Centre sanctions Rs 1,000 crore for research and innovation

The Union Government has announced a grant of Rs 1,000 crore for the second phase of the Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) India programme.

Union Minister for Human Resources and Development Prakash Javadekar today said, "In a major boost for research and innovation in the country, the Central Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs. 1000 crore for the phase two of the Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) India programme."

In a statement in the Visitors Conference held in New Delhi today, Javadekar said that under the IMPRINT-II, a fund is being created by the Department of Science and Technology and Ministry of Human Resource Development together, in which participation will come from industry and other interested Ministries.

The project will be run as a separate vertical in coordination with the DST. Prof. Indranil Manna of IIT-Kharagpur will be the National Coordinator.

The proposals for IMPRINT-II will be called from March 16 and will be sanctioned by May this year.

Under the IMPRINT-I Programme, 142 projects at a cost of Rs. 318.71 crore are already under implementation.

These projects will cover crucial domains like security and defence, information technology, energy, sustainable habitat, advance materials, health care, nano technology, climate change, etc. All these projects are expected to result in publications and also patents.