Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, an institutionalised mechanism will be evolved to make Academia and Industry essential stakeholders in scientific innovation

New Delhi: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that an institutionalised mechanism will be evolved to make Academia and Industry essential stakeholders in scientific innovation.
Addressing the Academia Sub-Committee of the CSIR Society here, the Minister called for bridging the trust deficit between Academia and Industry and underlined the need for liberal and rational funding for development of cutting-edge technologies.

Dr Jitendra Singh informed that he had recently addressed the meeting of representatives of prominent Industry houses who are members of CSIR Society for developing stronger CSIR-Industry linkages. He said, this congregation of the leading academic experts from the country present in the meeting should deliberate on how the academia, industry and government can work together to foster innovation and catalyse entrepreneurship in the country.

The Minister said that the three stakeholders in the triple helix model of innovation i.e. industry, universities and government have a vital role in stimulating socio-economic development in the country through knowledge generation, invention and innovation.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown strong commitment to innovation through various initiatives and reforms such as the New Education policy and the STIP policy. He added that the recent reforms in drone usage or liberalisation of policies governing the acquisition and production of geo-spatial data reaffirms the commitment to innovation. The investment and commitment to new age technologies such as cyber physical systems and quantum computing show the government’s resolve to foster an innovation ecosystem, the Minister added.

The Minister said, the report of re-orientation of CSIR led by Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India Prof VijayaRaghavan could be used as a reference to formulate PPPs and innovation parks that allow universities, CSIR and Industry to partner together that allows flexibility and agility to deliver the innovation and technologies for the sustainable development of the country in the next 25 years to make India a leading scientific power in the world, when it celebrates 100 years of Independence.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that CSIR, being the largest government funded organization with a strong IP portfolio, can strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Universities and this partnership will not only benefit the Universities and CSIR but also catalyse the industry by bringing in new inventions and innovations that can fuel the growth. He called upon CSIR to come up with suitable models of engagement such as innovation parks where, on the one hand it will leverage the excellent fundamental research of Universities and national institutions and on the other hand, strengthen the industries in technology translation and dissemination. This will promote interdisciplinary and Trans disciplinary R&D stimulating the innovation quotient, he added.

Dwelling on the stellar role performed by CSIR on the Covid-19 mitigation front, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the country recently witnessed the momentous milestone of reaching 100 crore vaccinations. He said, this is truly remarkable and a testament to the ‘can do’ attitude of our scientific community, industry, doctors and countless health care workers across the country.

He also noted with satisfaction that CSIR has taken up many clinical trials in partnership with industry and AYUSH.

Dr Jitendra Singh also lauded the recent effort of CSIR in addressing the issues relating to mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 where the technology has been installed in the Parliament of India. He said, CSIR has also launched a new initiative for PPE suits recycling, and a pilot trial was set up in Pune by CSIR-NCL in partnership with RIL.
The Minister urged that this should be taken up in a big way in partnership with industry and MSMEs and others as disposal of the PPE waste is a huge challenge and fulfilling the commitment to Waste to Wealth mandate of the Government should be a high priority.

Dr Jitendra Singh informed that 108 units of the MEDICAL grade Oxygen (MO2) concentrator systems developed by CSIR-IIP technology based on the Advanced PVSA Technology were installed with funding from PM CARES and executed by CSIR in a very short time.