Bill for IPR sharing to be introduced in parliament

The future challenge is to integrate IPR into the national system of innovation for continuous and balanced growth.

As strong intellectual property protection provides the foundation for innovative research, the government would soon introduce legislation in Parliament for sharing intellectual property generated in government funded/aided research activities, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said in New Delhi on Thursday.

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"The future challenge is to integrate intellectual property right (IPR) into the national system of innovation for continuous and balanced economic growth," he said on the occasion of the National Technology Day.

"The Ministry of Science and Technology would soon introduce a legislation in parliament for sharing IPR generated in government funded/aided research activities," he said.

Sibal said strong intellectual protection provides the foundation for innovative research and development. Government had already initiated action to modernise IPR offices, train personnel and increase IPR awareness, he said.

The minister said that to address the challenges India faced on Thursday, there was a need to promote a multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted innovation capacity.

Strategies need to be deployed to develop skilled human resource in the educational institutions; he said adding, "For achieving excellence it is essential to nurture excellence."

As global economy was knowledge driven, there was a need for re-engineering science and technology infrastructure to meet the needs of the knowledge economy.

"We have to create, grow and nurture high technology clusters.... The few cutting edge areas for building technology clusters include biotechnology, nanotechnology and advanced materials," he said.

Sibal said there was a need to realise that the availability of water and energy at an affordable price were ultimately going to determine the fate of the economy in the long run.

While availability of water per capita per annum in 1950 was 5,000 cubic mts now it stood at about 2,000 cubic mts and it was estimated that by 2025 it would drop to about 1,500 cubic mts.

He suggested a special award be instituted for technology development in water availability; quality and water use efficiency and in ameliorating associated problems such as ground water depletion, salination, pollution and contamination.

The award could be given on every Technology Day, he said.

Awards for excellence were also given on the occasion. The awardees include Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad, and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi.