Bangalore: Principal Scientific Advisor to government of India, R Chidambaram, on June 13 called for policy changes to ensure that new and innovative products in the knowledge-based industries were "accepted" without delay and was not subjected to long periods of "trying out".

He noted in Bangalore that presently in India, if a person or industry came out with a new and innovative product, the question asked was whether it had been tried out for two years.

The eminent scientist found this method ridiculous and virtually impractical in future, especially in knowledge-based industries in which, he said, "India is definitely going to come out with new and innovative products, working as it is in the cutting edge of technology."

In this context, he said policy changes were needed to ensure that "first time" products were put into the system without delay, and suggested third party validation of the product.

He was addressing a seminar on "Riding High in the Next Global Wave of Knowledge Industry: A Strategic Vision of the Indian Technology Industry" and later spoke to reporters.

He expressed the view that multinational companies were establishing R & D centres in India, driven by their own technology imperatives, and emphasised that India's R & D centres should be driven by India's technology imperatives.

Expressing the opinion that consumption of power was an important factor to measure human development, he said, India's per capita electricity consumption should go up by eight times before the country became a fully developed nation.

PTI