COMMERCIALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT FUNDED
RESEARCH FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Shri N.T. Shanmugam,
Minister of State for Food Processing Industries has said that
it is indeed a dire need of the country that appropriate and cost
effective technologies and processes are developed to ensure the
establishment of a network of small and medium scale industries
involved in the production of processed food items. He was speaking
at a function to sign a MOA between his Ministry and National
Research Development Corporation (NRDC). India has to learn lessons
from countries like Italy where a prosperous and thriving food
processing sector has come up only through a network of small
and medium scale industries, for whom all the research institutions
have worked to generate appropriate technologies, processes and
innovative products, he added.
He appreciated the
efforts taken by the Ministry as a first step in this direction
by entering into an MOA. The Minister hoped that with the partnership
between NRDC and Ministry of Food Processing Industries, a wide
network of these institutions who are funded by the Government
of India will be in a position to not only patent their products
but will also be able to gainfully commercialize and utilize the
technologies and products.
The Ministry of Food
Processing Industries and NRDC have signed a Memorandum of Agreement
on July 31, 2003. This Memorandum will enable NRDC to tap all
the funded research of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries
and to commercialize the technologies, processes and products
developed by the assisted institutions. This step will open up
the large scale availability of appropriate and cost effective
technologies to the various small scale and medium scale entrepreneurs
as well as all entrepreneurs intending to start food processing
units.
