NAC discusses the way forward for National Initiative on Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics
The first
meeting of the National Advisory Committee of the National Initiative on Science, Technology and Innovation
Statistics (NISTIS) discussed the way forward for the initiative.
It was decided that the Detailed Project Report
(DPR) for the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics will be
prepared by the Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) at the Indian Institute of
Science (IISc) Bengaluru.
Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government
of India, Professor Ajay K Sood, who chaired the meeting, underlined the
importance of the initiative and the urgent need to establish the centre to
start focused work on it.
“Data is critical
for knowledge-based decisions. While data is being collected by the different
ministries, its centralised management is essential for taking critical
decisions in the future,” he pointed out.
Secretary, Department of Science and Technology
(DST), Dr Srivari Chandrasekhar, welcomed the initiative, highlighting the
range of data that is already available with the department and emphasized the
need to add to it.
Senior Adviser, DST, Dr Akhilesh Gupta, stressed
on the need for a one-stop coordinated effort to bring the various efforts of
accumulation of data and presented the tentative structure of the centre. He
gave examples of international best practices of such efforts in USA and Japan.
Director Indian Institute of Science (IISc),
Professor Govindan Rangarajan, elaborated on the functioning of the future
centre at IISc.
Experts from
scientific establishments discussed the governance, functioning and way forward
for the centre.