Indian Science Congress (ISC) 2019 was inaugurated today by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PM Modi while delivering the inaugural address, recalled the great Indian scientists of the past, including Acharya J.C. Bose, C.V. Raman, Meghnad Saha, and S.N. Bose.
PM said that they served the people through "minimum resources" and "maximum struggle."
A four-day 106th Session of Indian Science Congress, 2019 is being held from 3rd-7th January, 2019 at Lovely Professional University (LPU), Jalandhar and Punjab.
Narendra Modi also recalled, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri ji and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji and said that Shastri Ji gave us the slogan: "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan," while Atal ji added "Jai Vigyan" to it. He said that now the time has come to take a step further, by adding "Jai Anusandhan."
The Prime Minister urged that "Our Scientists must commit themselves to addressing problems of affordable healthcare, housing, clean air, water and energy, agricultural productivity and food processing. While Science is universal, technology must be local for providing solutions relevant to local needs and conditions."
PM asked the scientists to work towards ease of living for the people. Issues like drought management in low rainfall areas; early disaster warning systems; tackling malnutrition; tackling diseases among children such as encephalitis; clean energy; clean drinking water; and cybersecurity. He called for time-bound solutions through research, in these areas. He also called for research, which is a fusion of Arts and Humanities, Social Science, Science and Technology.
Noting that our strengths in research and development are built on the backbone of our national laboratories, central universities, IITs, IISC, TIFR and IISERs, the Prime Minister said that a strong research ecosystem must be developed in the State Universities and Colleges, as well.
Union Minister for Science & Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan thanked the scientific community of India, for taking India amongst the top ten in the world in the field of Science and Technology.
He expressed thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for his leadership, not only to India but to the whole world and said that the leadership of the PM has been acknowledged by UN Secretary-General who came to India to felicitate PM with the highest international environment award "Champions of the Earth".
He urged the scientific community to focus themselves in ensuring that we are able to use our scientific knowledge for transforming the life of the poorest of the poor; to create cheap technologies for rural, solving issues pertaining to water pollution, providing new vaccines, drugs and innovate in the area of clean energy.
While invoking ISC 2019, the General President, Indian Science Congress Association Dr. Manoj Kr. Chakrabarti said that more innovative and out-of-the-box measures have to be undertaken to come up with smaller, smarter and cheaper technology that will be able to reach every Indian.
During the four- day congress, host of activities are being scheduled at the ISC to showcase for what is being done, what can be done and what would define the future of Science and Technology in India. The events include Women’s Science Congress, Children Science Congress, and Science Exhibition exhibiting various scientific innovations. About 20000 delegates from nearly 60 countries are participating in this mega science Congress.
