Context

• The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (Office of PSA)and the Department of Science and Technology (DST)have jointly initiated a decentralized, bottom-up, and inclusive process for the formulation of a new national Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020).
• As the crisis changes the world, the new policy with its decentralized manner of formation will reorient STI in terms of priorities, sectoral focus, the way research is done, and technologies are developed and deployed for larger socio-economic welfare,

The stip 2020 formulation process is organised into 4 highly interlinked tracks:

• Track I involves an extensive public and expert consultation process through Science Policy Forum.
• Track II comprises experts-driven thematic consultations to feed evidence-informed recommendations into the policy drafting process.
• Track III involves consultations with Ministries and States, while Track IV constitutes apex level multi-stakeholder consultation.
• Track IV consultation with institutional leadership, industry bodies, global partners and inter-ministerial and inter-state consultations represented at the highest levels are being carried out.