It is not only about the smart cities, the NDA Government’s focus is also being a smart country. Science and Technology, Space Research and Atomic Energy have been given a big push by the Government in the Budget.
With a long list of space research and other activities lined up in the country, Indian Space progamme has got due focus. Department of Space has been allocated Rs 6,000 crore, out of which Rs 3,545.63 crore is focusing on Space Technology. “Several major space mission are planned for 2014-15 which include the experimental flight of India’s future heavy capacity launcher GSlV Mk-III, one commercial launch of PSlV and two more navigational satellites. Our Mars Orbiter spacecraft is in its 300 days long voyage to Planet Mars along the designated helio-centric trajectory.
Mars Orbitrator Spacecraft is expecting to be orbiting around Mars on September 24, 2014,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said in his speech.
Rs 3,430 crore has been earmarked for research and development activities in Atomic Energy. The allocation also includes provision for projects such as Survey, Prospecting and Exploration of Uranium and for Global Centre for Nuclear Partnership in Haryana.
“The department of science and technology has some of country’s leading research centres in the areas such as nanotechnology, material science and bio medical device technology. The Government will strengthen at least five such institutions a Technical Research Centre to make them more effective in the innovation space through Public Private Partnership,” said Jaitely.
Rs 125 crore have been earmarked for this. Development of biotech clusters in Faridabad and Bangalore will be scaled up and taken to the highest international quality. The effort will include global partnership s in accessing model-organism resources for disease biology, stem cell biology and for high-end microscopy. The nascent agro-biotech cluster in Mohali will be scaled up. In addition, two new clusters in Pune and Kolkatta will be established. Out of Rs 1,281crore allocated for Oceanographic Research and Meteorology, Rs 35 crore has been set aside for providing a wide range of ocean advisory services and issues of warning Tsunami and storm surges on a 24x7 basis.
The outlay for Department of Science and Technology’s plan schemes is Rs 3,125 crore. Women scientist will get support from the department for R&D activities while programmes for mobility of employed women scientists are also being envisaged.The Government is already considering having flexible working hours for women scientists to encourage the gender taking up research work.