The Science Technology and Innovation Policy 2013

Over the past few years the Government of India has been on a policy announcement spree. A number of policy documents ranging from those relating to specific industries such as automobiles, biotechnology, chemicals, information technology and telecommunications to a more general policy on manufacturing have been announced in a rather feverish pitch. It is almost as if the underlying belief is that having some policy statements is better than no policy at all. Moreover these policy exercises have had the positive effect of bringing in some strategic thinking with respect to very specific sectors. The most recent exercise has been preceded by a number of statements and near policy documents on innovation such as the aborted attempt at passing a National Innovation Act and the rather long conversation in effecting a legislation which aimed at incentivising publicly funded research (Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill, 2008).

Further, the present policy seeks to replace the Science and Technology Policy of 2003, which was not considered to be up to date especially during the recently announced decade of innovation. However a careful reading of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) of 2013 shows it has very few new things to say or pronounce compared to its 2003 predecessor. It is nothing but a restatement of very many ideas contained in the earlier policy and it too has once again indulged in elusive target chasing exercises.