A slew of India's premier scientific bodies have been slammed by the CAG for their inability to meet deadlines and for wasteful expenditure. Topping the list was the Department of Atomic Energy in which the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology was to complete a synchrotron radiation source, Indus 2, in 1996. Ten years later, the project remains incomplete despite Rs 100 crores having been spent on it. The report highlighted how expenditure on these scientific departments rose by 23 per cent to Rs 20,278 crores in 2006-7. Unfortunately, these departments were unable to spend 15 per cent of their sanctioned budget. The amount unspent is over Rs 3,463 crores. The key departments of atomic energy, space and science and technology had unspent amounts of Rs 1,192 crores, Rs 621 crores and Rs 602 crores respectively. The Solar Energy Centre (SEC) surrendered 44 to 76 per cent of funds allocated to it during the last five years. The SEC, the report states, did not take up any in-house or joint collaborative research projects. Nor did it venture into the crucial area of providing consultancy or attempt to undertake bilateral or multilateral projects with other research institutions, or with the industry. Nor did it attempt to develop any new technology, a must for an energy-starved nation. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre was to set up a nuclear desalination plant to provide potable water in water-scarce coastal areas. A series of desalina tion plants were expected to be set up in African countries, thereby fetching foreign exchange. Six years later, the project remains incomplete because not enough pre-project feasibility studies were conducted and cost overruns have gone up to Rs 34 crores. The areas of public-private partnership were not explored adequately by another premier institute - the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT). Between 2001-6, NIOT undertook eight in-house projects costing Rs 61 crores. All of these failed due to poor project planning and faulty implementation. Technologies in four more projects could not be commercialised because they were undertaken without any market survey and were found devoid of industry participation, which is a must, the report pointed out. Even something as simple as the commissioning of an incinerator system in the crucial Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad was delayed by nine years. The result was that 60 per cent of the expected life of the incinerator, purchased for Rs 53 lakhs, lapsed before it was commissioned.