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New Delhi : About 30 industry stalwarts, who are CII members, participated at a two-day roundtable meeting and shared their views and suggestions for the new Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020 and discussed how to create an R&D ecosystem in a sustainable way to solve social problems. The industry captains stressed on the need for more collaboration between industry and academia and also need to increase the investment in R&D as a percentage of GDP.

The deliberations focused on the need for more incentives and recognition to encourage industry to fund R&D and ways to leverage the use of CSR funds for the purpose. In the meeting, the industry leaders also discussed  the ways to use CSR funds to create a culture in industry, academia, and government for indigenous technology development and move towards self-reliance.

On the 2nd day of the high-level Industry consultation roundtable for the formulation of the new Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, Professor K VijayRaghavan, and DST Secretary Professor Ashutosh Sharma, focused on the need for more incentives and recognition to encourage industry to fund R&D and ways to leverage the use of CSR funds for the purpose, according to a PIB release.

In his introductory address, Professor K VijayRaghavan highlighted that the regulatory system need to be reformed and the CSR mechanism broadened to leverage it in R&D activities. Prof Ashutosh Sharma emphasised on need for a robust policy for the long term, which could attract industry investment in R&D and also for identifying weak links to connect knowledge generators with knowledge consumers.

In his opening remarks, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), re-emphasised the critical facets of R&D that needs to be immediately strengthened such as importance of public funded research in academic system, focused R&D programmes, unlocking entrepreneurial ecosystem, IP valuation, cross-collaboration, and effective translational research amongst others.

The two-day roundtable meeting was held over a virtual platform by the STIP 2020 Secretariat in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Science Policy Forum. The consultation was focused on inviting suggestions from Industry leaders for the upcoming STIP 2020 that will pave the way towards a knowledge-based economy. This is the first-ever high-level industry consultation for the formulation of a Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy.