Tura, Aug 11: The department of management at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) organised an International Seminar on Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights : Evidence from the Developing Economy in partnership with the District Administration of West Garo Hills, Meghalaya, in association with the department of management studies at NIT Silchar.
Rakkam A. Sangma, Hon’ble Education Minister, Government of Meghalaya who graced the event as the Chief Guest stressed on the value of indigenous and traditional knowledge in the lives of tribal communities during the opening session. He also commended the Department of Management for emphasising indigenous knowledge and its protection.
While speaking at the event, Vice-Chancellor, NEHU, Shillong, Prabha Shankar Shukla focused on how each tribe or group made the world more aware of the depth of knowledge it possessed. He also emphasised on the need of protection of traditional knowledge through the intervention of intellectual property rights.
Meanwhile, Jagdish Chelani, Deputy Commissioner, WGH, Meghalaya praised the Department for hosting such a seminar and talked on the need to recognise and value indigenous knowledge systems for holistic development.
The event was attended by the Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills, Jagdish Chelani, the Education Minister, Rakkam A. Sangma, the Vice-Chancellor of Nehu, Shillong professor P. S. Shukla, a special invitee, Ramesh Paudel, a Member of the Planning Commission, the Government of Nepal, and other delegates from different parts of India.
In this seminar, they talked about the importance of documenting and protecting the various indigenous knowledge and intellectual property available in the tribal regions of the Northeast and other parts of India and why it should be brought to the limelight, giving examples of how it was exploited in the past.
The seminar is also about how changing the landscape of intellectual property regimes necessitates developing a framework for defensive and positive protection of ingenious knowledge.
It is expected that the seminar will add value to the existing body of knowledge in the gamut of indigenous knowledge and its protection. More than a hundred papers were submitted from all over India, including Bangladesh, Nepal, and Switzerland.
The two-day event will end on August 12, 2023.
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