6th pay scale is likely to come into force on June 1, 2008 in Goa

Finance Minister of Goa Dayanand Narvekar told TOI, "the government is not in a position to raise the pay scales of the government employees to bring about parity. We have to make provision for the 6th pay commission which is likely to come into force on June 1, 2008."

Goa is facing trouble for Rs 800 crore for sixth pay commission recommended pay scale implementation.

The government has assured to finalise the "parity issue" with the employees association positively by May 25. "Based on their assurance, we have suspended our agitation. Or else, we will strike," Shetkar said.

We are expecting around Rs 100-crore from the mining cess. For the additional amount, government might have to take loans or raise taxes or even divest money from other portfolios, which means cutting down on developmental works."Narvekar said.
see the full report here:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Goa/Financial_time_bomb/articleshow/3044767.cms

Sixth Pay Commission-The Long Wait

Central Govt employees have been waiting patiently for the 6th CPC to submit its report. Now that the report has been submitted, they are in a confusion as to when and how it will be implemented. Armed forces and IPS have objected strongly to the recommendation which they say is favourable for IAS while discriminating other services. Somehow the commission has got the idea that by rewarding few IAS officers the entire govt machinery is going to be revitalised. Far from that, such a move is going to demoralise other officers and lead to more attrition and corruption among those remaining in service. The Govt cannot hope to compete with the private sector in terms of salaries and benefits and considering the fact that the remuneration of Govt employees is going to remain the same for the next decade until the 7th pay commission is implemented, its a very delicate situation. While living standards of those working in the private sector is improving day by day, Govt employees find that they are being pushed into a corner. With such a huge population, our country may not find it difficult to fill up vacant posts in Govt offices, but this would be at the expense of talent, merit and performance.
Now that inflation has reared its ugly head, and Left parties pressurising the Govt on many issues, it would be left with no other option than to placate Govt employees before the next elections. The trend in Karnataka and other states indicate that the Congress is losing ground. Hence it can be expected from the ruling party to implement the 6th CPC in August-September 2008.

Job opportunities in Patents

This is the first of a series on jobs related to Patents in India.

Government Sector:
In India, The Patent Office employs Science and Engineering graduates as Examiners of Patents & Designs who are required to do a thorough patent search to determine whether a patent application fulfills the requirements of novelty,inventive step and industrial applicability and also other conditions laid down by the Indian Patent Act. Salaries offered are the best in the Government sector. But recruitment is rare and a long drawn process.The rate of attrition is also high since candidates with such experience are highly sought after in the private sector with lucrative compensation. Lack of avenues for promotion also contributes to higher levels of attrition. At present candidates with qualification in Biotechnology,Microbiology, Biochemistry,Chemistry and almost all branches of Engineering are selected as Examiners of Patents & Designs after a rigorous selection procedure.

Private Sector:
The counterparts of Examiners are called Patent agents.These people are required to interact with the Patent Office and set right whatever deficiencies exist in a patent application. This highly exacting job requires very high levels of competence in English,and knowledge of a foreign language would be advantageous. A patent agent with a law degree is called a Patent Attorney. Having a law degree would be helpful in prosecuting cases in a Court of Law. To become a patent agent in India, a person has to be registered with the Indian Patent Office. A qualifying examination is conducted twice every year in all four Patent offices( Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Chennai). An Indian citizen above 21 years if age with a degree in Science/Engineering is eligible to appear for the examination. A formal qualification in IPR is not essential although helpful. Thorough understanding of the Indian Patent Act and a strong technical background and indispensable for a patent agent. Skills in drafting patents and getting into the core of the invention are absolutely essential. This can come only with experience and like wine, a patent agent can only get better with age. Salaries are the best and are comparable to those in the IT sector and gets even better for experienced candidates. Many top-notch companies are now setting up their own IPR departments increasing opportunities for experienced candidates. Like all jobs in the corporate jungle, a patent agent should be able to tolerate high levels of stress and meet deadlines which in many cases turn into a do or die situation for them.
Another emerging field related to patents is the KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) industry. Some well known companies in this field are Evalueserve, Intellevate,Patent Metrix, IPPRO,GVK bio (Hyderabad) etc.
There are also many online jobs where foreign patent applications are routed to India to be drafted and prosecuted. Few websites like guru.com offer patent related jobs where one can work from home.

I came across an interesting article bringing out the truth regarding the availability of biotech related jobs in India.
Biotech boom -- but where are the jobs? Rashmi Bansal

Everyone wants to enter a field which is 'hot'. One such field is biotech. You would have read innumerable articles on the scope of bitechnology. The jobs opening up in the sector. And, of course, the poster pin-up company, Biocon.

As a report in The Hindu notes: Career counsellors and those engaged in educational guidance... are flooded with inquiries about biotechnology courses and their scope. Biotechnology today looks like what information technology was in the 1990s.

But are prospects really that bright? Today, an engineer from an average college can easily land an IT job. What about the biotech graduate?

First of all, there is this huge debate over whether biotech should be offered at all the undergrad level. M Radhakrishna Pillai, director of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, told The Hindu: 'Biotechnology cannot exist at the BSc level, where one should learn the basic science. BSc Biotechnology courses have created a confused lot in Kerala, defeating the very purpose of the subject.'

The same holds true of other states. A number of colleges and universities, especially the private and deemed variety, are offering 'BSc Biotech'. Students who were trying for a medical course but failed to get through would rather opt for a biotech course than a regular BSc. At least kisi ko kehne mein tho better lagta hai.

For the colleges also, it's a happy thing. Fees for an undergraduate biotech course are far higher than a BSc. One assumes this is because the college will provide better facilities, more qualified teachers, etc. Sadly, this is generally not the case. In most cases, biotech students actually use the same labs as the students doing microbiology/ life science!

What about PG?

At the post graduate level, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, is the most reputed college and the toughest to get into. The combined entrance exam held by JNU can also get you into 32 other colleges offering biotech at MSc/ MTech level. Benaras Hindu University, Goa University, Anna University (Chennai) and Pune University are some of the next best choices.

Now, this is the case in every profession. Everyone can't get into the best college. However, in biotech, there are certain unique problems.

JNU has a tie-up with DBT (department of biotechnology) which makes it easy for their students to work on live projects during the course of their MSc. Others do not have it so easy. When it comes to industrial training, you may actually have to pay for it.

For example, students of PTU (Punjab Technical University), Indore, who went to IIT Delhi last year for two months training, paid Rs 15,000 (boarding and lodging extra). This money goes towards facilities (eg, kits, labs, equipment, etc) and the students get to work on a live experiment.

There is the option of doing a project with a company also -- some give you a stipend while others don't pay but don't charge you either. However, it is believed that having an IIT Delhi project on your resume will help when you go out for a job, so students don't mind paying. For IIT, this is a way to get some additional funding for projects.

A win-win for both but still, it's a little strange...

And what about the job?

Okay, so now you graduate and start looking for a job. If there is such a 'boom' happening, it must be pretty easy, right?

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Shweta Agrawal, an MSc Biotech, has been looking out for a job for last six months. "I have given 15-20 interviews. The problem is there are very few real 'biotech' jobs," she says. The company may be 'biotech', but the job expected of an MSc is database management -- not experimental.

Rajat Gurutaj, a final year student at BIT Bangalore, adds, "My sister is an MSc Biotech and she did not have a job after graduation for six months. Finally, she went to the UK. According to her, there are absolutely no jobs here in India. My friend is doing BE Biotech from a reputed college in Bangalore -- their course is not much different from BE Chemical and, again, no jobs. He is joining an IT firm after graduation".

Students say it's very hard for a fresher to get a job in QC (quality control) or R & D because most companies have small teams and there isn't much job hopping. What's more, pharmacy graduates are preferred because they can do formulation as well as QC.

A quick look at various job sites would tell you that openings for fresh MSc Biotech are few and far between. BSc Biotech ki to baat hi chhodiye. Actually from the job point of view, even MSc Chemistry may be better for you!

An exception to all the above would be the handful who complete a BTech from IIT (KGP, Delhi, Madras and Bombay) or a Masters in biology from IISc.

"If I don't get a job of my choice soon I will start preparing for MBA," says Shweta. "The fact is, by now, an MBA from even the most unknown university would have got a job for Rs 10,000-15,000 pm," she sighs.

The alternate option of course is to do a Phd -- either in India or abroad. However, even after a PhD, prospects in India remain limited. You would most likely join a government laboratory (that's where much of the challenging work is being done). At age 28, armed with a Phd, you would earn Rs 8,000-10,000 as starting salary.

So if you are planning to do biotech, keep all this in mind before making your decision. Don't be lured by the idea of a boom and the fact that it sounds cool.

Take up biotech only if you have a deep love for the subject and wish to get into research. In order to do this, however, you must be open to doing a PhD.

Otherwise, MBA aapke liye theek rahega. And oh, there is an MBA (biotech) being offered as well...

One last bit of advice. Don't fall for it, go for a more general degree!

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/may/17rashmi.htm

PATIENT WAIT FOR PATENT

American bio-pharmaceutical major Gilead, which has entered into generic licensing deals with 10 Indian companies to distribute its HIV drug Viread, is hoping to get a patent in India soon.
“We have made considerable progress in implementing our access programme and licensed Indian pharmas to manufacture Viread which originally announced a pricing of $1 a day for the pill,” Gregg Alton, senior vice president and general counsel of Gilead Sciences said.
“After much discussion, Gilead now believes that a larger number of manufacturers will intensify competition and drive down prices even further,” said Alton whose team was in Delhi last week.
Now, Gilead’s application for a patent is pending before the Indian Patent office as it believes that it has a right to protect its intellectual property.
Indian pharma major Cipla has filed a pre-grant opposition against the patent application for Viread before the patents office.
But Alton said: “We believe that protecting the intellectual property of companies who engage in drug research and development is a critical part of the treatment access equation. Intellectual property protection, when used responsibly, encourages research and discovery of newer and more effective molecules.
“Gilead respects Cipla’s right to oppose the issuance of a patent for Viread or any drug. But more importantly, we reaffirm our desire to work with Cipla whether or not a patent is issued,” said Alton.
Gilead has signed generic licensing deals with 10 Indian companies to distribute Viread in India and 94 other resource-limited countries.
More than 5.1mn people are believed to be infected with HIV in India, the second highest incidence of the disease after South Africa.
According to Alton, Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) is on its way to becoming the frontrunner drug across Europe for HIV/Aids due to its low toxicity and resistance levels observed in patients.
The tablet-a-day dosage of the drug also helps in better regimen and compliance among the HIV/Aids patients taking it.
Alton also pointed out that he expected generic versions of Gilead’s anti-retrovirals to be available from several of its partners within the next few months.
Asked whether the drug would become unaffordable if Gilead was granted a patent for Viread in India, Alton allayed fears voiced by critics and non-governmental organisations.
“The company plans to use this patent responsibly and has made its intention clear in the act of issuing non-exclusive voluntary licenses to Indian companies,” he said.

A remarkable model for benefit sharing.

The benefit-sharing model is the result of 15 years of effort made by the Kani tribe, scientists in Kerala, and the state government.
The story begins with a wild plant called arogyapacha (scientific name: Trichopus zeylanicus). For many years, when allopathic medicines failed to cure critical liver diseases, the local population in and around Thiruvananthapuram used to get cured with a concoction called malamarunnu (literally, medicine of the mountain) that the Kani elders prepared out of arogyapacha.
"Even though people used to come to our mountains for our malamarunnu, we continued to live in penury as we never charged any money for the treatment. We even treated dozens of patients who could not get their various diseases cured in various medical college hospitals across Kerala," reveals Kuttumathan Kani, a leader of the tribe.
The penurious plight of the Kanis, numbering about 16,000, continued till a team of scientists working on the All-India Coordinated Research Project on Ethnobiology, led by Dr P Pushpangadan, went trekking through the tropical forest hills way back in December 1987.

Says Dr Pushpangadan, "We went were to survey the Kani tribal settlements, but we got exhausted after a long walk. When they saw us tired, some of the Kani tribesmen, who were our guides, offered us fruits of a plant. We ate them and found that we could go on trekking for hours without fatigue." It was the beginning of a remarkable discovery. The tribals said they got the fruits from a magical plant, which the scientists identified as arogyapacha.

Dr Pushpangadan, who then headed the Thiruvananthapuram-based Tropical Botanic Gardens and Research Institute, immediately realised the potential of arogyapacha. "The tribal knowledge of forest plants holds the key to several new discoveries and wonder drugs," he points out. The scientist lost no time in convincing the Kerala government about the importance of joining hands with the tribals.

Soon a team headed by Dr Pushpangadan conducted detailed chemical and pharmacological investigations on arogyapacha. The investigations showed that the leaf of the plant contained various glycolipids and some other non-steroidal compounds with profound adaptogenic and immunity-enhancing properties. Pushpangadan's research institute successfully developed a scientifically validated and standardized herbal drug based on the traditional knowledge of the Kanis.

In 1995, the Tropical Botanic Gardens and Research Institute sold the herbal drug formula to the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, for a licence fee of Rs 1 million to produce the drug for seven years. While transferring the technology for production of the drug to the pharmaceutical firm, TBGRI agreed to share the licence fee and royalty with the tribal community. The licence fee and the 2 per cent royalty on profits from the formulation were to be shared equally by the TBGRI and the Kani tribe.

The herbal medicine that the pharmacy produced clicked in the market as the demand for the arogyapacha-based formulation called Jeevani zoomed. Today the medicine is sold at the rate of Rs 160 for a jar of 75 grams. Officials at the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy reveal that the bulk of their exports to southeast Asian and Western countries consist of Jeevani.

Kani says the prime concern of their community members in the beginning was to evolve a viable mechanism for receiving such funds. "So we formed a registered trust called the Kerala Kani Welfare Trust with the help of the Kerala government and voluntary groups."

Every year, the amount due to the Kani tribals from Jeevani trade is transferred to the trust and the money is used for welfare activities of the Kanis. In between, TBGRI also trained dozens of tribal families to cultivate the plant around their dwellings in the forest. In the first year itself, each family earned about Rs 8,000 per mensem on the sale of leaves from cultivation of arogyapacha.

Sufficiently impressed, the United Nations shortlisted the Kani tribal venture two years ago as a global model for a benefit-sharing experiment. The UN noted that this was the first time a local community was being compensated for imparting the secrets of a rare medicinal plant, which had led to the development of a successful herbal drug.

"It is a remarkable venture in material transfer and benefit sharing from tribals. I do not think a similar project has happened elsewhere in the world," Dr Pushapangadan says.

Jeevani continues to be an effective herbal drug for many common illnesses. It is a general tonic for all kinds of exhaustion, fatigue, feeling of weakness, and mentally stressful situations. The tonic increases fresh energy and vigour in a system worn out because of any constitutional disease or from overexertion.

Hailing the successful experiment, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Director General Raghunath A Mashelkar recently wrote, "India has pioneered one of the first models of benefit sharing."

Yoga, ayurveda being documented to stop patent misuse

Bitten by patent rows over basmati and turmeric, India doesn't want to be caught off guard again by the West, certainly not when it comes to its ancient healing systems of yoga, ayurveda, unani and siddha.

A task force appointed by the government for protecting traditional knowledge and intellectual property is fast completing the documentation of yoga postures and techniques as well as formulae in ayurveda, siddha and unani - all Indian traditional medicinal systems.

The aim is to stop foreign practitioners and individuals, including Indian expatriates, from claiming copyrights.

"Most of the misuse has been done by people of Indian origin living outside India and multinational companies. By the documentation, we hope we would be able to control it largely," V.K. Gupta, head of the task force, told IANS.

"We have identified 1,500 yoga postures and thousands of formulae in Indian medicinal systems from ancient books to document and make it available for the office that grants patents and copyrights to trademark it as our public property."

He said the documentation process - including texts, voice and visuals - would be completed by March 2007.

"Most of the documentation is done," Gupta said, adding that around 100 experts had been working on it for the last three years.

"We have referred to 54 ancient books to research on ayurveda, 35 for unani and 15 for siddha and have documented 50,000 formulae in ayurveda and 24,000 in unani," Gupta said.

He said the task force has created a database of 10 million pages.

Under a Rs. 100-million project, the health and family welfare ministry would be preserving all possible details of yoga postures in a multi-media digital library - Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).

The data will be made available in five international languages, and 11 countries, including the US, Britain, Japan and China, would be able to access it.

The task force has found that at least 150 yoga postures that were developed and practised in India for ages - the system finds mention in Vedic scriptures - have been pirated in the US, Europe and in Japan.

It says yoga is a $30 billion industry in the West.

The task force says the US Patents Office has so far issued 134 patents on yoga accessories, 150 yoga-related copyrights and 2,315 yoga trademarks while Britain has approved at least 10 trademarks relating to yoga training aids.

Bikram Chowdhury, a Los Angelus-based multi-millionaire yoga guru, has popularised "hot yoga" - he reportedly developed 26 postures and two breathing exercises performed in a certain sequence in 105 degree heat - and claimed copyrights over it.

Chowdhury even sent legal notices to studios that practised this form of yoga, but later sought a secret agreement with them before the case went for trial in San Francisco.

In the past decade, a number of "specialists" have also mushroomed in ayurveda, siddha and unani systems who have made a fortune out of it.

Little wonder then that the Indian government's move has pleased many.

"This is a very good move. We should protect the heritage our saints have developed and preserved for the good of human kind," said Nivedita Joshi, daughter of former cabinet minister Murli Manohar Joshi and a yoga instructor.

Joshi, who was all praise for the decision, said: "It could have been done only by the government. No individual could have done it as it's a heavily expensive thing."

"No Indian would appreciate anybody patenting yoga postures as their own. Why should we let one particular person make money of some thing, which has been ours from time immemorial?" Joshi told IANS.

K.M. Gopakumar, a lawyer who is researching patent laws, said: "Once documented and published, it will be in the public domain. The so-called lifestyle gurus cannot claim copyright and allege infringement by others who practise it," said

"The documentation is a mechanism of protecting it from misappropriation also."

India learnt its lessons from past controversies - when a US company was granted a patent on the wound-healing properties of turmeric. Another US firm was granted a basmati patent. India challenged both successfully.