India has decided to double the expenditure in Research and Development. Major initiatives were being taken by India in super computing, material sciences, genomics, nano sciences and plan breeding techniques and synthetic biology. The Minister of State for Planning, Science and Technology and Earth Science Dr. Ashwani Kumar was addressing the Opening Plenary Session of the 8th Annual Meeting STS Forum on Science and Technology for the future of Humankind in Tokyo on Sunday.

He assured the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Mr. Masaharu Nakagawa that India would favorably consider the proposal dedicated to the idea of regional and global endeavor to solve common problems. During his meeting with the German Minister of Education and Research, Ms. Annette Schavan, Dr. Kumar proposed a major Indo-German programme for vocational skill up gradation. He expressed the hope that German expertise and collaboration with German industries and business would enable India to achieve its ambitious programme of skilling 500 million Indians by 2022.