99TH INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS TO FOCUS ON WOMEN, MISSILES

99^TH INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS TO FOCUS ON WOMEN, MISSILES

The 99th Indian Science Congress (ISC), the country's largest such event, will be held in Odisha capital Bhubaneswar Jan 3-7 on the theme "Science and Technology for Inclusive Innovation - Role of Women".In line with this the Congress will be headed by Geetha Bali, vice chancellor Karnataka State Women's University, Bijapur. Bali will be the fourth woman in the history of ISC to head the Congress. The last time was in 1999 when the meet was held in Chennai. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate this year's edition on Jan 3 at KIIT University complex in Bhubaneswar. The PM will also take part in the concluding session.

The sessions in the Bhubaneswar congress will be on preventing maternal and child mortality, assisted technology for disabled, science and education in rural areas, women in science, water scarcity and security.Special emphasis will be laid on bridging the divide in the society using science and technology to achieve inclusive development -- be it economic, geographical or gender based biases. There will be a Women's Science Congress inaugurated by Nirupama Rao, Indian ambassador to the US, on Jan 5. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will also take part in the event. Like in the previous editions of the event, there will also be a Children's Science Congress where school children from different parts of India would display their models/charts.
The Childern's Science Congress will be inaugurated Jan 4 by former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.Besides the emphasis on women and children, the other issue in focus at the Congress would be missiles. India's premier military weapons developer, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), will display models of its innovations at the ISC.

"Glimpses of technological might of DRDO will be on display," senior DRDO official Ravi Kumar Gupta said in a statement.The star attractions among the models will be the Agni, Prithvi, Nag, Akash, BrahMos and Astra missiles, he said.Established on the lines of the British Conference on the Advancement of Science, the first science congress in the country was held in January 1914 at the Asiatic Society in Calcutta with 150 scientists from India and abroad. More than 15,000 delegates, including 500 foreign scientists and 20 Nobel laureates, are expected to participate in the five-day event.The five day event will comprise technical sessions, plenary sessions, vision talks, panel discussions, public lectures, pride of India expo, children science congress and women science congress. The KIIT and the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) are jointly hosting the ISC.

                                                           Prof. John Kurakar