The 86th annual session of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) and a symposium on the subject of science, technology and entrepreneurship for human welfare in the Himalayan region in Dehradun from December 2 to 4 in Dehradun. The three-day programme being organised jointly by the Uttarakhand State Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) and Uttarakhand Technical University will be inaugurated at the Forest Research Institute auditorium on Friday morning while the activities on the remaining two days will be held at the Vigyan Dham campus of UCOST at Jhajhra on the outskirts of Dehradun, informed the council’s director general Rajendra Dobhal. He said that NASI president professor Akhilesh K Tyagi will preside over the inaugural function which will be inaugurated by eminent scientist professor G Padmanaban from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore with the Uttarakhand governor Krishan Kant Paul also slated to attend the inauguration.
Science and technology can facilitate entrepreneurship development in varied ways like in identifying fresh innovative ideas and opportunities, facilitating selection for venturing, helping in assemblage of resources, bridging the gap between research and development and commercialisation, facilitating entrepreneurial training, education and awareness and optimum utilisation of resources along with easy operations and easy financial services, better marketing and commercialisation and easy storage in addition to better information sharing. Considering this, the oldest science academy of India-- NASI, after having held three successive symposia on diodiversity, desert ecology and aquatic ecosystem at three distinct centres of excellence in past few years, planned as a sequel to these activities, holding a symposium on science, technology and entrepreneurship for human welfare in the Himalayan Region. The focus would be on harnessing the resources of the Himalayan ecosystem in a scientific manner. Former biotechnology secretary, government of India, Manju Sharma is the convener of the symposium here with former director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Dr Ashok Misra as co-convener.
About 250 to 300 research papers had been submitted to the organisers who have scheduled sessions on subjects including promoting entrepreneurship and human welfare with special focus on Himalayan region, connecting academia and industry, agricultural tools and new technologies, technology development and adaptation in industry, clean technologies and mentoring livelihood security and commercialisation. A special plenary lecture on India in space is also slated to be delivered by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman AS Kiran Kumar.
Noted scientists and academicians including professor JP Khurana from the University of Delhi, Dr T R Sharma from the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, Dr Ravi Chandra Beeram from Hyderabad, Dr Amit Ghosh from Kolkata, Dr Arvind M lali from Mumbai and Dr SP Mehrotra from IIT Gandhinagar among others are slated to participate in the session and the symposium. About 350 young scientists from across the country are expected to participate and present their research papers during the three-day programme which will also feature the presentation of more than 35 awards to scientists.