NEW DELHI: With the entire bogey relating to copyright having shifted to it, the budget for intellectual property in the allocation for the Department of Industrial Policy and Planning has jumped up to Rs 1,700 million from Rs 1,112 million in 2016-17.

After the announcement made in early April last year that copyright issues would be dealt with by DIPP, revised estimates for 2016-17 had shown a jump to 1550 million, necessitating a higher budget for this sector.

Consequently, the allocation for Human Resource Development which had until now been primarily responsible for this sector shows a blank and the budgetary document says this is because the sector has moved to DIPP.

Copyright had until March 2016 been the preserve of the Human Resource Development Ministry.

Those involved in the music, film, and television industries have always grudged this as they feel copyright for their sectors should be with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry since the regulatory body for them is the I and B Ministry.

Out of the total allocation, the highest share has been allocated for modernization and strengthening of Intellectual Property office - Rs 757.8 million, followed by Rs 520.1 million for the Controller General of Patent Designs and Trademarks.

Several offices have been allocated budgets for the first time: Semi-conductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design Registry (Rs 10 million), Semi-Conductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design Board (Rs One million), Cell for Promotion of Intellectual Property and Management (CIPAM) with Rs 109.9 million, Copyright Office (Rs 36.5 million), Copyright Board (Rs 33.5 million, and Promotion of copyrights and IPR (Rs 60 million).

Of these, the last three had been given some allocation in the revised budget. Interestingly, there is no explanatory for these six departments in the budget document.

In addition to the IP budget, there is an allocation of Rs 6.5 million for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as part of support to autonomous organizations.

It had been announced early in the financial year 2016-17 that issues of copyright had been shifted to the DIPP of the Commerce and Industry Ministry, which became the nodal department to deal with all issues related to copyright in the country.