Photos:
1. The AngulAir drone is tethered to its power supply module  seen at left
2. A general view of the tech summit this year
3. DRDO unveils its current slate of missiles
4. The SmartVision glasses help visually challenged to 'see' through voice prompts.  (photos 1,2,3: Anand Parthasarathy)
November 18 2022: The Bengaluru Tech Summit – for those who are ready to overcome some logistic hurdles – always turns up some serendipitous discoveries, some uplifting examples of Indian innovation. For a few days see a video on Smart Vision here
 This year was no exception and on the shortlist of this correspondent is a  tethered drone – which might seem to be the opposite of uplifting.  Drones have very limited flying time – limited by the batteries they can carry – so what do you do if you want to use drones for day-long inspection or surveillance over a small area? You tether it to a 100-metre-long cable and feed power continuously from the ground.  This is what Mangaluru-based Ispagro Robotics have done with their AngulAir Air Scout-1 drone which can operate for up to 8 hours continuously, before taking a break for cooling.  

Another made-in-India innovation comes from global healthcare engineering company SHG Technologies whose India engineers have developed Smart Vision, tech-enhanced eye-wear for the visually challenged, with help from a US-based NGO. When worn, the glasses alert the wearer of obstacles with spoken warnings, ‘recognizes’ persons through face recognition and tells who it is – and converts any text being read – in book or phone into an audio.  The promotional video shows H.Nagraj,  Manager at  a  State Bank of India branch in Bengaluru, using the Smart Vision glasses  and carrying out all his official duties.
For detailed report on 25 years of Bangalore's tech summit read here