Vardhan forms joint working group of departments under him

Environment minister Harsh Vardhan today said an empowered joint working group will be formed comprising nodal officers from five ministries and departments headed by him to synergise efforts for developing technological solutions.

Addressing an inter-ministerial coordination meeting, the minister stressed on the need to break the mindset of "working in silos".

A working group will be formed to take decisions on every possible problem for scientific resolution and each of the ministries will nominate its nodal officers, he said and called it a "grand alliance".

"Chaired a meeting of heads of all Depts under my charge in science and Environment. Decided to form a #GrandAlliance for #FunctionalSynergy.
 

"An empowered #JWG of these Depts set up to take decisions to form a unified force to address every possible problem for scientific resolution," he tweeted.

He said that all sorts of problems can be solved through science, but the approach towards it needs to be changed in favour of collaborative efforts and developing synergies.

"The minister emphasised the need to break the mindset of 'working in silos' and to work collectively towards developing synergy for technological solutions and for optimal utilization," an official statement quoting the minister said.

Harsh Vardhan urged the ministries and departments concerned to identify commonalities for technological solutions that can be taken to various stakeholders.

"An excellent synergy has already been developed within the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Ministry of Earth Sciences (MOES) and now the same has to be replicated with the the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) also," he said.

A working group will be formed and the environment ministry will work as a secretariat, while each of the ministries will nominate its nodal officers, he said.

"He strongly emphasised the need to come up with results over the next one year," the statement said.

The minister also pointed out that the meetings of the joint working group will be held every month and a quarterly meeting will be held at the minister's level.

Recollecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's views on "Scientific Social Responsibility", Harsh Vardhan said that there is an urgent need to put science to use for the benefit of people.

He urged the scientists and the senior officers present at the meeting to also work out innovative solutions and projects for 115 aspirational districts to improve their Human Development Index (HDI).

Senior officials of all the five ministries and departments took part in the meeting.