European Commission’s Draft Standard Essential Patents Regulation

 The draft regulation foresees (1) the establishment and maintenance of an electronic register and database for SEPs; (2) the establishment and administration of a system for assessing the essentiality of SEPs; (3) the creation and administration of a process for FRAND determination and (4) the administration of a system for an aggregate royalty rate determination. All of this is to be administered by the EUIPO, the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

Global FRAND rate setting- UK and China moved for an early mover advantage, now EU wants to step in.

Download report:  https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/publications/com2023232-proposal-regulation-standard-essential-patents_en

National Manufacturing Innovation Survey 2021- India

 

The 3-year effort produced 6 reports and a comprehensive overivew is captured in the #NMIS 'Summary for Policymakers'. Download reports: https://lnkd.in/gpa8weDZ

Conclusions:

• Innovation performance (output) lags behind presence of enablers and absence of barriers (input)
• Presence of enablers has greater impact on performance than the absence of barriers
• Innovation is beneficial to business success in manufacturing
• At least 70 percent of the firms are innovation-inactive
• Aspiration for topline growth drives innovation, but it could also be at odds with innovation 
• Activities exclusively focused on innovation correlate to higher innovation success 
• Firms with more than basic innovation capabilities demonstrate higher success in innovation.
•  Basic ecosystem enablers are essential but insufficient on their own to help firms increase their ability to innovate.
• Finance is the most cited barrier to innovation in Indian manufacturing
• Frequencies of innovation barriers differ by region in India

The report recommended  ‘Innovate to Make in India’ as a manufacturing innovation strategy'. The survey findings demonstrate that despite proven business benefits, manufacturing firms showed high-risk aversion and limited entrepreneurial appetite to engage with innovation. Predominantly, it was observed that firms were responding to the immediate demands in the market, instead of competing for new products that are needed to compete in the future. In this context, a long-term manufacturing innovation strategy is critically urgent. Thus, to make innovation a priority for manufacturing firms, a concrete step forward would be to complement the ‘Make in India’ with an “Innovate to Make in India” strategy. This may then include broad based awareness, promotional measures and investment incentives, along with sectoral sub-strategies with concrete innovation targets or roadmaps.

Report: http://www.nstmis-dst.org/NMIS/assets/pdf/Assessment%20of%20Firm-Level%20Innovation%20in%20Indian%20Manufacturing.pdf

India releases Water Body census

 Highlights:

• The photograph of the water bodies along with the latitude and longitude was captured by a mobile app developed for this purpose.  
• 24,24,540 water bodies have been enumerated in the country, out of which 97.1% (23,55,055) are in rural areas and only 2.9% (69,485) are in urban areas. 
• 59.5% (14,42,993) of water bodies are ponds, followed by tanks (15.7%, i.e 3,81,805), reservoirs (12.1%, i.e 2,92,280), Water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams (9.3%, i.e 2,26,217), lakes (0.9%, i.e 22,361) and others (2.5%, i.e 58,884).
• West Bengal has highest number of ponds & reservoirs, whereas Andhra Pradesh has highest number of tanks, Tamil Nadu has highest number of lakes and Maharashtra is the leading state for water conservation scheme. 
• A major proportion of water bodies i.e., 83.7% (20,30,040) are in use whereas remaining 16.3% (3,94,500) are not in use on account of drying up, construction, siltation, destroyed beyond repair, salinity and other reasons. 
• Most of the water bodies are used in pisciculture, followed by irrigation, ground water recharge and domestic/drinking purpose. 

Read the report: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s3a70dc40477bc2adceef4d2c90f47eb82/uploads/2023/04/2023040672.pdf

Indian Space Policy 2023

 The policy outlines scope for Non Government Entities:

NGEs would be encouraged to: 1. offer national and international space-based communication services, through self-owned or procured or leased GSO/NGSO communication satellites. 2. establish and operate ground facilities for space objects operations, such as TT&C Earth Stations and Satellite Control Centres (SCCs). 3. use Indian Orbital Resources and/or Non-Indian Orbital Resources to establish space objects for communication services over India and outside India. 4. make new ITU filings through the WPC/DOT to acquire Orbital Resources. NGEs are free to make ITU filings through non-Indian administrations also. 5. establish and operate remote sensing satellite systems within and outside India through selfowned or procured or leased satellites. 6. disseminate satellite-based remote sensing data, as well as applications based on such data, in India and/or outside. 7. develop and commercialise technologies and applications for enhancing and augmenting the satellite navigation, communication and remote-sensing developed and provided by the Government. 8. manufacture and operate space transportation systems, including launch vehicles, shuttles, etc., as well as design and develop reusable, recoverable and reconfigurable technologies and systems for space transportation. 9. establish and operate launch infrastructure. 10. develop space situational awareness capabilities for enhancing observation, modelling and analysis. 11. undertake research, innovation and technology development for long-term sustainability of space activities. 12. provide end-to-end services for safe operations and maintenance in space. 13. engage in the commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or a space resource. Any NGE engaged in such process shall be entitled to possess, own, transport, use, and sell any such asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of India. 14. undertake any other IN-SPACe prescribed commercial space activity. 

Source:https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/IndianSpacePolicy2023.pdf

 

Corporate innovation and Board Directors qualification- paper about IITian Directors from India

 Indian industry spending on R&D and Innovation is low. Is risk taking related to Board Directors qualification? If majority of board members have degrees from IITs, does that improve innovation quotient? This paper addresses this issue.

Findings- 

We could infer from this outcome that simply having an IIT-Bachelor’s degree is important. However, to ignite the innovation potential of a firm and put maximum effort towards it, the directors would require a research degree like PhDs. Research degree over IIT-Bachelor’s would unlock those IIT bachelor directors' research mindset and abilities and provide the research aptitude/experience to carry out R&D. 

Read:  https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2023/wp2023-014.pdf

JUST ASPIRE - Inspiring Story of the Father of Indian Hardware, Ajai Chowdhry

Indian farmers adoption of farming practices to mitigate climate change

 Climate change is adversely affecting the Indian agricultural sector. Farmers’ perceptions of and adaptation to the rapidly changing climatic conditions are considered crucial policy measures to combat these adversities. In this context, the present study systematically reviews the literature on farmers’ perception and adaptation in India, drawing mainly from Scopus and Web of Science. Results show that majority of the Indian farmers have perceived a rise in temperature, erratic and decreased rainfall which is consistent with the meteorological data. Indian farmers seem to have adopted a wide range of adaptation measures that are mostly incremental and systemic. Transformational adaptations in the form of substantial changes in land use, resource and labor allocations, occupational pattern, and cropping systems are also increasingly found to be adopted by farmers. However, the literature does not substantially confirm that farmers’ adaptation measures result from their perception of climate change. Lack of access to sufficient information and adequate credit at the right time, household income, farm size, gender, and resource endowment, among others, frequently influences the adoption of adaptation measures. To avoid maladaptive outcomes and achieve long-term sustainability, the study suggests a need for large-scale investments in the Indian farming sector in general and building farmers’ capacity in particular. In addition, adopting an integrated approach for assessing farmers’ perception of and adaptation to changing climatic conditions and their outcomes is essential for effective policymaking towards achieving food security and farmers’ wellbeing.

Download paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667010022001007

India Government notifies rules on online gaming.

 

These amendments layout a comprehensive framework for Online Gaming Eco-system and also deals with Fact checking related to online content pertaining to Government. These rules address the twin challenges of catalyzing and expanding online gaming innovation and at the same time protecting citizens from illegal betting and wagering online. Rules will be catalyst for expanding innovation, while banning/prohibiting wagering on outcome of games and betting. Rules will ensure that Online games or sites that involve wagering will be banned completely including advertising or any time of presence. Industry participating SROs will be core of the enabling framework which will certify permissible Online games. Stakeholder participative SROs to determine permissible online games; Safety of Gamers including Children to be addressed. Under the Rules, MEITY to also notify agency to factcheck false & misleading information related to Govt business.

Download notification.

RICH Impact report (2022)

 

RICH (Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad) is a Government of Telangana initiative and the Hyderabad Science & Technology Cluster under the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, RICH serves as a strategic convenor, fostering collaboration among academic & research institutions, industry, entrepreneurs, start-ups to enable transformation of scientific research into impactful solutions that generate jobs, wealth and social good. RICH works in three verticals - Food and Agriculture, Lifesciences, and Sustainability. To date, RICH have collaborated with over 250 start-ups and established a network of more than 30 R&D organisations to support start-ups. It is also part of a thriving ecosystem that includes over 75 incubators and accelerators in Telangana.

Download impact report:

https://rich.telangana.gov.in/assets/pdfs/Impact-Reports/RICHC_Impact_Report_Jan_2020-2022.pdf

who is leading the critical technology race?

ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker: the global race for future power – can be found on ASPI’s website here. 

ASPI research reveals that China has built the foundations to position itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower, by establishing a sometimes stunning lead in high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains. China’s global lead extends to 37 out of 44 technologies that ASPI is now tracking, covering  a range of crucial technology fields spanning defence, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials and key quantum technology areas. The Critical Tech Tracker shows that, for some technologies, all of the world’s top 10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country (most often the US). China’s technology lead is a product of deliberate design and long-term policy planning, as repeatedly outlined by Xi Jinping and his predecessors. We also see China’s efforts being bolstered through talent and knowledge import: one-fifth of its high-impact papers are being authored by researchers with postgraduate training in a Five-Eyes country.

The US comes second in the majority of the 44 technologies examined in the Critical Tech Tracker. The US currently leads in areas such as high performance computing, quantum computing and vaccines. Our dataset reveals that there’s a large gap between China and the US, as the leading two countries, and everyone else. The data then indicates a small, second-tier group of countries led by India and the UK: other countries that regularly appear in this group—in many technological fields—include South Korea, Germany, Australia, Italy, and less often, Japan.

Macroeconomic Effects of Public R&D-IIPP

Abstract: The direct public funding of R&D investment to stimulate technological innovation has a strong theoretical case and has gained renewed attention in the recent policy debate as a way to address the long-term challenges of modern society such as pandemics, climate change, and the transition to a low-carbon economy. We estimate the dynamic macroeconomic effects of government R&D investment and we find that it is very effective in fostering the total national innovation effort, crowding in private R&D investment, and in raising aggregate output in the long run. We also find that the public stimulus goes beyond private R&D activities and involves a very strong expansion of overall economic activity since the early periods. Finally, we uncover a strong positive impact of the private sector’s anticipation of public R&D spending, which can be interpreted as a confirmation of the importance of managing expectations to reduce the uncertainty inherent to R&D activities.

Paper: De Lipsis, V., Deleidi, M., Mazzucato, M. and Agnolucci, P. (2023) Macroeconomic Effects of Public R&D. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2023-02). https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/wp2023-02.

IIT Bombay R&D report 2022

 IITB is India's premier academic institute. Read the IRCC publication highlighting R&D status.

Hope for Mangroves in India

 The MISHTI, ‘Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes,’ comes after India joined the Mangrove Alliance for Climate launched during the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Egypt in November 2022. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new initiative for mangrove plantations along the coastline and on saltpan lands in her budget speech on February 1, 2023. In India, the total mangrove cover is 4,992 square kilometres, according to the 2021 Forest Survey Report (FSR). The country lost 40 per cent of its mangrove cover during the last century.

Read the manual on Mangrove Nursery.

The Future of Farming Robots - 13 High Tech Examples (Compilation)

Startup India 5 years journey

 The government has come out with report card after a 5 year jouney. 

Has India reached the inflection point? The billions of dollars going into startups represent large bets on distant outcomes, not value generation by way of revenues.

Social Stock Exchange (SSE) -India

 On 19 September 2022, SEBI vide a circular No. SEBI/HO/CFD/PoD-1/P/CIR/2022/120 (the Framework), issued a detailed framework prescribing the minimum requirements to be followed by an Not for Profit Organisation (NPO) that desires to be registered/listed on an SSE. The main themes of the Framework are depicted below:

• Registration of a Not for Profit Organisation (NPO)
• Disclosure to be provided by NPOs for raising funds through the issuance of Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) Instruments
• Annual disclosures to be provided by an NPOs 
• Disclosures forming part of the Annual Impact Report (AIR) submitted by Social Enterprises (SEs). 
• The circular also prescribes the time limit for submission of statement of utilisation of funds by an NPO.

Access the documet:

https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/sep-2022/framework-on-social-stock-exchange_63053.html

Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India- feedback on draft invited.

University Grants Commission (UGC) invites comments/ suggestions/ feedback on draft University Grants Commission (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023

Deadline: January 18, 2023

Eligibility:

• If the applicant is a foreign university, it should have secured a position within the top 500 of overall / subject-wise global rankings, as decided by the Commission from time to time;
• The campus of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions may evolve their admission process and criteria to admit domestic and foreign students.
• The Foreign Higher Educational Institutions shall have the autonomy to recruit faculty and staff from India and abroad as per its recruitment norms. 6.2.It may decide the qualifications, salary structure, and other conditions of service for appointing faculty and staff. However, the FHEI shall ensure that the qualifications of the faculty appointed shall be at par with the main campus of the country of origin. 6.3.It shall ensure that the foreign faculty appointed to teach at the Indian campus shall stay at the campus in India for a reasonable period.

Read the draft-https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/9214094_Draft-Setting-up-and-Operation-of-Campuses-of-Foreign-Higher-Educational-Institutions-in-India-Regulations-2023.pdf

Compendium of Technologies available for transfer from IIT Delhi

 

IIT Delhi has filed more than 100 patents each calendar year for the last 5 years in a row , the technology transfer set-up led by Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, IIT Delhi (FITT) strives to increase licensing deal flows.  In the recently held Industry Day at IIT Delhi, a compendium of IIT Delhi’s technologies was released. In the context that University technologies are generally early stage, this compilation by FITT captures 4 or higher TRL stuff. 

Some areas for Licensing

• Communication
• Environment
• Electric Vehicles
• Energy Management
• Healthcare
• Life Sciences
• Material Sciences
• Motors and Machines
• Power Generation and Disctribution
• Renewable Energy
• Smart Technologies
• Textiles

CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2022

Grand Award- The Most Innovative Company 2022 –Lohum made a breakthrough by launching Metelec™Lithium-ion battery recycling and extraction technology at significantly lower financial and environmental expenses.

Top Innovative Company (Large) in Manufacturing:  Tata Chemicals for High dispersible silica - a patented product.

Top Innovative Company (SME) in Manufacturing: Lohum for their patented Metelec™Lithium-ion battery recycling and extraction technology.

Top Innovative Company (Large) in Service: TATA Elxsi Ltd for Future of Connected TV.

Top Innovative Company (SME) in Service: GPK Logistech Pvt Ltd for StoreMart innovation.

Undem Making biodegradable Low-Density Polythene (LDPE) using thermoplastic starch.

This is followed by IIT Madras.

Top 3 Most Innovative Institute 2022 under the category of Disruptive Innovation goes to Thiagarajar Polytechnic College, Paavai Engineering College and Kumaraguru College of Technology

Top 3 Most Innovative Institute 2022 under the category of Innovation Quotient goes to IIT Roorkee, International Institute of Information Technology and Northern India Textile Research Association.

Top 3 Most Innovative Institute 2022 under Innovation Realisation goes to IIT Madras, IIT Palakkad and Uttaranchal University

 Other companies who secured position in Top Innovative companies are:

-         Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd

-         Bosch Ltd f

-         Uno Minda Ltd

-         Nokia Solutions and Networks India Pvt Ltd

-         Dr Reddy’s Laboratories

-         Tata Steel Ltd

-         Forbes Marshall Pvt Ltd

-         Kone Elevators India

-         Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd

-         Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd

-         Tata Chemicals Ltd

-         Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd

-         Shriram Pistons and Ring Ltd

-         SEG Automotive India Pvt Ltd

-         Thermax Limited

-         National Engineering Industries Ltd

-         Pidilite Industries Ltd

-         Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd

-         Adani Defence and Aerospace

-         Pricol Ltd

-         Merino Industries

-         Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery

-         Garrett Motion Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd.

-         Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd

-         Nestlé India Ltd.

-         Sterlite Technologies Ltd

-         Fluid Controls Pvt Ltd

-         Polymedicure Ltd

-         Praj Industries Ltd

-         Meteoric Biopharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd.

-         KOHINOOR ELASTICS PVT. LTD.

-         MICROLIT

-         VST Tillers Tractors Ltd.

-         ELICO Ltd.

-         MATRIX COMSEC

-         Lohum

-         Ramelex Pvt Ltd

-         Paques Environmental Technology India Pvt. Ltd.

-         SAHAJANAND TECHNOLOGIES Pvt. Ltd.

-         Avantel Limited

-        GLOBAL ENGINEERS LIMITED 

-        Accenture Solutions Private Limited

-        The TATA Power Company Limited

-        Tata Elxsi

-        CitiusTech

-         Access Healthcare

-         Syngenta Biosciences

-         Bigbasket

-         Adani Transmission Ltd

-         Mercedes Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI)

-         Tsecond Generation Technology Pvt Ltd.

-          IntelliSmart Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.

-          Plutomen Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

-          Online PSB Loans Limited

-          GPK Logistech Pvt. Ltd

-          Judge India Solutions

-          TMS TECHNOV M SYSTEMS P LIMITED

-          Ekta Telecommunication & Systems

-          Revayu Systems Private Limited

-          Webskitters Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology invites feedback on the draft amendments to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in relation to online gaming

 With the user base of online games growing in India, need has been felt to ensure that such games be offered in conformity with Indian laws and that the users of such games be safeguarded against potential harm. Further, with a view to enable consideration of issues related to online gaming in their totality, Government of India has allocated matters related to online gaming to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The draft amendments envisage that an online gaming intermediary shall observe the due diligence required under the rules while discharging its duties, including reasonable efforts to cause its users not to host, display, upload, publish, transmit or share an online game not in conformity with Indian law, including any law on gambling or betting. Moreover, it shall observe additional due diligence by displaying a registration mark on all online games registered by a self-regulatory body and informing its users regarding its policy related to withdrawal or refund of deposit, manner of determination and distribution of winnings, fees and other charges payable and KYC procedure for user account registration. Self-regulatory bodies will be registered with the Ministry and may register online games of such online gaming intermediaries who are its members and which meet certain criteria. Such bodies will also resolve complaints through a grievance redressal mechanism.

The draft amendments :

 https://www.meity.gov.in/content/draft-amendments-it-intermediary-guidelines-and-digital-media-ethics-code-rules-2021. 

A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON ROLE OF TAX INCENTIVES IN PROMOTING R&D IN THE COUNTRY (INDIA)

This report is the outcome of the project commissioned under the National Science and Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS) scheme on International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, a DST institution located in Hyderabad. Shri K.V.S.P. Rao, ex-Scientist-G & Head-RDI Division in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is the Principal Investigator for the project and Dr Sanjay Bhardwaj, Head, Centre for Technology Acquisition and Transfer, ARCI, Hyderabad is the Co-Principal Investigator for the project.

10. Conclusions and Recommendations 

10.1. Conclusions • The industrial R&D has shown significant growth over the years, Indian Industry has gained technological competence and has played a pivotal role in accruing significant economic benefits through R&D efforts. • The Industry has responded with remarkable growth rate in R&D expenditure, increased turnovers and making a niche in the Global R&D scenario. It has also provided significant benefits in terms of employment generation, better healthcare, reducing environmental pollutions, energy utilization. • Based on the data studied, it is observed that duty exemptions and weighted tax deductions over the years has helped the growth of in-house R&D units. • Many foreign companies are still interested to take the benefits of the incentives but removal of weighted tax deduction has discouraged them while taking investment decision on R&D in India. • The Joint Committee of Industry and Government of India in its report made in May 2013, recorded that the current R&D incentives, 200% Weighted Tax deductions offered by the Government of India is one of the best in the world already. The report also suggests- while retaining the current direct and indirect fiscal incentives, some rationalization for covering the entire value chain of industrial R&D and technology commercialization may be examined and simplification and rationalization processes enacted.

Schemes and programmes to enable R&D as a source of revenue generation may be announced for the benefit of the industry. Such companies create good R&D infrastructure to carry out R&D work for its translation into industrial production with innovative business models. This also helps in monetisation of the R&D efforts. • India is gradually progressing in its R&D efforts. The current incentives have helped the industry in boosting the R&D investments in the country. The R&D expenditure by companies have grown over the years, however, for the R&D to have a substantial growth, more private funding in R&D is still needed. • The R&D units have developed products and technologies for manufacture of world class products. Due to the Automobile boom since 1990s many Japanese, German, US, and British manufacturers have established their manufacturing units in India taking advantage of the highly competitive automobile component industry. Even luxury automobile manufacturing companies from Europe and USA started their units in India. To compete with them, Indian companies have also expanded their manufacturing bases and R&D units all over the country. • A similar trend was seen in pharmaceuticals including bulk drugs, intermediates and APIs. Huge investments were seen in the R&D units with an eye on export markets. USFDA approval was also given to many companies indicating their superiority and competitiveness at par with global companies. Emerging areas like biotechnology products for healthcare, industrial products and services have also sprung up in medium scale to small scale levels. MNCs have also established their manufacturing units independently and as joint ventures with Indian companies.

It is therefore time to review the policy on fiscal incentives for industrial research and development and reintroduce incentives in a selective manner especially for those sectors which are still in the growth phase. • Companies with large spends on R&D have, no doubt availed fiscal incentives and benefited the most across all the sectors. Even though small and medium companies have also availed the benefits of fiscal incentives, there are many more firms whose expenditures have not been much as their R&D budgets are quite low. The 100 larger companies have spent amount of Rs. 3685600 lakhs of which 74 companies, spending above Rs.100 Cr, have spent an aggregate of Rs.3459700 lakhs. If we take the average spending of companies incurring more than Rs.100 crores on research and development, it works out to the order of Rs.474 crores per company.

Details : KVSP RAO, kvsp13@gmail.com

Vaccine policy USA and India

 

The US is considered to be the home of the most virulent form of capitalism. This could be seen in the pride of place accorded to private sector enterprises in that country, and it is also Extract from Sunil Mani article:

The home of some of the largest and most innovative companies in a range of industries. In the area of medical R&D in general and in the development of vaccines, the federal government in the US has worked very closely with the market. What they did is easily visible from a range of instruments that the federal government has invoked to jump-start the R&D and production of vaccines for a new and unknown disease. A survey of these support instruments reveals that they have tried out every tool of state support available in the book. But the most important of which is the importance that the US has given to fundamental research on vaccines, which eventually helped it develop highly effective vaccines within a brief period. The US has now gone a step further in assigning a greater role for the government, even applied developmental research. This has manifested in the senate passing a new bill called the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 in June 2021. This is an essential lesson for countries such as India that it must support basic research on vaccine development in one of its numerous public laboratories. The second lesson that the US case has for us is the prime importance of involving the public sector. In the US, this is confined to the performance and finance of R&D itself. In the case of India, the public sector must be involved not only in the performance and financing of R&D but also in the manufacturing of vaccines as considerable installed capacity exists in the industry.

Further, the public sector laboratories and institutes have a long history of manufacturing and supplying high-quality vaccines. They must be involved in vaccine production for COVID-19, even if it is only in the long run. In other words, the public and private sectors must complement each other. The government can play an essential role in crafting the sectoral system of innovation of the COVID-19 vaccine industry, just like what the US has done it already. The third lesson for India is that the state must play an active and timely role in improving the availability of critical inputs for manufacturing and distributing vaccines in an industry whose value chain is globally distributed. The three issues indicate a more significant role for industrial policy than what is practised on an ad hoc basis now. Recent events and discussions have shown that a historically free-market-oriented economy such as that of the US is finding much relevance for a more significant role for industrial policy. In comparison, a historically state-directed economy such as India seems to be moving towards a more substantial role for the market with potential adverse consequences.

Further reading: https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/48/special-articles/role-industrial-policy-market-friendly-economies.html

INEX 2022, Goa

 

Solve 2022 Impact report

 

Solve is on a mission to drive innovation to solve world challenges. As an initiative of MIT, Solve uses open innovation challenges to find the most promising tech-based social entrepreneurs from all around the world. With the support of our community, including nearly 100 organizations that span industries and sectors, we provide funding and resources to help innovators scale and drive lasting impact.

Download the report:  https://info.solve.mit.edu/hubfs/Solve%202022%20Impact%20Report%20(2).pdf?

INDIA’S INNOVATION BUZZ- ROLE OF Public, Private, Media

Celebrating India’s 75th independence, Indian Prime Minister added `Jai anusandhan' (Research and Innovation) to spur nation to build Innovative India. Earlier the then Prime Minister declared 2010 to 2020 as ` Decade of Innovation'. Will the results be different now? 

The crucial difference is that the call of Innovation Decade did not result in any medals as there are no runners. Now the situation is different- funding for Proof-of- Concept, Innovation Challenges and Demand for local innovations under Make-In- India initiative have created a formidable group of innovators with potential to succeed in world stage. This paper is from upcoming book-Top 100 Indian Innovations.

Download paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4266737

Draft University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2022

 Highights of the draft:

Focus on teaching

All Ph.D., entrants irrespective of discipline, shall be required to take credit-based courses in teaching/education/pedagogy/writing related to their chosen Ph.D. subject during their doctoral training period. Ph.D. scholars may also have 3-4 hours per week of actual teaching experience gathered through teaching assistantships or other forms of knowledge dissemination that are not repetitive. Teaching for the Department, supervision of fellow students/technical staff, dissemination tasks can also be credited as knowledge dissemination and as a work commitment.

IPR

Lifelong learners/ accomplished researchers as evinced from their original contributions in terms of patents granted or 10 new relevant knowledge or/and artistic practices desirous to get a research degree the Research Advisory Committee may provide choices in selecting the courses/ credits that facilitates the entrepreneur in the monetization of IP thus generated.

If the research results of the thesis constitute new possible things for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), the Ph.D. candidate and Supervisor shall inform the University or the Research Advisory Committee about the matter. In this case, the Ph.D. candidate, with the consent of the Supervisor, may request that the submitted dissertation be treated discreetly before the thesis is submitted for assessment, until the defence/viva-voce. The IPR Cell or the competent body of the university designated for the purpose shall 14 conduct the procedure for legal and commercial protection of research results, in accordance with the relevant Regulations. In this case, the public defence can be extended, in agreement with the Ph.D. candidate, at the latest for a year, starting on the day of the procedure of evaluation of the dissertation. 

Plagiarism

The thesis shall be submitted together with an originality report produced by an antiplagiarism software application. The supervisor (and co-supervisor, if there is any) shall receive an originality report on the whole text of the thesis and shall take this report into account in the evaluation on the submission. 

Publication

It is desirable that the research work of Ph.D. scholars is published in peer reviewed or refereed journals and presented in conferences/seminars. An originality report is not to be considered as sufficient proof that the submitted thesis does not contain plagiarized text. Avoiding plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct in the authorship of the thesis remains the sole responsibility of the researcher. If the Research Supervisor (or Co-Supervisor) suspects plagiarism, he or she may ask for an investigation.