Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes: SATHI | 04 Feb 2020

Why in News

The Department of Science & Technology (Ministry of Science and Technology) has launched a unique scheme called Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI).

  • The DST has already set up 3 such centres in the country, one each at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU. It is planned to set up 5 SATHI Centres every year for the next four years.
  • These Centres have major analytical instruments and advanced manufacturing facilities to provide common services of high-end analytical testing, thus avoiding duplication and reduced dependency on foreign sources.

Key Points

  • Science and Technology infrastructure:
    • Address the need for shared, professionally managed and strong Science and Technology infrastructure in the country which is easily accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing, industry and R&D labs.
  • Efficient Use of Equipments:
    • Address the problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of expensive equipment in Institutions.
  • Intellectual Property Rights :
    • Address the issue of Intellectual property (IP) creation and protection, a digital platform will be created which will facilitate seamless application and capture IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights).
  • Knowledge Translation Clusters:
    • These clusters will be set up across different technology sectors including in new and emerging sectors for designing, fabrication and proof of concept and further scaling up technology clusters.
  • Besides the SATHI initiative, extra funds to 100 top-performing departments in universities and IITs etc will be provided in 2020 for augmentation of their research facilities to global benchmarks.
  • The research efforts of these supported departments will be in sync with the national priorities of excellence in manufacturing, waste processing, clean energy and water, and Start-up India, etc.

Note

  • SAATHI (Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of efficient Textile technologies to Help Small Industries) Initiative
    • It is an initiative of the Ministry of Textiles.
    • Objective: To sustain and accelerate the adoption of energy efficient textile technologies in the powerloom sector and cost savings due to use of such technology.
  • SATH (Sustainable Action for Transforming Human capital) Program
    • It is a program of NITI Aayog.
    • Objective: To initiate transformation in the education and health sectors and build 3 future ‘role model’ states.
    • The program addresses the need expressed by many states for technical support.

Source: PIB