Kohli wins EU inventor award

BANGALORE: Sanjai Kohli and his partner Steven Chen have won the European Inventor Award 2010 in the category of inventors from non-European countries. The award has been instituted by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Commission, and is into its fifth year.
TOI had reported last month that Kohli, son of F C Kohli, regarded as the father of India’s software services industry, had been shortlisted for the award.He was one out of the total of 12 shortlisted, and one among three shortlisted in the category of inventors from non-European countries.
At the ceremony in Madrid on Wednesday, it was noted that it was thanks to Kohli and Chen’s work that GPS systems could now also be used commercially and were a part of our everyday lives. “They developed the powerful but inexpensive chips which first allowed satellite signals to be put to effective use. The technology they devised triggered off explosive growth in the market for GPS devices and laid the foundations for their commercial use in cars, planes, ships and mobile phones,” a release about the event said.