NEW DELHI: India is aiming to reach 53,000 megawatts of generated clean power over the next five years, more than doubling its capacity. According to the Government of India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India will generate an extra 29,800 megawatts by 2017. This will be added to the nation's 23,128 megawatts of installed clean energy, doubling capacity to a total of 53,000 megawatts.
India: Solar Mission Phase II Targets 8 Million m2
In December 2012, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in India published its plans for Phase II of the National Solar Mission (NSM). The 58-page document outlines the policy for the second phase, including targets, the role of the states and an implementation strategy (see the attached document). The overall aim is to install around 8 million m2 of collector area between March 2013 and March 2017 – in addition to the 6.07 million m2 of collector area which had already been commissioned until November 2012. The cumulative target until the end of Phase I (March 2013) is 7 million m2, and the country will, in fact, be on course to reach this number. Since the start of Phase I of the NSM in June 2010, the country has witnessed the installation of close to 2.5 million m2 of collector area totally.
India: Web-based Software SOLARWHIN Monitors Subsidised Systems
The solar thermal sector seems to appreciate SOLARWHIN, the new database of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Of the 98 Channel Partners who are eligible to directly apply for subsidies on behalf of their clients, 47 have already registered online since the software was launched in August 2012. So far, the database, which is hosted on one of the ministry´s servers, includes the details of around 65,000 systems. The web-based tool was developed by the MNRE to monitor subsidised systems and to gather more information on the market. SOLARWHIN is short for SOLAR Water Heater Installations in India. Only accredited Channel Partners have access to the online database.
Technologies to harness solar power as a path to low-carbon energy is developing at breakneck speed. How can developing countries best make use of them to benefit the millions of rural poor who still live without electricity?
CeRES (Centre of Research on Energy Security), TERI has come up with the latest issue of "Energy Security Insights" on Solar Energy in India: Assessing the Transition to a "Solar India". This issue looks at some of the issues that India's National Solar Mission raises and which need to be kept in mind as India tries to upscale the role of solar energy in its energy mix.
Joint Statement issued at the Conclusion of the 14th Basic Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change
The 14th BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) Ministerial Meeting on climate change was held in Chennai, India on February 15-16, 2013. At the conclusion of the Meeting a Joint Statement was issued.
Ministry of Environment & Forests Climate Change Division- Outcomes from Doha Climate Change Conference
The Doha Climate Change Conference that concluded on 8th December, 2012 has resulted in three decisions (clubbed together as ‘Doha Climate Gateway') aimed at advancing the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol (KP).
The key questions for the Doha conference were: amending the Kyoto Protocol to implement the second commitment under the Protocol; successfully concluding the work of the Bali Action Plan (BAP); and planning the work under the Durban Platform (DP) for Enhanced Action which was agreed to at Durban last year. The Conference addressed all the three issues and came out with a package 1 which balanced the interests and obligations of various countries.
India's GreenHouse Gases Emissions Profile: Results of Five Climate Modeling Studies
A report on India's per capita emission of GreenHouse Gasses (GHG). The report is based on 5 different studies launch by Climate Modeling Forum of India and Ministry of Environment & Forests (GoI).
Second largest population in the world, third largest economy, fourth largest agricultural sector… In reference to India, superlatives abound. And yet, 400 million Indians live on less than a dollar a day, 212 million are undernourished and the United Nations Development Programme has ranked India 127th (out of 177) in terms of the human development index.1 How is it that this country, an agricultural giant and a driver of worldwide growth, is not able to ensure food security at home? What strategy can India implement nationally and with regard to international negotiations in particular?
The Micro watershed Atlas of India aims at identifying and recognizing each micro watershed in the country with distinct spatial extent and Unique National Code. The state wise publication of atlas has been contemplated considering enormous volume of spatial data available with SLUSI. The Micro watershed atlas of India has been designed in such a way that user shall be able to locate and identify the micro watershed of his interest falling in different districts of different states of India.
This is a high intensity soil survey. In this survey, soil series its types and phases are mapped. The larger scale village maps or aerial photographs ranging from 1:4,000 to 1:10,000 are used as base maps. In India village maps of 1:1,000, 1:2,000 (Himachal Pradesh), 1:4,000 and 1:8,000 are available. These cadastral maps possess several prominent permanent features such as lakes, ponds, rivers, rivulets, roads, habitation, hillocks and field boundaries with Khasra No. which help surveyor to locate himself in the field and finally in delineating soil boundaries.
GoI Approval to National Biotechnology Development Strategy
Ministry of Science & Technology, GoI accorded approval to National Biotechnology Development Strategy in November 2007. The Strategy which was approved after a two year long consultation process with various stakeholders, lays a foundation for discovery and innovation, effectively utilising novel technology platforms to contribute to long term benefits in agriculture, health, environmental security and sustainable industrial growth.
NEW DELHI: India will fail to achieve some of the most important Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets like reduction in maternal and child deaths, and increase in child immunization rates by 2015. The World Health Organization (WHO) has for the first time aired its views that India will miss its targets, some by a big margin.
Country Cooperation Strategy 2012-2017 - Health Minister launches WHO India's New Country Cooperation Strategy
Envisioning better health for all Indians, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Hon'ble Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Government of India launched WHO's new Country Cooperation Strategy with India (2012-17) along with Dr Nata Menabde, WHO Representative to India on 29 June 2012.
Present at the launch were Mr P K Pradhan, Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW); Mr K Desiraju, Special Secretary (Health Administration), MoHFW; and development partners including representatives from other UN agencies, World Bank, USAID, CDC, Norway India Partnership Initiative and Rotary International.
Reflecting the shared vision of the two partners, it is for the first time that the Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) has been developed jointly by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India and the WHO Country Office for India (WCO).
The key aim of this path-breaking strategy is to contribute to improving health and equity in India. It also provides the blueprint for unleashing India's role on the global health arena alongside the continued pursuit of health improvement in the country. In this context, it distinguishes and addresses the challenges to India's potential globally as well as impediments in solving long-standing health and health service delivery internally.
The newly founded company, a non-profit organization, is charged with the coordination, integration, development and marketing of the Indo-European Health Cluster as one of the leading life science clusters in India.
Biocluster is to boost the development of the Life Sciences industry and to facilitate businesses between Universities, Hospitals, Pharmaceutical Companies and other related entities by bringing them in a close proximity. The Biocluster does not only comprise of organizations of Hyderabad but also boasts of extensive input from our European counterparts who have taken immense interest to develop and build this Biocluster. Our European counterparts have ensured that the Biocluster would attract Life Science Organizations of the world. Hence, this Biocluster is rightly a Hyderabad-European venture and is launched with the name of "BioGenesis - The Indo-European Health Cluster".
India joins the world's largest technology platform
The launch of Enterprise Europe Network in India with EBTC, CII and FIEO, brings EU and India trade and technology collaboration opportunities closer together. Bringing together almost 600 business support organizations from 54 countries, India is the latest country to join the world's largest technology platform - the Enterprise Europe Network. Giving access to business opportunities and stimulating innovation, the network will be pivotal in bringing the EU and India closer together by leveraging an existing and very successful EU technology platform. Enterprise Europe Network-India will be operated by three organizations with a wide network and reach across India – the European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC), the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII.)
Survey of ICT for Education in India and South Asia - How is ICT used in education in India and South Asia, and what have we learnt?
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are increasingly being used to deliver on promises of universal education. Despite a growing number of ICT for education (ICT4E) initiatives in South Asia, there was no up-to-date and comprehensive information about the sector. To fill this gap, infoDev commissioned a survey of ICT4E in India and South Asia. The result includes country-level studies, sub-national reports for five Indian states, two detailed essays on distance education and teacher training in Pakistan, and five thematic essays on cross-cutting issues.
Cabinet of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, India approves National Policy on Information Technology 2012. Policy Aims to Leverage ICT to Address Nation's Developmental Challenges
The Cabinet has recently approved the National Policy on Information Technology 2012. The Policy aims to leverage Information & Communication Technology (ICT) to address the country's economic and developmental challenges. The policy is rooted in the conviction that ICT has the power to transform the lives of people.
ICT and Electronics are contributing significantly to the Indian economy, society and governance. IT is a key driver of the knowledge based global economy. The right policies and investment in infrastructure can strengthen and enhance India's position as a global IT power-house. Use of IT can transform our economy, enhance equity and lead to improvement in development indices. The Policy envisages the growth of the IT market to USD 300 Billion and creation of additional 10 million employments by 2020.
Adviser to The Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure Appointed
Mr. Sam Pitroda, father of India's telecom revolution has been appointed Adviser to the Prime Minister for Public information Infrastructure. The Office of Adviser will undertake the task of reviewing, developing, utilising and scaling public information infrastructure in the country to help improve productivity, efficiency and quality of the systems and processes to deliver public services for citizen empowerment. The Office of Adviser will discuss, debate, analyse, articulate, and sensitise the need to innovate, at all levels and in all sectors in the country with a focus on inclusive growth, global competitiveness and prosperity, and create a Roadmap for a Decade of Innovation to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The mission would be to generate, adopt, diffuse and apply knowledge in a globally competitive economy for health, education, employment, access to information and inclusive growth. This would be done by strengthening the three pillars of a knowledge economy: Public Information Infrastructure & Applications; Innovation Eco-system & Output; Governance & Public Delivery Systems.
CENTENARY SESSION OF INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS, 3-7 JANUARY, 2013, KOLKATA
Annual Session of Indian Science Congress has emerged as a major national event. The centenary session scheduled for 3rd – 7th January, 2013 gains historical importance in more than one way. Whereas the themes for all the sessions up the period of 2003 since the first session in 1914 could be grouped under ‘Shaping of the Indian Science', the theme selected for the centenary session is “Science for shaping the future of India”.
The much awaited science, technology and innovation policy (STIP) 2013 was announced by the government at the Indian Science Congress Centenary sessions held at Kolkata during 3 – 9 January 2013. The discourse on innovation after the declaration of 2010 – 2020 as the ‘Decade of Innovation'; deliberations at the National Innovation Council (NInC) constituted in 2010; and public consultations called by the Ministry of Science and Technology - all seem to have had some bearing on the new STIP. Compared to Science and Technology Policy of 2003, STIP 2013 is a step forward in attempting to forge the links between science, technology and innovation policy framework.
Study Identifying Priority Fields for Research and Innovation Cooperation between the EU and India
A new Analytical Report titled "Study Identifying Priority Fields for Research and Innovation Cooperation between the EU and India" is available under the section "Regional Level Reports" for the EU. The study benchmarking the EU and US Science & Technology cooperation with India was published in October 2011 and authored by Ales Gnamus.
Prime Minister of India has approved the setting up of a National Innovation Council (NInC) under the Chairmanship of Mr. Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the PM on PIII to discuss, analyze and help implement strategies for inclusive innovation in India and prepare a Roadmap for Innovation 2010-2020. NIC would be the first step in creating a crosscutting system which will provide mutually reinforcing policies, recommendations and methodologies to implement and boost innovation performance in the country.
India and United Kingdom have signed an agreement to launch a joint programme to encourage industry in the two countries to work together towards commercialization of research leads in a range of key areas, including energy and health care.
India has moved from being the world's backoffice to becoming a global hub for research and development. Two English dailies "Hindustan Times" and "Mint" have identified a set of companies and people that are giving India a steely new cutting edge and changing the lives of millions worldwide.
India has become one of the fastest growing economies of the world. Her continued surge in economic growth both before and after the recent (2008) global financial crisis has further lent credence to the hypothesis that the economic growth registered by the country is sustainable as it is based more on technological improvements rather than by using more factor inputs such as labour and capital. Recent estimates of total factor productivity growth lend some empirical support to this hypothesis. India has also been receiving sizeable chunks of FDI in R&D by MNCs. There are also press reports of a number of innovations emanating from the country although systematic empirical evidence on this issue is found wanting in the literature.1 One of the avowed objectives of economic reforms in India since 1991 was to promote competition between firms. Along with the possibility of increased competition, one also sees that the country has become increasingly integrated with the rest of the world although on this count China has a better record than that of India. All these factors may pave the way for India to invest in innovative activities as the firms in India are no longer concerned with domestic competition, but international as well. In the context, the aim of this collection of papers is to shed some systematic light on varied facets of technological changes and innovations in India's manufacturing establishment.
There are essentially a total of seven papers, which make up this special issue. Of the seven, two are general papers on the nature, extent and the impact on innovative activity in the economy. The subsequent five papers focus on issues related to innovation in five different sectors, two high-technology sectors (namely pharmaceutical and biotechnology), two medium-technology sectors (automotive and steel) and a low-tech sector (textiles). All these five sectors are important for their contribution to employment, exports and GDP as well.
The introduction, as well as a chapter on whether innovations are on the rise in India since the onset of reforms of 1991 and an analysis of its evidence and some disquieting features, as attached.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency in India
The Swedish strategy for selective cooperation with India runs until 2013 and amount to 60 million Swedish crowns per year. The most important form of cooperation is partner driven cooperation.
The work is to a large extent based on two Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Sweden and India. One is in the field of environment and climate and the other one is in the field of health. These MoU's are important since they provide the political support. There is a big interest on both sides for collaborations in these areas.
SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME FOR INDIAN WOMEN CANDIDATES WITH SCIENTIFIC QUALIFICATION FOR TRAINING IN IPR MATTERS
CICS has been associating with Patent Facilitating Centre, Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), New Delhi on ‘Training of Women Scientists on IPR Matters’. This scholarship scheme is launched by the Department of Science & Technology, New Delhi, intended for women having Science & Engineering qualification for training in the area of intellectual property rights, especially in patent searches, understanding of patent specification and preparation of technology scan report. This programme is executed in four Centers across India namely CICS, Chennai, TIFAC, New Delhi, URDIP, Pune and IIT, Kharagpur. A total number of 80-100 candidates are trained per year from all the regions out of which 20-25 candidates are trained in Chennai region.
For the first time in India perhaps in any developing country, a comprehensive report on Patenting of Microorganisms has been prepared by the Patent Facilitating Centre. Ever since the US Supreme Court allowed the patenting of microorganisms in 1980, this subject has been drawing a great deal of attention all over the world. As microorganisms are important constituents of biodiversity, issues like the origin of a microorganism and its patentability and ownership have gained importance.
Drivers of Academic Research and Patenting in India: Econometric Estimation of the Research Production Function
In this paper we attempt to provide a comprehensive understanding of the drivers of academic research and patenting in India. Academic research is conceptualized as a research production process where research inputs (like research time and number of research scholars) are transformed into research outputs in the form of publications and patents. We expect research inputs by a faculty member to be an outcome of his/her own decision-making process, which in turn determine his/her research outputs. Exogenous parameters, like faculty background, faculty attitude, research sponsorship and institutional factors, are expected to influence both set of endogenous variables (research inputs and outputs). We specify this production function as a recursive simultaneous equation model and estimate the structural parameters using standard econometric methods. Our results clearly identify several drivers of academic research and patenting in India, in terms of faculty background, faculty attitude and other parameters, from which we arrive at concrete policy lessons for patenting of academic research in India. In particular, we argue that putting in place institutional structures will not serve the purpose without addressing the fundamental issues of research environment, culture and attitude in the first place. In a sense, therefore, introducing IPR legislation alone may not act as an instant magic formula to energies Indian academic research for commercial application.
NANO-SCIENCES, NANOTECHNOLOGIES, MATERIALS AND NEW PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES
TERI-Deakin Nano Biotechnology Centre:
TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, India) and Deakin University signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in November 2010, and announced the setting up of a Centre of Excellence, the TERI-Deakin Nano Biotechnology Research Centre. The collaborative This centre aims at a greener and more advanced use of nanotechnology for resolving challenging agricultural and biomedical issues. The centre is working to contribute to a deeper understanding of Nano Biotechnology in academia and research. It is seeking to achieve sustainability in agricultural practices by early detection of phytopathogens by sensitive nano biosensors and nanocarrier-based formulations to improve crop productivity and biotic stress tolerance. Another area of focus is nanodelivery of agrochemicals and degradation/recycling of nanoparticles and nanopolymers along with nanoparticle-based nutrient delivery systems. Scientists at the centre are currently engaged in research to generate formulations for coating seeds with nanomaterials and biological materials, synthesis of nanoparticles from waste and understand enhanced interaction and secondary metabolites production in a reactor system. The centre is currently looking to develop environment-friendly ways of synthesizing nanoparticles using plants and microbes. Innovative solutions are being sought in biofuel production. On human health-related issues, it is in the process of generating DNA-based nanocarriers or chimeric molecules for target-specific gene delivery and drug therapy.
The Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) is an interdisciplinary society founded in 1989 by Prof. CNR Rao, F.R.S., dedicated to the field of materials science and engineering in India.
The Society is committed to stimulate and integrate research in the field of materials for rapid industrial progress in the country.
ERC Awards Grant Worth Euros 983,117 to a Student from India
A student from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has been awarded grant for a research project by the European Research Council. Dr Ramesh Pillai will work in a French lab, researching the mysteries of human DNA for the next five years.
The much awaited science, technology and innovation policy (STIP) 2013 was announced by the government at the Indian Science Congress Centenary sessions held at Kolkata during 3 – 9 January 2013. The discourse on innovation after the declaration of 2010 – 2020 as the ‘Decade of Innovation’; deliberations at the National Innovation Council (NInC) constituted in 2010; and public consultations called by the Ministry of Science and Technology - all seem to have had some bearing on the new STIP. Compared to Science and Technology Policy of 2003, STIP 2013 is a step forward in attempting to forge the links between science, technology and innovation policy framework.
In December the government ratified the 12th Plan document which provides a road map and allocates priorities and budget estimates for social, economic, educational, science and technology development including various economic sectors of the Indian economy.
The main objective of the ERAWATCH Analytical Country Reports 2010 is to characterize and assess the evolution of the national policy mixes in the perspective of the Lisbon goals and of the 2020, post-Lisbon Strategy. The analysis is focused on the national R&D investments targets, the efficiency and effectiveness of national policies and investments into R&D, the articulation between research, education and innovation, and on the realization and better governance of ERA.
This vision document has been drawn up by the Science Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister. In the next two decades, India is likely to become an economically prosperous nation and move significantly towards being a far more inclusive society, with the bulk of its population gaining access to facilities for education and health care and living a life with hope and security. To realize such a vision, it is essential that science is at the heart of the strategy that the next stage of national development demands. In what follows, we present a vision for the growth of Indian science that can help the strategy succeed, and a road map for India to emerge simultaneously as a global leader in science.
Newsletter from BioGenesis Euro - Indian Health Cluster with the highlights of the French President's visit to India, an interview with Mr. Emmanuel Dupart, Director of France Congress, Paris as well as the updates on biotechnology events in India.
