Shoolini University Aims to top in Filing Patents, contender for India’s Finest Educators

Himachal-based Shoolini University, which now figures among the top five universities in the country to file patents, has resolved to encourage research and be the number one among all institutions in the country in the field of patents. The university conducted a two-day workshop on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Research and Development (R&D) to discuss the ways to achieve its target to be among the top 200 global universities of the world by 2022.

The faculty and students of Shoolini University have so far filed 270 patents and set the target to file 300 patents by the end of March. Filing patents involves preliminary investigations by authorised agencies into the exclusivity and viability of the patents filed.

Talking to the media here, Vice Chancellor Prof PK Khosla said, “The university was already on the right track as it has an ‘H’ index of 44 in terms of citation. He said the two-day workshop, which was attended by top luminaries from across the country, discussed about how to raise the standards of research in the next three years.”

The Chief Guest and Guest of Honour for the opening day was Dr. A Mukhopadhyay from Department of Science and Technology, Delhi and Mr. D C Rana, Member Secretary, HIMCOSTE. Mr Shashi Dharan, Incharge, HP Patent Information Center, HIMCOSTE conducted a talk on the topic overview of IPR with special reference to Geographical Indications. Another workshop on Prior Art Search and Patent Drafting by Mr. Somitra Kumar, Advocate and Patent Attorney, Delhi, was conducted.

Prof Khosla said, “In order to increase the number of granted patents, we should identify 10 patents for examination and for these the codal formalities need to be done on priority basis.”

He also said, “That to enhance the visibility and perception in global and national ranking, we should strengthen the commercialisation part. Earlier the Welcome Address was delivered by Dr. Reena V Saini, IPR Cell Coordinator, Shoolini University.”

The second session focused on the research, development and other parameters vis-a-vis the plan to reach global standards in the next three years. Dr. RS Paroda, Former DG of ICAR; Dr. RC Mahajan, Emeritus Prof., PGI, Chandigarh; Dr. A Mukhopadhyay, department of science and technology, Delhi; and Dr. Suman Bala Beri of Panjab University were the chairpersons of the event.

This session was based on the comparison between NIRF rankings and the international rankings and why the Times Higher Education Ranking System suits Shooloni. Also, the detailed methodologies of all the three ranking systems were discussed. The chairperson for the session was Dr. RC Mahajan and the co-chairperson was Dr. Anuradha Sourirajan.

A major highlight of this session was the three major points that need to be kept in mind for the next three years i.e., perception, research and income of industry.

The workshop resolved to focus on research publications in SCOPUS listed journals with high impact factors. It set the target of 800 publications in the next three years so as to become eligible to compete for Times Higher Education (THE) rankings and to put focus on research with foreign collaborations, among a host of other resolutions.

Later a panel discussion was carried by Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Atul Khosla followed by the action plan for Shoolini on five parameters i.e. teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income. Dr. Saurabh Kulshreshta, Dean Research and Development, Shoolini University, presented a vote of thanks.