The India International Science Festival (IISF), organised by Vijnana Bharti, a social organisation committed to promoting ‘swadeshi science’ and affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has received a 200% increase in its budget this year from the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.
The festival was first held last year at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and will be held next week at the National Physical Laboratory, a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) institute.
Nearly 5,000 scientists, technology demonstrators and students, including at least 1,000 specially-selected children from villages, spanning 200 Lok Sabha constituencies, are expected to attend the four-day event beginning on December 7.
‘On a bigger scale’
“The budget for this year is Rs. 12 crore. Last year, it was around Rs. 4 crore,” Science Minister Harsh Vardhan said at a press conference. “It’s at a bigger scale this year and we want everyone in the country to know what kind of science and technology development is happening across the country.”
The IISF will also attempt to break a ‘Guinness World Book Record,’ of having the largest number of people dressed up as physicist, Albert Einstein, said A. Jayakumar, secretary-general, Vijnana Bharti.
“We will have officials from the organisations to confirm this just like last year when we set a record for the maximum number of students performing a science experiment,” he told The Hindu .
The IISF precedes the Indian Science Congress, held in the first week of January, and a century-old forum for scientists and students to gather and get acquainted with the scientific developments in the country. This year’s Science Congress is to be organised in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
