India to host MIT's EmTech conference

NEW DELHI, INDIA: EmTech, the emerging technologies conference from MIT's Technology Review, will begin in New Delhi on March 2.

This is the first-ever MIT Technology Review event in India. The two-day conference, being held in partnership with CyberMedia, South Asia's largest specialty publisher, will see nearly 100 of the world's leading tech and business visionaries discussing incubated technologies that are ready to hit the market.

The conference will enable decision makers to observe cutting edge know-how on greener and affordable fuel alternatives, inexpensive life-saving drugs and softwares that predict anything from traffic patterns to profit-making opportunities in stock markets.

The event will run parallel to the launch of the India edition of Technology Review, the world's oldest technology publication that was founded in 1899.

"Asian nations became economic powerhouses by exporting IT services, drug design, embedded systems to the world. By bringing EmTech 2009 to Indian shores we hope to bring into sharper focus emerging technology innovations from Asia and Australia," said Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief and publisher of Technology Review, during his recent visit to India to announce the launch of the event.

"The foundations of economic revival are generally built on technology innovation. This conference will help participants identify emerging technology innovations that will impact in strategy and business results," said Pradeep Gupta, chairman of CyberMedia, while dwelling on the significance of the timing of the EmTech conference especially at a time when India faces economic slowdown.

"India, home to offshoring companies in IT software, biotech and embedded chip design, can use this inflexion point to develop itself into an R&D hub for the world," he added.

The conference will see sessions on wide-ranging topics like education, health, green energy, biotechnology and information technology, with industry experts describing latest innovations in these fields.

Cloud computing and semantic web are some of the forward-thinking sessions. Another session will be on nano materials and their impact on power products.

Renowned speakers Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab Chairman Emeritus, and Dr. Subra Suresh, Dean at MIT School of Engineering, will lend their expertise in 'taking technology from labs to market' session.

Other eminent participants include Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani, healthcare pioneer Dr. Prathap Reddy, biotech policy leader Dr M.K. Bhan, co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks Gururaj Deshpande, CISCO Systems' Padmashree Warrior and mentors like IIM Ahmedabad's Prof Anil Gupta.

The event will also showcase demos and prototypes of innovative products that are ready to be taken to the market place. Conference delegates will include participants from Australian, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Taiwanese, British and American companies.