Top Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) institutes in the city – Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) – have jointly offered to sponsor interested high school students to attend the forthcoming India International Science Festival-2019 (IISF) to be held in Kolkata in November first week.
“We have already approached a few schools requesting them to send us the names of bright students studying between classes IX and XII, who are passionate about science. We will take care of all the expenses for the three-day meet in Kolkata to expose them to the work being done by various scientific institutions across the country,” said IICT Director S. Chandrasekhar.
Flanked by CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra and NGRI Director V.M. Tiwari, Dr. Chandrasekhar told a press conference here on Wednesday that while the Indian Science Congress primarily catered to university students, the IISF was for the senior schoolchildren to imbibe scientific spirit, promote scientific temper among students and attract talented youngsters towards careers in science.
Union Minister for Science and Technology Harshvardhan would participate in the festival, which would be held from November 5 to 8, along with other top political leaders. The IISF, which has the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a new forum started in 2015 to draw young minds towards science and technology and it has earlier been held in Lucknow, twice in Delhi and once in Chennai.
“All the 37 CSIR institutions will showcase scientific achievements at the mega exhibition there and scientists will directly interact with the students and others about the latest happenings in the fields of science and technology in the country,” said Dr. Tiwari.
Film festival
Various activities lined up for the science festival include global scientists’ meet, young scientists’ conference, students science village, women scientists’ conclave, teachers’ congress, science literature festival, science films festival, start-up conclave and students model competition.
Mr. Mishra pointed out that the CSIR institutions conduct outreach programmes throughout the year throwing open their labs for interested educational institutions and it was imperative to focus on developing science and technology if India is to become a developed nation.
“Attracting young minds is crucial to see progress in research in the fields of science and technology. Public funding or support from the government or from charitable trusts for basic science research is vital as immediate results in these fields are difficult to come by,” he asserted.
Earlier, University of Maryland’s professor Barton A. Foreman delivered a lecture on ‘Global Freshwater from Space: Where, When and How’.
