Union minister Harsh Vardhan has asked senior officers and scientists in the ministries under him to identify ten priority areas and ensure ground-level implementation for time-bound and measurable results.
The minister has asked the scientists and officials of ministries of environment, science and technology and earth sciences as well as the department of scientific and industrial research and the department of biotechnology to do so.
Vardhan has also suggested that a plan should be drawn up for the 115 least developed districts that have been identified by NITI Aayog and urged the five ministries or departments under him to ensure time-bound implementation.
Such an approach will pool and converge latest scientific and technical knowhow, financial, human and infrastructural resources to maximise outcomes and outputs in various sectors, he said.
Those sectors include water management, air quality management, soil management, waste management, climate change, marine and coastal biodiversity, disruptive technologies, skill development and upgradation and international conventions or agreements, he said.
A meeting chaired by the minister had earlier decided to to set up a Joint Working Group (JWG) for functional synergy of achieving time-bound goals in these areas.
The JWG will be empowered to take decisions and nodal officers from all departments will meet every month, while the minister will chair its quarterly meetings.
"The focus of the JWG has to be not only creating technology, but look at the entire delivery chain, where we are able to prove the technology and then scale it up.
"This requires convergence between one who has the technology and the other who needs the technology," the minister said.
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