NEW DELHI, March 17 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today shared certain details of the “Deep Ocean Mission” with the Rajya Sabha and said it is linked to India’s “Blue Economy”.
Pertinent to mention that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has referred to the “Deep Ocean Mission” twice in two of his Independence Day addresses.
Allaying apprehensions in certain quarters, Dr Jitendra Singh stated that the Deep Ocean Mission would not result in any over exploitation of the marine resources by the corporate houses and will not affect the life and livelihoods of fishers in the country. The Deep Ocean Mission aims to explore deep-oceanic resources and develop technologies for their sustainable use.
In reply to a question, the Minister stated that the outcome of the program is intended to identify potential new resources and develop technology for harnessing them in future, which may generate additional opportunities for livelihoods. The Deep Ocean Mission was formulated after having detailed discussions with central and state government stakeholders, the reply said.
Consultations were held with Experts in central and state government while formulating the Mission, the Minister informed.
Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated that the Deep Ocean Mission is related to the Blue Economy. The activities of Deep Ocean Mission will help the components of the blue economy such as fisheries, tourism and maritime transport, renewable energy, aquaculture, seabed extractive activities and marine biotechnology, he said.
In reply to another question, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that India ranks 6th globally in R&D investment in terms of US$ Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). He added that as per the latest available statistics, India’s spending on Research and Development (R&D) is consistently increasing in the last 10 years and has nearly tripled from Rs. 39,437.77 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 1,13,825.03 crore in 2017-18.
According to Dr. Jitendra Singh, the Government has been making sincere efforts to enhance the R&D expenditure and create adequate opportunities for the researchers that include the competitive extramural funding schemes. He added that the government has also taken several steps to increase opportunities for research students pursuing Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral research.
Dr Jitendra Singh further mentioned that the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) has recently taken a decision to increase the number of Post-Doctoral Fellowships (PDFs) from 300 annually to 1000. In addition, the SERB-Ramanujan Fellowship, SERB-Ramalingaswami re-entry Fellowship and SERB-Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty Scheme (VAJRA), etc., have been devised to promote brain gain by attracting bright researchers of Indian origin to work and contribute to STI ecosystem in India.
