CHASCON-2018 INAUGURATED AT PANJAB UNIVERSITY

Chandigarh, February 12, 2018: "The need of the hour is to equip our young workforce with employable skills and knowledge so that they can help in transforming India into a developed nation” said Dr.Manjit Singh, DS & Director TBRL during the inauguration of 3 days, 12th Chandigarh Science Congress, CHASCON-2018 organized by Panjab University, Chandigarh in
association with Chandigarh Region Innovation and Knowledge Cluster (CRIKC), here today.

CRIKC institutes under the leadership of Vice Chancellor of PU can play an important role in familiarizing our young and innovative minds with the emerging interdisciplinary technologies useful for sustainable development of society, he added.

Dr. Singh pointed towards the unprecedented economic growth that has adversely affecting the relationship between mankind and nature by depleting as well as polluting the available natural resources. He gave the example of Plasma Pyrolysis Technology developed by IPR Gandhinagar for the disposal of bio medical and municipal waste and also of Bio-digesters developed by DRDO which is eco friendly bio degradation technology. Bio-digesters have been installed in various locations in J&K, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh and in Indian Railways.

On the occasion of birthday of Charles Darwin i.e. 12th Feb, he highlighted his contribution and the importance of Theory of Evolution put forward by him which gave rise to Genetic Engg which finds applications in medicine, agriculture and forensics.

He gave the example how the Theory of Relativity is being used in everyday life in GPS through our mobile phones for navigational aids.

Scientific discoveries generally depends heavily on the needs and interest of the society but sometime the scientists are influenced by the cultures in which they grew up and the societies in which they live. These shapes their values, belief which
in turn influence their work. He quoted the example of Joseph Rotblat, a Polish born Physicist, working for Manhattan project for development of atomic weapon, leaving the team on ethical grounds and joined nuclear non-proliferation movement for which he was given Noble Peace Prize for the year 1995. He highlighted the importance of shock waves physics which originated from nuclear weapon development program and contributed immensely in areas like high pressure material research, biomedical and industrial application. He appreciated the efforts of IISc Bangalore in popularizing shock wave
techniques for many new areas like artificial insemination of cows and activating the dormant oil well.
In his concluding remarks he showed the concerns towards the depleting resources due to exponential economic growth and the responsibilities of each citizen of our country for conserving the resources for next generation.

Prof. Arun K. Grover, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University in his address informed that recently Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has asked CRIKC to expand and assume the role of cluster for the North Western Region of
India. The need of the hour is that there should be a societal benefit of the scientific research and this can emerge only if industry-academia interaction is improved, he said. He added that since the inception of Science Congress, it has come a
long way and continues to encourage the young and innovative minds to pursue career in science by providing a suitable platform to enhance their research acumen through interaction with eminent scientists in varied science disciplines.
Prof. Meenakshi Malhotra, Dean University Instruction, in her address said that the theme of the congress was relevant and in today’s world, one can only grow if we are cost effective. Science is the most important channels of knowledge. It has a specific role as well as variety of functions for the benefit of our society.

Earlier Dr. Promila Pathak, Professor, Deptt of Botany, PU and Coordinator of CHASCON, in her welcome address said that this Annual event on the theme Science and Society Interface: Exploration Of Cost Effective and Efficient Technologies Through Physical and Natural Sciences is Exploring how science and technology could be effectively utilized in teaching, learning and educational administration, she further added that the event will give platform to exchange views and idea and how to communicate science and its basic values to the society at large. At the end, co-coordinator of CHASCON, Prof. Sonal Chawla proposed vote of thanks

The technical session after the inauguration had lectures by eminent speakers. The Social Relevance of Basic Science was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) Sunil Mukhi, Chair, Physics programme, Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Pune informed that how the lives of ordinary people are being continuously improved through advances in technology, communications and medical tools.
A lecture on National Security through Horticulture by Dr. M.K. Verma, Principal Scientist, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI. He explained that horticultural contribution has been multidimensional by providing support to the farmers and entrepreneur to face challenges to globalize markets with improve quality production, post-harvest management and value addition through its broad based entrepreneur driven innovative schemes.

Lecture on Averaging of Positive Definite Matrices was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) Rajindra Bhatia, wherein he explained the simple notion of averaging from different perspectives. He explained that the geometric mean introduced about 10 years ago is finding lots of applications in areas like image processing, brain-computer interface, smoothing of radar data.

The Special evening saw an expository talk delivered by Prof (Dr.) B.S. Chavan Director cum Principal of GMCH-32 on Economic Cost of Mental Disorders. Prof. Arun K Grover also expressed his desire towards a larger participation of the public in the expository talks organized at Panjab University, Chandigarh.