(a) whether the Government is in the process of revisiting the Science, Technology and Innovation(STI) policy; and
(b) if so, the details thereof and the progress made in this regard along with the funds sanctioned/spent and encouragement being given to students during the last five years and results achieved therefrom including for the Covid-19 situation?
MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE; MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; AND MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES
(DR. HARSH VARDHAN)
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(a) Yes, Sir. The Government has initiated formulation of the new Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (STIP).
(b) The STIP revolves around the core principles of being decentralized, evidence informed, bottom-up, experts-driven, and inclusive. The policy formulation framework involves 4 inter-linked tracks of activities and a coordination mechanism through a centralized secretariat that is coordinated, supported, and guided by Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India (office of PSA), NITI Aayog and Department of Science & Technology. So far, no fund has been allocated or sanctioned for the policy formulation process.
During last 5 years government has been encouraging students and youth of the country, and have launched several schemes to attract students and young researchers towards Science, Technology and Innovation. To encourage young students to think innovatively, a new program MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) has been launched in 2018 to target 10 lakh students every year from class 6 to 10.Under Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)” programme aims to attract the young talents towards pursuing their career in Science & Technology, the INSPIRE Internship has supported about 1,50,000 students, the top 1% students at Class X Board level through organizing 830 Science Camps during last five years to provide exposure to the joy of Scientific pursuits. The INSPIRE Scholarship for Higher Education has supported about 48,000 students over last five years (2014-18) for pursuing higher studies in basic and natural Sciences. National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) programme covers both the school going children and out of school children, in the age group of 10 to 17 years. Each year the Children’s Science Congress reaches out to about 200,000 children at the district level across the country over last five years. For COVID-19 situation, a Challenge COVID-19 Competition (C3) was initiated by National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous institution of DST, inviting innovations in eight different areas which could help the country come out of the pandemic. More than 1700 submissions have been received in the competition, which include students and the shortlisted innovations are being provided with mentoring and hand holding support. Several fellowship schemes such as, National Post Doctoral Fellowship; Early Career Research Award; Overseas Doctoral Fellowship, Overseas Post Doctoral Fellowship and Teacher Associates for Research Excellence have been launched. These schemes have almost doubled the opportunities for young and aspiring researchers for carrying out R&D in their chosen areas of science and engineering during last five years. Another scheme called, Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research (AWSAR) was launched to encourage young scientists to write popular science articles on their research pursuits. A pilot scheme VIGYAN JYOTI was tested on limited scale and duration to attract and encourage young women in the underrepresented areas such as engineering, mathematics, etc. in the top institutions.
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