Will ‘Creative India, Innovative India' Remain A Slogan?

India’s recently released national IPR policy has spurred fresh sparring between various lobbies.As international pressure to fall in line mounts, will ‘Creative India, Innovative India’ remain a slogan?

- Viveka Roychowdhury

A few minutes into his speech to the US Congress on June 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a tongue in cheek dig at his host. He pointed out that India had not yet claimed intellectual property rights (IPRs) on yoga, even though yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US, with “more more Americans bending for yoga than to throw a curve ball.”

PM Modi’s quip may have been in a lighter vein, but no one missed the potent message. His address was less than a month after the approval and release of India’s national IPR policy on May 12 . Under the slogan, ‘Creative India; Innovative India’, the 29-page document seeks to be ‘an all-encompassing IPR Policy (that) will promote a holistic and conducive ecosystem to catalyse the full potential of intellectual property for India's economic growth and socio-cultural development, while protecting public interest. The rationale for the National IPR Policy lies in the need to create awareness about the importance of IPRs as a marketable financial asset and economic tool.’

The timing of the release made it very obvious that it was an attempt to ensure that PM Modi could show progress on this thorny issue. Reactions from representatives of various US lobbies have been cautiously optimistic but they are clearly waiting for India to walk the talk and follow through.