CFTRI secures 1,006 patents

Mysore-based premier food laboratory, the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) has hit a new record with 1,006 patents.

"As we travel today in a new pathway, CFTRI has made tremendous strides from 4-5 patents a year in the 90s to almost 100 patents every year, the patent portfolio crossing 1,000," said CFTRI director V Prakash on Thursday.

Presiding over the National Technology Day, he said, "a four-fold increase in consultancy projects and a five-fold increase in the training of NGO organisations and approximately six times the cash flow that we had in the 90s are its significant strides."

Highlighting the achievements, CFTRI TTBD head T R Prabhu added that the laboratory had developed over 470 technologies and 266 of which had been transferred to industries.

Adopting its technologies, 337 entrepreneurs had emerged in the food industry sector. In the year 2005-06 alone, 76 processes were made available to 66 entrepreneurs spread over 16 states. Among them were 23 ready-to-mix processes, with over 3,000 products in the market.

This had added an industry revenue of Rs 277 crore, providing 9,664 direct and around 5,000 indirect employment. Even one of the country's leading company, the ITC had adopted CFTRI's technologies making foray into the food market.

The number of grant-in-aid projects had crossed about 130 this year.

"One example of the height CFTRI has reached is the tamarind toffee that one tastes in the aircraft at 35,000 feet. This is one extreme height to which CFTRI's product can reach in the cyber space. These figures show that we can do more from less," Prakash added.