CSIR foundation day celebrated today

New Delhi, Sept 26 : Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) today celebrated its 66th Foundation Day with great enthusiasm.

Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal gave away the CSIR Young Scientist Awards 2008 and the CSIR Technology Awards 2008 at a function organized in New Delhi today to mark the occasion.

In his address, the Minister called upon the scientific community to bring science out of laboratories in the form of solutions to the day-to-day problems of the people.

Observing that India is the third most attractive nation for R and D, Sibal reiterated the commitment of the government to provide world-class environment for scientists to pursue their research.

Lauding the recent launch of an open source platform by CSIR the Minister strongly advocated a system of free flow of information. He also praised the Project 800 of the CSIR, which aims at bringing solutions to 800 million people in the country in the areas of agriculture, energy and health.

Prof. Bartha Maria Knoppfers of the University of Montreal, Canada delivered the CSIR Foundation Day lecture on Investments in Health Research and International Interoperability.

He also named the winners of the CSIR Award for S and T Innovation in Rural Development.

On the occasion, Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, Director General, CSIR also announced the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes for 2008.

Name of ten scientists have been selected for the prize in different categories. Winners of science and technology prize in the field of Biological Sciences are Dr. G. P. S. Raghava, Institute of Micobial Technology, CSIR, Chandigarh, Dr. L. S. Shashidhara, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, CSIR, Hyderabad.

In the field of Chemical Sciences the name of the prizewinners are Dr. Pradeep Thalappil, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Dr. Jarugu Narasimha Moorthy, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Dr. P. N. Vinayachandran, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore is the winner in the category of Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences.

Dr. Ranjan Kumar Mallik, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi is the winner in Engineering Sciences category.

Dr. Jaikumar Radhakrishnan, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai is winner of Mathematical Sciences category.

In Medical Sciences category Dr. Ravinder Goswami, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi is the prizewinner.

Dr. Raghunathan Srianand, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune and Dr. Srikanth Sastry, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore for Physical Sciences category.

The Bhatnagar prizes are given to scientists below 45 years of age, for their outstanding scientific contributions made primarily in India during the last five years preceding the year of the prize.

The prize comprising a citation, a plaque and a cash award of Rs. five lakh would be given to the recipients by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at a later date.

ANI