SMEs score over biggies in R&D
K G NARENDRANATH
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2003 11:36:47 PM ]

NEW DELHI : Small is beautiful when it comes to R&D in India , be it IT, pharma or biotech. Small and midcap units do as well if not better than the biggies in innovation, commensurate with their resources and no longer lag in obtaining commercially beneficial intellectual property rights (IPRs) for the technologies and products they develop. This year’s department of scientific and industrial research (DSIR) awards for outstanding inhouse R&D bears testimony to the indisputable ascent of smaller firms.

The awards for 2003 went mostly (10 out of eleven) to small and midcap companies, the only corporate biggie in the list being Mahindra & Mahindra which got the award for developing Scorpio, the personal utility vehicle.

Let us have a cursory look at some of the awarded inventions —  most of which are either patented in India and abroad, or filed for international patents under the Patents Cooperation Treaty. 

Chennai-based Boss Profiles Ltd, developed an innovative extrusion technology for the production of vitrified ceramic products such as profiles, shapes, special pieces, slabs, tiles etc to get recognised by the DSIR, the principal government agency for R&D promotion.

Sahajanand Laser Technology, Gandhinagar invented Airwin, a laser system for planning and mapping of rough diamond. Midas Communication Technologies, Chennai, developed CorDECT, a wireless in local loop (WLL) system, with all the features of an exchange and is a complete wireless access solution for telecommunication networks. CorDECT provides seamless integration of both voice and internet services and is based on the standard of European Telecommunication Standards Institute.