The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

The draft of national science and technology policy will be finalised within three months aiming at building science-oriented society to increase production and employment in various sectors of the economy.

"The review of the existing national ICT policy is also at the final stage which is expected to further flourish the ICT industry," Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Science and ICT Manik Lal Samaddar told BSS after attending a seminar as the chief guest here.

For the next fiscal 2008-09, he said, the government has allocated Taka 16 crore as special grants for scientists of the universities and private organisations for research.

The seminar on 'Special grants in different kinds of science and technological research projects and its contribution to fruitful research and development' was organized by Science and ICT Ministry at Bhasani Novo Theatre here.

Science and ICT Secretary Sheikh M Wahiduzzaman was present as the special guest while Joint Secretary of the Ministry Ahmed Hossain Khan was in the chair.

Joint Secretary of Science and ICT Ministry Liakat Ali gave the welcome address while deputy secretary of the ministry Mohammad Ferdous Hossain presented the keynote paper. Prof Dr Mesbahuddin and Prof M A Bashar of Dhaka University, Prof Dr Ziauddin Ahmed of Jahangirnagar University, Prof Dr M A Wahab of Agriculture University and Prof Dr Shah Alam of Rajshahi University addressed as designated speakers.

It was revealed at the seminar that a large amount of money, allocated as special grants for scientific researches, has not been used due to lack of quality project proposals.

In the current fiscal, only Taka 5.29 crore was disbursed out of Taka 14.28 crore, allocated for scientific researches under the special grant programme of the government.

In last six years, more than Taka 40 crore has been disbursed among local scientists under special grants by Science and ITC Ministry but outcome from the scientific projects is not satisfactory, speakers told the seminar.

Manik Lal Samaddar said the government would like to give money for quality research as it could contribute to the socio- economic development.

Referring to irregularities and misuse of grant money in the name of scientific research in the past, he said, various committees would be formed to further strengthen monitoring and evaluating to bring transparency in the special grant programme.

"We won't give money to anyone or any organisation under special considerations like in the past," he said, adding, "We have already taken steps so that no money is granted in the name of fake scientists or organizations or worthless projects."

Applied research needs to be prioritized side by side with basic research, Samaddar pointed out.

"We have to identify and prioritize specific research fields as per socio-economic demand of the country," he said. Considering global food shortage, the government has allocated an additional Taka 272 crore for agriculture research in the proposed budget, he added.

Scientists at the seminar called for enhancing funds, saying grants for research in Bangladesh are only 0.005 percent of GDP, whereas it is 2-3 percent of GDP even in newly industrialized countries.

They said salary of teachers of public universities should be increased taking into consideration the present socio-economic condition so they could pay more attention to research activities.

They suggested making a database and a network of local scientists for coordination to avoid repetition of research on same topics as it happened in the past.

In his keynote paper, Dr Ferdous said grants should be utilized properly, otherwise disbursement of funds would be very difficult in future.