Department of Science and Technology gets Rs. 625 crores
The plan allocation for the Department of Science and Technology is being raised to Rs 625 crore in 2002-03, an increase of more than 52 per cent over the current year.
A fund for the improvement of Science & Technology (FIST) was established in 2000-01 for augmenting laboratory facilities in Universities. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response to this fund I propose to increase the allocation for this programme to Rs 75 crore in 2002-03, an increase of almost 115 per cent. Resources from this fund can now also be used to augment library facilities in the Universities.
The National Innovation Foundation was set up in March 2000 with a corpus of Rs 20 crore, in order to build a national register of outstanding traditional knowledge and grass root innovations. This initiative has shown good results. In the second annual campaign NIF has received more than 11,000 entries from all over the country, up from 948 entries in the first year. Encouraged by this enthusiastic response the Finance Minister propose to set up a micro venture capital fund for small innovations to be initiated by the Small Industries and Development Bank of India (SIDBI), in cooperation with the National Innovation Foundation, to facilitate the transition of innovations into enterprises.
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