BENGALURU: “The new policy aimed to fix scientific social responsibility on scientists in India will make it mandatory for scientists to popularise science among school and college students,” head of the National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), Dr Akhilesh Gupta, said here on Sunday at the Science Communicators’ Meet at Indian Science Congress.
Gupta said that the policy has been drafted in a manner that aims at encouraging scientists to popularise science, explaining that as scientists were engaged in experiments and research, they do not find time to share their research stories.
However, this policy which fixes scientific social responsibility on them, would make it mandatory for them to undertake some social responsibility by going to academic institutions to share details about their research with students, popularising science in the bargain, he said.
“We are bringing out a national policy on scientific social responsibility. The policy is meant to offer an opportunity wherein each scientist and faculty member who receives funds for projects will have to undertake some social responsibility,” he said.
Highlighting another initiative, Gupta said that the Centre had also come up with a programme called Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research (AWSAR), in which students can write science articles, from which the top hundred articles would be picked and their writers would be awarded.
Gupta said that the Union Department of Science and Technology wants to set up a sound scientific talent pool in the next 5-8 years.