MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES AND MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(DR. HARSH VARDHAN)
(a) Yes, Madam.
(b) The Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India has signed a Memorundun of Understanding (MoU) with The Department of Business Innovation and Skills, Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on establishing the “Newton-Bhabha Programme (A UK- India Research and Innovation Partnership)”.
The aims and objectives of the programme are to support the research and innovation capacity of the participants for long term sustainable growth through expanding and maximizing cooperation in research and innovation between research organizations, higher education institutions, government agencies, policy makers, companies and enterprises of India and United Kingdom.
The programme provides an important framework towards promoting research and innovation collaboration supporting long-term, sustainable partnerships and contribute to economic growth as well as addressing major challenges identified by both countries.
(c) & (d): Under this partnership, about 40 joint Research & Develop Programme programmes have been initiated in various areas by various departments of Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences in collaboration with counterpart agencies in United Kingdom. Out of these, under 26 joint research and innovation programmes over 100 projects have been funded in areas including Agriculture Genomic & Production, Animal & Human health, Aquaculture, Maternal and Child Health, Bioenergy, Waste to wealth, Atmospheric Pollution & Human Health, Anti-microbial resistance, Smart Grids and Energy Storage, Building Energy Efficiency and Water, Clean Energy, Earth System Science, Urbanization, future manufacturing and Cyber physical systems.
Under the translation strand of the Newton Bhabha program, 10 industry led joint Research and Development projects were supported to develop new Intellectual Property, technologies, processes and prototypes in the areas of affordable health care, clean technology, electronic design and internet of things.
Under the capacity building of the Newton-Bhabha partnership, Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) along with Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) of the British Government have jointly established Ph.D. Placement Programme. It aims to bring together the UK and Indian Ph. D. researchers by providing 2-4 months exposure in research as short term Research Internship at UK and India respectively for upgrading the research skills etc. So far more than 200 Indian Ph.D student has benefitted from this programme.
The Department of Biotechnology has also collaborated with Academy of Medical Science (AMS), UK to support two years post PhD advanced clinical research studies. So far 9 Indian scholars have been supported.
Apart from this other programmes such as SERB-RS Fellowship (Science and Engineering Research Board-Royal Society), SERB-Cambridge University Fellowship, India – UK Advanced Training Schools, bilateral workshops, seminars, frontiers of Science have been jointly supported under Newton Bhabha fund for capacity building.
(e) The Department of Biotechnology is in deliberation with counterparts in UK are initiating an Agri-data call to promote Science and tech based start-ups and research institutions in the field of agriculture. The Department of Science and Technology has also supported Agriculture Business Incubators in the country to promote Agriculture start ups.
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