Mangalore, Dharwad can boast of science centres soon

Mangalore, Dharwad can boast of science centres soon

TNN, Oct 9, 2010, 05.24am IST

BANGALORE: More and more students in Karnataka are keen on pursuing a career in science. In view of this, the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) will start science centres in Dharwad and Mangalore for Rs 8.5 crore each.

NCSM director G S Rautela on Friday said the Council plans to start 13 science centres across India by 2012. Two ones will come up in Dharwad and Mangalore. "There is high interest among students towards science in Karnataka. In fact, we have the highest number of pending proposals from the state. Science centres will be set up in Mysore, Haveri, Tumkur, Gadag, Raichur and Bidar in phases," Rautela said.

Among the 26 science museums in the country, Bangalore-based Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) attracts the second highest number of visitors each year, he said. Kolkata Science City gets 1.4 million visitors while VITM attracts around 9 lakh visitors every year.

This year's edition of the national student science seminar was held in Bangalore where 35 students from all states/UTs presented views on `India and world science: Are we there?'. Participating schools will be given a Newtonian telescope developed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore.

NOBEL PRIZES CEREMONY

To encourage schoolchildren to pursue careers in science, the council plans to send four students from different parts of the country to attend the Nobel prize ceremony every year.

Rautela said the council is in talks with the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation to allow high school kids from India to attend the ceremony. "We already have a programme to send four children every year to Korea Science Festival. We have also send bright high school students to Nasa. Now, we want to choose four students from different zones of the country and send them to the Nobel prize ceremony," he said.