Eight of the 10 top cities worldwide in terms of sending STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) scholars to the United States on F-1 visas are in India -- Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune.
This was stated here by Union Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan quoting a recent report of US think tank, Brookings Institution at a press conference.
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Listing out achievements of the department of Science and Technology, he referred to the approval for India’s participation in the 30-metre telescope project at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA at a total cost of Rs.1,299.8 crore . The project would BE implemented by institutions from USA, Japan, Canada, China and India.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan said India would be a 10 per cent partner in the project and 70 per cent of its contributions would be in kind.
He said DST has launched an ambitious Rs.4,500 crore ‘National Supercomputing Mission’ with the aim of building Exascale computing over the next seven years.
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National Mission for sustaining Himalayan ecosystem and mission on strategic knowledge for climate change were also mentioned.
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Y.S. Chowdhary said the government was planning to have science and technology footprint in every State in the form of Science Cities and S&T Centres.
Referring to the demographic dividend of the country, Mr Chowdhary said that S&T would act as a growth engine.