5-Aug-2022: NAC discussed the way forward for National Initiative on Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics (NISTIS)
The first meeting of the National Advisory Committee of the National Initiative on Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics (NISTIS) discussed the way forward for the initiative.
It was decided that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics will be prepared by the Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru.
Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Professor Ajay K Sood, who chaired the meeting, underlined the importance of the initiative and the urgent need to establish the centre to start focused work on it.
“Data is critical for knowledge-based decisions. While data is being collected by the different ministries, its centralised management is essential for taking critical decisions in the future,” he pointed out.
Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Dr Srivari Chandrasekhar, welcomed the initiative, highlighting the range of data that is already available with the department and emphasized the need to add to it.
Senior Adviser, DST, Dr Akhilesh Gupta, stressed on the need for a one-stop coordinated effort to bring the various efforts of accumulation of data and presented the tentative structure of the centre. He gave examples of international best practices of such efforts in USA and Japan.
Director Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Professor Govindan Rangarajan, elaborated on the functioning of the future centre at IISc.
Experts from scientific establishments discussed the governance, functioning and way forward for the center.
6-Aug-2021: National Innovation on Climate Resilient Agriculture
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India launched a flagship network project ‘National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture’ (NICRA) in 2011. The project aims at strategic research on adaptation and mitigation, demonstration of technologies on farmers’ fields and creating awareness among farmers and other stakeholders to minimize the climatic change impacts on agriculture.
In the strategic research, the main thrust areas covered are (i) identifying most vulnerable districts/regions, (ii) evolving crop varieties and management practices for adaptation and mitigation, (iii) assessing climate change impacts on livestock, fisheries and poultry and identifying adaptation strategies.
So far, 7 climate resilient varieties and 650 district agricultural contingency plans have been developed besides assessing the risk and vulnerability of Indian agriculture to climate change.
Under technology demonstrations, location specific technologies have been demonstrated in 151 climatically vulnerable districts.
In the past nine years, 16,958 training programs have been conducted throughout the country under NICRA project to educate stakeholders on various aspects of climate change and resilient technologies, covering 5,14,816 stakeholders so as to enable wider adoption of climate resilient technologies and increase in yields.
State-of-the-art infrastructure facilities have been established by ICAR in the National Agricultural Research and Education System (NARES) across the country to facilitate the climate change research. Unique infrastructure facilities viz. High Throughput Plant Phenomics, Free Air Temperature Enrichment facility (FATE), Free Air CO2 Enrichment facility (FACE), CO2 Temperature Gradient Chambers (CTGC), Gas chromatography, Atomic absorption spectrophotometers, Environmental growth chamber, UV-VIS spectrophotometer, Thermal imaging system, Psychrometric chambers etc. have been established at various ICAR institutes to facilitate the climate change research. The construction and operation of psychometric chambers have been undertaken for studying the effect of different environmental conditions viz., temperature, humidity, and air movement on livestock, with special reference to cattle and buffaloes, environmental growth chambers with CO2 and temperature controls and special calorimetric system to study livestock response to heat stress. Custom hiring centers (CHCs) have been established in 121 NICRA villages to ensure availability of farm implements for timely operations.
11-Aug-2022: National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM) achieves target of training 1 million students on Intellectual Property (IP) awareness
National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM) has achieved target of imparting Intellectual Property (IP) awareness and basic training to 1 million students on 31st July 2022, ahead of the deadline which was 15 August 2022.
NIPAM, a flagship program to impart IP awareness and basic training, was launched on 8 Dec 2021 as a part of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'' celebrations. The program is being implemented by Intellectual Property Office, the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
During the period 08 December 2021 to 31st July 2022, the following milestones achieved:
- No. of participants (students/faculty) trained on IP = 10, 05, 272
- Educational institutes covered = 3662
- Geographical coverage = 28 states and 7 Union Territories
The way forward is to strengthen the NIPAM program further to nurture and encourage innovation and creativity, thereby contributing towards cultural and economic development of the society through a revamped manner utilizing the existing resources of the IP Office in collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), AICTE, UGC etc.