Jaipal Reddy lauds first-of-its-kind White Paper on private investment in R and D

Four top scientists and four top industrialists of the country have come together to prepare a first-of-its-kind report on private sector investment in research and development (R and D).

This proves the commitment from both sides to scaling up investments in collaborative mode, said Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jaipal Reddy at the launch of the White Paper here on July 12.

Defending the private sector for its low level of investment in R and D, the minister said that the government spend on R and D was higher than that of the private sector everywhere in the world except in the US and the UK which had been at the frontiers of industrial revolution in the early 20th century.

Citing the White Paper, Reddy said that wherever private sector engagement in R and D was large, the time taken for commercialization of technology was shorter while the reverse was true for R and D emerging out of the public sector.

The four scientists and industrialists who worked on preparing the White Paper are former secretary of Department of Biotechnology Dr. M K Bhan; Director-General of CSIR Dr Samir Brahmachari; S Nayak; Secretary in the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Dr T Ramasami; Past-President of CII and Co-Chairman and Managing Director of Jubilant Life Sciences Mr Hari S Bhartia; Chairman of CII Higher Education Committee and Director of Forbes Marshall Dr Naushad Forbes; President of CII and Executive Co-Chairman of Infosys Mr S Gopalakrishnan and Past-President of CII and Vice-Chairman of Tata Steel Mr. B Muthuraman.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Ramasami said the White Paper was attempt to understand the cause behind low investment by private sector in R and D and find suitable remedies. He said the ministry would propose to the Prime Minister to set up an Inter-Ministerial Group for its implementation so that vital stakeholders in the change process such as the Department of Industrial Policy and Planning could be made a part of it. Answering a question he said investment in R and D was only going to happen if there was a value proposition attached to it. In that regard pharmaceutical and electronics sector had created that value proposition and hence the investments were high in these two sectors, he said.

Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Dr Vijayaraghavan pointed out that in the area of vaccines, early-stage drug discovery and genomics there was tremendous scope for investment in research. He emphasized that government-industry partnership was vital for transformation.

Industry was represented on the dais on this occasion by Mr Deep Kapuria, Member on the Board of Governors of Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA), a public-private partnership between DST and CII and Mr Sanjiv Lal, Vice-President of Tata Chemicals.