new delhi

The Indian government has announced that it intends to convene a meeting of the country's top scientists to draw up a national plan of action to implement recommendations endorsed by the World Conference on Science, which ended in Budapest last week.

The recommendations are included in two documents, Declaration on Science and the Uses of Scientific Knowledge and Science Agenda: Framework for Action. These were unanimously endorsed by delegates at the end of the six-day meeting, which was jointly organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and the International Council for Science (ICSU) (for full report, see pages 100 and 101).

The Indian action plan will be submitted to the Unesco general conference in October, according to Muril Manohar Joshi, India's minister for science, who led the country's delegation in Budapest.

At a press conference in New Delhi, Joshi said that India was pleased with the outcome of the conference, and especially with the widespread support it received for its proposals for protecting traditional knowledge systems, compensating developing nations for the loss they suffer through the brain drain, and the possible regular publication of a World Technology Report.

Given that India's proposals on these topics had been adopted, Joshi said that the country would make a concentrated effort to ensure that steps are taken, in consultation with other countries in the region, to put into practice the principles and guidelines contained in the two final documents.

“We will immediately start those activities for which external support is likely to become available,” says Valangiman Ramamurthi, secretary to the Department of Science and Technology.