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Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

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Scheme to provide more opportunities for Indian origin scientists

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI, JAN. 8. The Union Science and Technology Minister, Kapil Sibal, said here today that his Ministry had prepared a scheme to provide more opportunities to the Scientists and Technologists of Indian Origin (STIOs) wanting to work on a short-term project in India.

Under the scheme, the STIOs would be able to spend 2-12 weeks at an Indian laboratory and work on a project. Mr. Sibal was addressing a special session on Science and Technology at the Third Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

He urged the scientists settled abroad to work and collaborate with their counterparts at home on projects that would address the pressing problems of the country. He wanted them to undertake research, particularly on agriculture and remarked that after the green revolution, India needed gene revolution to find high yield foodgrain varieties to be able to feed much larger population in future. He also wanted projects on healthcare and bio-technology.

He admitted that the Government's job was to provide an environment conducive to scientific research, which included autonomy to the institutions and scientists. He also underscored the need for setting up more scientific institutions in the country.

Stress on recognition

Mr. Sibal also stressed the need to give a better deal to scientists and recognition of their contribution and wondered how many of them had made it to government and corporate boards.

The scientists settled in different countries, particularly those from the U.S. and Canada suggested that India should pick and choose the research areas according to its own socio-economic needs and should not get carried away by what was being done in the West or by an ongoing buzzword or trend.

They said the country need not strictly follow the routes taken by the developed world and could bypass unnecessary technologies, learning from their mistakes.

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