India losing 2,000 patents every year: Jairam Ramesh

India is losing about 2,000 patents every year in the US and Europe on traditional formulations as the knowledge on these is not documented, said union minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh

Speaking at a convention on biological diversity, organised by the United Nations at the MCR Human Resources Development Institute here today, he said the Centre had made over 200,000 formulations related to Indian systems of medicine available online through the ‘Traditional Knowledge Digital Library’.

The European Patents Office was given access to this library in February while the US Patents Office would be given shortly.

He stressed the need for increasing the country’s Green Domestic Product along with the gross domestic product. “We should demonstrate greater sensitivity towards ecology. In fact, ecology and economy can go hand-in-hand,” he said.

AP chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who inaugurated the four-day convention, said the Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, now being run by the state government, would be handed over to the Centre for upgrading it into a national-level institute.