Two Indian projects win $50K tech awards

California: PATH, an international non-profit organization based in Seattle that has refined and commercialized iron-rich Ultra Rice which packs micronutrients into each tiny grain made from rice flour; and Akshaya Patra, a huge school lunch program that serves 1.2 million Indian children a day, were among the five projects that won this year's tech awards.

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The ninth annual tech awards attracted a black-tie crowd of more than 1,500 Silicon Valley movers and shakers to the McEnery Convention Center Nov. 19 for the yearly event organized by the Tech Museum of Innovation. A highlight of the evening was a passionate talk by Nobel Prize and Academy Award-winning activist Al Gore, who accepted the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award.

Gore spoke before a giant screen displaying brilliantly hued nature photographs, and he asked the crowd what the next generation will think of us if we continue to ignore the signs that our environment is in peril. "Our kids will ask us, What were you thinking? Were you watching Dancing With the Stars?" he quipped. "We have to shake off our lethargy. What we are facing is completely unprecedented. It's time for us to get politically active and get solutions to the climate crisis."

Each of the 2009 tech awards comes with a $50,000 cash grant, and has far-reaching effects on grassroots projects like the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which is headed by Madhu Sridhar of Stoneham, Massachusetts. Sridhar dedicated her Microsoft Education Award to the workers in India. "Our employees get up at 3:30 a.m. to prepare the noon meal," Sridhar said.

Akshaya Patra's 18 vast, spotless kitchens, located in seven Indian states, have been constructed in four levels so that fresh rice, sambar, rotis and vegetables can be prepared on different floors and then sent down by gravity to delivery containers on the bottom floor, which are then trucked out to a network of schools.

It costs just $28 to feed a child daily for an entire school year, and Akshaya Patra is funded 50 percent by the Indian government and 50 percent by donations.

"Sometimes, there's this loneliness, and we feel like it's a daunting task," Suma Adapala, the NGO's Director of corporate development, told India-West. "But the Tech Awards are giving us a platform, and now we can accelerate our mission."

Dipika Matthias of Seattle is the Director of PATH's Ultra Rice project, which uses a patented Ultra Rice technology to manufacture tiny grains made of rice pasta which are fortified with iron, zinc, folic acid or Vitamin A. By blending the Ultra Rice grains into a bag of traditional rice, typically at a ratio of 1:100, PATH is able to help fight micronutrient malnutrition, which threatens the health, cognitive development and productivity of billions of people around the world. In India, Ultra Rice now reaches 60,000 children per day.

"PATH's mission is to achieve maximum benefits in health," said Matthias as she accepted the Nokia Health Award. "Ultra Rice is simply pasta made from rice flour - it's simple, affordable and culturally appropriate. Together, we can feed children's potential worldwide."

The winners of the other three top Tech Awards were the Nigerian NGO Cows to Kilowatts, which converts waste into energy; Alternative Energy Development Corporation, which provides inexpensive zinc-air fuel cells to impoverished African communities; and World of Good Development Organization of Emeryville, which calculates fair wages for local artisans - primarily women - around the world.