Seedfund.in April 13, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Technology , add a commentI heard about Seedfund on a podtech.net podcast and looked it up. Apparently, it’s financially backed by google to do early-stage investments in India (undisclosed amount). That perhaps explains their googlesque homepage: terse, candid and lays the big picture out in simple, conversation-like language.
It’s a fund to keep an eye on.
Proto.in February 18, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Organizations, Technology , add a commentProto.in is about Indian startups. It is the newly started event organized for startups to showcase their products and technologies. There is no final award/prize to be won (it’s not a competition, it’s a platform for display); the love and attention of media and VC’s is probably a reward in itself 
…
The first Proto was held in January this year with select 27 companies, and there are already talks of another in works. From what I could gather, companies needed to pay Rs.500 and investors Rs.25,000 for participating in it. Each company had 8-10 minutes for presenting their stuff, which surprises me- all that hoopla for 10 minutes each?
Proto is probably modeled after Demo (which has been around for last 16 years in US, basically the same theme) and is definitely a great step towards formalizing Indian startups scene.
Apollo Health Street February 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Healthcare, Technology , 104commentsThe Apollo Hospitals Group is the single largest private hospital group in Asia. HealthStreet is a healthcare service spinoff from Apollo, focusing on BPO and IT services in healthcare domain.
The BPO services is aimed at US customers. Of course, off shoring non-core health information management activities (medical transcription, coding, revenue cycle management and claims processing) is a big industry now.
The IT services are around development, implementation and QA/QC testing. They also have a Hospital Information System product called LIFELINE (only for sale in Asia). I wish they had list of current customers of LIFELINE. In-keeping with the growing premature craze of Telemedicine in India, they showcase MedIntegra, a suite of Telemedicine-related applications.
Note: As obvious from the comment avalanche below, there is some personal mud-slinging going on between some readers. It’s sad to see how anonymity will make people abuse their right to free speech. Please note that none of the comments below are approved or supported by us in any way (except the ones left by eIndia author himself).
Folks, please keep the discussion about AHSL products, not employees
Healthcare Solutions by CDAC February 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Healthcare, Technology , add a commentI’ve written about CDAC before. It’s primarily an R & D institution involved in the design, development and deployment of advanced Information Technology (IT) based solutions.
I was intrigued by the healthcare IT part of CDAC portfolio, which is why I’m writing a separate post about them. Seems like there are 3 overall solutions:
1. Sushrut: A Hospital Information System with an impressive list of functionalities. They advertise the following modules: Out-Patient Management, Investigations, Billing, Appointments, Operation Theatre, Blood Bank, In-Patient Management, Registration, Enquiry, Master Management, Central Sterile Services, Diet Kitchen, Bio-Medical Engineering, Central Stores, Pharmacy Management, Patient Medical Records.The software has been installed at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute (SGPGI) Lucknow, and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital (GTB), Delhi.
2. Mercury: An integrated Telemedicine Solution that has an EMR, device connectivity features (scanners, cameras and direct interface with medical devices), a web interface, and even DICOM and HL7 support. There is not much info online, I wish I could see it in action somewhere to review it further.
3. AyuSoft: It’s a Decision Support System for AyurVeda. It converts the classical Ayurvedic texts into interactive knowledge repositories with supporting analytical tools. I think there is a need to digitize this traditional Indian science, and this sounds like a good step in that direction.
CDAC February 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Governmental, Technology , add a commentThe story goes that in 1987, Indian government required a supercomputer for weather forecasting and was refused the sale of one by the US government. That led to the establishment of CDAC (Center for Advanced Computing) in 1988, with the mission of developing indigenous advanced computing products, solutions and services.
CDAC develops high-performance hardware as it’s legacy focus. Over the years, they have diversified into IT-based solutions for various industries (I’ve written about their Healthcare focused solutions here), IT training and government R&D projects in areas like Artificial Intelligence, Data modeling, Data warehousing etc.
Although they claim to an ‘independent’ scientific society, I figure they have tight dovetailing with the government based on projects and funding. They offer products and services for sale, and the government is probably their major customer. Check out their corporate presentation.
ITIH India February 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Governmental, Healthcare, Technology , add a commentITIH stands for ‘IT Infrastructure for Health’. It is a recommendation report regarding the need, issues and state of Healthcare IT Infrastructure in India. ITIH was published by The Department of Information Technology (DIT) under the Ministry of Communications and IT (MOC).
The report proposes some standards for Telemedicine systems in India and addresses information needs of different stakeholders in the healthcare sector. It seems like a first step towards governmental action in the healthcare IT domain.
I’m curious as to why the immediate focus is on Telemedicine, even in these initial stages of healthcare IT discussion. Maybe the think-tanks in India see Telemedicine as the most applicable area. Or maybe it just sounds cool. But the truth is that there are so many other things with Medical Informatics that need to be seeded and reviewed at this early stage. Basic electronic medical record, master patient index, eprescribing are some of the more established (and researched) flavors of IT deployment in healthcare. Some of these are actually building blocks needed for Telemedicine concept to work.
DIT has also published another report recommending guidelines and standards for Telemedicine in India. Wonder why there is little talk about anything other than Telemedicine.
Band of Angels February 6, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Business, Technology , add a commentI don’t feel like posting about VC’s. There are too many of them, and most of their websites are nothing but immodest showcases displaying their ‘expertise’ and portfolio. Reluctantly, I sometime do write about them because they are the driving force- unloading the equity in the Indian IT startup scene.
Band of Angels is a Delhi based group of individuals, some of them veterans of the IT industry in US. They have 3 investments currently (of interest is madhouse.in, the online movie rental for Delhi/Chandigarh).
Update: In July 2007, Google announced that they have joined as an institutional member of Band of Angels. Mo’ Money to go around..
MAIT February 4, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Organizations, Technology , add a commentMAIT stands for Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology. It is an independent organization promoting Indian IT Industry and interfacing with government(s) on IT-related policy issues.
I’ve never looked into the organization-aspect of Indian IT industry before. The more I research, it appears that we have some well established groups out there. Good to know.
Karishma Software January 27, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Healthcare, Technology , add a commentA good friend recently joined Karishma Software, so I thought I’ll look it up.
The site looks like that of a mature software development company. Their flagship product is a sort of Hospital Management System. Also in the portfolio: an Imaging system, Decision Support System and a Telemedicine system (plus others).
The other market they focus on is that of Information Systems for Educational Instiutions. Their customer list is not much, but still somewhat impressive for an evolving product in the emerging Indian Healthcare IT market.
I hate being nitpicky- but can’t they find pictures with Indians in them? All the graphics/pictures on the site have foreigners. Though subtle, it makes them look bit less authentic (at least to me).
NASSCOM January 22, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Organizations, Technology , add a commentVerbatim from their website: “NASSCOM is India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT software and services industry in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with over 1050 members, of which over 150 are global companies from the US, UK, EU, Japan and China. NASSCOM’s member companies are in the business of software development, software services, software products and IT-enabled/BPO services.”
Nasscom’s mission is to accelerate IT industry growth in India. As of 2006, more than 1050 companies were members of Nasscom.