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| India may soon adopt law to commercialise innovations |
| Praveen Bose / Chennai/ Bangalore Nov 21, 2009, 00:36 IST |
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India may adopt a law soon to commercialise innovations if the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission are implemented. “An Act similar to the Bayh-Dole Act or the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act in the US would make this possible,” said Somenath Ghosh, chairman & managing director, National Research Development Corporation.
The Bayhe-Dole Act in the US dealt with intellectual property arising from federal government-funded research and gave US universities, small businesses and non-profits intellectual property control of their inventions and other intellectual property that resulted from such funding. This allowed professionals to start businesses, and in turn generate jobs. The US had felt the need to have such an Act in the 1970s and 1980s as it feared that Japan and other Asian countries would beat it. Hence, it created an environment that was government-driven.
The recommendations comes on the fact that there is lack of a co-ordinated approach which is the bane of innovation in the country, and the National Knowledge Commission is trying to address this. In India, the lack of centralised approach in dealing with academics, research, science and technology, and IP laws among others affects the growth of innovation and commercialisation of the innovations. In India, each discipline is under different ministries. The commission had referred to this as a hurdle in the country’s development.
To get the maximum value from knowledge growth, there’s a need to link initiatives to convert knowledge into economic value. Innovations being funded by the government and innovators commercialising it first happened in the US, and then the trend spread to Western Europe and now China has adapted the model well. Businesses are now being set up at a furious pace, thanks to the co-ordinated approach of the government agencies.
Ghosh also said, the multiplier effect of the major investments in infrastructure in the country would be very high. To cite an example, if a road is built to connect a village to the outside world, it would have a huge impact on the village in terms of wealth creation.
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