Budget 2021: Scientific social responsibility policy to be announced in coming months Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan said there has been a 30 percent increase in the budget for these ministries. The Department of Biotechnology is developing a Biomass to Hydrogen Mission which will be important from the research and development perspective. The government is likely to come up with a policy on scientific social responsibility in the next two months, Department of Science and Technology Secretary Ashutosh Sharma said on Monday. Scientific social responsibility is an ethical obligation of giving back to less endowed stakeholders of science, technology and innovation as well as society at large. Many scientific institutes have human resource and infrastructure to give back to society. This could be mentoring students or start-ups, he said.