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| BUSINESS - US INDIAN BUSINESS |
| Indian, Bangladeshi Projects Among ’09 Tech Laureates | | By LISA TSERING | | | indiawest.com | September 10, 2009 06:44:00 PM |
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The Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif., has announced the names of the Tech Awards Laureates 2009, 15 innovators from around the world who have committed their groundbreaking work to solving humanity's most pressing challenges. The top five of these projects will each receive a cash prize of $50,000 when they are announced Nov. 19 at the Tech Awards Gala.
Former Vice President Al Gore will also be on hand to receive the Tech Awards’ James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award at the black tie gala, which will be held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
Among the laureates announced Sept. 1 were Driptech, an NGO which helps Indian farmers irrigate their crops with specially designed, laser-drilled irrigation lines that reduce cost. Driptech was founded in 2008 by three Stanford graduate students, and is up for the BD Biosciences Economic Development Award.
“  By September 2009 we will produce enough drip irrigation to start 1,000 farmers on the path out of poverty, and will be working with major international organizations to distribute this product globally,” Driptech’s founders, Peter Frykman, Nick Leindecker and Anna Petersons, said in a statement.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, which provides school meals to millions of Indian children, is nominated for the Microsoft Education Award. Its School Meals Program uses integrated and adapted high-performance kitchen technology and food delivery systems to serve millions of Indian children a nutritious daily meal.
A South Asian entrepreneur from the San Francisco Bay Area, Salman Khan, is also up for a Microsoft Education Award. At KhanAcademy.org, high school students around the world can find hundreds of free videos offering informal, clear explanations to subjects ranging from finance to chemistry — and even SAT prep — to supplement their formal learning. As of this August, the site has 50,000 regular visitors.
SuryaHurricane: Electrification for the Landless is a Bangladeshi project which provides mobile solar lighting as well as a woman-run sales infrastructure for its distribution. Retrofitting existing kerosene hurricane lanterns with Surya’s CFL or LED lights can also provide lighting for transient settlers in flood and hurricane-prone areas, said a spokesperson. The project is up for the Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award.
Finally, PATH Ultra Rice, a project at work in India, Brazil and Colombia, is up for the Nokia Health Award for its products — affordable, nutrient-fortified additives to standard rice that are tailored to satisfy deficiencies common in the region where they are distributed.
The Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials, is a signature program of The Tech Museum. Established in 2001, The Tech Awards recognize laureates in five categories: environment, economic development, education, equality, and health. “These laureates have developed new technological solutions or innovative ways to use existing technologies to significantly improve the lives of people around the world,” said a spokesperson.
Each year, notable projects from around South Asia always make it to the top finals, and often win its top awards; at the 2008 Tech Awards, Nobel laureate and microlending pioneer Muhammad Yunus was honored with its James C. Morgan Humanitarian Award.
Visit www.techawards.org for information or tickets to the event. |
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