Government shifts Science Congress from Amity to Annamalai

New Delhi, Nov 3 (UNI) The government has moved the 94th Indian Science Congress, the annual brainstorming of country's scientific community, from Amity University, Noida to Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu.

The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), which oversees the event traditionally opened by the Prime Minister, was told by the Science and Technology Department to shift the venue ''without assigning any reasons'', said Harsh Gupta, general president of the Science Congress to be held during January 3-7 next year.

The selection of Amity University had been jinxed from the moment the decision was taken at the previous congress in Hyderabad in January. Several delegates had criticised the move to hold the prestigious event at a university, which was de-recognised once following a Supreme Court order.

''There was no reason assigned to the decision to shift the venue from Noida,'' Dr Gupta, a former secretary of the department of ocean development, told a news conference here last evening.

The government decision was communicated to the ISCA in June. The brief from the Science and Technology Secretary was ''hold the Congress away from Delhi''.

Dr Gupta, however, said the decision was not taken under any ''security or political reasons''.

Following the government's move, ISCA found the Annamalai University in Chidambaram, situated about 230km from Chennai, suitable to hold the event attended by about 6,000 delegates.

There have been at least two instances earlier when the Congress had to be shifted, one at a short notice when it was moved from Guwahati to Kolkata, Dr Gupta said.

'Planet Earth' is the theme for the Chidambaram Science Congress, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 3.

President APJ Abdul Kalam, himself a top scientist, will open the Children's Science Congress on January 5.

Two Nobel laureates - Israeli scientist Aaron Ciechanover and German Hartmut Michel - are among the scientists ISCA say will be coming to the congress.

Prof. Ciechanover and his colleague at his Haifa medical research institute, Prof. Avram Hershko, had won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2004 with American Irwin Rose for showing how cells can give a ''kiss of death'' to destroy unwanted proteins, a finding that could help scientists find new drugs for fighting cancer and other diseases. Prof. Michel, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988, is not new to India. He had visited the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai in December 2004 to deliver a lecture on membrane proteins as targets in medicine and agriculture.

Prof CNR Rao, the scientific adviser to the Prime Minister are Dr R Chidambaram, the principal scientific adviser to the government, are also in the list of participants.

The main areas of focus at the congress will be energy security; mineral, water and ocean resources, and natural hazards.

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