The Hindu : CSIR may be overhauled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 23, 2002

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National

CSIR may be overhauled

By P. Sunderarajan

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22. The Union Minister for Science and Technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, indicated here today that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) may be in for a major overhaul soon to bring it in tune with the changing science and technology needs of the country.

Speaking to The Hindu, he said an exercise to appraise the performance of each and every laboratory under the Council was almost over and the follow-up action on the recommendations of the experts' committee, which did the appraisal, would begin in about two months.

Though the performance of laboratories were being routinely appraised every year, the exercise under way was unique in that its scope of study went far beyond covering a wide range of parameters, including their performing and non-performing assets, manpower profile and their mandates, to consider whether there was any need for a change of direction. The strengths and the weak points of each laboratory were being identified and the aim was to grade them.

Dr. Joshi asserted that the much-delayed test flight of the multi-role light transport aircraft, `Saras', would take off by the end of the year. The work on the 14-seater aircraft, which had been in the making for several years now, had suffered on account of the technology sanctions imposed by the U.S. in the wake of the 1998 Pokhran nuclear test.

The progress of the project was reviewed when he visited Bangalore last week and it was found that all the major impediments had been sorted out. There would be two prototypes, one for tests on the ground and the other for in-flight tests. The aircraft, which is being developed by the CSIR's National Aerospace Laboratories in collaboration with several governmental and private agencies, is being designed for a variety of roles such as executive transport, air ambulance, border patrol and remote sensing and aerial research services.

The Minister said a new national policy on science and technology was in the final stages of preparation. It has been cleared by a Group of Ministers and it was now being readied to be taken to the Cabinet Committee on Science and Technology.

The main thrust of the policy would include strengthening of the linkages among research institutions, the academia and the industry, and promotion of India as a major centre of innovation, with greater emphasis on generating awareness on the various aspects of intellectual property rights.

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