Wonder Grass Bamboo House

Census (2001) reports that there are around 11.4 million houses are non-serviceable kutcha/temporary houses needing replacement, and an absolute shortage of 3.2 million houses in rural India. This amounts to a total housing shortage of 14.6 million dwelling houses in rural India. According the ASSOCHAM report the rural housing shortage is going to hit 47.43 million by year 2012. The main reasons for this shortage is lack of affordable housing technologies, low access to financial supports and to some extent failure of Govt. schemes.

Wonder Grass Initiative Pvt. Ltd. founded by Vaibhav Kaley offers a innovative solution for providing affordable houses for rural dwellers. Their core operation involves processing-packing-transporting and installation of modular houses with bamboo being the main construction material. The production node manufactures different housing components such as Column, Beam, Truss, Purlin and other accessories such as different joineries systems etc. These components can then be then sent to any desired location where they are erected on a standard foundation as per the design instruction. Since most of the prefabrication work is done in the village it reduces migration.

Green Building Congress, 9-12th Sep, 2009, Hyderabad

The objectives of Green Building Congress are to:

Showcase green building products / technologies / services
Exposure to latest trends and technologies on green buildings
Facilitate Market Transformation
Facilitate networking and promotion of business opportunities
Involve all stakeholders in the green building movement

The theme for the current edition of Green Building Congress is ‘Affordable Green Buildings’.

The conference will be addressed by leading experts on green buildings drawn from India and abroad. More than 750 delegates are expected to attend this conference.

The conference will be an excellent opportunity for architects, green products and equipment manufacturers, building consultants, contractors, corporate project managers (involved in building) to update themselves on the latest trends in green building practices across the globe.

Conference on Growing Business Oppertunity in Rural Markets

To unlock the full potential of rural market and the Indian agriculture, the focus must be on improving productivity of the entire value chain and not just the production aspects. Potential interventions include land reforms, promotion of private participation, investments in research, irrigation techniques, availability of power to rural areas (incl. use of alternate energy sources), crop & soil management, introduction of high yielding crop varieties and tax breaks for food processing, among others. An improving policy environment, improving rural infrastructure and higher public and private investment could all help drive a turnaround in rural India.

The proposed Conference will attempt to address the above challenges and chalk out a roadmap by deliberating with the diverse stakeholders including the farming community, corporate sector, entrepreneurs, governments, institutions, researchers, consultants and academicians.

4th Asia Pacific Conference on Business Incubation, Coimbatore, 6-8th Aug, 09

The forum, which is being held in conjunction with the 14th AABI General Assembly, will bring together leaders of the incubation industry in Asia and the Pacific with a program specifically for incubation managers and their stakeholders and with special sessions for policy makers and promoters of business incubation in the region.

With global down turn, incubation and the entrepreneurs it helps face relatively new challenges and opportunities. The program for the forum addresses the topic directly, as well as focusing on some of the key issues facing business incubation managers and policy makers. Combining globally recognized and inspirational speakers, with a workshop style for most sessions, along with plenty of time for networking, the forum is designed to inspire, transfer knowledge and to encourage participants to learn from each other and to share successful tools, tips and strategies.

The Forum is organized by the Asia Pacific Incubation Network (APIN), supported by infoDev, the Department of Science and Technology in India and its growing number of members. APIN’s Steering Committee has an ambitious program of activities to share and will use the opportunity to better understand what help incubators need in the region, so that this can translate into future activities to benefit members.