Attain financial autonomy, govt tells research institutes

The Centre wants research institutions funded by government to attain financial autonomy and become self-sufficient by tapping the corporate sector and unlocking value from IPRs they have created, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary said today.
The minister, who assumed charge earlier this week, said his target is to see that these institutions no longer depend on government for funding.
"I would like to recommend the Central government that all these institutions should become autonomous and self sufficient...They should not depend on the government (in terms of finance) and that is my target," he said.

"They (research institutions) should meet corporates who have funds to invest (in research) and these institutions should be made autonomous financially also so that they can excel," Chowdary told reporters during a visit to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here.
These institutions can perform better by leveraging the assets created by way of intellectual property, he said.
One of his priorities is to see that research environment is improved across the country, where setting up of more incubation centres in colleges and universities would be encouraged, the minister said.

"We want to compete with international universities. There are a few institutions in India which are of global standard level; we have to increase (the number of) such institutes and also learn from them," Chowdary said.

"I want to see that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) institutions are set up across the country," he said.
"I want to see what are the bottlenecks or anomalies, if at all, and to reduce the red-tapism, if there is anything," the minister said.
The government has said "wasteful time and expenditure" should be reduced in institutions so that efficiency improves in terms of investing in various products, he said.