Science, Technology And Innovation Policy 2020: A Critical Analysis

Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) are the key drivers for economic growth and human development. Considering the importance of STI, government recently released the draft of the 5^th National Science Technology and Innovation Policy.

• The policy aims to foster, develop, and nurture a robust system for evidence and stakeholder-driven STI planning, information, evaluation, and policy research in India.

Need

The policy is need of the hour because of–

• Disruptive challenges of technologies of future
• Rise of newly emerging technologies such as AI, Virtual Reality
• Climate change and environment sustainability
• Role of science in building economy, innovation and startups
• Absence of an inclusive, empowered and self-reliant science ecosystem in India
• Poor access to scientific data and information to citizens and grassroots level governance institutions
• Lack of coordination between science, technology and innovation

Vision of the STI Policy

• To achieve technological self-reliance and position India among the top three scientific superpowers in the decade to come.
• To attract, nurture, strengthen and retain critical human capital through a ‘people centric’ science, technology and innovation (STI) ecosystem.
• To double the number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) researchers, Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD) and private sector contribution to the GERD every 5 years.
• To build individual and institutional excellence in STI with the aspiration to achieve the highest level of global recognitions and awards in the coming decade.

Key Provisions

• National STI Observatory: STIP will lead to the establishment of a National STI Observatory that will act as a central repository for all kinds of data of the STI ecosystem.
• Open Science Framework: It provides a forward-looking Open Science Framework to provide access to scientific data, information, knowledge, and resources to everyone in the country, and to all who are engaging with the Indian STI ecosystem on an equal partnership basis.
• STI Education: Develop Strategies to improve STI education making it inclusive at all levels and more connected with the economy and society. It will be done through processes of skill building, training and infrastructure development. Higher Education Research Centres (HERC), Collaborative Research Centres (CRC), Online learning platforms and Teaching-learning centres (TLCs) will be established for the same.
• STI Finance: It envisions expansion of the STI funding landscape at the central and state levels; enhanced incentivisation mechanisms for leveraging the private sector’s participation in R&D; and creative avenues for collaborative STI funding through a portfolio-based funding mechanism called the Advanced Missions in Innovative Research Ecosystem (ADMIRE) programme to support distributed and localised collaborative mission-oriented projects through a long-term investment strategy. STI Development Bank will be set up to facilitate a corpus fund for investing in direct long term investments in select strategic areas. General Financial Rules (GFR) will be suitably amended for large scale mission mode programmes and projects of national importance and to facilitate ease of doing research.
• Research and Innovation Excellence Frameworks (RIEF): It will be developed to enhance the quality of research along with promotion of engagements with relevant stakeholders.
• Integration of Traditional Knowledge: An institutional architecture to integrate Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS) and grassroots innovation into the overall education, research and innovation system will be established.
• Promotion of Self-Reliance: To promote technology self-reliance and indigenization, a two-way approach of indigenous development of technology as well as technology indigenization will be adopted and focused upon in alignment with national priorities, like sustainability and social benefit, and resources.
• Equity and Inclusion Charter: An India-centric Equity & Inclusion (E&I) charter will be developed for tackling all forms of discrimination, exclusions and inequalities in STI leading to the development of an institutional mechanism.
• Diaspora Engagement: Engagement with the Diaspora will be intensified. ‘S&T for Diplomacy’ will be complemented with ‘Diplomacy for S&T.’
• Robust STI Governance: A robust Research and Innovation (R&I) governance framework will be set up to facilitate, stimulate and coordinate R&D activities across the sectors.

Positives

• Provides a cohesive framework for development of science, technology and innovation ecosystem with one feeding the other.
• A greater emphasis has been given on promoting traditional knowledge system, developing indigenous technologies and encouraging grassroots innovation.
• It provides solutions to improve funding for all states to fund research, multinational corporations to participate in research, fiscal incentives and support for innovation in medium and small scale enterprises.
• It will provide impetus to the mainstreaming of equity and inclusion within the STI ecosystem.
• It will strengthen the overall innovative ecosystem, foster Science & Technology (S&T)- enabled entrepreneurship, and improve participation of the grassroots levels in the research and innovation ecosystem.
• It will help to achieve larger goal of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. It provides for science diplomacy and a dynamic, evidence-informed and proactive international S&T engagement strategy.
• It puts forward a decentralized institutional mechanism for robust STI Governance.
• It can be beneficial to underutilized technologies such as AI, blockchain, etc. that will positively impact industries associated with defense, education, health etc. by providing technological and scientific infrastructures for their development.

Possibilities and Prospects

• The policy captures the aspirations of a new, future-ready India, by ensuring active participation, shared responsibility and equitable ownership of all stakeholders and transforming the national STI landscape for the socio-economic development of the country.