UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 145 of 150

Correct — D, Both 1 and 2. Both statements are lifted almost word for word from the Government's own announcement of the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy, which the Union Cabinet approved on 12 May 2016, so neither can be argued down. On statement 1, the official release says in terms: 'It reiterates India's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement.' That sentence exists because the policy had to answer a specific international anxiety — that India's patent regime, and Section 3(d) of the Patents Act in particular, was drifting away from its WTO obligations. The policy's answer was to affirm compliance with TRIPS while retaining the flexibilities the Doha Declaration expressly preserved for public health. On statement 2, the same release says: 'The action by different Ministries/Departments shall be monitored by DIPP which shall be the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation and future development of IPRs in India.' That is precisely the nodal-agency role statement 2 asserts. One honest qualification for the serious student, which does not change the answer: the policy's own verb is 'coordinate, guide and oversee', not 'regulate', and IPR administration in India remains distributed — patents, designs, trade marks and geographical indications sit with the Controller General under DIPP, while semiconductor layout designs and plant varieties are administered elsewhere. The examiner treats 'nodal agency' and this coordinating role as the same thing, and so did UPSC when it set this identical pair of statements in Prelims 2017. Both statements stand, so the code is (d). One present-day note: DIPP was renamed the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in January 2019, so a paper written today would name DPIIT — the department and its nodal role are unchanged.

• (a)Only 2 — Rejects statement 1, but statement 1 is the policy's own sentence. The 2016 policy document explicitly reiterates India's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS Agreement; far from omitting them, reassuring India's trading partners on exactly this point was one of the reasons the policy was written.
• (b)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, and both are drawn from the official text. It is the option a candidate reaches for on the vague sense that India resists TRIPS and that IPR administration is scattered across ministries. Neither instinct survives the document: the policy affirms TRIPS and the Doha Development Agenda, and it names DIPP as the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation.
• (c)Only 1 — Accepts the TRIPS and Doha sentence but denies the nodal-agency role, and that is the half most candidates get wrong. The policy expressly places monitoring of action by all Ministries and Departments with DIPP, which it names the nodal department for IPRs in India. Copyright administration was itself moved to DIPP in 2016 under this policy, consolidating rather than splitting the coordinating role.

The National Intellectual Property Rights Policy, approved by the Union Cabinet on 12 May 2016 under the slogan 'Creative India; Innovative India', is India's first consolidated IPR policy. It sets seven objectives: IPR awareness through outreach and promotion; generation of IPRs; a strong legal and legislative framework balancing rights owners against the larger public interest; modernised, service-oriented IPR administration and management; commercialisation of IPRs; stronger enforcement and adjudication against infringement; and human capital development for teaching, training, research and skill-building in IPRs. It designates the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion — since January 2019 the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, DPIIT — as the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation, monitoring the action of every other Ministry and Department. It also reiterates India's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS Agreement.

This is a document-recall question, and the safest way to answer it is to remember what the policy was for. India joined the WTO in 1995 and became bound by TRIPS; it amended the Patents Act in stages to comply, most importantly in 2005 when product patents returned to pharmaceuticals, and it wrote Section 3(d) to bar the patenting of new forms of known substances that do not enhance efficacy. That provision, upheld by the Supreme Court in the Novartis case in 2013, made India a target of sustained trade pressure. The 2016 policy was the Government's formal reply: yes to TRIPS, yes to the Doha Development Agenda and the flexibilities it preserved, and a single department in charge so that the reply spoke with one voice. Once you know that, both statements read as obviously true rather than as things to be guessed. Note also that UPSC set these two statements verbatim in Prelims 2017 and marked both correct; UPPSC has reused the item almost unchanged, which is a reminder that recycled UPSC stems are a real and profitable part of State PCS preparation.

• The National IPR Policy was approved by the Union Cabinet on 12 May 2016, under the slogan 'Creative India; Innovative India'.
• The Government's own release states: 'It reiterates India's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement.'
• The same release states that action by different Ministries and Departments 'shall be monitored by DIPP which shall be the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation and future development of IPRs in India'.
• The policy has seven objectives: IPR awareness and promotion; generation of IPRs; legal and legislative framework; administration and management; commercialisation of IPRs; enforcement and adjudication; and human capital development.
• DIPP was renamed the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in January 2019; the department sits under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and its nodal role for IPRs is unchanged.
• The identical two statements were set by UPSC in Prelims 2017, where both were also marked correct.

• Assuming India refuses or resists TRIPS. India is a TRIPS-compliant WTO member; what it defends is the use of flexibilities the agreement and the Doha Declaration themselves allow.
• Reading 'nodal agency for regulating' too literally and rejecting statement 2. The policy's word is 'coordinate, guide and oversee', but in exam usage that is the nodal role — and both UPSC and UPPSC have marked the statement correct.
• Confusing the Doha Development Agenda (the WTO round launched at Doha in 2001) with the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health adopted at the same Ministerial. They are related but not the same document.

Both UPSC and UPPSC ask policy documents as a two-statement code in which one statement quotes the document and the other names the nodal ministry or department. Prepare every scheme and policy as document plus year plus nodal ministry, and this whole family of questions becomes mechanical.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which department is the nodal department for coordinating and overseeing the implementation of the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy in India?

  • (a)Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
  • (b)Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
  • (c)Ministry of Science and Technology
  • (d)NITI Aayog

  Answer(b) Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade — named DIPP when the policy was approved on 12 May 2016 and renamed DPIIT in January 2019; it functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Consider the following statements about the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy: 1. It was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2016. 2. Its slogan is 'Creative India; Innovative India'. 3. It lays down seven objectives, including enforcement and adjudication. Which of the statements given above are correct?

  • (a)1 and 2 only
  • (b)2 and 3 only
  • (c)1 and 3 only
  • (d)1, 2 and 3

  Answer(d) 1, 2 and 3 — the Cabinet approved the policy on 12 May 2016 under the slogan 'Creative India; Innovative India', and it sets out seven objectives, of which enforcement and adjudication is the sixth.