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REPORT NO. 318 PARLIAMENT OF INDIA RAJYA SABHA DEPARTMENT-RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS THREE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH REPORT Action taken by the Government on the Recommendations/Observations contained in the Three Hundred Tenth Report of the Department- related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests on the Demands for Grants (2018-19) of the Department of Science and Technology (Presented to the Rajya Sabha on2 nd January, 2019 ) (Laid on the Table of Lok Sabha on2 nd January, 2019 ) Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi January, 2019/Pausa, 1940 (Saka) Website : http://rajyasabha.nic.in E-mail : [email protected] 19 Hindi version of this publication is also available PARLIAMENT OF INDIA RAJYA SABHA DEPARTMENT-RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS THREE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH REPORT Action taken by the Government on the Recommendations/Observations contained in the Three Hundred Tenth Report of the Department- related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests on the Demands for Grants (2018-19) of the Department of Science and Technology (Presented to the Rajya Sabha on 2nd January, 2019) (Laid on the Table of Lok Sabha on 2nd January, 2019) Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi January, 2019/Pausa, 1940 (Saka) CONTENTS PAGES 1. COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE ....................................................................................... (i)-(ii) 2. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... (iii) 3. ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................................ (iv) 4. REPORT ................................................................................................................................. 1-13 Chapter I : Recommendations/Observations which have been accepted by the Department............................. .................................................. 1-9 Chapter II : Recommendations/Observations which the committee does not desire to pursue in view of the Department’s replies........................... 10-11 Chapter III : Recommendations/Observations in respect of which replies of the Department have not been accepted by the committee........................ 12 Chapter IV : Recommendations/Observations in respect of which final replies of the Department are still awaited............................. ......................... 13 5. RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS AT A GLANCE ................................................................ 14 6. MINUTES ............................................................................................................................... 15-17 COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE (2018-19) (Constituted on 1st September, 2018) 1. Shri Anand Sharma — Chairman RAJYA SABHA 2. Shri Prasanna Acharya 3. Shri S.R. Balasubramoniyan 4. Shri Anil Baluni 5. Shri Rajkumar Dhoot 6. Shri Hishey Lachungpa 7. Dr. Raghunath Mohapatra 8. Shri Parimal Nathwani 9. Shri Sharad Pawar 10. Dr. T. Subbarami Reddy LOK SABHA 11. Maulana Badruddin Ajmal 12. Shri Muzaffar Hussain Baig 13. Shri E.T. Mohammed Basheer 14. Shri Prabhatsinh Pratapsinh Chauhan 15. Kumari Sushmita Dev 16. Shri Ninong Ering 17. Shri Laxman Giluwa 18. Dr. K. Gopal 19. Shri Sunil Kumar Jakhar 20. Shri Ramesh Chander Kaushik 21. Shrimati Vasanthi M. 22. Shri Daddan Mishra 23. Shri Chirag Paswan 24. Shri Shivaji Adhalrao Patil 25. Shri Hari Narayan Rajbhar 26. Shrimati Sandhya Roy 27. Shri Kirti Vardhan Singh 28. Shri Vikram Usendi 29. Shri Prabhubhai Nagarbhai Vasava #30. Vacant #31. Vacant # Shri Raghu Sharma and Shri Nagendra Singh ceased to be members of the Committee consequent upon their resignation from the Lok Sabha w.e.f. 21st December, 2018. (i) (ii) SECRETARIAT Shrimati Sunita Sekaran, Joint Secretary Shri T. N. Pandey, Director Shri S. Rangarajan, Additional Director Shri Mohd. Salamuddin, Additional Director Shri Rajiv Saxena, Under Secretary Shri Shubham Bose, Assistant Research Officer INTRODUCTION I, the Chairman of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests, having been authorised by the Committee to present the Report on its behalf, present this Three Hundred Eighteenth Report on Action Taken by the Department of Science and Technology on the Recommendations/Observations contained in the Three Hundred and Tenth Report of the Committee on Demands for Grants (2018-19) of the Department of Science and Technology, which was presented/laid in both the Houses of Parliament on 13th March, 2018. 2. There were 27 Recommendations/Observations in the Three Hundred and Tenth Report of the Committee. Action Taken Notes on the Recommendations/Observations of the Committee were received from the Department on 26th July, 2018. 3. In the meeting held on 27th December, 2018, the Committee considered the draft Report and adopted the same. ANAND SHARMA NEW DELHI; Chairman, 27th December, 2018 Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Pausa 6, 1940 (Saka) Science and Technology, Environment and Forests, Rajya Sabha. (iii) ACRONYMS BRICS : Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa CPS : Cyber-Physical Systems DST : Department of Science and Technology FAIR : Facility for Anti Proton & Ion Research Project FIST : Fund for Improvements of S&T Infrastructure in Higher Educational Institutions ICPS : Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems IIA : Indian Institute of Astrophysics INSPIRE : Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research ITDD : Innovation, Technology Development and Deployment KIRAN : Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing OVDF : Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellowship PFC : Patent Facilitating Centre PIC : Patent Information Centres R&D : Research and Development RE : Revised Estimate SAIF : Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities SERB : Science and Engineering Research Board TDP : Technology Development Programmes TIFAC : Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council TOT : Training of Trainers TRCs : Technical Research Centres (iv) REPORT The Action Taken Report (ATR) of the Committee deals with the action taken by the Department of Science and Technology on the recommendations/observations contained in Three Hundred Tenth Report of the Committee on ‘Demands for Grants (2018-2019) of the ‘Department of Science and Technology’. The Report was presented to Rajya Sabha and laid on the Table of Lok Sabha on the 13th March, 2018. 2. Action Taken Note (ATN) has been received from the Department of Science and Technology in respect of all the twenty seven Recommendations/Observations contained in the Three Hundred Tenth Report. This has been categorized as follows:- Chapter I : Recommendations/Observations which have been accepted by the Government: Para:- 5.3, 7.7, 7.8, 9.3, 10.3, 11.7, 12.14, 13.11, 13.12, 14.9, 14.10, 14.11, 15.9, 15.10, 15.11, 16.6, 16.7, 17.8, 18.7, 19.6 and 20.4. (TOTAL – 21) Chapter II : Recommendations/Observations which the Committee does not desire to pursue in view of the Government’s replies: Para:- 8.7, 8.8, 11.12 and 20.5. (TOTAL – 4) The Committee is convinced with the replies furnished by the Ministry and, therefore, does not want to pursue above-mentioned recommendations further. Chapter III : Recommendations/Observations in respect of which replies of the Government have not been accepted by the Committee: Para:- 6.5 and 6.6. (TOTAL – 2) Chapter IV : Recommendations/Observations in respect of which final replies of the Government are still awaited: Para:- (TOTAL - Nil) 3. The Committee desires that the Ministry should furnish pointed and detailed Action Taken Notes in respect of the further Recommendations/Observations made by the Committee in Chapter III of the Report. 4. The details of the ATR have been discussed in the respective Chapters in the succeeding pages. 1 CHAPTER-I RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE IN THE LAST THREE YEARS Recommendation/Observation 1.1 The Committee observes that on the whole financial performance of the Department has been satisfactory. The Committee finds that the Department has been able to utilise 95% of allocated RE funds, in the years 2015-16 and 2016-17. However, when we compare performance of DST with other two Departments of Ministry of Science & Technology, we find that there is still ample scope for improvement. The Committee, therefore, recommends the Department to further strengthen its monitoring mechanism so that gainful utilisation of funds can be ensured. (Para 5.3) Action Taken 1.2 The recommendation has been noted and accepted for further action. The Department utilised funds to the tune of `4634.93 crores (97.64%) of the Revised Estimates of `4746.81 crores during 2017-18, which is an improvement over previous years. INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT Recommendation/Observation 1.3 The Committee takes note of various initiatives undertaken by Innovation, Technology, Development and Deployment Programme particularly initiatives to communicate Science & Technology to the masses and inculcating scientific temper in the people through National Council of Science and Technology Communication in interesting and innovative formats. (Para7.7) 1.4 The Committee hopes that initiatives like Augmenting Writing