NE SCIENCE & TECH BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, SEP 11
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh on Sunday announced setting up of a Dashboard to share the best technology practices among the Centre and the States.
Enthusiastic participation witnessed in the first-ever 2- day #CentreStateScienceConclave. Ministers and Secretaries sat through all the sessions on both the days. Mechanism developed to follow up the deliberations.
#VigyanMahotsav pic.twitter.com/1W3pcv9sle— Dr Jitendra Singh (मोदी का परिवार) (@DrJitendraSingh) September 11, 2022
Presiding over the concluding session of the two-day “Centre-State Science Conclave” at Science City in Ahmedabad, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that a high level mechanism will be developed by the Department of Science and Technology to monitor and coordinate the follow up action of the conclave.
The Minister also asked the States to appoint a Nodal officer in each of the States to coordinate and cooperate with the Special Committee for knowing and sharing the best practices.
Giving the example of heli-borne technology launched from Jodhpur, Rajasthan in October, 2021, Dr Jitendra Singh said, to start with, the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana were taken up for this latest heli-borne survey. The Minister pointed out that if the same technology is uploaded on Dashboard, other States may join and share this CSIR technology from source finding to water treatment and thus benefit millions of people across the country.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, it will also positively contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Har Ghar Nal Se Jal” as well as “doubling farmer’s income” goals. He said, the latest state-of-the-art technology is being employed by Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) for mapping groundwater sources in arid regions and thus help utilise groundwater for drinking purposes.
Dr Jitendra Singh expressed satisfaction that important plenary sessions with State S&T Ministers discussed in detail on issues like Agriculture, Innovation for producing portable drinking water including application of technologies like Desalination, Heli borne methods developed by DST, Clean Energy for All including S&T role in Hydrogen mission, Deep Sea Mission of MoES and its relevance for Coastal States/UT, Digital healthcare for All and Synergizing Science with National Education Policy.
A special session with the CEOs of over 100 Start-Ups and industry at the Centre-State Science Conclave’ in Ahmedabad came up with scientific solutions in the field of agriculture, drone, artificial intelligence, biotechnological solutions, single-use plastic alternates, irrigation and digital health amongst others. Many of the State governments have shown keen interest in some of the technologies and agreed to partner with some of the start-ups for State-specific technological solutions.
Roadmap to augment financial resources for R&D discussed
The roadmap and way forward to augment financial resources for R&D by enhancing the private sectors STI contribution and developing collaborative funding mechanisms was discussed at the Center-State Science Conclave on September 11, 2022.
“We need to increase investment in research, translational research, and facilitate commercialisation. These can be accelerated through the private sector,” said Dr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder, Infosys, at the panel on doubling private sector investment in R&D of the Conclave.
He stressed on funding support for knowledge creation, dissemination and application and highlighted the role of structures, co-location of industry and academia, as well as incentives like tax breaks. “At least 1% of CSR from the industry should be spent on solving present problems like drinking water, cancer, anti-microbial resistance and also on open-ended future problems.
Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser, Department of Science and Technology (DST), emphasised on incentives like restoration of R&D tax deduction, philanthropic funding, and creation of an environment for FDI to encourage private investment in research.
He highlighted the need for innovation in MSMEs, increasing the scope of models like Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Technology Development Board (TDB), cluster model involving co-location of industry and academia, as well as steps like bringing back industry products funded by government to the government to promote the involvement of private sector in research.
He pointed out that with 100% FDI permitted in research, some states like Karnataka have aggressively attracted FDI in R&D, and other states can emulate such examples.
Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, Chief Executive Officer of C-CAMP, Bengaluru, spoke about India’s positioning as emerging leader in the biotech start-up world and increasing valuation of the country’s biotech industry.
He underlined the necessity for mid-stage funding for start-ups and collaborations with Venture Capitals (VC) and industry. “Models, where VCs & industry can partner with government including state governments to take early fruition to scale, should be incentivised,” he added.
“With health becoming more and more important globally along with agriculture and climate, the importance of biotech sector is rising, and an early stage funding for deep science and deep tech could help use this opportunity,” he pointed out.
“Experimentation is needed with STI governance policies inspired by successful grassroot implementation models,” Mugdha Sinha, Principal Secretary (S&T), Government of Rajasthan, advocated.
“Science should be posited as a service provider to all departments – an interphase connecting the dots, and policymakers need to be exposed to what science entails. Tier 2 industries that require government hand holding need to be identified,” she added.
Prof Amit Prashant, Director, IIT Gandhinagar, emphasised on strengthening the bridge between research organisations and the industry through collaborations with for translational research.
