National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) Chairman and Managing Director H. Purushotham on Monday called for awareness on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and elaborated as to how intellectual property protection played a vital role in knowledge economy.
He was speaking at a national workshop on ‘Intellectual property protection and innovation management for competitiveness of academia and industries’ organised by the NRDC in association with School of Law, GITAM (deemed to be university), Department for Protection of Industry and Internal Trade, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, AP Innovation Society (APIS) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
Underlining the importance of respecting intellectual properties, he said any violation was unethical and uncalled for. He said the country had already unveiled National IPR Policy and described how the NRDC had facilitated filing of over 15 patents for GITAM.
He said the educational institutions should collaborate with the industries and research organisations to encourage students to set up startups and become entrepreneurs by showcasing their innovations.
Mr. Purushotham said the Union Budget presented recently had promised a fund of ₹10,000 crore to encourage startups and offer them income tax holiday for three consecutive years in a span of 10 years and create a credit guarantee fund.
With the decision to set up Executive capital in Visakhapatnam the startup ecosystem in the city would get a shot in the arm.
Patent protection
GITAM president M. Sri Bharat said the law in the country should protect the patents and called for creating an environment safer for innovators.
Finding fault with some for choosing short-cut methods to achieve success, he said the education system should always reward innovations and creativity and reiterated the commitment of GITAM to encourage showcasing out-of-the box ideas by the students from Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Bengaluru campuses.
He said to encourage students to pitch their ideas and convert them into commercial ventures they had recently set up a Venture Development Centre at Visakhapatnam campus.
GITAM Vice-Chancellor K. Sivaramakrishna said innovative approach was required for everyone to be successful in a career. NRDC Visakhapatnam unit manager B.K. Sahu explained about their progress on patenting.
Among others, Anita Rao, Director, School of Law, GITAM, Ch. Lavanya, Joint Director, APIS, Subham Istrewal from Cell for IPR Promotion and Management, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, and Sujit Bhatacharya, Chief Scientist, CSIR-NISTADS, spoke.
