Vigyan Samagam, India’s first-ever, global mega - Science Exhibition was inaugurated at Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai today bringing the world’s major Mega Science projects together. Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, India’s renowned defence scientist and a Member of NITI Aayog inaugurated the first edition of Vigyan Samagam.

This multi-venue Science Exhibition, which is planned in the four cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and New Delhi, will continue for 11-month long duration, commencing its journey from Mumbai today. The Exhibition brings several global, collaborative Mega Science projects under one roof for the first time in the world and is expected to ignite the minds of students, academia and industry to look for opportunities. It also aims to connect with school children, students and aspirants who want to pursue fundamental science and research as a strong career option.

Inaugurating Vigyan Samagam, Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Member, Niti Aayog, congratulated the scientists involved in the mega science projects and hailed India’s participation in it. “Vigyan Samagam will enhance overall knowledge quotient of career seekers in fundamental science, and inform common man and the society about science and technology,” he added.

“Programmes like Vigyan Samagam can boost the ecosystem of innovations by exciting the young generation and by involving industry in the mega science projects,” mentioned Dr. V K Saraswat.

Prof K VijayRaghavan, Principle Scientific Adviser, Government of India gave a projection of the state of the earth in 2050 and underlined the role of science in ensuring sustainability.

He emphasized on democratizing scientific opportunity and on securing our future by investing in young people. He hoped that Vigyan Samagam will create awareness among students, infuse scientific temper and attract industrial participation to develop technological capacity in the country.

Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, stressed on making the one year multi city exhibition Vigyan Samagam more inclusive through innovative methods. “This is a great moment in the history of the universe. While we reflect on the last 10 billion years of the universe, we also recognize India's contribution in mega science projects during the last 10 years or so,” he added.

He mentioned that mega science projects needed greater involvement of industry and it was important to create a level playing field for Indian industry by encouraging them to ramp up to international standards. Programmes like Vigyan Samagam would give them exposure to explore areas of participation.

The inaugural day of Vigyan Samagam saw several students, teachers, faculty and researchers from schools, colleges, universities and research institutions attend the presentations of eminent scientists about the mega science projects and visit the exhibition.

Sri K N Vyas, Secretary, DAE said that Vigyan Samagam gives young visitors exposure to consider science as a career option and opportunities to industries to find out areas in which they can contribute.

Shri Arun Srivastava, Head, ICPD, DAE and Convenor of Apex Committee gave a brief about Vigyan Samagam and said that it will underline the value and impact of fundamental research to a broad cross-section of stakeholders like students, academia and industries. He further said that this Exhibition shall also provide a unique science communication platform and create a bridge for further interactions between India and its global peers, bolstering India’s contribution to global prestigious science projects.

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science and Technology (DST), the funding agencies to these projects and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), Ministry of Culture, who are venue partner and having expertise in design and hosting such exhibition, have jointly organized this first edition of prestigious Science Exhibition.

Dignitaries such as Dr. V. K. Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog, Prof. K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, Shri Kamlesh N. Vyas, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy and Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, Prof. Shri. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Shri A.D. Choudhury, Director General, NCSM, Dr. Frederick Borday, Director for Accelerators and Technology representing CERN and Dr. Andreas Baun, Ambassador of Switzerland to India graced the event. As a host of this prestigious global Exhibition, Shri Ranajit Kumar, Chairman, Apex Committee, Vigyan Samagam and Head, Nuclear Controls and Planning Wing (NCPW), Shri Arun Srivastava, Head, Institutional Collaboration and Program Division (ICPD), DAE and Convenor of the Apex Committee and Shri Shivprasad Khened, Director, Nehru Science Centre and Dr. Praveer Asthana, Head of Scientific Divisions, Department of Science and Technology (DST) were present on the occasion. Former Chairman, AEC viz Dr. P. Chidambaram, Former PSA to GoI and eminent scientist Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Dr. S. Banerjee, Dr. R.K. Sinha and Dr. S Basu also graced the occasion.

After Mumbai, Vigyan Samagam will reach Bengaluru and will run from 29th July, 2019 to 28th September, 2019 at Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum. It will move to Kolkata from 4th November, 2019 to 31st December, 2019 at Science City (East Topsia). In its final leg, it will reach to New Delhi at The National Science Centre from 21st January, 2020 and will close on 20th March, 2020. Thereafter it will remain as a permanent exhibition in New Delhi and will be taken care-off by NCSM.

Vigyan Samagam exhibition will traverse you through the world from micro to macro, unveiling the efforts of the international community in understanding the Universe. It will also showcase that DAE not only works on nuclear technologies, but also work on fundamental science and research, in a big way. Vigyan Samagam exhibition will take you through the workings of the Universe. From discovery of the Higgs particle to that of gravitational waves from merger of neutron stars and black holes, these projects throw light on crucial questions related to the origin of the Universe and its evolution through its various stages. The Exhibition will highlight India’s contribution to the world’s science and technology innovations, researches in the areas of space science, nuclear technology.

Iconic Global Scientific Organisations to participate:

Vigyan Samagam will have the presence prestigious of organisations such as the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN, ‘Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research’ (FAIR), India-based ‘Neutrino Observatory’ (INO), ‘International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor’ (ITER), ‘Laser Interferometer Gravitational - Wave Observatory’ (LIGO), ‘Thirty Meter Telescope’ (TMT) and ‘Square Kilometer Array’ (SKA).

Format of the Exhibition:

The Exhibition will have themed galleries of posters, working models and exhibits, informative audio-visual content and on electronic displays and interactive kiosks will be setup for each of the Mega Science Projects. The inaugural event at each of the four venues will be followed by a two days scientific event comprising of invited talks and lectures by eminent speakers from the field of science, technology and Industry. The audience would include invited members from scientific organisations, industry partners and academia. Coinciding with the scientific seminar, during the first two days at each venue, industry partners working with the participating Mega Science Projects will set-up an expo at the venue to showcase their contributions. As part of project awareness activities, each participating project will be carrying out a week-long activities consisting of popular talks, science demonstrations, interactive quiz programmes, etc.

Connecting with School Children, Students: A key objective of Vigyan Samagam:

In each of the four cities, various engaging activities for school children and students will be taken up. Activities such as quizzes, essay-writing / drawing contests, and popular outdoor programmes like science awareness cyclothon etc. are planned.

In order to reach out to people at large and involve them with this Exhibition, Vigyan Samagam has launched a special website www.vigyansamagam.in where people can get more information about it. It will soon launch a mobile application Vigyan Samagam. The events such as talk shows, lectures etc. will be streamed live through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Exhibition will be open on all Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays. At Mumbai, the timing will be from 10 am to 6 pm.