Who was the first Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India?

The correct answer is B, the Scientific Policy Resolution of 1958. It was the first policy statement on science adopted by independent India, placed before Parliament during the prime ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru and shaped in large part by Homi Bhabha. It declared that the state would foster, sustain and cultivate science and scientific research in all its aspects, and it tied national development to a scientific temper. Option A, the Technology Policy Statement, came twenty-five years later in 1983 and dealt with technological self-reliance and indigenous technology rather than with science as a whole. Option C, the Science and Technology Policy of 2003, was the first to join the two words in one document and set the target of two per cent of GDP for research spending, but it was the third such document. Option D, the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of 2013, added innovation as a third element and came last of the four.

The correct answer is C, the Prime Minister of India. CSIR was set up in 1942 and is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, and by its rules the Prime Minister holds the office of President of the society by virtue of the post. Option A is wrong because the President of India is not part of the CSIR structure; the office is ceremonial in a different sphere and does not extend to a registered society of this kind. Option B is wrong but is the common trap: the Union Minister of Science and Technology is the Vice-President of CSIR, one step below. Option D is wrong because the Principal Scientific Adviser, an office created only in 1999, advises the government and chairs the Executive Council of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, but has no presiding role in CSIR. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar was the first Director General of CSIR.

The correct answer is C, 2023. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act was passed by Parliament in 2023 to create a single apex body for funding research across the sciences, including in state universities and colleges, which earlier received very little central research money. The same Act dissolved the Science and Engineering Research Board and transferred its work to the new foundation. Option A, 2018, is the year the Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council was constituted and the year the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship began, not the year of the foundation. Option B, 2020, is the year in which a fifth science, technology and innovation policy was drafted and put out for consultation, which is why it is an attractive wrong choice. Option D, 2024, is the year the government gathered its science awards into the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, not the year of this Act.

The correct answer is A, 2008. The Science and Engineering Research Board Act was passed in 2008 and the board was constituted as a statutory body under the Department of Science and Technology to fund basic research in the sciences and engineering through competitive grants to individual scientists. Its functions passed to the Anusandhan National Research Foundation under the Act of 2023. Option B, 2010, is wrong; it is the first year of the Decade of Innovation declared for 2010 to 2020. Option C, 2013, is wrong but tempting because that is the year of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, a policy document and not a statute creating a funding body. Option D, 2016, is wrong; that is the year the Atal Innovation Mission was set up under NITI Aayog to run Atal Tinkering Labs and support start-ups, a separate initiative altogether.

The correct answer is D, 1971. The Department of Science and Technology was created in 1971 as the nodal department for the promotion of new areas of science and technology and for the coordination of scientific work across ministries; it now runs the INSPIRE programme, the fellowships and the Vigyan Dhara scheme. Option A, 1958, is wrong, though it is the trap year: that is the year of the Scientific Policy Resolution and also the year the Defence Research and Development Organisation was formed and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize instituted. Option B, 1962, and option C, 1966, are wrong; no scientific department was created in either year, and they are offered only as near misses. Remember the sequence of the three departments under the Ministry of Science and Technology: science and technology in 1971, scientific and industrial research in 1985 and biotechnology in 1986.