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India seeks EU support on IPR

India on Monday sought the European Union support in recognising intellectual property as an important and effective policy instrument relevant to a wide range of socio-economic, technological and political concerns instead of viewing it as a distinct or self-contained domain.

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, minister for human resource development and science and technology, said in Belgium that integrating intellectual property rights into developmental priorities was high on India's agenda and the EU should appreciate New Delhi's stand in the matter.

Addressing the 'European Research Congress 2002', he said the British Government's IPR Commission Report had concluded that higher intellectual property standards should not be thrust on developing countries, without a serious and objective assessment of their impact on development and on poor people.

It also underlined the need for evolving a global IP system so that the needs of developing countries were incorporated and most importantly, it should contribute to reduction of poverty in developing countries by stimulating innovation and technology transfer relevant to them while making available the products of technology at the most competitive prices.

''This being so, it will not be difficult for the European Union to back India's stand on the issue,'' Dr Joshi said. This is the first time that a minister from outside the EU has been specially invited to address the Congress.

''One should understand the limits to technological growth fuelled by consumerism. This requires action at the level of public policies, consciousness creation, community control over resources, ethical regulation and innovative management,'' he said.

Dr Joshi said the world needed change of strategies, a new architecture of governance which is more democratic and decentralised, along with new forms of cooperative action and sustainable consumption practices ingrained into human lifestyles.

This would also require a complete reorientation of research and development strategies as well as production methodologies.

He said that together with Europe, India would be able to make science and technology a powerful means of creating a humane, non-exploitative and sustainable social order.

He pointed out that one of the most dangerous consequences of the dichotomous science, as has been practised so far, was responsible for the disturbance of the delicate relationship between human beings and nature.

''Global warming, water scarcity, deforestation, arable land degradation, desertification, unprecedented concentration of green house gases, are just some of the consequences of the uncritical acceptance of the myth of the social, political and ethical neutrality of science and technology,'' Dr Joshi said adding that India and the EU could together play a pivotal role in warding off many of these consequences.

UNI

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