Annual Report 2007-2008

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 two Subordinate Departments viz. National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) and Survey of India (SOI) under its Administrative Control. In addition to it, the Department also supports 17 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’ and Group ‘B’ (Gazetted) Scientific and Technical posts 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 five posts of Scientist ‘C’ on direct recruitment basis; four posts of Scientific Attache` in the Indian Missions abroad viz. Washington, Moscow, Tokyo and Berlin on deputation (including short term contract) basis and six posts of Junior Analyst (Technical) on deputation basis. Besides, action has been taken to make recruitment to one post of Scientist ‘C’ (Orthopaedically Handicapped) and two posts of Scientist D on direct recruitment basis and one post of Scientist C on deputation basis.

The Assessment of eligible departmental Scientists for in-situ promotion under FCS was done.

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 visited the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) at Bangalore in June 2007.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests met on 3rd April 2007 to discuss the Demands for Grants for the year 2007-2008 of the Department and submitted its recommendations in its 170th report presented to the Parliament on 26th April 2007. The Action Taken Report on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee was also submitted to the Secretariat of the Committee as per schedule.

Staff Position

DST has a total number of 220 Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ (Gazetted) Officers. A detailed breakup is given below:-

The Department has a total number of 372 non-gazetted staff on its rolls. The detailed Groupwise break-up is given below:

Hindi Section

For implementation of the Official Language Policy of the Union, 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 Hindi in official work is in vogue in this Department.
  
• Departmental quarterly “Tarang” is being published regularly with adequate priority to scientific & technical articles. “Tarang” Patrika has been awarded second prize on 14th September, 2007 by Shri Shiv Raj Patil, Hon’ble Union Home Minister.
  
• With a view to encourage original scientific writing in Hindi, DST introduced “Dr. Meghnad Saha
  Award Scheme’. Under the scheme, books written in the year 2005 were invited. 8 books have been awarded under this scheme.
  
• ‘Hindi Week’ was organized from 14th to 21st September, 2007 in the Ministry of Science & Technology. During this week, 7 competitions on different subjects were organized and 63 officers/staff were given prizes.
  
• Three Hindi Workshops were organized in which 60 officers/staff were trained.
  
• The officers of Hindi Section conducted inspections of 9 subordinate offices/autonomous institutions regarding progressive use of Hindi.
  
• The officers of Hindi Section took part in the Official Language Conference held at Diu and played active role.
  
• The 25th meeting of Joint Hindi Advisory Committee of Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Science was held on 11th August, 2007 in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Shri Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.
  
• During the year, the second sub committee of Committee of Parliament on Official Language carried out official language inspections of NATMO office situated in Kolkata. Hindi work of NATMO was appreciated by the members.
  

Library

The DST Library continued providing Library, Documentation and Information Services using state-ofart 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 users is backbone of any Library/Information Centre. Collection of books/reports was enriched by acquiring, processing and making available to its users over 376 books/ monographs on different subjects. In addition to this, around 91 books received on Gratis were also processed and made available to the users. Bibliographic details the books are also available on the 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.
  

Integrated Finance Division

The Integrated Finance Division in Department of Science & Technology is headed by Joint Secretary & Financial Adviser; he is assisted by Director (Finance), Deputy Secretary and Under Secretaries. The Controller and Deputy Controller of Accounts are also entrusted with finance functions.

The important tasks and activities are:-

• to advise the Administrative Ministry on all matters falling within the field of delegated powers;
  
• to screen all expenditure proposals required to be referred to the Ministry of Finance for concurrence or comments;
  
• to keep itself closely associated with the formulation of schemes and important expenditure proposals from their initial stages;
  
• to associate itself with the evaluation of progress/performance in the case of projects and other continuing schemes and to see that the results of such evaluation studies are taken into account in the budget formulation.
  

Main items of work of IFD

Examine all proposals from financial angle and render financial advice regarding:
1. Creation, continuation and conversion of posts.
2. Formulation of new schemes/projects and evaluation of their progress.
3. Processing of cases for clearance of standing finance committee, expenditure finance committee, cabinet etc.
4. Release of grants to various organizations, institutes, NGOs, subordinate authorities.
5. Re-delegation of powers to subordinate authorities.
6. Deputations/delegations abroad.
7. Interaction with the Ministry of Finance/Department of Personnel and Training.

During the year 2007-08, all finance matters were attended to within the time schedule prescribed. By careful scrutiny of proposals, it was ensured that the expenditure conformed to budgetary appropriations, the rules and regulations prescribed by the Ministry of Finance and that it was consistent with economy, efficiency and the objectives of the relevant schemes/ programmes in connection with which it was being incurred. The guidelines with regard to fiscal prudence and austerity in Expenditure Management as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure were also sought to be enforced and guidelines relating to effective cash management were also followed. DST was allocated an amount of Rs. 1526.00 crores (Plan) and Rs. 261.30 crores (Non-Plan) for the year 2007-08. The Budget for 2008-09 is Rs. 1790.40 crores [Rs.1530.00 crores (Plan) and Rs. 260.40 crores (Non-Plan)]. Summary of financial requirements is placed in the succeeding pages.