Now, a swadeshi look at AIDS, courtesy Dr Joshi

"AIDS must have a Western origin. It is the arrival of some Western economic aid which brought AIDS to India," Joshi told the large gathering of scientists.

Centuries ago, the Portuguese had brought "syphillis", a sexually transmitted disease to India, Joshi averred. But with the ingenuity of traditional Indian medicine, Ayurveda had found a cure for the disease.The point the Minister was labouring to make was that for every "phoren import", traditional Indian science and systems of medicine had successfully founda remedy.

Scientists should have a first-hand knowledge of Sanskrit so that they could delve deeply into traditional Indian texts on medicine. "Today Sanskrit is taboo," Joshi said, adding that knowledge of Sanskrit would open up a rich fund of knowledge for the scientific community.

The government would be giving greater emphasis to the study of Sanskrit at the school-level, Joshi later told journalists.

The occasion for the Minister’s speech was the NII’s transfer of indigenous technology to two biotechnology firms for the commercial production of diagnostic tests to detect the presence of HIV-1 and HIV-2 virus.

The technology transfer, supported by the Department of Biotechnology, is expected to result in the production of locally-made ELISA test kits for detecting the disease.

"This is the transfer of a swadeshi discovery to a swadeshi industry, a theme which I have been propagating for many years," Joshi said. Departing from the written text of his speech a number of times, Joshihit out at what he termed "western" attempts to create disparities between nations and within nations resulting in a highly iniquitous social and economic order.

Referring to the World Trade Organisation and the BJP’s opposition to the trade body, Joshi said one of the first actions of the BJP-led government has been the decision to establish a modern patents office. Under the chairmanship of the Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the patents office would come up on a few acres of land to be made available by the CSIR.

The Minister admitted that India had "failed" to impress the dispute settlement body of the WTO about India’s case in the recent argument over the basmati rice patent.

"We failed to raise basic issues such as geographic appellation and trade mark violations. We should have impressed upon the WTO at the dispute settlement tribunal," he added.

Following the dispute, a US company, Ricetec, was granted an international patent for its news strainof "basmati" rice, despite India’s protests.

The new agenda of his government with regard to intellectual property rights would be to device ways and means to enable India to fulfill its international commitments while protecting its national interests.