Modi challenges researchers to help ‘the common man’

India's prime minister Narendra Modi has asked government officials to draw up a list of challenges for the country’s researchers to tackle.

Modi met his top science officials, including Rajagopala Chidambaram, long-serving principal scientific adviser to the government, on 18 July, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

He asked them to provide him with a list of clear targets for research to “provide solutions to improve the lives of the common man in India”, the statement said.