The latest push for Science and Technology incubators

Biz@India

India will soon launch a hub and spoke model to set up science cities and science centres to encourage science and technology (S&T) incubators and create an enabling environment.

This was announced by Minister of state for science & technology and earth sciences, Y.S. Chowdary, at a day long conference by industry chamber ASSOCHAM in New Delhi on Friday.

In his inaugural address to the conference on ‘India: Entrepreneurial, Creative & Innovative’, Chowdary outlined the details of the project and insisted on the emphasis put on rural areas.

“The entire country can be divided in five zones so that each zone can have a science city, so that number of science centres can be there whereby rural population and youngsters can have a lot of access,” he informed.

Attract scientists from foreign countries

The initiative aims also at increasing the international attractiveness of India in the Science and Technology area.

“In addition to that if we create a proper ecosystem like bird migration we can definitely attract many scientists from foreign countries because of environmental conditions,” he added.

“India gives them very good weather conditions as there are many countries where we do not have productivity more than 4-5 months, at the most six months, so that is one area where we are seriously thinking,” the minister explained.

India can also rely on its diaspora, with a huge network of Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs). Indian scientists form already one of the biggest world network, connecting, – in a typical circular migration way, where people spend time abroad and come back to India, – innovative hubs such as the Silicon Valley, in California, with home centers of excellence and research, such as Bangalore (Karnataka) or Pune (Maharashtra).