The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has decided to make research and development centers in the private sector eligible for grants under the Instrumentation Development Programme. The National Instrumentation Development Board, which met here recently, has agreed to reimburse up to 50% of the recurring expenses of the private sector R&D labs in the country.

The decision is to bring in major benefits to the drug R&D centers recognized by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in India.

According to highly placed sources, the inclusion of private research institutions among those eligible to secure the grants was one of the long-standing demands of the research based pharmaceutical companies. The funds that comes from the instrumentation development programme used to be given only to government research laboratories and R&D centers at the university level till now.

However the new decision will not bring in any financial assistance to the private companies for setting up R&D centres in the drugs and pharmaceutical sector. While the entire one time capital investment of setting up the laboratories are to be borne by the private companies, the running expenses meant for the purchase of consumables and other items will be partially reimbursed by the department under the programme.
Sources informed that the department has not announced any ceiling for the amount that can be sanctioned under this scheme to a particular R&D institution.

The DST allots Rs 2.5 crore annually towards the instrumentation development programme. If the entire amount used to be given to the public sector institutions, the coming up of more private sector R&D centers has resulted in the facility being extended to them as well.

Instrumentation is one of the major areas of Science & Technology that makes a great impact on vital sectors of national activities such as education, scientific research, industry, agriculture, medicine and health etc. The DST programme focuses on strengthening indigenous capability for research, design, development and production of instruments in the country leading to the development of Indigenous development and production of instruments, continuous updating of the technology of instruments to keep pace with technology improvements taking place globally, and innovations in the area of instrumentation.