Lok Sabha Question No. 3940 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-19
Subject: Role of CSIR in promoting Science among Youth
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Gopal Chinayya Shetty

- (a)
- Yes.
- (b) CSIR is actively working to promote Scientific & Technological interventions for  the  development and support to the society. Some of the recent significant initiatives taken by CSIR for the benefit of people especially from rural areas are as follows:
- I. CSIR Aroma Mission -Catalysing Rural Empowerment through Cultivation,  Processing,  Value  Addition  and  Marketing  of  Aromatic Plants:  CSIR  initiated  a  Mission  Mode  Project  'CSIR-Aroma  Mission'  in 2017  and  during  last  3  years  ~6000-hectare  additional  area  has  been brought  under  cultivation  of  economically  important  aromatic  crops. During  this  period  25  new  superior  varieties  of  various  aromatic  crops have  been  developed,  34  agrotechnologies  developed  and  are  being deployed.  231  distillation  units  have  been  installed  in  various  clusters developed across the country enabling the distillation of 500 tons quality

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

## DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3940 (TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.03.2021) ROLE OF CSIR IN PROMOTING SCIENCE AMONG YOUTH

## 3940. SHRI GOPAL CHINNAYA SHETTY:

Will  the  Minister of  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY विज्ञान  एिं  प्रौद्योगिकी मंत्री be pleased to state:

- (a)   whether  Council  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research  (CSIR)  plays  a prominent role in providing necessary base of knowledge for the social and economic development of the country including that of rural areas and small cities;
- (b)   if  so,  the  achievements  and  performance  thereof  during  the  last  two years;
- (c)   whether  CSIR  has  taken  several  new  measures  to  imbibe  scientific acumen among the youths; and
- (d)   if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE; MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; AND MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES

## (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

essential  oils  worth  about  Rs.  60  crores  which  helped  to  reduce  the import of these oils. This has helped aroma industry in India especially during the long pandemic time duration. About 756 Training/ Awareness programs  were  conducted  benefiting  around  44,800  human  resources. Besides  29  values  added  products  have  been  developed  to  encourage the new  entrepreneurs and start-ups. The socio-economic impact studies of the mission indicated that the impact on farmer's income from aroma  cash  crop  cultivation  lead  to  assured  and  enhanced  income generation,  (high  B-C  ratio  for  aroma  crop  than  conventional  crop cultivation). For aroma  cash  crop  cultivation,  maximum  B-C  ratio reached 9.9 fold in Kamrup (Assam) cluster, while for conventional crop cultivation;  maximum  B-C  ratio  reached  3.59  fold  in  Ri-Bhoi  cluster (Meghalaya). The benefit of aroma cash crop cultivation has reached to marginal (18%) and small (23%) farmers besides medium (24%) and big (35%) farmers. The increase in the annual income of the marginal and small farmers from Rs. 50,000/ per month to Rs. 2 lakhs/ per month is encouraging  after  adoption  of  aroma  cash  crop  cultivation.  Annual income (farming and other sources) increased after Aroma Mission for all category of farmers and contribution of aroma cash crop cultivation is 60%  to  the  annual  income  generation  of  the  farmer  household  as compared  with  just  40%  contribution  to  annual  income  of  the  farmer from conventional farming.

In  Phase II  of  CSIR  Aroma  Mission,  an  additional  area  of  about  30,000 hectares  will  be  brought  under  cultivation  of  these  crops  in  the  next three years by interventions of CSIR. More than 75,000 farming families would  be  directly  or  indirectly  benefitted  and  an  employment  of  more than 40-45 lakhs man-days will be generated in rural areas. Cultivation and  processing  of  aroma  crops  would  be  an  important  step  for  in enhancing  rural  economy  through  enhancing  incomes  and  providing employment to thousands of migrants shifted back to rural areas after COVID 19 pandemic. About 80,000 farmers would be trained/ guided to cultivate these crops besides 45,000 skilled human resources capable of multiplying quality planting material, distillation, and value addition will be developed through skill development activities.

- II. Development  of  agriculture  and  increasing  the  income  of  farmers  and poor people in tribal-dominated Nabrangpur  District of Odisha: In collaboration  with  State  Govt.  and  Nabrangpur  District  administration, cultivation  and  processing  of  Aromatic  crops  for  essential  oils  and Curcuma  longa  (Haldi)  for  curcumin  and  leaf  essential  oil  are  being

promoted. Essential  oil  processing  units  are  provided  for  expansion  of area under cultivation and on farm processing of essential oils. Farmers are  provided  necessary  training  and  support  to  use  new  methods  of agriculture to enhance their skills under this ambitious project.

- III. Improved Samba Mahsuri variety for Bacterial blight resistance with low glycemic index Rice: Improved Samba Mahsuri being similar to Samba Mahsuri  (BPT5204)  in  quality  and  yield  traits  and  having  additional features like resistance to bacterial blight disease, low glycemic index value, 7-10 days early maturation than existing variety has a potential to replace existing Samba Mahsuri which is cultivated in about 2-4 million hectares in India. Currently this variety is being cultivated in an area of ~120,000 hectare. Increased adoption of Improved Samba Mahsuri (ISM) by  additional  2000  farmers  can  significantly  stabilize  incomes  among Samba Mahsuri farmers in future.
- IV. Seaweed farming for enhancing the income of coastal farmers:  ~1000 (Mostly    Women)  trained  in  sea  weed  farming  during    last  2  years  in association  with  National  Fisheries  Development  Board,  Hyderabad  to get the assured income up to Rs 15,000/ per month. M/s. Aquagri private limited  is  the  private  partner  offered  the  buyback  of  the  biomass produced  by  the  beneficiaries  from  cultivation.  The  program  has  been developed  with  M/s.  Pidilite  Industries  where  capacity  building  and hands on training will be imparted to the fishermen of coastal Gujarat for the next three years. This will be linked to CSR activities of the industry.
3. (c) Yes.
4. (d) Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been providing doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships to young budding students through its  various fellowship programmes such as Junior Research Fellowship through  National  Eligibility  Test  (JRF-NET),  Shyama  Prasad  Mukherjee Fellowship  (SPMF),  Senior  Research  Fellowship-  Direct  (SRF-Direct), Research  Associateships  and  CSIR-  Nehru  Postdoctoral  Fellowship (CSIR-NPDF). These young researchers are basically involved in science and  technology  development.  The  main  objective  of  the  National  S&T Human  Resource  Development  programme  is  to  nurture  the  budding scientific  talent  (Young  science  and  engineering  graduates/students) and to nourish the objective of  pursuit  of  scientific  research.  Annually CSIR offers about 4500-5000 such fellowships to young students who are going  to  be  future  scientists.  At  any  given  time,  CSIR  supports  about 8000-9000 young researchers in their pursuit for doctoral and

postdoctoral research in the field of science and technology.  CSIR gives CSIR  Innovation  Award  for  School  Children  (CIASC).  The  objectives  of this award are to capture creativity and innovativeness amongst school children  and  create  awareness  about  IPR.  The  Award  is  open  to  all Indian school children and is popularized in all national languages. The awardees  are  provided  opportunity  to  work  with  a  CSIR  labs  during summer  vacation.  Further,  the  winners  are  provided  an  opportunity  to connect to ATAL Tinkering Labs to further promote innovative activities of school children.

Apart  from  the  above,  CSIR  has  been  engaged  in  connecting  school students with scientists through its 'Jigyasa' (Student-Scientist Connect)  program  which  was  initiated  in  2017.  Council  of  Scientific  & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) had signed an MoU on Scientist - Student Connect programme 'Jigyasa' on 6th  July,  2017.  The  CSIR's  Jigyasa  program  is  a  unique  platform  for bringing scientists and teachers for nurturing young minds. This program envisages opening up the national scientific facilities to school children, enabling  CSIR  scientific  knowledgebase  and  facility  to  be  utilized  by school children. This model of engaging school children also has been extended to other schools in addition to KVS. The Jigyasa programme envisages some of the following models of engagement:

-  Laboratory Visit;
-  Popular Lecture Series;
-  Summer Vacation Programmes;
-  Scientists as Teachers and Teachers as Scientists;
-  Teachers' Workshop;
-  Student Residential Programme;
-  Visits of Scientists to Schools; and
-  Lab specific activities / Onsite experiments

37  Laboratories  of  CSIR  have  implemented  the  programme  connecting schools, benefitting nearly 3 lakh students from 2017 till date. More recently, CSIR  has  signed  MoU  with  NVS  for  collaboration  in  Scientist-Student Connect under 'Jigyasa' platform of scientific social responsibility. Taking forward CSIR's Jigyasa program to millions of school students, the JigyasaVirtual  Lab  concept  has  been  formalized.  CSIR  has  joined  hands  with  IIT Bombay for Virtual Lab to take Jigyasa benefits to large section of school student's community on completely digital mode.

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