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Journalism of Courage
On a year that saw the Indian Science Congress being postponed for the first time in 100 years, Prof K VijayRaghavan, former principal scientific advisor to the central government, expressed hope about the prestigious event making a comeback and also pointed out the scope for more science festivals, given the significant size of youth population in the country.
The 109th edition of the Indian Science Congress that was scheduled on January 3 was postponed. Barring two pandemic years of Covid-19 in 2021 and 2022, this one-of-a-kind event has been held every year since 1914.
“Looking at the age group of 15-25 in India- there are approximately 250 million people- more than the population of several countries- and here India needs to understand her responsibility globally and take action. This requires a deep understanding of both fundamental science in the context of societies and what to do about it through technology and application and so on,” Prof VijayRaghavan told The Indian Express, ahead of the festival to be held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER).
The science expert said that youngsters through their curiosity can understand the world in an extraordinary way and such understandings are the streams of knowledge that feed into the goals of the nation and world.
“Hence without these streams, all science and technology will be useless,” said Prof VijayRaghavan, stressing on the importance of curiosity-driven work.
When asked about the dismal findings of the Annual Status of Education Report that highlighted that most rural children aged between 14 and 18 years could not do Class 3-4 math and 25 per cent could not read, the professor said that any one approach taken will not solve the problem.
“Specific efforts have to be taken that can demonstrate impact at a larger level – like the India Science Festival that will be held on a substantially large level every year. These efforts then can lead to solving countless problems,” he said.
The India Science Festival is the flagship annual event of the Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (FAST India), a non-profit institution working to enable the transformation of the country’s science and technology ecosystem through research and policy, government support and science communication.
Varun Aggarwal, cofounder of FAST India and founder of the `India Science Festival – Towards Infinity – Mind, Machines and the Endless Frontier’ told The Indian Express that over 60 talks will be held by scientists from Harvard, MIT, IIT, and IISc at the event.
The speakers include Prof VijayRaghavan; Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist of World Health Organisation; Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys; Prof Samir Mitragori from Harvard University, and others.
Stunning photography showcasing science and science fiction stories will be hosted in the segment ‘The Best of Unfounded Science’ (BoUnSC India) by Rannvijay Singh Singha. “We aim to embed science into the youth culture and make it cool for them,” Aggarwal said.
