Discovery Park in Rahul Gandhi's constitutency

Lucknow, Jan 9: Amethi, the parliamentary constitutnecy of Congress icon Rahul Gandhi, is expected to get the country's first 'Discovery Park' which will travel from Indiana in the United States to Uttar Pradesh.

This park, depicting society's 'big challenges'where today's vision is transformed into tomorrow's reality, will be set up by Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A).In US the Park was promoted by University of Purdue in Indiana, and the IIIT-A would certainly get technological collaboration from professors of this University.

The Discovery park in Amethi estimated to cost Rs 400 crore will see construction work begin next month. It is estimated that the project would be completed in a couple of years time, IIIT-A sources said.

The decision to set up the park was taken in a meeting of fficials from the US and Indian department of science and technology, rural development, IT and IIIT-A in New Delhi, the sources said.

A delegation from the US which included Prof Pankaj Sharma from the University of Purdue,the host varsity of the US Discovery Park, had a series of deliberations over the dimensions of the proposed Park. The Indian experts who were present during the discussions were included Director IIIT-A Dr M D Tiwari and the in-charge of technology affairs at the Indian Consulate in US Y P Kumar.

IIIT-A director, Dr Tiwari said state-of-the-art Discovery Park would come up at Amethi and work for the same has started on a war footing. ''We have identified the land in Amethi where the park would come up''.

During the New Delhi meeting, deliberations were held on the entire plan of the park. The objective would be the same as that of the US Park.

The Park will cater research needs but addressing challenges of community development would be another goal, he said.

Purdue University's pioneering project had sought to evolve innovation through multi-disciplinary approach by creating a combinational power which is greater than any individual strength and to serve as a catalyst for drawing faculty, staff, and students to reach into other disciplines and projects in order to take Purdue to the cutting edge of academic work.

The Discovery Park in us had 10 centres, which among others included centre for advanced manufacturing, centre for enterpreneurship, centre of environment, centre for oncological sciences and others. The Amethi Discovery park will also boast a centre of oncological sciences and an entrepreneurial development center besides an Indo-Swiss centre for micro-electronics, an Indo-US centre for language technology, an Indo-Danish centre for wireless sensors and senses, a centre for healthcare, a centre for robotics and a centre for nano-technology.

Dr Tiwari pointed out that the park would also serve as an umbrella institution for a chain of institutions coming up in Amethi, like the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology and a medical college.

In 2005, a center of IIIT-A was opened in Amethi in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. He announced during its inauguration that he wanted to showcase Amethi as a center of inter disciplinary studies for rural growth.

Dr Tiwari however added the park would also make provisions for the entertainment of visitors with an exciting amusement park with a goal to impart science education through entertainment.

The idea for the discovery park was there already on the IIIT table for sometime but turning point was the visit of a senior IIIT-A faculty member Prof A K Agarwal to the US Discovery Park at University of Purdue.

Prof Agarwal had held discussions with the US Discovery Park's vice-president for research Prof Chip Rutledge.

The Purdue idea is now breaking a new ground.The United States Discovery Park has done wonders in the treatment of cancer. They are now at a stage where they can identify and detect cancer at a very micro level, Dr Agarwal informed the IIIT-A in a report.

The Amethi Park is all set to create an environment where projects get boosted through shared talk, shared work and shared innovation. This, the scholars point out would outshine individual work done in isolation.

UNI