Question : PROPOSALS FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(a) whether the Union Government has received proposals from various State Governments for the development of Science and Technology in the respective States during the last three years and the current year;

(b) if so, the details thereof, year and State/UT-wise particularly from Uttar Pradesh.

(c) the details of the proposals sanctioned, rejected by the Government during the said period, State/UT-wise;

(d) the amount allocated and released for the said purpose during the last three years and the current year;

(e) the details of the proposals pending out of the said proposals and the reasons therefor; and

(f) the time by which the pending proposals are likely to be sanctioned?

MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES (S. JAIPAL REDDY)

(a) to (d): The Ministry of Science & Technology does not implement any Centrally Sponsored Schemes and also do not have any provision for making state-wise allocations. The Ministry in coordination with State Governments including the State of Uttar Pradesh implements some Central Schemes like Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Award scheme, State Science and Technology Programme (SSTP) and Patent Facilitation Cell (PFC) Programme and seek proposals from them. Details on INSPIRE Award, SSTP and PFC programmes for the years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 (current year) are given below:

(i) Under INSPIRE Award scheme of Department of Science & Technology (DST), two students are selected from every middle & high school of the country having classes 6 to 10 during a Five Year Plan period for an INSPIRE Award of Rs.5000/- each for preparing a Science Project/Model. Merit based selection of students is done by the State Government machinery involving Headmaster/ Headmistress/Principal of the schools. Award amount is directly sent to the selected children in the form of an INSPIRE Award Warrant issued by Bank. The awardees participate in the District Level Exhibition and Project Competitions (DLEPCs) and best 5% to 10% entries from the District are selected for participation in the State Level Exhibitions & Project Competitions (SLEPCs). Best 5% entries from the State/UT, subject to a minimum of 5 are selected to participate in the National Level Exhibition and Project Competition (NLEPC). Implementation of the scheme is done by the State/UT Governments. All the 28 states and 7 UTs are participating in the scheme. Entire cost for conduct of competitions at various levels is borne by the Central Government. Money is released to State Nodal Officers in-charge of INSPIRE for organizing competitions at District and State Levels.

(ii) Under State Science and Technology Programme (SSTP) of DST annual core grant support has been provided to State Science & Technology Councils. Core support is provided to State S&T Councils with the objective of facilitating these councils in planning, monitoring and implementing S&T activities in the States. This core grant assistance partially covers support for Scientific, Technical & Administrative manpower, travel, office expenses and modern office equipment etc.

(iii) Under Patent Facilitation Cell (PFC) programme of DST, 24 Patent Information Centres (PICs) are supported in various states including the State of Uttar Pradesh for creating awareness and extend assistance on protecting Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) including patent, copyright, geographical indication etc. at state level. These PICs are also creating Intellectual Property Cells in Universities (IPCU) of their respective states. As of now 71 IPCU’s have been created in different universities of the states.

Year-wise and State-wise details of the grants provided under the above programmes during the last three years (2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12) and the current year (2012-13) are given in the Annexure. The programme-wise, year-wise grants provided during this period to the States are as under:

(Rs. in lakhs)
Name of Programme	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	Total
INSPIRE Award	8283.40	15125.05	15095.07	12139.46	50642.98	(126468)	(250009)	(242661)	(218837)	(837975)
SSTP	985.35	1317.64	1480.14	1449.23	5232.36
PFC	45.83	78.00	51.62	89.17	264.62
Total	9314.58	16520.69	16626.83	13677.86	56139.96
# figures in brackets indicate the number of INSPIRE Awards to all states.

Nature of the proposals	State	Relevant	Status	Department in	Ministry of S&T
(a) Science City/Museum/Centre	Maharashtra,	Transferred	Chhattisgarh,	to Ministry	West Bengal,	of Culture	Gujarat
(b) New R&D Institutes and
Laboratories
1. Regional Centre of Sree Chitra	Wayanad, Kerala	DST	In process
Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences
& Technology
2. National Centre for Natural
Resources
3. National Agriculture Biotechnology	Ravishankar	DST	Established
Institute	Shukla University,	Chhattisgarh	Mohali, Punjab	DBT	Established
4. Institute for Nano Science	Mohali, Punjab	DST	In process
and Technology
5. Tropical Botanical Garden &	Palode, Kerala	DSI	In process
Research Institute
6. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of	Hyderabad,	DSIR	In process
Creativity	Andhra Pradesh
7 North Eastern Centre for	Shillong,	DST	Approved
Technology Application & Reach	Meghalaya with
(NECTAR)	Regional Centres	in other NER States
(c) Take over of some of the State supported R&D institutions by the Central Government
1. Institute of Advanced Studies	Guwahati, Assam	DST	Taken over
in Science & Technology
2. Rajiv Gandhi Centre for	Thiruvananthapuram,	DBT	Taken over
Biotechnology	Kerala
(d) Creation of State Spatial Data	Karnataka, Kerala,	DST	Under
Infrastructure etc.	Gujarat,	Geographic	North Eastern	Information	Region already	System –	established	All states	will be	covered in	phased	manner