Is “Biological Diversity Act” creating obstacle to the research of Indian Scientists?

Multinational Companies, backed by the powerful nations, are regularly stealing the traditional knowledge of India for their financial gain. India is not getting any legitimate compensation from those Companies. The first world countries are granting patents on traditional medicines of India are causing a great concern to the Indian Government.  According to the WTO regulations, it may be mentioned as bio piracy. Some examples of bio piracy are granting patents of turmeric, neem and basamati rice by European and American states. However, Government of India has revoked the patent of some Indian items through their appeals in the courts of various countries. The revocation of all the patents based on the traditional knowledge is not the feasible solution of the problem. Therefore, India Government felt the need of creating a database of non patent traditional knowledge.

India created its “Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)” in 2001. After creation of the “TKDL”, a controversial issue has come into the limelight. The scientists of the Government Organizations such as “Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)”, “Defense Research & Development Organization” are complaining that their research papers are either rejected or pending on the grounds of their findings contained in “TKDL”. The main reason of it is the Section 6 of draconian “Biological Diversity Act” and lack of innovative ideas among the “Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)” scientists who control “TKDL”.

We hope that the Government of India will relax some of the clauses of “Biological Diversity Act”, so that our scientists can get their patents in a fair way.