Dr Raghavender GR

The primary role of SKOCH Summit is to act as a bridge between felt needs and policy making. Most conferences act like echo-chambers with all plurality of view being locked out. At SKOCH, we have specialised into negotiating with different view-points and bringing them to a common minimum agenda based on felt needs at the ground. This socio-economic dimension is critical for any development dialogue and we happen to be the oldest and perhaps only platform fulfilling this role. It is important to base decisions on learning from existing and past policies, interventions and their outcomes as received by the citizens. Equally important is prioritising and deciding between essentials and nice to haves. This then creates space for improvement, review or even re-design. Primary research, evaluation by citizens as well as experts and garnering global expertise then become hallmark of every Summit that returns actionable recommendations and feed them into the ongoing process of policy making, planning and development priorities.

Senior Consultant (IPR), Dept for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Govt. of India

Dr. G.R. Raghavender is a distinguished expert in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and a retired Joint Secretary to the Government of India and currently serve as Senior Consultant (IPR) at the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India. A career civil servant from the Central Secretariat Service (CSS) selected through the UPSC Civil Services Examination, 1988.

During his service, he held several key leadership positions, including Joint Secretary in the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, and Joint Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (now DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry. He also had an additional charge as Director General of the National Productivity Council (NPC) from November 2015 to May 2016. As Registrar of Copyrights at the Indian Copyright Office for over six and a half years, he played a pivotal role in shaping India’s modern copyright framework, including spearheading the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012, the Copyright Rules, 2013, and the implementation of online registration and payment gateway for copyright, the digitisation of documents, the adoption of a distinctive office logo, and the successful attainment of ISO 9001 certification in 2014.

At the international level, he actively participated in multiple WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings, RCEP negotiations, and several Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, including the recently concluded India–EU FTA,2026 as a member of the Indian delegation. I contributed to the successful conclusion of two landmark international instruments: the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (2012) and the Marrakesh Treaty (2013). He also contributed to the recently concluded WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (GRATK), 2024 and the Riyadh Design Law Treaty (RDLT), 2024.

Further, he also served as a WIPO resource person and copyright law expert in Singapore, Chengdu, and Kampuchea and contributed to the revision of copyright legislation in Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, the Philippines, and Myanmar. In addition, he regularly give talks on various IPR subjects at international and national seminars, including programmes organised by WIPO, Geneva, and at leading law universities and institutions across India.

Academically, he holds a PhD in IPR, with research focused on IP protection in the context of text and data mining and artificial intelligence, an LLM and LLB, and an MA in Development Studies (Public Policy & Management) at ISS, The Hague, the Netherlands.

Dr Raghavender GR at the 108th SKOCH Summit: Public Policy Forum - Regulatory Framework for Viksit Bharat