Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Dec 25, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Dec 25, 2004 |
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IPR Industry & Economy - Alternative Medicines To guard against misappropriation — Govt intensifies efforts to digitise traditional knowledge base Mamuni Das
New Delhi , Dec. 24 THE Government may have left the Patents Amendment Bill hanging, but intensive efforts are on within the country to protect its very own traditional knowledge base from being misappropriated and patented abroad. The National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (Niscair), a body under the Department of Science and Technology, has intensified efforts to convert about 23,000 new Ayurvedic medicine formulations and 77,000 Unani medicine formulations in a digitised format compatible with International Patent Classification. Also under the institute's scanner is the now globally popular Indian exercise-cum-meditation regime - Yoga. "Converting the 23,000 Ayurvedic formulations into a digitised format should be completed by end-2005. The Unani formulations should be digitised by mid-2006. We would also soon start working on the knowledge of Yoga," according to the Niscair Director, Mr V.K Gupta. Niscair has already created a traditional knowledge digital library for 36,000 Ayurvedic medicine formulations. Mr Gupta said that protecting Indian knowledge pool would also involve making the information available in five international languages including English, Spanish, German, French and Japanese. The database would be made available in the public domain. In the past, India had to fight cases in the international arena against misappropriation of its traditional knowledge by fighting patents claims related to medicinal use of haldi and neem. A team of about 60-70 experts have been working on creating the digital library. "Besides experts in field of Ayurveda and Unani medicines, we have also started taking in doctors trained in modern medicine besides groups of patent and IT experts," Mr Gupta added. He said that Niscair has also decided to extend its expertise to help other countries protecting their traditional knowledge. "We are now going to help a few SAARC countries so that misappropriation of their traditional knowledge can be stopped," he added. Many other countries including Singapore, Ghana, Egypt, Algeria and Uganda have expressed their interest in collaborating with Niscair for creating similar databases in their countries.
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