President pays tribute to Jagadish Chandra Bose

Describing Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose as a true pioneer of Indian science, an innovator and scientist of world class distinction who did not receive enough credit for his rich scientific career, President Ram Nath Kovind said West Bengal should have led the country’s IT revolution with its top education institutions and rich legacy.

“With that legacy, and with its educational institutions, it (Bengal) should have led the IT revolution in our country. But, for whatever reasons, it was a slow starter in IT and IT-enabled services. That boom moved to other states, such as those in the south of our country,” Kovind said on Wednesday while addressing the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of Bose Institute.

But, the President had a positive note of advice for the state.

“Now Bengal has another chance as we are in the midst of an explosion of digital technologies. With cutting edge disciplines like precision manufacture and bio-informatics changing the way we think and robotics changing the way we live, it throws up great opportunities for Bengal in science and for its rich talent pool of young scientists,” Kovind said.

Citing examples about the engineering feat achieved while constructing the iconic Howrah Bridge and referring Kolkata in the first half of 20th century as the scientific capital and technology hub of the country and the international recognition it got in research in physics and chemistry in pharmaceuticals and tropical diseases, the President said, “As the leading centre of science and engineering education, young engineering students from other parts would not complete their education without a visit to Kolkata. Bengali scientists and technologists-turned-entrepreneurs can be very useful. We need to bring back the magic of that synthesis.”

Kovind paid his tributes to the scientist, saying Bose had demonstrated wireless transmission as microwaves in 1895, much ahead of Italian engineer Guleilmo Marconi.

“Bose had designed and fabricated the first semi-conductor Galena detector device in the world and was probably the first to study the responses of plants, which initiated an inter-disciplinary research in the area called biophysics,” he said.

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, Bose Institute council chairman Prof Bikash Sinha also spoke on the occasion.