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I am very pleased to be here in your midst
today to give away the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
Prizes for the years 2007 & 2008. I
congratulate each one of the award winners. And I
shall also like to congratulate their spouses
because this creative pursuit is a joint
enterprise which is not often recognized. This is
the most prestigious award for scientific
excellence and is given to scientists who are
under 45 years of age. The awards recognize past
work but are also an inspiration for the winners
to achieve even greater successes in the years to
come. I sincerely hope that while we celebrate the
achievements of these scientists, best is yet to
come.
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards are named
after one of our scientific pioneers and
institution builders. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar,
along with Homi Bhaba, P.C. Mahalanobis and Vikram
Sarabhai among others created the scientific
infrastructure of our country. He was a visionary
and laid the foundation of the great institution
that is today the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research, a pride of India. Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru said about Shanti Swarup
Bhatnagar that:
‘Dr. Bhatnagar was a special combination of
many things, added to which was a tremendous
energy with an enthusiasm to achieve things. The
result was he left a record of achievement which
was truly remarkable. I can truly say that but for
Dr. Bhatnagar you could not have seen today the
chain of national laboratories.’
It is this energy and this enthusiasm of our
scientists that we honour and celebrate each year
on such events. The creativity and innovation of
our scientists are a matter of great national
pride for our country. They have pushed the
frontiers of scientific knowledge to enable us to
strengthen our defence capabilities; improve our
healthcare and our agricultural economy; extend
the reach of our communications and enable us to
land on the moon.
The Diamond Jubilee Technology Award to
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. symbolises the
importance we attach to commercialization of
scientific and technological research. The Rural
Technology award given jointly to the National
Research Centre on Yak for improvement of
sustainable Yak husbandry practices in the
Himalayan Region and to the Nimbkar Agricultural
Research Institute along with the National
Chemical Laboratory for genetic improvement of
Deccani breed of sheep recognizes the difference
these innovations have made to the livelihoods of
the people in rural areas. My warm felicitations
to these award winners.
I am happy that CSIR has undertaken a number of
important initiatives over the past few years. We
are the first country that has successfully mapped
the entire genetic diversity of its population.
This will lead to the identification of
populations that are genetically at risk of
various complex and infectious diseases including
adverse drug responses. Another initiative that
has immense economic importance for our farmers is
a path breaking scientific discovery that enables
mass propagation of even asexually produced seeds.
I convey my warm appreciation to Shri Kapil
Sibal, our dynamic Minister for Science &
Technology and to Dr. Samir Brahmachari, the
Director General, CSIR for these achievements.
Even as we applaud these achievements, we have
to address ourselves as a nation to the larger
challenge before us. How can science, industry and
government work as one efficient and integrated
machine to deliver to the people the benefits of
these scientific and technological advances?
This is an area where countries such as China
and Japan have scored over us. Unless we apply
ourselves to this task, the powerful scientific
tools of social and economic change will remain
confined to our laboratories and to our
institutions. Our scientists, I suggest, should
work to connect science to the daily lives of
millions of our people. S&T based
entrepreneurships and innovation in industry
should be encouraged at all levels. And government
should create a favourable enabling environment
for this to take place.
Public-private partnerships should be used to
commercialize the technologies emerging from
R&D programmes being funded by various science
departments. We should focus more on linking the
lab with the market.
I urge CSIR to take the lead in this regard and
define new strategies for translating cutting edge
science and technology into globally competitive
enterprises. To begin with, let CSIR work to
commercially exploit its vast knowledge base,
currently embodied in more than 3000 or so patents
held nationally and globally.
The role of technology in supporting our
counter terrorism and internal security efforts is
I believe not adequately appreciated. Other
countries have used modern science and technology
in their security structures with great effect. It
acts not only as a force multiplier but can also
provide solutions to human problems relating to
command, coordination and communication.
Some of the areas where greater work is
required are surveillance systems, cryptography,
near real time search and identification from
distributed large data bases and computer
simulation exercises to enhance our crisis tactics
and responses. We should use scientific
interventions to neutralize weapons of terror and
mass destruction. I believe that investment in
security technologies is vital if our security
systems are to keep pace with the increasing
sophistication of international terrorism and
crime.
This is also a time when the world is
confronted with potentially devastating climatic
changes. It is also a time when the world is faced
with a growing economic recession. But with
adversity comes opportunity. We can use the
ingenuity and inventiveness of science to find
ways to ‘leapfrog’ to future technologies, which
are affordable and also sustainable. We can use
some part of the public investment, which we will
spend to stimulate our economies, in these new
technologies that will help build sustainable
pathways to development.
We have proposed the creation of a National
Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change
as part of the National Action Plan on Climate
Change. I understand that the Ministry of Science
and Technology is currently putting together a
plan that will provide us the framework for
research and investigation in this area. I think
public policy should increasingly adopt strategic
approaches based on science.
Our government has worked hard for the
rejuvenation of the S&T establishment in our
country, including through a huge expansion of the
learning infrastructure. This is a very important
national priority and we will spare no resource to
ensure that we realize the huge potential of our
Science & Technology capability.
Our budgetary support to the Ministry of
Science & Technology during the XIth Five Year
Plan is three times higher than during the Xth
plan. I hope that our scientific departments will
make judicious use of these enhanced allocations
based on a new vision, a new work culture and a
renewed focus on scientific solutions that impact
on the lives of the common man.
I recognize that if our scientific institutions
of higher learning and research laboratories are
to flourish, they require high quality manpower
particularly at entry levels. We have made
strenuous efforts in this regard, which I hope
will show visible results in the years to come. We
cannot be satisfied becoming a back office for
providing Research & Development solutions for
multinational companies.
I am very happy that the scientific departments
are making their own efforts to create a talent
pool from which our scientific establishment can
draw upon. In this regard, the STIO initiative of
CSIR, the INSPIRE programme of the Department of
Science & Technology and Welcome Trust
Fellowship programme of the Department of
Biotechnology are worthy of mention.
With these words, I once again congratulate the
award winners and wish them many many years of
stimulating and productive research career in the
service of the country and in the service of
humanity at large. Their intellectual drive and
brilliance give us hope and confidence that Indian
science can devise effective solutions for the
many problems that confront our country and indeed
the world.
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