The first meeting of chief science advisers’ roundtable of G -20 nations (G20-CSAR) was organised in Ramnagar on Wednesday. In the meeting deliberations on trans-boundary science technology and issues of mutual interest were held. G20-CSAR is the flagship event under India's G-20 presidency and was led by the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (GoI).
Informing about the event the principal scientific advisor to GoI, Ajay Kumar Sood said that discussions under the broad themes of opportunities in one health for better disease control and pandemic preparedness, synergizing global efforts to expand access to scholarly scientific knowledge, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in science and technology and an institutional mechanism for inclusive, continuous and action- oriented global science and technology policy dialogue were held on the day.
“Under the theme opportunities in one health for better disease control and pandemic preparedness, we discussed pandemic preparedness plan for flexible, adaptive, and timely responses to pandemics, integrated disease surveillance mechanisms for humans, livestock, and wildlife, Research and development roadmap for diseases of one health importance, and investing in analytics and data standards,’’ he said.
Sood said that it was discussed that the access to the scientific knowledge should be free, immediate, and universal, high subscription and article processing charges levied by journals should be reduced.
He said that the third theme was on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in Science & Technology (S&T). “The participating countries shared their work in advancing access to the under-represented, under-privileged, marginalized, minority as well as tribal/ native communities in the larger scientific enterprise. In the session, the Inclusion of traditional knowledge systems in the formal system of knowledge through due scientific validation process, and recognizing the potential of language diversity and addressing the bottlenecks in accessing scientific knowledge were held,’’ he said.
He further informed that in the fourth session discussions on the need for having an institutional Mechanism for inclusive, continuous and action- oriented global Science and Technology policy dialogue was held. It was agreed that the scientific advisers play a critical role in shaping policy choices by providing evidence-driven science advice and that the in the spirit of cooperation and dialogue and it is the responsibility of chief science advisers to collaborate and engage in international dialogue to address trans-boundary issues affecting the entire scientific enterprise so that the science and technology can benefit all.
“The deliberations and engagement on the topics discussed today will continue until August 2023, when the next meeting is scheduled, in which a Science Policy Communiqué will be released,’’ he informed.
