Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Anurag Jain said the number of patents granted has grown five times in a matter of seven years since the Government adopted the Intellectual Property policy in 2016.
Jain said the number of Trademarks registered has also increased four-fold during the period. He was addressing the Inaugural Session of the day-long conference on “Leveraging India’s Demographic Dividend through IP” in New Delhi, organized by the DPIIT and FICCI on the occasion of this World IP Day.
Jain said the government has taken a series of measures, including reducing the number of forms for trademarks and patents, to further strengthen the country’s IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) regime. He said that in trademarks, there used to be 74 forms but now they have been reduced to just eight and similarly for patents, all the forms were scrapped and now there is only one form.
Jain said, as various Government Departments roll out Vision @2047 for the next 25 years during the Amritkaal, the most important driving factor will be Knowledge and Innovation.
“Only those industries which invest in Knowledge and Innovation would survive. And for Knowledge and Innovation to survive, Intellectual Property becomes a very, very important tool,” said Jain, adding, “And another important aspect to that is the Startups.”
Jain said since the Startup initiative was launched in 2016, in the space of six years we have grown to be the third largest Startup ecosystem. Last year, in the number of Unicorns created, we overtook China and we were the second highest.
“We have reached a level of 80 Startups getting registered every day in our country, which is the highest in the world,” he said. Jain said we need to inculcate seeds of IP in the minds of young people. Almost 4,300 institutions participated in about 400 programmes about IP awareness taken up by the Ministry, he said.
“This has been included in the course of NCERT. Then there is a lot of engagement with the colleges,” said Shri Jain. “We have set up about 18 IPR chairs, and about 135 IPR cells have been created in various colleges and universities,” he added.
During a panel discussion on “Making India’s Youth IP Savy,” Ms. Shruti Singh, Joint Secretary, DPIIT, highlighted that India has a young demography and to utilize its full potential, several revolutionary schemes have been implemented by the Government in providing assistance in securing rights and interests of innovator and creators.
The government has always focussed on innovation driven development strategy and has been encouraging youth in all fields including technology or creative industry to build India’s firm foundations as an Innovation Hub and leverage IP to fuel the next round of value creation and growth, she said.
In another panel discussion on “IP Commercialisation – Converting ideas into Assets,” Dr. Jatinder Kaur Arora said that IP Commercialization is a challenge because of a mismatch in priorities of states and industry leading to unmet needs of industry and then finding the solution. The discussion also noted that an IP intensive ecosystem can be further strengthened through building awareness and creative collaborations between industry and academia.
The conference also discussed the aspect of “Unlocking the Creative Economy’s Potential” as the creative sector has a strong interface with popular media and culture and provides greater scope for youth entrepreneurship.
Karan Thapar, Deputy Secretary, DPIIT, mentioned that the creative intensive industries have the potential to change the way content is perceived and commercialized to enhance economic output as well as create a niche industry that adds to the GDP of the nation and exploit global markets.
During the event, the winners of the Photography contest organised by DPIIT were also announced. The photography contest was held on the theme of “Bharat ki Atulya Dharohar” to foster creativity and to invoke interest and awareness among general public and to showcase incredible treasures of our nation. The contest received entries from several photo enthusiasts from across the country.
This year’s theme of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) further substantiated India’s vision to inculcate the culture of innovation and creativity in its ecosystem. All these initiatives further bolster our clarion call of “Creative India, Innovative India”.
