The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that Innovation is for the betterment of mankind and India is encouraging the spirit of innovation among the educated enterprising youth. He was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the International Conference ‘Asian Patent Attorneys Association’, here today. The Minister for Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Suresh Prabhu, more than 1350 participants from over 65 countries and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.The Vice President stressed the need to put in efforts to give meaningful effect to the socio-economic and technological development needs of the poorest of the poor. He further said that knowledge and intellect are the most critical ingredients in development. It was essential to adopt innovative and creative balancing mechanisms, he added.The Vice President said that Intellectual Property Rights hold special importance in the knowledge economy. He said that the new regime of intellectual Property Rights bring a paradigm shift in social exchanges and cultural ethos in communities especially at a time when the world had moved away from viewing knowledge as a mere community asset started treating it as intellectual property.Talking about the changing factors in all economies, the Vice President said that the emphasis on tangible hard assets is being shifted to intangible soft assets and intellectual properties. India fully recognizes that an effective and robust intellectual property protection regime is essential to attract technology, investment, incentivise innovation and creation of IP assets, he added.
The Vice President said that as the communities’ transit to new phase of Intellectual Property based economy, no conversation on intellectual property rights can be complete without considering the balance of the rights and obligations of IP holders and define what constitutes a genuine, path-breaking intellectual property?Shri Naidu said that Indian patent system contains some built-in safeguards to bring about a balance between rights and obligations – these measures are consistent with TRIPS Agreement. As a member of WTO, India made laws that are compliant with the global regime. National IPR Policy has been approved and published by the government in May 2016, he added.The Vice President said that India is encouraging the spirit of innovation among the educated enterprising youth by skilling them and supporting through the schemes like Start-Up and MUDRA. He further said that a number of initiatives have been taken by the governments to create an ecosystem that fosters manufacturing and have identified key areas such as auto industry, information technology, aviation, biotechnology, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, electronics and entertainment for innovation and manufacturing, as There is immense scope of technology and investment in these areas.Saying that Government aims to make India a major hub for end-to-end indigenous drug manufacturing in the next few years, the Vice President said that the IP sensitive, Indian pharmaceuticals industry is expected to expand at a compounded annual growth rate of over 15 per cent to 55 billion US dollars in the next three years.