The 47th Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Memorial Tournament (Outdoors) was inaugurated by the State sports minister Dinesh Agarwal in the premises of the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP), Dehradun on Monday.
The tournament is being played in memory of the founder director-general Sir Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar at the laboratories and institutes under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research spread across the length and breadth of the country.
Agarwal lauded the foresight of towering personalities like Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who wanted India to progress in pace with the global progress.
Speaking of CSIR, he said that progress cannot be achieved in absence of research. It is due to her research abilities that India is now able to offer programmes like 'Make in India', he said. It is through sports that a person's personality finds its full manifestation, the minister said.
He expressed the hope that the participants in this tournament would pursue their research work with excellence. He called upon all the participating sportsmen to take part in these games with dedication and sportsman's spirit.
Prior to this, the director of CSIR-IIP, MO Garg, welcomed all the participating teams and others, including the chief guest and invited guests. After this, the participating teams put up a march-past following which Dinesh Chandra Pandey, chairman of the organising committee, 47th SSBMT, dwelt briefly on CSIR, the host CSIR-IIP, and the tournament. Agarwal released a souvenir published on the occasion. This tournament features Cricket and Volleyball competitions in which 10 laboratories of the CSIR, viz CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, CSIR- Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, CSIR-National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi, CSIR-National Physical laboratory (NPl), New Delhi, CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), New Delhi, CSIR Headquarters, New Delhi, CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh, CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR), New Delhi and CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), Pilani are taking part. There will be 220 players in all, the organisers said.