New Delhi, Sep 26 — Professor Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the government, has stressed the need for ‘RuTAG’ to remain focused on addressing practical and genuine challenges faced by rural communities.
He emphasised that technological interventions should be scalable and sustainable, stating that “the objective should increasingly be depth of impact rather than breadth of activity.”
Prof. Sood further underlined that affordability should not compromise quality, reliability, safety, or durability.
He further emphasised that technologies which have reached maturity should progressively move beyond programme-supported development towards adoption by relevant institutions, enterprises, or industry.
He also referred to the RSVC-AMRIT platform, developed by NABARD in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, in the context of supporting technology discovery, validation, deployment, and collaboration.
Conceptualised in 2003-04 and formally established in 2004, ‘RuTAG’ was instituted to connect the capabilities of scientific and technical institutions with rural technology needs.
‘RuTAG 2.0’, launched in 2023, places greater emphasis on field engagement, technology validation, commercialisation, scale-up, and their wider application.
A review meeting brought together stakeholders from all seven RuTAG Centres to take stock of the cumulative progress of projects under RuTAG 2.0, and deliberate on technology maturity, field validation, measurable outcomes, pathways for wider adoption and the future course of the programme, according to an official statement.
Dr Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary, OPSA, observed that RuTAG technologies have reached a stage where their contribution needs to be considered in the context of broader rural value chains and livelihood systems, rather than as standalone technological solutions.
She said that “the strength of RuTAG will increasingly lie in how effectively its technologies are adopted and scaled.”
Professor Kamal Kishore Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee, highlighted the role of science, technology, and entrepreneurship in addressing the evolving challenges of rural communities.
He emphasised the need to translate research outcomes into practical solutions and viable models that can support sustainable agriculture, local livelihoods, employment and entrepreneurship, particularly in remote and rural regions.