Page 34 - CTB-1

34 PIONEERING A NEW FUTURE
Indian Academy of Sciences
Recognizing that the achievements of Indian science are ‘national assets’, Nobel Laureate and physicist Sir CV Raman, in a multidisciplinary scientific journal Current Science in 1933, proposed the formation of the Indian Academy of Sciences
to treasure and display these achievements collectively for ‘providing the necessary guidance and inspiration for the
younger generation’. The academy
was registered as a non-profit society on 27 April 1934, and was formally inaugurated at a public meeting held at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, on 31 July 1934, by Amin-
ul-Mulk Sir Mirza M Ismail, Dewan of
Mysore. The Academy initially functioned from the Indian Institute of Science and, some
years later, moved to its permanent location generously granted by the Government of Mysore which is now the Raman Research Institute campus.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Promoting Progress and Upholding the Cause of Science: The academy initiated the election of scientists of distinction as Fellows of the academy. The fellowship of the academy strives to ‘promote the progress and uphold the cause of science’, which is the foremost objective of the academy as
enshrined in its Memorandum of Association. To inspire and encourage the younger
generation of scientists, an associateship programme was introduced in 1983. The associates are selected from
a large pool of nominees and those
selected represent the best of academy’s young scientists. Each year, the academy organizes a mid-year meeting and an annual
meeting, in which Fellows and associates deliver lectures and explain their contributions to science. Meanwhile, scientists who are not Fellows of the academy, including social scientists and historians, are invited to deliver lectures and hold specialized symposia on topics of interest to all.
‘An authoritative body of scientists... a company of thinkers, workers and expounders... [to] advise the Government, the universities and other institutions on all scientific matters. The nation which can foresee and
make anticipatory provision is destined to tide over all depressions. It is in such situations that the services of the proposed Academy will be most appreciated and the knowledge of the scientists will find opportunity
for application in the economic, social and political regeneration. An ornament, but an indispensable institution for directing the destinies of
the nation.’
– Sir CV Raman in the 1933 issue of Current Science