PM wants to make the country Vishva Guru Bharat: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi [India], Aug 28 : Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision is to make the country Vishva Guru Bharat.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan was speaking at the virtual inaugural event of 'In Conversation With' series, for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP2020), where he said, "PM wants to deliver a new India. Now he's calling it an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, but ultimately he wants India to become a Vishva Guru Bharat."
He said that in the past seven years, there has been a distinct change in the science and technology scenario of the country and the scientific community of the country can help the Prime Minter in delivering India of his dream.
"Prime Minister has confidence in the ability of science and scientists. He feels science has the ability to elevate people from their various sufferings," said the Health Minister.
He further said that Indian scientists are not inferior to anyone in any sense, and informed that India is performing much better than the rest of the world in many fields.
"We're third in the world in terms of the number of science publications, PhDs, nano-technology, higher education among other things. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was not just our COVID-19 warriors that worked tirelessly, but our scientists also worked tirelessly and did work on developing COVID kits and ventilators, along with researching on the virus," he said.
Talking about the new STIP (science, technology and innovation policy), the minister said it will fulfill dreams and aspirations of millions of young Indian scientists and students.
Stakeholders and the public at large in the country and abroad were invited to participate in formulating an evidence-driven and inclusive Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020).
"The proposed STI policy is expected to leverage the astounding progress that the STI system has witnessed in recent years and build a long term pathway which must be able to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of millions of young Indian scientists and students. This can be done only when we make policy formulation totally inclusive and participatory," he said.
Vardhan also stressed that the policy has to be thoroughly people-centric in accordance with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
STIP-2020 process has been divided into four interlinked tracks of actions.
Track-I involves extended public and expert consultation with six activities which aim to reach out to all citizens of the country to get their ideas, suggestions, or comments for the policy.
Track-II action relates to expert consultation. Track-III is for consultation with ministries (including line ministries) and states/UTs, and Track-IV comprises apex level consultation and advice.
Possibility of achievements through Atmanirbhar Bharat was also discussed and stressed during the inaugural event.
Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Head, Policy Planning; Dr Rabindra Panigrahy, DST Scientist; Dr Nimita Pandey, DST, STI Policy Fellow; Dr Chagun Basha, Senior Technical Specialist, Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India; Mr Abhishek Singh, CEO, MyGov; Mr Aditya Kaushik, Co-Founder, Science Policy Forum; were among those who joined the function virtually.
The first Science and Technology Innovation Policy was launched in 1958 and the second one took another 25 years. The third STIP came in 2003 and the last in 2013. The past seven years have seen a distinctive change in science and technology and the latest policy is expected to reflect that.