Curtain Raiser Ceremony of IISF 2020 at NML Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur: India International Science Festival (IISF) is an annual event organized jointly by the Government of India and Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) to create a common platform for students, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and artists for fruitful interactions. IISF is an endeavor to motivate young minds and create interest in science. The 6th IISF-2020 will be held on a virtual platform on December 22-25, 2020. The theme of this year’s festival is – Science for Atmanirbhar Bharat and Global Welfare. CSIR is the nodal organization for organizing the 6th IISF.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Honorable Union Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, expressed his desire to arrange more than 100 curtain raiser ceremonies PAN India to make people aware of this annual event of IISF and to increase the visibility of this event. To honour his desire, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur organized a curtain raiser ceremony on virtual platform on December 02, 2020. The Chief Guest for the event was Prof. Karunesh Kumar Shukla, Director, National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur. Shubhra Dwivedy, CEO and one of the Founding Members at SEEDS, was the Guest of Honour.

The programme contained a short video on NML’s contributions to society.  Dr Shubhra Dwivedy, delivered a lecture on “Science for Inclusive Development”, in which she discussed various activities taken up by her organization to connect science and the common people and how SEEDS has grown to a life changing organization for the rural communities of India. She mentioned that science and society in isolation is unimaginable and emphasized that science education should focus on societal needs to develop a sustainable lifestyle for all of us, especially for the marginalized section of our society.

Prof. Shukla, spoke on “Science, Technology & Society”. He charted the Indian developments over thousands of years in science and technology. He delivered a very engaging speech and said that through technology, science reaches society. He emphasized the synergism of scientists, administrators and leaders, which was needed to maximize the benefits of technologies developed indigenously.