Welcome to the Summer 2002 issue of UPDATE, the newsletter of Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRCC), IIT Bombay.

     As in the previous issues, in the present one also we bring to you a flavour of the variety of R & D initiatives now underway at IIT Bombay. While the heart of all endeavours at an institution such as ours is research and development of technologies that may help better business and contribute to the society, there are a plethora of issues beyond technologies themselves – but nevertheless interlinked - that need to be understood both by those engaged in technology R & D, as well as by the probable users of technologies. These are issues bearing on the emergent local as well as global trends in technology and business, and their impact on the society. In this edition we focus on some of these issues through various articles.

    As is evident today, the impending scenario of economic globalization will bring challenges for both the business and academic sectors of our country. In the Focus article, Prof. N Ramakrishnan and others present some Low Cost Automation technology solutions that may help the indigenous industry – especially those in the small and medium scale sectors – improve their productivity and hence competitiveness, at minimal costs. As demonstrated by the authors, the probable applications can span a wide variety of industries. In the Business Connection  Prof. Shishir Jha analyzes the pros and cons of IPR issues that are likely to soon dominate the functioning of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry. He highlights the origins of the WTO mediated IPR regime that is presently gaining control over global trade, and suggests what the future outlook could be. The related theme of globalization and its probable impact on the Indian Manufacturing Industry are also explored in an article under the new category of Commentary.

      The need for cost-effective technologies for use by the larger, rural-based population of our country is well recognized. In the newly introduced section entitled Healthfile Profs. S Mukherji present IIT Bombay’s ongoing developmental work on Low-Cost Polymeric Sensors that will help improve diagnosis of varied medical conditions. Similarly, Prof. K Ramamritham, in his article under yet another new category Informatics, recounts the diverse projects, under the Media Lab Asia, aimed at devising IT solutions for quintessentially rural needs.

     In spite of its importance, the issue of socio-economic repercussions of technologies has not received the attention it deserves. In his article under Analytics Prof. D Parthasarathy highlights the growing need for Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of technologies - especially those of very large scale - that can entail gross disruptions of livelihood patterns of the affected people. In Epitome, we present a review of Prof. S Bhat’s recent book entitled Biomaterials. Finally, in the Special Feature page we report on Techfest 2002, IIT Bombay’s annual technology exhibition event, which offers a congregation point for exchange of new ideas and innovations amongst participants from industry, academia and governmental organisations.

      It is indeed difficult to reflect every aspect of R & D endeavours underway across IIT Bombay in the space accorded by a quarterly newsletter. But, as in this issue of UPDATE, in the future too, we hope to bring to our readers, at least an impressionistic sketch of it all.

    Please visit our website for an online version of this issue. We welcome your feedback.

	Sandip Roy

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