Government will fund innovation

INDIA ECONOMIC SUMMIT 2006

The proposed public fund for innovative ideas is to be announced in the forthcoming budget, says Science Minister Kapil Sibal

In the forthcoming budget, the Government will announce a public fund for innovative ideas, of which 30 per cent will be given as licensing fee or patent fee, 30 per cent will go towards funding the project and the remaining 40 per cent will be given to the institute where the research takes place, said Kapil Sibal, Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.

Speaking at a session on Promoting Innovation in India at the India Economic Summit on Tuesday, he said the government cannot expect private industry to start investing in innovation without first investing in the University research system.

Speaking on government initiatives to encourage innovation, Sibal said an existing scheme provides a grant of Rs 5 million to fund idea incubation and a loan of upto Rs 10 crore for commercialising the idea.

He also mentioned that soon the government would launch a scheme that would enable women to contribute to building the wealth of the nation from the comfort of their homes.

Inviting young scientists from India to undertake collaborative research, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Japan, also present at the session, said, "opening up resources and collaborating with countries within the region can create an advantage for the region. Japan has strengths in areas such as water management and can collaborate with countries to find innovative solutions that will benefit a large number of people."

Both Ministers agreed that there was a strong case for collaborating at the global, regional and bi lateral levels to find innovative solutions to meet the needs of the common man.

"There are issues such as global warming, climate change and diseases which no country alone has the resources to find solutions to. For such problems, there is a need to collaborate at the global level and pool resources to innovate", said Sibal.

According to the Indian Minister, "India's real challenge is to build quality human resource and to increase the number of people doing innovation from the current 156 per million. India can build resources to meet the needs of the Indian sectors moving forward as well as collaborate with various countries to provide resources for their fast moving sectors".

"Indian universities are facing a serious problem with very few students taking up research and the best minds in the faculty retiring. The retirement age for the faculty should be increased to 70 years", said Hari S. Bhartia, Co-Chairman and Managing Director, Jubilant Organosys.

He further added that world class innovation could only take place in an environment where academia and businesses collaborate within and outside the country.

"India should take the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from international research companies wanting to collaborate with Indian companies. This would enable them to create their own intellectual property later," said Bhartia.

Industry can attract Indians conducting research abroad to train young Indian minds to become innovative, by creating a world class research environment in India.

Indian industry and India as a country are at an inflection point and are changing from being "imitators to innovators," said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon India.

Talking about the basics that would fuel a culture of innovation in India, Ms Mazumdar-Shaw emphasised, "There is a need to create an ecosystem and an engine fuelled by academic research. The gap between academia and industry must also be bridged. An ethos of monetizing early stage ideas is missing in India and must be developed."

According to her, innovation carries a high cost of failure, but India's advantage lay in the low cost of doing research, making failure affordable. India must therefore leverage the low cost advantage to deliver high value innovation.

Innovation is not a luxury but a compulsion for India, said Naresh Trehan, Executive Director, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre.

"India needs to think out of the box and stop going down the beaten path. There is a case for setting a new paradigm in healthcare by delivering traditional healthcare and medicines for solving the problems of the masses," he said.

Dr Trehan emphasised the need to fashion the 500 million Indian workforce to global needs.