By IANS,
Mumbai: Favouring the mechanism for a university to leverage and sell its own intellectual property so that it can recoup the profits, Union Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal Saturday said academic innovations need to be brought to the market place.
Citing the case of Bayh-Dole Act of the USA which gives ownership rights to universities and facilitates transfer of technologies from public to private sector, Sibal said: “We are in the process of enacting a law on the Bayh-Dole Act of USA that facilitates publicly funded R&D (research and development) institutions in India to licence out their IP (intellectual property).”
Sibal was speaking after he unveiled the inaugural plaque of Indian Institute of Technology’s (IIT) new Victor Menezes Convention Centre (VMCC) here.
“We are establishing national, regional and state level intellectual property technological management facilities to assist our academic institution in valorisation of their outputs,” Sibal said.
Sibal, who is also union communications and IT minister, said India has steadily emerged as a major research, development and innovation centre for the world’s leading telecom and Information Technology (IT) players.
“Despite various constraints being faced like overall poor infrastructure availability and the shortage of high-skilled work force, it is a matter of pride for all of us that more than 600 MNCs (Multinational Corporations) have located their technical centres in India,” he said.
“At this stage, I seek to state that a strong university structure breeds strong innovation and research ability,” he added.
The newly-inaugurated convention centre at IIT will house an auditorium with a capacity of 380, six lecture halls with a capacity for 150 each, 10 lecture halls with a capacity for 75 each, one VIP Lounge, a conference hall, a cafeteria and pantry.
Retired senior vice chairman of Citigroup Victor Menezes, an alumnus of IIT Bombay (BTech ’70 Electrical Engineering), contributed $3 million (Rs.13.5 crore) towards its construction through the IITB Heritage Fund (IITBHF).
“I received priceless education from IIT Bombay and this is a small way to say thank you,” said Menezes, who was also present at the inauguration.