New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Mrs. Sheila Dikshit has approved a Detailed Project Report prepared by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) for establishing a Science & Technology Park in the capital.

The proposed S&T Park will be established by the Government of Delhi at the Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT) campus in Dwarka, covering an area of over 30 acres with a built up area of over 2 million square feet.

The Detailed Project Report for the S&T Pak was prepared by NASSCOM with assistance from PricewaterhouseCoopers through a consultative process involving detailed interactions with industry firms involved in R&D activities, academicians and research institutions.

The project is a part of the State Government's effort to foster industry-institutional partnerships in the area of advanced technology research, provide opportunity for NSIT to leverage industry expertise to support advanced research and to position Delhi as an important destination for advanced research in IT, science and technology.

Mrs. Sheila Dikshit said, "We see the Science and Technology Park at Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT) as a strategic initiative to position Delhi as a pre-eminent R&D cluster for the knowledge industries which are today looking at undertaking advanced scientific research across various fields. The strong presence of industry, academia and other resources in and around Delhi enables high end R&D and innovation and this initiative is an attempt by us to create that opportunity".

"This initiative is a key milestone to establish Delhi as a global innovation hub and serve as a platform for holistic and sustainable industry and academia partnership, thereby attracting to Delhi and retaining high-quality talent. We are very pleased to kick start this activity and with NASSCOM's continuing support and involvement in this pioneering project, we are confident of its success", Dikshit added.

Some of the areas identified for research at the Park are Information and Communication Technology, Biotechnology & Life-sciences, automotive technologies, Nanotechnology, Photonics, Environmental Sciences, Micro Engineering.

While the Science & Technology Park will predominantly focus on research and development in emerging technologies, the Park will also include an incubator to promote entrepreneurship in technology innovations and plug-n-play facilities for use for young start-up firms.

NASSCOM President Mr. Som Mittal said, "The NASSCOM BCG Innovation Report 2007 highlighted that the lack of sustainable linkages between the ecosystem constituents, academia, user industry, R&D institutes and IT industry, is a key reason for the weakness of the Indian innovation ecosystem. Therefore a key part of NASSCOM's innovation agenda today involves the promotion of an Indian innovation ecosystem through development of innovation clusters."

"The Science and Technology Park at NSIT can play the role of a catalyst in the development of an innovation cluster in the NCT region and thereby making it an important initiative towards the overall development of the Indian innovation ecosystem. Through this initiative we also aim to step up industry and academia interactions for capacity building in emerging technologies at both faculty and student levels. While there are a number of facilities in India for technology related activities, but only a very few focus on pure research and development making the NSIT S&T Park a first-of-its-kind in the country. We compliment the Delhi Government for this important national initiative and assure them of NASSCOM's complete support to make this a success", he further said.