(a) Whether there has been under utilization of the funds allocated to Research and Development Scheme for Conservation and Development’ for the last three years;
(b) Whether the Government has undertaken assessment on the reasons for the same, if so, the details thereof; and
(c) The corrective steps undertaken by the Government to improve the usage of funds?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a) to (c) The Research and Development (R&D) Scheme supports and funds R&D projects in important thematic areas of the environment prevention, protection and management. The proposals are appraised and approved through a two-tier process comprising of a Technical and Financial Appraisal Committee (TFAC) and a Steering Committee. The grant for conducting research is released in installments after the examination of the progress report/ outputs of the project or any other recommendations by TFAC/ Steering Committee. In order to fast track this process, the applications are invited online on a dedicated web portal of the Ministry which became operational in 2018. An expenditure of Rs. 4.49 Cr. was incurred against the budget provision of Rs. 4.50 Cr and an expenditure of Rs. 2.57 Cr. was incurred against the budget provision of Rs. 3.00 Cr in the FY 2019-20 and 2020-21; respectively. A total of 19 TFAC meetings and 10 Steering committee meetings have been held (as on 22.03.2022) & a total of 22 new projects have been approved.
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