| At the opening day of the 92nd Indian Science Congress here today, Sibal assured huge investments in human resource development and the setting up national missions in nanotechnology and transport intelligence systems. |
| He also promised to encourage public-private sector partnerships in research and development-based industries. |
| The minister also said that the government will shortly provide a suitable regulatory mechanism for an effective biotechnology policy. |
| He promised that the government will strengthen the management system for intellectual property rights (IPR). This will include modernisation of the patents office to enable protecting the intellectual property of small industries. |
| "The scientific community must move away from the trodden path onto a new road of discovery and invention through use of technologies in collaboration with nature. It is imperative that science must provide solutions for the common man. technology must not bypass the common man," he told the audience that comprised several top scientists. |
| Sibal stated his ministry is formulating an innovative scheme which will soon be implemented to offer continuous research support to "performing scientists", irrespective of their employment status. |
| "The idea is to guarantee working level support to performing scientists in an uninterrupted way, based only on their track record of the preceding project. For major grants though, they could go through the time tested mechanism. |
| "It has been decided to name this scheme as Ramanna Fellowships in the memory of the noted nuclear scientist Raja Ramanna," Sibal said. |
| Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, the minister said "The things that will destroy us are politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity and worship without sacrifice." |
| DART system to check tsunamis on cards |
| The central government has decided to implement a comprehensive disaster mitigation system, called Deep Ocean Assessment Report System (DART), to detect tsunamis in advance. |
| The system would be implemented in the Bay of Bengal and in the Arabian Sea. Gujarat has the longest coastline in the country with a 1600 kilometre coastline. |
| "We are developing a fool-proof system to deal with natural calamity of this magnitude. No one can be blamed for a natural disaster of this magnitude, which was never experienced earlier," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday evening. |
| "DART would cost Rs 125 crore to the exchequer. It will detect tsunamic waves well in advance. DART instruments would be installed below the sea level, on the eastern and western coasts of the country. DART system is expected to be in place in the next two years. |
| "The instruments would be linked with software, which will monitor and send signals of the Tsunamic waves," Kapil Sibal, minister of state (independent in charge) for Science and Technology and Ocean Development, Government of India, said. |
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