Find Out Why The Indian Science Congress Was Postponed for the First Time in a Century
New Delhi: After being held on January 3 for the previous 100 years, the Indian Science Congress has been postponed. A decision to reschedule the event has not yet been made. The Prime Minister attended the first event, which serves as a showcase for Indian research. The COVID epidemic prevented the Congress from meeting in 2021 and 2022.
The event’s future has come under scrutiny in light of this year’s break. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), the event’s primary financier, and the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), a recognized organization that organizes it, got into a fight, which is what led to the rupture. DST terminated financing assistance for ISCA in September of last year, claiming “financial irregularities,” an allegation that ISCA refuted. Further escalating tensions between the two was the ISCA’s legal challenge to the DST direction not to utilize government funding to cover any expenses linked to Science Congress. According to The Indian Express, a decision on the court case has not yet been made.
Even though it was unfortunate that the Science Congress could not begin on time, ISCA General Secretary Ranjit Kumar Verma said that it will go on. According to him, “We are hoping that the Prime Minister will attend the Science Congress, which we will hopefully be able to organize before March 31.”
An A government official, speaking anonymously, did not totally rule out funding for the Science Congress in the future. “Even if there was discussion this year over the event’s finance, this does not mean that sponsorship will not be available for all events in the future. He said, “Talks about collaboration will continue for the Science Congress in 2025,” according to TIE.
The majority of the costs associated with the Science Congress are covered by the Rs 5 crore in funds that DST offers. In addition to raising a little amount of money from member subscriptions, ISCA also gets funding from various government agencies that support scientific endeavors.
choosing a place
In the hopes that the private university in Punjab would be able to share part of the expense, the ISCA opted to move the location from Lucknow University to Lovely Professional University (LPU) owing to a lack of funding. The 106th Science Congress was held at LPU in 2019 as well. There are rumors that the DST was not pleased with the location. The ISCA said that a DST official was present at the meeting that decided on the site and that its executive committee never requested authorization from DST to make that decision.
It’s interesting to note that the LPU, which had offered to host the event while a different location was being looked for, withdrew last month, only two weeks before the event, the article said.