Union Ministry will set up desalination plant

Chennai, Nov 26 (UNI) To alleviate the drinking water problem of the city, the Union Department of Science and Technology will set up a desalination plant with a processing capacity of 10 million litres per day off the coast of Chennai by next year, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said.

Inaugurating the Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences at the Indian Institute of Technology here yesterday, he said another plant off the coast, with a capacity of one million litres per day, would be inaugurated by January 2007. Legislation would be brought in the next session of Parliament to ensure that creators of intellectual properties got a fair share of profit gained from such ventures, he added.

Mr Sibal said under the new legislation, if any publicly-funded R and D project created wealth, 30 per cent of the money would go to those who developed the intellectual property, and another 30 per cent to the project.

''Systems will be put in place to ensure that the creators of intellectual property will inform when the IP will actually be created, so that the process of patenting can start,'' he said.

Mr Sibal said the Planning Commission had been approached seeking increased allocation for science and technology. The department had sought increase in the allocation from Rs 25,000 crore in the 10th plan to Rs 100,000 crore in the 11th Plan.

''Investments in science and technology should be increased many fold as they form the core of a nation's economic development'', he added.

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