JOIN USNow, the bill — introduced and passed in the tenure of three different science ministers in the last two years – would come up in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday — for a debate.
Once passed by Parliament, the bill would lead to creation of CSIR’s own academy that will enjoy a deemed university status. It will work on a hub and spoke model without creation of any new brick and mortar presence, sources said.
The academy will admit students in CSIR’s 37 science and engineering laboratories and is expected to produce 1,000 PhDs in science and 120 PhDs in engineering from the fifth year onwards. Currently CSIR produces 400 PhDs every year. But the degrees are awarded by different universities.
The bill was introduced by Prithviraj Chavan but it came to the House for passing in last July when Pawan Kumar Bansal was the minister. But it could not be passed due to objections from BJP veteran and former science minister Murli Manohar Joshi.
Vilasrao Deshmukh who is holding the science portfolio at the moment sorted out difference with Joshi enabling smooth passage of the bill in the Lower House.
The academy is considered to be one of the government’s strategies to counter China’s rapid advance in science and technology in the last two decades.
In the 1980s, India produced more PhDs in engineering than China. But the trend reversed in the next two decades with India producing 6,318 PhDs compared to China’s 12,238 in 2003.