GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 227
TO BE ANSWERED ON 24.11.2005

AUTONOMY TO SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS

227. SHRI K. RAMA MOHANA RAO:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

(a) whether it is a fact that Government have decided to grant more autonomy to scientific institutions in the country for providing better opportunities to the scientific community to pursue their R&D;
(b) what are the measures Government are taking to codify the intellectual property rights to enable scientists to exercise more claims on their products; and
(c) whether giving deemed university status to CSIR would promote inter-disciplinary studies and research works ?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE DEPARTMENT OF OCEAN DEVELOPMENT.
(SHRI KAPIL SIBAL)

(a) The need to grant more autonomy to scientific institutions has been discussed at various for a and it has been felt that scientific institutions require more autonomy in the country for providing better opportunities to the scientific community to pursue their R&D.

(b) The Government has set up specialized cells/centre/units in its different departments and agencies, which provide technical, financial, and legal help to scientists for protecting their inventive works in India and other countries. Intellectual property rights, so generated, are maintained by these cells/centre/units. The ownership of such patents resides with the concerned institutions and scientists' names appear as inventers in the patent documents.

(c) The deemed university status would give impetus to CSIR to produce specialized scientific human resource in selected frontier areas and to undertake scientific industrial research as a career. Such an opportunity to work on the frontier and inter-disciplinary areas is likely to attract the best of the young minds.