Experts from various domains deliberated on a roadmap for robust and forward-looking science policies that can keep pace with the changing S&T ecosystem, facilitate ease of carrying out S&T and drive societal progress, at the National Brainstorming on the “Transforming Science, Technology and Innovation Ecosystem of India” on 22nd May 2024 at Indian National Science Academy (INSA).
In his inaugural address, Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary Department of Science and Technology (DST) said that DST was the pioneer in developing science and technology policies to facilitate R&D over the years. “We set up several centers of policy research, and we have taken the lead in areas like formulating science and technology indicators, benchmarking those indicators against global practices, and doing evidence-based analysis about the entire the scientific and technology ecosystem in the country.
“At present, as the S&T ecosystem transforms rapidly, we need to design agile and adaptive policies that can sync with the changes,” he added.
Prof. Karandikar emphasised that DST could take a lead in developing policy interventions in different sectors in harmony with all line ministries for bringing out ease of doing research and facilitating deep tech startups.
“We need a long-term policy for creating a very robust and strong ecosystem of basic science research in the country, which can lead to more discoveries and inventions from our country. I hope that all of you who have been working in their respective areas will be able to deliberate and come out with some recommendations which we can take forward,” he pointed out.
Prof Ashutosh Sharma, President INSA said that STI policy formation was a mammoth exercise, involving consultation of a wide range of around 50,000 stakeholders from different sectors and balancing conflicting demands.
He said that science can work only with right kind of policy highlighting how the new open National Geospatial Policy could reach benefits of Geospatial information to Indians and helped make resources like rural land economically important by defining ownership.
Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser, DST gave an outline of the DST’s policy research initiatives and the chalked out the entire exercise of formulation of the Science, Technology Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020.
The day-long discussions organised by DST and hosted by INSA, focused on critical areas like Research & Innovation; Equity and Inclusion; Technology Development, Translation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; International Cooperation; STI Governance & System Interconnectedness; and Science Communication.
The expected outcomes from the sessions are to develop a comprehensive roadmap for national science policy development, identify specific policy recommendations to address critical challenges within each focus area., foster collaboration and knowledge exchange between policymakers, researchers and industry stakeholders and establish a platform for ongoing dialogue and collaborative policy development efforts.
