Modi to inaugurate ISC on January 3

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 102nd Indian Science Congress here on January 3, it was officially announced here on Wednesday.

Nobel laureates, noted scientists as well as academics of global repute are scheduled to participate in the event hosted by Mumbai university, its Vice Chancellor Rajan Welukar told reporters here.

The theme of the event, which will conclude on January 7 is, 'Science and Technology for Human Development,' Velukar said. The inaugural session and main sessions would be held at the Kalina campus of the Mumbai University. It is expected that the five-day gathering would be attended by around 12,000 delegates, he said.

The last time the event was held in Mumbai was in 1969.

Symposia on relevant themes like the Women's Science Congress, Children's Science Congress and a science exhibition would be organised during the session, Pro-Vice chancellor Naresh Chandra and director of the Board of Colleges and University Development (BCUD), Rajpal Hande said. The Indian Science Congress is being organised since 1914, university Registrar M A Khan said.

"I discussed hosting the event in Mumbai with then

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in January last year," General President of Indian Science Congress 2015, S B Nimse said.

The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), which is the parent organisation under whose aegis the event is organised, owes its origin to the initiative of two British chemists namely, Professor J L Simonsen and Professor P S MacMahon.

It occurred to them that scientific research in India might be stimulated if an annual meeting of research workers along the lines of the British Association for the Advancement of Science could be arranged.

The Association was formed with objectives of advancing as well as promoting the cause of science in India, holding an annual science congress at a suitable place in India and publishing such proceedings in journals, or other publications as desirable.

The first meeting of the Indian Science Congress was held from January 15 to January 17, 1914 at the premises of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, with the Honourable Justice Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, as its President.