President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday exhorted the scientists in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) facilities to continue to develop newer applications that could help the country deal with challenges like pollution and climate change, wastage of farm produce, water shortage, fighting disease and management of waste.
Inaugurating the DAE facilities at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Kovind said: “ What is less known to the common people, is the work that all of you do for using nuclear technology in the areas of healthcare, food and agriculture, water resources management and environmental protection. Research in nuclear medicine is widely used both for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes”.
“I am told that in the cancer hospitals associated with the Department of Atomic Energy thousands of cancer patients benefit from the applications developed by you. Also, a large number of medical centres are using the radioisotope products supplied by the Department of Atomic Energy both for diagnostics and treatment of patients,” the President said.
“I am happy that one of the facilities that I inaugurated today is the Multi-leaf Collimator System developed by BARC. This system will enhance the effectivenessof treatment of tumour,” Kovind said.
The President said that the research in nuclear science undertaken by the scientists at BARC had benefited our food processing and agriculture sector and thus directly benefited our farmers. “Your work has helped develop 43 mutant crop varieties that are more efficient and productive. Again, I am happy to have inaugurated one of these today - a mutant variety of DUBRAJ rice that has a shorter maturation cycle and hence requires fewer resources,” he said.
“Applications of nuclear science have helped to increase the shelf life of fruits such as mangoes, papaya, and lichi. This has helped to reduce wastage and post-harvest losses, boosted farm exports and enhanced income of farmers. These are only some examples of how your work benefits these sectors, and the list of your work in this area is indeed a long one,” Kovind said.
Heaping praise on the contribution made by scientists in the field of nuclear science and technology, the President said: “The journey towards excelling in this cutting edge domain of science and technology started here at BARC, almost six decades ago. Since then, Department of Atomic Energy has grown to become a multidisciplinary organisation with facilities spread across the nation..... The whole world today acknowledges the self-reliant nature of India’s nuclear establishment”.