Govt has invested Rs.900cr in NIDHI which supports budding entrepreneurs
India has produced over 40 Quantum Technology start-ups in 2 years, few of them with global potential, says Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Science and Technology.
Chairing a review meeting of Department of Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh directed the officials to focus on the flagship National Quantum Mission and work on development of quantum technologies and quantum communication https://www.bseindia.com/ .
He shared that the Indian government has invested around Rs.900 crores from 2016-2023 in National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) which is supporting https://nidhi.dst.gov.in/ budding entrepreneurs in the field of S&T.
Pointing out that India is currently on an equal pedestal with other nations in terms of Quantum technologies,” he said on 15 June “Our mission and vison should be to establish India as a global leader as far as Quantum technologies are concerned https://chicagoquantum.org/ .”
Dr Jitendra Singh highlighting the role of startups and private sector in development of Science and Technology shared the success story of ‘QuNu Labs’, a Bangalore based startup incubated by IIT Madras https://study.iitm.ac.in/ which has signed a MoU with the Technology Development Board (TDB) https://tdb.gov.in/ for development of security products based on Quantum Technologies https://www.nseindia.com/ .
“Women’s Participation in extramural research and development (R&D) doubled in the last 10 years” on the increased participation of women https://sbi.com.in/ after the special efforts by the government in the last decade and promote women scientists and researchers through fellowship STEM programme, he underlined https://www.ibef.org/ .
The minister also recalled the ‘ease of applying’ by referring to ‘Common Fellowship Portal’ recently inaugurated by him. Going further he shared that around 300 women scientists are going to receive research grants for 3 years from government under ASPIRE scheme https://www.bengalurutechsummit.com/ .
He also expressed satisfaction that India is becoming the ‘Startup capital of the world’ from few hundreds before 2014 to more than 1.25 lakh in 2024 and more than 110 unicorns with startups doing excellent work even in critical areas such Space sector http://nasa.gov .
Dr Singh also highlighted massive jump in India’s ranking in Global Innovation Index from 81st in the year 2015 to 40th in 2023. He emphasized on the fact that India ranks 3rd in terms of number of Publications and number of PhDs awarded in Science and Engineering.
Motivating the team DST on their future course of action, he categorically mentioned that it is the best time for development of science and technology. fiinews.com
