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On 1st January, 2021, a draft policy on Science, Technology and Innovation was proposed by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

About

• Government has proposed an ‘open science policy’ to provide free access to the results of, and information generated by, all publicly-funded researches.
• Government has remarkably proposed to purchase majority of important scientific journals all across the world and provide it to all Indians free of cost.
• The ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ policy for scientific journals could be a turning point for the scientific community and individual researchers.
• The outstanding journals of the world are so costly that even top institutions are selective in subscribing these journals.
• It has been proposed to buy 3000 to 4000 high-impact journals and an estimated budget of 2000 crore to 3000 crore has been planned to subscribe these journals.
• All kind of data generated will be stored in the Science, Technology and Innovation Observatory.
• This observatory will provide data to public funded research through ‘FAIR’ (Fair, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).
• ‘Suitably anonymised and/or redacted data’ will be made accessible in case of privacy related issues, national security, or intellectual property rights.
• The draft policy also proposes to take proactive steps to improve the standard of Indian journals. It will also put a serious check on the publication of fake journals.
• It is has been anticipated that India will become Atmanirbhar in science and technology through this policy.
• The policy is expected to pass by the government soon.
• It will replace the STI Policy of 2013.
• ‘Indigenous development of technology, as well as technology indigenization’ is the two- way approach planned in this policy.
• R & D will be strengthened through proper infrastructure so as to reduce the imports in sectors like railways, defence, home appliances, etc.
• Building a robust semiconductor ecosystem would strengthen India’s position in strategic sectors.
• Establishment of Strategic Technology Board has been proposed in the draft policy that will connect all strategic government departments and also keep a track of and propose technologies to be bought or indigenously made.

A flashback of Science technology and Innovation policies of India

Since Independence four major policies were implemented. They are-

1) Scientific Policy Resolution (SPR1958)

SPR1958 was laid on the principle of scientific enterprise and scientific temper in India. Nehru had imagined India to be a welfare state and a welfare state was only possible through investments in science and technology. SPR 1958 was fundamentally a science policy document.

2) Technology Policy Statement 1983 (SPR1958)

The foremost feature of TPS 1983 was technological self support through promotion and development of indigenous technologies. Adoption of indigenous technology would reduce vulnerabilities in critical areas and also help to maximize the utilization of local both human and material resources.

3) Science and Technology Policy 2003 (STP2003)

A significant feature of STP 2003 was a procedure to develop mechanisms within ministries and agencies to put together inputs from scientists and technologists vis-a-vis planning and policymaking and a call to invest massively into the R&D sector with an aim of increasing investment to 2% of GDP.

4) Science Technology Innovation Policy 2013 (STIP2013)

Promoting a science and technology-led innovation ecosystem in the country and broadly linking science, technology and innovation to socio-economic priorities were some of the key features of STIP 2013. This policy also emanated in India’s increased participation in global mega-science initiatives such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the Large Hadron Collider (LHC — CERN), the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), etc.