“Sir Winston Churchill said that the empires of the future are the empires of the mind. India has caught on to capture the imagination to build institutes into centres of excellence.We hope that these institutes will eventually become nerve centres of scientific creativity and endeavour and feed into our technological capabilities and economic development,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Wednesday 4th Dec 2008.

He was speaking at the dedication ceremony of the International Centre for Material
Sciences(ICMS) and inauguration of the CNR Rao Hall of Science at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research( JNCASR).

Funds to be doubled The Prime Minister announced that the Government is committed to doubling the financial allocations for science and technology from 1 per cent of the
GDP to 2 per cent; and also to establish a National Science and Engineering Research
Board (NSERB).

He said, “The NSERB will be established along the lines of the National Science Foundation in the United States". It will be set up as an autonomous body to promote
basic research in science and engineering. The Board will provide unfettered
financial assistance to researchers, academic institutions, research laboratories
and industrial concerns.

Referring to the decline in the quality of research carried out in the institutes, Singh said, “We need to revitalise our universities and research institutions. We have world class institutes of technology. There is no reason why we cannot achieve the same degree of excellence when it comes to basic science and research.” He pointed out, “What we need today is a blueprint for the effective and creative utilisation of these funds. A blueprint for the transformation of Indian science. A blueprint for making basic sciences and mathematics, the preferred discipline of our children.”

The Prime Minister also said that many engineers who had migrated to the west were coming back to be a part of India’s growth story. “We should be able to create a conducive environment that would similarly attract our scientists to return,”he urged.

Singh commended Prof CNR Rao for the many initiatives that he has taken as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council. “The country needs not just high
calibre scientists but men of vision who are wise administrators and strong institution
builders,” he added.

Projects:
• Five new Indian Institutes of Science, Education and Research
• Six new Indian Institutes of Technology have already started functioning
• 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology(IIIT) and 10 National Institutes of
   Technology(NIT) to be set up
• Institute for Space Technology has been set up
• Second campus of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research being set up in Hyderabad

Source: DH