Ahmedabad and Tech Transfer 2010

Ahmedabad is just like any other city. Starts from a railway station situated in a noisy old area, moves into a clean and organized new area, and extends into the glitterati of malls. I have no doubts Ahmedabad can be easily counted in the league of Tier A cities, which includes our four metros, Banglore and Hyderabad. The people are helpful, cultured, and when it comes to doing business: "Guju ne khabar che ke dhando kem karo" [A guju knows how to go about doing business].    

The people of Ahmedabad have yet again displayed their ingenuity by hosting a first of the kind event in the country, The Tech transfer 2010. As I have already blogged, this event focused at auctioning patented/patent pending technologies. In fact, the event auctioned 48 technologies covered by 50 patents. I was fortunate to be the part of the event, and had a chance of meeting people academics and industry, who were serious about technology and highly aware about protecting technologies using the instrument of patents.

The event started with welcome addresses by Dr. Subodh Adeshara, Ex-commissioner food and Drugs Control  Administration, followed by introductory speeches from organizers. The event then moved into presentations on the 48 technologies from domains, such as API, Medical Devices, Herbal Drugs, and Biotechnology. A major attraction at the auction was a novel process for producing Gefitinib (Iressa), a drug which is used in treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. The novel process already has a granted patent in India. Other interesting technologies at the auction included a herbal drink that tastes like beer, a bio-insecticide product that attracts and kills mosquitoes using bird feather, an informational device for the blind, a transdermal patch for contraceptives drug delivery and a technology that can make a snake venom into analgesic that can help cure neuropathic pain. 

Before attending the event, I had an impression of a road show, wherein innovators will put up dedicated stalls displaying their inventions. Therefore, being presented technologies on power point slides by organizers came as a surprise. In my experience, no one can explain an invention better than the inventor. Hence, the event would have been better served if the innovators themselves explained their inventions to the buyers.

However, overall I would rate the event as a success. Wishing the organizers all the best for their future plans of holding such event at even grander stage. 

Ups:

1. Novel concept neatly put together

2. Great stage for innovators to showcase their technologies

3. Increased awareness in industry regarding patents. It was a pleasant surprise to meet people from other industries, such as software, and telecom attending the event.

Down

1. Lack of publicity

2. Small scale of the event

3. Unwelcoming and apprehensive organizers. Registrations were highly restrictive. Further, the organizers refrained from sharing details about innovators, and even patent numbers of the technologies. I think the organizers should appreciate that finding out these details from what all details they provided is not a very difficult task.

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