₹30,000 cr to be spent on research labs: Javadekar
PHAGWARA : Human resources development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said the government was planning to spend ₹30,000 crore on installation of laboratories and research facilities in institutes all over the country.
While addressing a valedictory session of the Women Science Congress, a part of the 106th edition of the five-day Indian Science Congress (ISC), at Lovely Professional University, Javadekar said the Higher Education Financing Agency, a joint venture of HRD ministry and Canara Bank, will be making the contribution. “For the first time, our ministry has allotted a budget of ₹1.15 lakh crores towards research and innovation initiatives. A research scholar can claim a scholarship of ₹1 lakh per month,” the HRD minister said.
Disappointed over the issue of brain drain in India, Javadekar said Indians should conduct their research in the country and “be the owner of their innovations”.
ANDHRA VARSITY V-C’S CLAIMS UNTENABLE SCIENTIFICALLY: GOVT
NEW DELHI: Principal scientific adviser to the government K Vijayraghvan has termed “scientifically untenable” the Andhra University vice-chancellor G Nageshwar Rao’s claims, made at the Indian Science Congress, that the Kauravas were test-tube babies. He also said the government has no role in deciding the speakers or the agenda of the event.
The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) does not have a filter and the government “rightly has no role in the matter”, he said. “Once a speaker is chosen, there is no censorship on what the person actually speaks.” Vijayraghvan said the chancellor of the Andhra University should file a formal complaint against vice-chancellor Rao.
“Scientists say what they say, and if they talk nonsense, they will feel the heat from the community. It is indeed unfortunate that a sitting vice-chancellor of a great state university, a biologist to boot, says something that is scientifically completely untenable,” Vijayraghvan said in a blog.
On Friday, Rao in his presentation at the ISC in Jalandhar, had made several “preposterous” claims: Kauravas were test-tube babies, Dashavtar gave a better logic than the Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Ravan had 24 aircraft and several airports and Ram and Vishnu used guided missiles technology. Another presenter sought to debunk Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.