A glimpse of the Inaugural function of the Contact Session on Health Communication organised by CSIR-NIScPR in association with ICMR (R-L): Dr Rajni Kant, Scientist-G, ICMR, Prof. Ranjana Aggarwal, Director, CSIR-NIScPR& Dr Manish Mohan Gore, Scientist, CSIR-NIScPR
“If scientists don’t communicate, non-experts will start communicating and then the cloud of misinformation and disinformation would emerge,” said Prof. Ranjana Aggarwal, Director, CSIR-NIScPR (CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication & Policy Research), New Delhi, during the inauguration of the ‘Contact Session on Health Communication’ organised by CSIR-NIScPR in association with ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) on 16 November 2022.
She further said, “It is essential to encourage our scientists to get involved in the significant job of science communication. We learnt a lot of lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in the recent past and we saw how science communication played a very crucial role to eradicate unscientific notions during those days of uncertainty.” The programme was attended by 30 scientists from various laboratories of ICMR.
Dr Rajni Kant, Scientist-G & Director, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Gorakhpur, was the Guest of Honour of the programme. During the inaugural function, Dr Kant said that these are ‘Super 30’ scientists from ICMR laboratories and I am sure they will become proficient science communicators after this course of science communication. He further said that ICMR has initiated such a course on Health Communication for the first time and it is the need of the hour.
In the first Technical Session at CSIR-NIScPR, four experts delivered lectures on various topics of concern. Shri R.S. Jayasomu, Chief Scientist, CSIR-NIScPR delivered a lecture on “Research Communication vs. Science Communication: Need of the Hour”. This was followed by a talk by Dr Y. Madhavi, Chief Scientist, CSIR-NIScPR on “Health Communication in Post COVID Era”. Dr Manish Mohan Gore, Scientist, CSIR-NIScPR presented his talk on “Popular Science Writing for Different Media”. Shri Ashwani Brahmi, Principal Technical Officer, CSIR-NIScPR, discussed the know-how of production and printing in science communication with the participating scientists of ICMR.
After the first technical session, all the participants visited the scientific facilities of CSIR-NIScPR such as printing machines, AyurVatika of medicinal plants and the Herbarium of raw materials based on plants, animals and minerals.
During the second Technical Session, three experts delivered lectures. Senior Science Communicator and Photo journalist Shri PallavBagla interacted with participants on “Clever ways of communicating science”. Dr Paramananda Barman, Scientist, CSIR-NIScPR, presented his talk on “SVASTIK and its Media Coverage Insights” focused on the scientific validation of Indian traditional knowledge. Later, Dr Meher Wan, Scientist, CSIR-NIScPR, delivered his talk on “How to communicate your research to the general public”.
At the end of the programme, Dr Enna Dogra and Dr Priya, Scientists of ICMR coordinated the feedback and takeaway session. Dr Manish Mohan Gore, Scientist, CSIR-NIScPR, proposed the vote of thanks.
CSIR-NIScPR is one of the constituent laboratories of CSIR with the two key mandates of STI-based policy studies research and science communication. NIScPR brings out 16 peer-reviewed open access journals in various prominent disciplines of S&T. Besides, also publishes three popular science magazines — Science Reporter (in English), VigyanPragati(in Hindi) and Science kiDuniya(in Urdu).
