National Science Day: 28th February Every Year

Science! It is not just innovation and technology. It is the curiosity that helped people to develop knowledge from the Stone Age to the present, where we are using the Internet. Anyway, Did you ever imagine how our lives would be without televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, computers, and smartphones? Can’t imagine right! Day by day our lives have become very comfortable with the help of science. From Science, various technologies have been evolved which made a drastic change in our lifestyle. With the increase in technologies, career opportunities to people also have been increased.

With the help of science, impossible things have become possible. Man has invented computers, smartphones, robots and even reached space. In the field of science, India has contributed a lot. Many of the scientists in the world are from India. One invention can change the world completely. So a special day in India called National Science Day is dedicated to ‘Science’ which made our lives easy with a number of inventions.

National Science Day is a national festival celebrated on February 28th every year in all the educational and research institutions. On 28th February 1930, Indian scientist C V Raman was awarded Noble Prize, while working in a laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata. Raman won the Noble Prize in Physics, for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect which is named after him as ‘Raman Effect’ which is a phenomenon in spectroscopy. This was the first noble prize in India in the field of Science. So to mark the discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ National Science Day is celebrated every year on 28th February.

National Science Day and its theme:

We celebrate National Science day to mark the discovery of the 'Raman Effect'. National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) requested the Government of India to declare February 28th as National Science Day in 1986. Then the Indian government accepted the request of NCSTC and declared 28th February as National Science Day. National Science Day was first celebrated on 28th February 1987.

Objectives of National Science Day:

Spread the importance of science and technology in the daily life of people.

Display the efforts, activities, and achievements of people for human welfare in the field of science.

Encourage people to implement new technologies in the field of science.

Give an opportunity for the creative-minded people in the field of science.

We celebrate National science day every year with a theme. Here is the list of themes of National Science Day for the past five years.

National Science Day theme for the year 2016 is "Make in India: S&T driven innovations"

National Science Day theme for 2017 is "Science and Technology for specially Abled Persons"

National Science Day theme for 2018 is "Science and Technology for a Sustainable Future"

National Science Day theme for 2019 is "Science for the People and the People for Science"

National Science Day theme for 2020 is “Women in Science”

This year National Science Day is celebrated with a theme – “Women in Science”. The theme of Women in Science is dedicated to women. The main motto of this year National Science Day is to motivate women to participate in the field of science. In any field, women are not less than men. If given a chance, women can do wonders in any field. But because of some environmental and social barriers that include stereotypes, gender bias and the climate of science and engineering departments in colleges and universities, Women are continued to block their progress in the field of science and technology. To remove all these beliefs among people and encourage women to choose science and technology as a career option, this theme has been chosen by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Why We Celebrated National Science Day :

Major celebrations of National Science Day take place at GMRT (Giant Metre wave Radio Telescope), DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization), CSIR-NEERI (CSIR- National Engineering Research Institute), the council of Science and Technology, and the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium.

The main objective of the National Science Day celebration is to spread the importance of science and its application among the people of India. NCSTC of Department of Science and Technology(DST) is one among the nodal offices which helps to organize the celebrations related to the National Science Day all over the nation, especially in logical research laboratories and scientific institutions. On the occasion of National Science Day, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) had organized National Awards in 1987 to empower, recognize and encourage the people who are trying hard to achieve something in the stream of science. From then, every year awards will be presented for science communication and popularization. This year our President Ram Nath Kovind presenting several awards for science communication and popularization as well as for women scientists at Vigyan Bhawan, Pune.

National Science day celebrations are organized grandly by people all over India. These celebrations include public speeches, science movies, science exhibitions, research demonstrations, quiz competitions, science lectures, seminars, debates, workshops, and many more science activities. National Science Day is also very important for students who are associated with the Science stream. On this day, there will be a number of exhibitions and events organized at the organizational, state and national level to exhibit the talents of students in the field of science.