'Indian contributions to science not recognised'

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 16. The contributions that India has made towards the development of science, right from the ancient times, have gone practically unnoticed even though they were of significant value, according to Dr. C. G. Ramachandran Nair, former Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology.

Inaugurating a workshop on `Frontiers in Science', that got under way here today, he observed that Indian scientists had to their credit worthwhile achievements which could not just be ignored. Referring to Aryabhatta who lived in the fifth century and other scientists of yore, Dr. Nair recalled that it was an Indian who first declared to the world that the shape of the earth was round and that the earth was part of the sun-centred universe.

Similarly, numerals including `zero' and the decimal system were India's contributions in the field of Mathematics. Even though they might appear to be insignificant today, they have contributed a great deal to the development of modern science. However, it was a pity that the Indians themselves preferred to call Indian numerals as Arabic numerals, he added.

Dr. M. N. Sreedharan Nair presided over the function. Dr. A. Biju Kumar of STEC, Dr. A. Rajasekharan Nair of TBGRI, Palode and Dr. Vishnu Potty, Director of the State Forensic Laboratory, spoke. Dr. C. Suresh Kumar welcomed the gathering and Mr. C. Ramaswamy Chettiar proposed a vote of thanks.

The six-day workshop has been organised by the Swadeshi Science Movement. It is intended for outgoing students of the 10th standard, with high scholastic achievements to their credit. It would enable them to familiarise themselves with the frontier areas in science and technology.

Its general objective is to enable the students to cultivate a scientific spirit and to help them identify their own areas of interest among the branches of science so that they can be further guided in the chosen field to promote their career options.

The topics selected for discussion during the workshop include information technology and artificial intelligence, biotechnology and molecular biology, biomedical engineering and human genome project, material science and polymer chemistry, lasers and its applications, cosmology and related sciences, future energy sources, earth sciences and biodiversity.

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