Page 3 - Covid Special Issue

PREFACE
Greetings to all our readers on the occasion of National Science Day 2021 from Vigyan Prasar. National Science Day (NSD), celebrated on 28th February every year, commemorates the discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ by the great Indian Physicist, Sir
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman.
It has been over a year since the first case of COVID-19 was reported. Yet here we are, still battling the seemingly unceasing pandemic, with numerous variants popping up with more aggressive transmissibility. In a way, humankind seems to have settled into the new normal; however, the face of the world has witnessed dramatic changes over the course of last one year. With the huge burden of increasing infections with every passing hour, the question that kept resonating was how to reach out to maximum number of people and make them aware on various aspects of the pandemic, its tremendous speed of transmission, and the long-term effects it left.
With the aim of taking the message of “Science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom”, Vigyan Prasar reached out to its audiences in the shape a regular e-newsletter – S&T Efforts in India on COVID-19 – from the early days of the outbreak of the pandemic, taking its mandate of science communication, popularisation and extension to the next level. The newsletter, in its 40th edition, compiles all outreach initiatives taken up by hundreds of knowledge institutions, and various wings of Government, like Ministries and Departments, along with various funding agencies, professional bodies, statutory bodies, laboratories, and so on – in the shape of an Exclusive Edition on Outreach Initiatives.
We wish an engaging NSD 2021 to our audience and look forward to suggestions and feedback from our distinguished readers.
28 Feb 2021
Vigyan Prasar New Delhi