Welcome Address by Dr. P G Rao, Director, NEIST, Jorhat
Dr SC Patra, Director, NERIWALM and chief guest of today’s function, DR M Hazarika, Director, TRA and Guest of Honor of today’s function, Sri Dulal Baruah, Senior citizen, Dr R Chakrabarty, Direcetor, CMERTI, Jorhat, Distinguished Guests, Former employees of NEIST, Pres & media, NEIST family members, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I deem it a proud privilege to welcome you to this august celebration of the 47th Foundation Day of the North East Institute of Science & Technology, Jorhat. On this auspicious occasion, I convey my heartiest greetings to all. Due to cancellation of the flight, our speaker of today’s foundation day lecture Dr JS Yadav, an eminent scientist of Natural Product Chemistry and Director of IICT, Hyderabad, could not reach here. I am grateful to Dr SC Patra and Dr M Hazarika, for readily agreeing to be present with us at very short notice, and share the happy moments. Both are friends and well-wishers of NEIST. Interestingly the aim of all the three of us is economic development of north east, with different themes. It is a great day for NEIST, because of presence of both these stalwarts. NEIST has been working closely with both their institutes in various projects.
Today we also feel very deeply honored to find amongst ourselves a galaxy of distinguished personalities.
I welcome all the former employees of NEIST, Jorhat who have given their contribution for the development of this Institute. I welcome the well-wishers of NEIST, Jorhat, who are present here to share the happy moments of ours. I welcome distinguished guests, Press & Media and my colleagues for this important function of this Institute.
The strong foundations left by the past leaders of this Institute and distinguished personalities paid rich dividends to NEIST Jorhat. Today I feel extremely delighted to remember with a sense of respect and gratitude the contributions made by former leaders to keep the NEIST's flag flying high with their notable contributions. On this momentous occasion, we express our gratitude to all of them and salute them with profound respect.
The North East Institute of Science & Technology at Jorhat came into being on 18th March 1961 as RRL, as one of the CSIR laboratories under the Chemical Sciences Group. Professor Humayun Kabir, the then Union Minister of Scientific Research & Cultural Affairs laid the foundation stone of the Institute. Since then, the Institute grew strength by strength and built up expertise and capabilities in a number of areas to make the debut as the premier national Institute and the only one CSIR Institute in the North Eastern region. As a national Institute it is catering to the S&T and R&D needs of the eight states of the region in particular and the country as a whole. Its major thrust of R&D activities has been to develop indigenous technologies by utilizing the immense natural wealth of the region and built expertise and infrastructure facilities in the intended areas. The North Eastern region of the country has been bestowed with an abundance of material resources like petroleum, natural gas, coal & minerals, tea as well as aromatic and medicinal plants.
Besides attending to the national priorities, the Institute has been engaged in improving the socio-economic conditions of the rural folks through the inputs of S&T and in that direction the Institute rendered considerable services with fair degree of successes. The outcome of the xth plan for the institute has been very encouraging and has set an upward trend in performance inspite of limited manpower.
On science front, starting with single cell protein and chemistry of organo phosporus pesticides, the institute moved through chiral and steroidal chemistry, hydrocarbon prospecting, renewable energy and currently working on bioactive molecules, plant tissue culture, moleculer biology and exploitation of microbial strains with emphasis on health care, environment, nano materials and earth science in the XIth plan. On publications, starting with one international publication per year, reached today to morethan 40 publications per year on an average in peer reviewed international journals.
On the technology front having number of successfully commercialized technologies. Starting with mini cement plant, agrochemicals, drug intermediates, oil additives, agrotechnologies, stationery products, currently laying emphasis on new building materials, rural technologies and biotechnology based products in the XIth plan.
During the span of its glorious existence, the Institute had been able to bag a number of prestigious national awards at different point of times. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Award in 1982 for developing technologies relevant to the construction of low cost houses, Invention Promotion Award of National Research Development Corporation of India in 1985 for the process development on Direct Copy Paper, FICCI Award in 1985 for rural development activities, BM Das Memorial Award, etc. and number individual awards to our scientists to name a few. In this year one of our scientist has received the HC Dubey Young Scientist award from Indian Society for Mycology and Plant Pathology, while another scientist received Life Time education award by Health and Education development Association, New Delhi. One of the Scientist was conferred fellowship of Indian Academy neurosciences while many others have received recognition in other spheres.
The Institute traversed a long journey of 47 years of glorious existence and the path has not been as smooth as it aught to be, but yet with the kind of conviction and resilience, it continued to keep the show going with flying colours. On this great day my NEIST family rededicates itself to achieve higher targets to make science and technology benefit more to society.
With these few words I once again welcome you all.
Thank you. |
