Director General Visits India, Pledges WIPO’s Continued Support to Developing the Country’s Innovation Ecosystem
October 13, 2023
WIPO Director General Daren Tang visited India from October 10 to 13, 2023, where he met with senior Government officials, business and academic representatives as well as other stakeholders from the innovation ecosystem and saw first-hand the vibrancy of the Indian economy.
India is making innovation a strategic national priority. This came across in meetings with all stakeholders, including with innovators as young as 11 years old as well as start-up entrepreneurs seeking to capitalize on the tools of the intellectual property (IP) system to grow their business.
The Director General observed that many of India’s initiatives to promote innovation among its youth as well as its large and vibrant start-up community can be an inspiration to other developing countries.
Indian innovation begins at an early age
Bilateral Meetings
Mr. Tang met with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to discuss the role of innovation in spurring economic, social and cultural growth as well as environmental sustainability. This strong focus on innovation has helped India become one of the fastest movers in WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (GII).
He also met with Minister of State Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Bhanu Pratap Signh Verma to discuss the importance of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) as they form the backbone of the economy, and how WIPO can support India by sharing its knowledge and tools to assist in their IP journey.
In a meeting with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Mr. Tang said that WIPO is looking forward to opening a new chapter of collaboration with India, with the Minister identifying with WIPO’s vision for innovation-driven development and how IP can be a catalyst for growth.
Mr. Tang congratulated the Chairman of the Space Commission Sreedhara Somanath on India becoming the first country to successfully soft-land the Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander on the moon's south pole. WIPO discussed working with Indian partners to establish a global space-tech innovation hub where start-ups, enterprises, researchers and other actors in the space industry can pool their efforts to further develop India’s space innovation capability.
At the Delhi High Court, Mr. Tang met with Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and other justices. They discussed the increase in the Court’s workload with respect to IP-related disputes.
Mr. Tang also had a series of meeting with Unnat P. Pandit, Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks and his colleagues to discuss implementation of a new WIPO-India Action Plan and other matters relating to bilateral cooperation and WIPO’s support to the strengthening of India’s innovation ecosystem.
At CSIR, the National Institute for Science Communication and Policy Research, the Director General visited the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a pioneering initiative of India to protect Indian traditional medicinal knowledge and prevent its misappropriation.
At the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Mr. Tang met with creators and discussed the need to establish balance in the IP system to ensure that it also serves the traditionally underserved, including women, young people, SMEs and indigenous communities.
Agreements Signed
During his visit, Mr. Tang signed several agreements:
- In the presence of Minister Goyal, the WIPO-India Action Plan to deepen strategic ties.
- In the presence of Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Science and Technology, Mr. Tang signed an agreement with the Department of Biotechnology formalizing a collaboration to support four WIPO-funded Fellows to participate in the “Biodesign Program.”
- An agreement to include India’s collection of relevant judicial decisions into the WIPO Lex Judgments database.
- A letter of intent to establish a Joint Masters in IP with the National Law University, New Delhi.
To support SMEs in India, The Director General also launched an India-customized version of WIPO’s IP Diagnostics tool which will be translated into India’s six main languages.
Young Innovators, Start-ups and Industry
Mr. Tang visited one of India’s 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs and met a group of young innovators. The Atal program stimulates a problem-solving, innovative mindset in children as young as 11 years old. It has already reached 8 million children in 35 states in 640 districts across the country.
At meetings organized by Startup India and NITI Aayog the Director General met with representatives from industry - including those from highly valued “unicorn” enterprises – as well as associations, start-ups and incubators for a discussion on the culture for start-ups in India and how IP can support an innovation-driven economy.
India is home to one of the most vibrant start-up ecosystems with some 100,000 start-ups in the country and more than 100 unicorns, making it the 2nd largest startup ecosystem in the world.
The Director General also met with students and faculty at the IIT Delhi to discuss the importance of creating an innovation ecosystem that would support innovators in their journey from ideation to commercialization. He pledged WIPO’s support to these efforts.
National IP Conference “Nurturing Growth of IP for Knowledge Economy"
The Director General delivered a keynote speech 
at the National IP Conference entitled “Nurturing Growth of IP for Knowledge Economy,” noting India’s ascension in the GII rankings, climbing from position 81 to 40 in eight years.
Mr. Tang said IP is a means to an end and needs to be viewed holistically. He said India is drawing on its past while emerging as an IP and innovation powerhouse with vast potential still to tap. He said realizing this potential will be at the heart of WIPO-India cooperation in the years ahead.
