Several New Initiatives for Young India Year Ender 2008
Introduction
Department of Science & Technology initiated several easy to access programmes for people. Following are some of the highlights:
Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspire Research (INSPIRE)
INSPIRE is a programme by the Department of Science & Technology for attraction of talent to study science and careers with research. The Scheme includes three sub-components namely a) Scheme for Early Attraction of Talents for Science (SEATS), b) Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) and c) Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC).
Scheme for Early Attraction of Talent (SEATS) aims to attract talented youth to study science through INSPIRE award of Rs 5000 to each awardee. About one million young learners of the age group 10-15 years will be selected fro INSPIRE Award from the toppers who constitute approximately one percent in the Class X Board examinations in the country. Summer camps for about 50,000 youth will be organised in which students will interact with global science leaders..
Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) aims to enhance rates of attachment of talented youth to higher education in science intensive programmes. The scheme offers 10,000 scholarship and mentorship every year @ Rs 0.80 lakh per year for undertaking Bachelor and Masters level education in natural sciences. A main feature of the scheme is in mentorship support for every scholar through INSPIRE scholarship.
Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC) aims to attract, attach, retain and nourish talented young scientific Human Resource for strengthening the R&D foundation and base by offering doctoral INSPIRE fellowship in the age group of 22-27 in the both basic and applied sciences including engineering and medicine and assured opportunity for post doctoral researchers in the age group of 27-32 years through contractual and tenure track positions for 5 years in both basic and applied sciences areas through an INSPIRE faculty scheme.
Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB)
SERB is an autonomous empowered Board to be established through an Act of Parliament. It will promote excellence in research through established groups pursuing advanced research and gaining global competitiveness for Indian Science and strive to de-bureaucratize the funding support system. The Parliament has passed the bill on the formation of SERB.
Nano Mission
India has mounted a national nano mission in 2007 with an objective of promoting basic and applied research in nano science with an outlay of Rs 1000 crores over 5 years. Under this mission, a new Institute of nano science and technology at Mohali and centers of Banglore and Kolkata are being established. Projects and centres of excellence in basic and applied research have been supported with an outlay of over Rs 150 crores during 2007-08. More than 500 students are currently carrying out doctoral research in nano science in the country.
Initiative for Technologies for Safe Drinking Water
The department has mounted a national initiative to assess technologies and products available for providing safe drinking water for decentralized use and create a data base of technologies after the evaluation of field performance of products and technologies.
Recent Success Stories of the incubated companies promoted by NSTEDB, DST supported Technology Business Incubator (TBI).
Torque 360 Degree Solutions is an incubated company of Technopark, Trivandrum which specializes in providing wireless messaging solutions enabling direct communication with targeted audiences and service them through various messaging products and tools. One of its spin off, MobME , Mobile Media and Entertainment Start-up is valued at US $ 7 Million and is listed on top 100 IT Innovators 2007 by NASSCOM.
Laurus Laboratories nurtured in ICICI Knowledge Park, Hyderabad, life science Incubator functions in the area of pharmaceutical process development which provides integrated services, technologies and manufacturing capabilities spanning the entire drug development life cycle, have had an iconic growth with over USD 100 million valuation and a strategic partnership with Aptuit Inc. in less than two years and created 425 scientist level jobs and around 100 support level jobs.
SooryaKiran Bioinformatics (P) Ltd is a university incubated, new generation bioinformatics company functioning from Technopark, Trivandrum provides reliable, cost effective, world-class customized solutions that bridge the gap between information analysis and knowledge management. The company is poised to establish itself as a world renowned organization, striving to set benchmarks in Computational Biology and Bioinformatic.
National Mission on Bamboo Applications
National Mission on Bamboo Applications focused attention on value addition of bamboo materials through applications of technology and product development in area of structural materials and energy generation. Several housing and structural applications related technologies have been commercialized.
Drugs and Pharmaceutical Research Program
The programme has established a number of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in drug development. Total of 85 collaborative R&D projects with leading industries, 31 national facilities and 37 Pharma Industry loan projects have been supported.
The programme has resulted in filing 15 product patents and 13 process patents. Industrial leads on Psoriasis, Migraine, Malaria, Anti-Glaucoma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Diabetes, aging, Pancreatic Cancer, Osteoporosis are under different phases (Phase I, II, III) clinical trials.
Science Express – an innovative science exhibition on-wheels
Science Express’, an innovative Indo-German Pathway to Discovery, is a unique science exhibition-on-wheels. It was flagged off by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and Federal Chancellor of Germany Dr. Angela Merkel from Delhi Safdarjung on 30 October 2007. It is a joint venture between the Max Planck Society Germany (MPS), a Noble laureate powerhouse and Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, with the support of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German corporate giant BASF and its Indian arm, among others. The exhibition comprising of over 350 interactive displays, large format modules, video clips and voice-overs strived to provide insights into some most pressing questions about evolution besides state-of-the-art of several scientific pursuits. It also hosted world famous Kids’ Lab of BASF and over 15,000 students performed interesting experiments in Chemistry.
During its incredible tour of India to 57 locations in 217 days covering over 15,000 kms during, this first-of-its kind exhibition received overwhelming response at each halt as it attracted over 22.5 lakhs visitors. Buoyed by its success, a modified version called ‘sciencexpress’ having more indigenous content has been launched on 30 November 2008 to another 50 destinations not covered earlier.
International S&T Cooperation
The Department of Science and Technology on behalf of the Government of India has enlarged the Scope and strength of S&T cooperation with many countries during the year 2008-09. Stepped cooperation with European Union, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, Israel, Russia, SAARC, brazil, South Africa formed special focus during 2008-09. Indian beam line in Japan, Science express with Germany, Industrial R&D fund support with Israel and Canada, science bridges with UK, Joint Biomedical center with Russia, coordinated call for research on computational material science with EU are some indications of stepped up S&T cooperation registered during 2008-09.
Source
Press Information Bureau, January 01, 2012
