Focus on localised solution to global problems: PM to scientists

New Delhi, Sep 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the first meeting of the Governing Board of Anusandhan National Research Foundation at his residence Tuesday. The meeting focussed on discussion about India’s Science and Technology landscape and redesigning of research and development programmes.
During the meeting, Prime Minister said that today a new beginning has been made with the first meeting of the Governing Body of Anusandhan National Research Foundation. Prime Minister stressed on the need to identify and remove obstacles in the research ecosystem of the country. He talked about setting big targets, focusing on attaining them and doing path breaking research. He said that research should focus on finding new solutions to existing problems. He emphasised that problems might be global in nature but their solutions must be localised in accordance with Indian needs.
Prime Minister discussed the need for upgradation and standardisation of institutions. He suggested preparing a list of domain experts on the basis of their expertise. He also talked about developing a dashboard where information related to research and development happening in the country can be easily tracked.
Prime Minister stressed upon the need for Scientific monitoring of utilisation of resources for research and innovation. Saying that this is an ambitious beginning, he said the scientific community of the country should have faith that there will be no dearth of resources for their endeavours. Discussing the positive impacts of Atal Tinkering Labs, Prime Minister suggested that grading of these labs can be done. He also discussed research in various areas like looking for new solutions to the environment change, battery ingredients for EVs, lab grown diamonds, among others.
During the meeting, the Governing Body decided to launch a programme in hub and spoke mode by pairing universities where research is at nascent stage with top tier established institutions in mentorship mode.
Governing Body also discussed several areas of strategic interventions of ANRF which include global positioning of India in key sectors, aligning R&D with national priorities, promoting inclusive growth, capacity building, driving scientific advances and innovation ecosystem, as well as bridging the gap between academic research and industrial applications through industry-aligned translational research.
The ANRF will launch programmes on solution-focussed research in mission mode in select priority areas like Electric Vehicle (EV) mobility, Advanced Materials, Solar Cells, Smart Infrastructure, Health & Medical Technology, Sustainable Agriculture and Photonics. The Governing Body observed that these efforts would impactfuly supplement our march towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
While underscoring the translational research with active participation from the industry, the Governing Body also emphasized on promoting fundamental research for advancement of knowledge. It was decided to set up Centers of Excellence to support interdisciplinary research in humanities and social sciences. It was also agreed that there was a need to empower our researchers with flexible and transparent funding mechanism towards achieving ease of doing research.
The Governing Body also directed that the ANRF strategies should align with the goals of Viksit Bharat 2047 and implementation should follow global best practices adopted by research and development agencies across the world.
The meeting was attended by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education as the Vice-President of Governing Body, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India as Member Secretary, Member (Science), NITI Aayog and Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research and Department of Higher Education as its ex-officio members. Other prominent participants included Prof. Manjul Bhargava (Princeton University, USA), Dr. Romesh T Wadhwani (Symphony Technology Group, USA), Prof. Subra Suresh (Brown University, USA), Dr. Raghuvendra Tanwar (Indian Council of Historical Research), Prof. Jayaram N. Chengalur (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) and Prof. G Rangarajan (Indian Institute of Science).