Context: The government has initiated a consultation process for formulation of a new national Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and the Department of Science and Technology have jointly initiated a decentralised, bottom-up and inclusive process for the formulation of the new policy. The fifth S&T policy of the country is being formulated at a crucial juncture when India and the world are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. 

About Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

• It is jointly initiated by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (Office of PSA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• Under this a decentralized, bottom-up, and inclusive process for the formulation of a new national Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020).
• The fifth S&T policy of India is being formulated at a crucial juncture when India and the world are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The new policy with its decentralized manner of formation will reorient STI in terms of priorities, sectoral focus, the way research is done, and technologies are developed and deployed for larger socio-economic welfare.

The STIP 2020 formulation process is organised into 4 highly interlinked tracks:

• Track I involves an extensive public and expert consultation process through Science Policy Forum - a dedicated platform for soliciting inputs from larger public and expert pool during and after the policy drafting process.
• Track II comprises experts-driven thematic consultations to feed evidence-informed recommendations into the policy drafting process. Twenty-one (21) focused thematic groups have been constituted for this purpose.
• Track III involves consultations with Ministries and States.
• Track IV constitutes apex level multi-stakeholder consultation.
• For Track III nodal officers are being nominated in States and in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government of India for extensive intra-state and intra-department consultation and for Track IV consultation with institutional leadership, industry bodies, global partners and inter-ministerial and inter-state consultations represented at the highest levels are being carried out.
• The STI Policy for the new India will also integrate the lessons of COVID-19 including building of an Atmanirbhar Bharat (self- reliance) through ST&I by leveraging our strengths in R&D, Design, S&T workforce and institutions, huge markets, demographic dividend, diversity and data.

The following are some observations on the existing national STI policy ecosystem:

• The present STI policy ecosystem in India is not structured enough to be easily comprehended. This presents both challenges and opportunities. Sound institutional memory (for preservation of best practices, knowledge, and learned experiences) and knowledge transfer processes (for ease of dissemination of knowledge) have to be built to make the ecosystem more robust and to help transfer good practices to the next generation of policy practitioners.
• Evidence should form the basis of the policymaking process and must be used to inform every step of the STI policy process including its implementation. It is promising to see that efforts are being made by DST, MHRD and other agencies in the form of establishing policy centres and fellowship programs to create and institutionalise a robust evidence framework for STI policy in the country.

STI systems are becoming complex, dynamic and are witnessing rapid changes. To support the dynamic nature of these systems, both evaluation and adaptation should be an integral part of the STI policy cycle.

The ongoing world Scenario Amid Covid-19

• Role of the Government has been clearly delineated to develop the research ecosystem, promote adoption and address skilling challenges.
• The focus is on sectors like agriculture, health and education where public investment and lead would be necessary.

Research and Development: Research needs to be brought closer to the Industry in overcoming the present challenge. The pandemic is a great opportunity for R&D and needs to be used for strengthening it.

• The Covid-19 crisis has unfolded some of the best medical advancements and innovations in history like drug discovery, vaccines, and diagnostic tools, and other medical devices, as well as ways to preserve electronic health records.
• Research needs to quickly switch over from being capital intensive to knowledge-intensive and should be brought closer to industry.

Industries and Advanced Materials: The novel materials such as special-purpose alloys, engineering polymers & blends, graphene, composites, etc. will be the key to revamping the industry’s product lines in the future.

• These materials will serve as the cornerstones for new-age technology solutions for complex functional problems.
• Investment in such knowledge-based value-added materials will go a long way in accelerating the economic activities and ensuring an attractive return for the industry.

Digital transformation in Manufacturing:

• The manufacturing companies are undergoing digital transformation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The pandemic has forced the industries that were sitting on the fence to go for digital transformation, which has brought a tremendous change.
• The world is moving towards mass customization and mass specialization today, and technology like 3-D printing plays a major role in it.
• New age technology and 5G: Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), and robotic process automation (RPA) are among the technologies that will make Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Road Ahead

Its time come to deliver innovative ideas from three fronts in which both government and private players create an asseccible pool of infrastructure to boost the R&D empowering student with world class teachers and club them together with other student also because innovation comes out only when we have different view thoughts.