Lok Sabha Question No. 1767 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-13
Subject: Innovation in Science and Technology
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: GAJANAN CHANDRAKANT KIRTIKAR, VIJAY KUMAR S.R., T. RADHAKRISHNAN, S. RAJENDRAN, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, SUDHEER GUPTA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1767 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13/2/2019

## INNOVATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1767. SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR: SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR: SHRI T. RADHAKRISHNAN: SHRI S. RAJENDRAN: KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH: SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN: SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉ +ÉÉè® |ÉÉètÉÉäÉÊMÉBÉEÉÒ àÉÆjÉÉÒ be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the number of innovations recorded during the last five years, year and field-wise;
- (b) whether the Government has created any structure/organization to nurture innovations at the grassroot level and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  National  Innovation  Foundation  has  recorded  a  large  number  of  innovations  at  the  grassroot  level, touching the lives of the poor in the rural sector and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the National Research Development Corporation is acting as a window for such innovations including the processes  patented  by  laboratories  under  the  Council  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research  (CSIR)  and  if  so,  the  details thereof; and
- (e) the steps being taken/proposed to be taken by the Union Government to scale up innovations in the field of Science and Technology in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES AND MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

(DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

ÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉ +ÉÉè® |ÉÉètÉÉäÉÊMÉBÉEÉÒ àÉÆjÉÉÒ, {Éßl´ÉÉÒ ÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉ àÉÆjÉÉÒ +ÉÉè® {ÉªÉÉÇ´É®hÉ, ´ÉxÉ A´ÉÆ VÉãÉ´ÉÉªÉÖ {ÉÉÊ®´ÉiÉÇxÉ àÉÆjÉÉÒ

(bÉ. c­ÉÇ ´ÉvÉÇxÉ)

- (a) National Innovation Foundation - India (NIF), an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology, Government  of  India,  during  the  last  five  years  and  the  current  year,  recorded  over  1,90,000  ideas,  innovations  and traditional knowledge instances from all parts of the country though all were not unique or novel.

The field-wise information is as follows -

| Title of the field                                       |   No. of ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge instances |
|----------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| General Utilities                                        |                                                           69434 |
| Energy                                                   |                                                           21195 |
| Transport                                                |                                                           16478 |
| Electronics &Communication                               |                                                           24690 |
| Agriculture Engineering                                  |                                                            6628 |
| Environment                                              |                                                           24717 |
| Human Health &Nutraceutical                              |                                                           18200 |
| Veterinary Science                                       |                                                            7200 |
| Agriculture (Plant variety, protection & farm practices) |                                                            1490 |
|                                                          |                                                          190032 |

emanating from various national R&D institutions, Universities and is presently working under the administrative control of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research. NRDC gets the technologies assigned for licensing  from  various  R&D institutes.  During  the  last  5  years  a  total  of   345 technologies were assigned to NRDC.

- (b) Yes  Madam.  The  Department  of  Science  and  Technology  (DST),  Government  of  India  has  set  up  National Innovation Foundation (NIF) - India which is working towards nurturing innovations at the grassroots level.

NIF  scouts,  supports  and  spawns'  grassroots  innovations  developed  by  individuals  and  local  communities  in  any technological field helping in human survival, without any help from formal sector. The grassroots innovators are provided end to end support including in-situ incubation in terms of Value addition to Technology, Mentoring, Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Financial support. It also works towards such innovations diffusing through commercial and/or noncommercial channels, generating material or non-material incentives for innovators and others involved in the value chain.

- (c) Yes Madam.  NIF has recorded a large number of innovations at the grassroots level touching the lives of the poor in the  rural  sector.    NIF  has  pooled  a  database  of  over  310,000  technological  ideas,  innovations  and  traditional  knowledge practices  (not  all  unique  and  distinct)  from  over  608  districts  of  the  country.  In  collaboration  with  various  research  & development (R&D) and academic institutions, agricultural & veterinary universities and others institutions, NIF has helped in getting several hundred grassroots innovation based technologies validated and / or value added.

Amongst these recorded innovations, in the name of innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders, NIF has filed over 1040 patents (including 215 related to Agriculture - Tools, Machines, Herbal formulations), including eight filed in the USA and 28 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications. Of these, 72 patents have been granted in India (including 28 related to Agriculture) and 5 in the USA. In the same time period NIF has filed 21 Design registrations for innovations of the grassroots and student innovators. In addition to this 10 trade mark applications have also been filed.

- (d) NRDC is mandated to commercialise the technologies developed by all the research laboratories and institutes of CSIR  and  other  public  funded  research  institutes.  Accordingly,  theCorporation has, since inception, being transferring technologies to Industry, developed by  CSIR  Labs.  In  order  to  further  strengthen  the  relationship  with  CSIR  and modify certain terms and conditions, the Corporation entered into an agreement (renewed) with CSIR  in  June  2017  for commercialisation  of  the  technologies  / patented  processes developed by CSIR Labs.

The  Corporation  provides  value  addition  and  wide  publicity  to  the  technologies developed so that they can be taken to the industry at the earliest. The Corporation acts as  a  single  window  for   commercialising  and transferring  CSIR processes  to  any entrepreneur  or  industry  interested  in  taking-up  the  commercialisation  of  such technologies.

Some  of  the  major  technologies  developed  by  CSIR  and  Licensed  by  NRDC  are:   Anti-Arthritis Herbal formulation, Cigarette filter (CSIR Patent), 20 & 10 HP Tractor,  Indelible Ink, Solekshaw, Zeolite-A, FRC Manhole Cover, Mini  Cement  Plant,  Ferrocement  Tanks,  Infant  Baby  Food,  Glucose  Biosensor,  Monocrotophos,  Leather  Processing Chemicals, Menthol from Mint Oil, Chlorine Tablets, Re-refining of used Engine Oil, Solar Tree etc.

The number  of  technologies  licensed  by  NRDC  to  various  entrepreneurs  over  the last five years is as follows:

|                                    |   2013-14 |   2014-15 |   2015-16 |   2016-17 |   2017-18 |
|------------------------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Technologies /Innovations Licensed |        19 |        40 |        21 |        36 |        34 |

- (e) Department  of  Science  &  Technology,  in  2016-17,  launched  'National  Initiative  for  Developing  and  Harnessing Innovations' (NIDHI) for nurturing knowledge-based and technology-driven ideas and innovations into successful startups. The  programme  is  in-line  with  the  national  priorities  and  goals  and  its  focus  is  to  build  an  Innovation,  Science  and Technology  driven  entrepreneurial  ecosystem.  NIDHI  aims  to  nurture  innovative  ideas  through  scouting,  supporting  and scaling them up for creation of start-ups and successful ventures.

Through NIF, support to innovators is extended in different areas like prototyping, value addition, diffusion and business development so that the benefits of these can be leveraged upon by the society at large.

The INSPIRE Award - MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) is being executed by Department of Science & Technology and National Innovation Foundation-India to align it with the action plan for "Startup India" initiative. The scheme aims to help build a critical human resource pool for strengthening & expanding science and technology  system  and  increase  the  research  &  development  base  by  inviting  students  from  all  government  and  private schools, throughout the country to share their original & creative technological ideas/innovation.

NRDC is managing a program 'Promotion & Propagation of Inventions and Innovations (PIII)' for supporting and scaling  up  innovations  in  the  field  of  Science  &  Technology  in  the  country.  Major  activities  undertaken  are  awarding innovations, setting up of Innovation Facilitation Centres, Seed funding innovations and setting up of Incubation Centres.

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