India Embraces Science and Tech for a Sustainable Future

Starting February 28, the 'National Science Day 2022', India is set to embrace a long term 'Integrated approach in science and technology for sustainable future' which has been identified as the theme for the day this year. The National Science Day is celebrated on February 28, which happens to be the day of the discovery of the CV Raman effect and the theme was announced on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh said, every year the theme is conceived keeping in consideration the immediate priorities of the nation, of the society, and the world as a whole. "India today is also increasingly assuming a global role and as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been reiterating at every available forum that we have to come out of the culture of working in silos, I think gradually, now, to come out of silos is no longer a matter of only option or by choice, it is a necessity," Singh said.

The National Science Day is celebrated on February 28, which happens to be the day of the discovery of the CV Raman effect. | Wikimedia Commons

"This is also one of the best times to give a push to this theme, because we are going through a pandemic which has not only generated a tremendous amount of public awareness about the various technologies available to us, various innovations but it has also led to integration on its own," the Minister said and cited examples from the last two years about how various departments, ministries and institutions across the country have come together to collaborate with each other in order to ensure the survival of mankind against corona.

"So if the CSIR was bringing in a technology, the trial was being conducted for the first ever DNA vaccine, we had a corporate house waiting to develop it further and we had the ICMR to testify it. It is an opportunity also for us to consciously dedicate ourselves to this approach which is going to have a huge futuristic implication," Singh observed.

'Integrated approach in science and technology for sustainable future' has been identified as the theme for the day this year. | Photo by Rohan Makhecha on Unsplash

He elaborated on what integration in science mean: The first is that all the science ministries dealing with the science department come together and have a theme-based approach or theme-based projects instead of working in isolation. The second is extending science integration to aligning it with other institutions dealing with science & technology, for example the IITs, regardless of whether they are dealing with the engineering streams or medical streams.

The third would be the extra science integration i.e. to align with the other line ministries where those ministries take the help of what the science ministries have developed, for example, the Jal Shakti Ministry making use of CSIR's heli-borne provision to detect underground water. The fourth is the extended, science-driven, all-inclusive integration, which means including industry, the Start Ups. "Because ultimately to make it sustainable and to finally achieve the ultimate goal of bringing ease of living for a common man, you have to have the market sources also integrated," Singh explained.

The secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Dr S Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology Dr Vijay Gokhale and Secretary CSIR Dr Shekhar C Mande also spoke on the occasion. (IANS/ MBI)

(Keywords: Science, National Science Day, CV Raman, Raman Effect, Dr S Chandrashekhar, theme, integration in scince, february)