Finance Minister P Chidambaram asks NABARD to help innovators get patents.

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked NABARD to help innovators in getting patent of their products and also help them replicate their ideas for benefit of masses.

"NABARD must help those who have invented patentable articles ... its important to establish Intellectual Property Rights over what you do," Chidambaram said.

He was speaking at the NABARD Award for Rural Innovations here.

The Finance Minister also asked the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to help the inventors to replicate and scale up their ideas so that many more people could benefit from them.

"What is the use of invention or innovation which cannot be scaled up," he said, adding the message must go that innovation will be recognised and rewarded.

The Finance Minister also said that he would be speaking to Information and Broadcasting Minister and the Secretary concerned for broadcasting of such innovative ideas on state-owned Doordarshan and Gyandarshan channels.

Later talking to reporters, he said that the rural India has many problems which require many different kinds of solutions.

"These solutions cannot be found in a laboratory, or in Ministry or in a Department. These solutions have to come from people who work in rural India... many many problems in rural India can be solved by using simple, cost effective and relevant solutions," Chidambaram added.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com