RA Mashelkar to head GRA in 2007

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director General R A Mashelkar announced in October that he would take over as the president of the Global Research Alliance (GRA) in January 2007.

Mashelkar spearheaded the successful challenge to the US patent on the use of turmeric for wound healing and also the patent on Basmati rice. These landmark cases have set up new paradigms in the protection of India's traditional knowledge base, besides leading to the setting up of India's first Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. This work has led to the initiation of the change of the International Patent Classification System to recognize "traditional knowledge."