Decks cleared for 1st S

New Delhi, Sep 21 (UNI) Decks have been cleared for setting up the first Science and technology park in Delhi with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today saying her Government has approved the Detailed Project Report prepared by NASSCOM for the purpose.

The proposed S &T Park will be established by the Delhi Government at the Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT) campus in Dwarka covering over 30 acres with a built up area of over 2 million square feet and will be in close proximity to the international airport.

The Detailed Project Report for the S &T Pak was prepared by NASSCOM with assistance from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Talking to reporters, Ms Dikshit said,''We see the Science and Technology Park at Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT) as a strategic initiative to position Delhi as a pre-eminent R&D cluster for the knowledge industries which are today looking at undertaking advanced scientific research across various fields.

''The strong presence of industry, academia and other resources in and around Delhi enables high end R&D and innovation and this initiative is an attempt by us to create that opportunity. This initiative is a key milestone in establishing Delhi as a global innovation hub and serve as a platform for holistic and sustainable industry and academia partnership, thereby attracting to Delhi and retaining high-quality talent.'' This project is a part of the State Government's effort to foster industry-institutional partnerships in the area of advanced technology research, provide opportunity for NSIT to leverage industry expertise to support advanced research and to position Delhi as an important destination for advanced research in IT, science and technology.

Some of the areas identified for research at the Park are Information and Communication Technology, Biotechnology and Life-sciences, automotive technologies, Nanotechnology, Photonics, Environmental Sciences, Micro Engineering.

Speaking on the occasion, President, NASSCOM Mittal said,''the NASSCOM BCG Innovation Report 2007 highlighted that the lack of sustainable linkages between the ecosystem constituents, academia, user industry, R&D institutes and IT industry, is a key reason for the weakness of the Indian innovation ecosystem.

''Therefore a key part of NASSCOM's innovation agenda today involves the promotion of an Indian innovation ecosystem through development of innovation clusters. The Science and Technology Park at NSIT can play the role of a catalyst in the development of an innovation cluster in the NCT and thereby making it an important initiative towards the overall development of the Indian innovation ecosystem.'' He said the initiative was aimed at stepping up industry and academia interactions for capacity building in emerging technologies at both faculty and student levels.

''While there are a number of facilities in India for technology related activities, only a very few focus on pure research and development, making the NSIT S &T Park a first-of-its-kind in the country. We compliment the Delhi Govt for this important national initiative and assure them of NASSCOM's complete support to make this a success,'' Mr Mittal said.

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