'Empathy, compassion and foresight needed to use science for social good'
From a Correspondent
JORHAT, May 11: CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology celebrated tiol Technology Day, 2016 on Wednesday with a special programme held at the Dr J N Baruah Auditorium. Dr Ch Mohan Rao, Former Director, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad graced the occasion as chief guest and delivered the Technology Day Lecture. The programme was presided over by Dr D Ramaiah, Director, CSIR-NEIST.
Delivering the Technology Day Lecture on the topic ‘Science and Technology for Social Good’, Dr Rao gave an account of the changes that led to human civilization from Stone Age to the modern day technology age through science. He illustrated the various contributions that India made for the growth and development of humanity such as the Vedic classification, Number mes, Process for extraction of Zinc from its ore, Quadratic equation, Discovery of plant cell (Rosa Kosha), among others. He also elaborated about significant contributions of CSIR like indelible ink, indigenous supercomputer, Amul milk food, ground water exploration for potable water and a host of generic drugs in the healthcare sector. Conveying his message on the day, he encouraged everyone present to take this day as a chance to think and come up with relevant solutions for the problems faced by the people of the country. “We need to have empathy, compassion and foresight to use science for social good,” he opined.
Earlier Dr D Ramaiah, Director, CSIR-NEIST delivered the welcome address and introduced the chief guest to the gathering. Recalling the message by the Director-General, CSIR to all the CSIR scientists through Video-Conference earlier during the day, he urged everyone to take a pledge to collectively work as team and become solution provider to the problems and issues of a common man. On the occasion, CSIR-NEIST Annual Report 2015-16 was released by the chief guest. The programme concluded with vote of thanks by Dr S P Saikia, Senior Scientist, CSIR-NEIST.
