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Every year, there are approximately 100,000 premature babies in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=india&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">India</a> who suffer from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=blindness&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">blindness</a> which can actually be cured if treated within 30 days of birth. 
 
The leading cause of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=blindness+in+infants&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">blindness in infants</a> around the world and in India is due to Retinopathy of prematurity, or <keyword id="372891" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="ROP">ROP</keyword>. 10% of the babies who develop this disease turn blind when they’re merely two months old- if left untreated. 
 
And, yet there are hardly 100 ROP specialists nationwide to screen and treat this condition. 
 
And, this is exactly what one Indian medical devices company wants to change with its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=disruptive+technology&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">disruptive technology</a>. 
 <keyword id="3517641" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="forus-health-company">Forus Health Company</keyword> was founded in 2010 with a mission to eradicate preventable <keyword id="16753" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Blindness">blindness</keyword> using technology and staying true to their word, this company just announced the launch of 3nethro NEO in collaboration with <keyword id="3517642" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="narayayana-nethralaya">Narayayana Nethralaya</keyword>, its ROP screening camera that could potentially save 3.5 million babies from going blind by screening and treating the condition. 
 
Not only is it the most affordable ROP imaging device around, but it also enables remote diagnosis with its integrated telemedicine platform. It also boasts of skilfully designed optics, ergonomic natural grip for easy holding and its high reliability enhanced by a unique focusing and illumination system makes it an ideal choice for neonatal ICUs. 
 
Commenting on the technology, Professor R.V Azad, former chief of RP Centre, New Delhi, said, ““ROP has become an epidemic of childhood blindness in India. We need affordable tools to detect the disease at the early stage to prevent blindness. Being affordable, low cost infant cameras like the Neo will enhance the accessibility of ROP screening in remote areas in the country.” 
 
The company had also in the past successfully deployed thousands of its flagship adult retinal imaging device- 3 nethra classic in 25 countries. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

This Bangalore company just introduced a disruptive
technology that could save 3.5 million babies from going blind

In 2005, K Chandrasekhar, Director of Strategy at Philips then was completely motivated by an inspirational talk delivered by India’s famous Ophthalmologist Dr. Aravind Srinivasan who talked about how increasing blindness in India is majorly because of limited access to eye care facilities in the country. Today Chandrasekhar is founder and CEO of <keyword id="2502571" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Forus">Forus</keyword> <keyword id="6354750" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="health">Health</keyword>, a Bangalore based medical devices company that is designing and manufacturing digital imaging devices in India to make eye screening affordable and accessible to people not just in India but all over the world. 
 
Forus Health started with providing ophthalmologists with digital imaging device that was both completely designed by them and manufactured in India. Their first product is called 3Nethra that can pre-screen five ophthalmic ailments that collectively contribute to nearly 90% of blindness in India. Even though it was initially designed keeping India in mind but thanks to the low-cost and high quality of the medical device it is taking on global giants as well. So far Forus has sold a total of 1350 3Nethra devices in over 25 countries all over the world including the US, Africa, Malaysia and therefore touching a total of 2 million lives already. 
 
Knowing the fact that out of a total of 40 million people who are blind globally, 15 million live in India made Forus all the more invested in the cause specially considering the high incidence of blindness in India is mostly due to limited access to eye care facilities, high cost of treatment/surgery and lack of awareness. And that has become the objective of Forus Health to bring down the cost of diagnosis and raise awareness. 
 
Forus started with one product idea has gone on to develop five products in the market newest one being the 3Methra Neo, a new medical device which will be able to prevent Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a disease of the eye affecting prematurely-born babies that in some cases may lead to blindness in serious cases. ROP has been on a rise in India as one out of three babies born develops the disease which made Forus develop a device for ROP that costs one fourth of the existing product out of US in keeping with their aim to build affordable health devices. 
 
Well, it took one inspirational talk and whole lot of will for Chandrasekhar to get on a mission to deliver effective, affordable and inclusive healthcare to people all over the world. 
 
<a href="http://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/">Image Credit</a>

How one inspirational talk became a ‘vision’ for this Startup

The <keyword id="3181609" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-software-products">Indian software products</keyword> industry, which has until now been in the shadow of the IT industry, could very well get its own deserved place soon. If reports are to be believed, Indian government is working on a national policy especially for software products. 
 
The policy will be taking a comprehensive view of the software sector and would also try to fix some longstanding issues regarding international tariffs, taxation and R&amp;D. 
 
The policy would aim at providing the sector its due recognition that it has for long deserved, a government official involved in discussions over the initiative told ET. 
 
The policy has been in demand for a long time, especially from the tech industry, which has accused policymakers that they show a step behavior for the software products segment. 
 
As per estimates, Indian software product industry index grew by a good 26.6% annually in 2015, and 80% of this growth came from companies that are focused on global markets. 
 New companies like <keyword id="741520" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Druva">Druva</keyword>, <keyword id="852565" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Freshdesk">Freshdesk</keyword>, <keyword id="947837" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Capillary">Capillary</keyword>, <keyword id="6406413" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Team-Indus">Team Indus</keyword> (backed by Nandan Nilekani), <keyword id="783603" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Forus-Health">Forus Health</keyword>, <keyword id="6421" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Julia">Julia</keyword> (an open-source language out of Bengaluru and the MIT) and car firm <keyword id="1066230" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="savari">Savari</keyword> are the torchbearers of this industry. 
 
Department of Electronics and Information Technology has its policies for the IT sector and electronics, but it would be the first time that a policy document specifically on software products would be drafted. 
 
Issues that software product companies face include dual taxes because of digital product downloads off the internet being treated as both products as well as services and overregulation, especially for recurring payments. 
 
<a href="https://www.tum.de/typo3temp/_processed_/csm_Tastatur_81909c90be.jpg">Image source</a>

Indian software products industry to get its own national policy

In the list of annual honours, released by the <keyword id="44734" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Indian-Government">Indian government</keyword> this year, you will find the name of Dr Balram Bhargava from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He has been awarded the Padma Shri. 
 
Every year, thousands of students aspiring for a career in medicine have AIIMS at the top of their priority list. Studying there is almost a sure-fire guarantee to a glittering career in medicine and often a pathway to the foreign shores. 
 
However, Dr Bhargava and others are now focusing on the concept of frugal innovation (now the subject of academic books) and using it to create a new family of low-cost, high-impact medical devices right here in India. 
 In Dr Bhargava’s case, his team is developing a chest compression device that helps treat cases of sudden cardiac arrest. Funded by the <keyword id="232223" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Wellcome-Trust">Wellcome Trust</keyword> of the UK, the device is currently in prototype stage. But given the increasing cost of production in the West, it is quite likely that mass-scale production (as and when it begins) will only start in countries like India and China. 
 Dr Bhargava is no stranger to innovation or foreign collaborations, though. Earlier, he had established the Center for Excellence for Stem Cell Studies where a lot of work has been done to cater to the patients suffering from dilated <keyword id="836702" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="cardiomyopathy">cardiomyopathy</keyword> – a world’s first in terms of treatment. He is also an executive director with the Stanford-India Biodesign Program, a joint venture between Stanford University, AIIMS and the IIT-Delhi, designed to promote medical innovations through shared expertise. 
 
That’s just one model of innovation, driven by a multi-agency collaboration approach. Going the garage start-up route is Mumbai-based medical devices firm Biosense, which last year secured $500,000 in seed funding from multiple investors. Its first product is ToucHb – a device that can screen for anaemia without using a needle to draw blood from the patient. In a country where nearly 52% of women are anaemic and childbirth problems due to this condition often turn out to serious, such devices can literally save lives. 
 
Since then, the company has introduced a smartphone-based diagnostic system called uChek that does urine analysis. This analysis can be used to treat a variety of ailments, including the 60 million or so Indians suffering from diabetes. Another device to test sugar levels, using the blood drawn from a patient, has also been rolled out recently. It is called SüChek. 
 
Ironically, India has not been a stranger to innovations in terms of health technology. The introduction of the now world-renowned Jaipur Foot almost four decades ago has amply proved what creative solutions, applied to Indian conditions, could do to benefit the world. However, the non-profit model behind such innovations has also exposed the weakness of this approach. 
 Companies like <keyword id="2243396" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="GE-Medical">GE Medical</keyword> and <keyword id="327914" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Philips-Healthcare">Philips Healthcare</keyword>, which have leveraged India’s pool of skilled human resources, have reaped the big bucks by successfully commercialising technology at an industrial scale. However, the vast majority of Indians still cannot leverage the benefits of their expensive products. 
 What India needs is a marriage of frugal innovation techniques, relevant to Indian needs, with a Western-style focus on scale and profitability. Start-ups like Forus Health, founded by Dr Shyam Vasudeva Rao, former head of technology at <keyword id="49855" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="philips">Philips</keyword> Healthcare’s India operations, might just be what the doctor ordered. 
 
India has a shockingly disproportionate number of visually impaired people, 12 million at the last count. In fact, one-fourth of the world’s visually challenged population lives in this country. Worse still, 80% of these people could have retained their eyesight, had they had timely medical attention. In a country with a 1:60,000 doctor-patient ratio, it is easy to understand where the problem lies. 
 
Forus’ solution called 3nethra is an ophthalmology device that is both portable and inexpensive, making it ideal for rural areas where the bulk of these cases occur. As highly trained ophthalmologists are in short supply in those areas, the device supports telemedicine interventions and provides automated reports for up to five common eyesight ailments. 
 
That India is unable to provide high quality healthcare to millions is not a unique issue. This is exactly why China has been an early adopter of 3nethra, giving some indication of the global market for such innovations. 
 
With such a compelling business proposition, Forus has no dearth of investors. Top VC firms like Accel Partners and IDG Ventures have backed the Bangalore-based company, and a Series B round of investment was also completed earlier this year. 
 
Such innovations, while costing a fraction of the competition, are cutting-edge ones; so low-cost innovations should not necessarily be interpreted as low-tech. In addition, it not only showcases India as a low-cost manufacturing destination but also as a premier location for high-end research, design and product development. 
 
Now, with the right addition of entrepreneurial dosage, India’s health sector may go from strength to strength. 
 
Image: Thinkstock

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This Bangalore company just introduced a disruptive technology that could save 3.5 million babies from going blind

Poulomi Das

How one inspirational talk became a ‘vision’ for this Startup

Nazia Bijal

Indian software products industry to get its own national policy

BI India Bureau

Low-cost Innovation May Transform India’s Healthcare Industry

Preetam Kaushik

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