Ministry of Science & Technology: Government Schemes | Indian Economy for UPSC CSE PDF Download

INSPIRE

Key Points

• About:
  • It is aligned with the ‘Start-up India’ initiative and is being executed by DST (Department of Science and Technology) with National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF), an autonomous body of DST.
  • Under the scheme the students are invited from all government or private schools throughout the country, irrespective of their educational boards (national and state).
  • It covers the students in the age group of 10-15 years and studying in classes 6 to 10, to pursue Science and a career in Research.
  • An award of Rs.10,000 is disbursed into bank accounts of winning students under Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.
  • It does not believe in conducting competitive exams for identification of talent at any level. It believes in and relies on the efficacy of the existing educational structure for identification of talent.
• Aim:
  • To motivate students to become future innovators and critical thinkers.
• Objectives:
  • To target one million original ideas/innovations rooted in science and societal applications to foster a culture of creativity and innovative thinking among school children.
  • To address the societal needs through science and technology and nurture them to become sensitive and responsible citizens and innovation leaders of tomorrow.
• INSPIRE Scheme:
  • The INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Science and Technology & Earth Sciences.
  • Its objective is to communicate to the youth population of the country the creative pursuit of science and attract talent to the study of science at an early stage and build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Science & Technology system and Research & Development base.
  • The Government of India has successfully implemented the INSPIRE scheme since 2010. The scheme covers students in the age group of 10-32 years and has five components.
    • The INSPIRE Awards- MANAK is one of its components.
• Related Initiatives:
  • Draft National Science Technology and Innovation Policy, 2020:
    • Its aim is to identify and address strengths and weaknesses of the Indian Science Technology and Innovation (STI) ecosystem to catalyse socio-economic development of the country and also make the Indian STI ecosystem globally competitive.
• SERB-POWER Scheme:
  • It is a scheme designed exclusively for women scientists to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering research in various science and technology (S&T) programmes in Indian academic institutions and Research and Development (R&D) laboratories.
• Swarna Jayanti Fellowship:
  • It provides special assistance and support to a selected number of young scientists with a proven track record to enable them to pursue basic research in frontier areas of science and technology.

UMMID 
Recently, the Government of India has launched UMMID (Unique Methods of Management and Treatment of Inherited Disorders) initiative to tackle inherited genetic diseases of newborn babies.

• The programme will be implemented through government hospitals to regularise the use of cutting edge scientific technology and molecular medicine to achieve Universal Health Coverage for all.
• The initiative is designed on the concept of ‘Prevention is better than Cure’.
• In India’s urban areas, congenital malformations and genetic disorders are the third most common cause of mortality after prematurity & low birth weight issues and infections in newborns.
• A very large population and high birth rate, and consanguineous marriage favoured in many communities are some of the important reasons for the high prevalence of genetic disorders in India.
• The UMMID initiative aims:
  • To establish NIDAN (National Inherited Diseases Administration) Kendras to provide counselling, prenatal testing and diagnosis, management, and multidisciplinary care in Government Hospitals wherein the influx of patients is more.
  • To produce skilled clinicians in Human Genetics,
  • To undertake screening of pregnant women and newborn babies for inherited genetic diseases in hospitals at aspirational districts.
  • To create awareness about genetic disorders amongst clinicians and to establish molecular diagnostics in hospitals.
• The three components of UMMID Initiative
  • UMMID initiative shall work to shift focus from “sick-care” to “wellness” by promoting the prevention of genetic diseases.
• Inherited Genetic Diseases
  • A genetic disorder is a disease caused in whole or in part by a change in the DNA sequence away from the normal sequence.
  • Genetic disorders can be caused by a mutation in one gene (monogenic disorder), by mutations in multiple genes (multifactorial inheritance disorder), by a combination of gene mutations or by damage to chromosomes.
  • Some of the examples of Genetic disorders are: Sickle Cell Anemia, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Alzheimer's Disease, Diabetes, Cancer, and Obesity.

National Biopharma Mission

• The National Biopharma Mission (NBM) is an industry-academia collaborative mission for accelerating biopharmaceutical development in the country.
• It was launched in 2017 at a total cost of Rs 1500 crore and is 50% co-funded by World Bank loan.
• It is being implemented by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
  • BIRAC is a Public Sector Enterprise, set up by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
• The oversight to the mission activities is provided by the inter-ministerial Steering Committee chaired by the Secretary-DBT (Ministry of Science & Technology).
• The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) chaired by an eminent scientist provides scientific leadership to the mission drawing upon global expertise.
• Under this Mission, the Government has launched Innovate in India (i3) programme to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the biopharma sector.
• It has a focus on following four verticals:
  • Development of product leads for Vaccines , Biosimilars and Medical Devices that are relevant to the public health need by focussing on managed partnerships.
  • Upgradation of shared infrastructure facilities and establishing them as centres of product discovery/discovery validations and manufacturing.
  • Developing human capital by providing specific training.
  • Developing technology transfer offices to help enhance industry academia inter-linkages.