Lockheed signs pact with innovators
Friday, 24 August 2007, 19:30 IST
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Bangalore: Three little-known firms in diverse fields, declared winners of the Lockheed Martin India innovation growth programme competition, Thursday signed partnerships agreements with their peers for applications and transfer of their know-how. The two-year programme was initiated in March for enhancing the growth and development of Indian entrepreneurship and innovation. The joint programme was started by the US-based $40-billion Lockheed Martin, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and IC2 Institute, the research wing of the University of Texas, Austin. The first winner, Cottor Plants India, has signed a pact with Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation Ltd (MSSCL) to make use of the latter's pollution-free, cotton seed delinting technology for global manufacturing, marketing and distribution. The second winner, K.M. Sugar Mills, has tied up with Sustainable Technologies and Environmental Project Ltd to convert its waste into petroleum by using the latter's caged catalyst conversion systems. The third winner, Adroitec Information Systems, has entered into a worldwide marketing and distribution partnership with Zeus Numerix Ltd to market and service the latter's suite of numerical simulation software products. MSSCL general manager Vinod H. Karbande said the technology licensing agreement gave Cottor manufacturing and distribution rights to its innovative technology in India, Africa, Syria, Iran, Sri Lanka and Haiti. "In return, we will receive royalty on total sales of their technology," Karbande said at the one-day Tech Expo on 'Innovation is the catalyst for growth', organised by the industry-academia partners here. The deal between Sustainable Technologies and K.M. Sugar Mills envisages joint technology feasibility trials to validate the conversion process. After the trials, the partners will negotiate purchase of commercial scale converter units for use in the latter's sugar mills and a potential joint venture to manufacture and distribute the technology. Similarly, under the global marketing tie-up, Adroitec will market, distribute and support Zeus' software products in India and overseas. The Zeus products are used in the areas of computational fluid dynamics, computational electro-magnetics and dynamics, stability and control in aeronautics and transportation industries. The financial details of the agreements were not disclosed to the media. Addressing the industry participants, Lockheed chief technology officer Ray O. Johnson said the winners of the programme had taken a major step to globalise their products and technologies five weeks after the competition results. "It is a testament to the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation growing in the sub-continent to benefit from the programme. We hope to see more such innovations and deals," Johnson noted.
Source: IANS
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