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Gujarat government's STI Policy aims for R&D spend at 1% of GSDP by 2022

Officials admit that the share of funds presently being spent by the state on these areas is minuscule, which is what the policy aims to rectify

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Vijay Rupani
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Gujarat government's recently unveiled Science Technology and Innovation (SIT) Policy aims at enhancing expenditure in special areas of societal and industrial needs by at least 1 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) by 2022, while also stressing on sectoral approaches. The policy will be enforced for five years. Officials admit that the share of funds presently being spent by the state on these areas is minuscule, which is what the policy aims to rectify.

The policy, released by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Sunday, proposes government departments such as health, education, agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forest & environment, and climate change to commit 1 per cent of their annual budgets to support research and innovation, on priority.

"The fund allotted will be increased by 20 per cent every year in order to boost lab infrastructure in academics, including school; higher and technical education and R&D institutions. A dedicated STI fund will be created to support technology developments in priority sectors," the policy states.

Dhananjay Dwivedi, secretary of science & technology department, says an innovation-friendly ecosystem will be created in the state to facilitate technology infrastructure, support services, investments, and incentives.

"Systems and mechanisms will be created for increasing engagement of students, women and youth in STI in order to promote R&D and entrepreneurship. The number of personnel dedicated to research and innovation will be increased to 20,000 by 2022, and a strong pool of scientific manpower will be created by facilitating investments in translational research in emerging areas of STI," he says.

Dwivedi further says that a dedicated STI fund would be set up for research support in areas such as biotechnology, polymers and specialty materials, nanotechnology, IoT solutions, energy storage solutions, and pollution abatement, among others.

The policy proposes strong linkages between public science & technology institutions, academia, and private sector by devising a mechanism for the exchange of researchers and faculty.

The policy, which will be in force for five years, has identified agriculture & horticulture, health, education, industry, and dairy as the five sectors where STI can identify and help fill loopholes.

POLICY PLANS

  • Agriculture: Developing new and quality seed varieties of locally grown crops such as cotton, groundnut, castor, rice, jowar, maize, tur, and mango among others, besides efficient storage, sorting, and processing technologies.
     
  • Health: Promote R&D for public health, medical devices, generic medicines, targeted delivery, among others, and adopt new technologies such as synthetic biology, genetic engineering, nutraceuticals, liquid biopsy, regenerative medicines et cetera.
     
  • Education: Boost lab infrastructure in academics, inculcate scientific temper and sensitivity among students, encourage practical leaning like developing tools, equipment, and machinery for industries.
     
  • Dairy and allied sectors: Biotech tools would be developed for trait selection, progeny development, and quality enhancement
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