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The President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam delivered an address over All India Radio and Doordarshan on February 28th on the occasion of Science Day. Science Day is celebrated on 28th of February every year, the date on which one of India’s great scientists and Nobel Laureate Sir C.V. Raman made a landmark discovery. President Kalam’s talk was titled, “ Can Indian Science Inspire Youth ?”
The President said Science Day is a day to remind us that the important ingredient for societal transformation would mainly come from science. If the nation’s science is celebrated, it will also attract many young children to take up science as a career, he said. The President called on scientists to rededicate themselves to create high quality scientific research output from India, to make the nation proud. He shared with listeners and viewers, scientific progress made by the country.
The President said the global scientific community has decided to pay tribute to the great scientist, Albert Einstein by declaring the year 2005 as the International year of Physics. India will celebrate Einstein’s anniversary by paying special attention to basic sciences in schools and colleges, modernizing and reforming institutions of science and rededicating itself to the spread of scientific temper.
The President mentioned the developments and achievements in Indian science in 2004. These were the development of bio-pesticide, a drug for the faster cure of tuberculosis, the development of a nano-tube filter, a gene chip for curing heart diseases, a novel detection kit - NEVA-HIV to detect HIV (AIDS) in a drop of blood within three minutes and the discovery of binary millisecond pulsar.
The President also talked in detail about the great Indian scientists, Sir C.V. Raman, Dr. G.N. Ramachandran, Dr. D.S. Kothari, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha and Professor Vikram Sarabhai and their achievements in the field of science.
Dr. Kalam concluded by saying, “Can we apply science to eradicate poverty, remove illiteracy, make all Indians healthy and make it a partner in generating wealth for the nation to transform India into a developed nation by the year 2020. The answer to the question is ‘yes’ since the development of the nation has to be done through application of technology since non-linear growth can only be achieved through technology
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