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New Delhi : Union Science & Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciences Miniaster Dr Harsh Vardhan on July 10, 2020, released a white paper on “Focused Interventions for ‘Make in India’: Post COVID 19” and “Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients: Status, Issues, Technology Readiness and Challenges”, prepared by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), at a virtual function, here.
Dr V K Saraswat, Chairman, TIFAC Governing Council, and Prof Pradeep Srivastava, Executive Director, TIFAC, Dr Sanjay Singh, Scientist ‘G’, and Mukesh Mathur, Incharge (F&A), TIFAC, were also present on the occasion.
Dr Vardhan congratulated TIFAC for bringing out this 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”.
“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,” added Dr Vardhan.
Pointing out that India has been largely successful in mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 so far, Dr Vardhan said, “We got the opportunity to position ourselves 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 emphasisaed that this calls for furthering investment in developing infrastructure, industrialisation, 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 V K 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. The document also presents models of recovery of Indian economy, leveraging new international partnerships in important sectors based on national priorities and technological strength.”
Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, in his message, said, “The White Paper by TIFAC presents a compelling map of high priority sectors, technologies, and strategies to fuel growth in the time of COVID-19 and immediately beyond. The sector-wise reports being worked on currently will also be an invaluable resource in defining the opportunities even more sharply.”
Prof. Pradeep Srivastava, Executive Director, TIFAC, gave a power-point presentation and explained, “The white paper by TIFAC will help understand, evaluate and define the impact of the pandemic on the Indian economy and provide policymakers (Government of India) and public with the guidance that can be taken to mitigate the widespread economic shock and boost the Indian economy, cut through the noise of fall and prepare the ground for recovery using self-reliance as the new mantra.”
This White Paper captures sector-specific strengths, market trends, and opportunities in five sectors, critical from the country’s perspective, including healthcare, machinery, ICT, agriculture, manufacturing, and electronics with reference to supply and demand, self-sufficiency and massscale production capacity.