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 chaired a high level joint review meeting for the preparations of Science-20 meetings of the ensuing G-20 Summit.

The meeting was attended by Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, Dr Ajay Kumar Sood and Secretaries of all the six Science Ministries and Departments, including Science & Technology, Biotechnology, CSIR, Earth Sciences, Space and Atomic Energy.

It may be pointed out that under the leadership of Dr Jitendra Singh, Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) is fully geared up to host the “FIRST ANTI CORRUPTION WORKING GROUP MEETING (ACWG) to be held from 1st March to 3rd March 2023 at the Leela Hotel, Gurugram, Haryana. As part of India’s G20 Presidency, there will be a series of nearly 40 meetings and side events back-to-back during this duration.

Apart from preparations for the G-20 Science Meetings, the agenda of today’s meet were the review of Science Awards, Creation of a New Communication structure after the winding up of Vigyan Prasar and Sankalp Meetings.

Dr Jitendra Singh said after the meeting that all the six Science Ministries and Departments under him hive finalized agenda and all kinds of Bandobast for the upcoming G-20 Summit meetings. The Minister also welcomed the topics and subjects assigned to Science Ministries.

Dr Jitendra Singh informed that apart from S-20 Summit and Side meetings, another important event assigned to DST is Research Innovation Initiated Gathering (RIIG) with side events.

The Science-20 Summit meeting will be held in Coimbatore from 21^st to 22^nd July, 2023 with the theme of “Disruptive Science for Innovative and Sustainable Growth”. The Sub-themes (side event topics) are- Non-conventional energy for a greener future, Connecting Science to Society and Culture and Holistic Health: Cure and Prevention of Disease.

Meeting schedule and venues for S-20 are as follows- Inception meeting: Pondicherry (30-31 January 2023), Side-event1: Bangaram Island, Lakshwadeep (27-28 February 2023), Side-event2: Agartala (3-4 April 2023), Side-event3: Indore (16-17 June 2023).

The S-20 Secretariat will be chaired by Dr Vijay P Bhatkar of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Prof Ajay K Sood and Prof Gautam Desiraju are also eminent members of the Secretariat.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, DST will also take care of the Research Innovation Initiated Gathering (RIIG) on the subject of “Research and Innovation for Equitable Society”. The Sub-theme/ topics for RIIG gathering will be Materials for Sustainable Energy (CSIR), Scientific Challenges and Opportunities towards Achieving a Sustainable Blue Economy (MoES), Bio-resource/ Biodiversity and Bio-economy (DBT) and Eco-Innovations for Energy Transition (SERB).

Meetings schedule and venues for RIIG are the following: Inception meeting: Kolkata (9-10 February 2023), Side-event1: Ranchi (21-22 March 2023), Side-event 2: Dibrugarh & Itanagar (24-25 March 2023), Side-event 3: Shimla (19-20 April 2023), Side-event 4: Diu (18-19 May 2023) and the RIIG Summit and Research Minister meeting, Mumbai (4-6 July 2023).

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