TECH I’D LIKE TO SEE

A drone to help first responders

Our discussion today is on careers, trends
and challenges in the Indian semiconductor
F irst responders (police,
ambulance, fire) are front
line warriors that people
intervention. For example,
a gas leak explosion needs
the fire fighters to be at
and electronics industry, and we are holding count on to provide sup- the centre, while the police
it in association with the India Electronics & port when calamity strikes. ensure cordoning off, and
Semiconductor Association (IESA). Unfortunately, these services the ambulance comes in if
Live on Facebook today, are scrambled most times there is a casualty. This data
December 23, from 6pm to 7pm. with no real-time intelligence can also be the single source
Satya Gupta | Parag Naik | Dr Srikanth Sola | Vinay Kumar | G S Madhusudan | from ground zero. This often of truth for all subsequent
Event page link: CHAIRMAN, IESA CO-FOUNDER, SAANKHYA LABS FOUNDER, DEVIC EARTH CO-FOUNDER, PATHSHODH CO-FOUNDER, INCORE leads to unnecessary loss reporting for investigation,
http://bit.ly/techieswebinar31 HEALTHCARE SEMICONDUCTORS
of life among these responsibility and liability

Covid to cancer: How AI is being

warriors. A drone assignment, litigation,
equipped with sen- insurance settlement
sors and real-time and audit trails. Pieces
streaming capa- of this technology exist,
bilities can pass on a but significant work
situation report to the – both hardware and

used to beat deadly diseases

first responders software – has
to plan and to be done
create the to make it
necessary operational.

Ajith Nayar | CO-FOUNDER, CAMCOM

Genpact is working with three
The World Will Be AI IS OFTEN BETTER THAN DOCTORS, RADIOLOGISTS of the top-15 pharma companies to
transform pharmacovigilance – the
Better Prepared 50% of all cancer patients globally
receive treatment that does not work for
We are at 94% sensitivity (on
breast cancer detection), which
science relating to the collection,
detection, assessment, monitoring,
The Next Time a them. An oncologist must look at huge is a high level of accuracy that
volumes of data – biopsy, pathology, genomics sometimes even doctors can’t promise
and prevention of adverse effects
with pharma products – using mod-

New Virus Emerges – to determine the course of treatment. Our

solution makes the oncologist’s task easier Geetha Manjunath | - , CO FOUNDER NIRAMAI
ern digital technologies. It’s AI solu-
tion can read text, understand hu-
man speech, extract data from
Avik Das, Swati Rathor Dinesh Koka | CO-FOUNDER & CEO, ONWARD ASSIST We digitise the peripheral documents, identify adverse event
& Shilpa Phadnis | TNN blood smear slide, and then use signals, and learn in real time. The
We use 3D printing in building AI to analyse it. Our solution company recently won a 1.5 million-

2
020 has been all about health-
care. Given the scale of the
pandemic and the urgency it
necessitated, the use of tech-
nology in healthcare became inevi-
table – in helping doctors quickly
identify the more serious cases, to
monitor a patient’s progress, to
customised bionic arms as no two arms
are similar. We then leverage ML to
understand the signals/reflexes of a person
to design the arm in a way that it can
perform multiple tasks
Pranav Vempati | CO-FOUNDER & CEO,
KAL BIONICS
automatically does 90-95% job of the
pathologist and produces a report
Tathagato Rai Dastidar | CO-FOUNDER &
CEO, SIGTUPLE
We have won a contract
from the UK’s health regulator –
Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory
pound contract from the UK’s
health regulator – Medicines and
Healthcare Regulatory Authority
(MHRA) – to use the tool to process
the expected high volume of reports
for adverse reactions to Covid-19
vaccines. “When a vaccine finally
gets distributed at scale and speed,

It is a great time
bring a vaccine in months, and not a technology solution will be need-
AI is as good as radiologists in Authority (MHRA) – to use our AI tool to
a decade that it normally takes. And ed to track batch and lot numbers
interpreting CT scans and X-rays, and process the expected high volume of
it has become increasingly clear to know where each dose is,” says
even better in detecting tuberculosis and reports for adverse reactions to Genpact CEO Tiger Tyagarajan. He
that technologies like artificial in-
lung cancer Covid-19 vaccines

to design & build

telligence (AI) and machine learn-
ing (ML) can play powerful roles.
Indian entrepreneurs and com-
panies are new digital technologies
Prashant Warrier | CO-FOUNDER & CEO, QURE.AI
been done to the organ because of
Tiger Tyagarajan | CEO, GENPACT
sensitivity, which is a high level of pathology and genomics – to deter-
says the solution will bring togeth-
er and analyse all the data so that
regulators and vaccine makers
quickly know if certain kinds of
people are seeing adverse reactions

to develop fascinating solutions.
Prashant Warier and Pooja Rao’s
Qure.AI has built technology that
can interpret chest X-rays, radiol-
YEAR END SPECIAL
the virus. That helps understand
whether a patient needs hospitali-
sation or ICU admission,” says
Warrier.
Qure.AI has tied up with Astra-
Zeneca to integrate AI solutions for
the early detection of lung cancer
accuracy that sometimes even doc-
tors can’t promise,” says Manju-
nath. And because it’s non-touch,
Indian women in particular are a
lot more comfortable to do these
examinations.
Dinesh Koka and Vikas Ra-
mine the course of treatment.
SigTuple, founded by Tathagato
Rai Dastidar, Rohit Kumar Pandey,
and Apurv Anand, combines AI
and data science to automate the
manual review of a blood sample
under a microscope by a patholo-
robots in India
from a vaccine, and what kind of
tweaks the drug itself may require.
Machine learning is even being
used to make smart prosthetic
arms. Currently, prosthetic arms in Shilpa Phadnis & Sujit John | TNN
India are mostly cosmetic in nature

ogy images and CT scans to detect
some 30 abnormalities, including
strains of pneumonia, tuberculosis,
Covid, lung cancer and even heart
failure. Behind this detection lie
algorithms which have been fed
with data from 3.5 million X-ray
reports and processed by using
deep-learning techniques. “AI is as
good as radiologists in interpreting
scans,” says Warier.
Such technologies are immense-
ly useful when thousands or lakhs
of scans have to be looked at, as
during this pandemic. “Covid is an
infection of the lungs and our tech-
nology, which sits on top of the
digital X-ray machines, determines
the percentage of damage that has
Byju’s co-founder
in patients across India, Latin
America and Middle East. The soft-
ware has the ability to process
analog and digital chest X-rays in
one minute, and can even point out
small lung nodules which could
have been missed in a cursory re-
view.
Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi
Mathur’s Niramai uses a non-
touch, non-invasive, radiation-free
technique to do a thermal mapping
of the breast surface, and then uses
an AI-based diagnostics engine to
detect breast malignancy from
thermal variations. The sensors
identify 17 different abnormal ther-
mal patterns and a probability
model is generated. “We are at 94%
machandra’s Onward Assist also
uses computer vision for image
processing that helps in identifying
the location of tumours. “Machine
learning then helps in processing
large amounts of data to offer bet-
ter insights on classification of the
tumour and its staging, among
other things. Our teams have built
algorithms which help in this task,”
says Koka. Four of Onward Assist’s
analytics tools are undergoing
clinical trials currently and the
company expects to publish results
by May next year. Koka says such
tools can make the task of an on-
cologist much simpler, given that
she otherwise would need to look
at huge volumes of data – biopsy,
INTELLO LABS USES AI TO GRADE & SORT FRUITS, VEGETABLES
gist. “We digitise the peripheral
blood smear slide, and then use AI
to analyse it. Our solution auto-
matically does 90-95% job of the
pathologist and produces a report,”
Dastidar says.
Dr Anoop Amarnath, geriatric
medicine consultant at Manipal
Hospitals, says the institute is run-
ning a clinical trial for AI diagnosis
of Helicobacter pylori bacteria in-
fection in the stomach. Currently
it is done by a rapid urease test
(RUT). The aim is to use AI and
convolutional neural networks
(CNN) through which the network
begins to identify the infection
through images rather than having
a biopsy and RUT.
R
or are capable of only limited move-
ments. Hyderabad-based Kal Bion-
ics is working on different complex
aspects of arms, such as grip, move-
ment, and weight. They use 3D
printing to build customised bionic
arms, since no two arms are simi-
lar. Co-founder Pranav Vempati
says they then leverage ML to un-
derstand the signals/reflexes of a
person to design the arm in a way
that it can perform multiple tasks
by way of different grips. “Through
IoT, our bionic arm can also be con-
nected to mobile applications
through which we can continu-
ously generate data on how the
hand is performing and then im-
prove its functioning,” he says.
obots have been around a
long time. But the advanc-
es in software and hard-
ware in recent years have dra-
matically increased the applica-
tions. That was the subject of
our webinar last week, and we
had with us two entrepreneurs NOT ENOUGH TALENT
who have built amazing robot-
ics companies – Balaji Viswana-
than of Invento Robotics, and
A akash Sinha said his
conversations with
robotic companies indicate
Aakash Sinha of Omnipresent that there are jobs in the
Robot Tech. industry, but not enough
Viswanathan said Covid-19 people to take them up. He
has dramatically increased op- suggested to students that
portunities for robotics, espe- they take up a project and
cially in healthcare. “We are
build something of their own.
automating the task of medical
“Then contact one of us and
assistants in many of the hospi-
try for an internship. Some of
tals that enables far better data
collection. Our robots use the our interns have gone on to
power of voice and vision to de- do companies of their
liver strong conversation experi- own,” he said.
ence to collect vitals with on- He said the key is to
board sensors, and push the data develop expertise in at

tells kids to look for

to EHR (electronic health re- least one area. “It can be
programming, or computer
TECH TRENDS vision, or ML, or mechanical
design, or electronics/PCB

math in daily life

Arpita.Misra@timesgroup.com
cords). They have autonomous
navigation to cover the hospital
floor,” he said.
Sinha said they have built
robots for river cleaning, for
places, addition and multiplication picking trash, for bomb disposal.
are taught separately. But the fact is, They even built the robot/rover
design,” he said.
Balaji Viswanathan
said they have three
subsystems in a robot. One
is the embedded systems
operation, which manages
things like wheels, hands.

T
here is symmetry in a snail,
geometry in building blocks,
and fractions in that pizza you
share with your pals. And the crick-
et scoreboard could double as a math
blackboard too.
Mathematics is beyond books and
rooted in things around us, and for
every child we need to find a hook
that’ll get them hooked to the world
of numeracy, says Divya Gokulnath,
co-founder of education technology
giant Byju’s. Math is crucial in rap-
idly growing areas like AI/ML,
blockchain, cryptography (used in
cybersecurity).
Divya is a BTech in biotechnology
from RVCE, Bengaluru, and a VTU
(Visvesvaraya Technological Univer-
sity) rank-holder. She fell in love with
math after she started attending Byju
Raveendran’s aptitude classes in 2007-
2008. “At that time, Byju was just
starting off. I got to know about him
NATIONAL
MATHEMATICS DAY
National Mathematics Day is
celebrated every year on
December 22 to recognise the
multiplication is nothing but repeat-
ed addition. Children need to under-
stand the connection between con-
cepts. There should be the process
of enquiry and learning shouldn’t
feel like a chore,” she says. On the
app, the best testimonials Divya and
her team get are when children say
they have grown from hating to lov-
ing numbers.
To prepare kids for the unseen
jobs of tomorrow, they need to be
taught “how to learn” and not “what
to learn”, says Divya. “…Because
studies suggest that for kids in pri-
mary school today, 63% of their jobs
aren’t even defined. We need to pre-
pare them and that’s possible only if
they can learn, unlearn and relearn,”
she adds. Divya thinks engineers and
technologists of the future will only
be of better quality, as they’d all be
digital natives, a born advantage.
Ask her about the big buzz
around coding today, and Divya says
the topic is not too far from making
it into mainstream education, espe-
cially with the New Education Policy
also underscoring it. “Just that it’s
not in the timetable yet,” she says.
She thinks coding today is how com-
for the last Chandrayaan mis-
This is done in C++. Then
sion, which crash landed on the
there’s the user interaction
moon. “We have also built
drones. Over the last 2-3 years, subsystem, which his
90% of our business has come company does on iOS – things
through drones,” Sinha said. like speech to text, computer
Intello Labs founders (L-R) Devendra Chandani, Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra and Himani Shah These are used in oil refineries, vision, conversation flow. And
to keep the facilities secure, go finally, there’s the part where
Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Team Intello Labs
into tanks to check for corrosion; data is collected, algorithms
Chandani’s Intello Labs uses AI tools, such as computer
they are used to map vast areas. are trained. This uses a
vision and deep learning, to grade and monitor the quality of
“In Amaravati, we mapped 2 lakh Python Django based system.
fresh fruits, vegetables, and cereals. The venture is part of acres and made it into one single
Viswanathan said people
Nasscom’s DeepTech Club image,” Sinha said. can focus on any one of
Milan, Nishant and Himani knew each other from their Viswanathan urged young these areas. “One need
under-graduation days at IIT Bombay. Milan went on to head entrepreneurs to take up robot- not do all three. If you are
pricing analysis at Snapdeal. Nishant worked at Amazon. ics development and manufac- a web developer, you can
Himani was head of corporate planning and strategy at turing. Robotics, he said, is going build chatbots, engagement
PeopleStrong HR Services. Devendra was the head of Customers include supermarket chains, to be far bigger than the comput- interactions,” he said.
customer and marketing analytics at KPMG. All of them came e-grocers, growers, and aggregators. ing industry. “The computing
together in 2016 to found Intello Labs in Gurgaon Reliance Fresh, and Dole Asia of Singapore industry created over 50 compa- costly to operate. Many entrepre-
are among its users. The systems help nies with a market cap of $100 neurs there are looking to invest
About $500 billion of fruits and vegetables are wasted billion. Robotics can create even here. This is a time for India to
them reduce risk, wastage and increase
every year. Intello Labs’ solutions seek to reduce that. Several more. Industry 4.0 can create get into manufacturing aggres-
revenues by delivering better customer
proprietary artificial neural network algorithms are used to well-paying jobs that are far sively,” he said.
satisfaction. They can understand which
extract features from a food sample. And these get better more impactful than IT and soft- Viswanathan said about 60%
locations have better quality, which
with each data point. Mobile-based Intello Track is an AI
supplier’s quality is deteriorating
ware,” he said.
India, he said, can do high-
of a robot is software and 40% is
hardware. Sinha said more and
platform that objectively grades based on colour, size and
visual defects and integrates with the customers’ existing IT Has over 150 employees. Has received end manufacturing and we have more innovation in the future
systems. Intello Deep is a handheld scanner that can measure $8.5 million in funding from Saama Capital, a cost advantage over China. will happen in software, while
moisture and pesticide residues in food products GROW (Singapore) and SVG Ventures “China is increasingly becoming hardware will tend to stabilise.

How Samsung’s getting freshers to file patents

achievements of mathematician
Srinivasa Ramanujan, who was
born on this date in 1887
through someone. The way he taught
math connected to real life. Very com-
puter science was in the 90s. Some
parents and children taking to it
early on, some debating the right age
for it. “But again, education is an
investment, where you see the re-
turns very late, never immediately,” Sujit.John@timesgroup.com The patents the youngsters file acronym for Theory of Inventive ent. Two-thirds of the 250 to 300
she says. are typically around things they Many standard essential Problem Solving). We provide patents filed annually in India

plex looking problems would be
solved just using common sense. My
perception about the subject com-
pletely changed,” says Divya.
From a learner, Divya became a
teacher. She joined Byju, the founder
of the company and now her better
half, and started teaching math and
data interpretation and reasoning to
students, who were barely three-four
years younger to her. Divya’s first
class had about 100 students. “To look
more teacher-like, I’d often wear a
sari to class,” laughs Divya, who now
tutors students of classes 4-7 in math
and 8-12 in biology, on the Byju’s app.
The phobia around math, says
Divya, is often because of the way
kids learn the subject. “In many
S
amsung is one of the top pat-
It is crucial for parents ent filers in the world. Includ-
and teachers to ing in India, where it has just
understand that children aren’t completed 25 years. Its R&D cen-
born fearing math. We must tres in Bengaluru and Noida have
help children filed 3,200 patents to date.
approach the The patent filing culture has
over time become so institution-
subject by
alised and broadbased that in the
relating it to last five years, 80% of filers have
everyday things. been first time creators. Many
It’s a useful skill who join from campuses file with-
to have in the in their first three years.
game of life “Initially, they may be co-in-
ventors. But many become inde-
Divya
pendent inventors often in five
Gokulnath | years or less,” says Aloknath De,
CO-FOUNDER,
CTO of Samsung R&D Institute
BYJU’S India.
themselves like to play with –
camera, multiple cameras on a
phone, social camera for instant
sharing, selfies, avatars, small
video clips. Smart homes, and al-
gorithms to measure health & fit-
ness on watches are other areas
of patent interest. Among tech-
PATENTING CULTURE
nologies, AI, IoT and 5G are the
focus areas in India.
Around 2012, Samsung’s India
unit set up a specialised IP (intel-
lectual property) team, and a por-
tal that provided details of past
patents, where these are used, the
company’s Hall of Fame of patent
filers, emerging areas that are
patents (SEP) have
come out of Samsung India.
SEPs are essential to
implement specific industry
standards, and they will be
used by many companies. They
provide big
recognition globally
Aloknath De | CTO, SAMSUNG
R&D INSTITUTE INDIA
ripe for patenting. Freshers are
encouraged to explore the portal.
“We then provide basic invention
creation training – there are dif-
ferent techniques for how to
ideate, methods like design
thinking, Triz (the Russian
coaching and mentoring. And are also being filed in other glob-
then we provide advanced inven- al locations. “Many standard es-
tive step training – to help them sential patents (SEP) have also
understand how to structure come out of India,” De says. SEPs
their claims, to help them broad- are those that are essential to
en their horizon, if implement specific industry
they have an idea for standards, and therefore used by
mobiles, can it be many companies. SEPs imply big
used in wearables, recognition globally, they could
in TVs,” De says. even earn the company signifi-
Patent filers cant royalty.
receive awards, There’s been a surge in pat-
the amount vary- ents filed in India in the last three
ing depending years. “And now, 25% of the high
on the quality patents filed are being
quali- commercialised, a big jump from
ty of four years ago. Patent filing will
t h e be key to our mission of power-
pat- ing digital India,” De says.