Dr. Harsh Vardhan at the Nagaland Science & Technology Council

The Union minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, while expressing happiness over his maiden visit to Nagaland, launched the Twinning Network Programme on Chemical Ecology of North Eastern Region (NER) at the Nagaland Science & Technology Council (NASTEC), Kohima.

This programme is the first of its kind in the country and is expected to bring about huge impact for the North-East researchers. It is a Twinning Network Programme that would link institutes from the North-East with Bangalore-based scientists.

The programme is envisaged for human capacity building for the North-East region, especially in Chemical ecology. It is expected to produce at least 15 PhDs from the North-East region at the end of the 5 year programme.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan at the event:

Talking of our great scientists like Dr. Sir C.V. Raman and Dr. Jagdish Chandra Bose, Dr. Harsh Vardhan challenged the young researchers and scientist to work towards the benefits of the society rather than only for personal achievements.

He stated that the Twinning Network Programme, like this one on Chemical ecology, should be promoted and replicated even in other areas of study so as to strengthen the knowledge resource sharing.

He also added that the scientific community should work more in co-ordination for better knowledge resource linkages within a subject area through utilization of the latest communication technologies at hand.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan on PM's dream for NE:

Dr. Vardhan also highlighted that the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, has an exceptional concern to uplift the North-East Region, not only at par with the rest of the country but even higher.

In his speech, he highlighted the potential of natural resources in Nagaland for research and development, which is rich biodiversity, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge systems and its scope for invention collaborating with modern Scientific research and development.

The Union minister emphasised upon the up-scaling of the Nagaland state Science & Technology Council besides focusing upon other Science and Technology related problems of the state.