PM Modi to inaugurate 107th Indian Science Congress in Bengaluru today

Prime
Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday inaugurate the 107th edition of Indian
Science Congress in Bengaluru, the event that will be graced by top scientists,
including two Nobel laureates, policymakers, academicians and other delegates.

“Indian Science Congress is India’s oldest, biggest and one of the most prestigious scientific events and we are proud to host this edition in Bengaluru at the University of Agricultural Sciences from January 3 to 7, 2020,” said Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayanan.

The five-day event will see Nobel laureates Stefan Hell from Max Planck Institut Germany and Ada E Yonath, an expert in structural biology from Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, will be taking part.

The
president of Nanyang Technological University, Subra Suresh, a material
scientist from Indonesia, and renowned cardiologist C N Manjunath, will also be
present.

The
organizers are expecting around 15,000 people to attend the event.

The event,
with the theme ‘Science and Technology for Rural Development’, will see
participants deliberate on the lack of communication between the scientific
fraternity, industry and farmers which could minimize the agrarian crisis.

The organisers
said the last couple of decades had witnessed tremendous progress in the
development of cutting edge science and technology.

Many of the
inventions and innovations had found applications in enhancing crop
productivity, improving market access, enhancing and diversifying rural
livelihood profiles.

But due to
the gap between the innovators and farming community, the benefits could not be
explored fully, they said.

The event
will also provide a platform to the farmers who introduced innovations in the
field of agriculture.

The other
events will be Women’s Science Congress, Children’s Science Congress, Science
Communicators’ Meet, Formal Science Congress and Yoga Science.

The Forum of
Vice-Chancellors and IIT Directors will deliberate on challenges in the higher
education sector Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the
inaugural session.