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The Rice Husk Power Experiment

yazdi — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:31:32 +0000

In 2007, Gyanesh Pandey set up Husk Power Systems (HPS) in his native state of Bihar after he quit a well-paying job in in the US. He roped in three friends — Ratnesh Yadav, Charles Ransler and Manoj Sinha — who shared his vision to bring reliable and affordable power to India’s hinterland, especially Bihar.

It took five years of research to identify the technology, one that would make use of non-conventional fuel — rice husk — and suit the economics of rural electrification. That done, in 2008, a remote village in West Champaran district of Bihar called Tamkuha was lit up for the first time, 60 years after Independence.

HPS had the ingredients for success in place. Rice husk was available at Rs 60 per quintal (100 kg); it took an average of three quintals of rice husk a day to generate 32 kilowatts of power, enough for 500 households. The running cost of a plant came to about Rs 20,000 a month. Power was supplied at Rs 80 a month; it could power two CFL bulbs (15 watt each) and a mobile charging point. HPS supplied 7-8 hours of power to these villages after sundown.

Click Here for the full story

The Maids’ Company

yazdi — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:53:51 +0000

The Maids’ Company is a social enterprise that aims to revolutionize the domestic housekeeping sector by improving service quality, while upholding the rights of domestic workers. Through our pioneering approach, our maids become co-owners in the enterprise and enjoy a fair share of equity. Naturally, the workers are motivated to provide a great service experience that ensures a satisfied client.

While the maids are guaranteed a steady income, worker protection and increased access to a range of well being initiatives and financial services, the clients stand to benefit by engaging with a company that is sensitive to their household needs, as opposed to the constant tussle with maids over several issues.

To gain an insight into the several issues that domestic workers face in India, we urge you to visit this page.

Click Here for the website and business model

The Flying Car

yazdi — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:15:17 +0000

This week the Dutch company PAL-V announced the first flights of its prototype “flying car”.
This unique vehicle is called the PAL-V One, or the ‘Personal Air and Land Vehicle’, and It marks the start of a new era.

On the ground the vehicle drives like a sports car. Within minutes its rotor is unfolded and its tail is extended: then it is ready to take off thanks to the advanced gyrocopter technology.

With these successful test results it is proven that it is not only possible to build a flying car but also that it can be done within existing international rules for both flying and driving.

Having passed this important milestone the company is now inviting investors to join them in creating the future.

The next step will be the design of the first commercial production model of the PAL-V, and first deliveries are expected in 2014.

For 100 years people have dreamed of a flying car, and many attempts have been made to realize this dream, but now it has truly become a reality. www.PAL-V.com

Call for proposals in communications

yazdi — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 04:55:41 +0000

Dear NGO Colleagues,

The NGO Relations would like to bring to your attention to the first-ever Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) call for proposals in communications, launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which will be funding up to 10 “game-changing” ideas to help solve one of the greatest challenges faced in the development community: changing the conversation around foreign aid.

The goal of this challenge is to solicit new approaches to communications that motivate the public in the wealthy countries of the world to change their minds about aid, and take actions to demonstrate their support. The development community has traditionally focused on the “why” of aid. But most people already believe it is the right thing to do. We must do a better job of explaining the “how” and the “what” (How exactly does aid work? Where does the money go? How is it used? What impact does it have on communities?).

The challenge wants to find revolutionary ways to make these issues matter deeply to the global community, inspired by projects that allow anyone– no matter where they live or what their background– to take part.

You can find the call here: http://www.grandchallenges.org/pt .

Anyone with a great idea is encouraged to apply. The submission process is simple, requiring just a two-page proposal. Instructions can be found here:

http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Topics/Pages/GHCommunicationsRound9.aspx

The call will close on May 15, 2012. Up to 10 Phase I grants of $100,000 USD will be awarded within just a few months. The Cannes Lions Chimera, a special panel made up of the best talent across advertising, media, and technology, are advising the programme, and will mentor the winners as they develop their projects. (More information on the Chimera can be found here: www.canneslions.com/chimera)

Each of the Phase I grant-recipients will have one opportunity to apply for a follow-on Phase II grant of up to $1,000,000 USD.

We hope you will be encouraged to possibly participate.

Good luck!!

Best regards and best wishes

Yours Sincerely,

NGO Relations, DPI
United Nations
www.un.org/dpi/ngosection

Start Coffee Roasting, Grinding & Packaging Units

yazdi — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:09:04 +0000

TAKE A STEP FORWARD. START COFFEE ROASTING, GRINDING & PACKAGING UNITS.

Demand for coffee in the country has been growing very fast. Traditionally only South Indian States were considered as the market for coffee. In recent years coffee has acquired a national presence and demand for coffee is growing much faster in the non-south regions. Between 2003 and 2009 the coffee consumption has grown in the non-south regions @42% annually while it has grown by 3,5% p.a in the southern states. There are exciting business opportunities for coffee processing units especially in non-southern states.

Coffee Board provides 25% subsidy with a ceiling of Rs 25 Lakhs per unit to individuals and firms and 40% subsidy with a ceiling of Rs 40 Lakhs per unit to the self help groups and growers collectives or co operatives-on the total cost of the equipment.

The eligible items for support are Roasting, Grinding and Packaging machineries all together or either Roasting or Grinding machinery along with Packaging machinery.
Existing units can also avail this benefit for addition of any of the components.
Eligible Capacities of Machinery Roaster of 10kg per batch or more capacity. Commercial grinder of 15kg or more per hour capacity Packaging Machines (pedal sealing, continuous sealing, filling and Sealing form fill and sealing automatic or semi automatic Nitrogen flushing and sealing machine, amniotic and semiautomatic Vaccumissing sealing machine) are eligible for subsidy under the scheme.

Please obtain complete details of the scheme and the detailed conditions of eligibility, application procedure etc by accessing ‘Support for Coffee Processing’ from Coffee Board website www.indiacoffee.org.

Pioneering Spirit

yazdi — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:35:35 +0000

If you are an entrepreneur looking to blaze new trails with your business, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Share your business story today for a chance to meet business icons face to face, impress them with your pioneering spirit and unique business plan to win:

A sponsorship by Canaan Partners to a business programme at Cambridge
A coveted mentorship from The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)
A Lufthansa Business Class return ticket to a destination of your choice in Europe

In the extremely successful Season 2, ten entrepreneurs like you were selected as ‘pioneers of tomorrow’ and received the invaluable benefit of a TiE mentorship as well as a free Business Class ticket.

You could be next.

Click Here to Register Now

Next Big Things

yazdi — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:48:21 +0000

From creating cars that communicate with each other, to helping kids write their own books, to improvising medical devices worthy of MacGyver, these six innovators promise to change the way we live

SHUTTER TO THINK - Lytro founder Ren Ng is taking the blur (and the fuss) out of photography
MEANINGFUL GESTURE - Inside Aviad Maizels’ quest to render your remote control deader than the VCR
SHORT STORIES - To get kids interested in learning, Sharon Kan had an idea: help them write their own books
DRIVING FORCE - Meet Paul Mascarenas: the man behind Ford’s push to become the world’s most high-tech automaker
LOCAL NETWORK - How Jennifer Pahlka’s Code for America is transforming the way ailing cities solve problems
DR. DIY - MIT’s Jose Gomez-Marquez is devising cheap, ingenious tools that could revolutionize third-world medicine

Click Here for the Full Stories

SME-SEZ Connect Symposium

yazdi — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:59:35 +0000

SME-SEZ Connect Symposium

27th and 28th January, 2012 @ ISB

Bringing policy-makers, practitioners & researchers with interest in SEZs & trade onto a common platform. The discussions will focus on strengthening the linkages between SMEs and SEZs. A perfect launch pad to connect and lookout for new opportunities.For more information click here

Pay with a Tweet !

yazdi — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:48:09 +0000

Sell your products for the price of a tweet.

In today’s world the value of people talking about your product is sometimes higher than the money you would get for it. ‘Pay with a Tweet’ is the first social payment system, where people pay with the value of their social network.

It’s simple, every time somebody pays with a tweet, he or she tells all their friends about the product. Boom.

Click Here for the website and how to proceed.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit – IIT Kharagpur

yazdi — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:44:25 +0000

The theme for this year’s summit is “Innovation-The Creators of Tomorrow”. The highlight of the summit is the “Startup Camp” to be held on 15^th January 2012. The camp would provide a platform for the startups, venture capitalists and students all across the nation to interact with one another and also provide students the splendid opportunity to gain internships! The summit will also feature Guest Lectures by eminent innovatorsand World-Class Workshops on the various aspects related to Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

We are a non-profit student organisation at IIT Kharagpur with the aim of fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship among college students in India. We are one of the most successful entrepreneurial organisations in the country with 28 start-ups incubated within 5 years of our inception.

We conduct our flagship event - Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) every year in January, and this is oneof the biggest entrepreneurial platforms for academicians, new-age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities, venture capitalists and students to gather at one place and share their entrepreneurial endeavours and experiences, and to pledge to take entrepreneurship to greater scales. GES 2012 will be held from 13-15 January 2012 at IIT Kharagpur. More than 2000 students from various engineering colleges in India will be a part of this summit.

GES 2012 also plays host to the Global Entrepreneurship Conference in India. The conference aims to provide a platform where promotion of entrepreneurship could be discussed with a global perspective. It will feature a live video conference with foreign universities and US entrepreneurs to understand the entrepreneurial environmental in different nations.

We would like you to be part of GES 2012 and make good use of the resources and rich entrepreneurial environment to take entrepreneurship in India to new level

For more details on the summit, you can visit the site: www.ges.ecell-iitkgp.org

You can also visit E-Cell IIT Kharagpur’s site: www.ecell-iitkgp.org or like our FB page:www.facebook.com/ecell.iitkgp to know more about our yearlong activities.

Thank you,

Magazine Partner: Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur