India to set up tech acquisition fund

India is planning to establish a fund that will specialize in acquiring technologies that have been developed and can be commercialized for public good, a report says. This is aimed at helping Indian scientists save on resources, and one sector that will benefit from this initiative is the local agricultural industry.

In a report over the weekend,the Times of India said the fund would be one-of-its-kind, and would likely be set up by 2013. According to Remu Swarup, advisor to the department of biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology, the fund would buy technologies either nationally or globally.

"These would be technologies for public good," he said.

"Wherever there is technology which is already available, having affordable product development, we do not really need to reinvent the wheel. [We will] bring in those technologies and these would be then bought by the government and made available to a consortium of industries."

The official argued Indian scientists would not have to spend their energy developing the same technologies, which were already available. "Then our researchers [can] build on that particular technology for our own requirement," he noted.

He added that the details of the fund were still being worked out, and only after then would the fund size be determined.