OU may lose ISC to KIIT

Hyderabad: The postponed 105 th International Science Congress (ISC) scheduled to be held in the first week of January in Osmania University is all set to go to the Bhubaneswar-based Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University.

The ISC was scheduled to take place from January 3-7, 2018 in OU campus. However, the Osmania University had communicated to the Indian Association of Science Congress (IASC) its inability to hold the inaugural event of the ISC which would be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the campus. The University authorities had suggested holding the inaugural session at a venue outside the University.

It was against this backdrop that the University had expressed its inability to hold the inaugural in the campus and expressed its inability leading to the indefinite postponement of the event. Taking advantage of this, the KIIT University, Bhubaneswar had reportedly pitched in expressing its interest to the IASC to hold the 105th ISC in its campus.

However, a final decision will be taken on the issue during a scheduled meeting to be held between the officials of the Osmania University and the IASC at Kolkata on December 27. Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official said, “It is unlikely that the IASC will change its mind and agree to the OU’s proposal to hold the inaugural session outside the campus, deviating from its 100-year tradition.”

Further, earlier there might be some chance when the university wanted to hold the ISC inaugural session at Hitex convention centre, but now, it has been booked till March 2017, leaving the Osmania University, to search for another alternative, the university sources said.

Now, the Osmania university has only two options, either it should agree to hold the ISC in the campus or lose it to KIIT University, or to few others who have already pitched in to hold the event, the sources said.