(a) the details of task forces functioning under the Department of Bio-technology along with the achievements thereof during each of the last three years and the current year;
(b) the number of research projects sanctioned by Bio-technology department for different universities during the above period; and
(c) the names of such universities along with the amount allocated to each of these universities?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (Y. S. CHOWDARY)
(a) Yes, Madam. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has 27 subject matter task forces in various areas of life sciences and biotechnology. The subject matter of these task forces include : basic research in modern biology; nano-technology; development and applications of genome based technologies; infectious diseases biology; human development and disease biology; chronic disease biology; vaccines and diagnostics; human genetics and genome analysis; stem cell research and regenerative medicine; bioengineering; agricultural biotechnology; basic plant biology, agriculture and frontier areas; public health including food and nutritional interventions; value added biomass and products from natural resources; environmental biotechnology; research resources, service facilities and platforms; university interdisciplinary life sciences for education and research; animal biotechnology; energy biosciences; biosystems and bioprocess engineering; aquaculture & marine biotechnology; bioinformatics, computational and systems Biology; human resource development; neuro-disease biology; cancer disease biology; and biotechnology based programme for societal development. As per terms of reference, the task forces are engaged in technical appraisal of projects and programmes under competitive grant system for funding. Regular monitoring of the funded projects and suggesting new and emerging areas for implementation are other responsibilities of the task force. Accordingly, during the last three years on an average per year each task force has technically appraised about 60-80 projects and recommended 20-30 projects for funding and implementation, reviewed and monitored about 50 ongoing projects.
(b) The year wise number of research projects / programmes sanctioned to various investigators in different universities during last three years are 167 (2012-13), 172 (2013-14) and 218 (2014-15).
(c) The names of investigators in various universities along with project title, duration of the project and amount allocated are available at the department’s website http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/ data-bases.