BHUBANESWAR: The prestigious Biju Patnaik Award for Scientific Excellence, 2014 was conferred on scientist Lalit Mohan Das for his outstanding contribution to science.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik gave away the award to Das at a function organised by Odisha Bigyan Academy (OBA) here. The award carries a cash prize of `2 lakh.
Similarly, the CM awarded scientists Pradeep Kumar Chand, Swati Mohanty and Ajay Parida with the Samanta Chandra Sekhar Award. The award carries a cash prize of `1 lakh.
Biswaranjan Paital, Sasmita Mohapatra, Milan Kumar Biswal and Swarup Kumar Parida were awarded in the young scientist category which carries a cash prize of `25,000. Besides, the CM felicitated Jibanananda Mohanty, Khageswar Pradhan and Dhruba Raj Nayak as senior scientists.
Addressing the function, Naveen said, “Our endeavour is to create a suitable environment for proper application of technology and conduct of scientific research.”
Stating that the biotechnology policy and the State data policy notified by the Science and Technology Department will help in achieving this objective, the CM said, ‘’Our efforts should be to build the State as a knowledge society where scientific research and application of technology flourishes.
“Our academic and research institutions have to continuously enhance their quality to match with international standards,” he said and added that research programmes need to search for out-of-the-box solutions to combat the challenges faced by the State. Science may be international, but the application is essentially local, he added.
Minister for Science and Technology Badri Narayan Patra, Chief Secretary AP Padhi, Science and Technology Secretary VV Yadav and president of Odisha Vigyan Academy Sanghamitra Mohanty were present.