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Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that the Department of Science & Technology (DST) should make efforts to set up first-of-its-kind National Science & Technology Research University, by leveraging the research strength of its different Autonomous Research & Development Institutions working in the field of science and technology.

Addressing the scientists and officers at Technology Bhawan , Dr.Jitendra Singh said, India today has attained top 3rd global ranking in terms of research publications and global number 9 in the quality of research publications in the world’s reputed and recognised SCI Journals. Even though, he said, India’s global ranking in the quality of research papers has improved from number 14 to number 9, our concerted effort should be to rise among the first global number 5 in quality research papers when India celebrates 75 years of its independence.

The Minister referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special focus on Science and Technology and said it was with the Prime Minister’s personal intervention that in 2016, the patent law was made less regulatory and more incentive oriented, which not only leads to ease of working but also reduces time taken for improving the patents. Not only this, over the last 7 years there has been a progressive increase in the number of resident patents filed, number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) researchers and number of women scientists, he added.

The Minister emphasized the need for focusing on increasing numbers of beneficiaries in human resource related schemes like MANAK, INSPIRE, Doctoral and post-doctoral Fellowships, and other schemes.

Further emphasizing the need for projecting DST’s success stories when India celebrates it 75th year of Independence, i.e. Bharat Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Minister asked DST to come forward with some big targets and plans for 2022. It turned out that in the 75th year of Independence in 2022, DST will target for the launch of 7,500 STI based Start-Ups, 750,000 students of 6-10 classes participating in the MANAK Award programmes. In addition, under the Vigyan Jyoti scheme, DST will target 75,000 girl students getting benefit of the scheme by 2022. Dr.Jitendra Singh appealed to all the institutions and scientists of DST to wholeheartedly participate in the 75th year of India’s Independence to celebrate what science and scientists have contributed to India all these years.

Earlier, the Minister was welcomed by Secretary, DST Prof Ashutosh Sharma, along with others including Prof Sandeep Verma, Secretary SERB, Vishvajit Sahai, AS&FA, Anju Bhalla, JS (Admin), Sunil Kumar, JS (SMP) and Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Head, PCPM. Besides, Chief Controller of Account, HoDs of scientific divisions and officers of the administrative wings of the Department attended the meeting.

(Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh addressing Scientists and Officers at Technology Bhawan, at New Delhi on Thursday.)

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman participated virtually in the Third G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) Meeting under the Italian Presidency. The two-day meeting held on July 9th and 10th, 2021 saw discussions on a wide range of issues including global economic risks and health challenges, policies for recovery from the CoVID-19 pandemic, international taxation, sustainable finance and financial sector issues.

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors reaffirmed their resolve to use all available policy tools for as long as required to address the adverse consequences of COVID-19.

Smt. Sitharaman appreciated the Italian G20 Presidency for identifying three catalysts of resilient economic recovery from the pandemic as being Digitalization, Climate Action and Sustainable Infrastructure and shared the Indian experience of integrating technology with inclusive service delivery during the pandemic.

The Finance Minister shared recent policy responses of Government of India to strengthen the health system and economy, including the efficient application of CoWIN Platform to scale-up vaccination in India. Smt. Sitharaman added that this platform has been made freely available to all countries as humanitarian needs outweigh commercial considerations in this extraordinary crisis. The Finance Minister stated that as the co-chair of Framework Working Group of the G20, India along with UK, views digitalization as an agenda that will continue to play a key role in bolstering economic growth.

Smt. Sitharamanreferred to the global risks in view of the emerging CoVID-19 variants and highlighted the need for international coordination and cooperation on this front. The Finance Minister joined other G20 members in welcoming the Report of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response and emphasized on the urgent need to strengthen multilateralism for global health.

Smt. Sitharaman shared her insights on the Italian Presidency’s ongoing work on a roadmap to guide sustainable finance. Speaking on the need for aligning recovery strategies with climate concerns, the Finance Minister called for climate action strategies to be based on the principles of the Paris Agreement and noted the criticality of timely fulfilment of international commitments on climate finance and technology transfer.

Regarding the “Statement on a two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy” released by the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS-IF) on July 1st, the G20 Finance Ministers called on the OECD/G20 BEPS-IF to swiftly address the remaining issues. Smt. Sitharaman suggested that further work needs to be done to ensure a fairer, sustainable and inclusive tax system which results in meaningful revenue for developing countries.