Government identifies 9 missions to bring fruits of scientific innovation at doorstep, may set up earth museum in NCR

NEW DELHI: Seeking to bring fruits of scientific development to citizens' doorsteps through various innovations, India has identified nine missions and four key projects of national importance to address societal needs in areas such as health, education, data security, transportation, clean energy and agriculture.

Each of these missions will be led by a nodal ministry which will implement it by engaging international and national institutional partners, scientists and industries.

These missions, including making electric vehicles economically viable and scalable, development and use of artificial intelligence in various sectors, recovering wealth from waste and natural language translation and quantum frontier (network and data security), have been identified by the Prime Minister's advisory council on science, technology & innovation.

"The PM's council aims to facilitate, through its missions, the process of collaboration and focus needed to solve complex problems in a reasonable time-frame," said K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser (PSA) to the government.

He said the ongoing programmes and new moves would position India as a "pioneer in the areas of biodiversity research, deep ocean exploration and teaching science in native Indian languages".

Setting up research clusters, establishing state-of-the -art 'Earth Museum', conserving critical ecological lifeline of Brahmaputra river system and developing comprehensive web portal linking researchers with resources are the four key projects which will be implemented along with those nine missions.

Scientists of the PM's council hinted that 'The Indian Museum of the Earth' (TIME) - first of its kind in the country - may be established in the national capital region (NCR).

"Final decision will, however, be taken through consultations after meeting of international experts on the proposed 'Earth Museum' project in April. It would, therefore, be premature to say anything at this juncture about its location and estimated cost," said Arabinda Mitra, scientific secretary at the PSA office.

Though most of the developed countries have well organised museums for housing and display of pre-historic animals and plants, India so far did not have such museum to showcase its natural heritage including fossils and geological features.

Besides TIME, the move to set up 'research clusters' across the country is also one of the key priority areas of the PSA office. The clusters will serve as hubs which will interact with broader city ecosystems including state university, colleges, medical schools and local administration.

Referring to the mission on 'Bio-Science for Human Health' which will focus on the genomic study of human population, the PSA said, "The outcome will help stimulate better diagnosis and treatment that can feed into the health care system of the country."

Noting mission on Electric Vehicles (EVs), he said that an expert committee for exploration and procurement of critical minerals, required for the sector, has already been set up in consultation with the ministry of mining. It aims to examine reserves of lithium and cobalt in the country as well as possible tie-up with mining sector of other countries.

Nine missions:

1. Quantum Frontier

Network and data protection to enable robust cyber security system

2. Natural Language Translation

Access to scientific materials in native Indian language

3. Artificial Intelligence

Use of intelligent computing system in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture and transportation among others

4. National Biodiversity

Comprehensive documentation of India's biodiversity and mapping all lifeforms of the country

5. Electric Vehicles

Making EVs economically viable and scalable

6. Bio-Science for Human Health

Genomic study of humans to identify and unravel genetic basis and prevalence of rare and inherited diseases

7. Waste to Wealth

Develop and deploy technology to treat waste to generate energy, recycle materials and extract wealth

8. Deep Ocean Exploration

Exploring deep oceans for resources, climate change advisory services, offshore based desalination techniques and renewable energy generation among others

9. AGNIi

Accelerating Growth for New India's Innovations (AGNIi) for taking technologies to commercialisation; Efforts will be to boost innovation ecosystem.