The presence of nine Nobel Laureates at Nobel Prize Series India 2017 is a big stimulation for the Indian Scientists as well as the Indian Youth
Pramod Kumar
In order to stimulate the creative thinking and engagement of the students in science, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Nobel Prize Series Exhibition in Ahmedabad on January 9. What made the event historic was the presence of nine Nobel Laureates who later had dialogue with the students and scientists. The Exhibition is open till February 13.
Organised jointly by the Nobel Media Foundation, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and the Government of Gujarat, the exhibition is part of Nobel Prize Series India 2017. It contains several original artifacts, both from Alfred Nobel himself and from a number of Nobel Laureates. A symposium was also held in connection with the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS). Besides these inspirational meetings, question and answer sessions, lectures and roundtables were held in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Gandhinagar. Students interacted with the Laureates at various universities such as IISC Bangalore, NCBS Bangalore, IIT Delhi, IIT Gandhinagar, Gujarat University and MS University Vadodara.
Before the inauguration of the exhibition, Shri Modi, followed by all the nine Nobel Laureates – Dr Ada Yonath, Dr David Gross, Dr Harold Varmus, Dr Randy Schekman, Dr H C Hartmut Michel, Dr Richard Roberts, Dr Serge Haroche, Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Dr William E Moerner – gave their hand impressions on individual polymer plates placed near the exhibition area.
Shri Modi said the objective of holding the Exhibition is to attract youth to scientific temper. He stressed that the youth should take interest in science and technology and do research in things useful to the mankind, to fight poverty, and to contribute to nation building. He said India might have produced a very few Nobel Laureates but the assembly of galaxy of as many as nine Laureates from across the world is a historic event for India. “Our students will cherish this extraordinary experience of interacting with you. It will inspire them to undertake new and significant challenges that hold the key to our shared sustainable future. I am very hopeful that this exhibition and this Series will become a strong link between you and our students, science-teachers and our scientists,” he said referring to the presence of the Nobel Laureates.
Shri Modi said his Government has clear vision of where we want India to be in the next 15 years. “Our vision in Science and Technology is to make sure that opportunity is available to all our youth. That training and future preparedness should make our youth employable in the best places. That India should be a great science destination. That we should take major inspirational challenges such as deep sea exploration and Cyber Systems,” he added.
Elaborating his plan to take his vision into action he said Indian scientists have been asked to develop programmes on science teaching in the schools across the country. The scientists will link the Indian laboratories in cities where anyone can share ideas, seminars and resources and equipment.
According to K Vijay Raghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Nobel Prize Series is a long-term India’s programme to stimulate students’ creative thinking and engagement in science. A MoU was signed between Nobel Media and DBT for hosting the Nobel Prize Series in India for five years. The exhibition highlights how the science underlying the Nobel Prizes has affected our lives. The Series has some of the components similar to those of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the eighth VGGS in Gandhinagar on January 9 in the presence of a dozen Heads of States, Corporate investors and thousands of delegates from India and abroad. “My vision is to provide roofs over the heads of every poor Indian by 2022, jobs to every youth, striking a balanced growth between towns and villages, improve the quality of life with all round development, and produce 175 Gigawatts of renewable energy,” said the Prime Minister adding that man has exploited natural resources for centuries and now time has come to exploit renewable energy. A nation, which once could not even discuss producing electricity in megawatts now aspires to be No1 in renewable energy in Gigawatts. The sky is the upper limit. He exuded confidence that ‘Make in India’ would emerge as the country’s biggest business brand and India would become a significant global hub of investment for which different states are also busy achieving the goal, creating a healthy competition among them.
On first day of the VGGS i.e. on January 10, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had one-to-one meeting with the top foreign leaders from Russia Serbia, France, Astrakhan, Israel, UAE Australia, etc to discuss mutual cooperation. The areas discussed were as diverse as skill development, agriculture, smart cities, infrastructure, irrigation, water conservation and management, technology transfer, desalination of sea water, gold-jewellery.
On January 11, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressed a seminar on “Goods and Service Tax (GST): Game changer for the Indian economy”. Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu asked the global
institutions to invest in the urban infrastructure and allied sectors offering huge opportunities. A 60 strong high profile French delegation companies signed MoU with Gujarat Maritime Board for Dholera Industrial City and Airbus.
On third day of the Summit, MoUs worth Rs 77,000 crore were signed for Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train, the dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The planning phase for it has been completed. Gujarat has received 70 per cent stake from the total project of worth Rs 1.10 lakh crore of Railway Ministry. Under which MoUs of worth Rs 77,000 crore have been signed. Chief Minister Shri Rupani also had meeting with the business delegation of Poland and Canada. In the pharmaceutical sector MoUs worth Rs 14,500 crore were signed by 249 companies, which will generate employment for more than 38,000 youth. Pharmaceutical drugs woth Rs 1 lakh crore is being manufactured in the country and drugs worth Rs 1 lakh crore is being exported.
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