General

To a layperson, the concept of 'design' is mostly limited to the visual and functional aspects of a product, with the former often taking precedence over the latter. When talking about the design of a product, we generally refer to how it looks, and sometimes, to how it functions. Naturally then, we understand 'design thinking' to be associated with the thinking that goes into the designing of a product. While this is true, it does not bring out the complete meaning of design thinking or its application potential.

The present pandemic has possibly been one of the most disruptive events in our lives, both professionally and personally. It has dislodged us from our comfort zones and challenged us to find novel ways to work, collaborate, and interact. Like everybody else, the Human Resources (HR) team at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) in India had to adapt and evolve to keep up with this unique situation.

This article is an overview of some of the challenges the CSTEP HR team has faced, and how we’ve overcome them.

A monthly newsletter featuring CSTEP commentary, publications, events, and other developments.

A monthly newsletter featuring CSTEP commentary, publications, events, and other developments.

In this Q&A, Research Scientist Dr Pratima Singh notes some key issues and observations on India's Air Pollution story, specifically the need for scientific assessments that can provide good quality insights for policies.

The India Clean Air Summit (ICAS), CSTEP's flagship event on air pollution, was envisaged as a platform to consolidate the latest findings, solutions, and concepts on air pollution. The summit aims to bring scientists, researchers, policymakers, and communicators under one roof to discuss and find informed and implementable solutions to improve our air quality.

(*This blog article has been authored by the Communication & Policy Engagement Team at CSTEP.)

Think Tanks do more than just research. At CSTEP, it is the coming together of science and policy practitioners, modellers, and communicators with a single mandate: bringing forth scientific evidence to improve policy to tackle developmental challenges. In this series, we look at what happens behind the scenes at a technology-policy think tank, and how each link in the chain plays a crucial role.

This is CSTEP's Annual Report for the year 2019-20.

In this year’s annual report, we look at an Evolved CSTEP. We trace our journey, highlight our biggest impact stories, reflect on where we are in achieving our vision, and our efforts towards consolidating research to better enable this. Over the last year, we have consolidated our research into five areas: Energy & Power; Climate, Environment & Ecosystem; Artificial Intelligence & Digital Lab; Materials & Strategic Studies; and Computational Tools.

One consequence of the recent demonetisation was a push towards the digitisation of the economy - a move that will create transparency in the financial system. But this digital push must be accompanied by greater security of digital transactions to deal with the tsunami of cybercrimes that is bound to follow. India's enforcement mechanisms, laws and policies must be re-examined immediately to ensure that the theft of data or money is dealt with severely, swiftly and transparently.

One of the undisputed benefits of the recent demonetisation exercise has been the concerted push towards digitisation of cash transactions. Concomitant with this development has been the rapid growth in the use of smart devices, primarily mobile phones. Though digital payment systems have been in existence for a while, the last few weeks have witnessed an explosive growth in their use. While many welcome the idea of trackable, transparent and frictionless monetary transactions, there are significant risks associated with moving to these systems.