Patent Acquisition and Collaborative Research and Technology Development Policy

Introduction

The Government proposes to address the issues of less number of patents and low research share, of the country, in the world by encouraging industries to increase technology depth and value addition so as to manufacture products based on indigenous patents. The Government is already providing excise duty waiver on goods based on patented technology. Government has also promoted the setting up of technology incubators which will enable a large number of entrepreneurs to establish start-ups and take up research and development. The Government is already working towards a target to raise the national R&D expenditure from the current level of around 1% of GDP to 2% of GDP with 50% contribution by industry.

The Patent Acquisition and Collaborative Research and Technology Development Policy, (PACE) Scheme of DSIR, lays down the pre-condition of one and one third times, the loan amount as bank guarantee for loans and not 1:33 times.

The reason behind the pre-condition of furnishing a bank guarantee equivalent to one and one third times the loan amount provided to industries under the Patent Acquisition and Collaborative Research and Technology Development (PACE) Scheme of DSIR is the General Financial Rule 225 of the Government, according to which this is a security against loans provided by the Government.

This stringent condition of furnishing a bank guarantee equivalent to one and one third times the loan amount has not only resulted in lesser number of proposals for consideration of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the PACE scheme, but also withdrawal of many proposals submitted by the applicant industries.

The PACE scheme has been approved based on the General Financial Rules and therefore, the Government is not in a position to relax the policy in the present scheme.

This was stated by Minister of State for Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Y.S. Chowdary in a written reply to a Question in Lok Sabha on 27th July, 2016.

Source

Press Information Bureau , 28 July, 2016