Context: Recently, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India has launched the “Swachhta Saarthi Fellowship”.
Background

• The role of young students from schools and colleges, and citizens working in the community is key in sensitizing the communities towards waste management.
• The ‘Waste-to-Energy’ and Waste Management market in India is set to be a $14bn opportunity by the year 2025.
• The population of 1.3 billion in India currently generates 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste per year.

About Swachhta Saarthi Fellowship

• The fellowship was launched by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser under the “Waste to Wealth” Mission.
• Aim: To recognize students, community workers or Self-Help Groups (SHG), and municipal or sanitary workers engaged in tackling the enormous challenge of waste management, scientifically and sustainably.  Up to 500 fellows will be recognised under this fellowship initiative.

Eligibility Criteria: There are three categories of awards under the Swachhta Saarthi Fellowship. Each category has included a few specific sections. They can apply for the fellowship and get awards. They are,

• Category-A: School students from 9th to 12th standards engaged in waste management community work.
• Category-B: College/University/Institution students belongs to UG, PG & Research engaged in waste management community work.
• Category-C: Individual Citizens working in the community can apply in this category. Apart from that, Persons working through SHGs, municipal or sanitary workers working beyond the specifications of their job requirement/descriptions can also apply.

Significance of Swachhta Saarthi Fellowship initiative

• This initiative will encourage interested students and citizens to continuously engage in their attempts to reduce wastes in cities and rural areas.

Waste To Wealth Mission

• The Waste to Wealth Mission is one of the nine national missions of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
• Aim: To identify, develop, and deploy technologies to treat waste and generate energy, recycle materials and extract value from waste.
• The mission is the “scientific arm” of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Objectives of the Waste To Wealth Mission

• To support the development of new technologies that can help create a cleaner and greener environment.
• To boost and augment the Swachh Bharat Mission and Smart Cities Project by leveraging science, technology and innovation.
• To create circular economic models that are financially viable for waste management.
• To streamline waste handling in India.

Significance: The benefits of effective waste management is huge. As it is predicted that India has the potential to generate 3GW of electricity from waste by 2050.
Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India:

• It was set-up in 1999 by the Cabinet Secretariat. It is currently a Secretary level position.
• Mandate: It is the chief advisor to the government on matters related to scientific policy. The policies will focus on critical infrastructure, economic and social sectors.

PM-STIAC: It is an overarching council. The Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) is the chairman of the council. The council will perform functions such as,

• Assess the status of specific S&T domains
• Comprehends challenges in S&T domains
• Formulates immediate, mid and long term interventions and presents a roadmap to the Prime Minister.