Promote research in schools to take forward 'Make in India': Kalam

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Monday said that unless quality education and research are promoted, students in the country will not acquire new skill sets, which in turn will be challenging the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Speaking after inaugurating the Parikrama Festival of Science - 2015 in the City, Kalam said, “It is imperative to ensure the employability of our human resources. Also, inter-linking of rivers should be looked into, in order to solve the water scarcity, and hopefully, the Centre will take this issue seriously. Children should come forward to save water resources.”

The students present at the J N Tata Auditorium listened to the former president with rapt attention as he spoke about his experiences at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

As many as 200 children from 20 government and private schools from across the City will attend the first edition of the festival that will go on till January 23. The students will be divided into groups, each of which will be guided by a facilitator.

The theme of the festival is ‘water’ and the students will get to do activities based on it. A representative of the Parikrama Humanity Foundation (PHF) that is organising the festival, said the festival includes a field trip to a lake, a study on water conservation, a water audit, a visit to a sewage treatment plant, a survey of water-user groups such as malls, hotels and schools to evaluate water consumption among others.

Former Director of Indian Institute of Science P Balaram, who was also present on the occasion, said the technology in desalination of water needed to become affordable and was vital for the large-scale production of water.

Founder and CEO, PHF, Shukla Bose said the primary purpose of the festival was to support a multi-disciplinary and critically engaged learning process. “The Festival of Science has been created to take the children outside their classrooms and let them learn how to explore and create science, rather than being taught science,” he added.