Foundations Laid By People Like Ashok Parthasarthi Enabled India: Vice President

Launches Festschrift on Prof. Ashok Parthasarathi

New Delhi (PIB-GR-TYP-BIN): The Vice President of India, Mr. M. Hamid Ansari has said that the foundations laid by people like Prof. Ashok Parthasarthi enabled India to enhance its Science and Technology capacity. He was addressing the gathering after releasing the Festschrift titled ‘A lifetime of Moulding Technology and Science Policy in India’ dedicated to Prof. Ashok Parthasarthi, on Nov 15. The Emeritus Chairman of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, Prof. M S Swaminathan and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.

The Vice President said that Prof. Ashok Parthasarthi is one of India’s best known Science and Technology planners and he was consulted by the Government during the 1971 war with Pakistan and had a role to play in 1974 peaceful nuclear explosion. Thereafter, he has been closely associated with several of India’s defence projects, he added.

The Vice President said that Prof. Parthasarthi built on the legacy of the importance that science was accorded in independent India by Pandit Nehru. As a science policy planner, Prof. Parthasarathi advocated a major restructuring of our policies and demanded higher budgetary allocations to reflect the government’s prioritization of science and technology, he added.

The Vice President said that one crucial area has remained neglected when formulating our science and technological policies, has been the development of our universities, particularly Science and Technology research in the universities. He said that he hoped subsequent S&T policy formulations will keep the central role the Universities can play as the seats of innovation and ideas factories for the nation.

(Source: PIB/GR/TYP/BIN/USPA/WN/IAIJ)