Swachh Bharat Mission: From Behaviour Change to Social Change

The Government of India’s Ministry of Science and Technology is the center of all government initiatives that create and improve the scientific and technological landscape of our country. Its specific mandate is to advance scientific and technological activities and to develop relevant human and institutional resources to advance best practices in these areas. DST develops policies and implements programs in accordance with this important mandate, which also provides social benefits based on science and technology. These transformational changes have been made possible by development models, engagement with stakeholders, internal programme interconnection and coordination with various other agencies in our country and institutions outside our country within a bilateral and multilateral framework.

The Indian Government’s missions have spurred summer-time initiatives. Among them

Made in India

The Beginning of India

• Swachh Bharat

Digital India

DST is working with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) to strengthen our nation’s national academic and research institutions by building a huge high-performance computing network with more than 70 powerful computing capabilities.

This intervention is addressed to the National Supercomputing Mission, which aims to put India at the forefront of computing and big data analysis. The mission was approved in March 2015 for a total of 4,500 crore.

Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) includes AST’s partnership with the Department of Human Resources Development (MHRD) to meet key community and development needs such as health, technology and communications, energy, sustainable habitat, nanotechnology, water resources and river systems, modern materials, safety and defense, as well as mitigation and adaptation related to climate change. The joint research and development initiative with the Ministry of Communications focuses on energy efficiency and emission control technologies, alternative fuels, fuel economy in diesel traction, etc.

To turn the brain drain to the growth of minds:

The Early Career Research Programme (ECRA) was established to provide rapid research support to budding researchers in exciting and innovative research in innovative fields of science and technology. The award provides a research grant of up to 50 lakhs for a period of three years. The National Postdoctoral Scholarship Program (N-PDF) aims to attract and retain young scientists and counteract brain drain in academic research institutions.

Attract women to science:

This is achieved through a program called KIRAN (Using Knowledge in Promoting Research Through Parenting), launched in 2014. This ensures gender equality in science by encouraging the research career of female scientists. The program provides opportunities for women scientists who have interrupted their careers mainly because of family responsibilities. The program encourages them to seek out and develop as entrepreneurs if they so wish.

Benefits:

They cover a wide range of sectors, including energy benefits, waste wealth, optimal extraction and sustainable management of biological resources. Three of these examples are shown below:

(i) Surya Jyoti illuminates the homes of the poor: to capture daylight and focus it in dark living quarters, an inexpensive device called Surya Jyoti has been developed and tested. Surya Jyoti is basically a solar micro-dome with a transparent semispheric upper dome made of acrylic material that captures sunlight.

Light passes through a solar tube with a thin layer of highly reflective coating on the inner wall of the aisle. During the day, up to 15 watt led lamp lights pass through Surya Jyoti. The dome is also integrated with a photovoltaic panel so it can glow up to 4 hours after sunset. The cost of the integrated photovoltaic system Surya Jyoti is about 1200 rupees, and without a photovoltaic panel – 500 rupees. Costs are expected to decrease significantly once the production process is intensified.

(iii) Northeast Center for Ethnomedical Research: DST established an ethno-medical research center in 2015 with budget support of 8.92 crore rupees for 5 years. This center will conduct ethno-phytochemical research of wild herbs of the northeastern region, which have unique medicinal and aromatic properties.

The Centre will conduct scientific testing of traditional herbs and products and help improve the socio-economic status of local communities and improve the quality of life by improving livelihoods and sharing benefits.

Worldwide thanks to megaprojects:

The main guiding principle of this approach is to use India’s best practices to provide mutually reinsive benefits for high-end cross-border businesses. This, in turn, provides more opportunities for research and training, as well as economic benefits by improving industrial performance.

Thirty-meter telescope: India’s participation in the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) project in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA, was approved by the government in September 2014 for a total of 1,299.8 crore. The costs will be covered by DST and the Ministry of Atomic Energy. The other participating countries are the United States, Canada, China and Japan. India will contribute to the construction in cash and in kind. India will benefit scientifically and technologically from its participation in the project.

Associated Member of CERN: The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world’s largest laboratory for nuclear and particle physics, where scientists and engineers from around the world study the fundamental structure of the universe. Indian scientists have actively participated and collaborated with CERN in all aspects of science, technology and computing through joint funding from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The CERN Council accepted India as an associate member of CERN in September 2016. As an associate member of CERN, India will participate in enormous scientific and technological efforts.


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