Head of the Public Awareness Division in Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Ravi Shankar raised his concern with Media regarding the very little participation of Manipur state in various programmes and activities undertaken by DAE.
Mr Shankar was here to participate in the ongoing 105th Indian Science Congress at Manipur University. In a personal interview, Ravi Shankar shared briefly about upcoming projects of Department of Atomic Energy. He said that DAE has been working on several schemes across India to establishment related to atomic energy and also, projects relevant to the nuclear programme. However, the participation of Manipur in all these schemes and programmes is not that big.
Adding to his statement, he further shared that nuclear programme is not just about developing more weapons. It can be used in various other fields as well. India is now sincerely working on Radiation technology and it is now being applied in different areas such as agriculture, healthcare, food processing, astronomy, manufacturing industries, etc. Well, this has also been demonstrated in our stall too.
Talking more about Manipur’s participation, he added that Manipur has no nuclear centre for academic purposes while Assam’s B Baruah Cancer Institute is totally running over the fund received from the Central Government.
Nonetheless, He also felt gratified after seeing such enthusiasm of young ones who came to see this 105th Indian Science Congress. Two scientists from Manipur and members of DAE; Thokchom Dewan and Dr Waikhom Saratchandra have been explaining different scientific phenomena to students at Manipur University.
Department of Atomic Energy also organises essay writing competition about nuclear science every year and Graduation students can apply for this. All such students selected through the essay competition get the remarkable chance to see different installations of DAE. And, only three from this state had qualified for this privilege, Ravi Shankar said.
He further added that Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) is an important project of DAE. This project provides career opportunities along with the task of opening avenues for research works. However, very few young ones from this state applied for this project. Moreover, different units of Department of Atomic Energy have been recruiting MSc and MTech passed youth on annual basis. For this, one needs to clear an online test and one interview.
Ravi Shankar, Head of Public Awareness Division in Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) hopes that Manipuri student will be motivated and start taking part in all these events as a positive impact of this 105th Indian Science Congress held at Manipur University.