Major developments/ achievements of Department of Science and Technology Year End

Review 2016

Major developments/ achievements/ Main highlights of the activities of Department of

Science and Technology(DST), Ministry of Science & Technology during the Year 2016 are as
following:

v National Initiative for Developing & Harnessing Innovation (NIDHI), a programme to

address the complete chain of innovation ecosystem right from scouting
to mentoring to scaling up innovations. launched by DST. Establishment of a
research park at IIT Gandhinagar has been supported at a cost of Rs.90 cr.

v Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) has initiated a new scheme
viz. Visiting Advanced Joint Research (VAJRA) Faculty Scheme. The scheme
envisages to associate distinguished international faculty as Adjunct/Visiting Faculty
in Indian institutions for a period of 1-3 month in a year.

v Overseas Doctoral Fellowship scheme aimed to impart research training of Ph.D.

Scholars in Indian institutions for collaborative research abroad was launched by
SERB. Fellowship would be for a period upto 12 months.

v Technology Vision 2035 document was released by Honble Prime Minister, on 3 rd January
2016 during 103rd session of Indian Science Congress, held at Mysore University, Mysuru.

v Devasthal Optical Telescope, an Indo-Belgian venture, successfully established by

Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital was
technically activated by Honble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi and
Honble Prime Minister of Belgium, Mr. Charles Michel, remotely from Brussels.

v Surya Jyoti: Photovoltaic integrated Micro Solar Dome, is the simple innovative technology
developed to meet the lighting need for people who do not have access to reliable supply of
electricity. The product has been included for subsidy under Off Grid and decentralized solar
application scheme of Ministry of New and Renewable energy. The Ministry of Rural
Development has informed to all States and Union Territories to explore the possibility of
 adopting this innovative technology of Surya Jyoti for the houses constructed under Prime
Minister Awas Yojana-Gramin.

v The National Award for the successful commercialization of indigenous technology

was presented to SMITA Research Lab, IIT Delhi for the commercialization of N9 Pure Silver
by , the Hon'ble President of India, during the Technology Day function on 11 th May 2016.
Technology was jointly developed by M/s RESIL Chemicals Private Limited and ARCI,
Hyderabad under Nano Mission of DST.

v Deployment of a mobile RO unit: DST has supported quick deployment and

demonstration of a mobile water purification unit developed by CSIR-CSMCRI for
producing portable water for drinking. It was demonstrated in Latur, Marathwada
region which was facing severe scarcity of drinking water during this years drought
period.

v Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) based plasma system for portable water
purification: A technology developed at CEERI Pilani through support by DSTs Water
Technology Initiative (WTI) for Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) based plasma
system for disinfection has been successfully transferred for commercialization to
Turners Pvt. Ltd. Jaipur.

v The Water Quality Laboratory at Kohima, Nagaland: The Referral Water Laboratory,
fully equipped with the in house sophisticated analytical equipments for Water
Quality analysis was inaugurated by the Honble Union Minister of Science and
Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan at NASTEC, Kohima, Nagaland,

v Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS): The Indo-
US consortium has developed the crucial prototype test loop that demonstrate the
multiscale aspects of the supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle (s-CO2) at IISc Bangalore for
development of high temperature concentrated solar power in the country.

v BRICS STI Cooperation: To further strengthen the collaboration amongst the BRICS
countries in the areas of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), the 4 th BRICS
 Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting was convened on 8 October,
2016 at Jaipur.

v DST and RC-UK have agreed to launch India-UK Clean Energy R&D Centre on solar
energy, storage and integration with an investment of 5 million from each side.

v Building upon the Thames-Ganga Partnership and recognising the importance of clean
and portable water, DST and RCUK have agreed to launch a new collaborative
programme on Improving Water Quality and Reusing Waste Water.

v DST-Intel Collaborative Research for Real-Time River Water and Air Quality
Monitoring: Recognizing the importance of developing the online River Water and
Air Quality Monitoring systems, DST and Intel has initiated a joint programme at a
cost of Rs.33 cr on a 50:50 cost sharing basis in Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
mode.

v A new programme on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (ICPS) to foster and

promote R&D in this emerging field of research has been launched. A Cyber Physical
System (CPS) is a mechanism controlled or monitored by computer-based algorithms,
tightly integrated with internet and its users. It is an engineered system that are built
from and depend upon, the seamless integration of computational algorithms and
physical components.

v Collaboration with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), UK: Initiated to access
its neutron facility for carrying out research in Nano Science and Technology.

v DST constituted Standing Committee for Promoting Women in Science to address a

low representation of women in Science & Technology (S&T) domain. To provide
opportunities to women scientists and technologists for pursuing research in basic or
applied sciences, 227 projects were recommended for support. Twenty nine projects
to women scientist were supported for finding out solutions to challenges/issues at
the grassroots level for social benefit. To create opportunity of self employment
and/or also sustainable career for the women scientists, one year internship in the
 domain of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) to 111 women was provided during the
year.

v Technology demonstrated for cyber-digital-physical reconstruction of Hampi

heritage structures. Plans for covering 100 monuments are under formulation.

v DST-STI Policy Fellowship at post-doctoral level was initiated to generate a critical

mass of policy researchers.

v In the context of Start-up India initiative of the Government, INSPIRE Awards scheme
has been revamped to foster culture of innovation among school children of class VI
to class X. The scheme has been rechristened as INSPIRE Awards-MANAK (Million
Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge). The 6 th National Level
Exhibition & Project Competition was organized during December 10-11, 2016 along
with India International Science Festival (IISF) at CSIR-NPL, New Delhi.

RDS/nb