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FOREWORD
September
2004
Dear
Sirs/Friend,
Sub:
Patentmatics.com –
September 2004 Issue.
While delivering the inaugural
address at the JRD Tata centenary celebration on Tuesday, the Prime
Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh said, "As a student of economics in the
1950s and later as a practitioner in Government, I was greatly
impressed by the Bombay Plan of 1944. In the conceptualisation of
this document, JRD played an exceedingly important role, along with
GD Birla, Purushottamdas Thakurdas, Ardeshir Dalal and John Mathai,"
he said. "When we read it today, nearly 60 years later, we see how
relevant many of the central propositions of the Bombay Plan remain.
In those days it was an unprecedented document. It is worthy of
emphasis that nowhere in the developing world has a group of
businessmen come together to draw up such a long-term plan for a
country." "The plan defined the framework for India's transition
from agrarian feudalism to industrial capitalism, but capitalism
that is humane, that invests in the welfare and skills of the
working people," Dr Singh said. "We have come a long way since the
days of the Bombay Plan. Many of the `prerequisites' of
industrialisation and modernisation have been put in place. However,
in order to realise our full growth potential, we need to pay much
more attention to the expansion and modernisation of our social and
economic infrastructure, to increase investment in education and
health and to the creation of capability that make us globally
competitive." It is equally important to remember that it was the
founder father J N Tata who had said that modern India could be
built only on the three edifices of development - electricity, steel
and Industrial Science – and accordingly went on to establish the
hydroelectric power station at Khopoli, TISCO at Jamshedpur and an
advanced education-cum-research centre which eventually took the
shape of the IISC at Bangalore. TIFR established by late Homi Bhabha
under the financial patronage of late JRD has often been described
as the "craddle" of our nuclear program, with DAE itself eventually
becoming roll model for ISRO, DRDO, and so on in organising suitable
techno-administrative structures equipped for managing their ‘big
science’ projects. The Tata group itself has effectively utilized
the favourable aspects of the New Economic Regime during past
decade. TISCO supported by its large R&D centre at site is steadily
emerging as the cheapest producer of molten steel with capacity
approaching towards five million tons and lately transforming into
an Asian MNC with operations elsewhere as well. TELCO alone for the
first time in Indian history gave birth to the first state-of-art
passenger car through in-house R&D and has again extended its
activities to countries such as Korea.. TCS, again with perhaps also
the largest in-house R&D centre in the field, has emerged as the
largest IT major. While participating in an interactive session at
TRDDC on "Challenges of the New IPR Regime" a couple of years ago, I
was delighted to see the commitment of the staff to move towards
excelling themselves also in the IPR field.Undoubtedly no other
industrial family has contributed so much in nation building as the
house of Tatas. Patentmatics also joins the nation in paying its
handsome tribute to the great hero, late JRD Tata.
Amazingly coincident with the
Independence Month of August, the nation has witnessed four major
scientific-technological successes – the Main Battle Tank MBT of
DRDO, the SARAS of CSIR and Agni II of DRDO belonging to the
so-called ‘high tech’ sector and Genetically Modified groundnut and
pigeon pea (arhar or tur) varieties, resistant to Indian Peanut
Clump Virus (PCV) and bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) infestations
of India-centred ICRISAT, as briefly described below:
(a)THE indigenously designed and
built, main battle tank (MBT) `Arjun' rolled out of the Heavy
Amazingly. Vehicle Factory at Avadi on Saturday. This marks a
milestone in India's self-reliance in defence equipment, according
to officials. The Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, formally
handed over five Arjuns to the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. N.C. Vij.
The Minister said that the government cannot go it alone in this
endeavour; there is a need for public-private partnerships with the
involvement of scientists, technologists and the industry. The
private sector has to take an active role in defence projects.
Industry can complement the limited resources available to the
Government and discharge its responsibility to the nation, he said.
Gen. Vij said that the five MBTs would now be put through their
paces, and once cleared, the HVF at Avadi would get further orders.
"It is a dream come true. If a couple of regiments could be equipped
with Arjun, then it would be great," he said. An MBT, in defence
parlance, is distinguished by its heavy armour and armament. The
58-tonne Arjun is clad in newly developed lightweight composite
Kanchan armour, and its primary armament is a 120-mm rifled gun. The
fire control systems are computer controlled and the tank is capable
of operating at night too. It is also equipped with 7.62-mm machine
gun and a 12.7-mm anti-aircraft machine gun. The army has placed
orders for about 120 more MBT Arjuns. This, coupled with the
completion of the 100th successful test flight of the LCA
Tejas and the Prithwi versions and the dare devil Brahmo jointly
developed with Russia, has certainly taken DRDO a long way in
augmenting the indigenous capabilities in defence R&D.
(b)The first prototype of the
country's civilian aircraft, Saras, made its inaugural flight
successfully here this morning. The flight lasting about 20 minutes
was witnessed by Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil
Sibal and HAL Chairman N R Mohanty. The aircraft was flown by
Squadron Leader K K Venugopal and Wing Commander Makkar. The
inaugural flight was expected last month but was put off following a
minor technical glitch during a test flight. The 6,100 kg 14-seater,
multi-role aircraft, has been designed and developed by the
Bangalore-based National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) of CSIR and
built by Hindusthan Aeronautics Ltd along with the Aeronautical
Development Agency. Saras is capable of flying up to a maximum speed
of 550 Km/per hour at a cruise altitude of 7,500 feet and is
designed to take off and land on short semi-prepared runways for
building air bridges between small towns through an extensive
feeder-airline operation.. About 500 hours of flight-testing is
planned for obtaining certification from the Directorate General of
Civil Aviation. Saras could be used for multi-roles for civilian
transport, air medical services, executive transport and
surveillance.
(c)The third successful launch of
Agni II, a two-stage solid propellant missile with a range of
2000-25000kms and with ability to carry conventional and nuclear
warheads, has once again demonstrated the nation’s ability to have
her own independent ‘minimum deterant’missile program.
(d)
THE International Crops Research Institute for
the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) has developed genetically-modified
(GM) groundnut and pigeon pea (arhar or tur) varieties, resistant to
Indian Peanut Clump Virus (PCV) and bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera)
infestations, respectively. Addressing presspersons here on
Wednesday, the ICRISAT Director-General, Dr William D. Dar, said the
IPCV-resistant transgenic groundnut had already undergone on-station
trials at Icrisat's fields in Patancheru, near Hyderabad, during the
kharif 2002 and 2003 seasons.
"We have sought the Government's
approval for conducting open trails in farmers' fields during the
2005 kharif season," he said. IPCV is a common disease of groundnut,
transmitted by a seed-borne fungus. Although the disease does not
kill the plant, the infected plants do not produce marketable pods.
IPCV is said to be difficult to control because it can survive in
the soil for several years. Conventional breeding efforts for
conferring resistance have not succeeded because suitable resistant
groundnut genotypes have not been found even after screening of over
10,000 germplasm accessions. Icrisat claims that the transgenic
approach, necessitated by the failure of conventional breeding,
involved genetically transforming groundnut with resistance genes
introduced from the virus itself. The process involved Icrisat first
undertaking gene sequencing and cloning in collaboration with the
UK-based Scottish Crops Research Institute (SCRI). Subsequently, the
`coat protein' and `replicase' genes of ICPV were transferred into
economically important groundnut cultivars, yielding over 50
transgenic lines that were then subjected to extensive molecular
characterisation for the desired gene integration and expression. Dr
Dar said the GM pigeon pea would be subjected to on-station trials
in the current as well next kharif season and would be ready for
farmers' fields trials only in 2006. This crop would incorporate the
Bacillus thuringiensis (bt) gene, which has been used in the case of
cotton for conferring `in-built' resistance against the dreaded
Helicoverpea or Heliothis insect pest.
While these successes need to be
highly appreciated, we also must beware of potential setbacks for
the continuation of such programs from the threats of the New IPR
Regime insisting on a "Patent or Perish" philosophy. Even a casual
survey of USPTO, to take one example, describes over 150 patents
under the keyword "Battle Tank" during 1977-date. In other words, it
should be taken on record that all the above major items are
invariably IPR protected through large patent portfolios by the
competitor agencies in advanced countries. Such threats can be
squarely met by all agencies including CSIR and DRDO only if they
also resort to matching IPR Management and protection measures on
top priority under the rapidly emergant TRIPS dictated situation.
It is in this context that one gets
anxious at Industry and Commerce Minister Shri Kamal Nath’s recent
announcement that he will soon be completing the task of fulfilling
the TRIPS dictated Agenda in time by presenting the pending Patents
Bill also to the houses of parliament for approval and subsequent
enactment very soon, this bill for replacing the EMR provisions for
drugs and agrichemicals with grant of product patents in line with
the WTO/TRIPS dictated conditionalities. It is taken for granted
that there is NOT going to be any review of the earlier Amendments
at this stage. In line with the continued Campaign for Affordable
Medicines, the August Issue has published three articles dealing
with (a) Specific points in support of the PIL in Supreme Court
against the Glivec EMR Case (b) Need for a true National Drug Policy
for even the Generics and (c) a ‘global’ view of the Indian drug
industry.
The Planning Commission has proposed
to establish the NMCC (National Manufacturing Competitiveness
Council) as an apex mechanism in the commission to evolve the
national manufacturing policy. The NMCC would include
representatives from the ministry of finance, department of
industrial policy and promotion, department of commerce, Planning
Commission, ministry of external affairs, Council for Scientific and
Industrial Researh (CSIR), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (Ficci) and the Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO). According to a paper prepared by the industry
division of the Planning Commission, the terms of reference of the
NMCC would include evolving policies and conditions which encourage
competitive, sustainable and efficient indigenous creation of value
through manufacturing sector. It would identify technology missions
critical to manufacturing sector like nano-technology, consider
global benchmarking initiatives, explore sectoral complementarity of
India and China and evolve a time-bound road map on achieving world
class standards. The NMCC would also try to integrate industry
concerns in the export-import and fiscal policies.The share of the
manufacturing sector in the gross domestic product in India is 17
per cent compared to 33 per cent in China, 29 per cent in Korea, 25
per cent Brazil and 27 per cent Thailand.Share of manufacturing
export in total exports has also gone down to 0.76 per cent in 2003
compared to 0.8 per cent in 2002, according to a WTO report.
Recognising the importance of pushing
the manufacturing sector for growth of GDP as well as exports, the
Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government had originally
proposed the setting up of the NMCC to provide a continuing forum
for policy dialogue to energise and sustain the growth of industry
like food processing, textiles and garmets, engineering, consumer
goods, pharmaceuticals, capital goods, leather and hardware. The
proposal, as formally announced, has drawn very severe comments from
the leading daily, Financial Express thus: "The NMCC, it would seem,
does not believe in running a lean, mean ship but in the philosophy
of ‘the more the merrier’. The same disregard for practicality
extends to the terms of reference of the NMCC as well. Consider. The
terms of reference include evolving policies and conditions that
encourage competitive, sustainable and efficient indigenous creation
of value through manufacturing. The NMCC would identify technology
missions critical to the manufacturing sector like nano-technology,
consider global benchmarking initiatives, explore sectoral
complimentarity of India and China and evolve a time-bound road map
for achieving world standards! Phew! That’s a tall order by any
standards. A lesser body might be daunted by the prospect. But the
members of the NMCC will, presumably, be made of sterner stuff.
Which is why, perhaps, the Planning Commission has not told the FM
what it should have in the first place: that there is no need for a
council that will, willy-nilly, metamorphose into a bureaucratic
monolith with IAS officers jockeying for top slot. To ensure
competitiveness, lower tariffs, open up all sectors (but for a small
negative list) to FDI , tackle procedural hassles, and set up a
Competition Commission to check misuse of market dominance. The rest
will automatically follow."
Undoubtedly the "manufacturing
competitiveness" element of Total Factor Productivity is not a
subject which can be ignored any further, though one is not sure
whether FE’s prescription of leaving it just to the market will
quite suffice under the prevailing Indian situation. August issue is
publishing two articles on this subject (a) A detailed study on the
continuing improvement in innovation and TFP of the Finnish Industry
through focussed industrial R&D under the slogan "Market gives the
Pull, Technology gives the Push" (b) A New threat for Indian
industrial R&D through the steady increase in PCT patents in India
from abroad in virtually all sectors, perhaps steadily leading the
national sector to even a Technology Trap, though outwardly the
policies relating to transfer of technology have been liberalised in
India with removal of restrictions on royalty or technical fee
payments and removal of restrictive clauses in technology transfer
agreement and easier procedures and these steps have increased
A few glimpses on IPR Issues and
technology developments abroad on a few examples of Advanced
Systems, Phonics, Artificial Retina and a new steel. The review of
Taiwanese Photonics Industry is very rewarding, since reportedly DST
has recently earmarked a sizeable R&D grant for promoting research
work in this field. It is necessary to beware that large number of
patents are already granted in this emerging area and Indian R&D
must be obviously subject to systematic IPR Audit if the project
envisages also "R&D of possible industrial use". Similarly a recent
article in Technology Review on "Artificial Retina: A Demo" reports
that "In the mid-1980s, neuroophthalmologist Joseph Rizzo III was
researching retinal transplants to restore blind people’s vision.
One day, removing a lab animal’s retina, a tissue-thin membrane that
lines the back of the eyeball’s interior, he had an epiphany. "The
moment I made the cut, I said to myself, ‘What in the hell are you
doing?’" Rizzo recounts. He realized he was cutting nerve
connections that are actually spared in many forms of blindness. The
retina’s light-sensing cells die off in retinitis pigmentosa and
age-related macular degeneration, which affect millions worldwide;
but the nearby neurons that ferry the signals from those cells to
the brain remain intact. So Rizzo conceived of a retinal
prosthesis—an implant that would take a wireless signal from a video
camera, bypass the light receptors, and stimulate the healthy nerve
cells directly to feed the image to the brain. Rizzo, working at the
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Boston VA Medical
Center, teamed up with MIT electrical engineer John Wyatt Jr. to
pursue the scheme. In 1988, they launched the Boston Retinal Implant
Project, which today comprises 27 researchers at eight institutions.
The team has already done short-term human tests and hopes to test a
permanent prosthesis by 2006". Importantly enough USPTO has already
granted a number of patents on artificial retina! Also, as per
Technology Review, Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory
and the University of Tennessee have found a way to cast relatively
large structures from a type of steel whose atomic structure is
amorphous, like glass, rather than the usual orderly crystalline
structure of metal.Amorphous metal alloys are generally stronger and
harder than their crystalline cousins; they enable light sports
equipment and strong medical implants. Amorphous metals are also not
magnetic.Current amorphous alloys are relatively expensive because
they are made from metals like zirconium and palladium. The new
steel alloy is around seven times cheaper than these, and is also
stronger and has higher resistance to corrosion and heat, according
to the researchers.The trick to making structures from amorphous
metal is keeping the metal atoms from arranging themselves into an
orderly crystalline form as it turns from liquid to solid. Past
research efforts ran into trouble when casting amorphous steel
objects more than 4 millimeters across.The researchers used a mix of
metals that allows them to drop-cast their alloy to produce glassy
steel rods as large as 12 millimeters. Steel is a mix of iron and
carbon and often contains small amounts of other elements. The
researchers' iron alloy contains chromium, manganese, molybdenum,
carbon, boron and yttrium. Key to the researchers' mix is the rare
earth metal yttrium, which allowed the mix to remain molten at lower
temperatures, and slowed the growth of crystals.The new materials
can be used for practical applications within one to two years,
according to the researchers. The work appeared in the June 18, 2004
with issue of Physical Review Letters. When will India have
her first alloy, we can and we must.
Last, but not the least, among the
various items announced by the Union Commerce Minister, the
government has also "liberalised import of seeds, bulbs, tubers and
planting material, while freeing export of plant portions,
derivatives and extracts with a view to promoting export of
medicinal plants and herbal products". As far as I am able to
understand (I do not propose to deal with other issues since I am
not conversant with them), this clause can have very serious
futuristic consequences specifically arising from the TRIPS dictated
New IPR Regime. Almost all new seeds/bulbs/tubers/planting
materials, etc are IPR protected in advanced countries and perhaps
they have also started extending the protection to our country
through approved mechanisms. Since Agriculture Ministry is yet to
publish details readily for others' use, we are kept totally dark,
though we know for sure that the Act is already in force for IPR
protection of plant varieities in India. In other words, under the
liberalised regime, IP protected seeds etc will start competing with
our varieties and if ICAR and national R&D systems does not
effectively compete with them, the farmers will easily opt for the
former slowly and steadily and then at some stage become victims of
the foreigner dictated seed market. Similarly, we still have not
learnt to IP protect our medicinal/ornamental plants, etc. as
required by the international scenario. Under such a situation, if
export of such items are made liberal, our biodiversity will become
'world property' in no time. If we go forward on this ‘badly and
madly’, we will TRIP again on TRIPS. This issue will be discussed in
greater detail along with the much-trumpetted and so-called WTO
"July Package" and issues connected with the NAMA.
Please keep writing to make
patentmatics more ‘user friendly and user useful’.
Sincerely yours,
A D Damodaran. |
