New Delhi: To help grow the research and development (R&D) sector in the country, India Inc has recommended bringing private companies under the ambit of government funding in a ‘limited manner’, while also proposing policy reforms to treat IP (intellectual property) as acceptable collateral for loans from banks.
“Technology has become the bedrock of all economic activity today. And if India is to become a developed country by its 100th year of Independence in 2047, technology will have to be a major pillar in this journey,” the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said in a presentation to the Ministry of Finance, ahead of the Union Budget 2023-24.
The industry body has recommended that the government consider forming a joint advisory council with members from the industry and the Department of Science & Technology (DST). According to the proposal, this advisory council should serve as a platform where industry and government can discuss and deliberate on increasing the national investment in R&D from the present level of 0.7 per cent to 4 per cent of GDP by 2047, with an interim goal of 2.5 per cent by 2030.
It has also suggested that to “promote industrial research and development and facilitate industry-academia and industry-government R&D which may be IPR-driven, it may be prudent to bring private companies under the umbrella of government funding in a limited manner”.
For this, the industry body has sought to revisit the General Financial Rules (GFRs), especially Rule 233, for funding government-sponsored R&D projects.
The GFRs are a compilation of rules and orders of the Government of India to be followed by all while dealing with matters involving public finances, and Rule 233 deals with the sponsorship of projects or schemes by ministries or any other government department.
“This will establish a process by which licensing of IPR and technology transfer to industry, based on research results obtained under government-funded projects and/or by various government agencies such as ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) etc., are encouraged, facilitated, and easily implemented,” it said in the presentation, adding that GFR may include a provision for the government to fund industry R&D projects directly.
It also sought implementation of a proposal in the Budget 2022-23 that envisioned opening up defence R&D to industry, startups and academia with 25 per cent of the government’s defence R&D budget earmarked for private industry & startups.
The industry body has proposed creating a Task Force which brings stakeholders such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), banks, industry and chartered accountants, on a single platform to review policy gaps to enable IP to be treated as acceptable collateral for loans from banks.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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