New Delhi: The 10th edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF), which began on 30 November, saw Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh ask the academia and the industry to work together to turn India into a global manufacturing hub.
The theme of IISF 2024 is science and technology-led manufacturing. Hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the four-day festival is taking place at IIT Guwahati this year.
Over 7,000 attendees, including delegates, scientists, students, researchers, and visitors, are expected to attend IISF 2024. The main attractions include expos and exhibits, such as the Museum of the Moon, Students’ Science Village and stalls exploring science and technology, specifically in the Northeast.
Speaking to ThePrint, N. Kalaiselvi, Director of CSIR, said, “India has the wherewithal to be a global manufacturing hub. In today’s event, we assured the minister that academia, industry, and research labs would no longer work in silos but together.”
With the festival being held in the Northeast for the first time, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma spoke about the scientific strides the northeastern states have taken—especially in bio-manufacturing and sustainability.
At the inaugural event, Sarma said holding IISF at IIT Guwahati was a testament to “the collaboration fostered by science across the country”.
On the first day, IISF 2024 also saw the setting of a $1 trillion goal for the science and technology-led manufacturing sector in national and international investments by 2025-26.
Kalaiselvi expressed confidence in reaching the $1 trillion goal, saying that finance is not an issue when one looks at the size of the Indian market.
“We have national and international sources of investment, and I am confident that $1 trillion by 2025-26 is quite achievable,” Kalaiselvi told ThePrint. “I mean, even investors know that if the product can penetrate the Indian market, it is automatically successful. We have a billion people, and our demand is ever-growing.”
A ‘Guwahati Declaration’, which set the “mission” of all science and technology institutes in the country to support India into becoming a manufacturing powerhouse, was also passed on the first day of IISF 2024.
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‘Global Manufacturing Summit’ coming up
In a session, called the ‘Leaders Roundtable’, Jitendra Singh and Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India Ajay Sood spoke about India’s challenges in becoming a manufacturing hub.
The ‘Leaders Roundtable’ brought together 135 industry leaders and academics from NITs, IITs, and other scientific institutions.
In his address, Sood pointed out that the manufacturing sector makes up 26% of China’s GDP but only 13% of India’s. “We do not want India stuck in a middle-income-country trap, with a lack of innovation and lack of a skilled workforce,” said Sood. “To overcome this, we need to be innovative and inclusive, and we need to have investment.”
Sood and Singh both spoke about performance-linked incentives for industry, public-private partnerships between research labs and companies, and the setting up of institutions, such as the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), which will try to bridge the gap between industry and research that currently exists.
A ‘Global Manufacturing Summit’ will be held on 1 and 2 December, bringing together nearly 600 representatives from industry and academia to discuss the “challenges of manufacturing” in India, the opportunities in science and technology, and the goal of raising $1 trillion.
In his address, Jitender Singh said that until 2014, the biggest complaint from STEM academia was that the government would not listen or give sufficient support, but now that complaint no longer exists.
“The government has given all it can to support science and technology to be one of India’s leading sectors. Now, it is up to you—how to avail of this support,” said Singh.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
This post was originally published on here
