Annual Report 2003 - 2004

Professional Bodies

Indian Academy Of Sciences, Bangalore

The Academy has completed sixty-nine years of its existence. Its objectives include promoting the progress and upholding the cause of science, both in pure and applied branches. The Academy consists of Fellows, Honorary Fellows and Associates. During the year, twenty four new fellows, two honorary fellows and five associates were elected. The activities of the Academy are briefly explained.

Publications

Publications continue to be the major activity of the Academy. The eleven journals in various disciplines are run by independent editorial boards consisting of active scientists. The journals are published in varying frequencies and about 85 issues aggregating to nearly 10000 printed pages were published during the year. Several special issues on topical themes were brought out during the year. These included the Bhuj earthquake, Bay of Bengal Monsoon Experiment, etc. The journals of the Academy are now freely available on the Internet. Back issues of all journals and books published since inception are also available.

Annual Meetings

One scientific meeting was held in July 2003 in Bangalore and the other in November 2003 in Guwahati. The 2003 mid-year meeting, fourteenth in the series, was held in Bangalore and about 200 Fellows and Associates attended the meeting. A session relating to the topic of genetics was held at the campus of the Bangalore University in Jnana Bharathi enabling nearly 500 students and teachers to attend the Academy lectures.

Science Education

To improve the quality of science education, several teaching/training programmes were organised by the Academy. The following were the main activities:
- Summer fellowships: Two-month summer fellowships are awarded to bright students and motivated teachers to work with Fellows of the Academy on research-oriented projects. A total of 148 summer fellowships were awarded during the year to students and teachers to work in several institutions in the country.
- Participation of teachers in Academy meetings: From the Academy database of teachers, 80 teachers around the country were invited to participate in the two Academy meetings as guest participants to provide them with the opportunities to attend scientific programmes as well as to interact with Fellows. This included a large number of teachers from the North-East region of the country.
- Refresher courses for teachers: This important programme for teachers is designed to help motivated teachers to improve their knowledge and teaching skills. The course is of two-week duration and consists of lectures, discussion sessions and tutorial sessions. Ten such refresher courses were held in different areas of science & technology.
- Lecture series for students/teachers: Academy arranges 2–3 day lecture programmes on carefully chosen topics at selected college and university departments in the country for local students and teachers. Speakers include fellows and others from nearby institutions. Five such lecture series were held during the year.

Indian National Academy Of Engineering, New Delhi

Annual Function

The Annual Function of the Academy was held on December 12-13, 2003 at ECC Convention Centre, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Chennai. The new Fellows elected recently made technical presentations followed by the Governing Council meeting and evening lecture by an Industry leader.

INAE Young Engineer Awards, Innovation Potential of Students Projects Awards and Life Time Contribution Awards in Engineering were presented.

Life Time Contribution Award in Engineering – 2003

The Academy honors eminent Indian citizens who have made most distinguished contributions in the field of engineering practice, engineering research, engineering education, engineering technology and engineering management which have brought prestige to the nation. Life Time Contribution Award in Engineering – 2003 was conferred on the following:

• Dr. S Varadarajan, Past President, INAE in recognition of his exemplary contribution encompassing engineering research/engineering management and engineering professional growth.
  
• Prof. Roddam Narasimha, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in recognition of his significant contribution to Aerospace
  Technology developed in India at both technical and policy making levels.

INAE Young Engineer Award 2003

The Academy instituted in 1996 INAE Young Engineers Award for those who are less than 35 years of age. The award takes into account not only the scientific contributions of the nominees from engineering institutions, research laboratories and industry but also relevance of their work for practical applications in industry and potential for new technology development. During the year, 12 persons were selected for this award.

Innovation Potential of Students Projects Award 2003

Engineering students carry out project work at undergraduate, post graduate and doctoral levels involving design, experiments, analysis and synthesis and integration of products and processes. With a view to encourage projects that are application oriented leading to new technologies and having innovative potential to help in product / process improvement, INAE instituted Innovation Potential of Students Projects Awards during the year 1999. 2 Doctoral Level, 2 Masters Level and 6 Bachelors Level students were selected for this award.

Round Table on Seismic Microzonation in India

A round table was organized by INAE at Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Chennai on February 24, 2003. The objective was to facilitate sharing of knowledge and experience among experts, professionals and other officials involved, on the topic of Seismic Microzonation. A comprehensive base paper was prepared based on the deliberations.

National Seminar on Engineered Building Materials and their Performance A National Seminar on “Engineered Building Materials and their Performance” was held at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay on January 17-18, 2003. The aim of the seminar was to create a symbiosis between the Academia, Research and Development Organisations, Industry, students of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Civil Engineering, and user agencies. The symbiosis thus cemented will help in the development of the state-of-art technology in building materials and structural applications.

National Seminar on Disaster Management and Mitigation

A National Seminar on “Disaster Management and Mitigation” was held at Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Chennai on June 20-21, 2003. The aim of this Seminar was to provide a common platform to discuss and plan Disaster Management and Mitigation measures and to disseminate the information over a wide cross section of the society.

INAE Conference on Nanotechnology

An INAE Conference on Nanotechnology was held at Chandigarh during December 22-23, 2003.

Meeting with the Sterling Group on April 14, 2003

The Sterling Group of UK comprises twenty major UK Universities which are excellent at Engineering. A meeting was held on April 14, 2003 with the visiting delegates of the Sterling Group of UK to exchange ideas and to explore areas of mutual interest beneficial to both the Academies on April 14, 2003.

Visit by the Chinese delegation from Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST)

A Chinese delegation from Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST) interacted with INAE delegation on January 8, 2003 for discussing topics of mutual interest.

CAETS 15th Convocation and Council Meeting

Dr. A Ramakrishna, President, INAE, Prof. DV Singh and Prof. R Natarajan, Vice-Presidents and Mr. Sriram Jayasimha attended the CAETS 15th Convocation on May 19-21, 2003 and Council meeting on May 22, 2003 at Hollywood, California.

Meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C)

Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C) has desired that INAE should hold seminar / debate to focus attention on Academia-Industry-R&D interaction. To discuss the modalities of holding such seminars /debates, a meeting was organized on 30 October, 2003.

AICTE-INAE Distinguished Visiting Professorship Scheme

Fourteen industry experts were selected for the award of Distinguished Visiting Professorship Scheme for the year 2003.

The Fellowship

The Council elected 34 Indian and 5 Foreign Fellows to the Academy.

Honours & Awards received by Fellows

Fellows of the Academy received numerous awards including Padma Bhushan (1); Padma Shri (4), Knighthood by Queen of England in her birthday honors (1), DRDO Scientists Award (1), Prof. JC Ghosh Memorial Science Award (1), Technology Leadership Award (1), Ahilya Rashtriya Puruskar 2003 (1), NRDC Award (1) etc.

Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi

Highlights

• The Council assumed office after the Anniversary General Meeting on December 29, 2002 at New Delhi.
• Elected 24 Indian scientists as Fellows and 2 foreign scientists as Foreign Fellows. Ten Young Scientists (below 32 years of age) were selected for INSA Young Scientist Medal Award.
• Nineteen awards were announced (4 General Medals/Lectures, 15 Subject-wise awards). Twenty one lectures were delivered during General Meetings and under the aegis of Local Chapters.
• Engaged the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) to conduct a feasibility study for the preparation of India Science Report on the lines of World Science Report published by the United Nations.
• Four major Study Groups were set-up for the preparation of well considered document on Ethics in Science, Science in Doctor’s Training, Instrumentation in India, and Science Career for Indian Women.
  Hosted the 8th General Conference and 13th General Meeting of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the 7th General Meeting of Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWANSO) in Delhi during October 2002.
• “India Day” was celebrated on 11 December 2002 at the Royal Society London to mark three decades old scientific relationship between INSA and the Royal Society. A 5- member team lead by Dr R A Mashelkar participated and delivered lectures on topics reflecting the development in Indian Science in various areas.
• Professor Hubert Markl, Former President of DFG delivered 6th Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture on Humanity and Humanism: The Bioethical Perspective of Human Evolution on National Science Day.
• Digitized all the back volumes of the four journals published by the Academy to make them available online. A new website of INSA has been created and efforts are being made to serve the scientific community and the Fellows electronically.
• Supported research projects under History of Science programmes; published Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics (monthly), Proceedings of INSA Part-A (Physical Sciences) and Part-B (Biological Sciences) (bi-monthly) and Indian Journal of History of Science (quarterly), and other regular publications.

Indian Science Congress Association, Kolkata

The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) is a premier scientific institution established in 1914 primarily for the purpose of providing a common platform to Indian scientists, engineers and technologists of all categories and belonging to different disciplines for sharing expertise and experience.

Activities of ISCA Chapters

There are at present 18 ISCA Chapters in different parts of India viz. Bangalore, Baroda, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Bodh-Gaya, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Karnal, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patiala and Shillong. World Health Day on 7th April was celebrated by ISCA Baroda Chapter and World Environment Day on 5th June was celebrated by ISCA Baroda and Bhubaneswar Chapters. The Colloquium on ‘Science & Technology Policy, 2003’ was organized by Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai Chapters. Different Seminars on Bioinformatics, Biotechnology and Biotechnology for Human Welfare were organized by Bangalore, Karnal, Jaipur Chapters respectively. ISCA Guwahati Chapter organized a Symposium on ‘Linking the Bramhaputra River with the Ganges and later with other River System’. Further, ISCA Bhubaneswar Chapter organized the 7th Orissa Bigyan Congress on 9th November, 2003 on the Focal Theme ‘Science and Society in the 21st Century: Quest for Excellence’.

Publications

This is a very important and significant activity both for dissemination of scientific knowledge and projection of Association’s image. The year under report witnessed a significant number of publications brought out by the Association. The publications brought out were: General Information - 91st Indian Science Congress, ISCA Directory : 2003-2004, List of Office-Bearers & Sectional Committees for 2003-2004, Honorary Members, Donor & Life Members for 2003-2004, Members (with Voting Right) for 2003-2004, Annual Report : 2002-2003. Four issues of the bimonthly journal Everyman’s Science (Volume XXXVIII) were brought out.

91st Indian Science Congress

The 91st Indian Science Congress was held at Chandigarh under the joint auspices of Panjab University and Institute of Microbial Technology from January 3- 7, 2004. The focal theme of the Congress was “Science and Society in the Twenty First Century: Quest for Excellence”. The different facets of the focal theme were:- Plenary Topics : Science and Evergreen Revolution, Challenging Frontiers in Biomedical Research, Information Science in Future of India (Five ideas that can transform India), Role of Traditional Knowledge in the Advancement of Modern Science, New Frontiers in Biotechnology, Strengthening of Knowledge Base in Educational Institutions, and Ethics and Responsibility in Science in which many eminent scientists, technologists, policy- makers, industrial executives, educationists and social activists participated. Besides, three ISC Panels on “Women and Sustainable Development”, “Child Development and Nation Building” and “Global Warming and Environment” were held. A special session on ‘Science for School Children’ was organised.

Symposia on different interesting topics, Platinum Jubilee Lectures, Special/Invited Lectures and Presentations of Research Papers (through Oral and Posters) were organised in different Sections.

National Academy Of Sciences, Allahabad

The objectives of the Academy, established in 1930, are cultivation and promotion of Science & Technology in all its branches, providing a national forum for publication of research work, holding symposia/seminars and discussion on scientific topics of national relevance, organizing a Science Library including section for students of plus two level, organizing meetings and discussions on scientific and technological problems, promoting scientific and technological research concerned with the problems of national welfare.

The research journal, Proceedings of the Academy, being published regularly in two sections covering Physical and Biological Sciences, are now running into their 73rd Volume. The Academy also publishes a research journal, National Academy Science Letters, now running into its 26th Volume. The other special publications of the Academy were “Issues in Mathematical Modelling related to Himalayan Glaciology”, Year Book 2002 & 2003; and another issue on ‘National Hazard’.

The Academy during the year organized one symposia entitled “Biodiversity: A Scientific Approach – Agenda for the 21st Century” besides the 72nd Annual Session at Shillong. During the Annual Session, Swarna Jayanti Puraskars were given to scientists presenting best research papers, in the Sections of Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences. National Science Day and National Technology Day were also celebrated.

For promotion of excellence, the following Awards were given:

• Prof. R.N. Tandon Memorial Lecture Award, and
  
• The National Academy of Sciences, India – Science Teacher Award.

The Academy, during this year, elected 4 distinguished scientists as Foreign Fellows, 50 distinguished scientists as Fellows and 41 scientists as Members.