Thursday, June 5, 2008

Collaboration needed for India’s innovation ecology

by Jo Black

Industry must step forward and collaborate more actively with the government and academia to encourage research and innovation, and enable India to leverage its knowledge in today’s globalising economy, Kapil Sibal, Indian Minister for Science and technology and earth Sciences said, leading the discussion at an exclusive ‘National Dialogue on Leveraging Knowledge Arbitrage for India’s Innovation Ecology’.

The event was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Ministry of Science and technology, and took place on the eve of the World Intellectual Property (IP) Day, in New Delhi.

India spends 0.8 per cent of its GDP on research. Of this, the government contributes 0.6 per cent and only one-fourth comes from private sector, Sibal said, and compared the scenario with the developed world where industry drives research and innovation.

We must make research and innovation financially viable and use the current growth of the economy to support research and innovation, he said.

When we talk about leveraging knowledge, we need an appropriate legal framework within which our innovation ecosystem must function, world class infrastructure and world class human resources, the minister said, and added that the private sector has a very important role to play in this.

Research must move out of the autonomous institutions, education, from primary to the highest levels, must be expanded and there should be greater collaboration between academia and industry, he said and called for a better recognition and reward system to encourage inventions and innovations.

N N Prasad, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, stressed the need for modernising the IP administration and creating more awareness regarding the various issues concerning Intellectual Property.

The government is launching a nationwide awareness campaign on Intellectual Property starting on World IP Day on April 26, he said.

Industry needs to invest much more towards encouraging research and innovation while the government needs to create a more conducive environment for leveraging knowledge and innovation, said Malvinder Mohan Singh, Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology and CEO and MD, Ranbaxy Labs Ltd.

He also called for a greater interface and collaboration between industry and academia to encourage innovation.

 

 

 

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