Annual Report 2000 - 2001

Administration and Finance

Department of Science and Technology is the nodal Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The organisational structure of the Department has evolved over the years to respond quickly to the issues relating to the promotion and development of Science and Technology in the Country. It has three Subordinate Departments viz. India Meteorological Department (IMD), National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) and Survey of India (SOI) under its Administrative Control. In addition to it, the Department also supports 16 autonomous research institutions/ other bodies which are working in diverse areas for the promotion of Science and Technology.

The Administration and Finance Divisions of the Department look after the support facilities for the Subordinate Departments and Autonomous bodies including the personnel and financial administration. The activities undertaken by the different wings during the period under report are given as under :

Recruitment Cell

The Department of Science & Technology is exempted from consultation with the UPSC in the matters regarding selection/promotion to Group 'A' Scientific Posts. The Recruitment Cell is assigned the following items of work:

(a) Recruitment to the Gr. 'A' Scientific and Technical posts starting from the post of Scientist 'B' (having pay-scale of Rs. 8,000-13,500) to Scientist 'G' (pay-scale of Rs. 18,400-22,400).

(b) Assessment of eligible departmental scientists on completion of prescribed residency period under Flexible Complementing Scheme (FCS). Promotion (in-situ) under FCS is based on proven record of merit.

(c) Proposals regarding recognition of various institutions / organizations under Ministries / Departments as Scientific and Technical and introduction of FCS therein.

Parliament Unit

The Parliament Unit is assigned the responsibility to look after the entire Parliamentary Work of the Department. It also ensures that the Parliamentary Work pertaining to the Ministry of Science and Technology is accomplished as per the prescribed schedule and procedures. The Unit maintains liaison with the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Secretariats of Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha, other Ministries/Departments (including Scientific Departments ) with a view to fully discharge the Parliamentary obligations of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Unit also Coordinates the visits of the Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee etc. to various scientific institutions under the administrative control of the Department.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests met on March 30th 2000 to discuss the Demands for Grants for the year 2000-2001 of the Department and submitted its recommendations in its 72nd report presented to the Parliament on 24th April,2000. The action taken report on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee was also submitted to the Secretariat of the Committee as per schedule.

Welfare Cell

Welfare Cell of the Department looks after the welfare of DST Employees. A DST/DSIR Benevolent Fund has been established in the Department and 731 employees have become its members. Assistance is provided to the members and their families to relieve them of distress from time to time. About 4 to 5 employees have benefited through this fund during the period under report. A Crèche with requisite facilities is also being run within the Department premises for the benefit of its employees.

The Sports & Recreation Club promotes various indoor and outdoor activities. The Club regularly takes part in the inter-ministerial tournaments and organises cultural programmes and excursion tours. This year, the Cricket Team of the Department successfully participated in the inter-ministerial tournaments. Besides this, DST Cricket Team took part in Prof. Nayudamma Memorial Invitational Tournament organised by CSIR at CECRI, Karaikudi. DST also participated in various events like Cricket, Shooting Ball, Badminton, Chess and Carom for the first time in the All India IMD Sports Meet held at RMC, Chennai. DST Table Tennis Team participated in the TERI Tournament and reached the semi-finals. Further, the Welfare activities organised during the last year were organisation of Farewell Functions in the Honour of the Retiring Officers/ Employees.

Staff Position

DST has a total of 232 Group A and Group B officers on its rolls. A detailed breakup is given below:-

The Department has a total number of 426 non-gazetted staff on its rolls. The detailed Groupwise break-up is given below :

Internal Work Study Unit

During the year, Internal Work Study Unit (IWSU) engaged itself in ensuring compliance of the provisions of Manual of Office Procedure in the Secretariat of the Department and subordinate offices with a view to systematise and improve their functioning. O&M Inspection was also conducted in the Department and subordinate offices as per schedule in the revised questionnaire prescribed by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. Aided Institutes were also covered under the Annual O&M Inspection for the first time.

Steps were taken to implement the Public Records Act and Public Record Rules in the Office as well as to appoint Record Officers in light of the recommendations of the Committee of Secretaries on Records Management of the Government of India.

Suggestions were invited from Members of Public as well as from the Government Employees under the Award Scheme formulated by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

Induction material was finalised and distributed indicating the brief history of the Department and its subordinate offices/Autonomous Organisations.

Work Measurement Study of the Department is in an advanced stage and Work Measurement Report on most of the RMCs and MCs of India Meteorological Department would be finalised during the year 2000-2001.

Committees have been constituted to review the level of disposal and channel of submission of cases and for deployment of staff in the department.

The guidelines given in the meeting of the O&M Officers organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances to strengthen O&M aspects in the
Government of India Offices have been followed scrupulously.

Promotion of Official Language

For implementing the Official Language Policy of the Government, there is a full fledged Hindi Section in the Department. During the year, concerted efforts were made for implementing the provisions of Official Language Act, Rules made there under and orders/ instructions issued by the Department of Official Language from time to time regarding progressive use of Hindi in the Official Work of the Government of India. During the year, the following work was carried out :

• All general orders, Annual Report, Performance Budget, Cabinet Notes, Agreements etc. continued to be issued bilingually i.e. both in Hindi and English.
  
• Letters received in Hindi were invariably replied in Hindi. Incentive Scheme for original noting/drafting in official work in Hindi is in vogue in this Department and during the year 4 employees were awarded under this scheme.
  
• For encouraging the officers of DST to give more and more dictation in Hindi, an incentive scheme is also in vogue.
  
• The period September 14, 1999 to September 14, 2000 was celebrated as Rajbhasha Swarna Jayanti Year. With a view to create greater awareness of Official Language Policy during this period, special competitions viz. Translation, noting/drafting, Hindi typing and quiz competition were organised. All the competitions received enthusiastic response.
  
• Four meetings of the Official Language Implementation Committee were held during the year and follow-up action was taken on the recommendations made in these meetings.
  
• During the year, 7 employees were nominated for training in Hindi Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya Classes and 6 employees were nominated for training in Hindi typing and shorthand.
  
• 14th meeting of the Joint Hindi Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Department of Ocean Development was held on 21st July, 2000 in
  Parliament Annexe under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble Minister of State for Science and
  Technology.
  
• Work regarding reconstitution of Hindi Salahakar Samiti of the Ministry of Science and Technology is in progress as its term ended on 27th July, 2000.
  
• 4th issue of in-house Hindi Magazine "Tarang" was brought out during the Swarnjayanti Year of Official Language.
  
• With a view to encourage original writing in Hindi, the Department of Science and Technology has introduced "Dr. Meghnad Saha Award Scheme" since 1987. Under
  this scheme, awards were given to 4 authors by the Hon'ble MOS(S&T) on 8th May,
  2000 for original book writing in Hindi on Scientific subjects.
  

Library

A brief description of the activities undertaken by the DST Library is given below :

Collection Development : DST Library has the primary responsibility of meeting the information requirements of Officers/ Staff Members of DST/DSIR. To meet this objective, the Library undertakes collection development activity in consonance with the needs of its users by acquiring, processing and making available to the users scientific technical books/ journals etc. During the period under report, the Library added 220 books/monographs to its collection. In addition, around 110 scientific magazines/ journals were also received regularly and made available to users on demand.

Updation of Online Catalogue : The online catalogue of books available in the Library is updated regularly and the total number of machine readable record is now over 13,250.

Documentation/ Information Services : Besides acquiring books/ journals and making these available to the users, the Library continued meeting the day-to-day information requirements of its users. Further, the Documentation/ Information Services such as Current Awareness Service, Newspaper Clipping Service, Photocopying Service, Conducting Literature Surveys to meet specific needs of the users were also provided. Information Services were also provided to the users by searching appropriate information available on the Internet and during the year about 75 Internet searches on different topics were conduced for the users.

Also, to supplement the resources of the Library, Interlibrary Lending Service was also provided. In this service the Library borrowed books/ journals from other Libraries and in turn supplied books on Interlibrary Loan to other Libraries as per their requirements.

New Intitiative : To provide information to the users on the topics of general interests, an Internet based service was started during the last quarter of the year 2000. In this service, general topics are selected and information on these is searched on the Internet and after proper formatting the information is made available to the Officers of DST/ DSIR by e-mail. Till date, 3 such topics viz. Hydrogen Energy, Science Policy Organisations, International/Regional Laboratory Accreditation Bodies have been covered in this service.

Integrated Finance

The Integrated Finance Division (IFD) of DST has been entrusted with the responsibility of providing advice and support on all financial matters and monitoring the progress of expenditure on various activities. The DST was allocated an amount of Rs. 352.00 crores (Plan) and Rs. 432.46 crores (Non-Plan) for the year 2000-2001. The Budget for 2001-2002 is Rs. 829.62 crores ( Rs. 400.00 crores Plan and Rs. 429.62 crores Non-Plan).