Speaking at the economic editors' conference, Pushpendra Rai, joint secretary in the ministry of industry, said the volume of applications has swelled from 3,500 per annum in 1991 to about 20,000 applications per annum in the last two years. By 2003, the number of applications is expected to reach 30,000 per annum, he said.

There is a backlog of 30,000 applications waiting to be studied. In order to clear the backlog the government is finalising a crash plan for which 200 to 250 examiners will be recruited, he said.

As India has acceded to the Paris Convention it has to meet its IPR obligations by January 1, 2000. An additional period of five years is available only for product patents which have not been protected so far.

On the issue of patents a dispute settlementprocess had been decided in 1995, at the instance of the US this was later to enlarged to include the ``mail-box mechanism.'' The mail-box cases will studied in 2000.