Category Archives: Business & Economy

The entrepreneurial spirit that doesn’t deter these two women from selling food on the streets

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

I was strolling down the lanes of an upcoming Bangalore suburb when I came across a stall run by two women selling food items. They were very well dressed and if they stood in a crowd, no one could pick them apart from the regular IT crowd in Bangalore. And the surprising part is that they are IT Professionals. Well, atleast one of them still is while the other quit her job 3 years ago.

(L to R) Divya Anne Joseph, Cheryl George, Anto Roy
(L to R) Divya Anne Joseph, Cheryl George, Anto Roy

The two women in question are Cheryl George and Divya Anne Joseph who both were in their typical IT jobs when they felt this pang to do something more. Acting on their gut, they decided to work to their strength which was cooking and setup a stall outside their building in February 2013. Their friend Anto Roy also joined them with the endeavor. They tried the mobile stall concept to begin with but half of their day went in just explaining what they were doing and they weren’t seeing many returns. Hence they decided to stick to one place and setup the stall outside their building.

They have a Facebook Page where they update the menu (usually snacks and light dinner items) and stand on the streets, alongside the coconut vendor and others to sell their items. And it’s not something they did for a few weeks. The team of three have persisted and it’s been more than 6 months now where they stand out (in all weathers) and take in the joy of serving. “We’re not doing this for money or to build a grand business, we’re doing it for the joy we get out of it,” says Cheryl.

The ladies cook at their home and the three of them then bring the items to the stall in their cars. Anto Roy handles the other stall and the two stall together are serving around 80-90 customers every day. They call themselves ‘Street Eats’ and their average ticket size is around INR 50.

Divya is into this fulltime while Cheryl still holds her job. They don’t have immediate plans to scale and formalize but are taking it as it comes. “We’re really enjoying what we are doing and the kind of people we’re meeting everyday is just phenomenal!” says the team in chorus.

This is the kind of spirit that thrills us here at YourStory and gives us the motivation to go out there discover more such interesting people. Follow StreetXEats on Facebook.

source: http://www.yourstory.in / Your Story / Home / by Jubin Mehta / August 10th, 2013

Corporation Bank to open 9 more SME loan centres this year

Business & Economy

Mangalore :

Corporation Bank will open nine more SME (small and medium enterprises) loan centres by the end of the current financial year.

Inaugurating an SME expo in Mangalore on Saturday, B.K. Srivastav, Executive Director, said the bank has 16 SME loan centres across the country. The intention is to take the total number to 25 by March 2014.

He said the bank is expecting not less than 30 per cent growth in the SME portfolio from these loan centres during the fiscal.

Speaking on the occasion, Suresh Bhat, Director of Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park (STEP) of the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), said banks should meet the financial requirements of budding entrepreneurs.

Responding to this suggestion, Srivastav said Corporation Bank could enter into a tie-up with NITK-STEP to help entrepreneurs. If NITK-STEP mentors and supports the entrepreneurs, Corporation Bank could extend them financial assistance, he said.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry> Banking / by The Hindu Bureau  vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in / Mangalore – August 10th, 2013

Karnataka small-scale industries body to hold national SME convention

Business & Economy

Bangalore : 

The Karnataka Small Scale Industries’ Association (Kassia) is to hold a three-day national small and medium enterprises (SME) convention in Bangalore.

Kassia President B. P. Shashidhar said the convention, to be held in December, would discuss and have a dialogue with representatives of all the departments and associations of the 30 States.

The convention would also provide a platform for the exchange of views and experiences in order to help individual industries. This would help in dealing with small industry promotion, he added.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry / by The Hindu Bureau / Bangalore – July 11th, 2013

Jubilant Biosys announces filing of Investigational New Drug

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Mumbai : 

Jubilant Biosys , a Bengaluru-based subsidiary of Jubilant Life Sciences, today announced the USFDA acceptance of The Investigational New Drug (IND) filing for a novel molecule targeting prostate cancer.

This molecule will now progress towards the next phase of development and is anticipated to go into clinical trials by late 2013, a company statement said here.

(Jubilant Biosys, a Bengaluru-based…)
(Jubilant Biosys, a Bengaluru-based…)

“We are elated with this successful outcome, which is the result of excellent collaboration between the scientists at Endo and Jubilant Biosys. Being at the forefront of pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare innovation, Jubilant pursues its goal to enable affordable healthcare to patients worldwide,” President, Global Drug Discovery Services, Jubilant Life Sciences  SubirKumar Basak said.

The multi-target oncology collaboration between Jubilant and Endo began four years ago, and is focused on developing best-in-class, differentiated therapies that address the unmet needs of cancer patients worldwide. The collaboration has delivered on multiple milestones across the discovery continuum.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.timesofindia.com / The Economic Times / Home> Pharmaceuticals> Collections> Cancer Patients / by PTI / August 07th, 2013

Engineering a Roof-Top tent : Campers’ Style

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Science & Technology, Travel

RoofTopBF28aug2013

Mysore  :

A city-based mechanical engineer’s passion for outdoor adventures has led him to build a tent on the roof of his Chevrolet Tavera four-wheeler.

C.S. Ramaswamy, the owner of Sumuki Associates which designs, develops and manufactures machinery and equipment at Lakshmipuram in city, says he always wanted to build a mobile shelter that was practical and affordable.

When asked about what inspired him to build such an innovative equipment, he said that 25 years ago, a foreign magazine carried a photo of a jeep with camping equipments on the roof top and since then, it had become his dream to design a tent on the roof of his father’s Ambassador car. “Unfortunately my creation could not be mounted on it as the car was sold three months ago.” After this, it seems he decided to design the tent to be mounted on his Tavera.

Recalling his inspiration for the mobile shelter, Ramaswamy said that years ago when he and his friends who were into photography and adventure went out, sometimes they would get stuck in the rain and since then he wanted to invent a mobile shelter.

Ramaswamy began to work on a solution for this ‘rainy’ problem way back 1979 in his garage workshop set up at his residence by his encouraging father by tinkering with his father’s scooter, trying to change its body shape and improvise a shelter over the seats.

Now speaking of his mountable tent, Ramaswamy said the tent is made of imported waterproof fabric measuring 8ftx8ft and weighing approximately 80 kgs. The tent also houses many essential camping accessories such as rocket stoves, chemical toilets, change room and compact showers. “In fact, it is a star mobile hotel room,” he says in delight. But he is not far from truth; this is indeed a luxury when out camping in a forest and all this right on top of one’s vehicle.

Ramaswamy says this is a design he came up with after many tries and once he had the design in place, he single-handedly built the tent. “The work began in May and was completed in August of this year,” he said.

He said that the tent can be custom-built for any car ranging from a SUV to even the most compact cars like Nano, albeit the smaller the roof, the lesser number of people it can accommodate.

Ramaswamy feels his tent is a great solution especially for people who want to trek and travel in India where camp facilities do not exist. Also the fact that the tent can be set up in jiffy makes it even more practical. “The tent is easy to set up even in the dark, and can be easily folded back in the morning,” says Ramaswamy.

These, he says, are not meant only for campers and adventurers. “It can be useful during disaster management and can also be used by the army, forest per- sonnel & security forces, site managers in remote areas, field scientists, outdoor shooting crew, media etc.” When asked about the cost involved in making the rooftop tent, he said that it cost him Rs. 52,000. Ramaswamy says he doesn’t plan to mass manufacture it but if any one wants one, he would build it for them. Interestingly, he has good hands to support him from his wife Savithri, his eldest son Shravan also a mechanical engineer and younger son Pranav an IP student at NIE. Looks like many more innovations may come out of this innovative family. Ramaswamy can be contacted on email- sumukiassociates@gmail.com.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / by S. Kenneth Shishir / August 22nd, 2013

Kundapur: Workshop held to promote Agarwood plantations

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature

Kundapur :

“Agarwood plantations is a profitable crop that can be grown without depending on workers.  It can be grown as a main crop or in between other crops.  Agarwood has huge demand in the international market and fetches more value than sandalwood,” said Vanadurgi Agarwood company’s technical advisor Dr V Bhaskar.

He was speaking during a meeting of Agarwood planters and a workshop on Agarwood, held at Kundapur Hangalur’s Anantapadmanabha Hall on August 13, 2013 under the joint aegis of the Vanadurgi Agarwood India and Bharatiya Kisan Sangha, Kundapur.

The Agarwood can be easily grown in between the crops of coffee, Betelnut, coconut, cardamom etc. as a mixed crop in malnad or aremalnad regions.  Many farmers are interested in the crop and have already started growing it, he said.

The president of Bharatiya Kisan Sangha, B V Poojary inaugurated the programme.  Vanadurgi agarwood industries chairman Surendrakumar Hegde, explained the importance of agarwood crop and said that with the participation of planters, the crop of agarwood has come out as a strong force in agriculture and business spheres.

Vanadurgi agarwood company’s technical advisor Srinivas, president of Kundapur land development bank and planter S Dinakar Shetty, agar planter Ramachandra Navada and organic agriculturist Ramachandra Alse were present.

Chief secretary of Bakisam, Venkatesh Hebbar welcomed the gathering.  Vanadurgi agarwood company’s Thrimurthi gave a key note address saying that 180 – 200 people have already started agarwood plantations in Udupi and the farmers have responded well.

T P Vijay, conducted the programme. Santosh welcomed the gathering. More information was given with the help of a video projector.  The technical officers of the company  explained certain details to the questions raised by the planters.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daiji World / Home> Karnataka / by Silvester D’Souza / Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (EP) / Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

NASSCOM Opens First Startup Warehouse In Bangalore

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology

Bangalore:

India’s IT industry representative body Nasscom Tuesday opened its first start-up warehouse in this tech hub for young entrepreneurs to innovate software products and solutions for the domestic and export markets.

 
“The Karnataka government is collaborating with us to create an ecosystem where budding entrepreneurs can incubate their tech start-ups in the product space,” National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) president Som Mittal said on the occasion.

 
Located on the upscale old airport road in the eastern suburb of the city, the warehouse has about 10,000 square feet space with 70 seats to accommodate 25 start-ups. The entrepreneurs will have leased internet line, power backup and four meeting rooms.

 
“We are unveiling the country’s first incubation centre with six start-ups, selected from about 4,000 applications received for our ’10,000 start-ups programme’ initiated recently to support entrepreneurs in their early stage of operation with angel funding,” Mittal asserted.

source: http://www.siliconindia.com / Silicon India / Home> Silicon India Startup> News / Thursday – August 08th, 2013

City to get its 1st genetic testing lab

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology

The city is all set to get its first laboratory for genetic testing to diagnose common hereditary and other genetic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, eye diseases and neonatal disorders.

The laboratory, called ANGEL (Advanced Novel Genetic Evaluation Laboratory), coming up at Narayana Nethralaya, will be a diagnostic and basic research service laboratory.

Narayana Nethralaya vice-chairman Dr Rohit Shetty told reporters here on Wednesday, that the lab will have facilities like genetics, gene testing, whole genome sequencing, gene expression microarrays, proteomics and immunohistochemistry.

Sam Santosh, chairman, MedGenome, which is partnering with the Nethralaya for the initiative costing Rs30 crore, said managing inherited diseases continues to be a huge challenge for the medical fraternity. “One or two in every 100 children in India are born with genetic disorders. Through the laboratory, mothers can be tested and such diseases can be prevented at the foetal stage itself,” he said. Dr Shetty said the aim of the initiative is to make genetic screening more affordable for the masses using new generation sequencing technologies.

Gene Therapy

Meanwhile, research is on to render genetic therapy to treat diseases at the Genes Repair, Regeneration in Ophthalmic Workstation (GROW), set up by Arka Subra Ghosh, who returned to India from the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore.

“Gene therapy still has a long way to go because we are awaiting legislation to control gene and stem cell therapy,” Ghosh said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Banglaore / by Express News Service – Bangalore / August 08th, 2013

Manipal Health acquires hospital in Malaysia

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Acquisition includes new 200-bed tertiary care hospital under construction in nearby location

Manipal Health Enterprises, the healthcare arm of the Manipal Education and Medical Group, has acquired a 70-bed hospital in Klang, Selangor District of Malaysia. This acquisition by Manipal Hospitals also includes a new 200 bed tertiary care hospital which is presently under construction in a nearby location, which will be commissioned by last quarter of the Financial Year 2014-15, said a company statement.  The hospital, was set up by Dr Poraviappan Arunasalam, an obstetrics and gynaecology  consultant in Klang about 14 years ago.

According to a statement, the hospital will focus on a combination of wellness, prevention and curative care levels – for both the domestic and an emerging overseas patient traffic into Malaysia from neighboring countries.

Swaminathan Dandapani — Executive Chairman of Manipal Health Enterprises, said,  “This acquisition is a part of the company’s strategy to expand its footprint in India and in countries of West Asia, Africa and Asia Pacific. In the near term, significant capacities will be created to add on to the present group capacity of 15 hospitals and 5,000 beds.

The Manipal group has already two campuses in Malaysia — a Medical school at Melaka since 2001 and a newly formed (in 2012) Malaysia International University at Nilai, Kuala Lumpur.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by BS Reporter / Mumbai – August 08th, 2013

US pro-immigration for talented people: Gururaj Deshpande

Business & Economy, Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Science & Technology
Gururaj 'Desh' Deshpande
Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande

Bangalore :

Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande is an Indian American investor, best known for cofounding Sycamore Networks and the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT in the US. In Bangalore, he co-founded Tejas Networks. Three years ago, US President Barack Obama appointed him co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. For those new to this space, he is related to Infosys’ N R NarayanaMurthy (his and Murthy’s wives are sisters ), and it is said that Deshpande used to be introduced as Murthy’s brother-in-law in India, and vice-versa in the US. Deshpande spoke exclusively to TOI on a visit to Bangalore on Thursday:

How do you see the immigration debate in the US?
The US wants highly talented people to be part of its economy. When we went to the US in the ’70s, we didn’t have that many opportunities to come back. Now, a lot of people going there for education are not staying back and the US is getting to the point where their education is the best in the world and they are not benefiting from it. They are pro-immigration for highly talented people. But there are also 20 million illegal immigrants in US, hence there’s this big debate about granting citizenship to immigrants.

You advise Obama on innovation and entrepreneurship. How is that initiative going?
Innovation is as important in the US as it is in India. In the US, for the last 15 years, 5 lakh new companies have started every year, generating 4 million new jobs each year. This has happened independent of slowdowns . The only way to solve the long-term problem is to create more jobs and take it to 8 or 10 million. The question is how do you get startups and how do you bring them up to speed? We cameup with a policy on how to generate ideas, promote entrepreneurship and provide access to capital. The key message that applies to India also is that government should not be in the game of picking winners and losers. They should explore co-investing opportunities or give tax breaks to angel investors and VCs.

What is your assessment of the startup ecosystem in India?
I’m excited. Sometimes in India people’s expectation goes out of hand. People think that they can create entrepreneurship by building infrastructure and incubators. It doesn’t happen. It happens only by people actively engaging in it. The best policy is, you let a lot of people play and not pick the winners and losers. It’s like having a cricket team with a lot of street cricket. Once you have big platforms, you have good people coming to it.

You’ve set up what you call a Social Innovation Sandbox to nurture social enterprise and innovation in the Hubli-Dharwad region. How is that going?
If impact is what you desire, you have to get connected to real problems. If you want social innovation to happen, you have to have a deep understanding of the problem itself and then to solve it. You need new ideas that needn’t be patentable and looking for huge competitive advantage. Relevance is the most important piece in social innovation. We have 10,000 college students in Hubli-Dharwad doing about 2,000 projects. You’re using society as a lab. Even if 3-4 % of them become entrepreneurs and employ 10 or 100 people, it’s a huge booster to the economy. When you bring execution excellence to the compassion of the non-profit , magic happens. Ratan Tata  was a part of the Sandbox last year. I met him in Mumbai recently and he said he wants to do something similar. Ratan is motivated to solve huge problems . He thinks Akshaya Patra can scale from feeding 1.2 million to 100 million.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Tech> Enterprise IT> Entrepreneurship / by Shilpa Padnis & Sujit John, TNN / August 09th, 2013