Celebrating Science In The City Of Lakes: India International Science Festival To Be Held In Bhopal In January

Indian science is firmly on the agenda in the first month of the new year 2023.

While the Indian Science Congress kicks off early, on 3 January, the India International Science Festival gets underway later in the month.

The eighth India International Science Festival (IISF) will be held at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal, from 21 to 24 January 2023.

IISF is an annual event dedicated to the celebration of science and technology. Its big-picture aim is to provide a space for laypersons to engage joyfully with science and technology. Here, school students, research scholars, scientists, educators, policymakers, industry, and the general public come together with a shared love of science.

The eighth edition is a joint effort of the Government of India’s science wings — the Ministries of Science and Technology, and Earth Sciences, the Departments of Space, Atomic Energy, and Biotechnology, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISR) — along with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) and the Madhya Pradesh government.

The Department of Biotechnology, and specifically the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, is the nodal coordinating agency.

The theme for IISF 2022 is “Marching towards Amrit Kaal with Science, Technology, and Innovation,” in line with India’s Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations commemorating the country’s 75 years of independence.

Fifteen events have been planned for the festival, including the Students’ Innovation Festival, Science Through Games and Toys, Artisans Technology Village, International Science Film Festival of India, New Age Technologies Show, and the Mega Science and Technology Exhibition (details of all the programmes).

“Special events have been planned for students, artisans, innovators, New Age Technology, young scientists, science films, and science literature. I am sure that such participatory citizen science initiatives will help to pave the way for translation of scientific outcomes for the welfare of our citizens,” the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, and Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh, said in a statement, wishing the festival “a grand success.”

Dr Singh leads the steering committee of the festival.

The tradition of striving for the Guinness world records during the IISF will go on. Fourteen Guinness world records have been achieved thus far in the seven years of the festival’s running. This time too, students will try to create records, such as with the simultaneous assembly of prototype models and demonstrations of workable science models.

“While India has chosen the path to be a $5 trillion economy by 2025, it is important to integrate our scientific community, start-up ecosystem and ideas from public to fill up the technological gap in an accelerated manner,” Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Secretary to the Department of Biotechnology, said in his official message.

Dr Gokhale stressed on the need to “develop scientific temperament among common citizens” if India was to become a science-and-technology-driven economy.

IISF has been seven years in the running since its debut in 2015. It came about as an initiative of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Earth Sciences in association with Vijnana Bharati, previously known as Swadeshi Science Movement.

The motivation was to put together a celebration of science for all, especially the promotion of public engagement with science and its benefits.

The inaugural event was held in Delhi (the second edition too), with Chennai, Lucknow, and Kolkata following up as hosts in the years 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively.

The year impacted by the pandemic, 2020, presented a particular difficulty for organising IISF, but the festival was eventually held in the virtual mode from 22-25 December. Forty-one events were conducted as part of IISF 2020, which saw more than one lakh participants in all.

IISF 2021 was held close to mid-December in Panaji, Goa, in the state's sixtieth year of liberation and also India's seventy-fifth year of independence. It was implemented in the hybrid, physical-virtual, mode, with the theme ‘Celebrating Creativity in Science, Technology and Innovation for Prosperous India’.

As for IISF 2022, the science is likely to be more vigorously on show since the festival is taking place in the year of India’s G20 presidency. About 6,000 delegates are expected to participate.

Also Read: Indian Science Congress Will Be Held In Nagpur For Five Days In The First Week Of January 2023