Wall Street Journal's "The Mint" responded to the news that "the
R&D Bill is set to be tabled in Parliament without the official draft
having been released and publicly debated" in a very striking editorial,
reiterating concerns of "secrecy" and lack of sufficient "public
interest" safeguards.
The piece titled Not in Public Interest says:
"It is quite curious. Just a week ago, science and technology minister
Kapil Sibal acknowledged media and experts' concerns and promised to review the
flaws in a proposed new law. Yet, a cryptic official press release on Friday
said the Union cabinet gave its approval to enact that very legislation --the
public-funded R&D Bill, popularly known as the Indian Bayh Dole Act after
its equally controversial US counterpart.
So, the Bill is set to be tabled in Parliament without the official draft
having been released and publicly debated. The sad significance of this stems
from two factors. First, it is all about patenting output of research financed
by public money. Second, it is strictly geared to exclusive licensing for
commercial use of what could be crucial innovations for public health. The
scientist will have no say here. So, CSIR would not have the power to repeat
past decisions such as not patenting an antimalarial compound that could make a
low-priced drug available. As we've argued before, this Bill needs to encourage
open source and non-exclusive licensing, too. Yes, minister?"
