CSIR Directors provide inputs to forthcoming IISF-2019
Hyderabad: In view of the Indian Science Festival (IISF)-2019 to be held at Kolkata during November 5-8, the Directors of 3 Hyderabad based CSIR Institutions – Dr. S Chandrasekhar (Director CSIR-IICT), Dr. V M Tiwari (Director CSIR-NGRI) and Dr. R K Mishra (Director, CSIR-CCMB) addressed a joint Press Meet at CSIR-NGRI to brief about the IISF-2019 and the outreach events being conducted by these three Institutions in Hyderabad the as a curtain raiser to IISF-2019.
Dr. V M Tiwari informed that the outreach events at CSIR-NGRI included visit of more than 8000 students/public members as on September 26, which coincided with the Foundation Day of the CSIR. As a part of this outreach programme, more than 250 students visited NGRI on Wednesday to know about its research activities and a public lecture was delivered by Prof. Barton A. Forman (From University of Maryland, USA) on the topic "Global Freshwater from Space: Where, When, and How"
Dr. S Chandrasekhar informed the media that the IISF, organised jointly by Vijnana Bharathi (VIBHA), Ministry of S & T and other science ministries under the GOI started in the year 2015 and is being held every year at different places like Delhi (2016), Chennai (2017), Lucknow (2018). He mentioned that this is a call from Narendra Modi , the president of CSIR and the Prime Minister of India and Dr. Harsh Vardhan (Union Minister for Health and Environmental Welfare, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences) to all the scientific institutions of the country to make the school and college students aware of the scientific achievements that improve/uplift the life style of the public in general.
Few of the students studying from Class IX to XII in Hyderabad schools and colleges, who are interested to attend the event, will be sponsored by the three CSIR institutions in Hyderabad. The Directors have already talked to some of the Principals of Schools to provide the list of enthusiastic and bright students from of these classes for sponsorship. Through this press meet, the three Directors requested some of the parents also to encourage and support their kids to visit IISF, Kolkata.
Dr. R K Mishra, Director, CCMB mentioned that the school and college students of the city and state of Telangana and the surrounding states have opportunities to visit the CSIR institutions in Hyderabad round the year. This way the students get wonderful opportunity to know what is being done at the various national R & D laboratories and how science is serving the society. He also mentioned that the Science & Technology inevitable for sustenance and advancement of the human race. He further stated that there should be an S & T road map for publicity of science. He also said that all the three laboratories are quite active in outreach programmes. He thanked the media for regularly conveying the message very effectively fully to the public.
Dr. V M Tiwari further said that every IISF event will have new editions of Science & Technology that has been brought out during the previous year. He also stated that the displays at IISFs include the issues solvable through science and technology. The fest is being conducted during the festival period of India. Finally, he thanked the media.