Government, Industry and academia to Collaborate for leveraging Knowledge arbitrage for India's Innovation Ecology

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. This was stated by Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, leading the discussion at ‘National Dialogue on Leveraging Knowledge Arbitrage for India’s Innovation Ecology’, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Ministry of Science and technology on the eve of the World Intellectual Property (IP) Day in New Delhi today.

Shri Sibal observed that India spends 0.8 per cent of its GDP on research of which the government contributes 0.6 per cent and only one-fourth comes from private sector. Comparing the scenario with the developed world where industry drives research and innovation, he said “We must make research and innovation financially viable” and use the current growth of the economy to support research and innovation.

“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.

Shri N.N. Prasad, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, stressed on 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.

Shri Malvinder Mohan Singh, Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology and CEO and MD, Ranbaxy Labs Ltd., Shri Shanker Annaswamy, Chairman and Managing Director, IBM India Pvt., Shri Naushad Forbes, Director, Forbes Marshall and Shri Rakesh Bakshi, Associate General Counsel and Director – Legal Corporate Affairs, Microsoft India also participated.

Source: Press Inormation Bureau
Date: April 24, 2008