Vice President Inaugurates 8th J&K Science Congress at Kashmir University in Srinagar

Srinagar, Sept 17: The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that in order to emerge as an effective knowledge power for the welfare of people, stronger capabilities and a more integrated view of Science and technology is required. This, besides enhanced financial support, would need more effective mechanisms to catch and encourage talent. Delivering inaugural address at the “8^thJ&K Science Congress” at Kashmir University in Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) today, he has said that Inspiration and Creation of role models would be easier if the barriers between teaching and research are lowered if not eliminated altogether by senior and eminent teachers making it a point to teach undergraduate classes.

He said that an essential concomitant would be a new culture of research, greater autonomy and sufficient freedom of dissent. “A successful researcher”, said an eminent scientist, “really marches to the tune of his own drum”. The challenge then is three fold: to catch young talent inclined to pursue science studies, to nurture it, and to motivate it sufficiently to remain attached to the domain of science to become the next generation of teachers and researchers.

Shri Ansari said that research is one aspect of the matter, development leading to technological innovation is another. When the two come together, the objective of socially relevant innovation is achieved. This, in turn, contributes in varying measures to the production of economically relevant public goods. Innovation thus becomes an index of progress and development.

He said that the State of Jammu and Kashmir faces great many challenges in the area of S&T Education and Research infrastructure. Most of these can be addressed by the adoption and implementation of various schemes of Govt. of India aimed to attract students towards science subjects. Similarly, various Doctoral and Post Doctoral fellowships to promote the interest in Research can be availed of. Furthermore, the special packages announced for S&T Sector in Jammu and Kashmir from time to time have to be implemented in letter and spirit to give fillip to the development of scientific temper among youth of this region. This is a moral obligation apart from being a functional one.

He opined that Vocational training has to be linked to employability and therefore to different segments of local economy. Acquiring excellence in traditional crafts results in value addition. Similarly, training in service skills needed by the tourism sector could add considerably to employment generation.

The Vice President said that while each researcher ploughs the field individually, he or she should also be aware of, and benefit from, what is being done elsewhere in that branch of knowledge. Modern communication techniques have made this much easier. It is said that internationally, one-fifth of research papers are co-authored; this percentage should be higher in national terms.