Use science for improving agriculture, PM Modi says at ESTIC

In his inaugural address at the first Emerging Science Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) in New Delhi on Monday (November 3, 2025), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India’s scientists should generate ideas to move from food security to nutrition security; create biofortified crops to address malnutrition; develop low-cost fertilizers; better map India’s genomic biodiversity for personalised medicine; and arrive at new and cheap innovation in clean battery storage. “This conclave should make a collective roadmap towards achieving these goals,” Mr. Modi said, addressing an auditorium full of representatives from scientific Ministries, and technologists.

Commencing his speech by congratulating the Indian women’s cricket team on their maiden World Cup win, he said that the 21st century was an epoch of “unusual changes” that were being shaped by science and technology.

India’s expenditure on research and development had doubled in the last decade, the number of patents registered had grown 17 times, and the number of ‘deeptech startups’ risen to 6,000, Mr. Modi said. India had made operational a fund of ₹1 lakh crore via the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, which would help scientists and technologists in the public and private sectors to invest more substantially in research and development, he said.

The ESTIC replaces the Indian Science Congress, the oldest congregation of scientists in India, with a history predating Independence. Over the years, the Indian Science Congress had gone into oblivion, with its last session held in 2023.

The ESTIC continues till November 5, with sessions on quantum science, bio-engineering and energy environment, and climate.