India's performance in technological innovations have been far and between. But this hasn't stopped a group of dedicated scientists and technocrats, who have been following their dreams to add up to the list of new innovators. It was to acknowledge their achievements that a two-day conference-cum-award ceremony was organised in New Delhi from October 13-14, 2008.
Titled 'Leveraging Innovations & Inventions: Enhancing Competitiveness', the conference was organised by National Research Development Corporation and supported by Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India. The conference discussed in detail the emerging technologies and R&D Management practices.
Giving a contemporary touch to the recent financial meltdown, Dr Yogeswara Rao of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said that R&D is the first casualty in times of liquidity crisis. He called for greater public-private partnership (PPP) to boost new inventions. He added that R&D being more risk-prone, expensive and time-consuming, has to be handled with scientific verifications.
Highlighting the role of R&D, he said that knowledge can be linked to innovation and innovation to wealth creation and GDP growth. Dr Rao further informed that CSIR, with a total budget of Rs 500 crore during the last couple of years, had 350 partners – 270 from public sector and 80 from private sector. The organisation receives about 1000 ideas for various projects out of which only 14 gets to the final league. Giving a brief idea about the gestation period of a project he said, "It takes 12 years and an investment of $1.2 billion for a drug company to move a molecule into the market place."
Dr DV Singh of Roorkee University, while outlining the role of public-private partnership in Govt policy said that the issue never figured out in Govt's Science and Technology statement as late as 1981. It was only in the policy statement of 2003 that the govt stressed the need of R&D in Agriculture, Health and Infrastructure. He said that India has more than 300 R&D institutions where 1000 of compounds are synthesised annually. India has also become a vaccine hub for major pharmaceutical companies. "Given these facts, India should be recognised as a high-skilled-manpower country rather than backstage of R&D," he said.
Dr Singh stated that unlike the developed nations, India receives most of its R&D funds from the government and there is a huge playing field for private players. "India which has 13 process patent in drug and pharmaceutical should graduate fast from process to patent products," Dr Singh said.
K Ramanathan, Head, United Nations ESCAP - APCTT, spoke in length about Design Engineering and its impact on improving competitiveness. He said that firms compete on the basis of customer value creation and the customer value is a function of quality, delivery, flexibility, convenience and cost. Ramanathan held that design engineering is an important element of technological capability portfolio of a firm and should include design engineering, design for manufacturability, design for maintenance, etc.
The fourth session of the conference discussed the issues of financing innovation in micro, small and medium enterprises. Speaking on the occasion, Saurabh Srivatva, president TiE, said that there was a need to create a frame work to encourage the flow of capitals from institutions, corporate, and other high networks in the business.
Speaking on the transfer of technology, Dr. Sathiyavaty, CEO Central Silk Board, Bengaluru, said that India is the largest consumer of silk in the world but not the largest producer. The world produces 153,000 metric tones of silk out of which 130,000 metric tones are produced in China. India produces only 20,000 metric tones of silk and rest of it is produced by Thailand, Brazil and other countries.
The conference also announced its Meritorious Invention Awards which included Societal Innovation Awards 2008 given to Dr Satya Nand Sushil, Dr Govindan Selvakumar, Dr Muthugounder Mohan, Dr Jagdish Chandra Bhatt and Dr Hari Shankar Gupta of ICAR for developing eco-friendly novel technology for managing white grubs in North West Himalayas.
The Budding Innovators Award 2008 was given to Rahul Katyal and Mandeep Singh Sethi, the BBT students of MM Institute of Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation, Ambala for developing Charismatic chair for rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy. Sudip Nag of IIT Mumbai was awarded for the Design & Development of Silicon Locket for WEB Enabled Cardiac Diagnosis.
Dr Vagnish Shrinet and Dr Mukesh K Shah of Electrical Research and Development Association, Baroda have been jointly awarded WIPO Gold Medal for the Best Invention for design and development of 'Fault Current Limiter' for LT Switchgear and Appliances. The Best Woman Inventor for 2007 was given to Dr Mookandi Kanthimathi of Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar for her invention 'A high performance Polymeric Syntan for Eco-benign Chrome Tanning'.
