Towards a Contractually Created Commons in Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources for Scientific Research and Innovation in India: Scope and Challenges

Abstract

"The unlimited potential of traditional knowledge and genetic resources as a tool for generating invaluable innovations for sustainable global development is beyond doubt today. But the misuse or overuse of proprietary market based solutions in scientific research in this area have resulted in considerable distrust among nations as well as within the scientific research community. An immediate casualty of this growing distrust is hindrance of scientific research and innovations in the area. The current paradigms of intellectual property protection have also failed miserably in generating adequate incentives for research and value addition in vast majority of genetic resources and traditional knowledge with unknown/ low commercial values. The critical challenge faced today by the global scientific research community and the biodiversity/ traditional knowledge rich developing countries is in finding a new and balanced approach for information generation and information sharing that can protect the interests of all stake holders and at the same time enable scientific progress for pursuing an innovations based development paradigm in those countries. This paper analyses the scope and challenges of a contractually created commons in traditional knowledge and genetic resources in India, with the objective for promoting research and innovation in India. This is attempted by analysing three different case studies from India. The first case study used is the model promulgated by the Honeybee Network in India for promoting grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge. The second case study analyses the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) project in India. The third case study examines the Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) project of India. A joint perusal of these three case studies from different areas highlights not only the scope of pursuing a commons based approach, but also some of the challenges involved in the path. While the paper discusses the scope and the challenges in the context of research and innovation in India, the findings and the recommendations from this study will be of significance for most of the traditional knowledge/ biodiversity rich countries in similar stages of development."