New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was on Thursday awarded the National Intellectual Property (IP) Award 2018 in the category 'Top R&D Institution/Organisation for Patents and Commercialisation', an official statement said.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu gave out the award to CSIR Director General Girish Sahni at a function organised by the Indian Intellectual Property Office and Confederation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (CII) here to celebrate the World IP Day.
CSIR Laboratories have been developing and providing technology focused at the unmet need and the cutting edge knowledge base and human resource on the other for socio-economic development in the country, it said.
"The CSIR S&T domains range from environment to health and drinking water, from food, housing, energy to specialty chemicals and petrochemicals, glass and ceramics to mining, metals and minerals, medicinal plants, leather to machinery, instrumentation and strategic sectors including aerospace.
"It is contributing for the Missions such as Swachh Bharat, Swasth Bharat, Samarth Bharat, Make in India, Innovate for India, Startup India and Skill India," said the statement
The CSIR has been ranked ninth in the world among the 1,207 government institutions, with an overall global ranking of 75 in the world, covering 5,250 institutions, as per the statement.
"Pioneer of India's intellectual property movement, CSIR today is strengthening its patent portfolio to carve out global niches in select technology domains," it said.
Among the other awardees were IAS officer couple Mayur Maheswari and Ritu Maheswari who were presented a special citation award for their patent invention to facilitate communication among various health stakeholders which they later assigned to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry for free utilization.
Ritu Maheswari is currently the District Magistrate of Ghaziabad and Vice Chairperson of Ghaziabad Development Authority while her husband is posted in Delhi.
The Indian Intellectual Property Office confers IP Award on outstanding innovators, organisations and companies in the fields of patents, designs, trademarks and geographical indications on the occasion of World IP Day every year.