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The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh,
launched the INSPIRE, a scholarship programme of the Department of Science &
Technology in New Delhi today. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s
address on the occasion: “I am extremely pleased to be here
in your midst to launch the “Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research”
or the INSPIRE scheme of the Department of Science & Technology. I had announced
this programme at the last Indian Science Congress. I compliment the Minister
of Science and Technology Shri Kapil Sibal and his colleagues in the Ministry
for bringing this innovative and landmark programme to fruition.
Recognizing the great importance of this initiative, our Government has
made an allocation of Rs. 2100 crores for it in the Eleventh Plan period. These
allocations are in keeping with our Government’s commitment to provide strong
policy and financial support to the growth of the S&T sector in our country.
It is a fact that in recent years,
the talented youth of the country are gravitating to other disciplines than science.
Science is no longer necessarily the career of choice of the meritorious students. This trend has long-term
implications for our development and for our competitive strength in the evolving
global economy. Knowledge and innovation
as never before are the keys to competitiveness and wealth creation in the fast
evolving global economy.
The founding fathers of our Republic understood the central role that scientific
development must play in processes of nation-building. The Scientific Policy Resolution
adopted by our Parliament as early in 1958 starts with the following statement
"- "The
key to national prosperity, apart from the spirit of the people, lies, in the
modern age, in the effective combination of three factors, technology, raw materials
and capital, of which the first is perhaps the most important, since the creation
and adoption of news scientific techniques can, in fact, make up for a deficiency
in natural resources, and reduce the demands on capital. But technology can only grow out of the study
of science and its applications..."
The INSPIRE programme is an important initiative of our Government that
aims to strengthen the roots of the knowledge infrastructure of our economy. It
is significant because it targets the entire learning pyramid from young learners
to researchers. The scale of the programme is unprecedented and it proposes to
cover one million young learners. Not only do we want to feed our knowledge
economy with a steady stream of bright young minds, but we also want to inculcate
a scientific temper and a spirit of inquiry and creativity in our youth.
The underlying philosophy behind INSPIRE is based on the role that excitement,
motivation, mentoring, promotion of excellence and assured career opportunities
in research play in nurturing a meritorious scientist.
Our Government is committed to doing all that is necessary to rejuvenate
research in the university sector. I fully
appreciate that universities are under considerable stress on account of the challenge
to expand their capacities in a short period of time. But research, particularly scientific research,
is central to the vitality of a university and to the ability of its faculties
to keep abreast of current developments and to be academic leaders in their respective
disciplines. Creativity has to be nurtured. Innovation has to be encouraged. Excellence
has to be rewarded.
With a view to promote scientific research in our universities, the Ministry
of Science and Technology has proposed a special scheme named Promotion of University
Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE). I
am very happy to have launched this new scheme, which provides an incentive grant
to performing universities based on scientific publications in Science Citation
Indexed Journals. I sincerely hope that
many more universities would enroll into scientific research and become qualified
for such recognitions and incentive grants.
I am pleased and delighted that recent data shows that publications in
Science Citation Journals of the world from India have been registering an annual growth
of about 10% during the last few years. A total of 14 universities are among the
35 high productivity S&T institutions of the country whose contributions figure
significantly in such publications during the last ten years.
For a country with our vast underlying scientific potential, these should
be seen as rather modest gains. We should think big and act purposefully towards
more ambitious goals.
Unlike other major scientific nations, India has a young population. If we can
get our act together, this favourable demographic profile can be exploited enormously
to make India a key knowledge supplier in the global
economy in the next few decades.
We have trebled our investments into the S&T sector during the Eleventh
Plan in comparison to the Tenth Plan. These
investments would require matching efforts to increase our absorption capacity
within the S&T system.
The number of full time equivalent professionals in the Research &
Development sector in India per million of population is about
112. The corresponding figure for other
major countries is many times higher. We
have made very significant investments in upgrading our education infrastructure
to cope with this projected demand. But clearly much more needs to be done and will
be done.
The private sector has also to play its due role. An integrated and efficient
knowledge chain should build strong synergies between our industrial and research
establishments both in the public and the private sector. At present, barely one-fourth
of R&D expenditure in our country comes from the private sector. Within industrial
R&D expenditure, nearly 40% comes from one sector alone – drugs and pharmaceuticals.
It will be difficult to sustain the competitiveness of our diversified industrial
base unless these figures show considerable improvement in the years to come.
We are also looking at innovative ways of multiplying the reach of our
education infrastructure. We are putting in place an Integrated National Knowledge
Network that would have nodes at all major institutions of higher education and
learning. This network would help our institutions
of higher learning to connect with each other and to carry on relevant interdisciplinary
dialogue. What greater national priority can
there be than to educate and empower our children and give them the chance of
a life of hope, a life of purpose, a life of opportunity and a life of intellectual
fulfillment? The opportunities and challenges in the global knowledge economy
are boundless. Our government has invested a lot in building a strong and vibrant
S&T system. I seek the cooperation and active support of all of you in making it happen. The future is here.” **** SH/LV
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PM launches the INSPIRE Programme
