Two pvt cos enter into R & D pact

| 25 October 2000 09:26 IST

In what could be considered a major landmark in industrial development, two private companies have entered into research and development partnership with the state-owned research institutions.

Describing it as a major historical event, Dr Raghunath A Mashelkar, director general of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, said industry could prosper in leaps and bounds if the public-private partnership develops in this direction.

Speaking at the Meet the Press programme organised by the Goa Union of Journalists, the CSIR chief informed the journalists that one such agreement worth Rs eight crore has been signed between Centre for Biotechnology and Nicholas Piramal to work on genomad.

Similarly, another pact has been signed between Centre for Cell Molecular Biology of Hyderabad and Biological Evans to work on gene chips, worth Rs two crore. "It is a major development in last five decades", said Dr Mashelkar proudly.

Replying to the question of how to combat threat of globalisation to the indigenous industry, Dr Mashelkar felt that the Indian industry should learn the game of using science and technology and set standards of its own, so that hi-tech goods are simply not dumped here by others.

"We are traditionally very good at preventive and curative medicines. What we should learn now is to develop predictive medicine", said Dr Mashelkar, who is also the secretary of science and technology of Government of India.

He also stressed upon reversing the existing trend where the government spends almost 80 per cent on R & D while private sector contribution is hardly 20 per cent. He has also proposed incentivisation of it to attract private sector in the field of research.

It is in this background, he said, the two agreements signed by Indian industries with research institutions should be seen as a major historical development when an MNC like the General Electric Company sets up R & D project worth Rs 500,000 crore by employing 1000 PhD scholars in Bangalore.

"We have a great historical base of knowledge and innovation. What remains to be done is the Laxmi recognising importance of Saraswati", said Dr Mashelkar, who keeps on harping that India has a potential to become the knowledge super power in the 21st century.

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