Science festival opens in Lucknow

By Jyoti Singh

Lucknow: The fourth edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF) has begun in the city. A number of conferences and exhibitions showcasing of the work of young scientists are being held on the sidelines of the event. The President Ram Nath Kovind will formally inaugurate the mega science expo on the evening of 6th October.

Addressing a conference of young scientists, science and technology minister Dr Harsh Vardhan reiterated the government’s resolve to apply science and technology for transformation of the country and as an enabler of social and economic progress. He emphasized the role of science and technology in driving inclusive growth. The Minister urged scientific organizations to work closely with all stakeholders.

“Like Corporate Social Responsibility, scientific community has Scientific Social Responsibility,” the minister added. He also inaugurated the Global Indian Science and Technology Stakeholders (GIST) meet.

Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology said, “science and technology has tremendous power to contribute to the economic development and growth of society. And young scientists have a vital role to play and hopefully this event would be a turning point towards their goals.”

Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, said the youth hadresponded to the festival with great enthusiasm. The young scientists’ poster session featured a range of new ideas and technologies like early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, biosensors for lung cancer detection and synthesis of silver nanoparticles using leaf extracts. Dr Afzal Hussain, who is working on the idea of personalized medicines for cancer, said, “differential gene expression analysis was done on kidney tumour using next generation sequencing data analysis.”

The analysis can pave the way for development of personalized medicines in future.

Another researcher Ruchika Shandilya from National Institute for Research in Environmental Health, Bhopal, is working on biosensors for detection of lung cancer. She said that in her experiments she noticed there was considerable elevation in various parameters before the onset of disease. Biosensors can help in early diagnosis of lung cancer.

The aim of Young Scientists’ Conference is to provide a platform to young scientists, entrepreneurs and researchers where they can present their research work and innovative ideas.

The four-day festival with focal theme “Science for Transformation” features 23 special events, and is being attended by about 10000 delegates including students, teachers, students from North-East Region, besides international delegates and startups.