Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, Health and Family Welfare and Dr Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR, during the lighting of the lamp

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) celebrated its 79th Foundation Day on 26 September 2020. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was physically attended by a small gathering at the SS Bhatnagar Sabhagar at Anusandhan Bhawan, CSIR Headquarters in New Delhi maintaining social distancing. However, CSIR staff from all CSIR labs joined the occasion virtually. Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, Health and Family Welfare and Vice President, CSIR graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. 

Congratulating the CSIR family on its 79th Foundation Day, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “It is indeed a privilege to be associated with CSIR in any capacity and you all have the great privilege of working for CSIR.” Appreciating the efforts of CSIR, he said that he and Hon’ble Prime Minister have huge expectations and belief in the potential of CSIR and its scientists. Dr Harsh Vardhan said that whenever there has been a challenge before the country in any form, CSIR has always been able to convert it into an opportunity delivering innumerable benefits to the society.

“The entire scientific community of India has been serving the cause of mitigation of COVID-19 in the best possible manner,” said the Hon’ble Minister. “Irrespective of the mandate and varied fields, all labs of CSIR contributed to the battle against the pandemic and after six months of the active fight since the time of the lockdown, there are so many developments with us that could be called exclusive contributions of the CSIR family,” he added.

Recalling the earlier achievements of CSIR, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that there are many things that CSIR has been able to do over the past many years and he was fortunate that he was able to see CSIR at a very micro level after having spent time in almost all the laboratories of CSIR throughout the country. Dr Vardhan also urged CSIR to brainstorm and prepare a strategy for achieving the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ through S&T.

Dr Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR & Secretary, DSIR (Department for Scientific & Industrial Research), in his Welcome Address, highlighted the efforts of CSIR in the fight against the pandemic and said that when the difficult time came, CSIR as a family stood up and developed innumerable technologies to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. He informed that more than 100 technologies developed by CSIR labs ever since the pandemic struck have been outlined in a special publication called CSIR Technologies for COVID-19 Mitigation. The technologies developed by CSIR have made waves not only in India but internationally also, he informed. Dr Mande also said that apart from several industries that have come forward to collaborate with CSIR, international agencies and institutions have also approached CSIR. He added, “It is a special privilege that the general public and industry are now fighting the battle along with CSIR in this difficult time.”

During the programme, Dr Harsh Vardhan also released an e-book “CSIR Fights COVID-19 – Glimpses” which outlines the various contributions of the CSIR laboratories during these challenging days of the pandemic. Subsequently, a short film released by Dr Harsh Vardhan was also screened. The short film paid tributes to the unstinting efforts of the CSIR family in its fight against COVID-19.

The Foundation Day Lecture was virtually delivered by Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Physics Department, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru. Prof. Sood, FRS, Year of Science Chair Professor is one of the most distinguished physicists in the country.

Delivering his lecture on “Science without Borders” he said that complex contemporary problems may not be amenable to single discipline knowledge domain. COVID-19 has changed our lives in many major ways and there have been many attempts to look at this whole problem with interdisciplinary research because we do not have a wide spectrum of skill section knowledge for a complex problem and here we need everyone along to tackle the problem and challenges that no single discipline can address, he added.

Prof. Sood touched upon three stories from his recent work including: a) Emergent flocking behaviour seen in nature: Lab experiments; b) Crystallization of glass: Machine learning in condensed matter Physics, and c) Bacterial nano heat engine: Getting bacteria to work.

Earlier during the programme, various CSIR Awards were also announced virtually, including CSIR Innovation Awards for School Children-2020; CSIR Young Scientist Awards 2020; CSIR Technology Awards 2020; CSIR Award for S&T Innovation for Rural Development (CAIRD) 2017, 2018, 2019; CSIR Diamond Jubilee Technology Award 2019 and the G N Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological S&T 2020. 

Dr Shekhar Mande also announced the winners of the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards 2020.

Proposing the vote of thanks, Mr A. Chakraborty, Head, HRDG, conveyed the message of the Hon’ble Prime Minister on the occasion — The journey we started in 1942 on this day reminds of our great past which built the foundation of CSIR through which we intend to make India self-reliant – an “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. Science for the people and prosperity for the nation is the new mantra for the new CSIR, he said.