New Delhi: Government on August 13 announced in the Rajya Sabha setting up of a seismology centre to study occurrence of earthquakes and landslides.

Replying to a discussion on Science and Technology policy in Rajya Sabha, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said Indian scientists have acquired fair degree of precision in predicting storms and weather but study needs to be done on earthquake and landslide phenomenon.

"It has been decided to set up a seismology centre to study occurrence of earthquakes," he said adding construction of earthquake resistance buildings have been included in all structural engineering courses in the country.

Joshi said Indian scientists have developed 'Simputer', a simpler form of computers, which operates on voice command. Simputer will be available in 10 Indian languages besides English.

"When commercial production starts, it will be available for Rs 10,000 and can be used for education purpose extensively," he said.

India has offered to sell the 'Simputer' technology to poor countries for $ 20,000 and to rich nations for $ 250,000.

Stating that technology should carry a human face, Joshi said, "Science and Technology should not be driven by market forces but (they) should drive market forces."

"Science should be developed for service of humanity, economic development and security of the nation," he said.

Responding to members' concern, Joshi said IITs have 150 vacancies for teachers while there were about 10,000 vacancies for teachers in engineering colleges throughout the country.

PTI