Nagpur: “Scientists always advocate sustainable development in research. But if this sustainable research is not affordable or readily available, then the research is not feasible for the general public,” asserted the Secretary of the Union Science and Technology Department, Dr S. Chandrasekhar and appealed to the scientists to include the cost-effectiveness factor in their research.
Dr Chandrashekhar was speaking after inaugurating the contact program ‘One Week One Lab’ organized by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research- National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIRNEERI), Nagpur, on Saturday. The event is being organised from April 8 to April 13. Director of NEERI Dr. Atul Vaidya was mainly present on this occasion.
Dr Chandrasekhar said that today technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, Chat-GPT have posed a challenge to the scientific community and the scientific community needs to be vigilant about the effects of such technologies on human beings or their misuse and should do more research. Stating that ethics is the most important in science, he explained that scientists should be alert and aware of the misunderstandings and wrong information about science and technology spread on the social media today.
“The ‘One Week One Lab’ program should not be just for a week but should be an ongoing process,” he said and appealed that scientists should take some time out of their time to educate students in government schools about how science can change their lives. “Science will gradually grow and in 40 years it will be completely transformed. Therefore, scientists should also think about how science and technology will remain relevant in the future”, he stressed.
Dr Chandrashekhar also urged that all institutes under CSIR funded by the Department of Science and Technology and the NEERI should contribute primarily to environment and net zero carbon emission.
On this occasion, in his introductory speech, the Director of NEERI, Dr. Atul Vaidya informed the audience about NEERI’s research work. He said that the purpose of the ‘One Week One Lab’ initiative is to understand the environmental needs of the industry and society by interacting with all stakeholders related to the environment.
Dr. S. Chandrasekhar also inaugurated the Centre of Excellence set up to study climate change in Vidarbha and the effects of thermal power projects.
On this occasion, NEERI scientist Dr Sadhana Rayalu gave information about NEERI’s Centre for Environmental Change. She said that through this centre is sponsored by the Central Department of Science and Technology, research will be done mainly in the climate change of the pollution emitted in the thermal centre of Vidarbha. The vote of thanks for this program was also done by Dr. Rayalu.
