Indian Science Congress Postponed

Indian Science Congress, the largest gathering of scientists and students of science in the country and a permanent annual fixture in the calendar of the participant group for more than...

Ruby Thakur
January 4, 2024
366

Indian Science Congress, the largest gathering of scientists and students of science in the country and a permanent annual fixture in the calendar of the participant group for more than a century, has been postponed. The five-day event will not begin on its customary date, January 3. There is no firm word on when — and whether — the congress will meet this year.

Indian Science Congress Postponed

Why In News

Indian Science Congress, the largest gathering of scientists and students of science in the country and a permanent annual fixture in the calendar of the participant group for more than a century, has been postponed.

The five-day event will not begin on its customary date, January 3. There is no firm word on when — and whether — the congress will meet this year.

Indian Science Congress

The postponement is unprecedented. With the exception of the two years following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic— 2021 and 2022 — the Indian Science Congress has been held every year since 1914.
The 108th edition of the Congress was held in Nagpur from January 3-7, 2023.

The Science Congress is a one-of-its-kind event, which brings together scientists and researchers from not just the country’s premier institutions and laboratories, but also teachers of science from colleges and universities, and offers them a platform to interact with students and the general public on matters relating to science.
The crisis is the fallout of an unresolved disagreement between the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), a registered society that organises the event, and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, the main funder of the congress.

In September 2023, the DST pulled funding support to the congress, alleging “financial irregularities”. The ISCA denied the accusation, and challenged the DST’s directive that government funds should not be spent on anything related to the Science Congress, in court. This only deepened the rift. The lawsuit remains pending.
The DST’s contribution (which was raised to Rs 5 crore in 2023 from Rs 3 crore earlier) pays for most of the event’s expenses.
The ISCA also receives some funding from a few other government bodies, and raises some more from its members and by renting out space for exhibitions etc. during the event.
The ISCA had decided to move this year’s congress from the original venue, Lucknow University, to the private Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Jalandhar in the hope of receiving some funding.

While LPU had also hosted the 106th Science Congress in 2019, the DST was said to be unhappy with the ISCA’s choice for this year.
The ISCA, however, argued that its executive committee does not need the DST’s clearance for the venue, and that a DST representative was in any case present when LPU was chosen.
The ISCA has now formed a five-member committee to scout for possible venues to host the event.
Ranjit Kumar Verma, general secretary of ISCA, said it was unfortunate that the event was not being held on time, but said this was not the end of the Science Congress.

“We will hopefully be able to organise the Science Congress before March 31 and we are hopeful that the Prime Minister will attend the event,” he said.
“The Executive Committee of the Indian Science Congress Association met this evening and decided to put the 109th Congress on hold. We have also decided to post an appeal on our website for universities keen to host the event,” ISCA president Arvind Saxena
Amid this tussle, LPU last month withdrew its offer to host the event.

Scientific Community

Once the flagship event where the who’s who of the Indian scientific community used to gather to talk about and discuss latest developments in science, the Science Congress had suffered a sharp decline in quality in the last couple of decades, leading to demands, from within the scientific community as well, to reform or disband it.
With most leading scientists keeping away, the event had been reduced to a gathering of mostly university and college teachers with little scientific credentials or experience.

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Ruby Thakur

General Studies Lecturer SSBCrackExams, BSc In PCM, Trained Students For State Services Exams. Expertise in Geography ,Polity & Current Affairs. Love Travelling.