Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today informed that 168 proposals/requirements were received from 33 Line Ministries/Departments for Scientific Applications and Technological Support & Solutions by all the six S&T departments including Space and Atomic energy. The concerned Science Ministries and Departments have started working on these, he added.

This was stated by Dr Jitendra Singh at a high level Capacity Building joint meeting of all the Science and Technology Ministries/Departments. The meeting was attended by Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, HemangJani, Secretary Capacity Building Commission, Dr. M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr S. Chandrasekhar, Secretary, DST, Dr Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, DBT, Dr.Shekhar C Mande, Secretary, DSIR, and other senior officials.

This unique initiative was launched by Dr Jitendra Singh in mid-September this year, wherein representatives from all the Science Ministries including Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Atomic Energy, Space/ISRO, CSIR, and Biotechnology separately engaged in extensive brain storming with each of the different Ministries in Government of India to work out which scientific applications could be utilised in which sector. The Minister had stressed the need for integrated theme based projects instead of a particular Ministry based or a particular Department based projects.

Dr Jitendra Singh expressed satisfaction that such a large number of proposals were received from Line Ministries within three months of the initiative launched in September to work out utilisation of different scientific applications for sectors like agriculture, dairy, food, education, skill, railways, roads, Jal Shakti, power and coal. This is keeping in mind that every sector today has become largely dependent on scientific technology, he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only has a natural predilection for science but is also forthcoming in supporting and promoting science and technology based initiatives and projects. He added that this is the right time to come out of silos and follow an integrated approach for better outcomes.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the meeting has set the vision for capacity building of science ministries and departments under Government of India to achieve the Prime Minister’s vision of 5 trillion dollar economy and improving ease of living for all citizens. The Capacity building needs of these departments is one of the key outcomes of Mission Karmayogi, which aims to enhance governance in the country through transformational change in the Civil Service Capacity Building.

1. may be recalled that on the directions of Dr Jitendra Singh, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India Prof. K VijayaRaghavan chaired over dozen meetings so far with the line departments/ministries and the S&T departments and identified five themes of the meeting(i) Energy and Climate Change Mitigation,(ii) Infrastructure and Industries;(iii) Agriculture, Food and Nutrition (iv) Education, Skilling and Social Empowerment;(v) Health.

The meeting emphasised on solution-driven research, public R&D system, catering challenges of the line ministries, improving the economic competitiveness of industries and government service delivery to citizens. Similarly, Line Ministries have been asked to identify needs and use their R&D budgets for objective-oriented research in coordination with S&T departments

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