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Global Technovator awards for 10 NRIs

December 04, 2006 10:14 IST

Ten young under-40 innovators and entrepreneurs of South Asian origin will be given the Global Indus Technovators Awards at a ceremony at MIT on Monday.

The ten have been recognised by the Indian Business Club at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their outstanding contributions to biotechnology, information technology and grassroots technology, among others. Ray Kurzweil, celebrated inventor and entrepreneur, and founder of Kurzweil Group of Companies, will deliver the keynote address at the event.

The winners are Anita Goel (Nanobiosym Inc), Krishna Kumar (Tufts University) and Shiladitya Sengupta (MIT), all in the area of biotechnology/medicine/healthcare. Aref Chowdhury (Bell Labs), Rajeev V Ram (MIT) and Adam Rasheed (GE) are the three recipients of the Materials and Devices Awards.

In the information technology arena, the award recipients are Anuj Batra (TI) and Rajit Manohar (Achronix Semiconductor). The winners of this year's Grassroots category award are Vikram Akula (SKS) and SameerSawarkar (Neurosynaptic Comm. Ltd).

The awardees were selected from a pool of over 100 nominations, by an eminent panel comprising Irwin Jacobs. chairman of Qualcomm Inc., Arun Netravali, former president, Bell Labs, S Ramadorai, CEO, Tata Consultancy Services, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, managing director, Biocon Group of Companies, MertonFlemings,  Professor Emeritus, MIT, Raju Kucherlapati, director of Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics, among others.

The Indian Business Club at MIT, a student body addressing business needs pertinent to the South-Asian community, established GITA in 2003 to advance the growing scientific temper among the members of the South Asian youth by honoring technological entrepreneurship.

A Correspondent in New York