Budget boosts science

摘要

India's Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha announced his proposals for the Union Budget 2002-03 (his fifth) on 28 February 2002. The media have various opinions about this budget - 'insipid', 'lacklustre', not conducive to growth and so on. Quite a marked difference, however, is the response from members of the science and technology (S&T) fraternity who are euphoric about the boost given to research and development (R&D). In reaction to the science component of the budget, 'an overall increase, highest seen over one year since independence' said a happy Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and Director-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), simply terming the budget, 'great'. The Ministry of Science and Technology sees a budget estimate for 2002-03 of Rs 1290 crore, up 40 percent from the previous year's allocation, a significant increase (see Table 1). Y. S. Rajan, Executive Director, TIFAC, said that S&T seems to be the only sector where considerable hike in allocation has been made, and appears to be a follow-up of the Prime Minister's commitment made at the lndian Science Congress.