new delhi

India's senior science administrators say that the fall of the government last week is unlikely to have a significant impact on science and technology activities, provided that the budget is passed without cuts by the new government.

The 1999-2000 budget was presented by the coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 28 February (see Nature 398, 4; 1999). The budget must be approved by parliament within 75 days, but the government was defeated in parliament in a confidence motion last week. Opposition parties led by the Congress party are likely to pass the budget without making major changes.

“The BJP had given us an excellent budget for science this year and we never had it so good,” says Ragunath Mashelkar, chief of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. “I hope the budget will be passed and that there will not be any cut.”

Some observers say, however, that, although the budget for science is unlikely to be revised, the allocation for the nuclear weapons programme — a top priority of the BJP government — may be cut by the Congress party if it forms the government.

Valangiman Ramamurthi, secretary of the ministry of science and technology, says the change in government is of no significance as far as India's participation in the World Conference on Science is concerned. India's position at the conference has been decided, although “who will lead the delegation is something we have to wait for until a new government is formed”.

Full text: http://helix.nature.com/wcs/b31.html