Srinagar: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, today chaired a meeting with the officers from Science and Technology Park, Pune, for exploring ideas about building an innovation ecosystem and culture in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pertinently, Science and Technology Park, Pune, one of the first Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks (STEPs) set up in 1986 by National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) of Department of Science and Technology (DST), provides technology inputs for various governmental and industrial development projects, development of new technologies and its commercialization besides imparting need based high end training.
The Chief Secretary listed out a few areas where the government of JK will be interested in and asked the UT officers to study the projects and services of STP which would be tailor-made to provide solutions to various issues. He said that JK would like to partner in application of new and existing technologies for specially made clean solutions to various pressing issues like biomass utilization, sewage treatment, plastics treatment, Kangri design and house construction.
The Chief Secretary said that as JK comprises around 55 percent of forest area, it produces a large quantity of biomass and would require the modern technological interventions to be introduced for capitalizing on this low hanging fruit and conversion into some form of energy. He said that the second area of interest would be converting plastics into a usable commodity as plastics don’t gel with the beauty of Kashmir.
Dr. Mehta also emphasized upon developing a people friendly Kangri design saying that the present design of Kangri has numerous disadvantages causing several mishaps in the past.
He said that JK needs some immediate scientific interventions that would help in sewage treatment during the Amarnath Yatra where more than six lakh pilgrims are expected to visit this year.
The Chief Secretary added that business incubation and entrepreneurship development besides skill training and awareness programs will be another area of interest. He said that in near future there will be huge investment with several reputed industries coming up in the UT which will automatically create jobs for 3-4 lakh people. He said there is a need for skill gap analysis so that we can create highly skilled and employable youth for meeting the industry demand. He said that focus will be laid on a specialized training ecosystem to provide a job ready workforce to the industry.
He directed the officers from JK to study the cyber critical technology development and S&T innovation programmes and funding in line with the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovators to support entrepreneurs and innovators from idea stage to scale-up stage.
The Chief Secretary said that knowledge partnering with STP will be a milestone towards great learning as they would be bringing in technologies that are currently ahead of normal technologies.
Director General, Dr Rajendra Jagdale, said that STP would help the government to build a deep research and innovation ecosystem besides enhancing the skill development environment through ITI up gradation. He said that they would provide technology infusion for various policies and services like tourism, disaster management, environmental protection, municipal waste processing, agri waste to diesel among other things and would play the role of nodal Innovation agency for S&T based multi-sectoral transformations.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Higher Education, Principal Secretary Skill Development, Principal Secretary School Education, Director Industries Kashmir and other officers from Science and Technology Park while Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Principal Secretary YSS, Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce, Secretary Tourism participated online.
