Economic Times – December 11, 2007

Law on cards to boost technology innovation in India

11 Dec, 2007, 1702 hrs IST, PTI

BANGALORE: The Department of Science and Technology has asked FICCI to work out a draft legislation to bring out a law to boost 'technology innovations', Advisor, Department of Information Technology, A K Chakravarti, said.

"One is hoping that in the next three months, some kind of draft will be in place," he told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference on e-science and grid computing here last night.

"It could accelerate (technology) innovation," he said. FICCI has been asked to prepare the draft after collecting inputs from various stakeholders, both government and private,

The Department of IT, Government of India, is working on a set of proposals under technology innovation promotion programme, he said.

Noting that SMEs need "lot of money" to file international patents, he said the Government is mulling to provide "some kind of part support" to them to file such patents.

Industry and academia will be encouraged to come together and share high-end risk to come out with innovative products, Chakravarti said.

Efforts would be made to strengthen technology incubators at academic institutions and to increase their numbers in the 11th plan period, he said.