Innovation in Technology [Product (or) Process] under Motivation of Entrepreneurs to Start Industries and Fiscal Assistance to Industries - State Awards to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

What is the Innovation in Technology State Award in Puducherry?

Innovation in Technology [Product (or) Process] is one of the State Awards to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises given by the Industries and Commerce Department, Union Territory of Puducherry. The awards sit inside the umbrella scheme "Motivation of Entrepreneurs to Start Industries and Fiscal Assistance to Industries", which departmental listings often shorten to MESIFAI.

The award was formulated under the New Industrial Policy 2016, introduced on 4 October 2016, and operates across the Union Territory of Puducherry. It is conferred on industrial units that have patented their technology innovation.

The award carries a cash award of Rs 2,00,000 and a citation.

This is a recognition award, not a subsidy. Nothing about it is computed from invoices, machinery or wage bills, unlike the capital investment, employment and infrastructure components of the same umbrella scheme. A unit wins it once, for a specific innovation, and the money comes with a citation the enterprise can put in front of customers and lenders.

Who is eligible for the Innovation in Technology award?

An enterprise can apply if all three conditions are met:

• The unit shall have obtained a patent, or applied for a patent, for the innovation. A pending application is enough; a granted patent is not insisted upon.
• The unit shall have been functioning profitably for 3 years before the date of application.
• The unit provides at least 60% of employment to people of the Union Territory of Puducherry out of its total employment strength. This 60% local employment condition runs across the whole Motivation of Entrepreneurs scheme and is not specific to the awards.

Who is not eligible:

• Individual inventors without a registered enterprise. The award is conferred on an industrial unit, and Entrepreneurs Memorandum Part-II registration or a commencement of production certificate must be produced. A person with a patent but no registered unit cannot apply.
• Units with no patent and no filed patent application. An innovation that is merely claimed, described or demonstrated, without a patent filing behind it, does not meet the threshold.
• Units that have not traded profitably for three full years before the date of application. A promising start-up in its second year is outside the award, however strong the innovation.
• Units below the 60% local employment share.

What documents are required?

The department lists only the first two as required documents. The other two are what the award committee will realistically look for when it tests the profitability and employment conditions, so an application is stronger for carrying them.

How to apply for the Innovation in Technology award

1. Wait for the call for applications. The Director of Industries invites applications for the award by wide publicity. There is no standing window, so the notification, and the closing date stated in it, is the trigger.
2. Download the prescribed form from the official website of the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Puducherry, at industry.py.gov.in.
3. Fill in all mandatory fields: the nature of the product or process innovation, the patent or application number and its filing date, the three preceding years of trading results, and the total and Puducherry-resident employment strength.
4. Attach self-attested copies of the mandatory documents, in particular the copy of the patent or the patent application and the EM Part-II registration.
5. Submit the duly filled and signed form with enclosures to the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009, either in person or by post.

What happens after you apply?

1. The Directorate of Industries and Commerce scrutinises the applications on a merit basis and places them before the award Committee.
2. The Committee for the awards goes into the merits of each case and decides who receives the award.
3. The list of selected enterprises is notified, and the Director of Industries informs the selected enterprises to receive the awards.

Because selection is comparative, an applicant is not being tested against a threshold alone but against the other applicants in the same round. The strength of the application rests on how clearly the patented product or process innovation is described and how well the commercial result of it is evidenced.

How to follow up on your application

1. Keep a copy of the submitted form and the postal or counter acknowledgement.
2. Contact the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Thattanchavady, on +91-413-2248476, 2248168 or 2248320 and ask whether applications for the round have been placed before the award Committee.
3. Karaikal applicants can follow up with the Assistant Director at the Rural Industrial Estate, Kottucherry, on +91-4368-265438; Yanam on +91-884-2321257; Mahe on +91-490-233235.
4. Watch the Directorate's announcements for the notified list of selected enterprises, which is how results are published.

Why applications for this award fall short

• No patent and no filed patent application. This is the most common gap. The eligibility condition is written around a patent, not around innovation in the general sense.
• The three-year profitability condition not met, or accounts that do not clearly show profit for each of the three years preceding the application.
• The 60% local employment share not met or not evidenced.
• The applicant is an individual rather than a registered enterprise.
• Applying outside the announced window, since the award is opened by notification rather than being permanently open.
• The innovation described in general terms without tying it to the specific claims of the patent or application, which leaves the committee with nothing concrete to assess.

Grievance redressal

Complaints about the award process are taken up through the Industries and Commerce Department's grievance redressal mechanism at industry.py.gov.in/grievance-redressal-mechanism. Above that, the Director of Industries and Commerce, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009, and the Secretary to Government (Industries and Commerce) at the Chief Secretariat, Puducherry 605001, phone +91-413-2336115, are the escalation points.

The prescribed form is free. No consultant or agent has any standing before the award Committee, and no payment is required to have an application considered.