NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE TO
COME UP IN FOUR REGIONS
The government proposes
to set up National Institutes of Science (NIS) in the four regions
of the country, in a bid to give a greater boost to research and
development activities in these parts. To cover the Western region
there will be one NIS located in Pune, for the Eastern region
it will be based in Utkal, the southern in Chennai and the Northern
region will have it in Allahabad. These Centres are coming up
as part of expansion of technical education in the country. This
was disclosed by the Minister for Human Resource Development and
Science & Technology, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, while chairing
a conference of State Education Secretaries (Technical) over the
week end.
Underscoring the
need to strengthen and expand technical education in the country,
to produce a huge technological manpower, Dr. Joshi said that
this not only to meet our requirements but also to meet the global
demands. Under the new initiatives in human resource development,
a National Programme for Bio-sciences and Bio-engineering Education
is being evolved with the objective of building up a strong academic
and research base in the fields, in select technical institutions
of the country.
A number of institutions
though have already started the programme in bio-sciences and
bio-engineering and related areas, these lack in coordination.
Equipment and facilities being expensive for this programme, they
are also under-resourced. Hence, the main objective of the national
programme will be to support creation of advanced teaching and
research lab facilities in these institutes for accelerated and
coordinated development of teaching and research in the two fields.
These facilities should be accessible to the students and the
teachers of other institutions for academic purposes. The Rs.96
crore programme also aims at sensitising the engineering institutions
and academics, towards opportunities in the fields.
