The Hindu : Task force being set up to develop human resource

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Task force being set up to develop human resource

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 17. Central government bodies and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) will be part of a national task force to be constituted "to translate some of the actionable parts" of the National Science and Technology (S and T) Policy document and ensure that scientific developments are relevant to society and industry, the DST Secretary, V.S. Ramamurthy, said on Saturday.

The document released last year by the DST broadly looked at helping India achieve global leadership in certain areas and also ensure that S and T developments benefited the country and society. It sought to focus on S and T activities in agriculture, health care, education and employment generation. The national task force to implement these "actionable parts" and for developing human resource was being constituted.

The University Grants Commission (UGC), the All-India Council for Technical Education and other agencies would be part of the task force.

Dr. Ramamurthy was here to deliver the Second " Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi (Union Human Resource Development Minister) 70th birthday commemoration endowment lecture" instituted by the Arulmigu Kalasalingam College of Engineering.

Dr. Ramamurthy said Indian scientists prepared a traditional knowledge digital library (TKDL), which documented information from existing literature in Indian medical systems. Information about Indian medicine formulations in a digitised format had been released recently in seven languages.

Patent offices the world over could look at the database and then decide whether they should grant a patent for any claim for innovation using traditional Indian medicine systems. Earlier, offices granting patents had no ready reckoner and hence attempts were being made to patent outside India some of the traditionally known cures and drugs.

The project involved collaboration among the Department of Commerce, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy.

The DST was funding a project to set up `scaled down models of desalination plants that used reverse osmosis technologies' in the Jamnagar area in Gujarat. The idea was to set up desalination plants at an affordable cost of a few lakhs of rupees in housing colonies and produce a few thousand litres of fresh water.

A National Pharmaceutical Research and Development Fund was created at a cost of Rs.150 crores and the Centre proposed to increase this amount. The fund could be used by pharma and drug companies for research and development, especially in the new patent regime which would be in place in 2005.

The UGC Vice-Chairman, V.N. Rajasekaran Pillai, who presided, and K. Venkatasubramaniam, Member of the Union Planning Commission, lauded the DST for producing a comprehensive S and T policy document that focussed on making science relevant to the people.

They said the initiatives in these areas had been made by Dr. Joshi to bring about a healthy correlation among education, industry and economy. Among those who spoke were the college chairman, T. Kalasalingam and the principal, C. Thangaraj.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu