IISc attends NAC's meeting to discuss way forward for NISTIS initiatives

National Advisory Committee (NAC) discussed the way forward for the National Initiative on Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics (NISTIS).

Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Professor Ajay K Sood, chaired the meeting, which underlined the importance of the initiatives of the National Initiative on Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics (NISTIS) and the urgent need to establish the centre to start focused work on it.

“Data is critical for knowledge-based decisions. While data is being collected by the different ministries, its centralised management is essential for taking critical decisions in the future,” he pointed out.

National Advisory Committee's meeting details

It was decided that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics will be prepared by the Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru.

Senior Adviser, DST, Dr Akhilesh Gupta, stressed the need for a one-stop coordinated effort to bring the various efforts of accumulation of data and presented the tentative structure of the centre. He gave examples of international best practices of such efforts in the USA and Japan.

Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Dr Srivari Chandrasekhar, welcomed the initiative and highlighted the range of data that is already available with the department and emphasized the need to add to it.

Director Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Professor Govindan Rangarajan, elaborated on the functioning of the future centre at IISc.

Experts from scientific establishments discussed the governance, functioning and way forward for the centre.

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