two days.
2. CSI'96 PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS
[The remaining sections of this report are available to ATIP
subscribers]
Tokyo Office: Asian Technology Information Program (ATIP)
Harks Roppongi Building 1F
6-15-21 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106
Tel: +81 3 5411-6670; Fax: +81 3 5411-6671
U.S. Office: Asian Technology Information Program (ATIP)
P.O. Box 9678,
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87119-9678
Tel: (505)-842-9020; Fax: (505)-766-5166
For further information
Send email to : in...@atip.or.jp
Access WorldWideWeb Site : http://www.atip.or.jp/
[Complete ATIP reports on Asian Science and Technology go to
subscribers and collaborating organizations by direct distribution, or
via electronic access. These contain text and often, charts, graphs and
pictures. Reports for unrestricted distribution often contain
summarized, or abstracted
information. Sponsors can also obtain specific follow up information -
including copies of proceedings, selected papers, exhibition
particulars, updates, translations, query searches, etc. Contact ATIP
at IN...@ATIP.OR.JP]
END OF REPORT ATIP96.106a
[The remaining sections of this report are available to ATIP
subscribers]
3. CSI'96 COMMENTS
CSI'96 was formally inaugurated by T.N.Seshan, known as a visionary in
India and currently its chief election commissioner. Seshan criticized
CSI for its lack of participation by women and young people, as well as
for not having a social agenda. (In rural India, there are regions
where not even 5% of the women are literate, and India is in the bottom
third among countries, based on its Gender Development Index, GDI.)
Seshan commented that "unless the industry has a social tie-up,
information
technology will live in an ivory tower with history brushing it aside
if it did not come to the aid of those in distress."
An effort was made to encourage high quality papers from contributing
authors. My impression was that tutorials were up to international
standards, as were most of the invited papers. The latter are typically
not new research results, as an important function of these is to
describe existing products, services, or techniques to an Indian
community that may not be as well "plugged in" as their peers in the
West. Internet, Java, multi-media, etc., were hot, as expected, but
there was little new presented. Examples of these included M.Tannebaum
on Internet Commerce, or L.Goh on Visual Computing. Papers on banking
played a strong role, and there were heated exchanges between audience
and speakers on the usefulness of centralized vs. distributed databases
in branch banks. (Indians have high scholarship standards, and are not
bashful about complimenting activities they like, and just as ready to
openly criticize those they disagree with.) Banks in India are large by
world standards; at least 25 bank (companies) have more than 500
branches, and "large" account volumes (per branch) about four times the
world average.
India's banking system is woefully out of date, as are many other
aspects of the country's infrastructure. In Bangalore, India's much
publicized high tech center, electrical power went down at least once
or twice each day, sometimes for several minutes. Most computers here
are routinely connected to UPS, but the electrical power situation
obviously needs correcting. Similarly, Bangalore does not have a
convention center. While Michael Jackson was entertaining 500 miles to
the north in
Bombay (recently renamed Mumbai), and violent protests were erupting in
Bangalore over the Miss World Pageant, CSI sessions were spread out in
three separate hotels, with the exhibition several miles away at a
tented pavilion. For the latter, traffic was stalled for hours one day,
because of an event involving the Prime Minister.
In a large and very general meeting such as this, contributed papers on
a wide variety of topics are presented, and depending on one's
interests some will be of much more relevance than others. We encourage
readers to browse the titles presented here and query ATIP for further
details on
those papers or topics that seem most important. Presentations were
reasonably well distributed between business, technical industry, and
the academic community, and there were a appropriate number of
applications. For these, we mention Computer Aided Prototyping
(Gurumoorthy) where fused deposition modeling (FDM) is discussed, and
Algorithms for (Paper) Roll Cutting (Jena) which relies on techniques
similar to those used to address one dimensional bin packing problems.
Several other papers are worthy of note. A discussion of user-level
threads and relation to performance analysis (Parab) clearly indicates
that some Indian organizations are perfectly at home working with state
of the art systems concepts. We also note the interesting talk by
Jamadagni on packaging for high performance computing, which gave a
nice overview of the current state of multi-chip modules.
Unfortunately, the
proceedings does not contain a complete paper (but this might be
available from the author). Although there was no special focus on
networking, several papers stand out. Jhunjhunwala's paper describes
how some recently developed technologies, including several forms of
Wireless Local Loops, could be used to reduce the costs of the access
portion of the network (that portion that carries information from the
backbone to the user) in urbanized sections of India. (In countries
such as India, with very poor connectivity in most areas (including
urban),
the only way to reach everyone quickly without incurring high
infrastructure costs seems to be through the use of wireless
technology.)
One interesting paper was presented as an invited talk by Dr. N. S.
Gopalakrishnan, from India's National Law School, in Bangalore, on the
topic of "Intellectual Property Rights and Computer Software". A very
nice summary of this was prepared for ATIP by Prof. S. Sanyal, of the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, and is given below.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE
Dr. N. S. Gopalakrishnan, National Law School, Bangalore, INDIA
Paper Contents
1) INTRODUCTION
2) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS - AN OVERVIEW
3) COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION
4) CONCLUSION
1) INTRODUCTION:
Role of Computers in the present society needs no special introduction.
The driving force behind the all pervasive usefulness of Computers stem
from the ready availability of extremely user-friendly software
packages, for almost all sections of the society. Complex systems like
Airline and Railway Reservations, Hospital and Hotel Management
are just a few examples. The latest era of revolution in Communication
is completely dependent on Complex Computerized Systems. As a result of
these developments, information is treated as a separate entity today,
with its management possible through Computer Software.
It is noteworthy that with present state of the art Computer
Systems, it is possible to garner information from all corners of the
world. Thus, it is possible from India, a developing country, to look
up detailed information from public Databases in the USA or wherever,
and to plan a travel program, e.g. selection of Airlines and Plane
timings, Hotel types and rates and booking procedure. Thus a true
Global Integrated Information (GII) system is emerging.
Software development is a process which is also a Multi-Billion Dollar
business today. One peculiarity in this industry is that obsolescence
is very fast and competition is extremely fierce. Hence for an industry
to remain stable and prosper, continuous Research and Development is a
must.
Once a software package has gained acceptance and has become popular,
two types of problems emerge. Firstly, the developer finds himself
seeing one or multiple sets of functionally similar software packages
from other vendors. This happens constantly, even though the basic
concept was his. It is also important to remember the versatile nature
of software packages or programs e.g. whether it is available on only
one platform (such as a PC) or on multiple platforms (systems) from
different vendors like: IBM, HP, SUN, SGI etc., as well as PCs.
Oracle's Relational Database Package is a good
example of such a package which is also being very heavily used in
different large and medium database applications.
Problems of Imitation and Copying: Popular software programs on PCs are
more prone to being copied and imitated. Programs which are more
proprietary or are available only on one or on very few systems face
less of this problem. Nevertheless, the developers undergo significant
loss because of illegal imitation and copying.
The objective of this report is to see and check the role of
Intellectual Property Rights and to seek a path to provide
protection in the development of software.
2) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR) - AN OVERVIEW:
(a) What are Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) - defined as :
* Private property rights given for the products of Intellectual
Labor.
* Legal rights as recognized by a Legal System.
* Limited monopoly right.
* Limited in time and benefit.
* Limitation of the exclusive property right based on larger
public interest.
* Rights are intangible in nature.
* Nature and content of the rights differ according to the nature
and quality of intellectual labor.
(b) Classification of Intellectual Property Rights -
COPYRIGHT -This can be classified in terms of Items, Rights and Term.
(i) Items - Items cover the areas of:
* Original Literary, Musical, Dramatic and Artistic Work.
* Cinematographic Films.
* Sound Records.
* Protection to the Form but not to the Ideas.
(ii) Rights - Rights cover the classes of:
* Right of Reproduction.
* Right of Distribution.
* Right of Public Performance.
* Right of Broadcasting.
* Right of Adaptation.
* Right of Sale, Rental, Hire.
* Right of Translation.
(iii) Term - Term covers the following:
* Life + 50 years to Author of the work.
* 50 years in case of other works.
Copyright has the following limitations -
* Permissible Use.
* Non-voluntary Licenses.
The possible remedies could be -
* Infringement of Rights.
* Civil and Criminal remedies.
* Administrative remedies.
PATENTS - This can be subclassified as Items, Limitations and Remedies.
(i) Items cover Inventions:
* New - Prior Publication / prior use
* Having non-obvious inventive step
* Commercial Application (Useful)
* Product or processes
Term - For 14 to 20 years
Right - Exclusive right to make, manufacture, sale, offer to
sale etc.
(ii) Limitation Coverage:
* Exclusion of certain inventions from Patent Protection e.g.
Discovery, Morality, Public Order etc.
* Compulsory licenses / Governmental Use
* Revocation
(iii) Remedies: This could be Civil / Administrative.
DESIGN - This can be defined as
* External features of a Manufactured Product
* The Design could be New or Original
* It might be eye catching as adjudged by the eye of an observer
Term
* It is for a period ranging from 5 to 15 years
* Right - Exclusive right to reproduce
* Design Copyright
TRADE SECRET - This involves
* Information kept in secret e.g. Know-how, Technical
Information
* Design of Product, Method of Manufacturing etc.
* Information which is not generally known
* Information which has an economic value
* Information is valuable as long as you can keep it in secret
* Information value is lost through another independent
discovery
* Information lost by unrestricted disclosure
TRADE MARK - This involves
* Marks used in Trade
* Marks used in Goods and Service
* Valid as long as used in Trade
3) COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION:
COPYRIGHT PROTECTION OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS -
(a) Computer Program is a literary work - covers protection for source
and object code.
(b) Computer Programs treated as original work.
(c) Non-Literal Elements in Computer Program
Some famous cases where the non-literal elements were
contested:
* Lotus Vs. Borland, 1996, Supreme Court refused to pass on an
judgment.
* Lotus Vs. Paperback, 1990.
(d) No decision has yet been known to have taken place in India. The
test
of originality / idea in Indian Law exclude Non-literal
Elements.
RIGHTS - Rights involve
(a) Right of Reproduction / Storing in Electronic Form
(b) Right of Distribution
(c) Right of Public Performance
(d) Right of Public Renting
(e) Right of Re-Sale
LIMITATION -
(a) Permissible use - Developers in Computer Software
* should adhere to fair use.
* should provide proper interface for usage of one software
package with other existing ones.
* Software package is open to Decompilation / Reverse Analysis
* Allow usage for Research / Training.
(b) Compulsory Licensing becomes mandatory.
REMEDIES -
(a) Infringement of Copyright involves
* exercise the rights without authorization
* secondary infringement (assisting, facilitation etc.)
* dealing with infringed copies
(b) Civil Remedies
* Temporary / Permanent Injunction
* Damages
* Accounts and other appropriate remedies
(c) Criminal Remedies
* Infringement - 6 months to 3 years of imprisonment and
Rs. 50,000/- to Rs. 2,00,000/- fine.
* Use of infringed copies - 7 days to 3 years of imprisonment
and Rs. 50,000/- to Rs. 2,00,000/- fine.
PATENT
Patentable subject matter
* Method or Process in Computer Program
* Procedure for solving Mathematical Program
* ALGORITHM - by itself is an unpatentable subject matter. Patenting
a mathematical formula will wholly prevent its use for
practical purposes.
* Phenomena of Nature, though just discovered, mental process and
abstract intellectual concepts are not patentable, as they are
the basic tools of Scientific and Technological work.
* Attaching a Post Solution Activity to a Mathematical Formula is
held not patentable.
* Patentability of Computer related invention is held patentable if
this invention claimed has a patentable process or method in
the traditional sense of Patent Law even though it is limited
to a mathematical formula.
* Industrial Transformation of an algorithm is capable of getting
Patent Protection e.g. converting signals from Analog to
Digital form and then manipulating the signal and analyzing it
against baseline values - like analyzing Electrocardiographic
signals of Heart Attack Victims - is held patentable.
* When Mathematical Formula are the standard way of expressing
certain functions or apparatus, it is appropriate that
Mathematical
Terms are used - this will not make a claim unpatentable.
4) CONCLUSION:
* Drafting Patent claims - Algorithms as a "Mean For" an
apparatus or method or process, it "means - plus function".
* Indian Position - Section Three of the Patent Act
prohibits the patenting of Computer Software.
4. COMPUTER & SOFTWARE SITUATION IN INDIA, OVERVIEW
The success of the computer, and especially the software business in
India has been written about frequently, see for example ATIP
reports "ATIP96.019 : National Association of SW and Service Companies,
(NASSCOM'96) Bombay" and "ATIP96.080 : Software Technology Parks of
India (STP)". The actual situation is complicated. Global IT spending is
estimated at US$70B, about 2.3% of GDP, with the US share about US$50B.
However, Indian IT expenditures were only 0.8% of its GDP. In 1995,
Indian software companies (both domestic and exports) had revenue of
US$800M, only 0.27% of the world market. Indian hardware manufacturers
sold about 300,000 PCs while US counterparts sold 50 million. The US
software industry employed about 1.5 million, while India's employed
80,000 professionals. Historical figures may be misleading, as there
has been very rapid growth, with both India's domestic hardware and
software industry growing at 30-50% in the last three years, with the
software export industry has been growing at 50-60% in the last five
years. A great deal of the growth can be directly attributed to the
relaxation by the Indian government, of exceptionally high import
duties on imported hardware and software. These have come tumbling down
within only a few
years from 110% to current values of 10%. CSI's chief guest at its
opening ceremony (see below) attributes the residual 10% to the need to
allow the clerks to keep their jobs.
What does it take to make India become a significant player in the
world IT market? N.Murthy (Infosys) suggested several metrics,
including the following.
Be among the top 10 countries in IT spending
Be among the top 10 domestic software revenue earning countries
Be among the top 5 software exporters
Be among the top 10 in per-capita PC production and usage
Be among the top 10 in the per-capita number of IT professionals.
Most multinational companies are still using Indian software talent as
a "body shop", responding to design requests from outside. In a
conversation with an Indian/American representative of one such large
organization, employing more than 200 software professionals in India,
he freely admitted that there was very little motivation for his
Western management to encourage local value-added activities or
professional
growth, as long as the basic cost of a "fully loaded" person was one
third that in the West. Based on his experiences in the US and India,
he felt that his Indian staff have a "fire in their belly" and work
longer and with more drive than their US counterparts. At the same time
he noted that they weren't being utilized in a way that would lead to
long term benefit for the Indians.
Most people in the computer business in India makes similar remarks.
Indian workers have excellent skills and creativity, and there is
plenty of motivation. But, few Indians have the capital resources
necessary to open a business and much of the well publicized growth is
from the outside infusion of capital and companies looking for lower
cost production. There is a great deal of grumbling, especially from
academics. Indian universities are notoriously disconnected from
industry. Further, university salaries are very low and have not kept
pace with the those in the private sector; for the latter, salaries are
pushed up by the demand for software and hardware engineers from the
MNCs. One professor, now working on ATM and other communications
technology at one of the IIT's (roughly equivalent to a good US state
university), complained that new graduates going to industry are
receiving salary offers comparable to his, 17 years after he received
his BS. The situation is frustrating enough that this academic expects
to leave for an industrial job within a year. He expressed the view
that such problems were leading to an erosion of the traditional high
quality at Indian academic institutions.
There are computer success stories, for example in banking software, by
companies such as Infosys, and products such as CITIL's. The latter was
produced by Citicorp's Bangalore subsidiary, and was the number one
selling corporate banking package in 1995. Although some Western
urbanites might doubt it, there are banking needs in places beyond NY
and London, and CITIL's MicroBanker has been successful in Jamaica,
Africa, Korea, etc. The company also has several related products for
financial organizations. Another example is a spreadsheet product,
E.X., developed by Tata Consultancy Services. But these are not
commensurate with the size of the industry.
Perhaps developing indigenous product prototypes needs to be done at
semipublic institutes, rather than at a university or in an MNC
industry setting. In that context C-DAC (Center for Development of
Advanced Computing) and NCST (National Center for Software Technology)
come to mind. C-DAC is known in the West for its efforts to develop
parallel computers, originally using transputers and more recently with
SPARC and
UltraSparc processors. These efforts are considered to be successful in
India (and there is a great deal of pride associated with the project),
although perhaps not profitable. With an eye toward developing products
for which there is a larger market, C-DAC has also been moving into the
considerable market for Indian language products, such as desktop
publishing, word processing, graphics, and other multi-media software
containing Indian language interfaces, overlay keyboards, etc. As there
are many distinct local languages in India, such products have a large
potential market, both inside the country, as well as outside for use
by Indian expats. This includes not only support for creating
information in local languages but also for exchanging text between
languages.
(There is an effort to develop an Indian Standard Code Font key, using
either seven or eight bits.)
There seems to be little VLSI work here, and no indigenous fabs, but
there are clearly opportunities. For example migrating old designs to
new technologies, such as converting 1 micron to 0.25 micron design, or
maintenance and upgrading of design tools. There is also the need (and
potential) for niche products, such as design tools that can be
deployed to the world market (perhaps via the Internet). Examples
(courtesy of G.Venkatesh) are "tools to check the sanity of chip and
software interfaces (similar to software protocol analyzers), tools for
generating software libraries that run on special processor cores, tools
for producing synthesisable hardware libraries, tools to post-process
layouts to achieve some optimization, tools that analyze Verilog or
VHDL descriptions for various parameters of interest, special purpose
simulators that address simulation needs in specific application areas,
tools that generate software simulators, assemblers or even assembly
code optimizers for applications specific processors, etc."
5. OTHER SOURCES OF TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION IN INDIA
5.1 Asian & Pacific Center For Transfer Of Technology (APCTT)
APCTT, established in 1977, operates as a UN regional institution under
the aegis of ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific), and is an 18 year old organization that links technology
transfer organizations worldwide. Headquartered in New Delhi, APCTT runs
seminars and workshops, functions as information clearing house, and
actually brokers deals between enterprises in the AP region.
APCTT's current focus seems to be on environmentally sound technologies
(EST), as well as a special emphasis on small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs). The Center maintains a data bank on technology,
business and investment opportunities, claims more than 1000 partners
in over 70 countries, and initiates over 250 technology transfer
negotiations per month.
APCTT produces a number of publications that should be of interest to
Western scientists/technologists. These include the following.
Asia Pacific Tech Monitor. This is a bimonthly, which features
worldwide opportunities, current trends, latest developments and topics
pertaining to technology transfer. For example the May-Jun 1996 issue
has the following table of contents.
* An Introduction to British Environmental Regulation
* Environmental Legislation and Enforcement Mechanism
* Waste Management
Rice Husk Particle Board
Making Waste Work
* Technology Management
Activity-asset Integrated Model for Management of Technology
Technology Transfer and Transformation in Small and Medium
Enterprises in Developing Countries
* Cleaner Production
Reducing Waste in Polyester Production (Indonesia)
Automating a Bicycle Wheel Plating Operation (China)
* ESCP/APCTT Focus [workshops, etc., sponsored by APCTT]
* Tech Events [Conferences, shows, etc.]
* Tech Mart
The Tech Mart might be the most interesting part of the publication.
This lists Offers, Requests, and other Technology Business
Opportunities. These are quite detailed (Auto Electric Horns for OEMs
from India, Iron Oxide Pigment Plant from China, etc.) The system of
printing them in a bi-monthly magazine seems rather dated, but might
still be useful. I was reminded by APCTT that many smaller
organizations are not yet able to utilize on-line services and still
rely heavily on paper publications.
VATIS (Value Added Technology Information Service) Update is also a bi-
monthly series which is focused in specific sectors, i.e., VATIS Update
on Biotechnology, VATIS Update on Waste Technology, on Food Processing,
Ozone Layer Protection, and Non-Conventional Energy.
APCTT also has catalogs and books. One example of the latter
is "Chinese Technology Showcase", a compendium of technology
opportunities that were presented 8-11 April 1996 in New Delhi.
5.2 Indian National Scientific Documentation Center (INSDOC)
INSDOC provides a variety of S&T information. It is set up as a
national laboratory under the Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research, CSIR (see below). It advertises itself as a "one-stop-shop"
for S&T information. In addition to obtaining and redistributing
information from journals, patents, reports, conferences, and
databases, INSDOC has in house expertise in the areas of networking,
library automation, design & development of databases, electronic
libraries, etc.
INSDOC publishes and produces (paper and electronic) a variety of
material including the following.
* Directory of Scientific Research Institutions in India
* Chemical Abstracts Keyword Index Service
* National Union Catalog of Scientific Serials in India
* Indian Science Abstracts
* Indigenous databases
Polymer Science Database
Material Science Bibliographic Database
Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Abstracts Database
Inpat: Database on Indian Patents
Metallurgy Database
Alert Database: Current Contents of Indian Journals
* GLOBTEND. A global tender watch service
* Competitor Watch Service, which provides information
on corporate and industry reports, market target,
potentials and opportunities of companies in other
countries.
5.3 Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)
CSIR is more than 50 years old. It is chartered to promote development
of indigenous technologies and utilization of indigenous Indian
resources. CSIR's President is India's Prime Minister and its Vice
President is the country's Minister for Science and Technology. The
actual operation is by a Director General, Dr.R.A.Mashelkar, who is the
Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under
the S&T Ministry.
CSIR runs more than 40 laboratories across the country. This report is
not the appropriate place for a detailed description of these, but we
list their names below.
Physical Sciences Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute
(CEERI)
Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO)
National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI)
National Institute of Oceanography (NIO)
National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
Chemical Sciences Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI)
Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI)
Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI)
Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT)
Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP)
National Chemical Laboratory (NCL)
Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat (RRL-Jorhat)
Biological Sciences Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI)
Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI)
Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP)
Centre for Biochemical Technology (CBT)
Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (COMB)
CSIR Complex, Palampur (COP)
Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB)
Indian Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC)
Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH)
National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI)
Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu (RRL-Jammu)
Engineering Sciences Central Building Research Institute (CBRI)
Central Fuel Research Institute (CFRI)
Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI)
Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI)
Central Mining Research Institute (CMRI)
Central Road Research Institute (CRRI)
National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL)
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI)
National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML)
Regional Research Laboratory, Bhopal (RRL-Bhopal)
Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar (RRL-Bhubaneswar)
Regional Research Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram (RRL-
Thiruvananthapuram)
Structural Engineering Research Centre, Ghaziabad (SERC- Ghaziabad)
Structural Engineering Research Centre, Madras (SERC-Madras)
Information Science Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre
(INSDOC)
National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies
(NISTADS)
Publications & Information Directorate (PID)
Corporate Affairs R&D Planning and Business Development Division (RPBD)
International Science and Technology Affairs Directorate (ISTAD)
Human Resource Development Group (HRDG)
Intellectual Property Management Division (IPMD)
Inter-phase for Non-Resident Indian Scientists and Technologists
(INRIST)
Centre
CSIR has been moving toward developing more electronically accessible
information, but as of the date of this report, most of their material
is still distributed on paper (although individual labs may have WWW
sites on the Internet). A very useful overview is provided in the CSIR
Handbook, which provides 1-2 pages for each of the laboratories above,
including budget, mission, and contact information.
5.4 Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR)
CSIR is not the only government-level coordinating organization that
supports science and technology in India. As in the US and other
countries, a significant amount of S&T is conducted under the auspices
of various defense agencies. The same is true in India. As one example
that we visited recently, we note the Center for Artificial
Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), a small lab which was established
about ten years ago, in Bangalore, under the Defense Research &
Development Organization
(DDRO). Its fundamental goals are to conduct basic research in
artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation. Although AI is the
center of CAIR's name, basic research in this area is only represented
by a few projects; most of CAIR's activities have some application
focus. Special expertise exists in the areas of vision, neural
networks, and control systems. Associated with CAIR is the Institute
for Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS), which attempts to popularize
and commercialize the technologies developed at CAIR.
--
http://www.indiacybercart.com/
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.