Northeast has potential to make India self-reliant: MP (Dr.) R. K. Ranjan

The Northeast has enormous potential in helping the country to become self-reliant, said MP (Dr.) R. K. Ranjan
Northeast has potential to make India self-reliant: MP (Dr.) R. K. Ranjan

GUWAHATI: The Northeast has enormous potential in helping the country to become self-reliant, said MP (Dr.) R. K. Ranjan at a webinar organized by Press Information Bureau, Guwahati on Thursday. The topic of the webinar is "IISF 2020: Science and Atmanirbhar Bharat".

The webinar was held in the run-up towards India International Science Festival (IISF). IISF is celebrated every year to promote Science and Technology and this year the festival will be held in virtual mode. In the webinar experts from different fields and organizations deliberated and discussed science in relation with Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative for making India a bigger and more important part of the global economy through Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, Dr. Ranjan said that the north-eastern region has enormous potential in utilizing its natural resources and help the country to be self-reliant. Laying emphasis on the need of the improvement of Information and Communication Technology in the region, he said that this will give a good spirit of scientific temperament to the people of the region.

Gracing the webinar as the guest of honor, Dr. G. Narahari Sastry, Director, NEIST, Jorhat said that science and technology has come up in a very big way to address whenever there is a problem. Within less than a decade India is able to produce so many things, including many electronic items and is also able to come up with ways where it can be seen that achieving many specialized things in terms of science and technology, he added.

Dr. Sastry said how in this time of pandemic also India has been able to develop the capabilities to produce the PPE kits, ventilators, developing hospitals, oxygen supplies etc. He also claimed that the nation is much better prepared to tackle this pandemic compared to many other countries. Dr. Sastry said that under the current leadership India is being able to tackle the situation much better and once the pandemic is over India will emerge as a much stronger country. Talking about the opportunities in the Northeast, he said that the region is bestowed with biodiversity, geo-diversity and mineral diversity and also with oil, tea, bamboo industries which bring in a lots of opportunities for the region to be self-reliant.

SN Pradhan, ADG, NEZ, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting welcomed the experts and said in his welcome address that the webinar was held keeping in mind the occasion of India International Science Festival (IISF), 2020. He informed the participants that the festival this year will be in virtual mode and many events are planned during this science festival keeping in mind the large scale participation. The main aim of the webinar is to create a pre-event buzz and to generate interest and enthusiasm for the IISF 2020.

Talking about science in relation with Atmanirbhar Bharat, Dr. Pranabjyoti Chetia, curator, Jorhat Science Centre and Planetarium, said that Science and Technology can give sustainable growth to the huge potential of natural resources of the Northeast, a press release said.

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