Mentored by Prof. A Damodaran, Anitha Botta and Jyothi Ganiger, from the PGPEM Class of 2016, are working on ways to safeguard innovators’ ideas, open up new revenue streams, create job opportunities and contribute to economic growth.
17 April 2017, Bengaluru: Two students from IIM Bangalore’s Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) Class of 2016, Anitha Botta and Jyothi Ganiger, have begun a project with the Government of Andhra Pradesh in the area of IPR in order to further strengthen the existing Innovation and Start-up policy in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
As part of their course at IIM Bangalore, Anitha and Jyothi had made a detailed study of the existing AP Innovation & Start-up Policy 2014-2020. They then made a proposal to the Andhra Pradesh government, expressing their interest to work on the identified gaps in the existing policy such as connecting the existing AP Innovation & Start-up Policy to an IPR system, addressing funding of start-ups and entrepreneurs in particular at seed and early stages, and a roadmap for innovation.
Anitha and Jyothi went on to have a meeting with P. Pradyumna, IAS (2004), Joint Secretary to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and K. Vijayanand, IAS, Joint Secretary for Information & Technology Electronics & Communication, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, where they explained why it was necessary to address the identified gaps and how it could help the State and the innovation ecosystem.
They have now got cracking on a 4-month project on connecting the existing AP Innovation & Start-up Policy 2014-2020 with a new IPR framework, under the guidance of Professor A Damodaran, IPR Chair on IP Management (MHRD) at IIMB and faculty in the Economics & Social Sciences area.
“We were interested in Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights. We were aware that the Government of Andhra Pradesh is aggressive in promoting start-ups and innovation,” said Jyothi.
Anitha further explained, “We made a study of the current AP Innovation and Start-up Policy 2014-2020, and identified that Intellectual Property Rights were not being addressed fully. IPR not only safeguards innovators’ ideas, but also opens up new revenue streams, creates job opportunities and contributes to economic growth. National IPR policy alone will not suffice and it is important to have a solid IPR framework as part of every state innovation and start-up policy.”
Jyothi and Anitha submitted a proposal to include an IPR framework to the existing AP Innovation & Start-up Policy 2014-2020 that could enhance the destination advantage of AP state and support MSMEs to innovate and develop their IPs through the process of commercialization. “The proposal was appreciated, accepted and we are now working on the project. Our final report should be ready in four months,” added Anitha.
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