Chizokho Vero
Kohima | November 19
Nagaland’s Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio today said that science has deeply transformed and improved the quality and standard of our living and that Science today is the process of learning to harness better the gifts of nature and to generate awareness in the key areas of concern such as climate change, clean energy sources and responding to changes and challenges. Rio also said that in terms of governance, science is being utilized to improve the quality of governance and planning process, and improve service delivery mechanism, as well as productivity and transparency.
Rio was speaking at the inaugural function of the 15th Regional Meeting of State Science & Technology Councils and Departments of North-Eastern region here at Hotel Japfu this morning where he also made a plea to the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government India to continue to extend the best possible assistance and encouragement to the science and technology councils of the north eastern states.
The Nagaland CM maintained that with the rich biodiversity and unique natural resources of the region, the Science and Technology Councils of the North East States can enrich the scientific community of the country and contribute to the economic growth and progress of the nation.
He was of the opinion that the Nagaland Science and Technology is among the active and performing Councils in the country notwithstanding the fact that it is a small State with a very limited pool of scientific talent. The Nagaland Science and Technology, he said, has already begun to make its presence felt through interventions in many areas in addition to providing various services to the other State government departments in the application of modern methods of survey using Total Station, GPS and Differential GPS, hydrological modeling, landslide hazard zonations and providing engineering softwares etc.
Maintaining that the difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country, Rio stated that the difference is the attitude of the people, framed along the years by the education and the culture. “We are not poor because we lack attitude. We lack the will to comply with and teach these functional principles of rich and developed societies”, he maintained.
Rio said, science is deeply interwoven into our everyday lives right from the time we wake up till we go to sleep and touches all areas of our life. We can well imagine what our lives would be without scientific appliances and products in all fields of our life, especially communication, energy sector, medical sector, agricultural and educational sector, medical science etc. he said.
He informed that Nagaland Science &Technology Council has already begun to make its presence felt through interventions in many areas such as mapping of land degradation of the entire state, carrying out National Wetland Inventory and Assessment, introducing indigenously developed micro-hydel projects to supplement rural energy needs, application of remote sensing in sericulture, developing a road information system etc.
Earlier, Rio released the NASTEC publication titled Intervention of Science and technology in Nagaland. Dr. T. Ramasani, Secretary to the government of India, Department of Science and Technology delivered keynote address while Deo Nukhu, Advisor, Science and Technology, N&RE welcomed the gathering. The programme was chaired by Banuo Z. Jamir, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary & Commissioner. Technical session will take place on November 20.
