PM Modi to inaugurate science conclave in Ahmedabad next month

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the two-day Conclave of the Science and Technology Ministers from all the States and Union Territories at Science City, Ahmedabad on September 10.

Union Minister of State Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said that the Conference is being given a different format with a focus on new technologies relevant to each of the different States/UTs and their optimum application for “ease of living”. The meeting will also help break silos between the Centre and the States, while strengthening Science Technology and Innovation (STI) ecosystem through greater synergy across the country, he said.

Science and Technology Ministers of all 28 States, Administrators of eight UTs, key officials from States and Centres and CEOs of over 100 startups and industries are expected to take part in the two-day Science Conclave.

Singh informed that the Conclave will have a new dimension as several action-oriented decisions will be taken and all States and UTs will be asked to have individual Science and Technology policies on the lines of the National STI policy. The Minister said, in the true spirit of cooperative federalism, the Centre will assist States in formulating their State STI policies. He said the Centre will also work jointly with States to address their Specific STI needs, challenges and gap areas and evolve solutions.

The Minister said that there is a need for States to be proactive in aligning their policies towards the larger goal of strengthening Centre-State coordination and collaboration mechanism to strengthen STI ecosystem in the States by promoting research and development, innovation and entrepreneurship.

He said States must be able to explore solutions to their local problems through S&T interventions and promised all help by the Centre in exploring such solutions by connecting them to knowledge institutions and experts. The Minister pointed out that some of the States and UTs have weak S&T base and institutional strength and therefore they must connect their institutions with central government R&D and academic institutions.

Jitendra Singh shared with the participants that almost every State has S&T Council but only a few are working proactively and therefore the need was felt to enhance STI engagements with States beyond the S&T Council level. He said, the mapping of STI cosystem has four broad indicators like knowledge produced within the system, diffusion of the produced knowledge within the system, interactions/linkages between the knowledge producers and knowledge diffusers and identifications of needs/priorities and challenges/weaknesses of the system. The Minister informed that the DST made an attempt to develop a ‘System Framework’ for mapping the STI ecosystem of the States.

Dwelling on the broad agenda of the Conclave, Singh said, it will aim at fostering proactive engagements between Centre and States in S&T, creating a mechanism to facilitate the flow of STI information and data between Centre and States, capacity building of scientists, technologists and professionals from States in key technology areas.

He said, the Centre and States will work together to promote Private sector participation in State R&D and will try to put in position a robust and long-term “Centre-State coordination and monitoring mechanism in STI at the highest level.