By Meghna Mittal
New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) With BRICS - the group of five major developing economies - trying to increase their trade and investment engagements, some cutting edge technologies from each country that can address the common goal of innovation for collaboration, were showcased at the BRICS trade fair here.
Over 400 companies and 1,000 entrepreneurs from BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) participated in the first ever three-day BRICS trade fair organised here ahead of the leaders' eighth annual summit in Goa on October 14-15.
With the common goal of 'Building BRICS -Innovation for Collaboration', the exhibitors showcased technology applied across sectors, including agriculture, renewable energy, chemicals and electronics, aerospace, pharmaceutical, IT and human resource.
With the sight on the growing renewable energy market, lot of companies displayed solar power technologies. China's Chinaland Solar Energy offered solar photovoltaic modules with high power output while South Africa's MicroCare exhibited a wide range of solar batteries, Wi-Fi logger, wind turbine controllers, power monitoring system and solar water pumps.
In the field of professional mobile radio communications, China-headquartered Hytera came up with digital technology that focus on public security, transportation, mining, oil and gas, public utilities, aviation, railways, supermarkets and the education sector. It showcased products that were high on innovation and were water, dust and explosion proof to cater to the demands of smoother communication integrated with higher management efficiency.
Aerospace was also seen to be popular among the businesses from BRICS countries.
South Africa's Rocketmine, which claims to have the largest fleet of drones in Africa, showcased technology to help capturing aerial photographs, for live inspections of buildings, agricultural and archaeological mapping, construction monitoring, oil and gas exploration and terrain modelling.
Its technology helps track moving objects in the middle of the night with clear resolution up to two km with high resolution cameras for detailed and sharp images leaving no damage undetected.
Russia's Autonomous Aerospace Systems also exhibited technology in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with three axis camera for providing aerial photography for real time monitoring in sectors like mining, agriculture and military.
Chinese smartphone maker ZTE, which will be returning to India this year with its new series of smartphone, displayed its niche technology of a 'fish finder'. The blue-tooth device, when connected to the fishing rod, can sent messages to a smart-watch every time a fish is close enough for a catch.
Innovation was not far behind for the agricultural sector as well with Russia's Life Force offering 'plant food' as an alternative to chemical-based fertilisers to promote organic farming.
The organic bioactivator improves germination of seeds, plant reproduction and biological activity, water absorption, plant immunity, crop yield, plant respiration, soil nutrition and stimulates rapid plant emergence from the soil. Its carbon, nitrogen, humic acids and other nutrients are meant for providing early support for seedlings.
In the human resource sector, SalaryFits of Brazil offered a 100 per cent cloud based technology platform for providing sustainable personal loans and benefits for financial inclusion of employees. It technology integrates systems with payrolls allowing direct salary deductions for loan repayments for anti-fraud control.
Multiple Indian companies showcased a range of cutting edge technologies across sectors, including information technology, pharmaceutical, healthcare and mining.
Indian companies showcased a wide variety of cutting edge technology from military and sport parachutes, IT solutions for remoter monitoring, ayurvedic pesticides to geotechnical engineering and electrical and fibre-optic wiring interconnections.
Start-ups were in focus as the member countries endeavour to bring together young entrepreneurs from across the BRICS nations and give them a wider platform.
(Meghna Mittal can be reached at meghna.m@ians.in)
