India is among the top 10 countries worldwide when it comes to granting patents. This was announced by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, on Friday, March 15.
Highlighting the progress in the country's intellectual property landscape, Goyal said India issued approximately 100,000 patents during fiscal year 2023-24 so far, a jump from 6,000 patents granted in 2014. The country is also receiving patent applications at great speed — in fact one application is filed every six minutes online.
Goyal outlined several key initiatives aimed at further bolstering India's industrial landscape. He unveiled plans to train an estimated 1,600 freshers annually at the Mega Common Facility Centre (CFC) in the Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ), with a focus on enhancing skills in the gems and jewellery sector.
Goyal spoke on a wide variety of topics. He announced a new scheme to promote electric vehicles (EVs) and urged EV manufacturers to consider India as a manufacturing hub. He credited Prime Minister Modi's proactive approach for positioning India ahead of many nations in terms of industrial development.
The minister also lauded the Government e Marketplace (GeM) for ensuring transparency in transactions and preventing corruption in government-related activities, drawing a parallel with past incidents such as those observed during the Commonwealth Games.
"Government e Marketplace (GeM) has been transparent about every transaction and has made sure there is no corruption in any govt related activity like we saw during Commonwealth Games."
"As PM Modi enters his third term, the focus remains on infra projects with (the) coastal road, Atal Setu, Mumbai-Delhi highway (and similar) projects," Goyal added.
Questioned about diverting rice or sugar for ethanol production, he clarified that there are no such plans. The government plans to keep using corn for ethanol production due to its cost-effectiveness and rapid growth cycle, he asserted.
The minister expressed concern over misuse of funds in certain states. Goyal highlighted instances of mismanagement in states like West Bengal and Punjab. He criticised the diversion of wheat meant for beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) to mills instead of reaching the intended recipients, raising an alarm over cases of adulteration of high-quality wheat with inferior substitutes.
