WEB DESK / NEW DELHI
UNION Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan today released a white paper on “Focused Interventions for ‘Make in India’: Post COVID 19” and “Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients: Status, Issues, Technology Readiness and Challenges at a virtual function, in New Delhi. It has been prepared by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC). Chairman of TIFAC Governing Council Dr. V. K. Saraswat and Executive Director of TIFAC Prof. Pradeep Srivastava were also present on the occasion among others.
Harsh Vardhan congratulated TIFAC for bringing out the White Paper document at a right time when India is gearing up for boosting economy with a new Mantra “Local Solutions to Global Challenges – Policy and Technology Imperatives”. He said, the road to national economy recovery would traverse through measures like Policy support to unconventional strategies, leveraging into new international partnerships in important sectors of Agriculture, Electronics, Health, ICT and Manufacturing and providing new technology stimulus. Dr. Harsh Vardhan requested the Industries, Research and Policy Bodies to refer the White Paper in designing the path for upliftment of economy.
Pointing out that India has been largely successful in mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 so far, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India got the opportunity to position itself as a Global manufacturing hub with a big push under ‘Make In India’ with adoption of appropriate technology and policy reforms and focused thrust in crucial sectors. He emphasized that it calls for furthering investment in developing infrastructure, industrialization, strengthening supply chain mechanism, creating demand for goods and services, converting farming into a business proposition etc. The Minister said, the current pandemic is global, but the solutions to the challenge should be local.
Dr. Saraswat in his address said, the White Paper has highlighted five sectors that would be critical for India’s economic growth, using technology stimulus and charted out sector specific as well as aggregate policy and technological recommendations. He said the document also presents models of recovery of Indian economy, leveraging new international partnerships in important sectors based on national priorities and technological strength.