To keep pace with rapid global manufacturing prowess, India needs to adopt an integrated approach to additive manufacturing in all segments including defence and public sectors, especially within the nation?s small, medium and large-scale industries. The National Strategy on Additive manufacturing (AM) will aim to create a conducive ecosystem for design, development and deployment, and to overcome technical and economic barriers for Global AM leaders to set up their operations with supporting ancillaries in India, facilitating development of the domestic market and enhancement of global market share.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has got the green signal to roll out the ambitious Artificial Intelligence (AI) mission, resolving a long-standing issue of which arm of the administration would implement the prestigious project. The AI Mission is a five-year programme announced in the Budget two years ago. For the last couple of years, India has been harbouring big ambitions to develop its own AI roadmap and strategy to counter the lead that China already has in this area.

"With an aim to qualitatively improve the ease of doing business of the IT industry particularly business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT-enabled services, the government has drastically simplified the other service provider (OSP) guidelines of the department of telecom. The new guidelines reduce the compliance burden of the BPO industry. It is clarified that the registration requirement for OSPs has been done away with altogether and the BPO industry engaged in data related work have been taken out of the ambit of OSP regulations.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, launched the “India Climate Change Knowledge Portal”. The Portal will be a “single point Information resource” which provides information on the different climate initiatives taken by various Line Ministries enabling users to access updated status on these initiatives. The portal captures sector-wise adaptation and mitigation actions that are being taken by the various line Ministries in one place including updated information on their implementation. The knowledge portal will help in disseminating knowledge among citizens about all the major steps Government is taking at both national and international levels to address climate change issues. 

India is one of the top three choices for overseas investments in the next two-three years, said a survey conducted by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and EY to assess India’s competitiveness in terms of certain parameters and give constructive suggestions to policymakers. The survey said that new investments will be driven by capacity expansion, digital transformation, research and development and greenfield investments. According to the respondents, market potential, skilled workforce and political stability are the top reasons to make India their favoured destination.

BIS is in the process of setting standards for services provided by e-commerce companies and aggregators like Flipkart, Ola, AirBnB among others. BIS, has been in discussion with various stakeholders to lay out standards for several issues ranging from standardisation of invoices and websites. It also plans to come out with certification for secure websites in order to curb the menace of fly by night operators in the digital commerce industry. The certification will help consumers in identifying the reliable ones," said an official who did not want to be identified.

DPIIT India which is also responsible for formulation and implementation of IPR policies has recently published its annual report for the year 2019/2020. Chapter 5 of the annual report provides description of recent activities of the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM) carried out in 2019/2020 including:

• implementation of new amendments in Patent Rules

• number of patents granted under the expedited examination procedure

• number of applications received by CGPDTM in the capacity of ISA and IPEA 

Govt., in exercise of the powers conferred upon it under Section 159 of the Patents Act, 1970 has passed the Patents (Amendment) Rules of 2020 (“The Rules”) on October 19, 2020. The Rules modify Form 27 of the Act through which statements regarding the working of patented invention on a commercial scale in India have to be filed by Patentees or Licensees. According to the amendment to Rule 131(2), the statement regarding the workings of the Patent have to be filed once in every financial year, within six months from the expiry of such financial year, due to which the due date for filing the same would be September 31st of every financial year.

Should India achieve its 2030 electric vehicle ambition and targets, it would present a market opportunity worth nearly $206 billion in the course of this decade, says an independent study released by the CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF). The study also estimates a cumulative investment need of over $180 billion in vehicle production and charging infrastructure until 2030 to meet India’s EV ambition. While India is yet to officially spell out its electrification targets for 2030, the aspiration as stipulated by NITI Aayog-government’s primary think tank, states that 70% of all commercial cars, 30% of private cars, 40 % of buses, and 80% of two-wheeler (2W) and three-wheeler (3W) sales would be electric by the end of this new decade.