A high-powered committee would soon be formed to work out the modalities of setting up a mega science city complex in Chennai. The facility would be modelled after Tokyo Science City, Higher Education Secretary K.Ganesan said.
Inaugurating the fourth edition of the Chennai Science Festival at the Periyar Science and Technology Centre here on Saturday, he said a number of regional science centres would be commissioned across the State.
A facility, built at a cost of Rs.8.5 crore, would be inaugurated in Coimbatore shortly. The theme of the science festival this year is ‘Science in everyday life'.
Reflecting on the impact of science on the lives of farmers, Mr.Ganesan said that while China achieved a grain productivity of 20 tonnes per hectare, even a yield of seven tonnes per hectare was considered a record in India.
“The reality is that despite our scientific advances, science has largely remained within institutions and laboratories. It has not had much impact on the lives of ordinary people,” he said.
Madras University Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam said that despite all the promises of change that science offered, the poorest people still remain cut-off and 10 million children in India go to sleep every night on an empty stomach.
The university had constituted an ad hoc board of studies, consisting mainly of non-academics, to look into ways in which science education could be transformed.
S.P. Thyagarajan, chairman, Tamil Nadu State Academic Audit and Accreditation Council, and R. Prabhakaran, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Science University (TANUVAS), spoke.
Nearly 120 institutions are participating in this year's science festival.
