(IGP) GS Paper 1 – General Science – “Science & Technological Development in India”

Subject – General Science
Chapter :  Science and Technological Development in
India

New Science and Technology Policy 2003:

• The policy outlines the approach to S & T governance,
  optimal utilisation of existing physical and knowledge resources,
  development of innovative technologies, systems and technologies for
  mitigation and management of natural hazards, generation and management of
  intellectual property and creation of awareness amongst general masses about
  the use and benefits of science and technology.

Department of Science and Technology:

• The Department of Science and Technology was set up in
  May 1971 with the objective of promoting research in new areas and to play
  the role of a nodal department for organising, co-ordinating and promoting
  science and technology activities in the country.

Research and Development Programmes:

• The Department of Science and Technology has been playing
  a crucial role in identifying and promoting front-line and priority areas on
  Research and Development (R&D) in various disciplines of science and
  engineering. This support is provided through (Science and Engineering
  Research Council (SERC) an advisory body consisting of eminent scientists
  and technologists draw) from academic institutions like IITs, universities,
  national laboratories and industry. The Council through its advisory
  committees, assists the Department not only in peer reviewing the proposals
  but also identifies newer and inter-disciplinary areas of R&D for concerted
  efforts.

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Meteorological Services:

• (The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) was established in 1875). It
  is the National Meteorological Service and the principal Government agency
  in all matters relating to meteor

• The IMD has a network of 40 RADARS installed throughout
  the country. Under modernisation scheme of RADAR network, one S-Band,
  Doppler Weather Radar Metero 1500S imported from Germany was installed at
  Visakhapatnam.ology, seismology and allied subjects.

Survey of India:

• Survey of India (SOI), the national survey and mapping organization
  under the Ministry of Science & Technology was set up in 1767).

National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation

• While Survey of India meets the national needs in
  cartography, some specialised thematic maps required to meet the needs of
  the specific users are taken care of by the National Atlas and Thematic
  Mapping Organisation (NATMO), operating under the Department.

• It also concentrates its attention in a number of areas to integrate
  resource maps with other relevant socio-economic data and represent them in
  spatial forms, useful for development planning.

Autonomous Scientific Institutions:

• The Department of Science and Technology provides
  grants-in-aid to the following 19 autonomous scientific research
  institutions engaged in frontier areas of research in basic and applied
  sciences : (i) Bose Institute, Kolkata; (ii) Agharkar Research Institute,
  Pune; (iii Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and
  Technology, Thiruvananthapuram; (iv) Indian Association for the Cultivation
  of Sciences, Kolkata; (v) Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune
  etc.

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research:

• The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
  (DSIR), is a part of the Ministry of Science and Technology with the mandate
  for indigenous technology promotion, development, utilization and transfer.

• DSIR implements the Plan scheme “Technology Promotion,
  Development and Utilization (TPDU_ Programme” apart from coordinating the
  activities of two autonomous bodies, namely Council of Scientific and
  Industrial Research (CSIR) and Consultancy Development Centre (CDC) and two
  public sector undertakings, National Research Development Corporation (NRDC)
  and Central Electronics Limited (CEL).

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research:

• CSIR an ensemble of 37 national laboratories and 39 outreach centres,
  spread across the length and breadth of India.

• CSIR-800: The programme has a mission, that is to
  increase per capita income by Rs. 15.00 per day of the target group which
  800 million people of India living in the bottom half to the development
  pyramid). The focus areas are ‘affordable health’, ‘sustainable energy’,
  ‘waste to wealth’, ‘potable water’, low-cost housing’ and ‘empowering
  masses’. In first of its new endevours, CSIR has launched ‘Soleckshaw’, an
  optimally designed, pedal operated-moto-assisted, zero carbon emission urban
  transport vehicle.

Major Initiatives in Information Technology:

National e Governance Plan (NEGP)

• The Nation e-Governance Plan was approved by the Government on 18th May,
  2006.
• The NeGP consists of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), which are
  currently at different phases like conceptualization, design, implementation
  and post-implementation.

State Data Centres

• State Data Centre is one of the three core infrastructure
  components of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of Govt. of India. Under
  the SDC Scheme, it is proposed to established Data Centres across the 28
  States and 7 Union Territories.

e-District

• e-District is a State Mission Mode Project under the
  National e-Governance Plan. The Project aims to target certain high volume
  services currently not covered by any MMP under the NeGP and undertake
  back-end computerization to enable the delivery of these services through
  Common Service Centres.

National Service Delivery Gateway (NSFG)

• Centre of Development of advanced Computing (C-DAC) has
  built and deployed NSDG (National e-governance Services Delivery Gateway)
  and NSD (National Services Directory) which is the second Mission Mode
  Project to have gone live since 14th August 2008.

National Knowledge Network

• Government has decided to establish a National Knowledge
  Network (NKN) with scalable multi-gigabit capabilities which will connect
  1000 covering the universities, research institutions, libraries,
  laboratories, hospitals and agricultural institutions across the country.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing:

• Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is premier R & D
  organization of the Department for carrying out R & D in IT, Electronics and
  associated areas.

• C-DAC commissioned a supercomputing system called PARAM
  ‘’Yuva” in November 2008. Its Rmax (sustained performance) is 37.80
  Teraflops and Rpeak (peak performance) is 54.01 TFs. It ranked 68th in the
  list of TPP500 supercomputers announced in November 2008 at Supercomputing
  Conference ‘SCO8’ held at Austin, Texa, USA.

National Informatics Centre:

• The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the nodal S & T
  organisation of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of
  Communications and Information Technology for facilitating the process of
  e-Governance in the country. NIC has scored many firsts in the field of
  informatics development & networking for decision support in the Central
  Government Departments, 28 State Governments, one National Capital Territory
  of Delhi and 6 Union Territories, and about 611 District administrations at
  sub-state level. It is the only organization in India to provide total
  informatics support to the Ministers and Departments of the Central, State
  Governments, District Administration and other Government bodies.

Autonomous Institutes and Public Sector Undertakings:

• National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi: The
  Institute continues to make inroads into basic research related to the
  immune system with a commitment that the knowledge gained would contribute
  to newer and more effective ways of addressing the health needs of the
  country. During the year more than 50 peer reviewed manuscripts and 5
  reviews have been published. The Institute continued with the concept of
  ‘end-to-end’ research in the biosciences and have signed MoU with Astra
  Zeneca India, Bangalore, and Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Ahmedabad on a
  technology related to novel molecules that inhibit Mycobacterial Fad D
  proteins and can have the potential as anti-mycobacterial drugs.

• National Centre for Cell Science, Pune : The
  Centre has emphasis on R&D activities in the areas of cell biology including
  stem cell biology, signal transduction, cancer biology diabetes, infection
  and immunity and chromating architecture and gene regulation. The national
  cell repository supplied 1154 cell lines to 128 scientific institutions in
  India.

• Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD),
  Hyderabad : The Centre of DNA Fingerprinting and Giagnostics (CDFD) is
  an autonomous organization funded by the Department of biotechnology,
  Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India CDFD has been
  providing services for DNA fingerprinting,  diagnostics, new born
  screening and boiinformatics based modern high-technology DNA-based methods,
  of direct benefit to the public, as well as in performing fundamental
  research of international standards in frontier areas of biological science.
  CDFD also has a Sun Microsystem’s Centre of Excellence in Medical
  Bioinformatics.

• National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Haryana :
  The National Brain Research Centre was established to create a
  Centre of Excellence in Brain Research with state of art facility in the
  country to consolidate, network and undertake basic research of high caliber
  in neuroscience and also to generate highly trained human resources.

• National Institute for Plant Genome Research (NCPGR),
  New Delhi : The National Institute for Plant
  Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi (previously a National Centre) is engaged
  in plant genomic research with focus on structural genomics and functional
  with application genomics. It is working on Genomics of certain crops and
  manipulation of genes / genomes to breed improved varieties of food and
  industrial crops such as Chickpea, Catharanthus, Potato, Lathyrus, Rice,
  Sweet Potato and Cassasva.

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