India looks to design science policy to address poverty, development challenges

Speaking this week at "the 99th Indian Science Congress, the country's largest annual gathering of scientists," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "said the occasion demanded looking anew at the role of science in a country 'grappling with the challenges of poverty and development'" and "emphasized that 'the overriding objective of a comprehensive and well-considered policy for science, technology and innovation should be to support the national objective of faster, sustainable and inclusive development,'" SciDev.Net reports. "Singh also underscored the need to use innovations creatively for social benefit," the news service writes.

"India's science minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, announced that the country would soon release a science policy that addressed the national priority for inclusive and sustained growth," SciDev.Net notes, adding that Deshmukh said, "We must present [a] paradigm shift in our mindsets from developing 'policy for science' to developing 'science policy for people'" (Padma, 1/4).