National conference, CHASOON -2023, on ‘Global Science for global well-being’ 

Chandigarh, October 12, 2023: A three day National conference, CHASOON -2023, on ‘Global Science for global well-being’ is being conducted in Panjab University , Chandigarh from October 12 - 14, 2023.

The first day of the congress started with the inaugural session in the presence of the Vice Chancellor-Prof Renu Vig, DUI- Prof. Rumina Sethi, Director-Research & Development-Prof Harsh Nayyar, Dean Science- Prof Navdeep Goyal, Coordinator-Prof Neena Caplash alongwith the guest of honour Dr.Vivek Lal-Director, PGIMER, Chd, Prof Balram Bhargava-President NASI and Prof Annapurni Subramaniam-Director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

Prof Neena Caplash welcomed the guests, speakers and the delegates and highlighted the relevance of CHASCON 2023. She elaborated on how the keynote and plenary lectures are in corroboration with global science for global well being. Vice Chancellor Prof Renu Vig in her address stated that CHASCON 2023 is special this year since now it’s a national event. She highlighted about the expo that is being displayed the conference besides the departmental sessions and the keynote lectures and encouraged the young students for interdisciplinary collaborations. She also talked about the management of e waste and the pros and cons of technology.

The first keynote lecture was delivered online by Prof Bruce Alberts from University of California. Prof Bruce has been the editor in chief of “Science” and he spoke on “Why science education is more important than what most scientists think.” He emphasized the need to redefine what is meant bt science education which is essential for all societies. He stated that honesty, generosity and strong demand for evidence is critical in science. He also stressed upon inquiry based science for students. In the end, he highlighted the importance and the efforts of the Indian National Young Academy of Sciences-INYAS which is the only young academy in India, for the dissemination of science and the proper use of social media for science.

The keynote address was given by former DG, ICMR, Dr Balram Bhargava, who traced his first hand account of India’s Fight against COVID-19. He relived the journey of the challenges that COVID 19 brought about and how he and he whole team at ICMR led the nation to victory against COVID. He elaborated in detail how our country fought against all odds and how COVAXIN was developed. He left the audience with goosebumps and a deep sense of pride of being Indians and how Indian science and technology ecosystem saved the world.

Dr Vivek Lal, Director PGI, was Guest of Honour who appreciated the work of ICMR during the pandemic and how INDIA saved the world during the COVID time. He also applauded the struggle of ICMR in vaccine generation and said that colossal commitment led our country to the win against the virus.

The inaugural session ended with the vote of thanks by Prof Ajay Mittal, Co Coordinator of CHASCON 2023.

The subsequent lecture was delivered by Professor Annapurani Subramaniam, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru. She provided insights into the recent space missions, Chandrayaan-III and Aditya-1, led by ISRO, in which she played a significant role. Professor Annapurani emphasized that these missions are crucial for advancing our understanding of celestial body evolution, investigating lunar temperature fluctuations, and conducting in-depth studies of the Sun's various parameters.

The following presentation was delivered by Padma Shri awardee, Dr. Yogesh Chawla, former Director of PGIMER, Chandigarh. He addressed the topic "Menace of Fatty Liver" and highlighted that fatty liver issues often go undetected due to the absence of pain sensors in the liver until they reach a concerning stage. Dr. Chawla stressed the significance of regular physical exercise, and maintaining a healthy diet by avoiding junk food and alcohol. Additionally, he provided practical suggestions for lifestyle improvements to prevent such issues from occurring.

The subsequent lecture was delivered by Prof. Vilas Tonapi, Director of Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad. He and his team have developed 52 high yielding varieties of Millets and declaration of the 2018-2019 as "National year of Millets".He emphasized eating healthy and staying healthy which prevents many lifestyle diseases such disabilities, fatty liver, hypertension etc. He also emphasized on the natural way of the production of Millets which retained their inherent properties such as anticancer, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory properties.Also, he explained how the climate change affects the production of the Millets.

Session 2 started with a talk by Professor Neeraj Dilbagi, from GJU, Hisar who spoke about Nano-Platforms for Sustainable Agriculture and Healthcare Applications followed by Dr. Samrat Ghosh from IISER Mohali and Dr. Jatinder Arora from PSCST, Chandigarh. Professor Dilbagi talked about Technology being a gift of god. After pandemic, lot of things have changed. He focussed about the use of silver nanoparticles and about its antimicrobial property like how a number of products contain silver nanoparticles now a days. He said that Nanotechnology is a buzz word. This is commercialized to such extent more than GDP of our country. He talked about three types of technology. Incremental, Evolutionary and Radical. He said that after few years AI will surpass human intelligence. He further focussed on carbon nanotubes how they have been used in tyres, and a number of things. 

A cultural program was also arranged at the Law auditorium in the evening for the delegates.  Overall, the first day of CHASCON began with an energetic and highly scientific note for the two days to follow.