What is the issue?
- India ranks 60th in a list of 127 countries on the Global Innovation Index (GII) of 2017.
- It ranks 43rd among 45 countries in the recently-released International Intellectual Property (IP) Index, 2017.
- The poor record on IP protection calls for appropriate governmental intervention.
What are the initiatives in this regard?
- The National Innovation Council (NIC) in 2010 aimed at promoting innovations and making India a hub of innovations.
- The key mandate of NIC was to formulate a roadmap for innovations for 2010 to 2020.
- It submitted three annual reports to the government; the last one in 2013.
- Sectoral innovation councils were set up in 25 major departments of Union government, including the ministry of agriculture.
- State Innovation Councils were also set up at the state level, as a measure of decentralisation.
- The present government has increasingly been stressing on its goal of promoting innovations.
- The Atal Innovation Mission is a notable initiative in this regard.
How has the progress been?
- Despite the efforts, the progress of the initiatives and the overall climate of innovations in India is still not considerably optimistic.
- Despite efforts to decentralise innovation and making it part of overall governance structure, innovative ideas that could be scaled up nationally have hardly emerged.
- Clearly, government organisations are not suited to bring about any game-changing innovations as they are caught up in routine work.
- The work of NIC proved that innovations work best in a supporting environment, irrespective of the size or nature of an organisation.
- However, the prime challenge is the government supporting and protecting innovations in the first place.
What is the recent impact of this shortfall?
- One obvious impact created by the lack of support system for innovations is the rising incidence of illegal sales of Herbicide-Tolerant BT Cotton seeds.
- One of the biggest innovations in Indian agriculture in the last 15 years is the introduction of Bt cotton in 2002.
- Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB), which released the Bt cotton, also intended to release HT Bt cotton (an innovation in Bt cotton).
- MMB thus applied for approval to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC).
- But before MMB could be granted permission, HT cotton was illegally pirated, probably from countries like the US, Australia, etc that had already released it officially.
- These pirated HT cotton seeds were bred in India and several companies sold them in large scale.
- MMB had written to GEAC and to the concerned ministries and state governments of this illegality way back in 2008.
- The inaction from the government side led to MMB withdrawing its application, recently.
- And now, the large scale of this illegal HT cotton seeds trade has become a major challenge for the government.
What should be done?
- The rising scale of exploiting the illegal avenues for commercialising innovations undermines the regulatory systems.
- Government should thus create an enabling environment to safeguard intellectual property of individuals.
- Private and public companies that develop new products and ideas through their own investment must be encouraged.
- Regulatory bodies need to clear the applications for innovative products (like GM mustard or Bt brinjal) with utmost priority.
- Delaying this process would only give scope for their introduction by pirates.
- Firm IP protection laws and stern action against illegal activities are essential to boost innovations as also to ensure credibility in regulatory institutions.
Quick Facts
Global Innovation Index
- GII is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for and success in innovation.
- It is prepared by Cornell University, INSEAD and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
- It is based on data derived from several sources, including the International Telecommunication Union, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
HT Bt Cotton
- Herbicide Tolerant Bt cotton in an innovation in the Bt cotton.
- It offers the twin advantage of bollworm resistance and herbicide tolerance.
- In comparison, the approved Bt variety (Bollgard I and Bollgard II) is only bollworm-resistant.
- It takes care of the weeds problem at a much lower cost than the labour farmers have to engage for weeding.
GEAC
- The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) functions in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- It operates as per the Rules, 1989, under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
- It is responsible for appraisal of proposals relating to release of genetically engineered (GE) organisms and products into the environment including experimental field trials.
- It applies to large scale use of hazardous microorganisms and recombinants in research and industrial production from the environmental angle.
Source: Financial Express
