The policy aims at incentivising research. 
The proposals approved by the cabinet included a Rs 700 crore outlay for the expansion of the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative in the 11th five year plan period to be managed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
And after long wait, the permission for researchers to have an equity stake in scientific enterprises and spin-offs while still being employed in their organisations.
The Manmohan Singh government also approved the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics at Kalyani in Nadia District of West Bengal with an outlay of Rs 210 crore.
The entrepreneurhip nod for researchers was the most cheered. It means, like their peers in all developed countries, Indian scientists can now enjoy the commercial benefits of their inventions and patents. Scientists in public institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Council of Medical Research, and Indian Institutes of Technology can now set up companies and make commercial use of their research. This, however, does not apply to public institutions with strategic roles such as the Defence Research Development Organisation and space and atomic energy departments.
The idea is to provide incentives to the researchers and spur them into market-friendly innovations. India's science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said scientists could now have spin-off companies with private partners. "They can take part in almost every aspect except management of the company. We are incentivising the knowledge economy," he said.
Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad says the move will help catapult sustainable growth for all scientific organisations with talented workforce. Way before the government approval, his university had forged a tie-up with Intellectual Ventures, co-founded by one of the founders of Microsoft, which scouts for interesting innovations and leads. The company enters into an agreement with the inventors of patentable products and makes milestone-linked payments leading to the award of the patent.
The university allows its faculty to become entrepreneurs without losing jobs. A faculty member can take leave for a few years to go into entrepreneurship. "If they succeed and feel like saying goodbye to the university, they can do so. If they don''t find it exciting, they can come back and join us without losing seniority or position," Hasnain says. UoH was the first university to implement this scheme before CSIR recently recognised its merit.
The scheme will also help retain young researchers in the country, Sibal said.
