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The Hindu
15 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Cabinet approves ₹1 lakh crore corpus for galvanising private investment in R&D
The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a ₹1-lakh crore Research Development and Innovation (RDI) scheme that aims to incentivise the private sector to invest in basic research that would translate into innovative products and technologies. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman first announced the creation of such a fund in her interim Budget speech of 2024. A horizon for the fund has not been specified. However, the Ministry of Science and Technology, which is to be administratively in charge of the corpus, had an additional ₹20,000 crore allotment in its Budgetary allocation for the 2025-26 financial year, officials had told The Hindu earlier this year, was intended for the RDI scheme. The larger aim is to have India, like advanced technological countries, have private sector chip in more than government to fund basic research. The RDI Scheme will have a two-tiered funding mechanism, the Science Ministry said in a press statement. 'At the first level, there will be a Special Purpose Fund (SPF) established within the ANRF, which will act as the custodian of funds. From the SPF, funds shall be allocated to a variety of second level fund managers. This will be mainly in the form of long-term concessional loans. The funding to R&D projects by the second level fund managers would normally be in the form of long-term loan at low or nil interest rates. Financing in the form of equity may also be done, especially in case of start-ups. Contribution to Deep-Tech Fund of Funds (FoF) or any other FoF meant for RDI may also be considered,' the statement noted. Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) was conceived as an independent institutional body overseen by the science ministry to allocate funds for basic research and to incentivise private sector participation in core research. The scheme has been designed to overcome the constraints and challenges in funding of private sector and seeks to provide growth and risk capital to sunrise and strategic sectors to facilitate innovation, promote adoption of technology and enhance competitiveness, the statement added. Funds, however, would be provided only for products that had reached a certain level of development and market potential. 'TRL-4 [Technological Readiness Level -4] projects, which usually face the highest risk for want of financial support would be considered,' Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a Union Cabinet press briefing. He did not explain how many levels of TRL existed. The broad domains where investments would be encouraged include: Energy security and transition, and climate action; deep tech, including quantum computing, robotics, and space; artificial intelligence and its application to India-specific challenges in agriculture, health, and education; biotechnology, biomanufacturing, synthetic biology, pharma, and medical devices; digital economy including digital agriculture; technologies required for strategic reasons, economic security, self-reliance (Atmanirbhar), or public interest, Mr. Vaishnaw noted.
India Gazette
24-06-2025
- Science
- India Gazette
Researchers at INST Mohali develop filter using sunlight, AI to purify wastewater
New Delhi [India], June 25 (ANI): A new water filter that harnesses sunlight, gentle vibrations, and artificial intelligence (AI) to both capture and eliminate pollutants may soon become a reality, said Ministry of Science and Technology on Tuesday. Many industries, from textiles to pharmaceuticals, dump wastewater laced with harmful dyes like Methylene Blue and Congo Red into the environment. These pollutants do not just discolour water; they pose serious risks to ecosystems and human health, leading to skin problems, respiratory diseases, and more, Ministry said in a release. Current solutions involve physical and chemical oxidation techniques, such as electrochemical, ozone, and related methods, which are energy-intensive and require expensive chemicals, making them hazardous for the environment, they added. As per the statement, a team of researchers at the Institute of Nanoscience and Technology (INST) in Mohali, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has designed a 3D-printed scaffold made from biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA), which is known for its piezo-photocatalytic properties. Dr Aviru Basu coated this scaffold with a special material called Bismuth Ferrite (BiFeO3), a catalyst known for breaking down pollutants when exposed to light and mechanical energy. Ministry further said that this combination of Scaffold & Catalyst published in the journal Nano Energy (Elsevier) enables a powerful process called piezo-photocatalysis, where both sunlight and tiny vibrations help activate the catalyst. Even on cloudy days, the vibrations ensure that the cleaning does not stop. 'This is a smart solution to the limitations of traditional solar-powered purification.' The scientists have also trained machine learning models -- using tools like Artificial Neural Networks -- to predict how well the system would perform under different conditions. The models achieved accuracy scores of up to 99%, helping the team fine-tune their system for maximum efficiency. The hybrid system removed 98.9 per cent of Congo Red (CR) and 74.3 per cent of Methylene Blue (MB) from wastewater samples, surpassing current high-end treatment methods, release stated. The innovation is biodegradable and eco-friendly, low-cost and reusable, avoids waste and excessive chemical use and is highly efficient and scalable. It is ready for adaptation in various industries and even remote communities, and is powered by renewables, harnessing sunlight and vibrations instead of fossil fuels, it added. For making this possible, the researchers synthesised the BFO nanoparticle catalyst via a sol-gel method, developed 3D printing of PLA scaffolds, carried out coating and testing for dye degradation and developed Machine learning models to predict performance, ministry said in a release. (ANI)
Time of India
19-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
This 24-million-year-old leaf fossil in Assam has stunned scientists– here's why
In a finding that sheds new light on India's ancient past, scientists have discovered fossilised leaves in Assam's Makum Coalfield that point to a surprising link between northeast India and the Western Ghats. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now These fossils are over 24 million years old and are helping researchers better understand how plants spread and survived through major climate changes across the Indian subcontinent. Ancient leaves tell a story of changing climates A research team from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP) in Lucknow studied the fossil leaves and found they closely resemble modern plants from the Nothopegia genus. Today, these plants grow only in the Western Ghats and are not found in northeast India. What makes this discovery remarkable is that it's the oldest known fossil record of Nothopegia anywhere in the world, dating back to the late Oligocene period. Climate shifts shaped plant migration As stated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, by using advanced climate tools like the CLAMP method, scientists found that northeast India had a warm and humid climate during the late Oligocene, very similar to the climate in the Western Ghats today. These conditions were ideal for tropical plants like Nothopegia to grow. But things changed when the Himalayas began to rise because of tectonic shifts. The region got cooler, and rainfall patterns changed, making it harder for tropical species to survive. As a result, plants like Nothopegia slowly disappeared from the northeast but continued to thrive in the Western Ghats, where the climate stayed more stable. Tracing biodiversity through time As mentioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the study, published in the journal Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, used fossil evidence along with climate modelling to trace how Nothopegia plants moved over time. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The findings highlight how climate change has played a key role in where plants survive and how they spread across different regions. According to Dr. Harshita Bhatia, co-author of the study, 'This fossil discovery is a window into the past that helps us understand the future.' The study highlights that while plants have moved to new areas over millions of years because of natural climate changes, today's climate shift is happening much faster, and it's mostly caused by human activity. Thumbnail image credit: Canva. For representative purposes only.
IOL News
15-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Emulating the 1976 generation will require resilience, innovation
On June 16, 1976, thousands of students in Soweto took to the streets to demonstrate against Bantu Education and the imposition of Afrikaans in their schools. We owe the 1976 generation not silence, but succession. Not nostalgia, but nation-building, says the writer. Zamikhaya Maseti As we mark June 16, 2025, forty-nine years since the uprising, we must ask not for the sake of ritual but for the sake of our republic: Where is the youth of today? What are they confronting? Do they carry the same fire, and crucially, do they have control over their economic destiny as the 1976 generation had over the political one? On June 16, 1976, the youth of this land, armed with nothing but conviction and the matchbox of defiance, took to the streets and declared war against the Apartheid state. They confronted tanks with chants. Today's youth stand at a different frontline. It is not one patrolled by army vehicles and tear gas but by unemployment, under-skilling, digital exclusion, and economic marginalisation. The war is no longer for votes but for value. And make no mistake, it is no less urgent. Recent QLFS data from Stats SA (Q1 2025) reveal that out of 8.2 million officially unemployed South Africans, 4.8 million youths aged 15–34 remain jobless, pushing the youth unemployment rate to 46.1 per cent, a yawning gap compared to the 32.9 per cent general rate. Moreover, 58.7 per cent of these unemployed youths are first-time seekers, indicating acute structural unemployment and a stalling of labour market entry. The NEET rate (Not in Employment, Education or Training) stands at 45.1 per cent, signifying profound cyclical and frictional unemployment constraints. In macroeconomic terms, this cohort's participation inertia and underabsorption exacerbate the natural rate of unemployment and depress potential GDP growth, a symptom of underleveraged human capital and insufficient aggregate demand. This is not merely a labour market problem; it is a national emergency. While the youth of 1976 wielded placards and songs as instruments of change, today's youth grips smartphones and Wi-Fi logins, but to what end? The digital economy, the new battlefield of production and innovation, has found them mostly on the periphery. They scroll. They consume. They swipe through innovations imported from elsewhere, yet their fingerprints are absent from the circuitry of invention. This is not participation; it is passive absorption. There lies a pressing obligation on the Ministry of Science and Technology, indeed, on the entire State apparatus, to respond not with speeches but with strategy. The young must be repositioned from being spectators in the Fourth Industrial Revolution to being its architects. We must ask, urgently and boldly: Where is our National Youth Tech Incubator? Where is our State-funded Digital Skills Academy, open to township youth, free at the point of use, and rich in ambition? A well-articulated and cross-sectoral Country Youth Employment Strategy is not a luxury; it is a lifeline. This strategy must locate and activate the engines of growth where youth can insert themselves, not as interns but as innovators, not as job seekers but as job creators. We must also interrogate the voluntaristic landscape of Youth employment interventions, particularly the much-lauded Youth Employment Service (YES), a Presidentially endorsed mechanism aimed at integrating first-time job seekers into the formal economy. At the surface level, YES presents as a visionary model: private sector collaboration, placement targets, and experiential learning. But scratch beneath the glossy annual reports and you find a structure held up by corporate voluntarism, not sovereign will. The State applauds from the sidelines but does not fund from the centre. There is no budget line in the National Treasury with YES's name in lights. This is the central contradiction: a government that rhetorically champions the program but refuses to place fiscal muscle behind it. Without direct state investment, YES remains a charity model in a crisis economy, admirable, but insufficient. It cannot absorb the millions locked out of labour markets, nor can it scale against systemic constraints without an injection of public capital, regulatory certainty, and structural alignment with industrial policy. Voluntarism without velocity breeds stagnation. And the youth are tired of waiting. Our macroeconomic data whispers a truth we must listen to: agriculture and manufacturing remain the pillars of our GDP, yet they stand like old factories, functional, but underutilised. These sectors require not only revitalisation but also infusion of young blood. In agriculture, particularly, the crisis is grave and immediate. The post-1994 public sector cohort of agricultural bureaucrats is now ageing, and with them, the institutional memory of land and food security is fading. We are sleepwalking toward a nutritional catastrophe. Shockingly, we have 49 South African farmers, yes, forty-nine, now refugees in the United States. They are not coming back. The Minister of Land Reform must act decisively and distribute those abandoned farms, not tomorrow, not after another feasibility study, but now, as part of a radical agrarian reset. Land is not only a historical grievance; it is a living resource. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is not merely a diplomatic trophy; it is an economic corridor. But who walks through its gates? If our youth do not take up the challenge of intra-African trade, someone else will. Already, the machinery of cross-border commerce is moving, but our youth remain untrained in the languages of export regulation, fintech, and customs compliance. This is where the State must intervene with scholarships, borderless internships, with youth-led export hubs. To shape the economy, the youth must first be armed with skills. Yes, the youth of 1976 defined their destiny. They defied an oppressive order and offered themselves to history's altar. The youth of today must do the same, except their struggle is not to enter the political system but to redesign the economic one. They must ask themselves not 'What is to be done?' but 'What must we build? 'June 16, 2025, must not pass like a calendar commemoration. It must sting. It must summon. It must stir our policymakers from their slumber and our Young people from their scrolls. We owe the 1976 generation not silence, but succession. Not nostalgia, but nation-building. * Zamikhaya Maseti is a Political Economy Analyst with a Magister Philosophiae (M. PHIL) in South African Politics and Political Economy from the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE), now known as the Nelson Mandela University (NMU). ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
The Print
13-06-2025
- Science
- The Print
Online nomination process for INSPIRE-MANAK scheme begins
INSPIRE-MANAK — Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research – Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge — is an initiative by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Heads of Schools (HoS) have been asked to nominate the top five innovative ideas from students studying in classes 6 to 12, said a circular from the Delhi Directorate of Education. New Delhi, Jun 13 (PTI) The online nomination process for the current academic cycle under the INSPIRE-MANAK scheme has commenced, with schools being allowed to submit entries from June 15 to September 15, an official said on Friday. It aims to foster a culture of innovation among students by identifying and nurturing original ideas that have the potential to address societal needs and challenges. The scheme encourages the development of prototypes and product innovations at the school level, it said. 'Delhi government schools, including those aided, unaided, and private, have been directed to disseminate information about the scheme to eligible students and ensure timely nominations,' it read. The circular said students studying in classes 11 and 12 have also been included in the scheme from this year onwards. PTI SHB RHL This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
