In Bangalore, IT industry association Nasscom showcased the best in Indian innovation for 2006, with a focus on those companies that are driving business model and process innovation within the Indian IT industry. The ten companies nominated are eligible to win one of the Nasscom innovation awards that will be presented early next year in Mumbai:

“Ten homegrown companies including Elitecore Technologies, IttiamSystems, MIEL e-security, Monsoon Multimedia, Newgen Software, Pandora Networks, Strand Life sciences, Image analyzer, and MNCs HP Labs and Intel Technology, which are working on Indian market-specific products have been shortlisted for the awards. Around 160 companies took part in the innovation face-off this year of which ten have been chosen.”

More proof, perhaps, that India is turning into an innovation powerhouse that is creating and nurturing the types of companies that are capable of taking on the likes of Intel and Hewlett-Packard.

[image: Kiran Karnik, President of NASSCOM]

The International Herald Tribune has posted a wide-ranging review of the best in design for 2006. Among the highlights:

(1) The World Economic Forum in Davos made “design” part of its strategic agenda for the first time;

(2) Architects experimented with new types of emergency housing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina;

(3) The designers working on the $100-laptop project for the One Laptop per Child nonprofit foundation produced their first models of the X0-1;

(4) A group of Guatemalan politicians, academics and industrialists enlisted the help of Canadian graphic designer Bruce Mau in the ¡GuateAmala! campaign, to encourage their compatriots to be more optimistic about the future after decades of civil war and human rights abuse;

(5) Black finally replaced silver as the “default color” for digital and electronic products (e.g. Apple’s iPod Hi-Fi and the glossy black Apple MacBook);

(6) Rapid prototyping technologies, originally used in the automotive and aerospace industries, became part of the mainstream (e.g. the Sketch furniture made by Swedish design group Front);

There’s also a lot to look forward to in 2007:

“Take Apple’s long-rumored iPhone; and the Great Journeys series of Penguin paperbacks designed by David Pearson. Or Microsoft’s Multimouse, which will enable more children in poorly resourced schools to use the same computer, and Spore, the ambitious game devised by Will Wright as his follow-up to The Sims. And next summer the XO- 1 laptop will be shipped to schools throughout the developing world, albeit with a price tag closer to $150, than $100, for the first year or so.”

[image: Sketch Furniture by Front (Sweden)]