The scientific community in the city hopes that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s budget will address their concerns too.
Dr T V Ramachandra of The Energy & Wetlands Research Group at Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore says, “I hope the CM will come up with a budget which will focus on overall growth of all sectors, sections of society and regions of the state. Focus should be on sustaining natural resources, capacity building of rural youth, cluster approaches in development, push for harvesting renewable energy sources, conservation and protection of Western Ghats and watershed programmes.
Dr Hareeni Nagendra, researcher and scientist at Ashoka Trust for Research on Ecology and Environment, says, “I hope the budget includes protection of lakes and planting many more trees as a major agenda and allocates funds for the same.” Dr K V Ravi Shankar, Principal Scientist at the Division of Biotechnology, Indian Institute for Horticultural Research, Bangalore, says, “I expect a programme which will create more jobs.”
Dr Sharada Srinivasan, Professor at the School of Humanities, National Institute of Advanced Sciences, says, “We hope the intellectual eminence of Bangalore and Karnataka will be nurtured through support for institutions of higher learning, not only in science and technology, but also areas such as culture and humanities.”