India, Science and Technology:  2008

S&T Structure, Infrastructure and Public Space

 

 

 

S&T Infrastructure

 

 

Devashree Nayak & P.V.S. Kumar

 

 

“It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening of custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited by starving poor..”

Jawaharlal Nehru

 

In 1950¹ when India became a Republic, there were 27 universities, 208 professional colleges, 0.23 million schools, with literacy rate of 18.3 %. India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave whole-hearted support to a concerted programme for the promotion of S&T in the country. Jawaharlal Nehru firmly believed that Science and Technology can be the twin tools that would help bring about social equity and economic development to enable India join the mainstream of the world community.

The innate ability to perform creatively in science came to be backed with an institutional set-up and strong state support in 1958 with the passing of Scientific Policy Resolution (SPR) of 1958, the aim of which was "to foster, promote and sustain the cultivation of sciences and scientific research in the country and to secure for the people all the benefits that can accrue from the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge".  Many new S&T departments and laboratories were set up and the pursuance of scientific research started in an organized manner. Since then, the Government of India has stepped up efforts to establish a modern S&T organization in the country. As a result, Central and State Governments’ public expenditure on education has increased from 1.5 % of GDP in 1950-51 to 3.76% of GDP in 2003-04¹. This is still substantially lower from the planned level of 6% of GDP in India’s national policy for education.

Sufficient infrastructure is essential for the Indian S&T organizations to efficiently perform. In addition to R&D activities, S&T organizations also support extramural research, and provide extension services such as consultancy and training for the benefit of industry and other end-users. The S&T infrastructure in India encompasses S&T organizations under the Central Government, State Government as well as public and private sectors working in areas as diverse as agriculture and healthcare on the one hand and nuclear and space research on the other. Significant contributors are the large number of institutes/undertakings functioning under the Central Government S&T departments.

 

S&T Infrastructure

While Infrastructure is recognized as a crucial input for economic development, there is no clear definition of infrastructure. The term ‘infra’ refers to foundation or something underlying for the effective functioning of a system – the basis or framework on which something is built. The term is popularly used to describe the services – roads, electricity supply, sewerage, phone lines, bus routes, water pipes and so on – which enable a business, industry or economy to function. Infrastructure is largely government-owned but an extensive process of corporatisation and privatisation is under way in many countries. The term came into vogue with military applications in the early 20^th century. Since then, the term is used variously to refer to very many things. A more generic definition of infrastructure is the network of assets "where the system as a whole is intended to be maintained indefinitely at a specified standard of service by the continuing replacement and refurbishment of its components." For policy formulation, setting of sectoral targets and monitoring projects, a clear understanding of what is covered under the rubric of ‘infrastructure’ is necessary to ensure consistency and comparability in the data collected and reported by various agencies over time.

The Empowered Sub-Committee 2 of the Committee on Infrastructure within the Planning Commission in its meetings held on 11th January, 2008 and 2nd April 2008 under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission included the following in the broad definition of infrastructure:

Electricity (including generation, transmission and distribution) and R&M of power stations, Non-Conventional Energy (including wind energy and solar energy), Water supply and sanitation (including solid waste management, drainage and sewerage) and street lighting, Telecommunications, Road & bridges,  Ports, Inland waterways, Airports, Railways (including rolling stock and mass transit system), Irrigation (including watershed development), Storage, Oil and gas pipeline networks. Besides these Industrial Parks, SEZ, Education Institutes also come under infrastructure definition.

Our understanding is that the infrastructure exists in physical or tangible assets and knowledge based or intangible assets. Infrastructure, in both its tangible and intangible assets, undergirds the process of intellectual S&T development.

 

Fig 1: Overview of Infrastructure in S&T

 

Tangible or physical infrastructure is fundamental to develop a strong base of technological and scientific creativity, and to support all the economic, social and cultural activities that will help in national development. Educational infrastructure, in particular, is vital to generate and reproduce human resources which lead to a strong technological base. It includes buildings, labs, and R&D facilities such as TBI, STEP, IRHPA, SEZ and biotech parks.

The intangible infrastructure is the nation’s knowledge networks in all its social, economic, political and organizational dimensions. This kind of infrastructure is fundamental for raising a nation’s innovative capacity through skills, ICT connectivity for storage (and retrieval of information and data) and faster communications.

Infrastructure is therefore defined as :

Physical assets:

• Buildings
• Equipment / labs / computers /network  hardware
• Libraries
• Human resources
• Financial resources

Intangible / knowledge assets:

• Softwares
• Internet bandwidth / connectivity / accessibility
• Reputation / credentials

In this report on Infrastructure of S&T in India, we would like to focus on the R&D institutes, facilities such as TBI, STEP, IRHPA, SEZ status, biotech parks, labs and equipments as physical aspect of infrastructure. In the intangible aspects ICT Connectivity, broadband access, backbone network, NIXI setup, and grid computing are studied. Most of the data for this report on S&T infrastructure were culled from secondary sources – mainly from the websites of the concerned organisations.

This study is first ever survey done on infrastructure in S&T in India. We tried to build on the available reports in other countries and within our country, such as:

• “Science and Technology Policy Infrastructure Guidelines and References Version 1.0 section1 August 2004” Office of Technology Policy, US http://www.insme.info/documenti/04Guidebook_I.pdf
• “Role of Science & Technology, Higher Education and Research in Regional Socio-Economic Development”  Working paper of Rajesh Shukla and Preeti Kakar, May 2006 NCAER, http://www.ncaer.org/downloads/WorkingPapers/WP98.pdf
• Transforming America’s Scientific and Technological Infrastructure- Recommendation for Urgent Action, Project Kaleidoscope 2006, Report on report II, PKAL http://www.pkal.org/documents/2006ReportOnReports-National.pdf
• European Commission: ERAWATCH Research Inventory Report: India http://cordis.europa.eu/erawatch/index.cfm?fuseaction=ri.countryreport&full=1&countryCode=IN&printme=1

 

Drivers of S & T infrastructure

Infrastructure refers to all those services and facilities that constitute the basic support system of science and technology. Recognizing the critical importance of the infrastructure in S&T, the Government of India has accorded it a high priority. Accordingly, both the Central and the State Governments have been working in tandem to upgrade the Indian infrastructural set up, to meet international norms and standards.  Important state organizations governing scientific programmes towards improving infrastructure facilities in India are:

• Ministry of Science & Technology (MST)
• Ministry of Agriculture(MoA)
• Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)
• Department of Space (DoS)
• Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
• Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)
• Ministry of Human Resource & Development (MHRD)
• Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT)
• Software Export – Import facilities
• Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s) for Science and Technology

 

Investment in existing and new infrastructure projects involves high risks, low returns, huge capital outlays, high incremental capital/output ratio, long payback periods as well as superior technology. Hence, in order to bring in adequate resources (physical, financial and technical) for setting up a sound and efficient infrastructural S&T base, the Government has entered into the 'Public Private Partnership (PPP)' programme. Through such initiatives, the Government is moving away from its traditional role of 'provider of services' to that of a 'facilitator and regulator'.

 India's enormous unmet infrastructure needs, combined with the public private partnership approach, offer an unprecedented investment opportunity for private players. These opportunities, having the potential of attractive returns, exist in all infrastructural sectors, both at the national and State levels. This programme involves long-term detailed contracts between the Government and private players, spelling out the rights and obligations of both the contracting parties. Such public-private partnerships encourage better risk sharing, accountability, cost recovery and management of infrastructure.

The main objective of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programmes is expected to promote and develop high-end entrepreneurship for S&T manpower as well as self-employment by utilizing S&T infrastructure.

The Public Private Partnership Programmes are:

• Science and Technology Entrepreneur Parks (STEP)  and Technology Business Incubators (TBI), under  National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), of DST
• Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) under ICT software sector of DIT
• Bio-IT parks under Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
• Biotech Parks under state S&T councils and SEZ’s

 

Profiles of S&T Infrastructure

 

Ministry of Science & Technology (MST)

Under the MST various departments are working towards development and strengthening of infrastructure in fields as vast as agriculture to nano technology and space science. The contribution of MST towards infrastructure is focused through its various departments and their divisions, as given below:

• Department of Science and Technology (DST),
• Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR)
• Department of Biotechnology (DBT)

 

Department of Science & Technology

Department of Science & Technology (DST) established in May 1971, plays the role of a nodal department for organizing, coordinating and promoting S&T activities in the country.  As the pace of S&T effort needs to be accelerated to cover a wide range of programmes, DST has been supporting R&D programmes and activities in a wide spectrum of disciplines in newly emerging and challenging areas of Science and Technology. Efforts are being made to secure partnership of the industry and association of the socio-economic ministries. As a result, multi-institutional programmes have been evolved focusing on indigenous technology development. Scientific Research programmes of DST focusing on the strengthening and improvement of infrastructure are:

• Scientific and Engineering Research Council (SERC)
• S&T and Socio Economic Development Programme
• Research Facilities – Autonomous Institutes and Labs
• National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL)

 

Scientific and Engineering Research Council (SERC):        DST's efforts in strengthening the infrastructural facilities and research capabilities are by active support to SER programmes under Scientific and Engineering Research Council (SERC):

• Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas (IRHPA)
• Fund for Improvement of Infrastructure in Universities and Other Higher Educational Institutes (FIST)
• Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIFs)
• Mission on Nano Science and Technology (Nano Mission)

 

Intensification of Research in high Priority Areas (IRHPA):          The programme for Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas (IRHPA) was launched during the 6th Five Year Plan to strengthen research in high priority areas. This is meant to set up Core Groups, Centres of Excellence and National Facilities in frontline and emerging fields of science and engineering. This programme has made a real impact in the national and international scientific scene in terms of quality and quantity of work in important fields such as Neurobiology, Solid State Chemistry, Nano-materials, Materials Science, Surface Science, Plasma Physics, Macromolecular Crystallography, Ultrafast Process etc.

A Core Group/Unit is supported around an outstanding scientist in a carefully selected area. This is aimed at strengthening the existing R&D infrastructure with the scientist in order to enhance his research capabilities as well as that of the Host Institution. It also acts as a focal point for R&D and human resource development and training in the area of research. Note worthy facilities³ sanctioned under IRHPA programmes are:

• Quantum design evercool MPMS-XL7 in northern India
• Low-Temperature-High-Magnetic field facility in eastern India
• Low-Temperature-High-Magnetic field facility at Indore
• 14T Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) and 14T/0.3K system for Resistivity and Heat Capacity measurements
• High Resolution X-ray Powder Diffractometer – An experimental facility for Materials Science Applications was established in the eastern part of India
• National Facility for Texture and Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM) has been jointly set up by DST, DRDO and IIT Mumbai at IIT Mumbai
• Advanced Research in Neurotransmitters functional regulation in diabetes and pancreatic regeneration: Insulin secretion and function at molecular level at Cochin University of Science & Technology, Cochin.
• Investigations into Mechanical micro-machining of metals and non-metals at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
• Research support facility for Ferro-magnetic fluids (Bhavnagar University)
• Facility for Structural Biology (IISc-Bangalore)
• Centre for Non-Accelerator Particle Physics (IIA-Bangalore)
• Biomedical Resonance Research Facility (SG PG Institute of Medical Sciences - Lucknow)
• NMR facilities (MK University-Madurai, University of Poona-Pune)
• Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer (IISc-Bangalore)
• Phytochemical Research Facility (Kumaon University-Nainital)

 

Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST):       Considering the present status of the S&T sector in the universities and related academic institutions who are in dire need for strengthening the existing S&T infrastructure support with adequate funding and associated flexibility, Government of India in the year 2000 announced a major new initiative titled "Fund for Improvement of S&T infrastructure in universities & higher educational institutions (FIST)" to rebuild the Science & Technology infrastructure in the country.

Financial support is provided to acquire state-of-art equipment besides basic equipment, renovation of existing infrastructure, augmentation of facilities available in the department and setting up of Computer centre in the department. The Program extends support in six broad subject areas of S&T i.e. Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences & Mathematical Science through two levels of support, Level I (A, B, C) and Level II.

 

Level - I

• For improving quality of teaching & research through modernization of laboratories and by augmenting library facilities.
• Up-gradation of basic research facilities.
• Infrastructure facilities.
• Networking & computational facilities.
• Maintenance of equipment.

 

Level – II

• For acquiring state of art equipment.
• For setting up laboratories for conducting internationally competitive research.
• Infrastructure facilities.
• Networking & computational facilities.
• Maintenance of equipment.

 

The financial support given through FIST is mainly classified into four categories with different subheads, as given below:

• Equipment Head:
• Major Equipment: Largely for research purpose.
• Minor Equipment: For Teaching purposes.
• Infrastructure Head:
• Renovation of existing Laboratories, Museum, Animal House, Botanical Garden etc. No fresh construction would be allowed under the support.
• Up-gradation of existing facilities (attachment or accessories for existing facilities)
• Reference Books for Departmental Library.
• Networking & Computational Head:
• Setting up of a Departmental Computer Laboratory with server, few nodes, printers, scanners, UPS, furniture, software, etc (Internet connectivity to be provided by the College/University/Institute).
• Augmentation of existing computational facilities in the Department.
• Maintenance Head:
• AMC, Repair, Spares for the facilities created through FIST grant only.
• Refurnishing of other existing Equipment.

Review of Projects:   For the purpose of review, all these projects are broadly classified in three categories viz:

• Category ‘A’ (support of; more than Rs 50.0 lakh),
• Category ‘B’ (support of; in between Rs 26.0 lakh and Rs 49.0 lakh) and
• Category ‘C’ (support of; less than Rs 25.0 lakh).

All 221, 90, 189 & 120 projects supported under FIST-2000, FIST-2002, FIST-2003, and FIST-2004 respectively have been already reviewed.

 

FIST funding over 7 years:           Since inception of the FIST scheme, during last 7 years more than 1,100 departments⁴ spread over to 297 academic institutions have been identified for a total support of about Rs 740 crores. Financial support to the projects (221 nos.) identified in the year 2000 and 2002 has been provided and barring a few most of the departments have completed the process of acquiring equipment, of renovation of the existing laboratories and of setting up of computer laboratories.

For FIST 2007 scheme, 454 proposals (Level I – 351, Level II- 103) were received. Out of these FISTAB committee recommended 145 proposals (level I -116, level II -29) covering 100 universities and academic institutes. Among the recommended: 58 new departments and 42 departments for repeat support (after completion of 5 years) were identified.

 

Facilities Acquired by Departments:          Under this scheme, many departments have been able to acquire some of the state-of-art equipment such as Confocal Microscope, Spectro-Flurometer, Squid Magnetometer, Bioreactor, Flow Cytometer, Real Time PCR, Dyanomill, Protein Purification System, Phaco Emulsication Unit, Osometer, Soxthem, DNA Sequencers, Articulograph, System for Genome Typing, DSC-TGA, 100 kN UTM, RTOS, Cross Compiler, Microwave Vector Analyzer, Echo Sounder, Thermal Analyzer, Image Capture Station with Sensor Mast, Mobile Robot with Workstation, Particle Size Analyzer, Automatic Particulate Monitor, Automatic Weather Monitor, etc.

Apart from this, many of the departments in various universities, colleges and academic institutions have also established a Central Computer Laboratory in their department which is being extensively used by students, research scholars and faculty members for computational and other activities. Besides this, many of the departments are able to restore their Departmental Libraries by acquiring latest books in the relevant areas of their interest.

 

Fig 2:  Comparison of FIST Funding with strength of UGC recognised universities in states

 

From a perusal of the figure 2 above, it appears that the funding for infrastructural facilities from FIST was skewed in favour of few south Indian states – Karnataka having got 30% of the total funding in the year 2007 while some states like Bihar and Chhattisgarh did not receive any funding. Most of the funding went to IITs and such other elite institutes in metropolitan cities. This skewness is due to the fact that FIST acts on the proposals received from colleges and departments – in a reactive mode – rather than in a proactive mode.

 

Table 1:  State-wise Distribution of the Infrastructure Funding FIST Program – 2007

Note:  © Figures in brackets refer to the percentage of the funding to the total funding granted for the year 2007

Source: Department of Higher Education. Annual report 2007-2008

 

 

Table 2: State Wise Proposals Received and Proposals Supported under FIST (2000 – 2007)

 

 

 

Table 3:   Academic Sector-Wise Distribution of Recommended Proposals in FIST under Level I and II

FIST (2000-2007) LEVEL – I & LEVEL – II

 

* Repeat support Departments included

 

 

Table 4: Budget Heading Wise Distribution of FIST (2002-2007)

A. LEVEL- I                                                                             (Rs in Lakhs)

S No	Subject Area	Funding Year	Equipment (E)	Networking (NW)	Infrastructure (IF)	Maintenance (M)	Total
1.	Life Sciences	FIST 2002	1608	259	288	248	2403
		FIST 2003	1087	216.5	252	148.5	1704
		FIST 2004	1382	139	21	136	1678
		FIST 2005	894.5	75.5	43	82	1095
		FIST 2006	1720	141	131	156	2148
		FIST 2007	1541	187	194	229	2151
2.	Physical Sciences	FIST 2002	455	305	88	42	890
		FIST 2003	747	70	68	71	956
		FIST 2004	171	28	13	36	248
		FIST 2005	142	30	17	24	213
		FIST 2006	912	74	78	72	1136
		FIST 2007	765	115	105	87	1072
3.	Chemical Sciences	FIST 2002	795	87	115	72	1069
		FIST 2003	428	83	77	42	630
		FIST 2004	178	71	70	28	347
		FIST 2005	422	66	120	52	660
		FIST 2006	1622	144	223	142	2131
		FIST 2007	1285	150	327	191	1953
4.	Engineering Sciences	FIST 2002	1760	407	7	49	2223
		FIST 2003	1162.5	78	13	119.5	1409
		FIST 2004	775.5	64	16.5	68	924
		FIST 2005	1264	73	12	86	1435
		FIST 2006	1125	80	30	90	1325
		FIST 2007	2102	50	---	223	2375
5.	Earth & Atmospheric Sciences	FIST 2002	651	236	48	82	1017
		FIST 2003	558	165	116	107	946
		FIST 2004	304	74	55	45	478
		FIST 2005	192	45	10	24	271
		FIST 2006	345	112	30	36	523
		FIST 2007	302	110	96	50	558
6.	Mathematical Sciences	FIST 2002	68	95	121	22	306
		FIST 2003	115	35.5	47.5	18	216
		FIST 2004	30.5	35	26.5	20	112
		FIST 2005	49.5	--	13.5	13	76
		FIST 2006	40	-	25	5.5	70.5
		FIST 2007	---	55.5	59	16.5	131

 

B. LEVEL- II                                                                            (Rs in lakhs)

S No	Subject Area	Funding Year	Equipment (E)	Networking (NW)	Infrastructure (IF)	Maintenance (M)	Total
1.	Life Sciences	FIST 2002	270	15	33	27	345
		FIST 2003	319	5	40	20	384
		FIST 2004	100	-	5	10	115
		FIST 2005	150	-	5	15	170
		FIST 2006	250	-	-	20	270
		FIST 2007	1965	95	215	180	2455
2.	Physical Sciences	FIST 2002	407	25	7	32	471
		FIST 2003	75	3	2	3	83
		FIST 2004	125	-	-	10	135
		FIST 2005	200	5	2	5	212
		FIST 2006	400	50	-	25	475
		FIST 2007	1515	180	10	170	1875
3.	Chemical Sciences	FIST 2002	175	10	-	15	200
		FIST 2003	120	-	-	5	125
		FIST 2004	-	-	-	-	-
		FIST 2005	175	60	-	15	250
		FIST 2006	-	-	-	-	-
		FIST 2007	2790	225	330	340	3685
4.	Engineering Sciences	FIST 2002	895	15	-	-	910
		FIST 2003	1115	-	-	65	1180
		FIST 2004	185	-	-	10	195
		FIST 2005	355	-	-	25	380
		FIST 2006	3770	-	-	150	3920
		FIST 2007	5000	110	---	390	5500
5.	Earth & Atmospheric Sciences	FIST 2002	221	10	17	20	268
		FIST 2003	-	-	-	-	-
		FIST 2004	-	-	-	-	-
		FIST 2005	245	-	-	15	260
		FIST 2006	-	-	-	-	-
		FIST 2007	220	20	---	20	260
6.	Mathematical Sciences	FIST 2002	22	-	20	6	48
		FIST 2003	17	7	18	3	45
		FIST 2004	-	-	-	-	-
		FIST 2005	15	-	7.5	5	27.5
		FIST 2006	-	-	-	-	-
		FIST 2007	---	---	---	---	---

 

 

Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIF):            The Department of Science & Technology (DST) has set up Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIFs) in different parts of the country to provide the facilities of sophisticated analytical instruments, as a service, to the research workers in general and specially for institutions which do not have access to such instruments to enable them to pursue R&D activities requiring such facilities and keep pace with developments taking place globally. The instrument facilities provided by the SAIFs are being utilized by about 6,000 users every year from academic institutions, R&D laboratories and industries from all over the country. These instruments are expensive and cannot be provided through individual project mechanism. Moreover, these instruments are of inter/multidisciplinary utility and thus it is desirable to use them on sharing basis for their optimum utilization on services to user basis.

 

Location of the SAIFs⁵:        At present there are 13 SAIFs in India. SAIF’s are functioning at IIT, Chennai; IIT, Mumbai; Bose Institute, Kolkata; CDRI, Lucknow; Punjab University, Chandigarh; NEHU, Shillong; Nagpur University, Nagpur; IISc., Bangalore; AIIMS, New Delhi; Gauhati University, Guwahati; IIT, Roorkee; C.V.M., Vallabh Vidyanagar and STIC, Kochi.

Analytical instruments/facilities available at the SAIFs:  The SAIFs are equipped with sophisticated analytical instruments in the areas of Optical spectroscopy, NMR and EPR spectroscopy, X-ray based analysis, Electron microscopy, Mass spectrometry, Chromatography, Organic elemental analysis, Thermal analysis etc. to meet the needs of users in various areas of science & technology. A wide range of analytical methods/techniques for chemical/material-analysis/testing/characterization including qualitative and quantitative elemental, molecular/compound-analysis, structure determination, surface topographic studies, study of physical, optical and electrical properties of materials etc. are available to the users at these facilities for helping them in their research work.

 

Mission on Nano Science and Technology (Nano Mission) :           Nano Technology is a knowledge-intensive and “enabling technology” which is expected to influence a wide range of products and processes with far-reaching implications for national economy and development. The Government of India, in May 2007, has approved the launch of a Mission on Nano Science and Technology (Nano Mission) ⁶ with an allocation of Rs. 1,000 crore for 5 years under Department of Science and Technology as nodal agency for implementing the Nano Mission.

The Nano Mission is an umbrella programme for capacity building which envisages the overall development of this field of research in the country and to tap some of its applied potential for the nation’s development. The objectives of the Nano-Mission are:

• Basic Research Promotion,
• Nano Applications and Technology,
• Development Programmes,
• Human Resource Development,
• International Collaborations and
• Infrastructure Development for Nano Science & Technology Research.

Infrastructure development includes investigations on the nano scale which require expensive equipment like Optical Tweezer, Nano Indentor, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM), Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (MALDI TOF MS), Microarray Spotter & Scanner etc. For optimal use of expensive and sophisticated facilities, it is proposed to establish a chain of shared facilities across the country.

 

DST Activities in Nano Science and Technology infrastructure:        The Nano Mission is the second phase of DST activities in Nano Science and Technology. In October 2001 DST launched a modest programme in Nano Science and Technology, called the Nano Science and Technology Initiative (NSTI), and the Nano Mission is the successor of this programme. Under NSTI, and since May 2007 under the Nano Mission, DST has supported a number of activities in Nano Science and Technology. Among these, infrastructure development programmes are as:

• Strengthening of Characterization Facilities
  Research with nano-scale systems requires sophisticated characterization facilities which were not available in our institutions. Realizing this gap, DST has established an array of sophisticated equipments at various locations in the country.
• Establishment of Centres of Excellence

Eleven Units/Core Groups on Nano Science have been sanctioned across the country. These centres of excellence house some of the more sophisticated facilities for sharing with other scientists in the region. Seven Centres for Nano Technology focusing on development of specific applications have also been established. In addition, a centre of excellence on Computational Materials Science has also been established at JNCASR, Bangalore.

 

S&T and Socio Economic Development Programmes:            In the context of liberalisation, DST has accorded greater emphasis on projects related to technology development. The societal program of the DST aims primarily at reaching technology to the weaker section of the society so that they derive benefit in terms of enhanced income, reduced drudgery and in general an improved quality of life. While in the previous years the emphasis was on development of appropriate technology packages, recently a deliberate attempt has been made to enlarge the scope of the activities through co-ordinated programs. Such programmes that enhance the infrastructure are as:

• National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB)
• State Science & Technology Programme (SSTP)

 

National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB):         National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB)⁷ established in January 1982, has been making systematic and continued effort in fostering entrepreneurship among S&T persons through its programmes and activities. The purpose is to create additional employment through entrepreneurship and application of S&T tools and methods thereby utilizing the existing S&T infrastructure. The programmes pursued by NSTEDB to strengthen S&T infrastructure through entrepreneurship are:

• Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park (STEP)
• Technology Business Incubator (TBI)

 

Science Technology entrepreneurs Parks (STEP)⁸:          is an ongoing scheme promoted by NSTEDB jointly with the financial institutions (IDBI, IFCI, and ICICI), State Governments and the Academic Institutions of Excellence. STEP provides a re-orientation in approach to innovation and entrepreneurship involving education, training, research, finance, management and government. Each STEP operates in the identified thrust area based on the expertise, facilities of the institution and the industrial milieu of the region. STEPs are hardware intensive with emphasis on common facilities, services and relevant equipments. Facilities available with the STEPs include Nursery Sheds, Testing and Calibration, Training, Precision Tool Room, Prototype development, Technology transfer, Computing, Library and documentation, facilitation towards ISO900 certification and common facilities such as fax, internet, telex, photocopying and conference room.

The department has so far catalyzed 15 STEPs in different parts of the country, which have promoted nearly 788 units. More than 100 new products and technologies have been developed by the STEPs/STEP promoted entrepreneurs. STEPs are autonomous bodies registered as societies under the Societies Registration Act. 

 

Technology Business Incubator (TBI):         The need for policy instruments such as TBI has been recognized the world over for initiating technology led and knowledge driven enterprises. Studies also show that such mechanisms help not only in the growth of technology based new enterprises but also in improving their survival rate substantially. TBIs also facilitate speedy commercialization of research outputs. The TBIs besides providing a host of services to new enterprises (and also to existing SMEs in the region) facilitate an atmosphere congenial for their survival and growth. The main objective of the TBIs is to produce successful business ventures that create jobs and wealth in their region.

A TBI should be located near a source of technology and knowledge i.e. around R&D Institutions/Academic Institutions or it should have strong links with such institutions to ensure optimal use of the already existing expertise and facilities, thus keeping the cost of the TBI on lower side. Locating TBIs in such locations reduces time lag between technology development and its commercialization. Further, besides quality of tenant enterprises, the success of a TBI largely depends on its location and management.

Each TBI focus on not more than 2-3 thrust areas. A TBI can be set up in any technological (single/mix) area after thorough study and analysis. The areas may range from biotechnology, information and communication technology, design, micro-electronics, embedded systems, manufacturing, agri-business, environment and energy, etc.

As per the guidelines of the Department regarding legal status of new Technology Business Incubators it is mandatory to register the new TBIs as an autonomous body functioning as a society registered under societies act of 1860 or as a non profit making section 25 company.

NSTEDB, DST has promoted nearly 47 TBIs⁹ in the country. Some of the leading institutes like IITs, IIMs, NITs, NID, and ICRISAT have set up incubators.

The success of a TBI is judged from the efficacy of the TBI operations, number of successful enterprises, social impact created in the region and good financial health of the TBI. The TBI should be a visible and known entity in the region for stimulating new enterprises.

 

State Science & Technology Programme (SSTP):      This scheme has numerous objectives aimed at upliftment of social-economic conditions of various states through application of Science & Technology. DST effort, though catalytic, had served a very important purpose of establishing State S&T structures and gearing up these structures to assume the role of a prime mover in planning and implementing S&T activities. State S&T Councils and DST have initiated programmes where resources and technologies are being pooled together to have visible impact.

 

Assistance for Development of State Councils on S&T:        The national expenditure in S&T is predominantly through Central Government S&T agencies and ever since national independence, some amount of infrastructure has been established in the form of national laboratories, specialized S&T departments, facilities of higher education and research etc., in different parts of the country. Through the national S&T plans, several sectors of the economy have been identified where increased inputs from S&T could enhance the rate of socio-economic development of the country. In order to use the already established national infrastructure, and encourage & promote science and technology activities in the States and UTs, the Department of Science and Technology has been operating a scheme entitled, "Assistance for Development of State Councils on Science and Technology”¹⁰ since 1980. The main objective of the scheme is to assist all the States/UTs to set up State Councils on Science and Technology which in turn would help the States in formulation, planning, coordination and promotion of S&T activities within their respective States. As a result of DST's efforts, State S&T structures have been set up in all the states and Union Territories utilizing the existing national infrastructure in S&T. Several States have also formed a separate Department of Science & Technology. The State Councils are normally chaired by Chief Ministers of respective States or by an eminent scientist.

S&T Core Support of the Department aims at building up requisite S&T capabilities in the State Secretariat for cooperation under the complementary promotion effort. This support has played a very critical and important role in facilitating State S&T Councils in planning formulating implementing and coordinating scientific activities in their respective states. Department provides core support primarily for technical manpower along with minimum required support manpower. The Core Support has resulted in dovetailing various programmes of Central Scientific agencies and Departments with the programmes of State S&T Councils particularly in areas such as Science and Society Popularization of Science, Technical Entrepreneurship Development, Natural Resource Data Management system and micro-hydel generation of power. This support is provided in the form of annual grant to the concerned State S&T Councils.

State S&T Councils and DST are now initiating programmes where resources and technologies are being pooled together to have visible impact. In addition to support for setting up and strengthening S&T structures and facilitating information exchange, support is initiated for demonstration projects, replication projects and S&T studies & surveys. During the period 1998-2005, around 175 projects were supported under the programme to promote Science & Technology activities in the states.

 

Research Facilities – Autonomous Institutes & Labs:   The autonomous institutes and labs under the aegis of Department of Science and Technology are listed below with their main functions and research areas.

 

 

Table 5: Autonomous Institutes and Labs under DST with functional area

 

 

National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL)¹¹:         is an autonomous body under the aegis of Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, and is registered under the Societies Act. NABL has been established with the objective to provide Government, Industry Associations and Industry in general with a scheme for third-party assessment of the quality and technical competence of testing and calibration laboratories. Government of India has authorized NABL as the sole accreditation body for Testing and Calibration laboratories.

NABL accreditation is a formal recognition of the technical competence of a testing or calibration laboratory for a specific task following ISO/IEC 17025 Standard. This is based on third party assessment. WTO recognizes non-acceptance of test results and measurement data as Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). Accreditation is considered to be the first essential step towards removing such technical barriers. NABL has achieved the status of APLAC (Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) MRA (Mutual Recognition Arrangement) partner and signatory to ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) Arrangement based on peer evaluation by a multi-disciplinary team from APLAC. This is a major step towards mutual acceptance of test results and measurement data amongst 52 accreditation bodies representing 45 countries. NABL accredited laboratories have therefore emerged as a member of global family of accredited laboratories.

NABL accreditation is currently given in the following fields:

 

 

Accredited laboratories have the responsibility of satisfying the criteria of laboratory accreditation at all times, which are verified during Surveillance and Re-assessment visits by NABL. Further the accredited laboratories should prove their technical competence by satisfactory participation in recognized Proficiency Testing programmes. In conformity with ISO/IEC 17011:2004 which determines the Quality System of NABL, the accredited laboratories can be suspended or their scope of accreditation can be reduced or even withdrawn in cases of negligence and gross non-compliance of ISO/IEC 17025 standard detected during routine or surprise Surveillance or Re-assessment.

 

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR)

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) is a part of the Ministry of Science and Technology, which was announced through a Presidential Notification, dated January 4, 1985 (74/2/1/8 Cab.) contained in the 164th Amendment of the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) has a mandate to carry out the activities relating to indigenous technology promotion, development, utilization and transfer.

The primary endeavour of DSIR is to:

• Promote R&D by the industries, support a larger cross section of small and medium industrial units to develop state-of-the art globally competitive technologies of high commercial potential
• Catalyze faster commercialization of lab-scale R&D
• Enhance the share of technology intensive exports in overall exports
• Strengthen industrial consultancy & technology management capabilities
• Establish user friendly information network to facilitate scientific and industrial research in the country

DSIR has two public funded organisations:

• National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) through which it provides a link between scientific laboratories and industrial establishments for transfer of technologies
• Central Electronics Limited (CEL) which facilitates investment in R&D.

The infrastructure facilities developed under DSIR are through R&D activities of institutes. These institutes are categories as:

• Recognized In-house R & D Institutes ²⁰
• Recognized Scientific and Industrial Research organizations ²⁰
• Public Funded organizations and other institutes registered with DSIR ²⁰

Apart from these, there are two autonomous organisations under DSIR, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Consultancy Development Centre (CDC). Among them, CSIR is the National R&D organisation providing scientific industrial research for India’s economic growth and human welfare. It has a country-wide network of thirty-seven laboratories and eighty field centres covering fundamental and applied R&D in all areas of science and technology barring atomic research, developing and nurturing S&T human resource for the country through extra mural support and promoting scientific talent through awards, fellowships etc.

 

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR):            The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) --the premier industrial R&D organization in India was constituted in 1942 by a resolution of the then Central Legislative Assembly. It is an autonomous body registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860. The CSIR thrust areas in the new millennium are:

• Re-engineering the organisational structure;
• Linking research to market space;
• Mobilising and Optimising the resource base;
• Creating an enabling infrastructure; and
• Investing in high quality science that will be the harbinger of future technologies.

CSIR aims to provide industrial competitiveness, social welfare, strong S&T base for strategic sectors and advancement of fundamental knowledge. CSIR has contributed towards the infrastructure in two ways:

1. Development of state of art facilities in institutes
2. New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI)

 

Development of state-of-art facilities in institutes:        CSIR has developed infrastructure in various fields of science and technology. The number of institutes having state of art facility according to science & technology fields is as below:

 

Table 6: CSIR Institutes according to S&T fields

Science & Technology Field	Number of Institutes
1. Aerospace	1
2. Biology And Biotechnology	6
3. Chemical Sciences	6
4. Ecology & Environment	7
5. Energy	5
6. Healthcare, Drugs & Pharmaceuticals	14
7. Information Dissemination & Products	2
8. Materials	6
9. Earth Resources and Hazards Assessment & Mitigation	5
10. Electronics & Instrumentation	2
11. Food & Food Processing	3
12. Housing & Construction	4
13. Leather	1
14. Metals, Minerals & Manufacturing	5

 

Infrastructure and achievements of major institutes and labs under CSIR in the areas of space, biotechnology and chemical science are:

 

Table 7: Infrastructure and achievements of CSIR Institutes in the S & T area

Institutes	Infrastructure and Achievements
AREA:  AEROSPACE
National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore	Nilakantan National Trisonic Aerodynamic Facilities (NTAF) with three wind tunnels used for testing of aircraft, missiles and launch vehicles. Fatigue Testing Facility for fighter aircraft life extension programmes. Acoustic Test Facility for acoustic qualification of satellites and launch vehicles. Composite Structures Laboratory for design and fabrication of composite fins, rudders, fuselage, etc. for fighter aircraft. Black box readout facility.
AREA: BIOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY
Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad	The major R&D programmes of CCMB are under the disciplines of Biomedicine & Biotechnology; Genetics & Evolution; Cell Biology & Developmental Biology; Molecular Biology and Biochemistry & Biophysics. Facilities at CCMB are: Structural Biology Facility Flow Cytometry Facility  Proteomics Facility  National Facility for Transgenic and Gene Knock-Out Mice  NMR-Micro imaging and NMR-Spectroscopy Facility BSL4 (Biological Safety Level 4) Facility
Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi	DNA sequencing & genotyping facility, protein sequencing facility, microarray facility, computer facility for Genome Informatics and an oligonucleotide synthesizer. There is a robotic workstation, Flow Aided Cell Sorter (FACS), MALDI- TOF facility and Biacore 2000 for ligand interaction studies.
Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, formely Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Jammu	Crude Drug Repository and Herbarium. A well stocked herbal drug repository housing a total of 1000 crude drug samples of authenticated plant parts is a referral facility accessible to pharmaceutical industry, traders, medicinal practitioners, natural product chemists and scientists. The library houses more than 18,000 specimens representing 2800 species, 1050 genera and 150 families of Angiosperms, Gymnosperms and Pteridophytes. Digitalization of this herbarium has been initiated.
Industrial Technology Research Centre (ITRC) Lucknow	Sophisticated equipments like atomic absorption spectrometer, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer and UV/VIS microplate spectrophotometer, beta scintillation counter, flow cell cytometer, gel documentation system, Comet image analysis system and robotic liquid handling system. ITRC has received accreditation from National Accreditation Board for testing and calibration Laboratories (NABL), Department of Science & Technology from December 2000 for chemical and biological testing.
Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) Chandigarh	Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank: a depository to supply authentic microbial cultures and to provide related services to scientists. It has five sections, namely, actinomycetes, bacteria, fungi, yeasts and plasmids Biochemical Engineering Research & Process Development Centre: facilities for evaluation and bench marking of any indigenous or imported fermentation process know-how. There are several laboratory scale fermenters, a 150-litre fermenter and a computer-controlled 1500 litre fermentation pilot plant.  Bioinformatics Centre on Protein Engineering: interlink all the specialized centres through a national bio-information network.
Central Institute of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants(CIMAP), Lucknow	National Gene Bank on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. Different plant accessions are collected and analyzed at CIMAP and conserved in the National Gene Bank. equipped with state-of-the-art biotesting facilities and genomics facility
AREA: CHEMICAL SCIENCE
National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune	The major R&D programmes of NCL relate to the areas of catalysis, biotechnology, and polymers and other high performance materials. High throughput screening system (Biomek 2000); Accelerated solvent extractor (Dionex ASE 300); HT evaporation system (Genevac HT 12)
Indian Institute of Chemical Technology ( IICT), Hyderabad	The major R&D programmes of IICT relate to the development of technologies for pesticides, drugs, organic intermediates and fine chemicals, catalysts, polymers and organic coatings, utilization of low grade coals, and value-added products from vegetable oils. Process design and mechanical engineering design form an integral part of technology development and transfer
Central Fuel Research Institute(CFRI), Dhanbad	The major R&D programmes of CFRI are directed towards improving efficiency in power generation by employing more efficient power generation cycles, including the co-generation system; augmenting the production to better quality indigenous reductants for steel making and other metallurgical purposes; and developing coal-based industrial carbons of different specifications; Reducing dependence on petroleum products through conversion of coal/organic wastes into synthetic fuel and other chemicals/feed stocks; and carrying out the national task of resource quality assessment in alliance with the coal producing industries. Major facilities are: Gas chromatographs; Autoscan 60Porosimeter; F.T. synthesis, single tube reactor; batch autoclaves; electrolytic hydrogen generator; laser particle size analyser; 40 tph coal washing pilot plant

 

 

Database of Scientific Instruments & Components Manufacturers:       Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) ⁴⁷ is a premier national laboratory dedicated to research, design and development of scientific and industrial instruments. CSIO is a multi-disciplinary organization having well equipped laboratories manned by highly qualified and well trained staff with infrastructural facilities in the areas of microelectronics, optics, applied physics, electronics, mechanical engineering, etc.

Large number of instruments ranging from simple to highly sophisticated ones, have been designed and developed by the Institute and their know-how’s  have been passed on to the industry for commercial exploitation. CSIO has contributed substantially towards the growth of the scientific instruments industry in the country, and thus enjoys high degree of credibility among the users of the instruments as well as the instrument industry.

One of the continuing activities of CSIO has been preparation of database of Scientific Instruments & Components Manufacturers all over India. The Directory contains information regarding Chief Executives, registered Offices, Correspondence Offices, Works, Websites, Quality Certificates, Manufacturing Programmes, etc.

The Data is available to users in the form of User-Friendly searchable Database on CDROM as well as hard-bound editions. The Print Version of the Directory is a 824 page volume (size 8.5”x 11”) containing information about 1,676 manufacturers in India making nearly 8,000 products.

The demo version can be downloaded from CSIO website at URL:http://www.csio.res.in/

 

New Millennium Indian Technology leadership Initiative (NMITLI)²⁵:        is the largest public–private–partnership effort within the R&D domain in the country. It synergizes the best competencies of public funded R&D institutions, academia and private industry. NMITLI has evolved 57 largely networked projects in diverse areas such as, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Materials, Information and Communication Technology and Energy. These projects involve 80 industry partners & 270 R&D groups from different institutes. These 57 projects cumulatively have had an outlay of approximately Rs 500 crore.

NMITLI aims to catalyze innovation centred scientific and technological developments as a vehicle, to attain for Indian industry, a global leadership position by synergizing the best competencies of publicly funded R&D institutions, academia and private industry.

Distinctive Features of the Programme are:

• A Proactive Programme – The programme identifies the areas for development based on national consultation and invites best partners from institutions, academia and private sector to play a role in the development.
• Type of Project- Both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ type of projects are evolved under NMITLI, which are :
  • Nationally Evolved Projects (NEP)
  • Industry Originated Projects (IOP) 
• PPP mode- all projects are built in public private partnership mode.
• S & T Inputs- High quality technical inputs are provided at both projects development as well as at implementation stage.
• Monitoring & Review System- A two-tier tight monitoring system is introduced to ensure realization of the objectives and deliverables.

The programme has developed 57 projects so far, which cover diverse areas. Some of the projects areas are:

• Two orders of magnitude improved liquid crystals for flat panel display devices;
• New targets and markers for cancer using genomics and proteomics;
• Stimuli sensitive polymeric nano-particle based advanced drug delivery systems for cancer, diabetes and anti-bacteria;
• 5 & 25 kw decentralized power packs;
• Latent M. Tuberculosis: new targets, drug delivery system, bio-enhancers and therapeutics;
• Enhanced productivity in cement manufacturing through improved granular processing and resource conservation;
• Biotechnology replacing chemical process in leather sector (Phase I & II); and more…

 

Department of Biotechnology (DBT)

The setting up of a separate Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1986 gave a new impetus to the development of the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. A unique feature of the department has been the deep involvement of the scientific community of the country through a number of technical task forces, advisory committees and individual experts in identification, formulation, implementation and monitoring of various programmes and activities.

In India, more than a decade of concerted effort in research and development in identified areas of modern biology and biotechnology has given rich dividends. The proven technologies at the laboratory level have been scaled up and demonstrated in field. A strong base of indigenous capabilities has been created. To form a major research and commercial endeavour for socio-economic development in the next millennium, the field of biotechnology requires new innovations and applications. To ensure this DBT has built the infrastructure facilities in biotechnology and upcoming field of bioinformatics and also Biotech Parks for promotion of Public Private Partnerships.

1. Infrastructure Facilities for Biotechnology
2. Infrastructure facilities for Bioinformatics
3. Biotechnology Parks and Incubators

 

Infrastructure Facilities for Biotechnology:        The overall objective of the Infrastructure Facility for Biotechnology¹² scheme is to promote establishment of repositories for conservation/preservation of living organisms including microbes both useful and harmful in agriculture, human health, animal husbandry and bio-industries as well as establish sophisticated biotech facilities for research, training, services, including supply of reagents/materials. DBT have established national facilities, repository, animal houses facility, genetic engineering and strain manipulation facility and other facilities for various fields in biotechnology.

The major facilities are:

• National Facility for Marine Cyanobacteria, Bharatidasan University, Tiruchirapalli
• Tissue Culture & Cryopreservation Repository at NBPGR, New Delhi
• Repository of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants at CIMAP, Lucknow.
• Animal House Facility at CDRI, Lucknow and  NIN , Hyderabad
• Centre for Genetic Engineering and Strain Manipulation , MKU, Madurai
• International Depository Authority at Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh
• Repository for Filarial Parasites and Reagents at MGIMS, Sevagram
• DNA Sequencing facility at University of Delhi South Campus
• Drosophila Repository and Research Facility at IIT Kanpur
• Biochemical Engineering Research and Process Development Centre at Institute of Microbial Technology , Chandigarh
• National Facility for State Isotope Discrimination Studies at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore
• FACS Facility at CCMB Hyderabad
• NMR Facility at TIFR, Mumbai and IISc Bangalore

 

Infrastructure facilities for Bioinformatics:       Growth of biotechnology has accelerated particularly during the last decade due to path breaking advancements in biology and new technologies that produce large high quality data. One such advancement is the full genome sequencing projects, including human genome, have produced very large data. The analysis of such large data and extraction of knowledge from this data is possible only with the help of new algorithms and computing intensive techniques. Thus biologists need to use almost every new technical development in information technology and computer sciences and intelligent application to solve complex biological problems leading the development of multi-disciplinary area called bioinformatics. The growth in full genomic sequencing, structural genomics, proteomics, micro-array etc. will be very slow without application of bioinformatics. In fact usefulness of these areas to solve complex biological problems will be limited without bioinformatics and thus very high importance to Bioinformatics.

The infrastructure facilities¹³ developed by DBT for bioinformatics are:

1. Biotechnology Information System (BTIS) : A National Bioinformatics Network
2. BIOGRID INDIA
3. Super Computer Facility

 

Biotechnology Information System (BTIS):      India was the first country in the world to establish in 1987, a Biotechnology Information System (BTIS)¹³ network to create an infrastructure that enables it to harness, biotechnology through the application of Bioinformatics. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has taken up this infrastructure development project and created a distributed network at a very low cost. BTIS is today recognized as one of the major scientific networks in the world dedicated to provide the-state-of-the-art infrastructure, education, manpower and tools in bioinformatics.

The BTIS network¹⁵ consists of 10 Distributed Information Centres (DICs), 50 Sub-Distributed Information Centres (Sub-DICs) and a Biotechnology Information Centre (BTIC), which is the apex centre for the BTISnet at Department of Biotechnology.

 

Table 8:  Distributed Information Centres of BTIS

DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION CENTRES (DICs)
Anna University, Chennai	Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi	Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh
Kerala Agriculture University, Thrissur	M.S. University of Baroda, Baroda
National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Gurgaon	National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi
Pondicherry University, Pondicherry	University of Calcutta, Calcutta

 

The Department has established six major Interactive Graphics Facilities to promote developmental activities in Bioinformatics. These centres have been networked through satellite communication systems by installing the latest computer and communication infrastructure available in India. The computer communication network, linking all the bioinformatics centres, is playing a vital role in the success of the bioinformatics programme.

 

Table 9: Interactive Graphics Facilities Centres (BTIS)

Interactive Graphics Facilities
Bose Institute, Kolkatta	Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi
University of Pune, Pune	Madurai Kamraj University, Madurai
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore	National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi

 

A supercomputing facility has also been set up at IIT Delhi specifically for the Genomics and Proteomics activities.

 

EMBnet:        The European Molecular Biology Network (EMBnet), is a science-based group of 37 collaborating nodes throughout Europe and a number of nodes outside Europe.  A national node of EMBnet has been established at the Centre of DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad. The EMBnet India Node provides bioinformatics services in the form of browsing bio-molecular sequence databanks, macro molecular structure databanks, genome and other useful databases. It provides in-house services for the comparison and analysis of sequence/structure/genome data protein 3-D modelling molecular graphics. The Node also conducts in-house training for the use of commercial software such as, GCG and Insight II. The research interests focus on protein sequence & structure analysis, protein modelling, drug design, genome analysis and databases.

Four mirror sites for harbouring important biological databasesare being established at IISc, JNU, Poona University, and IMTECH to promote and support R&D activities in Genomics and Proteomics, the two emerging fields of biotechnology requiring critical support of genomic databases.

Mirror sites of several internationally recognized genomic databases such as EMBnet, PDB, GDB, EBI and Plant Genome databases were established in India under the National Jai Vigyan S&T mission.

 

BIOGRID INDIA:        Research in biotechnology, which is highly knowledge and capital intensive, has generated a deluge of information in this decade. To make use of this information effectively there is a need for high speed and large bandwidth network. Towards this end, the Department has successfully established a high-speed and high-bandwidth network in the form of Virtual Public Network (VPN) named as BIOGRID INDIA¹³. Eleven nodes have been established in the first phase, which are actively pursuing bioinformatics activities such as human resource development and R&D in bioinformatics besides, dissemination of biotechnology information to researchers in the country. The nodes are interconnected through 2mbps dedicated leased circuit line at each location and 4mbps Internet bandwidth shared from the central server by all the nodes. The BIOGRID allows exchange of database & softwares which have been created/acquired by the individual centres/nodes of BTIS. This resource sharing helps in enhancing the value and usefulness of the BTIS.

The BIOGRID nodes are established at:

1. JNU Bioinformatics Centre, JNU New Mehrauli Road.
2. Rice Genome Initiative Department of Plant Molecular Biology, South Campus B.J. Road, University of Delhi.
3. School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamraj University, Madurai.
4. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Malleswaram, Bangalore.
5. National Institute of Immunology, Shahid Jeet Singh Marg JNU.
6. Institute of Microbial Technology, Sector 39A Chandigarh.
7. Department of Biotechnology, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.
8. Bioinformatics Centre University of Pune, Ganeshkhind Pune.
9. Centre for Biochemical Technology, Delhi University Campus, Mall Road near Jubilee Hall Delhi.
10. National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon, Haryana.
11. Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, ECIL Road, Nacharam, Hyderabad.

Super Computer Facility:      The Supercomputing Facility¹⁴ for Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (SCFBio), IIT Delhi, was created in July 2002, with funding from the Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science & Technology, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi with the following mandate.

• To establish a nodal facility for supercomputing, accessible to the Bioinformatics community
• To develop novel scientific methods and new software for genome analysis, ab-initio protein structure prediction and active site directed drug design

The facility is working on all major aspects of Bioinformatics viz. Genome Analysis, Protein Structure Prediction and Drug design.

 

Infrastructure:      The facility has following resources

1. 70 Ultra Sparc III Cu 900 MHz processor cluster over a Gigabit switch
2.  104 Processor AMD cluster over a Gigabit switch
3. Two 16 node P4 processor clusters, A 4 processor SGI ORIGIN-200
4.  Four Sun Fire V20z Server
5.  Sun StorEdge 6120 Array
6.  50 KVA UPS
7.  Tape Library (legato backup server)
8.  2mbps dedicated internet connectivity

The aggregate compute power of the facility is over 600 Gflops and the data storage capacity is over 4.0 Terabytes. Facility is continuously upgrading its resources to provide better services to the people who would like to access its resources

 

Biotechnology Parks and Incubators:          Apart from infrastructure development in biotechnology and bioinformatics, DBT in collaboration with states governments has developed Biotechnology Parks²² for the promotion of Biotech start-up companies under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programmes.

Biotech Park²³ is an infrastructure developed and designed for a concentration of high-end research, academic research and research related businesses in the field of Biotechnology. Businesses and organizations in parks focus on the manufacturing, product advancement and innovation and other activities related to biotechnology. The state Governments departments, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and business organisations work under Public Private Partnership Programmes to promote the development of biotechnology and promote upcoming companies. Induced cluster development started in 1980’s in US. These clusters emerged as areas which had companies operating in same sector, where upcoming start up companies were established through venture capital; and this propelled the movement of skilled labour into the same area for better job prospects.

The Biotechnology parks provide several advantages and act as a geographic cluster of life sciences industry, research institutions, science-technology academia and other amenities of scientific and general purpose. The parks provide R&D facilities and manufacturing infrastructure of international standards. Further, they offer affordable space, incentives and services for start-up, mid-stage, late-stage and manufacturing pharma/biotech companies seeking to develop innovative products and services; attract international organizations to locate their R&D activities in the parks, create and maintain international and national linkages. With a large number of international biotech and pharma companies initiating their R&D and manufacturing operations in India, the demand for world-class infrastructure offered by biotech parks has increased significantly.

 

Table 10: Focus areas of the Biotech Parks

HEALTH CARE:

Human & Animal health care products including therapeutic aids, immunodiagnostics, biosensors, vaccines, gene therapy, monoclonal antibodies, neutraceuticals and cosmetics.

AGRICULTURE:

Improvement in the quality & yield of crops, horticulture and forest tree species, bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers, processed foods and quality enhancers.

ENVIRONMENT:

Bioremediation, safe disposal of waste.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION:

Plants as bioreactors, enzymes, chemicals and polymers.

ENERGY:

Bio fuels, renewable energy sources

 

Indian biotech industry is predominantly distributed over six major regions in India-Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune-Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad-Vadodara. Of these, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune-Mumbai, and Ahmedabad-Vadodara have been natural biotechnology strongholds. Having recognized this, respective state governments have provided an impetus for accelerated growth of the local biotech industry by establishing biotech parks and offering incentives to biotech enterprises. Development of biotechnology parks in India began in the year 2000 with ICICI Knowledge Park, Hyderabad followed by S P Biotech Park.

While the support of state agency was necessary for setting-up of Biotech Parks in the initial phase, private infrastructure developers have, of late, shown interest in setting up the same.

The biotech sector has grown at an impressive pace in India over the last five years with Biotech Parks making a significant contribution to revenue growth from Biotech industries. The regions having a higher concentration of operational biotech parks have a greater share in the overall revenue figures reported. The infrastructure and facilities at these parks have attracted domestic as well as multinational companies to set up base. There are 7 operational state-supported biotech parks in India while others are at different stages of development. All of the operational parks are based on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.

 

Table 11: List of Biotechnology Parks in India

 

 

Table 12: Proposed Biotech Parks

 

The Biotech Parks in the country have helped significantly in terms of encouraging start-ups/new entities. This has been done by developing incubators across the country. The facilities provided in an incubator consist of common equipment libraries, wet labs, dry labs, all of which are leased out at nominal rentals to start ups. These facilities have helped entrepreneurs and small scale companies overcome the set up and operating cost barrier. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, has played a pivotal role in promoting innovation by taking initiatives to develop incubation facilities across the country. According to the recently announced National Biotechnology Development Strategy, DBT has plans to support 6-8 more incubation centres to be operational by 2010. The infrastructure provided is supported through the Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI) which provides funding support for high-risk pre-proof-of-concept research and late stage development to small and medium companies lead by innovators with scientific backgrounds.

Biotechnology parks require large geographical areas for development. It is thus not very often possible to locate them within city limits. Considering this scenario, provision of basic support infrastructure required to ensure a reasonable quality of life for its occupants is necessary.

 

Department of Space (DOS)

The Space Commission and the Department of Space (DOS)¹⁶ were established by the Government of India in 1972 to promote development and application of space science and technology. The Space Commission lays down the framework of important space activities and advises the Government on major policies related to India’s space programme. DOS functions directly under the Prime Minister of India.

The Indian Space Programme is directed towards the goal of self-reliant use of space science and technology for national development. Its main aim being:

• Satellite telecommunications, TV and radio broadcasting
• Satellite remote sensing for resource survey and management, environmental monitoring and meteorological services, and
• Development and operationalisation of indigenous satellites and launch vehicles for providing these services.

DOS is responsible for carrying out space research and related activities in the country through ISRO’s constituent units and three major autonomous institutions namely, National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) and National MST Radar Facility (NMRF). DOS is also the nodal department for implementation of the ongoing National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS). The major establishments of DOS and highlights of research and development activities carried out by them under the space programme are given in table below:

 

Table 13:  Indian Space Centres / Units of DOS

 

The Antrix Corporation Limited, Bangalore established in 1992, is a wholly owned Government of India company for marketing space products and services.

 

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO):       ISRO is the research and development wing of DOS. ISRO is responsible for the overall implementation, execution and future projections related to the country’s space programme and acts as the sponsoring agency for the participation of Indian Scientists in collaborative space research programmes with foreign space agencies.

The prime objective of ISRO is to develop space technology and its application to various national tasks. ISRO has established two major space systems, INSAT for communication, television broadcasting and meteorological services, and Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS) system for resources monitoring and management. ISRO has developed two satellite launch vehicles, PSLV and GSLV, to place INSAT and IRS satellites in the required orbits.

The activities of science research, development of space technology for applications in areas of communications, remote sensing and meteorology are implemented by ISRO through its various centres and units. The overall planning and co-ordination of the programmes is directed from the DOS and ISRO Headquarters situated at Bangalore.

ISRO’s sponsored research programme (RESPOND), Technology Transfer and Utilisation, NNRMS, Regional Remote Sensing Service Centres (RRSSC) and space science research activities including balloon, rocket and satellite experiments, multi-agency sponsored projects in the area of space sciences are all co-ordinated from ISRO HQ.

 

Research sponsored by ISRO (RESPOND):        Apart from the in-house research and development activities and co-ordination of various national level space science projects, ISRO has a sponsored research programme called RESPOND¹⁷ aimed at providing financial assistance to research and development projects relevant to the Indian space programme at the universities and academic/research institutions in India. RESPOND programme will enhance academic base, generate human resources and infrastructure at the academic Institution to support the space programme.

The RESPOND support to research projects is provided to cover expenses of research fellowships, special equipment, components, travel etc. Since its inception in 1976, a large number of projects have been funded in more than 100 institutions/universities. In the ongoing RESPOND programme 80 projects (10 in space science, 24 in space application and 46 in Space Technology) are supported at Academic Institutions. 13 states are supporting the projects with the support of 38 academic institutions (23 universities & colleges, 8 national institutes, 7 research institutes).

Based on the experience of operating the RESPOND projects at different institutions, a few space technology cells (STC) have been established at premier academic institutions and universities to carry out advanced technology research programmes which can be undertaken jointly with ISRO. 5 Space technology cells have been established in ongoing programmes at

• IISC, Bangalore,
• IIT, Madras,
• IIT, Bombay,
• IIT, Khargpur,
• IIT, Kanpur

 

Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)

The Indian Atomic Energy Commission was first set up in August 1948 in the then Department of Scientific Research. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)¹⁸ was set up on August 3, 1954 under the direct charge of the Prime Minister through a Presidential Order. Subsequently, in accordance with a Government Resolution dated March 1, 1958, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was established in the Department of Atomic Energy.  The functions of DAE emanating from the mandate are as follows:

• Increasing the share of nuclear power through deployment of indigenous and other proven technologies, and also developing fast breeder reactors, and thorium reactors with associated fuel cycle facilities;
• Building and operation of research reactors for production of radioisotopes and carrying out radiation technology applications in the field of medicine, agriculture and industry;
• Developing advanced technologies such as accelerators, lasers, supercomputers, advanced materials and instrumentation, and encouraging transfer of technology to industry;
• Support to basic research in nuclear energy and related frontier areas of science; interaction with  universities and academic institutions; support to research and development projects having a bearing on DAE’s programme and International cooperation in related advanced areas of research and
• Contribution to national security.

 

Table 14:  Organizations and Labs under DAE¹⁹

Facility Centre	Research Area
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, Mumbai	Nuclear Physics, Reactor Engineering, Environment, Health and Safety, Fuel Reprocessing, Waste Management, Materials Research and Metallurgy, Remote Handling and Robotics, Computers: Super Computer System- Anupam, Virtual Reality Software, Food Preservation and Development, Technology Transfer.
Raja Ramanna Centre for Advance Technology (RRCAT), Indore, Madhya Pradesh	R & D in non-nuclear front line research areas of Lasers, Particle Accelerators & related technologies
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu	Fast Breeder Test Reactor, Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy, Non-Destructive Testing.
Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkatta	Variable Energy Cyclotron Operations, Heavy Ion Acceleration, Radioactive Ion Beam Facility, Super Conducting Cyclotron
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai	All branches of Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, Computer Science and Molecular Biology
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkota	All branches of Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, Computer Science and Molecular Biology.
Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai	Research on Cancer and Radiation therapy.
Institute of Physics (IOP), Bhubaneshwar	All branches of Physics and Cosmology
Harish Chandra Research Institute (Formerly known as Mehta Research Institute of Physics and Mathematical Physics), Allahabad	Theoretical Physics and Cosmology.
Institute of Mathematics (IMSc), Chennai	All branches of Mathematics and theoretical Physics.
Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Ahmedabad	Plasma and fusion research using Tokamaks.
Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD)	This Directorate does prospecting of atomic minerals by conducting ground surveys, exploratory drilling, airborne surveys, beach sand and offshore investigations.

 

Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS):        The department of atomic energy (DAE) supports extramural research and development activities in nuclear and allied sciences, engineering and technology through its nodal funding agency - the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS²¹). BRNS continuously thrives to encourage, enthuse and support scientists and engineers in pursuing excellence in R & D programmes of interest and relevance to DAE. Activities of BRNS are:

• Identify and fund R & D programmes and projects.
• Award fellowships to pursue doctoral programmes.
• Award research grants to young scientists.
• Organize symposia on topics of relevance and interest to DAE as well as in frontier areas of science and technology.
• Extend financial support to symposia and conferences organized by professional bodies and other agencies.
• Establishment of chairs in universities and other institutions of higher learning.
• Create infrastructure facilities for advanced research. 
• Identify/create and support centres of excellence.

 

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

The Council's research priorities coincide with the national health priorities such as control and management of communicable diseases, fertility control, maternal and child health, control of nutritional disorders, developing alternative strategies for health care delivery, containment within safety limits of environmental and occupational health problems; research on major non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, blindness, diabetes and other metabolic and haematological disorders; mental health research and drug research (including traditional remedies). The Council promotes biomedical research in the country through intramural as well as extramural research. Over the decades, the base of extramural research and also its strategies have been expanded by the Council.

 

Intramural research is carried out currently through the Council's:

Permanent Research Institutes/Centres:      There are 21 Permanent Research Institutes/Centres which are mission-oriented national institutes located in different parts of India and address themselves to research on specific areas such as tuberculosis, leprosy, cholera and diarrhoeal diseases, viral diseases including AIDS, malaria, kala-azar, vector control, nutrition, food & drug toxicology, reproduction, immune haematology, oncology, medical statistics, etc.

 

Regional Medical Research Centres:    There are 6 Regional Medical Research Centres which address regional health problems, and also aim to strengthen or generate research capabilities in different geographic areas of the country.

Extramural research is promoted by ICMR through:

1. Setting up Centres for Advanced Research in different research areas around existing expertise and infrastructure in selected departments of Medical Colleges, Universities and other non-ICMR Research Institutes.
2.  Task force studies which emphasize a time-bound, goal-oriented approach with clearly defined targets, specific time frames, standardized and uniform methodologies, and often a multi centric structure.
3.  Open-ended research on the basis of applications for grants-in-aid received from scientists in non-ICMR Research Institutes, Medical colleges, Universities etc. located in different parts of the country.

 

Table 15: Intramural Research Centres of ICMR

 

Ministry of Agriculture

Agriculture provides the principal means of livelihood for majority of India's population. Despite a steady decline in its share of the GDP, it remains the largest economic sector in the country. Low and volatile growth rates and the recent escalation of agrarian crisis in several parts of the Indian countryside are a threat not only to national food security, but also to the economic well-being of the nation as a whole.

The Ministry of Agriculture consists of the following three Departments:

1. Department of Agriculture & Co-operation (DAC)
2. Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)
3. Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAH&D)

 

Department of Agriculture & Co-operation (DAC)

The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation³² is responsible for the formulation and implementation of National policies and programmes aimed at achieving rapid agricultural growth through optimum utilization of the country’s land, water, soil and plant resources.

The Department of Agriculture & Co-operation³² is organized into 25 Divisions, and a Technology Mission on Oilseeds and Pulses. In addition, it has 4 attached offices and 22 sub-ordinate offices. There are two Public Sector Undertakings, seven autonomous bodies and eleven national level co-operative organizations with the Department.

 

Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)

The Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)³³ coordinates and promotes agricultural research & education in the country. DARE provides government linkages for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the premier research organisation with a countrywide network of 47 Institutes, 5 National Bureaus, 26 National Research Centres, 10 Project Directorates, 89 All India Coordinated Research Projects and 41 State Agriculture Universities spread all over the country.

The functions of DARE are:

• Fundamental Research including coordination with higher education in Fisheries.
• Coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education and research and scientific and technical institutions relating to food and agriculture.
• Agricultural census.
• All India Services - Indian Agricultural Service.
• Cesses for financing the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Commodity Committees other than those relating to Tea, Coffee and Rubber;
• Matters regarding Agricultural Research & Education;
• All India Soil and Land Use Survey;
• I.C.A.R. and other institutes.

 

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)³⁶:      is an autonomous organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. The ICAR has its headquarters at New Delhi. The Council is the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country. With over 90 ICAR institutes and 45 agricultural universities spread across the country this is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world.

The ICAR has played a pioneering role in ushering Green Revolution and subsequent developments in agriculture in India through its research and technology development that has enabled the country to increase the production of food grains by 4 times, horticultural crops by 6 times, fish by 9 times (marine 5 times and inland 17 times), milk 6 times and eggs 27 times since 1950-51, thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security. It has played a major role in promoting excellence in higher education in agriculture. It is engaged in cutting edge areas of science and technology development and its scientists are internationally acknowledged in their fields.

It offers consultancy services in agriculture, horticulture, animal sciences, fisheries, resource management, agricultural engineering, agricultural education, agricultural extension, home science and agricultural communication. The co-ordination of agricultural research and development programmes comes under its purview. ICAR is also responsible for generating contacts with related organizations in the national and international arena to better the standard of life of agriculturalists.

 

ICAR Research Centres:       ICAR has established a number of research centers to meet the agricultural research and education needs of the country. It actively pursues human resource development through the setting up of agricultural universities in different parts of the country. The Technology Intervention Programmes are also an integral part of ICAR's agenda. These programmes help establish Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) which are responsible for training, research and demonstration of new farming technologies at the local level. The research and educational infrastructure developed by ICAR is as:

• 48 ICAR Institutes
• 5 National Bureaus
• 11 Project Directorates
• 30 National Research Centers
• 138 Substations of ICAR Institutes
• 77 AICRPs/AINPs
• 561 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK)
• 41 State Agricultural Universities (SAUs)
• One Central Agricultural University and
• 4 Central Universities having faculty of agriculture

 

Equipments / Facilities procured/created since year 2000:        Financial and professional support is provided to Agricultural Universities (AUs) for modernization and strengthening of academic facilities, infrastructure and faculty improvement. List of Equipment/Facilities procured/created each costing over Rs. 50 lakh since year 2000³⁴ at various institutes and universities are given in the below table:

 

Table 16: List of equipments/machines/specialized research facilities and their applications

 

Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAH&D)

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAH&D)³⁵ now renamed as Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying & Fisheries (DADF) is responsible for matters relating to livestock production, preservation, and protection from disease and improvement of stocks and dairy development, and also for matters relating to the Delhi Milk Scheme and the National Dairy Development Board. It also looks after all matters pertaining to fishing and fisheries, inland and marine.

The Department advises State Governments/Union Territories in the formulation of policies and programmes in the field of Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries. The main thrust areas are:

• Development of requisite infrastructure in States/UTs for improving productivity,
• Preservation and protection of livestock through provision of health care,
• Strengthening of Central livestock farms (Cattle, Sheep and Poultry) for development of superior germplasm for distribution to states and,
• Expansion of Aquaculture in fresh & brackish water, and welfare of fisher-folk etc.

 

Indian Veterinary Council:          Indian Veterinary Council Act, 1984 (52 of 1984) was enacted in 1984 and was published in the Extraordinary Gazette of India dated 21^st August, 1984 to regulate veterinary practice and to provide for that purpose, for the establishment of Veterinary Council of India (VCI)³⁷ and State Veterinary Councils and the maintenance of Registers of veterinary practitioners and for matters connected therewith.

The Council receives 100% grants-in-aid from the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India under a Plan Scheme namely "Professional Efficiency Development" for undertaking the activities of the Council.  

After the enactment of the Act, State/UT veterinary Councils have been established over a period of time. As on today, 29 State/UT veterinary Councils have been established as per provisions of the Indian Veterinary Council Act, 1984

The main objective of council is to prepare and maintain the Indian Veterinary Practitioners' Register containing the names of all persons who possess the recognized veterinary qualifications and who are for the time being enrolled on a State Veterinary Register. Besides other objectives, the objectives that enhance the infrastructure are to lay down minimum standards of veterinary education required for granting recognized veterinary qualifications by veterinary institutions and to advise the Central and the State Governments on all regulatory matters concerning veterinary practice and education.

The council has recognised 43 Veterinary colleges under 24 Universities for impairing veterinary education in India. The list of veterinary colleges in India is as below:

 

Table 17: Veterinary colleges (as on 31.03.2004)

STATE	NAME OF UNIVERSITY	NAME OF COLLEGE
ANDHRA PRADESH	Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad	1. College of Veterinary Science, Rajendra Nagar, Hyderabad 2. College of Veterinary Science, Tirupati 3. N.T. Rama Rao College of Veterinary Science, Gannavaram
ASSAM	Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat	1. Faculty of Veterinary Science, Khanapara campus,  Guwahati 2.Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science, North Lakhimpur
BIHAR	Rajendra Agricultural University, Samastipur	1. Bihar Veterinary College, Patna
CHHATTISGARH	Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur	1. College of Veterinary Science & Animal  Husbandry,  Anjora, Durg
GUJARAT	Gujarat Agricultural University, Banaskantha	1. College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand 2. College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Sardar Krushi Nagar
HARYANA	CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar	1. College of Veterinary Sciences, Hisar
HIMACHAL PRADESH	CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Palampur	1. College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Palampur
JAMMU & KASHMIR	Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science & Technology of Jammu, Jammu	1. Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, R.S. Pura, Jammu
	Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science & Technology of  Kashmir, Srinagar	1. Faculty of Veterinary Sciences & Animal Husbandry, Shuhama, Srinagar
JHARKHAND	Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi	1. Faculty of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Kanke, Ranchi
KARNATAKA	University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore	1. College of Veterinary Science, Bangalore
	University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad	1. College of Veterinary Science, Bidar
KERALA	Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur	1. College of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Mannuthy,  Thrissur 2. College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookot
MADHYA PRADESH	Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur	1. College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Jabalpur 2. College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Mhow
MAHARASHTRA	Maharashtra Animal & Fishery Sciences University, Nagpur	1.College of Veterinary  and Animal Science, Udgir 2. College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Parbhani 3. K.N.P. College of Veterinary Sciences,   Shirwal 4. Nagpur Veterinary College, Nagpur 5. Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai
MIZORAM	Central Agricultural University, Imphal	1. College of Veterinary Sciences & Animal Husbandry, Aizawl. Mizoram
ORISSA	Orissa University of Agriculture  & Technology, Bhubaneshwar	1.  College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Bhubaneshwar
PONDICHERRY	Pondicherry University, Pondicherry	1. Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pondicherry
PUNJAB	Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana	1. College of Veterinary Science, Ludhiana
RAJASTHAN	Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner	1. College of Veterinary and Animal Science, Bikaner
TAMIL NADU	Tamil Nadu Veterinary & Animal Science University, Chennai	1. Madras Veterinary College,  Chennai 2.Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal
UTTAR PRADESH	Uttar Pradesh Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Pashu Chikitsa Vigyan Vishwavidyalaya Evam Go Anusandhan Sansthan, Mathura	1.  College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Mathura
UTTARANCHAL	Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture  & Technology,  Pantnagar	1.  College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pantnagar
WEST BENGAL	West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery  Sciences, Kolkata	1. Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Kolka

 

 

Ministry of Earth Sciences

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through well integrated programmes provides the services in forecasting the monsoons and other weather/climate parameters, ocean state, earthquakes, tsunamis and other phenomena related to earth systems. The Ministry deals with science and technology for exploration and exploitation of ocean resources (living and non-living), and plays a nodal role for Antarctic/Arctic and Southern Ocean research. The Ministry’s mandate is to look after Atmospheric Sciences, Ocean Science & Technology and Seismology in an integrated manner.

MoES aims to create a framework for understanding the complex interactions among key elements of the Earth System, namely ocean, atmosphere and solid earth, by encompassing national programmes in Ocean science, meteorology, climate, environment and seismology.

 

 

Table 18: Institutes under MoES

Atmospheric Sciences and Seismology Sector
India Meteorological Department (IMD), Delhi	National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Delhi
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune	Earthquake Risk Evaluation Centre (EREC)
Ocean Science & Technology Sector
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Chennai	National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR) Goa
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) Hyderabad	Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project Directorate (ICMAM-PD) Chennai
Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology (CMLRE) Kochi

 

Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project Directorate (ICMAM PD):     an attached office of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India, was established at Chennai during January 1998 for implementing IDA assisted Environment Management Capacity Building Project with the objective of:

• Developing capacity towards accomplishing the coastal and ocean related objectives of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
• To carry out R&D on application of scientific tools and techniques which are helpful in the development of integrated management solutions to address issues and problems prevalent in the coastal marine areas.

The Capacity Building activities in 4 major areas related to Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management (ICMAM), funded by the International Development Association (World Bank) initiated in Sep.1997 was completed in June 2003. The DOD with its own funding developed infrastructure during this period for long-term R&D and Training. At present the Project Directorate is engaged in a number of R&D activities involving several National and State institutions in the country. During this project DOD developed an information system using Geographical Information System (GIS) for 11 critical habitats in the coastal and marine areas in India namely: Gulf of Kachchh, Gulf of Khambhat, Malvan, Karwar Islands, Cochin Islands, Kadmat island of Lakshadweep, Gulf of Mannar, Pichavaram, Coringa, Gahirmatha and Sunderbans.

DOD has established a National Facility on ICMAM to undertake R&D and training activities. The National facility for ICMAM has three components:

• A Computer network based Audio visual interactive (Multimedia class room system) training centre for the conduct of training.
• Marine Ecotoxicology Laboratory: The Marine ecotoxicology laboratory is being equipped with various instruments for measurement of water quality parameters and conduct of toxicity studies using continuous flow through systems. This facility is supported with a field station at Mandapam (near Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, India).
• The laboratory is equipped with the following sophisticated instruments for analysing metals at trace levels.
• Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (FAAS)
• Zeeman Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (ZGFAAS)
• Microwave Digestion System
• Water Purification System
• Electronic Balance
• Refrigerated Bath Circulator
• Hot Air Oven
• Other Facilities: ICMAM Project Directorate is a technical unit of Department of Ocean Development. It has acquired adequate facilities to serve as a Research & Development facility for Marine Environment and Coastal Zone related activities.

 

Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD)

 

Department of Higher Education (DHE)

The Constitution of India is the ultimate document which guides State policy in all sectors, including Education. Next to the Constitution, State Policy is articulated through legislations. In keeping with its billion-plus population and high proportion of the young, India has a large formal Education System.

Over the decades, the Department of Higher Education²⁷ has also established or substantially funded a number of premier institutions, which have come to acquire a reputation for excellence. Status of educational institutes under DHE is:

 

Fig 3: Strength of Infrastructure under DHE

 

Figure 3 above does not include premier institutions in the field of Medical, Agricultural and Legal Education, which are looked after by other Ministries of the Government of India.

 

Capacity Building – Premier Institutions:        Following two are the statutory bodies which have been established at the National Level for setting norms and standards and seeing to their observance in the field of higher and technical education.

 

S. No	Sector	Institution Established for Quality Standards at National level	Remarks
1	Universities & General Colleges	University Grants Commission (UGC)	Statutory body
		National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)	--
2	Technical & Management Education	All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)	Statutory body
		National Board of Accreditation (NAB)	--

 

 

There has been a considerable increase in the spread of educational institutions during the period 1950-51 to 2005-06.  In 1950-51²⁸, there were 27 Universities (Universities/deemed university / Institute. of national importance), 208 colleges for professional education (engineering, technology, architecture, medical & educational colleges), and 370 colleges for general education.

 

Fig 4: Growth of Recognized Institutions for Higher Education

 

There is decrease in number of recognised universities in 2005-06, due to de-recognition of many universities by UGC during this period.

 

University Grant Commission (UGC)

UGC⁴¹ provides Development (Plan Grants) and Maintenance (Non-Plan Grants) to university and college level institutions. As of now, the UGC provides development as well as maintenance grants to 16 Central Universities, 53 Delhi University Colleges, (which include 20 Trust Maintained colleges, 16 Delhi Government Colleges, 6 University maintained colleges and 11 Evening Colleges), 4 colleges of the BHU and 12 College Hostels of Delhi University. Besides, 6 Inter-University Centers (IUC) also receive development as well as maintenance grants. In addition to these, 24 Deemed Universities, 5 colleges of Delhi University and 120 State Universities are provided development grants.

UGC has formulated 42 schemes for providing development assistance to universities, university level institutions, colleges and individual faculty members and researchers. Among them, the grant schemes for infrastructure development are:

1. Assistance for Strengthening of infrastructure for Science & Technology (ASIST)
2. Special Assistance programme (SAP)
• Centre of Advanced Study (CAS)
• Department of Special Assistance (DSA)
• Departmental Research Support (DRS)

Assistance for Strengthening of Infrastructure for Science & Technology (ASIST):      In 1983, the Science Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SACC), Government of India, felt the need for strengthening of infrastructure for Science and Technology programme in the universities in the non-bureaucratic set-up of university departments, and the University Grants Commission was identified as the nodal agency and provided the opportunity to take up the programme for the above purpose in Indian universities and institutions. Thus, the scheme STID (Sciences and Technology Infrastructure Development) was launched and when it gained momentum, the Programme itself came to be popularly known as "COSIST" which is the acronym for the Programme i.e. "Committee on Strengthening of Infrastructure for Science and Technology (COSIST)" .The programme with the name COSIST was in operation since 1983-84 upto 2001-2002. The UGC, while considering various guidelines revised under Tenth Plan Programme, decided to change the name of the programme from COSIST to ASIST (Assistance for Strengthening of Infrastructure for Science and Technology) ⁴³.

The basic objective of ASIST is to assist selected science, engineering and technology departments in the universities which have already exhibited and achieved high quality performance to enable them to acquire such costly major equipment which cannot be approved out of SAP grants, or normal university development grants, so that the attainment of excellence in post graduate education and research in the department is not handicapped due to the non-availability of such equipment. The specific objectives for ASIST are as follows:

• Strengthen infrastructure by acquiring costly major equipment (non-available under SAP or other sources) for continuously maintaining the achieved excellence in research and postgraduate teaching or for enhancement of the proven performance in the identified areas.
• Future enhancement and promotion of hi-tech, emerging, thrust, generic areas to be at par and comparable with their counterparts in the world.
• Promote Science, Engineering and Technology innovation and its exploitation through technology transfer, filing of patents, etc.
• Take up international and industrial collaborative programmes for self - sustenance and resource generation.
• Link up and suggest steps required for interdisciplinary activity in the areas to the other SAP or ASIST supported departments and motivate user departments through active participation, training and awareness programmes and nurturing of the areas.

Eligibility:      Fresh assistance under ASIST may cover departments (in science, engineering and technology ) that have completed successfully a five- year term under SAP (at the minimum level of DRS/DSA) and are recommended for continuation for a further period of five years on the basis of their performance in research and teaching.

 

Duration of the programme:      The duration of the ASIST programme is up to the end of X^th Plan period. The effective date of implementation will be from 1st April of the following year.

 

Nature of assistance:       The financial inputs may be provided in the form of four major categories namely

1. Common facilities,
2. Major facilities,
3. Annual recurring / working / maintenance grant,
4. Special purpose grant (additional to the allocation under the programme based on merit and departmental performance on the availability of resources for encouragement of the department/university).

The limits of financial assistance under the programme are:

1. Rs.100.00 lakhs for Science, Engineering and Technology Departments
2. Rs.60.00 lakhs for Mathematics and Statistics.

As such, no building grant will be provided but for housing and installation of the new equipment, approved under the programme and for making space and augmentation/extension/addition/alteration/renovation of the laboratory facilities up to Rs.15 lakhs may be provided. This one time grant will be released in installments after receipt of the estimate prepared by the University Engineer/Building Committee and duly forwarded by the University for Consideration of the UGC.

The major facilities include equipment and other related items including books and journals, creation of patent promotion and archival cell (storing, protecting, and exploitation of R and D - technology - scientific output data).

 

Special Assistance Programme (SAP - CAS, DRS, DSA):   The SAP⁴⁴ scheme was initiated in 1963 by University Grants Commission keeping in view the recommendations of the Education Commission to facilitate the selected number of university departments having some potential in research and teaching. The programme is intended to encourage the pursuit of excellence and teamwork in advanced teaching and research to accelerate the realization of international standards in specific fields. The first such programme was christened as the "Centre of Advanced Study (CAS)" in 1963.Some of these Centres also received recognition and financial support from UNDP/UNESCO. The "Department of Special Assistance (DSA)" and "Departmental Research Support (DRS)" programmes were started in the Departments during 1972 and 1977 respectively to create feeder departments for CAS.

The major objectives of the Special Assistance Programme (SAP) are as follows:-

• To identify and support university departments that has the potential to undertake quality teaching and research in various educational disciplines including allied disciplines.
• Programme to be relevant to societal needs and have society and industry interaction.
• To make research a catalyst for good teaching and introduction of new courses relating to identified thrust areas.
• To have linkages with research organizations and to use their expertise innovatively to support research in the universities.
• To enhance infrastructure facilities.
• To utilize the output of research for the development of the nation and society.
• To train and create quality human resource in identified thrust areas.
• To search for newer / generic area(s), its promotion and nurturing.

 

Eligibility:      A University department which qualifies under section 2 (f) and 12 (B) of the UGC Act, 1956 and has potential to undertake quality teaching and research can submit its proposal for induction under SAP.

Duration:       The duration of the Special Assistance Programme (SAP) is upto the end of Xth Plan period. The UGC will not provide financial assistance for more than three terms at the same level of DRS and DSA.

Nature of assistance:          The maximum limit of financial assistance at different levels of the programme will be as under:

 

Programme	Financial Assistance (Rs in lakhs)
	Science, Engineering & Technology	Mathematics, Statistics, Humanities & Social Sciences
CAS	100	60
DSA	75	50
DRS	50	40

 

Status Report of grants for Basic Science and Research:   

According to status report⁴² of implementation of the grant recommendations of the Empowered Committee for Basic Scientific Research in Indian Universities for 2006-2007 & 2007-2008 set up by M/HRD:

1. Rupees Twenty lakhs each was sanctioned to 328 DRS/DSA/CAS Departments in Science, Bio-Science, Agricultural Sciences and Engineering Sciences for strengthening of infrastructure in terms of power supply, water supply, safety equipment, laboratories working tables and infrastructure required for including the component of research at P.G. level Programme. An expenditure of 62.40 Crores has been incurred so far. 19 departments which were inducted at DRS level may also be released an infrastructure grant of Rs.20 Lakhs each. A sum of Rs.3.80 Crores was released so far.
2. After seeing the performance of the 133 departments and receiving statement of expenditure for the grant released to the departments for infrastructural development and based on the proposals invited from each department, the committee recommended that second installment @Rs.30.00 lakhs may be released to the UGC approved SAP departments of DSA/CAS . 77 departments were sanctioned Rs.23.10 Crores @ Rs.30.00 Lakhs each.
3. An infrastructure strengthening grant of Rs.5 lakhs to each of the 700 science departments of 97 colleges with Potential for Excellence (CPE) was released. An expenditure of Rs.35 Crores has been incurred so far.
4. An infrastructure strengthening grant of Rs.10 lakhs each to 195 Autonomous Colleges has been released. An expenditure of Rs.19.50 crores has been incurred so far.

 

Ministry of Communication & information Technology (MCIT)

 

Department of Information Technology (DIT)

Objective of the Department of Information Technology is to make India, a Global Information Technology Super Power and a front-runner in the age of Information revolution, to bring the benefits of electronics to every walk of life and to develop the Indian electronics industry as a global player with a mission to make India an IT Super Power by the Year 2008. The vision translates into a mission – ‘Move works to India’.

The department has build India’s infrastructure in information technology through projects detailed below.

 

GARUDA (The National Grid Computing Initiative)³⁸:          is a collaboration of science researchers and experimenters on a nation wide grid of computational nodes, mass storage and scientific instruments that aims to provide the technological advances required to enable data and compute intensive science for the 21st century. The Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India has funded the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to deploy the nation-wide computational grid ‘GARUDA’ which will connect 17 cities across the country in its Proof of Concept (PoC) phase with an aim to bring “Grid” networked computing to research labs and industry.

GARUDA aims at strengthening and advancing scientific and technological excellence in the area of Grid and Peer-to-Peer technologies. The objectives of GARUDA are to:

• Create a test bed for the research & engineering of technologies, architectures, standards and applications in Grid Computing
• Bring together all potential research, development and user groups to  develop a national initiative on Grid computing
• Create the foundation for the next generation grids by addressing long term research issues in grid computing

 

GARUDA Infrastructure:        The major components of GARUDA include:

 

Fig 5: Garuda Infrastructure

 

Access portals and specialized problem solving environments provide a seamless user interface to the Grid.

 

GARUDA Network Fabric:          The GARUDA High-Speed network is a Layer 2/3 MPLS  Virtual Private Network (VPN)  connecting select 45 institutions across 17 cities at 10/100 Mbps with Stringent Service Level Agreements with the service provider. This Grid is a precursor to the Gigabit speed nationwide Wide Area Network (WAN) connecting high performance computing resources and scientific instruments for seamless collaborative research and experiments.  The High Speed Network is being established at all the Garuda partner institutes in close collaboration with ERNET who is also responsible for the operation, maintenance and management of this network.

The Garuda network partners are listed below:

 

Table 19: GARUDA Network

GARUDA Partners
Institute of Plasma Research. Ahmedabad	Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad
Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad	Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad	Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai	Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Kolkata
IIT,MUMBAI	Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore	TIFR,MUMBAI
Indian Institute of Science , Bangalore	IUCAA, Pune
National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR),Bangalore	NCRA,Pune
Raman Research Institute, Bangalore	NCL, Pune
Unipune, Pune	Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh
Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh	Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai	Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO Thiruvananthapuram	Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi	Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai
Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi	Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, Delhi
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi	Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
Guwahati University, Guwahati	Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur	University of Hyderabad
C-DAC Centres
C-DAC, Electronic city, Bangalore	C-DAC Knowledge Park, Bangalore
C-DAC, Chennai	C-DAC, Hyderabad
C-DAC ACTS, Pune	C-DAC , Mumbai
C-DAC, Pune	C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram
ERNET India, New Delhi

 

 

Computational Resources:         In this collaborative grid project, various resources such as high performance computing systems (HPC) and satellite based communication systems have been committed by different centres of C-DAC and GARUDA partners. As the resources are diverse in nature, one of the major challenges of GARUDA is to deploy appropriate tools and middleware to enable applications to run seamlessly across the grid. The resources are detailed below:

 

Table 20:  List of Institutes having computational resources for GARUDA

S. No.	Institution	Location	Resources
1	Space Application Centre	Ahmedabad	VSAT Terminal - 2 Nos.
2	Indian Institute of Science	Bangalore	64 cpu; POWER5; Linux
3	Raman Research Institute	Bangalore	32 cpu; Opteron; Linux
4	Institute of Mathematical Sciences	Chennai	24 cpu; Opteron cluster (Cray XD1)
5	Madras Institute of Technology	Chennai	16 cpu; P4; Linux
6	Indian Institute of Technology	Delhi	32 cpu; Opteron; Linux
7	Jawaharlal Nehru University	Delhi	32+16+16 cpu; Opteron, Opteron, Itanium; Linux
8	Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology	Delhi	48 cpu; Xeon; Linux
9	Indian Institute of Technology	Guwahati	128 cpu; Opteron; Linux
10	University of Hyderabad	Hyderabad	32 way SMP; POWER4, AIX
11	Indian Institute of Technology	Kharagapur	16+16 cpu; Power PC2, Xeon; AIX, Linux
12	Physical Research Laboratory	Ahmedabad	To be detailed later
13	Institute of Microbial Technology	Chandigarh	To be detailed later
14	University of Pune	Pune	To be detailed later

[Last Updated: Monday, February 18, 2008]

 

GARUDA Collaborations:                 GARUDA has initiated formation of virtual community to focus on collaborative projects in specific technology/application domain. The proposed virtual communities are as follows:

 

Technology Communities	Application Communities
Grid Tools & Services	Computer Aided Engineering
High-Speed Networking	Earth Sciences
Information Security	High Energy Physics/Astro Physics
	Life Sciences
	Material Sciences / Nano Technology

 

State Wide Area Networking project (SWAN)⁴⁵:          In March 2005, Department of IT obtained Cabinet Approval for e-Governance Core Infrastructure Scheme for an overall outlay of Rs. 3,334 crores, to establish State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) in 29 States and 6 UTs across the country, interconnecting each State/UT Head Quarter with District Head Quarter and below each District Head Quarter with the Block Head Quarters with minimum 2 Mbps leased line.

The e-Governance scenario in India has evolved from mere computerization of Government Departments to initiatives which encapsulate the finer points of governance like citizen centricity, service orientation, accountability and transparency. The National e-Governance Plan has played a pivotal role in realization of this vision by focusing on key government services to citizens (G2C) and to businesses (G2B). Broadly, the Plan encompasses nine central Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), eleven state MMPs and seven integrated MMPs that span multiple backend Ministries/Departments.

The objective of the SWAN Scheme is to create a secure close user group (CUG) government network for the purpose of delivering G2G and G2C services. The duration of project is 5 years with a pre-project implementation period of 18 months.

The project is being implemented as a Central Sector Scheme with Rs. 2005 Crores as Grant-in-aid from Department of Information Technology (DIT) and balance fund from the State Plan fund under Additional Central Assistance (ACA) allocation. Pre-project implementation phase (after the individual project is approved by the Empowered Committee) includes Feasibility Study, Proposal Preparation, Site Preparation, Bandwidth Operator selection, Network Operator selection, Network Implementation, Acceptance Testing and to operate network for next 5 years.

The current implementation status of SWAN is as shown in the Figure 6 below:

 

Fig 6: SWAN Implementation Status as on 28 July, 2008

 

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)³⁹:          STPIs all over the country are synonymous with excellent Infrastructure and Statutory support aimed at furthering growth of Information Technology in the country.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) was established and registered as an Autonomous Society under the Department of Information Technology in year 1991 with an objective to implement Software Technology Parks / Electronic Hardware Technology Parks (STP/EHTP) Scheme; set up and manage infrastructure facilities and provide other services like technology assessment and professional training.

The STP scheme is essentially an export-oriented scheme with focus on quality initiatives and facilitates export of professional services as well. This scheme is unique in its nature in that it focuses on one product/sector i.e., computer software. The scheme integrates the concept of 100 percent Export Oriented Units (EOUs), Export Processing Zones (EPZs) of Government of India and the concept of Science Parks/Technology Parks, as operating elsewhere in the world.

EHTP scheme is for encouraging exports of electronic hardware items including hard disk drives, computers, television, etc. An Electronic Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) may be an individual unit by itself or a unit located in an area designated as EHTP Complex. A distinctive feature of STP/EHTP scheme is that it provides Single-Point Contact Services for member units.

The framework is evolved in a manner aimed at facilitating the software export industry in general and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in particular, thereby accelerating the economic growth of the country by maintaining a competitive edge in the global market. One of STPI's remarkable contributions to the software-exporting sector is provision of High-Speed Data Communication (HSDC) services. SoftNET, state-of-the-art HSDC network, designed and developed by STPI is available to software exporters at internationally competitive prices.

STPI maintains internal engineering resources to provide consulting, training and implementation services. Services cover Network Design, System Integration, Installation, Operations and maintenance of application networks and facilities in varied areas ranging from VSATs to ATM based networks.

Process development is based on the Quality Management System, which STPI also adheres to in the form of ISO 9001 certification for own process.

STPI provides the following HSDC services through its network:

• International Private Leased Circuits (IPLCs)
• Shared Internet Services
• VSAT Services
• Value added services.

STPI has acquired International & Domestic fiber bandwidth. With this, STPI is able to provide Internet Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) & IP services on fiber. STPI has set up its own digital Microwave networks using Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint, which cater to the primary needs of the customers. With the addition of Point-to-Point radio networks, the network was further strengthened enabling the delivery of 2 Mbps, NxE1 links over the last mile under the STPI's overall control. Besides last mile connectivity on radio, STPI also provides the last mile on fiber wherever feasible.

 

STPI Strength⁴⁰:      STPI has set up 48 STPI centers across the country. Each STPI caters to a number of public/private units in its campus. During the year 2006-07, 1164 new units were registered under STP Scheme. As on 31st March 2007, 7543 units were operative out of which 6321 units were actually exporting. The remaining units are at various stages of gestation as the scheme allows three years for companies to start commercial production.

There is 43 per cent increase in Software Exports through STPI in the year 2006-2007, from Rs 100, 965 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 144,214 crore in 2006-07.

 

Education Research Network (ERNET)⁴⁶:      was initiated in 1986 by the Department of Electronics (DoE), with funding support from the Government of India and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), involving eight premier institutions as participating agencies--NCST (National Centre for Software Technology) Bombay, IISc (Indian Institute of Science) Bangalore, five IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) at Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras, and the DoE, New Delhi. ERNET began as a multi protocol network with both the TCP/IP and the OSI-IP protocol stacks running over the leased-line portion of the backbone. Since 1995, however, almost all traffic is carried over TCP/IP. ERNET (Education and Research Network) has made a significant contribution to the emergence of networking in the country. The Science community of the country has also recognized ERNET's contribution--both for infrastructure services as well as for R&D. The Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet has adopted ERNET as the platform for launching an S&T network in the country.

The Objectives of ERNET are:

• ERNET operations, i.e. providing state-of-the-art communication infrastructure and services to Academic and Research institutions, Govt. organizations, NGOs, private sector R&D organizations, and various other non-commercial organizations;
• Research and development;
• Training and Consultancy;
• Content development. 

Network infrastructure and services set up by ERNET programme are:

• Installation, maintenance and operation of large Campus LANs.
• Design, commissioning and testing of SATWAN hub and the installation of VSATs.
• Seamless interconnection of LAN-WAN segments, & multi-protocol capability provided. 
• Provision of the whole range of Internet services.
• Deployment of TDM/TDMA based VSAT network for Internet access.

 

ERNET Network including POPs:         ERNET is supported by the following network sites which enable organisations located at different geographical locations to access various services.

1. ERNET Head Quarters, New Delhi

2. Centre for Development of Advance Software Computing, Mumbai

3. Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

4. Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai

5. Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune

6. Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata

7. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

8. University of Hyderabad.

9. Centre for Advance Technology, Indore

10. Orissa Computer Application Centre, Bhubaneswar

11. Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management (IIITM), Trivandrum

12. DOEACC Centre, Gorakhpur

13. Indian Institute of Technology,  Guwahati

14. ERNET VSAT HUB, Bangalore

15. University of Rajasthan

The ERNET network is a judicious mix of terrestrial and satellite-based wide area networks. The satellite WAN, using VSAT technology has facilitated reliable and quick access from remote areas. The VSAT network acts as an overlay for the terrestrial WAN by providing backup links between the backbone sites. International connectivity is achieved through gateways at New Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore and Calcutta, with a total capacity of 6.64 Mb. Daily traffic over ERNET exceeds 20 GB. ERNET architecture is based on industry standard TCP/IP protocol, ensuring connectivity from heterogeneous computer systems and local area networks (LANs) at user sites.

Activities of ERNET in partnership with educational organizations are detailed in table below:

 

Table 21: ERNET Activities

S.No	Organization	Activities / Pilot Projects
1	AICTE- Net	MOU with AICTE to provide connectivity to AICTE Recognized Colleges and Regional Centres 48 Institutes connected VSAT & Terrestrial connectivity
2.	Gyan Vahini	Upgrade the IT infrastructure at all the higher learning institutions in the country Connect them on intranet and internet to provide multiple education services within the institution. Setting up a digital library, development of content, faculty development and exchange of skills. Established a State-of-the-art Campus Network at Delhi University at North Campus and South Campus with following: 3200 I/O nodes connected on UTP (eCat5) 44 km Optical Fiber laid  55 Buildings connected located in the Campus 13 Colleges connected 16 Hostels connected Core Switch at Central locations 4 Zonal Switches (at four locations) 125 Departmental Switches with Gigabit unlinking 6 Servers (HP Xeon with RAID) Provided 2 Mbps internet connectivity to the Delhi University Network (North and South Campus).
3.	ICAR -Net	Intranet & internet for Agricultural Universities and Research Institutions affiliated to ICAR on ERNET backbone network 274 Institutions connected Connectivity through VSAT & Terrestrial Link.
4.	Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti -Net	Providing Internet/Intranet connectivity, IT infrastructure, training and course curriculum content
5.	UGC-Net	Setting up UGC-Info net, which will Use ICT and Internet for virtual enhancement of Academic Infrastructure. Be an Intranet for University Automation. Be overlaid on ERNET infrastructure Provide assured quality of service & optimal utilization of bandwidth resources Scalable Architecture to grow from Universities to affiliated Colleges. Linkage with Academic and Research Networks all over the world. Nation-wide Terrestrial Backbone using Fiber Optic links
6.	Vidya Vahini-Net	Providing Information & Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure Providing different learning resources which include related educational tools, course curriculum and other learning material. Launched in 140 schools in 7 districts - Lucknow & Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), Hazaribagh (Jharkhand), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Kuppam (Andhra Pradesh), Parlivaijnath (Maharashtra) and South 24-Parganas (West Bengal). A computer lab with a Server, 10 Multimedia PCs, Network Printer, 29 Flat Screen Color TV, UPS and CVT set up in each of the school. Internet connectivity of 128 Kbps through VSAT.

 

Broadband Connectivity:            Broadband is a high capacity communications pipeline capable of delivering simultaneously a range of voice, video and data services to the home in a truly interactive manner. Currently, high speed Internet access is available at various speeds from 64 kilobits per second (kbps) onwards and presently an always-on high speed Internet access at 128 kbps is considered as ‘Broadband'. There are no uniform standards for Broadband connectivity and various countries follow various standards.

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) defines it as an information service with a carrying capacity in excess of 200 Kbit/s in both upstream and downstream directions, in the last mile.

According to “Broadband Policy 2004” of Department of Telecommunications, MCIT, Government of India, broadband connectivity is defined at present as:

“An ‘always-on' data connection that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and has the capability of the minimum download speed of 256 kilo bits per second (kbps) to an individual subscriber from the Point Of Presence (POP) of the service provider intending to provide Broadband service where multiple such individual Broadband connections are aggregated and the subscriber is able to access these interactive services including the Internet through this POP. The interactive services will exclude any services for which a separate licence is specifically required, for example, real-time voice transmission, except to the extent that it is presently permitted under ISP licence with Internet Telephony.”

The broadband infrastructure consists of a core or backbone network and an access network. The backbone is usually an optical fiber network. ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) has been chosen as the communication principle on which the broadband networks will be based. The main reason for its selection is the flexibility that it offers for handling services requiring very different bit rates.

The growth of internet and broadband connectivity³¹ is depicted in the graph.

 

Fig 7: Growth of Internet and Broadband Connectivity

 

The technologies used by broadband subscribers are as:

• DSL based
• Cable Modem
• Ethernet LAN
• Fibre
• Radio
• Lased Line and
• Other Technologies

Broadband Subscribers Share (Technology wise) for 3.87 million broadband subscribers in March 2008 is: 3.28 million are DSL based, 0.37 million Cable Modem, 0.11 million Ethernet LAN, 0.05 million Fibre, 0.039 million Radio Leased Line 0.016 million and 0.003 million use other technologies.

 

Internet Service Providers (ISP)²⁹:        The Internet Service Provider (ISP)  policy was announced in November, 1998. ISP Licenses, which prohibit telephony on Internet, are being issued starting from 6.11.98 on non-exclusive basis. Brief details are as under:

• The applicant company is required to pay Rs. 6,000/- as processing fee along with the application.
• Any Indian company with a maximum foreign equity of 74% is eligible (100% is also allowed, but in that case the ISP can not set up an International Gateway)
• Based on Service Area of Operation, they are categorized as Category 'A', 'B' and 'C'.
• An applicant company may be granted any number of licenses and there will be no limit of number of licenses granted in a particular area.
• Performance Bank Guarantee - Rs. 2 Crore for Category 'A' Service Area, Rs. 20 lakh for each Category 'B' Service Area and Rs. 3 Lakh for each Category 'C' Service Area.
• Private ISPs are permitted to setup their own gateways. ISPs are allowed to set up international gateways using satellite and submarine cable landing stations.
• Under Simplified Exit policy, an ISP can surrender the Licence without starting the service, by paying surrender charges.  The surrender charges would be equivalent to 5% of the Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) amount.

 

Table 22: Service Area of ISP’s according to their category

Category	Service Area
Category "A"	Whole of India
Category "B"	20 territorial Telecom Circles, four Metro Districts- Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta or Chennai and four major Telephone Districts- Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad or Pune.
Category "C"	Any Secondary Switching Areas (SSA) of DOT with geographical boundaries as on 01.04.1998

 

 

Fig 8: Strength of ISP’s in India

 

National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)³⁰:         is a not-for-profit Organization under section 25 of the Companies Act 1956, and was registered on 19th July, 2003. NIXI was set up for peering of ISPs among themselves for the purpose of routing the domestic traffic within the country, instead of taking it all the way to US/Abroad, thereby resulting in better quality of service (reduced latency) and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on International Bandwidth. NIXI is managed and operated on a Neutral basis, in line with the best practices for such initiatives globally. The National Internet Exchange of India is the neutral meeting point of the ISPs in India. It also improves the Quality of Services for the customers of member ISPs, by avoiding multiple international hops and thus reducing latency. It is managed by a Board of Directors. The Directors are drawn from the Department of Information Technology, eminent academicians such as from IIT, ISPAI, and from among the peering ISPs.

NIXI HUBS ⁴⁰:

 

Operational Internet Exchange Nodes
Noida (Delhi)	Mumbai
Chennai	Kolkata
New hubs to be established
Ahmedabad	Bangaluru
Hyderabad	Lucknow
Mohali

 

In order to ensure that the Internet traffic originating and having destination within India, remains within the country, more than 50 ISPs connected with these  new nodes would be utilizing the NIXI nodes for peering and benefiting for robust low cost Internet traffic related benefits resulting in  improved traffic latency, reduced bandwidth cost and better security.

 

Software Export- Import Statistics

The Indian software industry truly symbolizes India’s strength in the knowledge based economy. Highly skilled human resources coupled with low wage structure and world class quality have transformed India into a global powerhouse in the Information Technology (IT) software services and solutions sectors. It was in the mid-80s that the Indian IT talent started attracting the attention of the Indian Government and industry analysts and soon everybody realized the potential of Indian talent in computer software and services sector.

Realizing the high potential of employment, modernization and contribution to economy provided by the software industry the Government of India announced the first computer software policy and since then, computer software and services sector has been identified as a thrust area. In the year 1998 Government of India not only put computer software and services on its National Agenda, but also created a National Task Force under the order of the office of Prime Minister of India.

The growth of India as a software hub has also been facilitated by the initiatives taken by the Union and State Governments. Many State Governments have set up Hi-Tech Parks and implemented e-governance projects. Besides Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Export Promotion Zones (EPZs), the government is encouraging the setting up of Software Technology Parks (STPs). STPs offer zero import duty on the import of all capital goods, special 10 years income tax rebates, availability of infrastructure facilities such as high-speed data communication links, etc.

There is almost a computer software revolution in the Country and both government and industry are getting more and more determined to strengthen the brand equity of Indian software industry and make the country an IT superpower.

The strength of Indian import –export of software is given in the following tables.

 

Table 23: Import of Software: Value (in Rs. Lakhs) ²⁴

Commodity	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008 (Apr-Dec)
Documents Of Title Conveying The Right To Use Information Technology Software	37,659.74	58,644.23	85,373.55	121,979.55	92,485.84
Hardcopy(Printed)Of Computer Software	19,208.45	8,566.77	18,797.51	12,994.70	2,699.83
Discs With Information Technology Software	31,247.12	39,903.04	74,516.70	109,014.77	62,996.42
Discs With Other Software	3,718.70	5,254.24	14,523.00	30,059.21	34,180.75
Magnetic Tapes With Information Technology Software	10,460.16	19,297.63	16,627.56	25,195.09	10,298.52
Magnetic Tapes With Other Software	515.75	6,109.53	734.41	2,992.83	16,790.25
IT Software In Floppy /Cartridge Tape	17,477.45	21,136.36	10,793.99	20,397.33	15,365.53
IT Software In Discs/CD	71,052.65	177,631.33	215,707.38	191,594.97	53,584.28
IT Software In Other Electronic Media	29,746.58	13,641.37	39,225.13	43,010.46	17,172.25
Other Software In Electronic Media	8,897.56	12,860.58	26,454.70	13,724.78	67,919.23
India’s Total Import	35,910,764	50,106,456	66,040,888	84,050,632	69,548,840

 

 

Table 24: Import of Software: Quantity (in Thousands) ²⁴

Commodity	Unit	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008 (Apr-Dec)
Documents Of Title Conveying The Right To Use Information Technology Software	KGS	154.69	175.65	521.37	950.92	691.17
Hardcopy (Printed) Of Computer Software	KG	79.82	81.47	91.55	14.08	19.39
Discs With Information Technology Software	NOS	311.23	612.15	811.99	656.11	323.01
Discs With Other software	NOS	119.55	88.83	32.13	160.48	116.62
Magnetic Tapes With Infirm. Tech. Software	NOS	36.11	15.35	47.69	31.54	58
Magnetic Tapes With Other Software	NOS	9.08	1.17	0.79	10.02	65.17
IT Software In floppy / Cartridge Tape	NOS	177.59	207.77	20.74	14.38	107.55
IT Software In Discs / CD	NOS	1,227.26	3,227.14	1,824.91	887.4	239.78
IT Software In Other Electronic Media	NOS	265.97	23.81	90.11	121.73	41.63
Other Software In Electronic Media	NOS	24.5	36.73	74.33	47.92	476.76

 

 

Table 25: Export of Software: Values (in Rs Lakhs) ²⁴

Commodity	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008 (Apr-Dec)
Hardcopy (Printed) of Computer Software	491.02	128.06	810.93	872.36	954.79
Documents Of Title Conveying The Right To Use Information Technology Software	134.43	73.65	2.85	27.46	6.04
Discs With Information Technology Software	5,053.65	3,340.71	13,949.12	3,776.88	666.42
Discs With Other Software	413.44	564.37	1,132.18	1,272.43	2,943.30
Magnetic Tapes With Information Technology Software	8,046.10	4,256.55	2,346.42	489.94	421.85
Magnetic Tapes With Other Software	220.6	670.8	516.5	1,875.98	241.14
IT Software In Floppy/Cartridge Tape	8,531.66	3,580.59	7,849.85	2,994.82	2,273.48
IT Software In Discs/CD	4,958.22	3,332.70	11,017.39	6,773.96	9,740.71
IT Software In Other Electronic Media	2,103.03	2,522.41	2,465.03	962.58	380.22
Other Software In Electronic Media	5,873.98	8,019.40	2,621.59	19,696.03	26,894.09
India's Total Export	29,336,674	37,533,952	45,641,788	57,177,928	45,852,252

 

 

Table 26: Export of Software:  Quantity (in Thousands) ²⁴

Commodity	Unit	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008 (Apr-Dec)
Documents Of Title Conveying The Right To Use Information Technology Software	Kgs	4.53	7	0.97	13.61	0.34
Hardcopy (Printed) Of Computer Software	Kgs	29.06	61.26	200.95	150.25	151.17
Discs With Information Technology Software	Nos	1.7	1.66	2.88	9.17	1.11
Discs With Other Software	Nos	0.84	0.69	4.84	1.5	1.24
Magnetic Tapes With Information Technology Software	Nos	4.79	1.14	1.33	3.22	0.47
Magnetic Tapes With Other Software	Nos	1.6	1.54	1.84	4.57	0.21
IT Software In Floppy / Cartridge Tape	Nos	6.57	10.73	17.55	7.31	0.36
IT Software In Discs/CD	Nos	23.57	2.42	22.8	19.94	21.04
IT Software In Other Electronic Media	Nos	1.29	0.44	1.08	1.15	0.19

 

 

Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s)

India is one of the first in Asia to recognize the effectiveness of the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) model in promoting exports, with Asia's first EPZ set up in Kandla in 1965. Seven more zones were set up thereafter. However, the zones were not able to emerge as effective instruments for export promotion on account of the multiplicity of controls and clearances, the absence of world-class infrastructure, and an unstable fiscal regime. While correcting the shortcomings of the EPZ model, some new features were incorporated in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs)²⁶ Policy announced in April 2000. This policy intended to make SEZs an engine for economic growth supported by quality infrastructure complemented by an attractive fiscal package, both at the Centre and the State level, with the minimum possible regulations.

The salient features of the SEZ Scheme are:

• A designated duty free enclave to be treated as foreign territory only for trade operations and duties and tariffs.
• No license required for import.
• Manufacturing or service activities allowed.
• SEZ units to be positive net foreign exchange earner within three years.
• Domestic sales subject to full customs duty and import policy in force.
• Full freedom for subcontracting.
• No routine examination by customs authorities of export/import cargo.

It is expected that this will trigger a large flow of foreign and domestic investment in SEZs, in infrastructure and productive capacity, leading to generation of additional economic activity and creation of employment opportunities. In order to impart stability to SEZ regime and to achieve generation of greater economic activity and employment through the establishment of SEZs, a Special Economic Zone Act has been enacted. The SEZ Act, 2005, supported by SEZ Rules, has come into effect on 10th February 2006.

The SEZ Act 2005 envisages key role for the State Governments in Export Promotion and creation of related infrastructure.

The SEZ Rules provide for different minimum land requirement for different class of SEZs. Every SEZ is divided into a processing area where alone the SEZ units would come up and the non-processing area where the supporting infrastructure is to be created. 

All the 8 Export Processing Zones (EPZs) located at Kandla and Surat (Gujarat), Santa Cruz (Maharashtra), Cochin (Kerala), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Falta (West Bengal) and Noida (U.P.) have been converted into Special Economic Zones.

 

 SEZ Approval Status

Consequent upon the SEZ Rules coming into effect w.e.f. 10th February, 2006, twenty-five meetings of the Board of Approvals have since been held.  During these meetings, formal approval has been granted to 462 SEZ proposals.  There are 135 valid in-principle approvals.   Out of the 462 formal approvals, 222 SEZs have been notified.

The list of Formal Approved SEZ with respect to Indian states and major categories in Science & technology are given in below table:

 

Table 27:  Formal Approved SEZs: Sector wise distribution in states

State	Total no. of SEZ	IT / ITES / Electronic Hardware / Semiconductor	Biotech	Pharma/ Chemical	Food Processing	Agro
Andhra Pradesh	75	47	3	5	1	-
Chandigarh	2	2	-	-	-	-
Chhattisgarh	1	1	-	-	-	-
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	4	1	-	-	-	-
Delhi	2	2	-	-	-	-
Goa	7	2	2	1	-	-
Gujarat	39	10	1	6	-	-
Haryana	38	28	2	-	-	-
Himachal Pradesh	-	-	-	-	-	-
Jharkhand	1	-	-	-	-	-
Karnataka	42	33	2	1	-	-
Kerala	12	7	1	-	1	-
Madhya Pradesh	13	11	-	-	-	-
Maharashtra	89	47	9	6	-	2
Nagaland	2	-	-	-	1	1
Orissa	9	4	-	-	-	-
Pondicherry	1	-	-	-	-	-
Punjab	7	4	-	1	-	-
Rajasthan	8	4	-	-	-	-
Tamil Nadu	59	43	-	-	1	-
Uttar Pradesh	26	20	-	-	-	-
Uttaranchal	3	2	-	-	-	-
West Bengal	22	19	1	-	-	-
Total	462	289	21	20	4	3

 

Exports from the functioning SEZs:

 

Table 28: Export value and growth rate of exports from SEZ’s

Year	Value (Rs. Crore)	Growth Rate ( over previous year )
2003-04	13,854	39%
2004-05	18,314	32%
2005-06	22 840	25%
2006-07	34,615	52%
2007-08	66,638	92%

 

 

Fig 9: Export from SEZ units

 

Impact of the SEZ scheme

The overwhelming response to the SEZ scheme is evident from the flow of investment and creation of additional employment in the country. The SEZ scheme has generated tremendous response amongst the investors, both in India and abroad, which is evident from the list of Developers who have set up SEZs:

• Nokia SEZ, Tamil Nadu 
• Quark City SEZ, Chandigarh
• Flextronics SEZ, Tamil Nadu
• Mahindra World City, Tamil Nadu
• Motorola, DELL and Foxconn, Andhra Pradesh
• Apache SEZ (Adidas Group), Andhra Pradesh
• Divvy’s Laboratories, Andhra Pradesh
• Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park, Chandigarh
• ETL Infrastructure IT SEZ, Chennai
• Hyderabad Gems Limited, Hyderabad

 

Observations and Conclusion

Science and Technology (S&T) has been instrumental in India’s development since the time of Independence. In the post-independence period, the focus of the political leadership was to build S&T infrastructure. The country today has national laboratories, institutes, 350 universities, and more than 15,000 colleges. With its flagship nuclear and space programmes, high profile information technology services, and pharmaceutical, Indian S & T has come a long way from its modest beginning.

For the Infrastructure in S&T theme of the report we surveyed various ministries and departments under the aegis of Government of India. There is no pre-existing definition for infrastructure in S&T. We considered the infrastructure in S&T to exist in tangible or physical and intangible forms. The tangible or the physical infrastructure is the physical existence of institutes, national laboratories, R&D facilities, equipments, biotech parks, software technology parks, space missions, atomic energy labs and public private partnerships such as TBI, STEP, STPI. The intangible infrastructure is the services such as internet, broadband connectivity, GARUDA grid, Software exports.

The source of information for physical infrastructure was from ministries and councils that support and finance the infrastructure for education and R&D. We don’t have information for comparative perspective of any other country for infrastructure in S&T. The longitudinal analysis was not possible as the data was not available for a long period.

Funding schemes of departments for strengthening and improving the infrastructure at tertiary sector of education were also analyzed. The major funding for strengthening S&T Infrastructure is from FIST scheme of Department of S&T (DST), which is for tertiary level education. The FIST funding scheme is a reactive and not pro-active scheme. The criteria for funding by FIST are availing of funds from other departments and sources by the applicant departments or institutions. It complements existing funding rather than filling the gaps. The funding is for R&D activities and less for the teaching facilities.  There is no comparative data for funding at school level.

Similarly, UGC also provides funds through ASIST and SAP scheme, but it’s also for tertiary sector. ICMR, ICAR does not provide any financial help to establishing departments for growth in infrastructure. They provide funds to those who have already established centre for excellence. The improvement in infrastructure from these funds can not be assessed since no objective study has been conducted on its impact on growth of graduate students, publications, amount R&D projects received, patents filled etc.

There is less participation from private sector in S&T infrastructure development except through SEZ’s Biotech parks, STPI, Incubator technology and STEP. The exports from these sectors have started increasing only recently.

Internet penetration information is available in general, but state specific information on connectivity is unavailable. Similarly broadband connectivity information for education sector is not available in secondary sources. Information or data available are from annual reports of respective Government departments. The strength of broadband connectivity at state level cannot be studied due to lack of data availability.

 

 

 

 

References:

1. Department of Higher Education under Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India. http://education.nic.in/sector.asp
2. Planning Commission of India. http://infrastructure.gov.in/pdf/doi.pdf
3. IRHPA, Department of Science and Technology http://www.dst.gov.in/about_us/ar07-08/irpha.htm
4. Fund for improvement of Science and Technology Infrastructure, DST. http://www.fist-dst.org
5. Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIF’s) http://www.serc-dst.org/saif.htm#a2
6. Nano Mission, DST , http://nanomission.gov.in/
7. National Science and Technology Entrepreneur Development Board (NSTEDB) http://www.nstedb.com/index.htm
8. Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park (STEP). http://www.nstedb.com/institutional/step.htm
9.  Technology Business Incubator (TBI) http://www.nstedb.com/institutional/tbi.htm
10. Assistance for Development of State S &T councils. http://www.dst-sstp.org/Highlight.htm
11. National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) http://www.nabl-india.org/
12.  Department of Biotechnology http://dbtindia.nic.in/uniquepage.asp?id_pk=19
13. Department of Biotechnology http://dbtindia.nic.in/uniquepage.asp?id_pk=38
14.  Super Computing Facility in India http://scfbio.iitd.res.in/
15. Biotechnology Information System Network (BTISnet) http://www.btisnet.nic.in/
16.  Department of Space (DOS) http://www.isro.org/index.htm
17.  Research Sponsored by ISRO (RESPOND) http://www.isro.org/respond/index.htm
18. Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) http://www.dae.gov.in/
19.  Organizations under DAE http://www.veccal.ernet.in/
20.  Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) http://www.dsir.gov.in/
21. Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) http://www.barc.ernet.in/webpages/brns/brns1.html
22. Biotechnology Parks and Incubators http://dbtindia.nic.in/uniquepage.asp?id_pk=18
23. Biotech parks http://www.biotechnews.in/FEATURE.html, http://biospectrumindia.ciol.com/
24. Department of Commerce, Export Import Data Bank http://commerce.nic.in/eidb/ecom.asp
25. NMITLI http://www.csir.res.in/
26. SEZ http://www.sezindia.nic.in/
27.  Department of Higher Education http://education.nic.in/sector.asp
28. A) List of Recognized institutes in India http://education.nic.in/stats/SES2004-2005.pdf ,
    B) Annual Report 2007-2008 http://edcation.nic.in/
29. Internet Service Provider (ISP) http://www.dot.gov.in/isp/ispindex.htm
30. NIXI http://www.nixi.in/
31. A) 10 years achievements of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India http://www.trai.gov.in/achievment.asp
    B) TRAI Quarterly Reports www.trai.gov.in/
32. Department of Agriculture Cooperation (DAC) http://agricoop.nic.in/
33. Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) http://www.dare.gov.in/
34. ICAR Equipment List http://icar.org.in/Equipments.pdf
35. Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) http://dahd.nic.in/
36. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) http://www.icar.org.in/ICARataglance.pdf
37. Veterinary Council of India (VCI) http://www.vci.nic.in/
38. GARUDA http://www.garudaindia.in/
39. Software Technology Parks India (STPI) http://www.stpi.in/
40.  Information Technology Annual Report 2007-2008, Department of Information Technology  http://www.mit.gov.in/download/annualreport2007-08.pdf
41. University Grants Commission (UGC) http://www.ugc.ac.in/
42. UGC Status Report http://www.ugc.ac.in/more/bsrpdf/Status%20Report_MMSharma_.pdf
43. ASIST http://www.ugc.ac.in/financialsupport/strengthening_32.html
44. SAP http://www.ugc.ac.in/financialsupport/sap_24.html
45. State Wide Area Network (SWAN) http://www.mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=824
46. ERNET http://www.ernet.in/
47. Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) http://www.csio.res.in/

 

 

 

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