The Children’s Science Congress was held as part of the annual symposium of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) at the Law Auditorium in the Panjab University on Sunday. More than 1,000 students from various schools across the city participated in the event which was organised under the aegis of the Chandigarh Chapter of Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), NASI, Indian Association of bio-technologists and the Patiala Chapter of ISCA.Ashok Mishra, President, NASI, in his inaugural address said there is an urgent need to popularise science among schoolchildren in the country. He described science as the basis of all progress in the society and a subject having a very strong tradition in India.V P Sharma, National Malaria Research Institute, lamented that students these days do not opt for science which may leave a vacuum in the country thus leading to dearth of good scientists. Rahul Chatterjee, young scientist from NEHU, Shillong, gave a presentation on the solar system giving demonstration of the Milky Way, galaxies and the sun with real pictures taken from NASA spacecraft. The children actively participated in the interactive session. Manju Sharma from the Indian Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhi Nagar, delved on the new frontiers of bio-technology with its research application in agriculture, horticulture, animal science, dairying, medical research, environment, capacity building. She also talked about the new areas of science application like nanotechnology, proteomics, genomics, bioinformatics.
