Chennai: Union Minister for Science Technology, Earth Sciences, and Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan chaired the ‘first of its kind’ policy consultation with the highly-skilled Indian diaspora to facilitate channels for them to contribute to India’s Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020.
The consultation meeting was attended by Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Professor K Vijay Raghavan; Secretary Department of Science & Technology, Professor Ashutosh Sharma, and several dignitaries among the Indian scientific diaspora from across the globe.
Harsh Vardhan said that the landmark policy initiative has been started as India and the world reorient in the present context of the COVID-19 crisis and emphasised, “the consultation aims at generating and streamlining key ideas in the making of STIP 2020 and involving the Indian diaspora as one of major stakeholders in the policy formulation process.”
He encouraged the Indian Scientific diaspora to share their suggestions on the policy adding that these suggestions would be collated and considered to be included in the draft STI policy.
“It is important to build policy level mechanisms that enable creation of suitable opportunities for attracting best talents back home. The upcoming policy aims to address both the first and secondgeneration diaspora by facilitating institutional mechanisms for engagement with Indian ecosystem,” the Minister pointed out.