New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh Tuesday came down on Indian civil servants and state governments for being a stumbling block in the path of innovation in the country.
Speaking at the launch of Niti Aayog report ‘Pathways to Progress: Analysis and Insights into India’s Innovation Story‘, Singh said, “Many state governments in India are not taking innovation very seriously… Out of 28 states in India, you will find 24 states where the science secretary is a reluctant secretary. No senior IAS officer wants to be a science secretary in a state.”
Besides Singh, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Niti Aayog member and former chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University V.K. Saraswat were also present at the event.
The science and technology minister also emphasised the need for a change in the mindset of civil servants and industry players to embrace innovation rather than fear it.
“The biggest challenge for innovation in India is the mindset problem of government bureaucracy, industry, and potential start-ups. This mindset needs to change to embrace innovation,” Singh said.
Elaborating on it, the minister said that many people in India consider deep-tech to be a very scary term and the only thing that can drive start-ups and innovation. “This is a myth”, Singh argued. “In India, start-ups can come up in the field of agriculture, oceans and even Himalayas. There is no need to be a technology or IIT graduate for this.”
According to Singh, there is also a lack of understanding among civil servants due to this mindset. Giving an example, Singh cited how it took him more than a year to make the expenditure department understand the relevance of Treasury Single Account (TSA).
TSA in India is a system that centralises finances in a single account to improve cash management and reduce interest costs on government borrowing. The objective of the TSA is to ensure “just in time release” and eliminate parking of funds at different levels of project implementation.
Niti Aayog member V.K. Saraswat said that to fully realise the Viksit Bharat dream by 2047, India must focus on becoming a producer of frontier technologies rather than being a consumer.
While the government’s commitment to building an innovation-driven economy is clear with initiatives like Atal Innovation Mission, Start-up India and National Innovation and Start-up Policy, the focus for India must not be on being “a participant but a solution provider to the world’s problem”, Saraswat said.
According to him, key challenges in the path of innovation are availability of skills and need for more partnerships with domain experts. He said that with significant human capital available in India, there is a need for a workforce equipped in frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence, quantum technology, advanced biotechnology, robotics, and semiconductors.
“There is need to look beyond government initiatives, the future of the innovation story depends on partnerships; no single institution can carry this responsibility on its own,” Saraswat added.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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The government believes in voodoo, so why have science which is a western colonial concept.
IAS officers are good only for churning out socialist schemes and reservations, not fit for science secretaries.