DST India invites Applications for participation in 3rd BRICS Young Scientist Conclave in South Africa

DST India invites Applications for participation in 3rd BRICS Young Scientist Conclave at Durban, South Africa.

Further Details

New Report "Women in Science: A Listening Session"

Women in Science: A Listening Session

by Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance (the India Alliance), 2018.

Summary: On November 16, 2017, the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance (the India Alliance) and the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, India hosted a listening session for research scientists, Government of India representatives, and science communicators to discuss challenges and obstacles faced by women in pursuing a career in scientific research. Obstacles to the advancement of women in research, including age limits, hiring practices, and implicit bias were discussed. The discussions led to a series of recommendations, including: (1) adding five years to the age limit for hiring new faculty; (2) requiring training on implicit and overt bias; (3) providing training in laboratory management and leadership skills for women; (4) adjusting fellowship regulations to allow consideration of maternity leave; (5) establishing forums where women can network and speak freely; (6) creating virtual platforms to allow women to remain connected to research during maternity leave; (7) providing transportation, mothers' room, daycare facilities and housing assistance; (8) developing avenues to facilitate the discussion with male colleagues, heads of institutions, and government representatives; and (9) increase the representation of women scientists in decision-making bodies both at an institutional and national level.

Download Full-text Open Access PDF 

Call for Papers: 16th Globelics Conference 2018 | 24-26 October | Accra, Ghana

16th Globelics Conference 24-26 October 2018 CSIR-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI), Accra, Ghana  The Globelics International Conference 2018 The 16th Globelics Conference will be held in Accra, Ghana, hosted by the CSIR-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) at Mensvic Grand Hotel in collaboration with Africalics. Ghana is the fourth African country after South Africa, Senegal and Ethiopia to host the GLOBELICS annual Conference. This presents an opportunity to showcase Ghana, a politically stable country, which is currently undergoing a number of transformations to modernise its economy and create jobs. There is a government agenda to create an industry in every district to generate jobs and improve livelihoods especially in the rural areas. The output of the Conference is expected to contribute immensely to the options of the government in achieving this flagship project dubbed "one district one factory". The conference will combine plenary sessions, presentations of research papers in parallel tracks, thematic panel sessions, special sessions, poster presentations, symposia and exhibition on industrial research in Ghana and Africa, as well as innovative start-ups presentations, sightseeing and cultural tours. Conference Theme The main Conference theme for Globlelics 2018 is Innovation, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: Strengthening Institutions for Greater Relevance, Effectiveness and Inclusivity. The conference invites papers addressing the role of different types of actors such as the State, local or traditional authorities, global networks, universities and research institutions, private sector, non-governmental organisations / civil society organisations and media in generating innovation, building capacity and strengthening institutions for sustainable development and inclusive growth. In particular, it aims to explore new approaches to understand innovations and institutional transformations within countries, across different economic sectors, and different operation level (macro, meso and micro), without losing sight of contextual gender disparities. The conference will also consider the need to tackle new challenges related to innovation and capacity building in addition to inclusive development in knowledge and political systems. The conference also welcomes papers studying how development policies can be implemented at different levels and across different countries to innovate out of emerging crisis of climate change, "resource curse", youth unemployment, poverty, health and gender inequalities. Conference Tracks Accepted papers will be organized around parallel paper tracks encompassing the following sub-themes: Science, technology, innovation and the sustainable development goals: Policy and Practice Agricultural innovation systems: Addressing the poverty challenge University relationships with industry, policy and society: the developmental university Intellectual property rights, open innovation and development National, regional and local innovation systems Renewable energy: innovating inclusive and resilient infrastructure Sectoral innovation systems: technology policy and catch-up Creative industries, smart cities and sustainable urban development Trade, FDI, value chains and innovation networks Entrepreneurship, youth employment and innovation management The role of innovation in overcoming the resource curse: prescriptive models for sustainable growth Innovation for Inclusive development: Indigenous knowledge, informal economy and micro and small enterprises The gender dimension of innovation and development Improving the quality of life: Sustainable healthcare, water and sanitation innovation systems Empirical methodologies, data requirements, indicators, different approaches and methodologies Paper submission We encourage scholars in the scientific institutions, universities, private enterprises and public sector institutions to take this opportunity to present their work to leading scholars in the field of innovation and development. We especially encourage young researchers to submit papers in the relevant sub-thematic tracks. Papers for oral presentations and poster presentation must be written in English, and the selected ones must be presented at the conference in English. Submission of full paper (in PDF) not exceeding 12,000 words (including notes, tables, appendices, list of references, etc.) should be made from February 26th, 2018 via the online submission form available here. Papers must be submitted no later than April 1, 2018. The selection of papers is based on a peer review process that focuses on relevance, academic quality and originality. Globelics reserves the right to use available software to control for plagiarism and to take appropriate action in such cases. Travel Support Faculty members and PhD students from developing countries with accepted papers to the conference can apply for travel support. Application for travel support must be submitted at the same time as submission of paper (not later than April 1, 2018). Further information on procedure for application of travel support is available, here. Important Dates:  Call for papers  January 19, 2018  Open for submission of papers                          February 26, 2018  Deadline for submission of papers  April 1, 2018  Acceptance notification  May 14, 2018  Deadline for application for travel support  April 1, 2018  Response to applicants for travel support  May 15, 2018  Conference registration  June 15, 2018  Conference registration deadline  July 15, 2018  Last date for upload of final version of paper  September 15, 2018 Contact Details: For further information on the conference organization please consult our website. If you have any questions that cannot be answered using the website, please send an e-mail to: info@globelicsconference2018.org Further Details

New Book "Policy Perspective on Innovation and Sustainable Development" | by CSIR-NISTADS, 2017

Policy Perspective on Innovation and Sustainable Development

edited by Sujit Bhattacharya, Yogesh Suman, and Tabassum Jamal, CSIR-NISTADS, New Delhi, 2017, ISBN: 9781642047400. Volume IV in India S&T Series: NISTADS Tracks in Policy Research NTPR-1.

About the Book

India has made a strong commitment for creating an innovation driven economy through novel policy initiatives/national mission programs such as Make in India, Skilling India, and Start-up India. Given the federal structure of the Indian economy, these critical programs will be successful if innovation culture permeates at the regional level. Globally regional-level authorities are increasingly involved in designing their own strategies to support and enhance innovative local dynamics and improve the performance of their regional innovation systems. National Governments are also seeking to strengthen the national innovation system through these regional systems. This volume presents a holistic view on Innovation and Sustainable development by focusing on four topics namely 'Regional Innovation System, 'Industrial and Sustainable innovation', 'Traditional Knowledge, IPR and Informal Innovation', and 'New Opportunities: Policy and perspective'. This book will be useful to provide an evidence based policy framework and plausible implementation strategy.

About CSIR-NISTADS

CSIR-National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (CSIR NISTADS) is devoted to study of various aspects of interactions among science, society and state. NISTADS is the only policy research institute among the 88 laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). NISTADS' vision is to be a globally leading institution in techno-socio-economic research to develop S&T policy and policy advocacy to aid socio-economic transformation at regional, national and global scales. Its mission is to enable Sustainable Development, act as a Think Tank, carryout Translational Research, Develop Proof of Concepts and practice Effective Outreach. The NISTADS Tracks in Policy Research Policy is an evolving dynamic entity that follows many tracks, but may not always be directly visible. Much like a charged particle, while remaining otherwise invisible, leaves its visible tracks in a cloud chamber, policy, often intangible, leaves its discernible tracts in the society. The NTSTADS Tracks in Policy Research (NTPR) series is expected to act like a chamber that captures evolution and impacts of policy on our society. The NTPR is brought out as books as well as Technical/ Research Reports based on the scope and the topicality of the subject. The NTPR is not limited to authors only from NISTADS we welcome collaborative works in the broad area of Science, Technology and Society. This first volume in NTPR, "Policy Perspective on Innovation and Sustainable Development" has emerged from the research activities undertaken by NISTADS under the theme. For more details please contact Director, CSIR-NISTADS at director[@]nistads.res.in. 

The NISTADS Tracks in Policy Research

Policy is an evolving dynamic entity that follows many tracks, but may not always be directly visible. Much like a charged particle, while remaining otherwise invisible, leaves its visible tracks in a cloud chamber, policy, often intangible, leaves its discernible tracts in the society. The NTSTADS Tracks in Policy Research (NTPR) series is expected to act like a chamber that captures evolution and impacts of policy on our society. The NTPR is brought out as books as well as Technical/ Research Reports based on the scope and the topicality of the subject. The NTPR is not limited to authors only from NISTADS we welcome collaborative works in the broad area of Science, Technology and Society. This first volume in NTPR, "Policy Perspective on Innovation and Sustainable Development" has emerged from the research activities undertaken by NISTADS under the th​eme.

Further Details

What Role for Social Sciences in Innovation? Re-Assessing How Scientific Disciplines Contribute to Different Industries | OECD STI Policy Paper

What Role for Social Sciences in Innovation? Re-Assessing How Scientific Disciplines Contribute to Different Industries 

by Caroline Paunov, Sandra Planes-Satorra, Tadanori Moriguchi; OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Paper No. 45, 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/8a306011-en

Abstract: Knowledge transfer between industry and science is fundamental to innovation. There are important differences across scientific disciplines and sectors of activity in that, for instance, the financial and pharmaceutical sectors have different demands for science inputs. This paper reviews the data sources and associated methodologies available to measure different types of science-industry interaction. It applies these insights to re-assess the contributions of social sciences to industry and the disciplinary needs of the ICT sector. The paper finds that commonly used methodologies fail to shed light on a number of important industry-science interaction channels, and introduce biases in assessing connections. Using new evidence from labour force and university graduate surveys can help to some extent. The paper shows how these additional data allow to better capture the contributions of social scientists and the complexity of disciplinary demands of the digital economy. However, new data sources and methods should be further explored.

Keywords: Review of data sources and associated methodologies, knowledge transfer, innovation, social sciences, industry sectors, Science-industry linkages, academic disciplines, information and communication technologies (ICT)

Download Full-text PDF (Open Access)

Other titles in OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Papers

A Brief History of Tuberculosis Control in India | by WHO, 2010

A Brief History of Tuberculosis Control in India.

by World Health Organization, 2010, ISBN 9789241500159. «WHO/HTM/TB/2010.4»

Summary: This report was prepared as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to review the history of tuberculosis (TB) control in India, to assess the impact of the TB programme on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in India, and to outline directions for future progress.

In 2006, the population of India was 1.1 billion or 17% of the world's population. The country is divided into 35 states and union territories (UTs) which are subdivided into over 600 districts (1, 2). India has 299 people living with TB per 100 000 population or 3.4 million prevalent cases (1). Every year, 2 million people develop TB and 331 000 die due to TB (1).

The National TB Programme (NTP) was launched by the Government of India in 1961. In order to deal with some of the shortcomings of the NTP highlighted by the 1992 Joint Review by the Government of India, the Swedish International Development Agency and WHO, the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) was established in 1993 and the new programme, based on DOTS – the internationally-recommended strategy to control TB, was launched in 1997 (3).

The RNTCP included flexible funding mechanisms, decentralization, an ensured supply of quality-assured drugs at all times, better supervision, monitoring and evaluation, and technical support via a country-wide network of consultants. By 2006, the whole country was covered under the RNTCP, and case detection and treatment success rates had improved significantly.

The challenge is now to sustain the existing DOTS-based programme while introducing all components of the new Stop TB strategy, including services to address TB/HIV, treatment for multidrug-resistant TB, strengthening laboratory services, and integrating TB services in all health facilities of both the public and private health-care sectors. The effectiveness of the TB control programme is likely to increase further with the focussed efforts being undertaken by the Government of India in strengthening the primary health-care system under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

An estimated 2.5 million adults, or 0.4% of the adult population, are infected with HIV (4), but rates of infection are higher in four southern states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, and within these states the distribution of infection is uneven (5). In a community-based prevalence survey in 15 districts, the prevalence of HIV among TB cases ranged from 1% to 14% (6). Although the HIV epidemic in India appears to have stabilized, HIV-associated TB continues to be an important challenge (7).

Based largely on a survey in Gujarat (8), 3.9% (4.9−6.2%; ranges are 95% confidence limits unless otherwise stated) of all TB cases have multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), giving over 130 000 new cases every year (9). To manage MDR-TB will require a substantial increase in diagnostic and treatment capacity. 

India has reached the target treatment success rate of 85% and the target case detection rate of 70%. Over the next few years, routine notification data supplemented by prevalence surveys may be used to determine the impact of TB control. 

India is in a position to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 and Stop TB Partnership targets by 2015 but this will require increases in funding and human resources, more intensive engagement with all health-care providers and strengthened regulation of anti-TB drugs.

Table of Contents

1. TB control before 1993

2. The Indian health-care system

3. The Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP)

4. Scaling up DOTS: 1998–2006

5. The Stop TB Strategy 2006–2008

6. The way forward: 2009–2015

7. Health systems

8. Conclusion

​

Download Full-text OA PDF

New Book | Science Diplomacy: India and the World, Global Science Cooperation Opportunities | by Dr Pawan Sikka

New Book

Science Diplomacy: India and the World, Global Science Cooperation Opportunities

edited by Pawan Sikka, 2017, Synergy Books India, ISBN 9789382059752. 

About the Book

Science Diplomacy, in the age of the accelerating science and technology is increasingly becoming a central element of the foreign policy and a soft power. This book, Science Diplomacy: India and the World: Global Science Cooperation Opportunities, points out that science is now becoming even more critical in the complex international relations while addressing global challenges such as Climate Change, Nuclear and Renewable Energy, Natural Catastrophize, Diseases and Disaster Mitigation etc. It Covers: Science, Technology & Innovation in India; National Policy of India on International Science Cooperation; India's Engagement with the World; Science Diplomacy and Diplomacy for Science; Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement; lndo-US Nuclear Energy Deal; FDI and technology transfer; Make in India and Intellectual Property Rights etc. India should create a crop of Science-Diplomats in foreign service to get advantage of the World Science. It is a FIRST book of its kind and is a useful one for the science policy-planners, researchers and readers and students of political science, International relations, foreign affairs etc. A must for the libraries in India and abroad. 

About the Author

Dr. Pawan Sikka (b. 1944) is a former Scientist-G, Advisor, Government of India, Department of Science and Technology (Ministry of Science and Technology) New Delhi. Prior to it as Director (International Relations) for about 7-8 years, he coordinated the Bilateral and Multi-lateral programmes of Iwo international cooperation towards extending the frontiers of new and emerging fields in science and technology. He was Leader of the Indian delegation to SAARC Group Meeting on Science and Technology at Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1995. He has received his M.Sc., Ph.D. as well as, D.Sc. degrees in Physics. He is recipient of the Commonwealth Visiting Fellowship (1984-85), at the University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K for carrying out Science & Technology Policy and Society and Government related studies, to shape the national and international development agenda. He also received Italian, Sweden, Switzerland, UNESCO, etc. scholarships for understanding the progress of science, technology and industry there. He is a well-read author and widely travelled in India and abroad. He has also delivered special lectures on Science Policy related issues to the M.Phil. and Ph.D. students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is a Life-Member of the: Materials Research Society of India, Semi-Conductor Society of India, Association of British Scholars (British Council, New Delhi), and Oxford and Cambridge Society of India.

​Further Details