Centre to set up science museums across the country, says Jitendra Singh

With the aim to promote scientific temper among children and youth, the central government will set up science museums across the country, said Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday.

An MoU between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) was signed in the presence of Jitendra Singh and Union Minister of Culture, Tourism and DoNER G Kishan Reddy.

Singh said the MoU is a step in this direction and will create a new chapter in the history of science communication and dissemination.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the MoU aims at setting up science museums at select CSIR Laboratories to promote scientific curiosity and awareness among the common people across all sections of society.

Addressing the programme, Singh said the new initiative of CSIR in setting up virtual labs in partnership with IIT-Bombay for school students is highly laudable. He also welcomed the move by CSIR and NCSM to set up a museum within NPL to showcase the technologies and interventions developed by CSIR over the past eight decades.

He emphasised that museums should not be static but must be dynamic and engaging and should emerge as crucibles of innovation and we must tap into the curiosity and enthusiasm in the students and the youth.

The union minister further said while CSIR has tied up with Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas and Atal Tinkering Labs Schools of Niti Aayog, it must reach out to the remote areas and schools.

G Kishan Reddy said that "Globally, it is recognized that science centres play an important role in supplementing the science education in the country and creating a culture of science and technology and developing scientific temper amongst the masses and youth in particular."

He also highlighted the fact that it is also the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that students have to move forward with the "skills of the 21st century", which he quoted as 5Cs of the 21st Century. They are critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, curiosity and communication.

( With inputs from ANI )