Daily Archives: March 7, 2016

Kochi techie takes challenge to Paris

Kiran Raphael with French President Francois Hollande.
Kiran Raphael with French President Francois Hollande.

Kiran Raphael’s diamond clean tech involves cleaning water using diamond micro electrodes

A young technopreneur from the city has bridged the gap between Kochi and Paris, hogging the limelight at the Paris French Tech Ticket entrepreneurship challenge announced by French President Francois Hollande in 2014 to attract technology start-ups from across the globe.

Kiran Raphael, 31, an alumnus of St. Aloysius School, Palluruthy, was among the 20 from across the globe and one of the three Indians selected from more than 1,300 entries in the technology challenge, which saw participants from Japan, China, Canada, Argentina, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, among others.

Mr. Raphael said from Paris on Sunday that he was invited to speak on behalf of the selected technopreneurs at the Elysee Palace on March 2.

No chemicals, no waste generation

Mr. Raphael, a bio-technology specialist, said the diamond clean tech he espoused involved cleaning water using diamond micro electrodes. “When cleaning water using diamond electrodes, we do not use any chemicals and there is no waste generation,” he said on Sunday describing the technology that would now receive funding from the French government.

He said his plan was to develop the technology company in France and then to expand it to India, where there was a big problem of water pollution. Industrial houses and urban authorities stood to gain from adopting the technology, he said. Boobesh Ramalingam and Mani Doraisamy from Bangalore, he said, were among the other successful technopreneurs from India in the Tech Challenge.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by K.A. Martin / Kochi – March 07th, 2016