The foundation stone Innovation & Development Centre of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), which aims to become a major facilitator in taking science to society and meeting the Country’s missions of ‘Make in India’ and 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, was unveiled by the Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu.
Shri Naidu appealed to the scientific community to try for excellence and come out without of the box ideas to benefit society and people. “Science is the backbone of the country for progress and development and should benefit society. It should make people’s life comfortable, happy and healthy. Today 65 per cent of our population is young, and this is a great advantage for us. We need to inculcate scientific temper and use this opportunity for the development and progress of our society and country,” he pointed out.
Shri Naidu highlighted that JNCASR, which is an institute with global recognition, could focus on agricultural research to provide new technology to solve the problems of farmers. He underlined that 40 per cent of the strength of JNCASR are women and expressed hope that more than 50 per cent strength in all institutions in India would be women in coming years.
“Karnataka has produced some great minds, and JNCASR has played a great role in inspiring young minds into science,” said Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot, Governor of Karnataka, which was present at the inauguration, which took place at the Jakkur Campus of JNCASR. Shri Basavaraj S. Bommai, Chief Minister of Karnataka, also graced the occasion.
Bharat Ratna Prof. C.N.R. Rao and Prof. G.U. Kulkarni, President, JNCASR, were part of the ceremony and Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST) had sent his message for the occasion. The programme was attended by senior officials from Govt. of India and Govt. of Karnataka along with deans, faculty members, students and staff of JNCASR.
The Innovation & Development Centre of JNCASR, located at the Arkavathi Campus in Shivanapura, Bengaluru, will be developed into a facility where laboratory-based inventions will be taken forward for scale-up and technology transfer. Start-ups from inventors within the Centre and other Bengaluru institutions and across the country will also be hosted in this new facility. Scientists will be provided with state-of-the-art processing and prototyping tools to enable translation of inventions.
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), an autonomous institution under DST, Government of India, has completed 31 years since its inception in 1989. It focuses on higher education and advanced interdisciplinary research. The Centre, through its various activities, has forged collaborations with many institutions in the country and abroad and is among the top institutions not only in India but also at the international level.
In the country’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), 2017, the Centre was ranked 4th among Universities and 11th under the overall category. The Centre was placed as Special Mention Institutions by NIRF in 2018. At the international level, the Centre was listed among the top ten Young Graduate Universities and ranked the 40th among top 100 Young Universities globally by Nature Index 2019. Nature Index Annual Tables 2020 ranked JNCASR 4th under life sciences and 10th under chemistry and physical sciences categories. In 2021, Nature Index ranked JNCASR 23rd in materials science among the top 50 rising institutions globally. Scimago Institutions Ranking 2021 ranked JNCASR 15th across all sectors and 7th among Universities in India.
