Thomson Reuters and Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) recognise India's most innovative academic institutions and Enterprises

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, announced the winners of the Thomson Reuters Innovation Award 2010 in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The award recognises the most innovative academic institutions and commercial enterprises headquartered in India for their spirit of innovation in R&D as it relates to all aspects of patent publications in India.

The Guest-of-Honour at the awards ceremony held in New Delhi was Mr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations. The ceremony was attended by more than 200 guests comprising researchers, academics, scientists and heads of pharmaceutical and technology companies, intellectual property (IP) analysts and searchers, and patent examiners.

Four awards were presented across four different industrial sectors: Pharma Corporate, Pharma Academic, Hi-Tech Corporate and Hi-Tech Academic. The following award recipients were recognised for their distinguished achievements through patented technology as recorded in data from Thomson Innovation®, the premier IP research and analysis solution from Thomson Reuters.

Hi-Tech Corporate: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited

Pharma Corporate: Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited

Hi-Tech Academic: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

Pharma Academic: National Institute of Immunology (NII)

Said Prof. Avadhesha Surolia, Director, National Institute of Immunology (Pharma Academic category winner), “I hold a firm belief that creativity is one of the most cherished human qualities, blending of which with knowledge, societal needs and scientific rigour can provide innovative solutions to the problems faced by mankind. Therefore in early 2006, upon assuming the leadership of NII, I declared that excellence in research should be harnessed to drive innovations for solving major human health problems, the results of which have been striking with a number of patents, technology transfers, public private partnerships, and consultancies for NII. Thomson Reuters has been a trusted source of scientific information and innovative tools to scientists, students, and industry and research administrators. The Innovation Award initiative by Thomson Reuters will motivate researchers to develop technologies of relevance to India all of which require innovative solutions.”

Said Mr. Wong Woei Fuh, Managing Director of South and Southeast Asia at Thomson Reuters, “We are very pleased to recognise India’s collective achievements in innovation.  India is one of Asia’s largest emerging economies in the global research, life sciences and technology arena, and continues to make great strides toward a conducive environment for creativity and business innovation, as well as in the areas of literature publication and patent filing.”

Said Mr. Anjan Das Senior Director, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), “CII is happy to partner with Thomson Reuters and co-organise the Innovation Awards 2010 in India. As one of the apex bodies representing industries in India, CII aims to foster an innovation culture amongst its members and society with the objective of building a sustainable innovation ecosystem in the country. We are also active members of the National Innovation Council formed recently by the Honorable Prime Minister of India and chaired by Mr. Sam Pitroda. In line with the CII theme of “Business for Livelihood” for this year, innovation and entrepreneurship have been identified as one of the key enablers for sustainable and inclusive economic growth. With the help of Thomson Reuters, which has a strong presence in healthcare and IP management, we feel our joint initiatives will help provide industry recognition and encouragement to our finest innovators from all over India.”

The four Award recipients were selected using Thomson Innovation. All enterprises headquartered in India are included for consideration for the Thomson Reuters Innovation Award 2010. In previous years, potential award winners were selected from small and medium-sized enterprises headquartered in India. Since 2007, Thomson Reuters has been presenting the Thomson Reuters Innovation Award to recognise innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

The Award recipients are decided by analysing their innovation through patented technology as recorded in Thomson Reuters patent information services. Criteria for the Award include the number and impact of patents, the efficiency and effectiveness of research, and the impact of innovation as measured by patent citations.  International scope is another factor used to assess the inventiveness of an organisation by providing a measure of its international competitiveness.

The importance of intellectual property as a major source for economic and technological development in India is demonstrated by the increasing creativity and impact of Indian research and technology throughout the world. The last five years have seen more than double the patenting activity with an increase from 17,466 applications in 2005 to almost 37,000 applications in 2009 at an average CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of nearly 25 percent.

To foster this increase, the Indian Patent Office joined the patent offices of USA, Japan, South Korea, China and the European Union in offering online filing for trademark and patent applications.  The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) dominates the ranking table of the Top 10 patent assignees for all Indian inventions with over 3,600 inventions from 1975 to date.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of industry in India, partnering industry and government alike through advisory and consultative processes. CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry led and industry managed organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process. Founded over 115 years ago, it is India's premier business association, with a direct membership of over 8,100 organisations from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 90,000 companies from around 400 national and regional sectoral associations.

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.  We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization.  With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs 55,000 people and operates in over 100 countries.