US envoy lauds joint efforts to make lives better

The US Ambassador to India Richard R Verma, speaking on ‘Technology, Innovation and Societal Change’ at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) recently, said collaboration between Indians and Americans continues to save and change lives.

Verma cited the joint research by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences here to diagnose, test, and treat acute encephalitis syndrome. It causes hundreds of deaths around the world every year.

The CDC is also working with the National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics here to detect, control and prevent diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, which cause 60 per cent of all human illness.

“Disease knows no borders and the advances that our scientists make together will prevent untold suffering for people around the world,” Verma said.

Engineers in Bengaluru and in Silicon Valley have also collaborated to create a portable ventilator allowing hospitals and clinics in rural areas to provide lifesaving care.

Referring to Indian innovators and their ties to the US, Verma said, “A discussion about the US and Indian innovation in Bengaluru would be incomplete without mentioning a few of the many visionaries from this part of India, who have brought our peoples closer and created thousands of Indian and American jobs in the process.”

One such luminary was NR Narayanamurthy, who was just 35 when he established Infosys in 1981. Infosys opened its first international office in Boston in 1987. Sabeer Bhatia grew up in Bengaluru and Pune and attended Caltech and Stanford, and founded Hotmail in 1996.

Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, Indian-American venture capitalist and entrepreneur from Hubballi, Karnataka, founded the Massachusetts firm Sycamore Networks and in 2010 was appointed by President Obama as Co-Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Kumar Malavalli of Mysuru was the first Indian member of the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.

“And I’d like to express my profound personal admiration for IIM Bangalore Board Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw for her pioneering work in biopharma and commitment to finding innovative pathways for providing essential services to disadvantaged communities,” Verma said.

Now a new generation of bright Indians are following in their footsteps advancing courageous new ideas.

Talking about the government’s role, Verma said, “Back in 2009, before innovation and startups became the buzzwords that they are today, our governments established the US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund.”

“Seeded with a ₹64 crore endowment at the US Embassy, the fund partners with India’s Department of Science and Technology to issue yearly calls for proposals for up to ₹2.5 crore each. To date we have funded 18 proposals, including technologies to remove arsenic from groundwater in West Bengal and Bihar, a solar electric tractor; a low-cost portable auto-refractor to prescribe corrective eyeglasses in areas without eye doctors; a device to resuscitate newborn babies who can’t breathe; and seed treatments to improve stress tolerance in crops. Many more ideas are in the pipeline,” he added.

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