ON STATE'S ROLE: C.N.R. Rao (second from right), Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, speaking to Minister for Science and Technology and Rural Development Basavaraj Horatti at a programme in Bangalore on Saturday. P. Ba laram (left), Director, IISc., Bangalore, and Union Science and Technology Secretary V.S. Ramamurthy are seen. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: C.N.R. Rao, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said on Saturday that a Cabinet note on the national science education and research foundation, to be established soon at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,000 crores, has been approved, and the project now has to be sanctioned by Parliament.

Addressing presspersons at a meeting of State ministers, heads of State science and technology departments and directors of State science and technology councils here on Saturday, Dr. Rao said two national institutes of science education and research will commence functioning in Pune and Kolkata from June 2006, and Rs. 500 crores will be spent on each of them in five years.

About the foundation, he said it will be established on the lines of the national science foundations of the U.S. and China. The foundation will help take up high-level scientific and engineering research across the country. Efforts are being made to establish the headquarters of the foundation outside the national capital, he added.

Dr. Rao said the proposed institutes in Pune and Kolkata, which will help improve science education, will be established on the model of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bangalore.

He said State governments have neglected science and technology and failed to allocate sufficient funds for science-related activities. The bureaucracy should not come in the way of implementing science projects, he said and urged it to change its attitude to science.

He said a meeting of the State science and technology departments and State science and technology councils should be held every year.

The meeting is being held after a gap of 15 years.

Delivering a lecture at the inauguration of the meet, Union Science and Technology Secretary V.S. Ramamurthy said States are not coming forward to invest in science and technology, and most of the science and technology councils are not active. They need to be strengthened, he said.

Minister for Science and Technology and Rural Development Basavaraj Horatti said budgetary allocations for science and technology will be increased from Rs. 13 crores to Rs. 51 crores in the 2006-07 State budget. According to him, the State has not received funds from the Centre for science projects.

Science park

He said a science park will be established on the outskirts of the Bangalore. Science centres will be established in 20 districts, and work is going on in Mangalore, Gulbarga, Dharwad and Mysore.

M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, said there is no shortage of funds for science projects.

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