No science Nobel to Indian post Independence; Govt to boost research

New Delhi, Sep 10 (UNI) Stating that it was a fact that no Indian had received Nobel Prize in science post independence, the Government today said it had undertaken a major exercise to strengthen research infrastructure in universities and colleges.

To make higher education system more research-oriented, three new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) have been established at Kolkata, Pune and Mohali, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal told the Rajya Sabha today.

Several new initiatives had been taken in the 11th five-year plan to intensify research activities. A scheme called INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) launched envisages funding for efforts of one million young innovators. Under it all efforts will be made to retain talent in public funded research through public-private partnerships.

In addition, scietific research will be considerably boosted by India's participation in mega research endeavours like the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Germany, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France, Large Hadron Collider Experiments in Switzerland and others, he said.

The plan allocation of scientific departments was doubled from about Rs 12000 crore in the ninth plan to about Rs 25000 Crore in the 11th plan.

Replying to a related question, Minister of State for Human Resource Development MAA Fatmi said the Government was trying to mitigate the problem of shortage of staff for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and it had approved setting up Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) near Thiruvananthapuram as a centre of excellence.

This Institute would offer under-graduate, post-graduate, doctral and post-doctral positions in space science, space technology and space applications with customised curriculum meeting high technology requirements of ISRO.

UNI