Union Minster of State for Science and Technology YS Chowdary today said government-funded research institutions in the country should work towards financial autonomy by putting intellectual property that they had accumulated over the years to use.
“They should stop depending on government funding and start collaborating with corporate houses to generate their own revenues,” he said during his maiden visit to three of the city’s important research institutes, including the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), after taking over as minister.
Chowdary said he had asked the directors of CCMB, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) to prepare a five-year rolling vision plan for their respective institutions.
Responding to a question on whether the minister wants this to be a norm for all the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- funded institutions, he said he would think of it. “I want them to be autonomous, including financial autonomy. I am going to bring a big change in every place in 90 days,” Chowdary said while offering to address the issues of red-tape or the bottlenecks, if any.
Highlighting the importance of the work being done in molecular research by institutes like the CCMB, the minister said they had to find ways to reduce the cost of medicines and vaccines to make them universally accessible. "The poor people in the country are either deprived of these life-saving medicines as they are too expensive or the government has been taking extra financial load to make them accessible to people by procuring the medicines at a higher cost. This should change," he said.
Mauritius bank case
When asked to respond on a winding-up petition filed earlier this week against Sujana Universal Limited, one his group companies, by Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited for an alleged loan default of Rs 92 crore taken by the company from its subsidiary, Chowdary said it was a company (Sujana) matter and the same will be clarified by it. Earlier this week, the minister had denied the allegations of a loan default, involving a public sector bank, leveled against him by the Congress.
