The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had a meeting with the Chairman Professor C.N.R. Rao and other members of the recently reconstituted Scientific Advisory Council to Prime Minister (SAC to PM) here today to discuss its future plans and programmes and areas that require attention on short term as well as long term basis. Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for S&T and Earth Sciences also actively participated in this meeting.

The Chairman Professor C.N.R. Rao presented the major contributions made by the Science Advisory Council in the past five years. These include:

• Establishment of two new S&T Ministries/ Departments in the Government of India, namely, Department of Health Research and Ministry of Earth Sciences;
• Setting up of five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research
• A new autonomous structure to support innovation, research & development, the newly approved National Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) to fund scientific research in India.

The Chairman of SAC made a presentation on “India’s competitiveness in Science & Engineering” and the main item discussed was roadmap for making India competitive in science and a global Innovation hub in next 5 to 10 years.

The discussion with the Prime Minister and MoS mainly pertained to three major topics: namely the role and operationalization of the National Science & Engineering Research Board; the need and roadmap to develop medical research in general and biomedical research in particular; and the most important one being the need to improve the quality of scientific effort in the country and the means of becoming a global centre for innovation and showing better performance in all spheres of science in the next few years. Some aspects related to mobility of scientists and other aspects related to bureaucratic impediments were also discussed.

The Prime Minister and the Minister lauded the efforts of the Council on various fronts and the encouraging results that have emerged. The Prime Minister accepted the recommendation of the SAC to convene a meeting of National Development Council (NDC) to discuss issues related to science education and engagement of States in research and development and requested SAC to prepare a roadmap for discussion at NDC. He urged the Council to work with the same zeal and to come out with appropriate recommendations related to several other important aspects for taking S&T in the country ahead.

Source: Press Information Bureau
Date: 29 January, 2010