The Hindu Business Line : Sastraposhini bids to link science with development

`SASTRAPOSHINI', the unique student-enabling programme being launched in select educational institutions by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), will seek to set right the disconnect between science and the developmental process.

Dr K.R.S. Krishnan, Director, and Dr Prakashkumar, Principal Scientific Officer, KSCSTE, and also Nodal Officer, Sastraposhini, told reporters that though the State had forged ahead in achieving universal literacy targets, this had not translated into economic benefits for the people at large.

This was because available scientific knowledge and skills were not put to practical use to stream the beneficial aspects of universal literacy into the developmental process.

Sastraposhini will attempt to set right the lacuna by addressing this problem right from the premises of the schools.

The Chief Minister, Mr A. K. Antony, will formally dedicate the scheme at a function to be held here on October 2.

Under the scheme, assisted by the State Education Department, all schools in the State will prospectively have a well-equipped laboratory in physics, chemistry and biology within the next two academic years.

In the first phase, labs will be set up at one school in each of the 36 educational districts in the State.

According to Dr Krishnan, the next Kerala Science Congress will be held from January 29 to 31, 2004, at the Central Institute of Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) at Kozhikode.

The KSCSTE proposed to arrange guest lectures by eminent speakers from different fields during the congress, where quality of research work would decide the number of papers that are to be presented.

It has also been decided to award 14 Ph D council fellowships to deserving university students over the next three-year period.

Dr Krishnan announced that the grant for science research programmes sponsored by the council was being revised from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 10 lakh from this year onwards.

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