Lok Sabha Question No. 3049 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-06
Subject: Promotion of Sustainable Innovation in Science and Technology
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Ramya  Haridas

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3049 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06/08/2021

## PROMOTION OF SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION IN SCIENCE AND

## TECHNOLOGY

3049.  MS. RAMYA HARIDAS:

मंğी

Will  the  Minister  of  SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ǒव£ान और Ĥौƭोिगकȧ be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  framed  any  policy  to  encourage  the students/ youth towards the field of Science and Technology;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the achievements made so far in this field; and
- (c)  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  for  promoting  affordable  and
- sustainable innovation in the field of Science and Technology?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES

(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

ǒव£ान और Ĥौƭोिगकȧ तथा पृØवी ǒव£ान क े राÏय मंğी ( èवतंğ Ĥभार) (डॉ . ǔजतɅġ िसंह)

- (a) Yes, Sir. It has been a part of Government's Science and Technology (S&T) policy to encourage students/youth of the country towards the field of science and technology.
- (b) The key elements of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Policy of  2013  include  promoting  the  spread  of  scientific  temper  amongst  all sections of society, enhancing skill for application of science among the youth  from  all  social  strata,  making  careers  in  science,  research  and innovation attractive enough for talented and bright minds.

Government has been implementing several schemes to encourage students/ youth of the country towards  the field of  science  and technology.  The  'Innovation  in  Science  Pursuit  for  Inspired  Research (INSPIRE)' is a major scheme in operation to attract, motivate, nurture and train talented and meritorious students to study science subjects and opt for careers in Research and Development (R&D) to build a pipeline of

quality  manpower,  thereby  widening  the  R&D  manpower  base  of  the country.  Close  to  42,000  young  students  of  class  6 th -  10 th receive  the INSPIRE  Award  MANAK  (Million  Minds  Augmenting  National  Aspiration and  Knowledge) per  year  from  recognized  schools  across  the  country. About  20,000  students  per  year  attend  INSPIRE  Internship  Camps  to experience the joys of creative pursuit of science. About 10,000 students in  top  1%  of  Class  12 th   Board  examinations  receive  Scholarships  For Higher Education (SHE) every year to pursue B.Sc and M.Sc courses in Basic and Natural Sciences. Every year, about 1,000 students are availing INSPIRE Fellowships for pursuing Ph.D. degree. 100 young researchers per year are availing INSPIRE Faculty Fellowships to establish themselves as independent post-doctoral researchers.  In order to attract and motivate young students, several international programmes  are also being implemented by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) such as Lindau  meeting  with  Nobel  Laureates,  Asian  Science  Camps,  Raman Charpak Fellowships, Sakura Exchange programme, etc.

The Autonomous Institutions under DST also train large numbers of summer research interns, Ph.D. and post-doctoral fellows, organize large number of important national/international conferences, outreach programmes for school and college students including lectures by their scientists, orientation programmes etc.

The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body under DST supports young researchers in a big way, through early career grants, core research grants, doctoral and postdoctoral  fellowships etc. Some of the notable programmes targeted at young  scientists  include:   National  Post-doctoral   Fellowship  (N-PDF), Start-up  Research  Grant  (SRG),  the  Prime  Minister's  Fellowship  for Doctoral Research, Swarnajayanti Fellowships etc. These schemes are designed to identify promising young researchers and provide them with training  and  research  opportunities  in  frontier  areas  of  science  and engineering.  Close  to  250  young  researchers  receive  National  Postdoctoral  Fellowships annually.  Majority of the 500 scientists supported under the Start-up Research Grant have been budding young researchers who  take  up  high-end  R&D  in  the  country.  There  are  100  slots  of fellowships available annually to researchers to pursue Ph.D.in partnership with Industry under the PM Fellowship for Doctoral Research.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been providing  doctoral  and  postdoctoral  fellowships  to  young  and  budding researchers through its various  fellowship programmes such as Junior Research Fellowship - National Eligibility Test (JRF- NET), Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship (SPMF), Senior Research Fellowship (SRF- Direct),

Research Associateships and CSIR-Nehru Science Postdoctoral Research

Fellowship  (CSIR-NSPDF).  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 to 9000 young researchers in their pursuit for doctoral and postdoctoral research in the field of science and technology.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has implemented integrated  Human  Resource Development  Programme  in  Biotechnology including  Star  College  Scheme  for  strengthening  of  Undergraduate Science Education, Postgraduate Teaching Programme, DBT-Junior Research Fellowship Programme, DBT-Research Associateship and DBTBiotechnology Industry Training (Apprenticeship) Programme in areas of Biotechnology and Life Sciences.

- (c)          Government has taken several steps to promote affordable and sustainable innovations in the field of science and technology. DST has launched National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations' (NIDHI)  programme  to  strengthen  the  innovation  value  chain  through Technology  Business  Incubators  (TBIs).  NIDHI  provides  much-needed support  to  innovators  and  entrepreneurs  at  different  stages  of  their journey to take their innovative ideas to market and further scale up its operations. The program aims to provide state-of-the art infrastructure for nurturing startups along with mentoring and funding support during preincubation, incubation and post incubation periods. NIDHI-TBI (Technology  Business  Incubator)  are  centres  established  in  academic setups to provide incubation support to startups through technical and business mentoring, IPR support, legal & regulatory guidance and seed funding for startup's growth. These incubators support startups in various technology domains like agritech, manufacturing, electronics, IoT, healthtech, biotech, AI/ML, deep-tech etc.

NIDHI-PRAYAS Shala specially assists innovators in their 'idea to prototype journey' through grant funding of up to Rs. 10 lakh. PRAYAS Centres  have  been  setup  in  various  academic  institutions  to  support innovators  and  entrepreneurs  to  test  their  ideas  and  make  prototypes which is further developed as products and a startup.

For  promoting  affordable  sustainable  innovation  in  the  field  of science  and  technology,  the  National  Innovation  Foundation  (NIF),  an National Grassroots  Innovation  and  Outstanding  Traditional  Knowledge  Awards and  for  it,  common  people  (including  youth)  share  their  ideas  and innovations.  NIF  provides  value-addition  and  incubation  support  to  the autonomous institution under DST organizes a biennial innovators so that their technologies can reach the market. NIF has also

set  up  NIF  Incubation  and  Entrepreneurship  Council  (NIFientreC),  a Technology Business Incubator, for setting up and incubating commercial ventures  based  on  innovative  technologies  of  common  people  of  the country.

CSIR  is  implementing  R&D  as  well  as  translational  projects  in various  categories,  namely,  Focused  Basic  Research,  Niche  Creating Projects, Fast Track Translational Projects, Fast Track Commercialization Projects, HARIT Projects and Mission Projects for the purpose.

DBT is supporting affordable Healthcare R&D towards understanding  the  cause  of  human  diseases  at  genetic  and  molecular level that enable the development of innovative therapies or preventive measures and early detection in areas like infectious diseases, chronic diseases,  human  genetics  and  genome  analysis,  maternal  and  child health, public health and nutrition, vaccine research, bioengineering and bio design, stem cells and regenerative medicine. DBT is also supporting translational  research  for  application  development  under  Accelerated Translational Grant for    Commercialization  (ATGC)  program.  ATGC enables  academic  researchers  to  take  their  laboratory  research  leads with established proof-of-concept to the next phase.

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