The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the Vaishwik Bharatiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit, a global virtual summit of overseas and resident Indian researchers and Academicians on Gandhi Jayanti, 2nd October 2020 which concluded on 31st October.

About 2600 overseas Indians registered, 3200 panelists and about 22,500 academicians and scientists from India and overseas participated in this month-long series of webinars. Overall Indian diaspora from 71 countries participated in this summit. In terms of participation, coverage of areas, intensity of discussions, number of hours spent on discussions, number of countries and quality of participants, this summit has created a benchmark in itself.

VAIBHAV and Atmanirbhar Bharat

    • VAIBHAV has led the way in establishing research capability as an important avenue towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

    • Resident and overseas Indians have given an integrated perspective of research and academic capabilities to seamlessly contribute to India’s S&T capability for global good.

    • VAIBHAV has created an interactive and facile mechanism in the Cyberspace, and has promoted collaboration and the development of leadership.

    • It is a grand initiative in the area of science and research not just for academic institutes but also for public funded R&D organizations and Industry that utilizes the outcome of research.

VAIBHAV: A wide spectrum of deliberations

    • VAIBHAV deliberations were held under a structured framework of many areas and subjects.

    • Key highlights are

        ◦ 18 Verticals (Areas)

        ◦ 80 Horizontals (Subjects)

        ◦ 230 Panel Discussion Sessions

        ◦ 23 Days of Panel Deliberations

        ◦ 3169 Panelists

        ◦ 22500 Attendees

        ◦ 722 Hours of Formal Deliberations

    • The discussions were held on

        ◦ computational sciences,

        ◦ electronics & communication,

        ◦ quantum technologies,

        ◦ photonics,

        ◦ aerospace technologies,

        ◦ health and medical sciences,

        ◦ pharma and biotechnology,

        ◦ agro-economy and food security,

        ◦ material & processing technologies,

        ◦ advanced manufacturing, earth sciences,

        ◦ energy, environmental sciences,

        ◦ management and social sciences

VAIBHAV: New Collaborations in Emerging Areas

    • Certain areas of collaboration have emerged which were not stressed in the past, such as bioremediation, urban ore recycling and metal organics.

    • Experts debated on the future electricity grids, interactive but islandable microgrids and related technologies key to electrification in India and maintaining resilience.

    • At one time-zone in the cyberspace, a session was discussing the importance of assembly packaging various functionality over a single chip, while at the another time-zone technical ideas with respect to trapped ions and atomic clock were being proposed.

    • Areas of collaboration identified are

        ◦ wafer level packaging,

        ◦ 3D integration for MEMS,

        ◦ Heterogeneous integration of 2D materials on Silicon platform,

        ◦ Full Mission Mode Engine Cycle Analysis,

        ◦ Aero Elastic Analysis of Fan,

        ◦ Hot Turbine Blade Cooling Technology,

        ◦ Membrane separation for purification of elements,

        ◦ Ge purification for detector application,

        ◦ Highly doped Ge for THz and Mid IR frequencies

VAIBHAV – RESPONSE & WAY FORWARD

    • A panelist described Vaibhav to be ‘encouraging grounded scientists and academicians’, an organizing institute measured it by saying that it was a ‘historical and mammoth exercise without flashy names’.

    • On the sidelines of the summit, resident researchers are discussing with their international collaborators to take forward indigenous technologies to maturation.

    • A panel was of the view that “directed research support, regulatory requirement for industries to identify future technical trajectories, and incentives to promote academia-industry collaboration” are key mechanisms for enabling research collaboration and commercialization.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)