Annual Report 2005-2006

Administration and Finance

Department of Science and Technology is the nodal Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The organisational structure of the Department has evolved over the years to respond quickly to the issues relating to the promotion and development of Science and Technology in the country. It has three Subordinate Departments viz. India Meteorological Department (IMD), National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) and Survey of India (SOI) under its Administrative Control. In addition to it, the Department also supports 18 autonomous research institutions/ other bodies and 5 science/engineering academies/associations, which are working in diverse areas for the promotion of Science and Technology.

The Administration and Finance Divisions of the Department look after the support facilities for the Subordinate Departments and Autonomous bodies including the personnel and financial administration. The activities undertaken by the different wings during the period under report are given as under:

Recruitment Cell

Recruitment Cell in this Department is vested with the responsibility of making recruitment to Group 'A' Scientific and Technical posts from the level of Scientist 'B' (Pay Scale Rs. 8000-13,500) to the level of Senior Advisor (Pay Scale Rs. 22,400-24,500) as recruitment to these posts is exempted from the purview of UPSC. The recruitment to these posts is made by the method of direct recruitment or deputation (including short-term contract) or absorption as prescribed in the Recruitment Rules for relevant posts.

Recruitment Cell is also vested with the responsibility of in-situ promotion of Departmental Scientists under the Flexible Complimenting Scheme (FCS) as contained in the Department of Science & Technology Group 'A' Gazetted Posts (Non-Ministerial, scientific & technical) Rules 2004. In-situ promotions under FCS are considered twice before 1st January and 1st July every year.

Besides, Recruitment Cell also deals with the proposals regarding recognition of Institutions/ Organizations under various Ministries/Departments as scientific and technical for the purpose of introduction of FCS.

During the year, recruitment has been made to three posts each of Scientist 'C' and Scientist 'B' on direct recruitment basis, two posts of Scientist 'F' on deputation basis, and one post of Research Associate-I on contract basis. Besides, action has been taken to make recruitment to three posts of Scientist 'C' on direct recruitment basis, one post of Senior Advisor, one post of Scientist 'D', and two posts of Scientist 'C' on deputation/short-term contract basis and two posts of Research Associate-I on contract basis.

The Assessment of eligible departmental scientists for in-situ promotion under FCS as on 01.07.2005 was done and next assessment is due by 01.01.2006.

Parliament Unit

The Parliament Unit is assigned the responsibility of handling the entire parliamentary work of the Department. It ensures that the parliamentary work pertaining to the Ministry of Science & Technology is accomplished as per the prescribed schedule and procedures. The Unit maintains liaison with the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Secretariats of Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha, and other Ministries/ Departments (including Scientific Departments) with a view to fully discharge the parliamentary obligations of the Ministry of Science & Technology. The Unit also coordinates the visits of the Parliamentary Committees to various scientific institutions which are under the administrative control of the Department. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology and Environment & Forests recently visited the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, M/s Serum Institute of India Ltd., and Agharkar Research Institute during September 2005.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests met on 30th March 2005 to discuss the Demands for Grants for the year 2005-2006 of the Department and submitted its recommendations in its 140th report presented to the Parliament on 25th April 2005. The action taken report on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee was also submitted to the Secretariat of the Committee as per schedule.

Welfare Cell

The Department of Science and Technology is mainly concerned about the welfare of its employees. A Senior Officer of the rank of Director has been designated as Welfare Officer and a Cell is working under his supervision and guidance. A Benevolent Fund has been created with active participation and contribution of the employees of Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). Financial Assistance is given from the fund to the members or their dependents to help them out in distress. A Charitable Homeopathic Dispensary, Fitness Centre with modern facilities are functioning in DST Complex, which take care of health and fitness of the employees. Besides the above, a Sports and Recreation Club is functioning in this Department and its members take part in various sports and cultural activities in the Inter-Ministerial Tournaments/ Competitions etc. and have won several medals/prizes during the current financial year 2005-2006.

Staff Position

DST has a total number of 257 Group 'A'; and Group 'B' (Gazetted) Officers. A detailed breakup is given below:-

The Department has a total number of 369 non-gazetted staff on its rolls. The detailed Groupwise break-up is given below:

Progressive Use of Official Language

For implementation of the Official Language Policy of the Government, there is a Hindi Section in the Department. During the period under report, concerted efforts were made for implementing the provisions of Official Language Act and rules made there under and orders/instructions issued by the Department of Official Language from time to time regarding progressive use of Hindi in the official work of the Government of India. During the year, following activities were carried out:

• All general orders, annual report, performance budget, cabinet notes, agreements etc. continued to be issued bilingually i.e. both in Hindi and English.
• Letters received in Hindi were invariably replied to in Hindi. An Incentive Scheme for original noting/ drafting in official work in Hindi is in vogue in this Department.
• Departmental quarterly "Tarang" is being published regularly with adequate priority to scientific & technical articles.
• With a view to encourage original scientific writing in Hindi, the DST introduced "Dr. Meghnad Saha Award Scheme". Under the scheme, books written in the year 2003 and 2004 were invited. A total of 34 books have been received under this scheme out of which 19 books were selected by the Departmental Preliminary Screening Committee. Selected books have been sent to the experts for their evaluation.
• 'Hindi Week' was organized from 14th to 20th September, 2005 in the Ministry of Science & Technology. During this week, 7 competitions on different subjects were organized and 54 officers/ staff were given prizes.
• During the year, 4 employees were nominated for Hindi Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya Training and 2 employees for Hindi typing training.
• Three Hindi workshops were organized in which 60 officers/staff were trained.
• The officers of Hindi Section conducted inspections of 8 subordinate offices regarding progressive use of Hindi.
• The officers of Hindi Section also took part in the Official Language Conferences held at Puri and Darjeeling and played their active role.
• The 22nd meeting of Joint Hindi Advisory Committee of Ministry of Science and Technology and Department of Ocean Development was held on 26 th September, 2005 in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Shri Kapil Sibal, Honourable State Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development(Independent Charge)
• During the year, the second sub committee of Committee of Parliament on Official Language carried out official language inspections of three autonomous institutes of the Department i.e. Indian National Science Academy(INSA), New Delhi, Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), New Delhi and Indian Science Academy, Bangalore.

Library

The DST Library continued providing Library, Documentation and Information Services using state-of-art information technology to the Officers and Staff Members of the Department. The Library undertook following activities during the period under report:

• Collection Development

A good collection having direct relevance to the information needs of the uses is backbone of any Library/ Information Centre. Collection of books/reports was enriched by acquiring, processing and making available to its users over 213 books/ monographs on different subjects. In addition to this, over 100 books received on Gratis were also processed and made available to the users. Bibliographic details of all the books acquired by the Library were ported on to the newly acquired Library Management System- 'LIBSYS Premia' and are accessible to the DST Officers and staff members on intranet through Web OPAC. Library continued subscribing to 115 scientific/ technical journals and processing and making these available to its users.

• Documentation/ Information Services

The day-to-day information requirements of the users were also fulfilled expeditiously and exhaustively. Current Awareness Service, Newspaper Clippings Service, Photocopying Service, and Literature Searches to meet the specific needs of the users were also provided. Internet based information service was provided by searching the appropriate information available on the Internet and making it available after proper selection and editing.

E-mail based information service was also provided to the users on topics of general interest to them. To supplement the resources of DST Library, Interlibrary Lending Service was extended to the users by borrowing books/ journals from other Libraries and in turn supplying books on Interlibrary Loan to these Libraries as per their requirements.

• Modernisation of DST Library

As a part of implementation of modernization plan, the hardware/ software items procured, were put in place. The catalogue of Library Books and database on Current Articles compiled on the basis of Journals acquired by DST Library have since been ported on to the Library Server using the LIBSYS Premia Library Management Software Package and the access to these is now available to the users of Library over Intranet using Web OPAC. The Library has a plan to put up a networked User Facilitation Centre and necessary hardware has been procured for this.

The day-to-day activities of the Library are also performed using the latest computers. Almost all the professional/Semi-Professinal staff members are working on computers both in Hindi and English Languages. All the routine Library Forms are available in machine-readable form both in Hindi and English.

Integrated Finance Division

The Integrated Finance Division (IFD) of DST has been entrusted with the responsibility of providing advice and support on all financial matters and monitoring the progress of expenditure on various activities. The mandate of this Division is also to inter-alia scrutinize budget proposals thoroughly before sending these to the Ministry of Finance and to see that complete departmental accounts are maintained in accordance with the requirements under the General Financial Rules. The DST was allocated an amount of Rs. 1249.00 crores (Plan) and Rs.409.30 crores (Non-Plan) for the year 2005-2006. The Budget for 2006-2007 is Rs. 1786.26 crores (Rs. 1367.00 crores Plan and Rs. 419.26 crores Non-Plan). Summary of Financial requirement is placed in the preceding pages.