Infrastructure and Policy Support for Women in Science
To create a truly balanced scientific community, it is not enough to just provide scholarships. The government also focuses on improving the physical facilities in women’s colleges and changing the rules of institutions to make them more “woman-friendly.” Through dedicated programs like CURIE, Vigyan Jyoti, and GATI, India is building a strong foundation where girls and women can excel in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM).
Consolidation of University Research for Innovation and Excellence (CURIE)
The CURIE programme focuses on building state-of-the-art research infrastructure specifically in women-only institutions. The goal is to ensure that women students have access to the same high-quality labs and equipment as any other top-tier university.
Main Components of CURIE:
- Support to Women Universities: This helps established women’s universities set up advanced laboratories for basic and applied sciences.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Labs: A modern feature of CURIE is the establishment of specialized AI labs in women’s universities. This helps students prepare for high-tech jobs in the digital economy.
- Support to Women PG Colleges: This component extends help to post-graduate (PG) colleges in smaller towns and cities, ensuring that research facilities are available beyond just the big metropolitan areas.
Vigyan Jyoti: Encouraging School Girls
The Vigyan Jyoti programme is designed to “light the spark” of scientific interest in young girls at the school level. It targets meritorious girls from Class IX to XII to encourage them to pursue higher education in STEM fields where women are currently underrepresented.
Key Features of the Programme:
- Wide Reach: It is currently active in 250 districts across 34 States and Union Territories.
- Holistic Support: It provides more than just books. It includes student-parent counselling to help families understand the benefits of a scientific career.
- Real-World Exposure: Girls are taken on visits to scientific laboratories, industries, and research centres to see how science works in real life.
- Interaction with Role Models: Students get to talk to successful women scientists, which helps them gain confidence and clear their doubts.
Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI)
While CURIE builds labs and Vigyan Jyoti helps students, GATI focuses on changing the institutions themselves. It aims to create a new “Charter” or a set of rules for colleges and research centres to ensure gender equality.
How GATI Works:
- Institutional Transformation: It encourages colleges to look at the “life cycle” of a woman’s career—from the day she joins as a student to the day she becomes a senior professor—and remove any barriers she might face.
- Mentoring Support: Participating institutions receive ongoing guidance on how to make their campuses more inclusive and fair.
- Pilot Phase: Currently, 30 Indian institutions are participating in the GATI pilot project to test these new equity standards.
Conclusion
Through these initiatives, the government is addressing gender inequality from three different angles: CURIE provides the tools (infrastructure), Vigyan Jyoti provides the inspiration (school-level support), and GATI provides the environment (institutional policy). Together, they ensure that the scientific path for women is clear, supported, and globally competitive.
National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board
The National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), established in 1982 by the Government of India under the aegis of Department of Science & Technology supports various programs on Science, technology and innovation based entrepreneurship, and enables promotion of knowledge driven and technology intensive ventures / startups.
- Since the thrust on startup programs through the national iniatives of Start-Up India and Stand-Up India, a new program NIDHI (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations) has been launched in 2016 which enables innovators and startups to translate their ideas into successful startups. DST nurtures and empowers innovators and startups since their initial phase of startup journey.
Major Objectives of NSTEDB:
- To promote and develop high-end entrepreneurship for S&T manpower as well as self-employment by utilizing S&T infrastructure and by using S&T methods.
- To facilitate and conduct various informational services relating to promotion of entrepreneurship.
- To network agencies of the support system, academic institutions and Research & Development (R&D) organizations to foster entrepreneurship and self-employing using S&T with special focus on backward areas as well.
- Implementation of the NIDHI programs
- To act as a policy advisory body with regard to entrepreneurship.
