Director General, ICAR inaugurates Virtual Workshop-cum-Training Programme On “Intellectual Property Rights in Agricultural Research and Education in India”

12^th September 2020

A 14-day virtual workshop-cum-training on “Intellectual property rights in Agricultural Research and Education in India”, organized by Education division and IP&TM Unit of ICAR under the umbrella of National Higher Agricultural Education Programme, was inaugurated today. The first session was on “Importance of IPR in Science and Technology: A Global perspective”.

Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR), in his inaugural address, said that the aim of the  workshop is  to provide a complete overview and knowledge on generation, protection and management of IPR in agriculture to the participants, who happen to be scientists and faculty of ICAR and Agricultural Universities.

The day’s lead speaker, Dr Pushpendra Rai,  an expert in International Intellectual Property (IP), talked about the recent Global Innovation Index 2020 wherein India is at 48th position after climbing up from 52nd position in 2019 and 81st in the year 2015. The consistent improvement in ranking establishes that India is emerging as one of the leading innovation achievers of 2019 in the Central and Southern Asian region.

Dr Rai appreciated that ICAR has realised the importance and has accorded highest priority for developing institutional capabilities and human skills in the IP management area so as to catch up with the national and global IPR regimes. He also emphasised that IP dose not mean only patenting and keeping it on shelves through renewal. 

He urged to look into other forms of intellectual properties, like copy rights, trademarks, trade secrets etc.  Strengthening of IPR cells would pave the way for establishing innovations led start-up ecosystem, he added. He said patent provides only a part monopoly and also not exclusive and does not impinge on innovation but only free riding

Earlier, Dr RC Agrawal, Deputy Director General (Education) and National Director (NHAEP,) in his welcome address briefed about the programme. He said to make participation more inclusive, the programme was designed for one hour a day for fourteen working days till 28^th of September 2020. 

Deputy Directors General and Senior Official of ICAR participated in the programme.

The programme was attended by more than 250 registered participants. 

Dr Sanjeev Saxena, ADG (IP&TM Unit), ICAR proposed vote of thanks.

(Source: Agricultural Education Division, ICAR)