The Prime Minister today said transformation of the agricultural sector should be the top priority of the country's public policies including those on science and technology. Addressing the centenary session of Indian Science Congress in Kolkata ,Dr Manmohan Singh also said that complex issues related to genetically modified food, nuclear energy or the exploration of outer space cannot be settled by faith, emotion and fear, but by a structured debate.

Noting that growth was constrained by shortage of water and land, he said that new breakthroughs technoligies were needed in water-saving technologies in cultivation, enhancement of land productivity and development of climate-resilient varieties.

Releasing the country's Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013, the Prime Minister said, India
aspires to be among the top five global scientific powers by 2020.

He said development in science and technology had been central to the phenomenal material advancement and efficiency in the use of resources.

The Prime Minister also called upon the younger generation to adopt science-based value system in order to
benefit from what the discipline could offer.

Besides agriculture, he said, the areas of equal concerns were energy security, sanitation and provision of safe
drinking water.

He also said that international collaboration was vital for increasingly resource-intensive modern science to
progress.

The congress was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Science and Technology minister S Jaipal Reddy, West Bengal governor and a host of nobel laureates and scientists.