Page 48 - Agenda for VP's 54th GB & 31st GB Meeting Ver 1.0

VIGYAN PRASAR: 54th GOVERNING BODY MEETING & 31st GENERAL BODY MEETING
Annexure # 5: Representation from Vigyan Prasar wrt its suggested closure
Why shouldn’t this recommendation be accepted?
Financial magnitude of core activities managed:
The financial magnitude of the core activities managed by VP oflately have been more than Rs 45 Crores annually. These figures are beyond the annual grants received from the Department of Science & Technology. For example, this included the turnkey execution of India International Science Festival 2019 at Kolkata, and simultaneously have been running the country’s only science & technology-related OTT Channel called IndiaScience TV, ISTI Portal, S&T News syndicate ISW, and massive outreach in Scheduled Tribal areas.
This annual expenditure and outlay is growing year-on-year as more and more core activities of the organization are increasing due to its adoption of new technologies and processes in the domain of science & technology communication, popularization and its outreach (hands-on extension).
Low cost of operation:
By leveraging the network built over years of persistent commitment to the nation in this domain, VP has been able to retain low cost of operation/reach per million. VP has thus, evolved low-cost solutions for related knowledge-product development & delivery.
VP has ensured that S&T Communication, Popularization & Extension-related products in various tangible formats of print-, electronic-, digital-, and social-deliverables are produced regularly and distributed timely pan-India.
Notable achievements include running a full-fledged OTT Channel with more than 2000 films produced in a period of less than two years with 85 million reach, published more than eight monthly magazines in six different languages regularly for more than two years, published more than 300- titles of originally-written popular science books, developed more than 25 different DIY kits, two international level of science-film festivals being organized annually for past ten years regularly, science & technology-related mass communication courses, workshops and training seminars, capacity & skill development programmes continuously for more than last thirty years and much more. The list of its contribution in nation- building is thus, immense.
Agenda for 54th Governing Body & 31st General Body 48