Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala Government on Saturday approved a state-specific Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy seeking to protect traditional knowledge and inventions.

Disclosing this after a Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan claimed that Kerala was the first state in the country to bring out such a policy.

The crux of the policy was to protect and preserve the intellectual properties of the people 'which were under assault in the context of globalisation and liberalisation', he said.

A supervisory committee with Chief Minister as Chairman and Law Minister as Convener would be formed for the implementation of the policy, said.

The Government had last year set up a committee to make recommendations on the matter and the draft report was widely discussed among legal experts, scientific community, academics and planners before finalising the policy.