Govt. committed to promote partnerships in R&D: Reddy

Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jaipal Reddy on Thursday expressed his concern about connection between our knowledge and industrial application systems and said that the government

is committed to promote partnerships between industry and academia in research and development.

Launching the Prime Minister's Fellowship Scheme for Doctoral Research here Reddy said: "There are huge emerging opportunities that are waiting to be tapped and converted into value for the country by bridging the disconnects between the knowledge and wealth creation sector."

"Some concerns have been expressed at various levels that the connections between our knowledge and industrial application systems are weak. There are some pessimists who worry about such problems. The present doctoral fellowship is indeed working in the area of national gap and is targeted to bridge those disconnects," Reddy said.

"Our knowledge institutions like IISc, IITs, IISERs and Universities are creating intellectual properties in the form of papers in peer valued scientific journals, but the challenge is in the conversion of such knowledge into products of commercial value to the industrial users. While our public funded R and D (Research and Development) systems are busy publishing papers, the industries are searching for technologies for commercialization," added Reddy.

The Prime Minister's Fellowship Scheme for Doctoral Research offers opportunities with incentives for students registered for doctoral research starting the year 2012 in any of knowledge institutions as well as R and D personnel employed in industrial sector but registered into doctoral research programmes in cutting edge areas of importance.

The minister informed that a Sub-Committee of Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry was constituted for promoting Public-Private-Partnership in Research and Development and Clean Energy.

Reddy expressed his hope that the private sector will also invest more and more into research and innovations and partner our research institutions in solving national problems through accessible, available and affordable innovations.

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Only 100 SMSes a day : TRAI New Rule

To stop the menace of pesky messages, telecom regulator Trai on Monday said only 100 SMSes in a day per SIM card will be allowed at concessional rates.

For every SMS beyond the cap of 100 SMSes, a charge of minimum 50 paise will be applicable, the regulator said.
Subscribers have been facing the menace of receiving unsolicited promotional SMSes from unregistered tele-marketers who often take the advantage of concessional SMS offers by
telecom operators.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had last week said he too was a victim of the unsolicited communications. "Every two minutes I get such SMS," he had said.
Trai is taking up the issue of pesky calls and SMSes, he had added.
"To prevent unregistered telemarketers from misusing such SMS packs or tariff plans for sending bulk promotional SMS, a price restraint has been placed on sending of more than 100 SMSes per day per SIM at a concessional rate," Trai Principal Advisor (CA & IR) N Parameswaran told reporters here.

While the subscriber is free to send SMSes beyond this number, all such SMSes sent beyond 100 SMS per day per SIM shall be charged at a tariff of minimum 50 paise, he added.
"The changes effected by the regulations and the order have to be implemented within fifteen days," he said, adding that these measures are initial steps and more will follow.

Operators have also been asked to put in place a solution within three months, which will ensure that no commercial SMS are sent having same or similar characters from any source number.
"The solution will ensure that not more than 200 SMS with such similar 'signature' are sent in an hour," he said. However, registered telemarketers, transactional message sending entities and telephone numbers exempted by Trai are excluded from this provision, Parameswaran added.

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