Speaking at the National Conference on Cyber Space Security at Bangalore today, Dr K.D.Nayak, DS & DG, DRDO highlighted the importance of “Make in India” concept from the point of view of the need to protect IPR. He recalled that the manufacturing cost of an Apple i-Phone which costs around US$ 650 in the retail market is only around US $ 200 and attributed the differential profit earned by Apple to the IPR developed by Apple. He therefore urged that while for security reasons we do recommend “Make in India” in cyber space, the benefit of IPR should also be taken into account and we should focus on “Design and Make in India” rather than only “Make in India”.
We fully endorse this view and wish that this is taken note by the policy makers in Delhi.
While it is interesting to note the collateral benefit of the IPR as evident in the Apple i-Phone case, it also indicates the darker side of the IPR law which is assisting in the exploitation of the consumer. The Apple’s profit of over 100% on its manufacturing cost should be considered as a “Usurious Profit” which is anti consumer.
IPR particularly the “Patent” is the main cause of increasing the cost of services despite increased use of IT in business.
We have seen this in the Banking segment in particular as well as in the E Governance sector where IT sneaked in as a means of economic and efficient delivery of services but over time increased the cost of services.
Now when we speak of security as well as cyber law compliance, many in the industry would only focus on the cost and load it on the consumers.
As the Government pursues the concept of “Digital India” and we the cyber security specialists pursue the need for security, we need to ensure that services donot become too expensive over a period of time creating an unrest in the society.
I would urge the Government to therefore keep an eye on how foreign companies manufacturing in India would load
their research expenses in the form of IPR. At the same time we need to increase the investment in Research several folds to ensure that a fair share of future IPR is held by Indian citizens.
I also urge the Government to ensure that the FDI policy in general should also include a clause that whatever is discovered/designed in India ultimately creates IPR value for the country.
Naavi
