36. The sustained growth of our knowledge-based industries will ultimately depend on the quality and extent of scientific and technological progress and training in our society. We must harness our potential in science and technology to realise the dream of modern India envisioned by the Prime Minister in his address to the Indian Science Congress last month. For taking up relevant technology vision projects and for increasing cooperation between our Universities and R&D institutions, I am making an additional provision of Rs.50 crore in the budget of the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council under the Department of Science and Technology. I am also making a provision of Rs.50 crore in the budget of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for launching a New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative. It will focus on areas which fulfil national objectives and will be based on partnership between the Government and private sector.

37. To fully benefit from the new intellectual property rights regime, we need to encourage our scientists and R&D institutions to maximise their patenting efforts. Government have decided to allow Universities and Research Institutions to retain the revenue generated from intellectual property rights through publicly funded research and also share a part of the revenue with the inventor.

38. Modernisation of the Patent Office and the Trade Mark Register is long overdue. Government have sanctioned a modernisation project of Rs.75 crore for the Patent Office and we will strive to remove all impediments for early implementation of this project.