Narendra Modi moots 'Scientific Social Responsibility'

By Udumula Sudhakar Reddy

Just as we have Corporate Social Responsibility, the concept of Scientific Social Responsibility needs to be developed to connect leading institutions to all stakeholders, including schools and colleges, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while inaugurating the 104th Indian Science Congress here on Tuesday.

“National Laboratories should connect with schools and colleges to develop appropriate training programmes. The Ministry of Science & Technology is initiating a programme focused on students of classes 6 to 10.  The programme will mentor and showcase 10 lakh top innovative ideas focused on local needs from 5 lakh schools,” he said.

He said the SCOPUS database (the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature from science, technology, medicine) “indicates that India is now sixth in the world as far as scientific publications are concerned, growing at a rate of about 14 per cent as against the world average growth rate of about four per cent.”

Mr Modi also asked institutions to involve foreign and NRI PhD students in post-doctoral research, adding that the focus be on disruptive technologies.

One important area that needed to be addressed, he said, was the rapid global rise of Cyber-Physical Systems.

“We can turn it into a huge opportunity by training and skilling in robotics, AI, big data analysis, quantum communication and Internet-of-Things. We need to develop an Inter-Ministerial National Mission in the Cyber-Physical Systems to secure our future by creation of basic R&D infrastructure, manpower and skills,” the Prime Minister said.