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The Centre is focused on reducing the time taken to clear applications filed for patents, from the existing 12-24 months. The domestic filing of patents has been increasing and in 2021, a total of 58,502 patents were filed while 28,391 were cleared, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

“In 2016 when the start-up policy was announced, lots of policies were brought in so that start-ups can get assistance in filing IPs. The number of days it took for patents to be cleared was 72 months in 2016. As of December 2020 which is the last data I have, it has come down to 12 months, in some cases 24 months. We are trying to further bring that down,” Sitharaman said. According to the FM, 14.2 lakh trademark registrations were made between 2016 -2020.

The FM inaugurated the National Centre for Precision Medicine in Cancer, at the IIT Madras, which received Rs 29.73-crore funds from Karkinos Healthcare. The objective of the partnership is to promote the research work of IIT- Madras, in molecular biology, cell biology, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, data science and other interdisciplinary research to develop affordable cancer care solutions. The FM also inaugurated the CAMS IIT-M Fintech Innovation Lab, aimed at establishing a world-class hub of research and applied technologies in financial technology and related applied technologies.

As per IIT Madras, the multi-disciplinary lab would help promote education and research in financial technology and accelerate innovation in addressing industry challenges.