Union government’s new Science and Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy is expected to place greater thrust on innovation and usher in a sea change in the scientific environment of the country. While it aims to set up research institutes and encourage  women scientists, the policy also intends to provide accrued financial benefits to scientific organisations as it focuses on investment in technology upfront to create a win - win situation.

The key objective of the policy is to position India among the top five scientific powers in the world by 2020. The leading global science majors are the US, UK, Germany and Japan. However India has the third largest technical pool of globally after US and UK.

The Science and Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy will be released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 3, 2013 at the centenary edition of the Indian Science Congress at Kolkata.

The STI policy seeks to trigger innovation process by leveraging partnerships among diverse stakeholders and by encouraging and facilitating enterprises to invest in the innovation, according to officials from the Union government.

The STI document is a revision of the 2003 policy which sought to bring science and technology together and emphasized on the need for higher investment in research and development to address the national problems.

According to the officials related to the development of the policy, the STI would help to accelerate the pace of discovery, diffusion and delivery of science-led solutions for serving the aspirations  of India for faster, sustainable and inclusive growth.

The STI also includes creating careers in science, research and innovation attractive and establish world class infrastructure for R&D for gaining global leadership in some select frontier areas of science.

The policy also includes linking contributions of science, research and innovation with inclusive economic growth agenda and combining priorities of excellence and relevance.

The policy also stresses on creating an environment for enhanced private sector participation in research and development, enabling conversion of outputs into societal and commercial applications. It also intends to replicate successful models as well as establish of new private partnerships structures.

The officials further said that policy would strengthen the research and development base of the country through proper funding development and utilisation of technologies, building entrepreneurship, mounting mission mode initiatives and rejuvenating research in universities.

India had first unveiled the science policy resolution in 1958 which determined to foster, promote and sustain the cultivation of scientific research in all its aspects.

“Technology was then assumed to flow from the country’s diversified science infrastructure. The Technology Statement of 1983 focused on the need to attain technological competence and self reliance.

The Science and Technology policy of 2003 sought to bring all the sciences together. The STI is expected to bring in the required traction to the sector. Today in an age of nanotechnology, biochemistry and microbiology advancements together with ample progress in stem cells among others. The need of the hour is innovation to develop practical solutions to help mankind, said scientists from Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Biological Sciences and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).