Dr. Harsh Vardhan has said that the Aspiration of this Government is to make Science an inherent element of Indian Life

Introduction

The Union Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan has said that this Government is making every effort to take the science into the masses. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today he give details on the 2nd India International Science Festival -2016 to be held on 07-11, Dec- 2016, at CSIR –National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Campus in New Delhi.

Emphasizing the importance of taking science into rural India the Minister said that, “We are a government that believes and supports in scientific research, including an appropriate balance between fundamental research to support new discoveries and the commercialization of ideas which would lead to good jobs and sustainable economic growth”. India has declared 2010-20 as the “Decade of Innovation”. In this context, the series of India International Science Festival (IISF) is an integral part of India's long term vision in developing and widening the spectrum of scientific temper in India and abroad' he added.

The Minister said that, the grand success of first IISF-2015 at IIT Delhi has set a unique example of inimitable festival in bridging the gap between Indian scientific innovations and practises. Highlighting the key aspects of the second edition of IISF, the S&T Minister viewed that “the planned ‘Science Village Program' which is linked with ‘Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana' will be a remarkable manoeuvre in taking the science to the rural masses. Under this event, Members of the parliament of both the houses can send five students from their adopted villages to the IISF-2016. “This is the first time in the history of India that the Members of the Parliament across party lines will be sending more than 3000 young children from their adopted villages to the science festival Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

This year the total figure of abstracts for Young Scientists Meet (YSM) that were received is 1769. After reviewing by the expert committee the total number of shortlisted final presentations is 241 for the oral presentation and 1329 for the poster presentations. Among all the papers this year, Talking Book and Agroboat-device to predict weather condition through smartphone for farmers, the wearable demon slayer for security of women, Mechanical Tap to treat sewage water, Solar marine monitor device for defense forces, extraction of diesel from the fruits waste will be some of the highlights.

Prominently this time, all the IIT's showcasing various technologies developed under ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan' would definitely provide professional technology support for rural development of India” the minister said.

The Industry –academia interaction where the industries get opportunities to develop competitive manufacturing capabilities and improve their services through collaborating with the academia would be adding further flavour to the event the minister stated. Further in the international science film festival segment, the nationally and internationally award winning films on various facets of science would be screened. ‘We are also having competition for the Professional and students who are making films on Science” the minister added.

The Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences has been organising India International Science Festival(IISF) in association with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) to promote the science & technology developed by the Indian research labs and to inculcate the scientific temper among masses. The theme of this year festival is “Science for the Masses''.

Source

Press Information Bureau , 02 December, 2016