New Delhi, October 28 (IANS). Patents have been granted to 26 indigenous knowledge holders of the country. This patent program has been organized by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat.
“This will help in promoting the technology for commercial and social enterprises,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology after granting the patent.
These patents were first granted to the custodians of Herbal Traditional Knowledge at the University of Kashmir. After this, on October 22 also, these herbal patents were given by organizing a felicitation ceremony at the National Innovation Foundation located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Giving information on this topic, officials of the Ministry said, “Local Knowledge Holders are people who have a deep understanding of the local flora through experiences and experiments by exploring within the ecosystem around them. These programs of theirs help in solving the challenges in human health and agriculture in their area. Play an important role in solving this.”
He further added, “With the growing concern over environmental sanitation and antimicrobial resistance, such sustainable practices are very important. Such herbal medicines should be recognized and made scientifically valuable for integration into the health care system.”
The Department of Science and Technology established the National Innovation Foundation, India (NIF) in the year 2000 to protect the indigenous knowledge systems of the country.
NIF has developed a large body of work on Indigenous Knowledge Systems. It has also protected this knowledge through intellectual property (IP) rights.
The ministry said many of these technologies have been given IP protection to create opportunities for societal benefits and scaling up the technologies.
Furthermore, NIF has stressed the need to protect these health traditions with scientific evidence. So that “the connection between informal and formal systems can be enhanced for larger social goals.”
–IANS
PSM/GKT
