India set to be Major Contributor to World’s “Circular Economy”: Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh
18 April 2023: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that India is set to be a major contributor to world’s “Circular Economy”.
While speaking as chief guest at Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR IIP) – MSME Meet & PAN CSIR – collaborations as part of “One Week-One Lab” program, Dr. Jitendra Singh said “India has huge unexplored amount of waste which is available to be converted to wealth that was not realised earlier as neither there was technology available, nor it was brought up as part of our social culture. But with increasing pace of technological development and, more and more social awareness happening, this will become a rich source of economy which will be exclusive to India. Moreover it will give India an edge over other major economies.”
Minister highlighted that “waste is the wealth of the coming times” and it is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of India being central to global environmental action.
Minister mentioned that CSIR-IIP Dehradun is the only lab in the country which celebrates not wealth, but ‘waste’. He added that this is an institute working for the next generation. The concept of waste to wealth is relatively new and you are its torch bearers, he said. Minister urged the CSIR labs to work in synergy with the MSME sector and industry as part of a wider integration in order to grow sustainably.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the “One Week-One Lab” (OWOL) program should be an opportunity to strengthen partnership between the CSIR labs since each lab has unique mandate and specializes in diverse areas from food to fuel, drugs, environment, materials, leather, genomics, geology and so on. Moreover the OWOL enables CSIR labs to deeply analyse and appreciate their work and use it further for the betterment of the society.
