Lok Sabha Question No. 115 (STARRED), answered on 2016-11-23
Subject: BRICS Event
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: T. RADHAKRISHNAN, ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

## DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.115 TO BE ANSWERED ON 23/11/2016

## BRICS EVENT

- *115.  SHRI T. RADHAKRISHNAN:

SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ´ÉYÉÉxÉ A´ÉÆ |ÉÉètÉÉäÉÊMÉBÉEÉÒ àÉÆjÉÉÒ be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government hosted a five day event involving about 50 young scientists/researchers from BRICS countries in Bengaluru recently and if so, the details thereof along with the aims and achievements of the summit;
- (b) the fields from which these participants were drawn;
- (c) the details of the distinguished persons of BRICS countries who attended the event, countrywise;
- (d) the details of the issues discussed and opinions exchanged about the challenges faced by BRICS countries during the summit; and
- (e) the  other  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  build  a  BRICS  innovation corporation?

## ANSWER

MINISTER FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

´ÉYÉÉxÉ A´ÉÆ |ÉÉètÉÉäÉÊMÉBÉEÉÒ àÉÆjÉÉÒ +ÉÉè® {Éßl´ÉÉÒ ÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉ àÉÆjÉÉÒ (bÉ. c­ÉÇ ´ÉvÉÇxÉ)

- (a) to (c):  A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT AS REFERRED IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.115 FOR 22/11/2016 REGARDING BRICS EVENT

(a) Yes, Madam. The Government of India through Department of Science & Technology hosted a  5  day  event  'BRICS  Young  Scientists  Conclave'  during  26-30  September  2016  in  Bengaluru involving scientists' researchers from BRICS countries. The details of aims and achievements of the summit are as under-

The main aims of the Conclave were-

- (i) To  bring  together  brightest  young  minds  from  BRICS  countries  on  to  a  single  platform, allowing intense interaction to look for avenues of transformative changes to most pressing problems of the society through scientific exploration and technological innovations.
- (ii) to seed a 'BRICS Scientific Identity' through the establishment of a pan-BRICS network of young talents.
- (iii) to  harness  BRICS  Youth  connectivity  by  networking,  sharing  of  knowledge  and  ideas  for resolving  common  societal  challenges  through  research  and  innovation  and  strengthen advancement of skill & research competencies of youth primarily in the age group of 22-35 years drawn from science, engineering other allied disciplines.
- (iv) To build BRICS next generation leadership in Science and Technology through creative youth with capacity and capability to accelerate change individually and collectively (BRICS Youth Alummi).

Some of the major achievements (outcomes) of the BRICS Young Scientists Conclave are as below-

The Conclave participants, as a part of their interactions were divided into groups, with special focus  on  three  themes:  Computational  Intelligence,  Energy  Solutions  and  Affordable Healthcare. Some of the recommendations for BRICS STI collaboration were made by these thematic groups as given under-

## I. Computational Intelligence

Computational  Intelligence  (CI)  holds  the  potential  to  provide  breakthrough  solutions  to many applications of critical importance to the BRICS countries. In all such applications, there is a repeated  need  to  perform  analytics  over  large-scale,  heterogeneous,  and  multi-modal  data.  For example,  an  effective  pandemic  containment  system  needs  to  track  and  contain  a  pandemic  by integrating human travel and mobility logs, information from social networks, gene sequencing data, and demographic data, among others. Such a system may also be used for disaster alert and response, smart material synthesis, efficient grid management, and many more. Create a unified repository of traditional knowledge from all BRICS countries and make it widely available.

Development of solutions using computational intelligence will require access to large data and computing capabilities. This calls for greater resource sharing among BRICS countries. In order to foster collaboration among scientists from BRICS countries, there should be frequent and focused workshops, especially in emerging areas such as Computational Intelligence.

## II. Energy Solutions

There  are  several  problems  which  plague  these  four  sub-domains  of  Energy  and  focused efforts are required to come up with real life solutions. These solutions have to incubate from the labs/ universities but should be implemented by the government/regulatory bodies with the support

from industry. The following three collaborative project ideas were suggested-

- i. Optimization of electric power load profiles in BRICS countries
- ii. Gap  analysis  on  country  electricity  generation  and  applicability  of  distributed  renewable energy generation in localized areas
- iii. Development  of  Hydrothermal  Processing  to  recover  Energy-Water-Fertilizer  from  Wet Biomass

## III. Affordable Healthcare

Thematic areas: Providing healthcare

Under the theme of collaborative efforts for affordable healthcare among BRICS countries, collaborative partnership were suggested, as below-

## 1. Early Diagnostics

An early diagnosis of different diseases might help to reduce the overall burden of cost of treatment required during later stages of the disease. Further pro-active and personalized medication is the need of the hour in order to prevent diseased condition. Development of potential biomarkers for early detection as well as progression of non-communicable diseases using non/minimally invasive biomaterials (blood/fecal samples).

## 2. Therapeutics

In therapeutics, following collaborative activities were suggested:

- i. Disease-specific probiotics
- ii. Fastening wound healing
- iii. Targeting disease-inducers by genetic engineering Gene silencing technology
- iv. Exploring traditional medicines.
5. (b) Participants were drawn from the following fields:-
- i. Affordable Healthcare
- ii. Computational Intelligence
- iii. Energy Solutions

## (c) The list of participants including speakers and young scientists / researchers who attended the event, country-wise is given below-

| RUSSIA   |                                |                                                                                      |
|----------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| (1)      | (2)                            | (3)                                                                                  |
| 1        | Spechenkova Nadezhda Andreevna | Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences            |
| 2        | Martyanov Artem                | Prokhorov General Physics Institute, RAS                                             |
| 3        | Yamaev Renat                   |                                                                                      |
| 4        | Dronov Alexey                  | Senior Research Fellow, National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET) |
| 5        | Gornovskii Artem               | Moscow State University of Mechanical Engineering                                    |
|          | Kosach Lev                     | Moscow State University of Mechanical Engineering                                    |
| 6        | Nadezhda A. Taranova           | ANBachInstitute of Biochemistry, Research Centre of Biochemistry of RAS              |

| (1)          | (2)                             | (3)                                                                                 |              |
|--------------|---------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|
| 7            | Timoshenko Anastasia Alekseevna | Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology, RAS                                     |              |
| INDIA        | INDIA                           | INDIA                                                                               | INDIA        |
| 8            | Somsubhra Nath                  | Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre and Research Institute (SGCCRI), Kolkata, India           |              |
| 9            | Prabal Goyal                    | Air Liquide, Ecole Polytechnique/IIT Delhi, Chandigarh                              |              |
| 10           | Partha Pratim Talukdar          | Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore                                       |              |
| 11           | Nazia Tarannum                  | Assistant Professor, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut                      |              |
| 12           | Sarmimala Saikia                | TCS Innovation Labs, New Delhi                                                      |              |
| 13           | Naga Vara Aparna Akula          | CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh                        |              |
| 14           | Nishant Kumar Agrawal           | Performance Engineering Research Centre, TCS Research, Mumbai                       |              |
| 15           | Anu Dhar                        | Senior Engineer, Reliance Industries Limited, Dehradun                              |              |
| 16           | Nagaraj Bhat                    | Scientific Officer, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam             |              |
| 17           | Swadha Anand                    | Tata Research, Life Sciences group, Tata Consultancy Services, Pune                 |              |
| 18           | Bhuvaneshwaran Subramanian      | School of Medical Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur |              |
| 19           | Shantimoy Kar                   | Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur                                           |              |
| 20           | Akshay Vaid                     | Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar                                          |              |
| CHINA        | CHINA                           | CHINA                                                                               | CHINA        |
| 21           | Zheng Bo                        | Zhejiang University                                                                 |              |
| 22           | Kui Jiao                        | Tianjin University, Tianjin                                                         |              |
| 23           | Li Yangyang                     | China Coal Research Institute, Beijing                                              |              |
| 24           | Yuyang Li                       | Shanghai Jiao Tong University                                                       |              |
| 25           | Lian-WenQi                      | China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing                                            |              |
| 26           | Chong Shen                      | Hainan University, Haikou                                                           |              |
| 27           | Weiwei Luo                      | Yunnan Academy of Scientific and Technical Information, Kuming                      |              |
| SOUTH AFRICA | SOUTH AFRICA                    | SOUTH AFRICA                                                                        | SOUTH AFRICA |
| 28           | Fulufhelo Nelwamondo            | Executive Director, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)           |              |
| 29           | Nicholas Engelbrecht            | Lecturer, University of North West                                                  |              |
| 30           | Henrietta Langmi                | Key Programme Manager, Council for Scientific and Industrial Re-search (CSIR)       |              |
| 31           | Regina Maphanga                 | Senior Researcher, University of Limpopo                                            |              |
| 32           | Natasha Ross                    | Lecturer, University of the Western Cape,                                           |              |
| 33           | Sphumelele Ndlovu               | PhD Candidate, Hartebeeshoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HARTRAO)                  |              |
| 34           | Yahya Choonara                  | Professor, University of Witwatersrand                                              |              |
| 35           | Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela    | Executive Director, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)           |              |
| 36           | Bongi Mkhize                    | Deputy Director, Department of Science and Technology                               |              |

|   (1) | (2)             | (3)                                                                           |
|-------|-----------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|    37 | Stanley Maphosa | International Liaison Manager, Academy of Science of South Africa             |
|    38 | Molefi Motuku   | Research &Development, Council for Scientific and Industrial Re-search (CSIR) |

Note: There was no representation from Brazil to this BRICS Young Scientist Conclave.

The list of host country speakers at this BRICS Young Scientists Conclave is as below-

|   1 | Dr KKasturirangan           | Emeritus Professor, NIAS, Bangalore                                                                            |
|-----|-----------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|   2 | Prof VS Ramamurthy          | Emeritus Professor, NIAS, Bangalore                                                                            |
|   3 | Dr VKSaraswat               | Member, NITI Aayog, Government of India, New Delhi                                                             |
|   4 | Prof Ashutosh Sharma        | Secretary to the Govt of India, Department of Science &Technology, New Delhi                                   |
|   5 | Prof KVijayRaghavan         | Secretary to the Government of India Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi                                    |
|   6 | Mr Rajeev Gupta             | Secretary, Minister for Youth Affairs, New Delhi                                                               |
|   7 | Dr Darshan Shankar          | Vice Chancellor of Trans Disciplinary University, Bangalore                                                    |
|   8 | Prof DD Sarma               | Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore                                                                        |
|   9 | Dr Sanghamitra Bandyopadhya | Director, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata                                                                |
|  10 | Dr Umesh Waghmare           | Professor and chairman of the Theoretical Sciences Unit, JNCSAR, Bangalore                                     |
|  11 | Prof SS Hasan               | Former Director, IIAP, Bangalore                                                                               |
|  12 | Dr Kanishka Biswas          | Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru                                            |
|  13 | Amb Shyam Saran             | Chairman, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi                            |
|  14 | Prof Rajaram Nagappa        | Dean, NIAS, New Delhi                                                                                          |
|  15 | Dr Bhaskar Balakrishnan     | Diplomat (Former Ambassador), New Delhi                                                                        |
|  15 | Dr MVidyasagar              | Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas, Dallas, USA (Indian Diaspora)                               |
|  17 | Prof S. Arunachalam         | Former Professor, IISS                                                                                         |
|  18 | Prof Bikramjit Basu         | Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore                                                              |
|  19 | Mr KVenkataramanan          | Chairman, L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Ltd Formerly Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Larsen &Toubro |
|  20 | Dr. P Goswami               | Director, NISTADS, New Delhi                                                                                   |
|  21 | Prof Sundar Sarukkai        | NIAS, Bangalore                                                                                                |
|  22 | Mr Rahul Narayan            | Teamindus, Bangalore                                                                                           |
|  23 | Mr Ricky Kej                | 2014 Grammy Award Winner, Bangalore                                                                            |
|  24 | Mr Pawan Kumar              | Filmmaker, Bangalore                                                                                           |

## (d) The details of issues discussed and opinion exchanged are indicated as below-

- -Interdisciplinary Science for Society and Humanity
- -Global Partnerships in Scientific Research
- -Making Healthcare Affordable: Corporate Social Responsibility
- -Traditional Science and Indigenous Knowledge
- -BRICS Policy Reflections on Youth

- -Special Address: Energy Foresights, Security and Sustainability
- -Global Renewable Development: Opportunities and Challenges
- -Thermoelectric Waste Heat to Electricity Generation
- -Special Address: Collaborating for the Future
- -Special Address: S&T and Diplomacy: Some Perspectives
- -Machine Learning in Cancer Biology
- -Additive Manufacturing of Materials: A New Paradigm
- -Doing More with Less: Pan-BRICS Scientists Opportunity
- -BRICS Policy Reflections

(e) The BRICS countries (including Government of India) are in the process of evolving detailed modes and mechanism for building schemes on BRICS  Science and Technology Driven Entrepreneurship  and  Innovation  Partnership,  BRICS  collaborative  Research  &  Development projects and BRICS Innovative Idea Prize for Young Scientists.

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