Innovation awards highlight spirit of corporate & academic enterprise

Innovation awards highlight spirit of corporate & academic enterprise
Nikhila Gill
Posted online: 2010-11-13 00:43:32+05:30

New DelhiBharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel), Ranbaxy Laboratories, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the National Institute of Immunology (NII) have won the Thomson Reuters India Innovation 2010 Awards, which recognise the spirit of innovation and enterprise in the country. The awards, instituted in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), were given away at a function at The Park in New Delhi on Friday.

While the Hi-tech Corporate award went to BHEL, CSIR won the the Hi-tech Academic award.

Accepting the award in the Pharma Academic category, Avadhesha Surolia, director, NII, said: “The results of this (focus on research to drive innovation) have been striking, with a number of patents, technology transfers, PPPs and consultancies for NII.”

Ramesh Adige, president, Ranbaxy Laboratories, winner of the Pharma Corporate award, said: “It is a recognition of the innovation capabilities of our over 1,200 scientists, who continue to apply themselves to research to bring affordable, high-quality medicines to mankind.” Ranbaxy has patents in active pharmaceutical ingredients, dosage forms, novel drug delivery systems and new drug development research, among others.

Pointing at the two-fold increase in the number of patents in the past five years, Wong Woei Fuh, MD, Thomson Reuters (south and south-east Asia), said: “India is one of Asia’s fastest emerging economies in the global research, life sciences and technology arena.”

Sam Pitroda, Prime Minister’s advisor on public information, infrastructure and innovation was guest of honour at the ceremony attended by several members from the pharmaceutical and technology industries.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII, announced a flagship initiative in partnership with Thomson Reuters. “We have initiated the ‘Industrial Innovation Index’ exercise to measure in-company innovation ecosystem. An innovation benchmark will enable the industry to understand where they stand and what they need to do,” he said.

A thorough methodology via a database of companies headquartered in India, ranked on the basis of the number of patents filed, was created. After this preliminary ranking, the companies were judged on the efficiency and effectiveness of research, the impact of innovation measured by patent citations and their international competitiveness.

The awards, in addition to showcasing the important contributions made by corporates and academia, brings to the forefront the fact that the focus of top Indian companies is becoming global. Companies are beginning to export their technologies, with several top companies filing patents in many different countries. “For example, Ranbaxy has filed in 27 different countries and CSIR has filed in 32 different countries,” said Bob Stembridge of Thomson Reuters.
Courtesy : The Financial Express