Date:03/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/11/03/stories/2004110302741700.htm

Back Academics urged to focus on geosciences

Our Bureau

Visakhapatnam , Nov. 2

GEOSCIENCES play a crucial role in facilitating the optimal use of the resources in the river deltas in the country and as such, this area of research should engage the attention of the academics most, according to Dr J.C. Mohanty, Principal Secretary (IT).

He was speaking at Andhra University on Tuesday after inaugurating a three-day national seminar on deltas of India, organised jointly by the University and the Geological Society of India (GSI) on the occasion of the latter's AGM.

Dr Mohanty said that the population of the world was projected to shoot up to nine billion by 2020 and deltas all over the world, especially India, would be of utmost importance in providing food security to people and for finding sources of energy.

"For Andhra Pradesh, the Godavari and Krishna deltas are the lifeline. They provide food, oil and gas, and the resources should be exploited judiciously without harming the environment."

He complimented Andhra University for setting up the Delta Studies Institute with the assistance of the Oil Industry Development Board, the ONGC, and the State Government.

Delivering the keynote address, Prof R. Vaidyanadhan, Vice-President of GSI, said that the University had always been a forerunner in this area of study and research.

Prof K.L.V. Ramana Rao, head of the Department of Geology and the convenor, said that more than 1,000 research papers in this discipline had been published by the scholars of the University in national and international journals.