Government Ministries to Enter Pact With IITs to Promote Research

HRD ministry officials said the initiative is part of the IMPRINT initiative of the NDA government which is a multi- disciplinary, multi-partner and multi-goal oriented national programme aimed at technology development involving IITs, IISc, national academies, ministries etc.

Ten technology domains have been identified under IMPRINT including Health care, Energy, Sustainable Habitat, Nano Technology hardware, Water resources and river systems, Advanced materials, Information and Communication Technology, Manufacturing, Security and Defence.

In the field of Health care, Health Ministry, AYUSH and various bodies like ICMR would participate in research initiatives and IIT Kharagpur would be the coordinating institute, officials added.

For technological development in defence the MoU envisages involvement of DRDO, Department of Space, Department of Atomic Energy, while IIT Madras and IIT Delhi would be the coordinating bodies.

For Sustainable Habitat and Swachh Bharat, the MoU envisages a collaboration between Urban Development and Rural Development ministries and IIT Roorkee.

The initiative, IMPRINT aims to create synergy with all the major initiatives of the Government like Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, Namami Gange, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Swachh Bharat Mission and other Ministries engaged in research covering these domains, an official said.

For every domain area, there shall be a Domain Expert Committee (DEC), chaired by a subject matter expert of eminence and with such members as decided by the National Coordinator.

The Director IIT Kanpur has been designated as the first National Coordinator for the programme for a period of one year, HRD officials said.

The MoU, which will be signed tomorrow between various ministries with these institutes is a part of the flagship initiative IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology (IMPRINT), which had been launched by President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and HRD minister Smriti Irani in November, 2014.

Among other collaborations envisaged under the IMPRINT initiative are collaborations in research on Environment and Climate, involving ministries of Environment and Forest and Earth Sciences and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Other bodies who are a part of the large scale exercise include ministries of Textiles, Surface Transport, Steel, Railways, New and Renewable Energy, Drinking Water and Sanitation, officials said.

"Imprint initiative is unique as so many government will enter into collaboration to work on common goals in research," a senior official said.