Foundry cluster initiatives under the project at Samalkha have been scaled up to include adjoining clusters of Faridabad, Kaithal, Narwana, Bahadurgarh and Alwar.

36 cupola furnaces have been upgraded to divided blast cupolas resulting in 15-20% reduction in coke consumption.

Technical inputs to 26 units on better manufacturing practices have resulted in ~10-15% reduction in coke consumption along with quality and work place improvements.

Two training sessions on benefits of Divided Blast Cupola, casting defects and sand preparation were conducted in Faridabad.

Awareness Program on ISO certification conducted in Samalkha.

Work initiated for improving occupational health and safety in Samalkha and Faridabad.

A paper on "Enhancing Competitiveness of Small and Medium Size Foundries- Scope, Challenges and Way Forward" in Indian Foundry Congress organised by IIF in Ahmadabad. Foundry unit owners from Samalkha and Kaithal foundry clusters visited the exhibition.

A brochure on benefits from installation of divided blast cupola furnace has been developed.

Network of ICT Entrepreneurs and Enterprises (NITEE) is now registered under Society act 1860. A meeting of governing body took place on 18th June' 2010.

Cluster portal nitee.org conceptualised by start-up entrepreneurs is under development.

Initiatives on mentoring the start-ups, select financial assistances towards capacity building of entrepreneurs, project assistance to select start-ups with innovative products, involving strategic service providers and institutions in the process are being undertaken to strengthen ICT innovation ecosystem of National Capital Region.

In May, one more innovative entrepreneur was considered for direct project assistance to bridge the funding gap.

6 start-up entrepreneurs met with SBI and Yes bank officials to present their businesses for funding support under CGT-MSE.

On 10th June 2010 a Workshop On Innovation was conducted to discuss draft report on few Innovative firms in the cluster to understand overall environment of innovation in the cluster prepared by Prof G. Mohan and Dr Nirmalya Bagchi of ASCI, Hyderabad. It was attended by 22 invited participants including Dr AS Rao, Mr Mukesh, Mr. Thyagarajan and Mr. Saurabh Gargav from FMC; Dr Chainulu DSIR, Dr Mandar Deshmukh (CCMB), J Raghava and K Sanjay of SBI; Capt Redy of APITCO, Dr SS Varaprasad Advisor Govt AP; Dr Bagchi and Prof Mohan from ASCI; Dr Olivier Blin from Bio-Genesis and Ms Deepanwita Chatopadhayay from ICICKP; Dr Satyanarayana fro SIPRA lab, Mr Giridhar Thota from, Mr KRK Raju from M/s Vaijayanthi drugs.

On 9th June 2010 a meeting of 2 Scientists from IICT (Dr AG Rao and Mr Joseph John), Mr Walimbe of Zen consulting ( a BDS on process upgradation), Capt Reddy of APITCO, Mr Kalyanakrishnan of Dr Reddy’s lab to discuss scope for common pollution abatement/solvent recovery product for the cluster. Based on the opinion of IICT there seems to be scope for such product. As an experiment a pilot will be done at Everest Pharma with APITCO taking the lead.

Initiatives on small ticket innovation Awards at Hyderabad with Pharmaexcil and with ISB, Hyderabad to conduct a Business plan competition among their students for new technologies such as identified by Skyquest Technologies under the project in order to make these technologies more entrepreneur-friendly.

Solvent Recovery plant developed by Mr. Walimbe is now installed and trial runs are going on. It is expected to be ready for demonstration by 1st July.

Preliminary understanding has been reached with Osmania University for having a challenge competition for students of Bio-Medical dept and three other colleges who offer such course.

APITCO has completed the survey of existing bio medical devices industry in Hyderabad. Survey identified 23 units and concluded lack of innovative firms in this segment very nascent status of industry.

"Mentor will lead" -- 1st focus group discussion was organized at Ahmedabad cluster on Saturday, 29th – May -2010. Participants from Industry, technical institution & colleges participated with objective to create a road map for handholding of startup innovators. 2nd Focus Group Discussion will be organized in the First week of July, to narrow down the possible intervention to promote innovation in Life Sciences.

"HR Development in Medical Device Industry" – Fourth 2 days Training program on Human Resource Development for Medical Devices Industry was organised on 29-30th May, 2010 At Ahmedabad Management Association. Faculty from four Engineering colleges (Meshana, Gandhi Nagar, Ahmedabad and Surendranagar), startup entrepreneur, established SME entrepreneur, experts participated in the program.

40 Novel technologies in life science sector from India were identified by M/s Sky Quest Technology under the project for commercialisation. A technology Display show will be conducted at Ahmedabad during August -2010 by Sky Quest supported by FMC.

Meeting VC – Gujarat Technical University. Vice Chancellor GTU (Gujarat Technical University) has shown a positive sign for HR Development in Medical Devices.