Y G O L O N H C E T t &
E C N E I C epor S New Delhi
F 2014-15 R Government of India O
T N E M ual T R A P E nn D A
Annual Report 2014-15
Printed at Western Printing Group, Survey of India echnology T echnology T
10016, INDIA New Delhi-1 Ministry of Science and echnology Bhawan, New Mehrauli Road Department of Science and T
Artist Rendition of Thirty Meter Telescope Annual Report 2014-15
Government of India Department of Science & Technology Ministry of Science & Technology New Delhi
Annual Report 2014-15
CONTENTS
Chapter Page No. Overview v 1 Human Capacity Building in S&T 1 Human Capacity Building in Science & Engineering Research 1 Attraction of Talent for Science 10 Empowering women scientists 17 Training of Scientists and Technologists working in Government 22 Sector 2 Institutional Capacity Building 23 Promoting R&D through Autonomous Institutions & Professional 23 Bodies Capacity Building of R&D Institutions 77 Providing Mega facilities for Basic Research 91 Strengthening Survey and mapping capability 94 Building Geoinformation Capacity 102 Promoting Good Laboratory Practices 106 3 Technology Capacity Strengthening 109 Technology Development 109 Technology Commercialisation 146 Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research 147
S&T Competitiveness through Alliances, Partnerships and R&D 4 149 Missions
Enhancing S&T competiveness through International Cooperation 149 Strengthening S&T in States/UTs 173
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Building Nano S&T capacity 182 Developing strategic knowledge for Climate Change 187 5 Societal Contract of S&T 199 Science for Equity, Empowerment & Development 199 S&T led Entrepreneurship and Innovation promotion 210 214 6 Inputs to Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 234 Strengthening STI information system 234 Formulation of Enabling Policies for S&T 238 7 Administration and Finance 239 Staff Position 239 Parliamentary Work 239 240 Right to Information (RTI) 241 Public Grievances 241 Citizen's Charter 241 Exhibition 241 8 Audit Observation 243 9 Financial Summary 245 10 Abbreviations 249
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OVERVIEW
Department of Science and Technology with the overall mandate to strengthen S&T capability of the country pursued implementation of various plan schemes to meet the overall objective of the Department during the year under report. Various activities of the Department, for the ease of understanding by the stakeholders and ! " Human Capacity Building in S&T; Institutional Capacity Building; Technology Capacity Strengthening; S&T Competitiveness through Alliances, Partnerships and R&D Missions; Societal Contract of S&T; Inputs to Science, Technology and Innovation Policy; and Administration and Finance. Several New Initiatives have been taken by the Department during the year. Some of important #$%*+%- ! : \ !"+ The research and development in frontier areas of science and engineering has received an overwhelming support with the establishment of the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB). The multifaceted programmes of the Board have ensured its reach among various segments of researchers. Enhancement of fellowship was approved during the year for DST sponsored R&D Programmes for JRF/SRF/RA categories of researchers with effect from 1st October, 2014. The fellowship of Young Scientists has been revised from Rs. 35,000/- to Rs. 55,000/- pm with effect from 1st October, 2014. With a view to support mathematical research, the Board approved a proposal to sign an MoU with International Centre for Pure and Applied Mathematics (CIMPA) to organise three CIMPA-India School per year in India and sponsor 15 doctoral/postdoctoral students per year to attend CIMPA Schools held abroad. Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) is national programme to attract students to the study of science and pursue a career in research. INSPIRE has reached out to more than 1.5 million students so far. Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN) is a new initiative launched in 2014-15 that consolidates all women-centric programmes into a holistic scheme that (i) promotes gender equality, (ii) empowers women with S&T inputs to develop and adapt appropriate technology, (iii) enables transfer of proven technologies and demonstration of live technology models and (v) supports /encourages women scientists constrained with a break in their career to return to main stream science. #=$ > ! ! and technologists for pursuing research in basic or applied sciences in frontier areas of science and engineering. Also, 65 new projects were sanctioned to women scientists working in the domain of + + + ? year training and internship in the area of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and their management was provided to 85 women scientists.
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Fund for Improvement of S&T infrastructures in Universities and Higher Educational Institutions (FIST) supports / augments basic infrastructure facilities for teaching and conducting research in basic / applied sciences in Universities and other centres of higher learning. During %@K Q X Rs.22 lakh to Rs.790 Lakh) at a total budget of about Rs.231.31 crores for 5 years. 44 universities have received support under the scheme for Promotion of University Research . The scheme reinforces support from the UGC and has enabled major positive changes in the supported Universities. The national share of publications through PURSE supported universities is about 30 per cent. Mega Science facilities and Mega Science projects of the DST improve access to state-of- the-art facilities to Indian scientists and researchers. Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) Project at Mauna Kea, Hawaii will be one of the largest optical telescopes in the world based on segmented mirror technology. During the year, the Cabinet approved TMT project at a total cost of Rs. 1299.80 crores from the year 2014-15 to 2022-23. The project is jointly funded by DST and DAE and DST [ > ? ! > Indian institutions National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) aimes to develop spatial information infrastructure with Collection of Technologies, Policies and Institutional arrangements. During the current year, the focus has been on suitably re-orienting NSDI towards developing and implementing GIS applications by providing processed information to its stakeholders for decision support. A prototype application service has been developed and implemented using the Web Map Services and Web Feature Services from Surveykshan Geo-portal of Survey of India, Bhuvan Geo-portal of National Remote Sensing Centre, and the Indian Railways data services from the India Geo-portal. The application - ‘Spot your train’ - for the running trains of the Northern Railway has been hosted on the web (from Karnataka Geo-portal) and is useful in providing the passengers with actual departure and arrival information of the running trains of the Northern Railway. Autonomous research institutions ! : ! research and related communication output on various science and technology fronts. A road \ ] X \] ^ _ autonomous research institutions of DST. The National Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) Compliance Monitoring Authority (NGCMA) ! [ #$$#? `{]|[ { facilities, which are involved in conducting safety studies on such chemicals in accordance with Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Principles of GLP. Six new test facilities were granted the GLP-compliance status during the year. vi Annual Report 2014-15
Clean Energy Research Initiative (CERI) is aimed at promoting research in the area of Clean Energy with focus on Solar energy. Some examples under this initiative are Development and Demonstration of Modular Light Weight Solar Aluminium Tubular Air Heater (SATAH ) by Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Solar Cooling and production of potable water with two +! } | ~ Community scale PV powered Reverse Osmosis (RO) Desalination Unit at CSMCRI, Bhavnagar. Water Technology Initiative (WTI) aims to develop and provide low cost convergent technology solutions for domestic application to ensure safe drinking water under real life conditions. During the year 2014-15, convergent solution for augmentation of water resources in Koraput region of Odisha; Chirawa block in Rajasthan; and Sabarkantha district in Gujarat were successfully provided. Convergent solutions in three clusters viz. Mamsapuram, Thirupattur and } > } > : ! ! ! ! incorporating a unique self sustainability model and were handed over to the local authorities in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Transfer of know-how of Hybrid Ultra Capacitor (HUC) lighted solar/mechanical/grid chargeable lanterns with mobile charger, Design and Development of Portable Pain Relieving Instrument under Technology Development programs. Several other projects on technology ? Technology Development Board (TDB) is a statutory body that assists companies in commercializing technologies, indigenous development and import substitution. During the #$%*+%- } \ ? @-$?= : ? TDB’s support covers the sectors of economy namely, Health, Biotech, Chemical, Engineering, Agriculture, Energy & Waste Utilization, Telecommunication, Information Technology and others like Seed Fund to incubators and investment in Venture Capital Funds. International S&T Cooperation Programme creates strategically important links with countries around the world to help hybridize knowledge and enhance S&T competitiveness. Indicative trends in fostering international bilateral cooperation and partnerships during 2014-15 ! "
Joint research project based networking of researchers under active bilateral S&T programs of cooperation with more than 44 countries including substantive programs with 8 countries;
Bilateral R&D joint projects including multi-institutional networked projects;
Bilateral industrial and applied R&D projects involving industry as partner with Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Spain, S. Korea, United Kingdom and United States;
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Mobility through research fellowships and visitation programs for Indian and foreign young scientists and researchers (HOPE Meeting; Lindau Nobel Laureates meetings; Asian Science Camp; CV Raman Fellowships for African Researchers; Fellowship and Internship programs with Australia, France, Germany, S. Korea, USA) ;
Launch of India Science & Research Fellowship for scientists from neighbouring countries to undertake R&D work in India.
Launch of Fellowship for scientists from Belarus & Bulgaria to undertake R&D work in Indian institutions
International partnerships for joint research and technology development in domains of national priority through engagement with Industry & Engineering Associations (like Technology Summit with USA as a partner country and Global R&D Summit) and Commonwealth Science Conference.
Concerted efforts were made by the Department to take forward the activities related to S&T . In this endeavour, several initiatives having people centered approach to provide technological solutions at the grassroots level with special schemes for Rural Areas, Women, Scheduled Caste and Tribal populations, have been launched. Some projects related " ~ Packaged drinking water from dew and rain; Creation of sustainable livelihoods by enhancing economic viability of village level micro industries; and Assistive Device for Public Bus Access for the Visually Impaired
National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) has established number of Technology Business Incubators (TBI) and Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks (STEP) and several among them have matured and developed competence to become state-of-art Incubators. During the period 2014-15, nine new TBIs have been established. 18 STEPs/TBIs have been supported with the seed support since its initiation in the year 2008 and through timely support, 70 start-up companies have taken their ventures to the next level by way of validating prototypes, securing market orders and raising external funding through angels/VCs. \ ! in the society. ! \ + #= July 2014. In the current phase, from 28 July 2014 to 06 February 2015, the Science Express has travelled to 57 locations across India. Biodiversity teachers’ Kit, based on the theme of the SEBS exhibition, was distributed to schools. More than 1.30 crores people have visited science express so far including 23 lakhs during the ongoing run. viii Annual Report 2014-15
The National Mission on Nano Science and Technology is an umbrella programme to promote R&D in this emerging area. The Nano Mission continued to forge linkages with other government agencies and industry organizations in promoting nano science and technology in the country and also orchestrate national dialogues on issues which are manifestly multi-agency issues. Efforts for Development of Standards for Nanotechnology continued in association with National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi. Under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem [NMSHE] and National Mission for Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change [NMSKCC] as part of the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC), six major research programmes have been initiated / supported. It includes vulnerability assessment, sustainability and to enhance strategic knowledge in climate change. A number of detailed Technical reports about the R&D work were brought out on Climate Change. The Department of Science and Technology is mandated to develop and deliver public policy support for the promotion of research and development in the country. Review of the already established 5 Policy Research Centres on various themes was carried out and brainstorming sessions on various policy related issues were organized. In essence, the Department devoted its attention to fruitfully utilize the resources available to it and take Indian S&T system to a greater height and be relevant for various causes of the society at large.