17th Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum | 05 Oct 2020

Why in News

India participated at the Science & Technology Ministerial Roundtable, organized in the 17th annual Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum.

Key Points

  • Science & Technology Ministerial Roundtable:
    • Hosted by: Japan
    • Science and Technology Ministers' Roundtable is held along with the STS forum every year.
    • Major highlights:
      • Deliberated on the role of international R&D collaboration,
      • Social sciences & humanities,
      • Open science.
    • Participation: S&T heads from about 50 countries around the world participated and explored the opportunities arising from international collaborations at the Roundtable to address the challenges posed by Covid 19.
    • India highlighted initiatives by India regarding sharing of scientific data- National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy and an open government data portal.

Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum

  • The Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum was inaugurated in 2004.
  • The STS forum aims:
    • To provide a new mechanism for open discussions on an informal basis.
    • To build a human network that would timely resolve the new types of problems stemming from the application of science and technology.
  • It holds an annual meeting starting on the first Sunday of October every year, in Kyoto, Japan.

India’s Role in Global S&T Fraternity

  • Scientific data sharing with partner nations is being considered for inclusion in the Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020) being framed.
  • International Cooperation: India gives extraordinary importance to international cooperation in S&T for development and for addressing challenges of health, water, energy, environment, climate change, communication, and natural disasters. Example:
    • India’s active S&T participation in international mega-science projects such as International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER, Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT).
    • Mission Innovation:
      • Mission Innovation (MI) was announced in 2015 due to pioneering efforts by India, France, and the USA to combat climate changes.
      • MI is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Union to dramatically accelerate global clean energy innovation.
      • As part of the initiative, participating countries have committed to double their governments’ clean energy Research and Development (R&D) investments over five years.
      • Encouraging private sector investment in transformative clean energy technologies.
      • The Innovation Challenges cover the entire spectrum of RD&D; from early-stage research needs assessments to technology demonstration projects.
  • India’s Global Initiatives:
    • Coalitions for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) - An international knowledge platform where countries can collaborate to make their existing and new infrastructure strong enough to withstand natural disasters.
    • International Solar Alliance - An Indian initiative that was launched in 2015 in Paris, France with the objective to collectively address key common challenges to the scaling up of solar energy in ISA member countries.
  • For Covid-19: Vaccines for coronavirus are in advanced phases of trial, and India has the capacity to supply the vaccine to a major part of humanity.
    • This is in addition to other medicine requirements that global pharmacy(India) has provided during the pandemic.

National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy

  • The NDSA was adopted in 2012.
  • It was a step towards making non-sensitive government data accessible online.
  • The main thrust of the policy is to “promote data sharing and enable access to Government of India owned data for national planning, development and awareness”.
  • The implementation guidelines for NDSAP included ideals such as “openness, flexibility, transparency, quality” of data.
  • It aims to facilitate “access to Government of India shareable data in machine-readable form”.
  • The guidelines prescribe open digital formats suitable for analysis and dissemination.
  • Open Government Data Portal: As part of the Open Government Data (OGD) initiative, data.gov.in was launched in 2012.

Source: PIB