Member NITI Aayog Dr. V. K. Saraswat stressed on the role of data in preserving the Himalayan Natural Resource and the Himalayan way of Sustainable Economic Growth at a lecture organised yesterday.
“WIHG plays an important role for the development of Himalaya, and there should be a huge data bank, which can be useful for the policymakers of the Himalayan region,” said Dr. Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog and Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, at the lecture organised on the occasion of the 54th Foundation Day Lecture of Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun (WIHG).
The 54thfoundation day of WIHG, Dehradun, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, GoI, was celebrated on June 29, 2021. Padma Bhushan awardee Dr. Saraswat spoke on the Himalayan way of sustainable economic growth at the online lecture to mark the celebrations. The online lecture was attended by a number of participants, including young researchers, scientists, chairman, and members of governing body of WIHG have been participated in this talk.
Dr Saraswat elaborated on the various issues of the Himalayan region like Global warming/ climate change, growth of human population, forest fires and degradation, loss of biodiversity, unplanned urbanisation, ambitious development projects, and unsustainable tourism. He also proposed the solution of these issues through six interdependent approaches: empowerment of the people, rural development, and development of sectors by creating productive employment opportunities, maximising self-governance, augmenting infrastructure, and ensuring adequate flow of resources.
While Dr. Saraswat underlined the role played by WIHG in the development of the Himalaya and developing a huge data bank, which can be useful for the policymakers of the Himalayan region, Dr. Kalachand Sain, Director, WIHG, gave a brief about the work carried out by WIHG.
In this function, many awards like i.e., Prof. R.C. Mishra Award, Best paper award, and Best worker award were also announced.
