Question 1 – (One Nation One Subscription) The draft of the recently released “5th National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy” (STIP) is based on the core principles of decentralization, evidence-informed, experts-driven, and inclusive. Comment on it. – 3 April
Answer: One Nation One Subscription
This policy will replace the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STI)-2013.
Objective:
- To provide India with the status and technical self-sufficiency among the top three scientific superpowers in the coming decade.
- To attract, nurture, strengthen and sustain significant human capital through a ‘human-centric’ science, technology and innovation ecosystem.
- Double the contribution of Full-time equivalent (FTE) of R&D personnel, Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD) and the private sector on GERD.
- To build personal and institutional excellence in STI (Science, Technology and Innovation) with the aspiration to achieve the highest level of global identity and arbitration in the coming decade.
- To identify and address the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian Science Technology and Innovation (STI) ecosystem to catalyze the socio-economic development of the country and make competitive Indian STI ecosystem globally.
Important Provisions:
Related to justice and inclusion:
- Gender Equality
- This draft proposes to ensure at least 30% representation for women in all decision-making bodies, and provide “spousal benefits” to scientists associated with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTT +) community also.
- The LGBTQ + community should be included in all conversations related to gender equity, and provisions should be made to protect their rights and promote their representation and retention in the science and technology sector.
- Open Science Policy (One Nation, One Subscription):To make scientific knowledge and data available to all, the government has proposed:
- To buy bulk subscriptions of all important scientific journals around the world, and provide free access to everyone in India.
- Establish a science, technology and innovation observatory that will serve as the central repository of all types of data generated from scientific research in the country.
- Research and education:
- To provide research input to policy makers and bring stakeholders together it proposes to set up an Education Research Center (ERC) and Collaborative Research Center (CRC).
- The Research and Innovation Excellence Framework (REF) will be developed to promote engagement with relevant stakeholders as well as to enhance the quality of research.
- Creating a dedicated portal, The Indian Science and Technology Archive of Research (INDSTA), to provide access to the output of publicly funded research.
- Establish infrastructure to promote local research and to develop capabilities and reduce large scale imports for select areas of domestic importance such as home appliances, railways, intelligent transportation, clean technology, defense, and more.
- To strengthen India’s strategic position:
- Establishment of a Strategic Technology Board, which will act as the coordinator between all strategic departments of government and will monitor and recommend technologies to be purchased.Despite some inadequacies, STP is an important document that should be widely discussed by the scientific and non-scientific communities.
