OrcaPod steals the show

The prototype of a transport capsule designed by Hyperloop India stole the show at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre.

Hyperloop India is a startup formed by a group of students from BITS Pilani, Indian School of Business-Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.

OrcaPod, India's only entry at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Design Competition in California in August 2016, was one of the main attractions at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

"We are in the process of developing a second prototype which will be an enhanced version of OrcaPod," said Hussain Harianawala, business development head of Hyperloop India.

The young men are in talks with different government agencies and firms, including Niti Ayog, engineering consultancy company RITES and other agencies to take the concept forward.

Hyperloop is a new way to move people or things anywhere in the world quickly with minimal impact on the environment.

The OrcaPod accelerates a passenger or cargo vehicle at airline speeds through a steel tube in near vacuum using a linear electric motor, making it the transport mode of the future.

Crowdfunding helped the young developers send their capsule to California, where Elon Musk-owned SpaceX Corporation is headquartered, to compete with 24 designs from across the world.

The competition was all about which pod can achieve maximum speed in the Hyperloop system built by SpaceX - one mile long and six feet in diameter.

The idea is to eliminate air resistance and contact friction to increase the speed to over 700 kmph.

Musk threw open the challenge in 2015 and OrcaPod made it to the finals after going through several rounds of design reviews.