Orissa: Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh recently participated in the foundation stone laying ceremony of the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) in Jatani symbolizing his commitment to the development of Odisha and its people.

Addressing to the students in his speech he elaborated that their participation also "Symbolizes the commitment to the cause of education, and particularly to science education."

Realizing the role of education in the development process and steady progress of the nation towards being a modern knowledge society he claims to have undertaken a massive expansion and improvement of our education system at all levels in the last five years and adds that, "We need to do much more."

In the area of science education particularly, he shared the concern that our best minds are not turning to science.

"We must find ways of making science more attractive to our youth by improving the quality of teaching in science and mathematics at the school level. At the university level we must ensure better infrastructure, high quality faculty and greater interaction between academia and industry," he said.

Accounting for the progress in Science & Technology, he enumerated the success of the mission-oriented Science &Technology agencies, like the family of Department of Atomic Energy institutions and aims an operational autonomy, including matters of appointments, to various institutions of excellence under the Department of Atomic Energy, as is the case with some other scientific institutions of eminence in India.

"We need to increase our expenditure on Science & Technology from its current level of 1% of our GDP. This is about half of the level of developed countries," he compared.

Further, he puts forth his agendas to increase the research and development funding which he feels that the government is committed to allocate larger budgets in this area but extends his plea to the private sector to do more for the same.

He expressed the need to encourage the public- private partnership in Research & Development in all areas of Science & Technology.

Focusing to make careers in science and technology attractive, he suggested improving remuneration and ensuring the integrity of the selection process.

"It is well known that the initial starting salary for scientists with a PhD in India is often lower than those of Engineers, Doctors and Management graduates. It is obvious that if talented young people are to be retained in science, scientists have to be treated differently than other government employees in service and salary matters," he said.

The PM feels that, "At NISER, there will be greater emphasis on branches of science relevant to the Department of Atomic Energy, which also cater to better exploitation and utilization of Odisha's natural resources."

Odisha's mineral and marine resources will also be taken into consideration in designing training programs for students here.

Expecting NISER to be an institute at par, with the best in the country in terms of facilities and faculty he listed out some of its goals to be at par with other institutes for science like TIFR and IISc.

"It will have a research to teaching load as practiced in the best universities in the world. This will ensure world-class education and also attract the best researchers. It will have world-class experimental facilities in all the current and emerging branches of science including physics, chemistry, modern biology and environmental sciences."