India News | Former and Incumbent DST Secretaries Discuss Road Ahead for Dept as It Completes 50 Years
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Former and incumbent secretaries of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) discussed the road ahead as they traced its 50-year journey this week, according to a statement on Wednesday.
New Delhi, Sep 2 (PTI) Former and incumbent secretaries of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) discussed the road ahead as they traced its 50-year journey this week, according to a statement on Wednesday.
Principal Scientific Adviser K VijayRaghavan, who had served as the DST secretary, said the department has an extraordinary impact on the science and technology ecosystem in the country.
"DST's reach and depth in every area is huge, making it truly the agency for transformation of India through science and technology,” VijayRaghavan said.
DST secretary Ashutosh Sharma pointed out that the establishment of DST has been a turning point for science, technology and innovation in India and it is connected to a very wide stakeholder base -- all the way from school students to PhD, to young scientists, R&D labs, universities, and colleges.
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He elaborated about some of the great institutional structures built by DST -- the Technology Development Board (TDB) responsible for commercialising indigenous technologies and the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) -- have empowered several scientists.
He added that all the deep foundations built so far and human resources built over five decades can be activated with speed and scale, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
T Ramasami, who served as DST secretary between 2006 and 2014, underlined that DST has played the role of oxygen for the Indian science ecosystem.
"Given that science is ultimately to be celebrated by the citizens of the country, DST should look at the opportunity today that India presents of a completely new S&T policy framework to reach the unserved and under-served people of the country,” he added.
V S Ramamurthy, former DST secretary (1995-2006), stressed that there was a need for enough researchers and technologists consistent with the country's population.
“COVID times have shown us our technological strength comes to life and delivers in times of need. This will take us forward,” he said.
The discourse series, part of a chain of programmes for the golden Jubilee celebrations of the department, was organised virtually by the DST.
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