In the inaugural address of the 100th Session of Indian Science Congress at Kolkata today (January 3, 2013), the President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee called upon the scientific community to work for the promotion of a scientific culture for shaping India’s future in which prosperity and peace, excellence and equity, oriental values and occidental methods of science converge and co-exist. He said India is expected to emerge as a major economic power by 2035. India should also emerge as a major knowledge power with high human and societal values. He mentioned that it has been 83 long years since CV Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Another Nobel Prize in the sciences is long overdue for India. He called upon scientific fraternity gathered at the Congress to rise upto the challenge and work towards this goal in a time bound manner.

The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh released the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013 and presented its first copy to the President, on the occasion.

This release issued at 1320 hrs