The Small, Silent Army - One more page from the past...

The IT superhighway at Pune is witnessing a new breed of roadsterssome smart tiny toddlers whisking silently with some interesting products on the roll. Who knows, they might overtake someone big soon

They are not denizens of giant IT parks, but strewn across the city in small bivouacs. They are not coming out with big IPOs but energetically working on new-generation products. They are not housing armies of code-jockeys, but lean, mean teams burning the midnight oil. There is nothing common between them. But they still have the same DNA. They are small, silent, and at it.

A Closer Look Who can otherwise imagine that the open source counterpart to Symbian might come out of one of these small companies in Pune, Celunite, that is focusing on the mobile technology platform.   . . .

. . . . Another bio start-up in Pune challenged the laser market for permanent hair removal with a unique plant-derived chemical solution emanating from a research work on protein synthesis inhibitors. Mrinmayee Bhushan, microbiologist and director hit upon a solution that can use plant-derived chemical for permanent follicle destruction, if applied according to the cyclical nature of hair-growth while her husband Bhushan Vishwanath, director, Mindfarm Novatech took it forward. Pockets of interest in Canada and Europe have shown favorable response. And the duo has confidently moved to the next API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) that varies in the degree of potency. The results are indeed compelling, says Mrinmayee. The couple received good response at the World Ayurvedic Forum too.

The list of these small wonders from Pune is not endless, but theres more brewing than what can be accommodated in this piece. Some of these ambitions may fizzle out, some may come out ablaze with a star product, some may challenge the big daddies with their fresh hits, while some may be doomed to stumbling blocks of failure.