Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated the 97th Indian Science Congress at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on January 3.
“I am delighted that my first important engagement in this New Year is the inauguration of the 97th Indian Science Congress. If India has to re-emerge as a knowledge power in the 21st Century, then it can only be through developing a strong capability in science and technology”, Dr Singh said.
Providing affordable health care and improving the quality of life of our elderly population is yet another major challenge facing us in the 21st century. It is a matter of pride that scientists of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research have recently succeeded in mapping the genome of an Indian through a collaborative national research effort. I also commend the DRDO for developing a new and rapid diagnostic method for detecting the H1N1 virus. We need to build our scientific capabilities in a way that they can respond in real time to problems such as pandemics, he said.
Scientific capability depends critically on our S&T education and research infrastructure. I am happy to say that our efforts to improve this base are progressing well. Since I last addressed this Congress, there has been progress on a number of initiatives.
Under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research or INSPIRE scheme, we will soon be announcing the name of at least one science awardee per school in the age group of 10-15 in the entire country.
Our Government is considering the revision of the value of doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships as well as the formulation of schemes that would cover all research scholars with some funding support.
We are keen to make our science education outreach inclusive and also affordable. Last year I had announced a special package for the North Eastern Region. We have since started implementing a similar package for the Science & Technology sector in Jammu and Kashmir. We are planning similar investments in other regions of our country like Bihar to bridge asymmetries.
He said that one of the imbalances in our scientific resource pool is the under representation of our women. We should redouble our efforts to attract many more talented young women to take up careers in science. A step in this direction is a new scheme now available for women’s universities named Consolidation of University Research, Innovation and Excellence (CURIE). This scheme provides financial help for complete upgradation of facilities in these universities.
I am happy to announce that the National Science and Engineering Research Board will start functioning before March 2010. A National Policy for Data Sharing and Accessibility has also been formulated. The Protection of Intellectual Property Bill, focusing on sharing revenue from intellectual properties with researchers will be taken up for discussion in parliament very soon.
All Indians felt proud that an Indian origin scientist, who earned his early spurs in India, was a recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. I salute Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan for his creativity, his talent and for his deep commitment to good science. I have also noted Dr Ramakrishnan’s recent comment on the need for greater "autonomy from red tape and local politics" for Indian scientists.
It is unfortunately true that red tape, political interference and lack of proper recognition of good work have all contributed to a regression in Indian science in some sectors from the days of Dr. C V Raman, Meghnad Saha, J C Bose, Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and other great pioneers of Indian science.
I urge all our scientific institutions to introspect and to propose mechanisms for greater autonomy, including autonomy from the government, which could help to improve standards for research and development. We must make a special effort to encourage scientists of Indian origin currently working abroad to return to our country including coming to our universities or scientific institutions for a short period. In this way we can, convert the “brain drain” of the past into a “brain gain” for the future. This will require special incentives. We need to think creatively on how this can be done so that high quality minds are attracted to teaching and research in our country, Dr Singh said.
Much of what we have to do to improve science requires money but this is only one part of what is needed. It also requires a change in mindset, including, if I may say so, the mindset of senior faculty and university administration. Sometimes that is the hardest thing to do.
I invite you all to explore all these issues and engage with the Government so that we can do what is needed to liberate Indian science from the shackles and deadweight of bureaucratism and in-house favouritism. Only then we can unleash the latent talent and creative energies of our vast scientists and engineers too.
Our Government has declared 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Innovations”. We need new solutions in many areas to achieve our goals of inclusive and sustainable growth – in healthcare, in energy, in urban infrastructure, in water management, in transportation, to name only a few. We cannot continue with business as usual. Solutions from developed countries available are also not applicable all the time. They are often too costly and at times not sustainable.
The country must develop an Innovation Eco-system to stimulate innovations. Innovators must be challenged to produce solutions our society needs. And innovative solutions with potential must be nurtured and rapidly applied.
Our scientific establishments must be central to the Innovation Eco-system. But this system must include industry, and providers of venture funds, as well as regulators who set high standards of performance for their products. We also need to think creatively on how to increase private investment in R&D. Some innovative policy readjustments may be required to build vibrant Public-Private Partnerships in the Science & Technology Sector, Dr Singh said.