The Central Government is planning to announce a National Science and Technology Policy within few weeks from now. The policy is expected to ensure more accountability as well as autonomy to all academic and R&D institutions in the country. With health a major area of concern, the policy is expected to attempt harness modern scientific and technological advances for bringing modern healthcare affordable and sustainable to the people.
The final draft of the new Science Policy is ready and is expected to be unveiled early next month, it is learnt.
The policy aims to ensure that academic and R&D institutions function with the greatest autonomy and accountability, so that an ambience for creative work of the highest order is encouraged and to build and maintain centres of excellence, which will raise the levels of work in selected areas to the highest international standards. It will also talk about integrating the teaching and practice of science and technology with the widely prevalent and extensive knowledge acquired over the long civilizational experience of India, with a view to ensure the creative participation of large sections of the society in innovation and wealth generation. Research and training in ayurveda and traditional systems of medicine are likely to get a boost due to this approach in the policy.
Innovation and R&D in industry will be given special thrust and promotion of close and productive interactions between private and public institutions in science and technology will be high on the agenda.
The policy is to encourage and promote R&D projects capable of generating competitive IPR and also their effective protection. The development of skills and competence to manage IPR and leveraging its influence will be given a major focus. “One of India's concerns is that the process of globalization is threatening the appropriation of elements of the collective knowledge of societies into proprietary knowledge for the commercial profit of a few. Action will be taken to protect these indigeneous knowledge systems through national policies and international agreements. IPR systems, which specially protect technology innovations, that have arisen out of traditional knowledge generation, will be evolved,” the final draft has said.
It will also recognize the contribution of private industry to research and development (R&D) and efforts made to promote R&D in industry by fiscal measures and also by actively increasing linkages between private R&D establishments and publicly funded institutions. Measures to increase the active involvement of industry in promoting technical education and basic research will be put in place.
The policy is to suggest that every technical ministry and department of government have a specific earmarked budget for promoting the development of innovative technology. New mechanisms will be developed for channeling creative talent towards the processes of invention and discovery.
It is to talk about a concerted plan to enhance research on traditional medicine and to apply globally acceptable norms of validation and standardization. It may also call for a purposeful program to enhance the Indian share of the herbal medicine market.
The Government is also to evolve a stable and robust mechanism by which inputs on S&T policy issues are obtained from independent bodies of scientists and technologists, like the Academies and specialized professional bodies, among others. S&T inputs will be an integral part of decision making in the formulation of governmental policies in diverse areas, particularly in programs related to industrial development, national security, energy, environment and related areas of socio-economic sectors.
The participation of the socio-economic Ministries in supporting S&T will be raised significantly through special mechanisms. A substantial fraction of the S&T linked allocations to these Ministries is not currently utilized effectively in promoting R&D, because of the tenuous linkages of these sectors with the science and technology community in India. A greater integration and participation of these sectors of Government, with genuine R&D activities will go a long way in ensuring that S&T efforts have a wider and more visible impact.
In order to increase the participation in S&T efforts, the States will be encouraged to significantly enhance their involvement, by strengthening S&T Councils in the States and by providing linkages to national institutions for solving region specific problem, it is learnt.