The Hindu Business Line : Now, text can be heard as speech over telephone

A MID-SIZED Hyderabad-based firm has developed a voice-enabled Web application with text to speech conversion feature allowing users to access information on the telephone.

The prototype developed by Innovation Communication Systems Ltd will be tested on Kisan.com, an agriculture portal for rural farmers in Andhra Pradesh.

An indigenous pacemaker with programmeable rate control is currently under development. The product is being jointly developed by Indore-based Shri Pacetronics and Semiconductor Complex Ltd, Chandigarh.

An automatic clinical analyser for bar coding and testing of blood samples at the rate of 1,000 tests per hour will be launched in 2004 by TransAsia Biomedicals, Mumbai.

Targeted at export markets, the analyser is currently being tested by the company. All these projects have been partially funded by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.

Driving innovation among mid-sized entrepreneurs, the Technology Promotion, Development & Utilisation Programme (TPDU) of DSIR has supported 150 projects till date, with 60 ongoing projects including the ones mentioned above. Initiated during the Sixth Five-Year Plan as a measure for import substitution, the TPDU programme has since charted a new course promoting technology innovation at the grass-root level.

"The medium (industrial) sector is more receptive to conducting research and development with the larger organisations risk-conscious and asset oriented. The mid-sized segment however needs some financial assistance wherein the TPDU provides assistance. Even the agricultural community has been very innovative as also the medical fraternity," Dr A.S. Rao, Scientist-G, DSIR, told Business Line.

With a fund of Rs 20 crore, the DSIR's Technology Promotion programme comprises in-house R&D recognition, awards to in-house R&D and fiscal incentives to in-house R&D. "We help the company till the prototype development stage. Once the product becomes commercially viable, the organization pays back the amount funded along with an additional amount," Dr Rao said.

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