New Delhi, Sep 7 (KNN) A one day National Review Workshop of Intellectual Property Facilitation Centres (IPFCs), set up under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP)-IPR scheme, was organised on Tuesday at the office of Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME-DI).

FISME, having the mandate for setting up 3 IPFCs viz., New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, under the NMCP Scheme-Building Awareness on Intellectual Property Rights for MSMEs participated in the workshop.

The aim was not only to pave a roadmap for future but also to evaluate the physical achievements and assessment of overall progress of the individual IPFCs given the similar mandate.

The workshop was chaired by Shri S. N. Tripathi, Development Commissioner (MSME) and was also attended by Dr. Manisha Shridhar, Regional Advisor, Intellectual Property Rights, Trade and Health, World Health Organisation Regional Office for South-East Asia; Shri Piyush Srivastava, Additional Development Commissioner; Shri R. Saha; Shri Anil Kumar, Sr. Consultant, Office of DC-MSME; Shri O.P. Singh, Deputy Director (IPR) and other officials of IPFCs.

“Presentations by individual IPFCs, followed by question and answers and exchange of suggestions highlighting concerns and impediments for a better way of managing them in future made up a major part of the programme,” said a FISME official.

An assessment of each IPFC was done through the success stories shared, significant works done, revenues generated, number of filings done by each of them.

Major highlights were the importance of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and how they can be leveraged in furthering the aim of IPFCs of reaching out to more and more MSMEs, how to avoid duplicacy of work being done by the IPFCs.

Emphasis was also given on connecting different IPFCs to each other so that there could be information exchange amongst them as well as to know what kind of work is being done by which IPFC. The official of the various IPFCs appreciated the useful insights, tips and guidance shared by the eminent panellists of DC-MSME. (KNN/ Sunila)