India's innovation centres to promote tech

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India will set up cluster innovation centres (CICs) on a public private partnership basis to promote innovation in science and technology, officials said Wednesday.

An agreement to jointly promote CICs was also signed between the National Innovation Council and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

"The CICs would be based on a public private partnership (PPP) model and would act as hubs for connecting various local and national stakeholders," the ministry said.

The CSIR with its 37 laboratories, three units, 39 extension centres and its over 4,500 scientists will provide human capital and know-how input to CICs. The aim of the innovation council and the CSIR partnership would be to identify local clusters across industries to drive innovation.

In the first phase, pilot clusters would be identified to create model CICs.