Dignitaries stressed on training young minds in the right direction as well as in diverse areas for realizing the dreams of Atmanirbhar Bharat at the second Month’s programme of Vigyan Utsav centered on human resource development to celebrate the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

“Human resource component is the most important part of research and development”, said Prof Sandeep Verma, Secretary, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), while highlighting the efforts of SERB is nurturing resources at every level. “We support 1.5 lakh investigators and have launched equity-based programmes which are critical for society,” Prof Verma said. 

The second Month’s programme of Vigyan Utsav was inaugurated with the State of Uttarakhand and Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST) will be coordinated the event for this month. Vigyan Utsav initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology is a virtually organized yearlong ‘One Month One Theme’ programme to celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Twelve themes have been identified, and every day the State S&T Councils are highlighting the themes in their States and Union Territories.

Dr Debapriya Dutta, Adviser, SEED and State S&T Programme (SSTP), DST underlined that Vigyan Utsav showcases the network value of Science and Technology Councils and gives confidence to scientists and citizens for Atmanirbhar Bharat. He informed that during the first month of the programme 60,000 stakeholders virtually participated in the programme. “It will help to improve the science technology ecosystem in India,” Dr Dutta added.

Prof Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, said, “We need mainly two types of manpower for boosting the economy - people with technical knowledge and people having aptitude to become entrepreneurs. Through Vigyan Utsav, we are celebrating the orientation of programmes to create human resources in S&T as well as engineering. We should keep on innovating in this direction to create the right kind of diversity, too,” Prof Chaturvedi pointed out.

While talking about the importance of human resource development in India, Dr Deeksha Gupta, American Chemical Society (ACS), India, said that population and workforce are India’s strengths. If right training is given, job-seekers can be job providers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Prof Divya U Joshi, Director, UGC-HRDC, Kumaun University, Nainital, highlighted how the Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) in higher education caters to the need of the state and DR V.P. Uniyal, Scientist - G, Wild Life Institute, Dehradun talked about requirement of and opportunities for human resource development in the forestry sector in Uttarakhand.

Dr H.S. Baweja, Director, Horticulture and Food Processing, Uttarakhand, highlighted the requirement of human resource development in agricultural especially horticultural entrepreneurship in Uttarakhand and the opportunities available for the same, while Dr Rajendra Dobhal, Director General, UCOST, elaborated on UCOST’s initiative of building diverse capacity.