The National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) 5, Lajpatrai Road, Prayagraj-211002, India

Monthly Summary for the month of March 2021

1. The Academy organised subject specific lectures on different topics in

association with other institutions/universities at Prayagraj, Chandigarh,

Bhopal and in other regions (a few abstracts/photographs are enclosed

herewith as reference/record – Annex. 1).

2. International Women’s Day was celebrated by the NASI and its several

Chapters on March 8/9, 2021; several Popular Science Lectures were

delivered on this occasion by the eminent scientists like Prof. G.

Padmanaban, Prof. Manju Sharma, Prof. Suchitra Banerjee and others to

inspire the women scientists and enthuse them for pursuing science for the

society (a few programmes/photographs are enclosed – Annex. 2).

3. Hon’ble Prime Minister of India announced/started the celebration of ‘Azadi

ka Amrut Mahotsav’; following that, the DST, GoI sent circulars to its AIs

to develop programmes for next 75 weeks to celebrate the same. NASI

prepared it; and started the programme (Annex. 3 ‘A & B’).

4. Following the celebrations of the National Science Day by several Chapters

of the Academy, NASI finally concluded the celebration on March 22,

2021; also gave Science Teachers Awards, celebrated World Water Day,

and organised the first Popular Science Lecture under ‘Amrut Mahotsav’

programme (a few photographs/clippings are enclosed – Annex. 4 ‘A & B’).

5. Another important national mission announced by the Hon’ble Prime

Minister of India, to achieve self-sufficiency (Atmanirbhar Bharat), was

also properly propagated by the Academy’s Chapters (a few

photographs/clippings are enclosed – Annex. 5).

Several other NASI Chapters also organized online scientific activities.

Annex. 1

Topics of the Lectures held at Chandigarh on 12th March

Lecture Series held/being held at Delhi Chapter

Lecture Seminar held at Prayagraj

Annex. 2

Annex. 3 ‘A’ Format for providing input for National celebration

of 75th

year of India’s Independence – Aazadi Ka Amrut Mahotsava

B. Information to be provided within a week (By Monday the 22nd

March,2021)

List of events to be organized in next 75 weeks till 15th

August,2021

a) List of Thought Leaders/eminent scientists who can be invited to deliver talks at the

National Lecture Series

b) List of titles of talks and names of scientists of the institutes to schools/colleges, etc in

English, Hindi and regional languages

c) A list of proposed International Conferences by AIs on different areas – 2 events per

institute in next 75 weeks

d) A list of proposed public awareness / science popularization programmes/ initiatives

e) List of popular science articles (30 articles by each AI) in next 75 weeks to be published

in magazines/newspapers

f) List of proposed exhibitions on research outcome in the subject areas

g) List of proposed slogan writing/ essay/painting/debates/quiz competitions - 3 events by

each AI

h) A separate communication will follow for seeking inputs on E-Book on 75 years of

journey of S&T in India and documentary on 75 Years of Science in India.

i) Indicate how various important days will be celebrated during 2021 and 2022. - DST‟s

Foundation day (3rd

May), Technology day, National Science Day, India Innovation

Festival, India international Science Festival, International Women‟s Day, etc

As per circular of the DST, GoI (dated 11/12 March 2021) and the ppt circulated,

all the AIs/Professional Bodies under the DST, New Delhi, were asked to submit

the two plans (Plan A for the next three months, most urgently required by the

DST within a day; submitted by NASI timely, i.e. on 13th March 2021); now the

Plan B (as per guidelines given above in red ink, for next 75 weeks) is being

submitted on 22nd

March 2021.

Plan B

The Academy (NASI) organizes various activities under the guidance of its

President (Prof. G. Padmanaban; and now Prof. Ajoy K. Ghatak) and the Past

Presidents, namely, Professor M.S. Swaminathan, Professor (Mrs.) Manju

Sharma, Professor Ashok Misra, Professor Asis Datta, Dr V. P. Kamboj,

Professor J.P. Mittal, Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Professor Akhilesh K. Tyagi and

Prof. Anil Kakodkar, who take keen interest in the dissemination of science in

general and the development of the Academy, in particular. The mandate of the

Academy as coined by its Founder President, Prof. Meghnad Saha, is- „Science

& Society‟. Every year, the Academy undertakes hundreds of such programmes;

accordingly, the major programmes to be organized to celebrate „Amrut Mahotsav‟

as per guidelines/format prescribed by the DST, GoI are as follows –

Further, we wish to mention that several other components/persons will be

added/included in these programmes in future, as there is a vast network of

Fellows & Members under the NASI’s umbrella.

a) List of Thought Leaders/eminent scientists who can be invited to deliver

talks at the National Lecture Series

The Academy consists of the Fellows/Foreign Fellows & Members (presently

about 3600 in total) from all across the world. All these scientists represent

different fields of science & technology; and they use to deliver the scientific

lectures based on high quality research. Their names, affiliation, etc. are given in

the Year Book of NASI; and also available on the website-

http://nasi.nic.in/fellows.asp

We are proposing a few names (several other Fellows may also be included later

on) to be considered for the „List of Thought Leaders/eminent scientists who can

be invited to deliver talks at the National Lecture Series‟ –

1. Prof. Anil Kakodkar

2. Prof. K. Kasturirangan

3. Prof. G. Padmanaban

4. Prof. Manju Sharma

5. Prof. Akhilesh K. Tyagi

6. Prof. V. P. Kamboj

7. Prof. Balram Bhargava

8. Prof. Ajoy K. Ghatak

9. Prof. Paramjit Khurana

10. Prof. Satya Deo

11. Prof. P. K. Seth

12. Prof. U. C. Srivastava

13. Prof. H. N. Verma

14. Prof. Amit Ghosh

15. Prof. J. P. Mittal

16. Prof. Amit P. Sharma

17. Prof. Anirban Pathak

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b) List of titles of talks and names of scientists of the institutes to

schools/colleges, etc in English, Hindi and regional languages

In last about 30 years, the Academy has carved a niche in the field of Science

Communication/Education, by continuously organizing awareness/education

programmes for the school/college students, as per its mandate „Science &

Society‟. The highlights of these activities held recently for the school/college

students are –

The main activities included Children Science Meet, Summer & Winter Schools,

Teachers’ Training Workshops, Scientific Writing Contest, Vigyan, Jal & Health

Chaupals, Seminars, and celebration of the National Technology Day, the National Science

Day, the National Constitution Day, the National Mathematics Day and the World

Environment Day etc. The Academy also encouraged the teachers for out-of-the-class

science activities by recognizing their talent and giving away NASI-Science Teacher

Awards to them.

NASI’s 21 Chapters spread across India, organized hundreds of science communication

activities in and around their respective regions throughout the year. More than 50,000

students and teachers benefitted from these activities.

A series of workshops on Scientific Paper Writing are being organized by the Academy

since 2012 to train the young researchers in the art and ethics of scientific writing. So far, 16

such workshops have been organized at BHU, Varanasi; SGPGI, Lucknow; NASI HQs,

Allahabad; Udaipur; Mumbai; Dehradun; Pune, Amrawati, Nainital, Rishikesh, and Haryana,

out of which 2 events were organized during the year 2019-20 at Lucknow and Mahendragarh.

The details are available in the Annual Reports of the NASI on its website-

www.nasi.nic.in

There is a large group of Fellows & Members who love to communicate

science; here, we are mentioning the names of a few scientists who would deliver

talks in the schools/colleges (many more would be added later on) -

1. Prof. Satya Deo on Application of Mathematics/Ramanujan

2. Prof. U. C. Srivastava on Nutrition/Antioxidants

3. Prof. P. K. Seth on Water Purity & Conservation

4. Prof. Krishna Misra on Application of Biotechnology

5. Prof. Suchitra Banerjee on Women‟s contributions in science

6. Prof. Purnima Sharma on Entrepreneurship development

7. Prof. R. N. Gohil on different topics of Plant science & ecology

8. Prof. Rajeev Srivastava on 3-D Printing/Mathematical modeling

9. Prof. Ravindra Dhar on Smart Material/Electronics

10. Prof. D. K. Chauhan on Biodiversity

11. Dr Md. Masood on Water, food and air pollution

12. Dr. Bhupesh Tripathi on Popular Maths

13. Dr Kartikeya Sharma on Neuro-disorders

14. Dr Ashish Tandon on Respiratory diseases/Sleep Apnea

15. Dr Manvendra Tripathi on Communicable diseases/Malaria

16. Dr Niraj Kumar on Human Evolution/Biogeogens

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c) A list of proposed International Conferences by AIs on different areas – 2

events per institute in next 75 weeks

NASI organizes several conferences every year on the current topics of socio-

scientific concern. As it has a large base of Fellowship/Membership, therefore, the

following topics may be considered for the above-

1. Resilience in Health Services- Resilient healthcare research focuses on everyday

clinical work and a system‟s abilities to adopt or absorb disturbing conditions as opposed

to risk management approaches, which are based on retrospective analyses of errors.

Resilience fits the complexities of healthcare more effectively than principles of high

reliability. In essence, resilience represents a shift from seeing humans as a pathological

feature of a healthcare system to one where they contribute actively to “safe” work and

greater patient safety.

NASI has just organized a National Symposium on „Towards a New Healthcare regime

for the Nation’; another very important discussion meeting was held at Jaipur in

2019 to evolve the strategies for Health Research, Prevention and Control of major

diseases. Also a group discussion/seminar was held at INSA in collaboration with

the DBT, BCIL and other stake holder on developing a roadmap to combat several

diseases; therefore, already a base for further discussion is ready.

2. Entrepreneurship development for Bio-economy - The bio-economy is the

knowledge-based production and use of biological resources to provide products,

processes and services in all economic sectors within the frame of a sustainable economic

system. In elaborate sense, it refers to economic activity involving the use of

biotechnology and biomass in the production of goods, services, or energy. It is well

known that India is rich in its bio-resources; therefore, it is high time to discuss and

devise a „Road Map‟ for utilizing our resources sustainably for entrepreneurship

development, then only, India would become „Atmanirbhar‟. NASI has already

organized several programmes, discussion and symposia on related issues in the recent

past; therefore, the Academy is well equipped with the information/data base to correlate

and collate many facets of the said issue for developing a pragmatic approach towards

„Entrepreneurship development for Bioeconomy‟.

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d) A list of proposed public awareness / science popularization programmes/

initiatives

As given in point b) above, the main activities include Children Science Meet, Summer &

Winter Schools, Teachers’ Training Workshops, Scientific Writing Contest,

Seminars; and recognizing talent of the teachers, and giving away NASI-Science Teacher

Awards to them.

In addition to that the Vigyan Chaupals will be organized extensively in the villages and

remote areas all across the country with the help of NASI‟s 22 Chapters spread around

different regions of India.

The „Sensitization Programmes for Women‟, which has been organized at 32 places in

17 states of India, will also be organized in other states involving thousands of women

scientists to enthuse/encourage women to practice science for the upliftment of their socio-

economic status. It is worth mentioning that a „Mega Event‟ was also organized by the

Academy in 2018 on International Women‟s Day, which was graced by the Hon‟ble

Minister for Sc. & Tech., GoI; Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST; Prof. M S

Swaminathan, Prof. Anil Kakodkar and about 1000 women scientists. The programme is

going on with full vigour.

Similarly the awareness programmes for the tribal welfare through scientific

intervention will also be undertaken by several Chapters/Centres of NASI.

NASI is regularly organizing WEBINARS on „Poshan (Nutrition)‟, COVID Appropriate

behavior and Entrepreneurship development for Atmanirbhar Bharat (in consonance

with the recent national programmes announced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of

India). It is expected that more than one lac students and teachers would be benefitted

from these activities/webinars. A brief report on the activities organised so far/recently, has

been submitted to the Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology, GoI.

Awareness for Water conservation will also be given prime importance.

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e) List of popular science articles (30 articles by each AI) in next 75 weeks to

be published in magazines/newspapers

The National Academy Science Letters published by the NASI is a journal of repute

(indexed by Thomson Reuters), in which about two popular science articles are published

every month; also the Fellows of the Academy regularly write such articles (some of

them have already been communicated to the DST with the NASI‟s monthly reports;

please visit - http://nasi.nic.in/NASI-Report%20on%20Jan.%202021%20Activities-

merged.pdf; and others on nasi.nic.in). All these articles will be dedicated to „Amrut

Mahotsav‟; and their copies will be sent to the DST, New Delhi.

NASI will also identify the Popular Science Writers to request them to contribute their

articles in the National Dailies, like „Hindu‟, „Times of India‟ and „Dainik Jagaran‟, etc.

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f) List of proposed exhibitions on research outcome in the subject areas

NASI has already established magnificent Exhibitions/Galleries on three holy rivers of

our beloved nation- Ganga, Brahmaputra and Cauvery, at Prayagraj, Guwahati and

Mysuru, respectively. These river-galleries are not only the treasure of the tales on the

evolution of the river biomes, but also multidimensional multimedia interactive electronic

panels depicting the Socio-scientific, religious, cultural and ecological aspects of these

river biomes. All these galleries are very popular and visited regularly by the students and

general mass. IGNOU, New Delhi has included the gallery in its syllabus/projects; UP

Tourism and Consortium of IITs have also included the gallery on their websites. Dr

Harsh Vardhan, Hon‟ble Minister for Science & Technology, GoI, also visited the

Ganga-gallery, and gave encouraging remarks. NASI was also invited by the Ministry of

External Affairs, GoI to establish a Prototype of the Ganga-gallery in the Mela area of

„Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Samaroh‟, organized in 2019 at Varanasi. Hon‟ble Prime

Minister of India also visited the area.

Therefore, with such a vast experience & expertise, the Academy proposes to –

1. Establish the 4th

River-gallery on Narmada at Gujarat; and also

2. To establish Replicas of the Ganga-gallery in other 4 states of the Ganga-basin.

3. A small prototype of the Ganga-gallery may also be established at Varanasi.

4. Also there is a possibility of establishing a proto-type of the Ganga-gallery at

„Haridwar Kumbh Mela’, with a short video film on the gallery.

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g) List of proposed slogan writing/ essay/painting/debates/quiz competitions -

3 events by each AI

These are organized by the Academy as its routine activities from time to time. The

Academy’s Chapter will also organize such activities.

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h) A separate communication will follow for seeking inputs on E-Book on 75

years of journey of S&T in India and documentary on 75 Years of Science in

India.

NASI has already published the History of Science in India (9 volumes) in 2014. Its

copies were sent to the DST, GoI for kind information/reference. The scanned copies of

these books will be uploaded on NASI’s website for further dissemination.

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i) Indicate how various important days will be celebrated during 2021 and

2022. - DST‟s Foundation day (3rd May), Technology day, National Science

Day, India Innovation Festival, India international Science Festival,

International Women‟s Day, etc

All these are/being celebrated by NASI, as per programmes decided by the NASI Council

from time to time. These programmes are organized on their respective ‘THEMES’,

as announced every year. Several other important days as World Water Days, World

Ozone Day, World Environment Day, etc. are also celebrated by the Academy, every

year.

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Annex. 3 ‘B’

In Tahsil Mauganj ‘Aadivasi mahilaon Mein swachhata jagrukta Abhiyan’ was organized by Dr. Neetu Mishra, UoA, Prayagraj, in March as a part of NASI’s Jagrukta Abhiyan. Dr. Umesh Patel, Kamleshwar Sahu, Dr. Rajnish Patel, & Brijendra Patel and others attended the programme.

Annex. 4 ‘A’

Annex. 4 ‘B’

World Water Day Since 1993, United Nations celebrates March 22 every year as World Water Day, with the core focus to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: Water and Sanitation for All by 2030. UN has announced the theme for World water Day 2021 as 'Valuing Water'. Several Chapters of the Academy, as Uttarakhand, Kerala, Bhopal Chapters, as well as the headquarters of the National Academy of Sciences, India, celebrated the World Water Day by organizing talk by eminent scientists in the field of the science of Water.

Annex. 5

Entrepreneurship Workshop