Kerala State Innovation Council all set to become a bureaucratic body
24 Nov, 2013
The state government of Kerala has finally decided to convert the State Innovation Council (SIC) into a fully bureaucratic body with a dedicated office and a bunch of officials to be put on deputation with the council from other departments.
Earlier, when in 2011 the centre had asked all the state governments to set up a state innovation council on the lines of the National Innovation Council, the Kerala government had refused to do so saying that the state already had many institutions supporting innovations besides a state planning board and any further such organisation might cause jurisdictional problems. Later, the government decided to set up the council but the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) suggested not constituting it as a permanent body because it would be a body of experts who would meet once in two months.
However, the government ignored the KSIDC suggestion and decided that the State Innovation Council would be developed as a permanent bureaucratic body and would complement and supplement the activities of the National Innovation Council and also decided to depute 15 officials in the council from other departments. In this regard, a reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has shown that the state government has already sanctioned an amount of Rs. 63 lakhs to create a contingency fund for meeting immediate expenses of the council.