Inaugurating the 86th Indian Science Congress here on Sunday, the prime minister told a galaxy of Indian scientists in the presence of over 5,000 delegates drawn from all over the country and abroad, that the government has taken a number of initiatives aimed at enabling India to become a major global IT Power, with software exports targeted at $50 billion by the year 2008, he said.

``India will have an immense opportunity if we add to IT the advantage of our rich biodiversity and traditional knowledge. Another multi-billion dollar opportunity, with a simultaneous impact on the health of our population, will open up then,'' he said. Vajpayee said India should have a sizable share in the international market for herbal and biotech products expected to reach billions ofdollars in the early parts of the next century on the strength of its biodiversity.

For the development of science in the country, the prime minister unveiled a four-pronged creative strategy for the scientific community, government, educational institutions and industry to jointly accomplish.

He asked the scientists to focus not only on quantity, but also on quality that could stand international scrutiny.

``We must resolve not to remain mostly a recipient of scientific and technological knowledge from outside, but also become a giver, a major contributor,'' he said.

The prime minister did highlight the importance of forging closest possible collaborations with the best institutions across the globe ``in this world of interdependence''.

However, Vajpayee said ``our scientists must be prepared to deliver the goods, if any country tries to arm-twist us and deny us the opportunities of legitimate scientific co-operation.''

The second important task, according to the prime minister, is that thescientific establishment must be re-focussed on problem-solving, especially meeting the felt needs of the industry, agriculture and services to create a hunger-free society.

Vajpayee said higher learning and research should be freed from bureaucratisation and asked the Science Congress to come up with an action plan that would enable students, teachers and scientists spend more time on creative research than on ``unproductive and needless red-tapism.''

Further, the prime minister also called upon the scientists to ``train children and young generation in a spirit of scientific enquiry.''Murali Manohar Joshi, minister for human resources and development and science and technology, called up on the prime minister to consider a substantial increase in the R&D budget of the country not only ``for strategic areas of defence, atomic energy and sapce, but also in other areas of societal relevance''.

The OECD countries together account for 85 per cent of the total world expenditure on science and technology.China, India and some of the newly industrialised countries together account for just 10 per cent of the countries' research and development. In order to promote innovative talents, the HRD ministry is instituting several new awards and scholarships. Joshi said he has asked the department of biotechnology to institute 10 awards, every year for outstanding brilliant young scientists, below 45, in biosciences.

Joshi proposed that various ministries and departments should implement 21 important developmental projects as `Jai Vigyan National missions' this year. They would be green channel projects, whereby government would remove or relax unnecessary procedures for fast-track implementation. The prime minister had supported his proposal, he added.

These projects would be chosen in priority areas such as food security, energy conservation, disaster management, health care, biofertilisers, and biodiversity conservation. Earlier, the prime minister gave away the `Shatabdi Puraskar' to seven leading scientistsfor their contribution to Indian science in this millennium.

They include MS Swaminathan, V Ramalingaswamy, CNR Rao, MGK Menon, T N Khoshoo and MM Sharma.