Encourage students in research, scientists told

Tirupati: Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu called upon the scientists to encourage students in research to facilitate advancement of the nation in the fields of science and technology.

The Vice-President visited National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) at Gadanki in Chittoor district on Monday afternoon. He observed the functioning of MST Radar Centre, Atmospheric Process Centre, Rayleigh Doppler Lidar System, High Performance Computer Centre and Data Dissemination Centre in the NARL.

He congratulated the director, staff and research students on NARL completing 25 years. Addressing the staff and students at NARL Auditorium, Venkaiah said that the objective of any research is to improve the quality of life of the people.

"In the olden days, people used to forecast rains by season with near perfection. Now the times have changed and forecasting rains is no longer perfect.

NARL should work for forecasting rainfall with perfection so as to help the farmers. NARL should forecast the extreme weather conditions, drought, rainfall and other atmospheric conditions too," he said.

Stating that this is the "age of of LPG (liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation), he said we should love and live with our culture and nature for our better future.

"Scientists and people should work in tandem to address the challenges of water scarcity, climate changes, conservation of plants and animal life, global warming, tropical conditions," he added.

The Vice President also congratulated the ISRO and NARL young scientists for their research. Referring to raging controversy on National Education Policy draft, which triggered concerns of imposing Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states, Venkaiah said, "Imposing and opposing the Hindi language is not correct and share and care is the core of Indian philosophy.

Basha (language) and Bhavna ( our thinking) should go together. We should not neglect our Mother Land, Mother Tongue. English words Mummy and Daddy should be replaced with Amma and Naanna. Google is important but it's not a substitute for Guru and we should respect our Gurus."

He exhorted young people to shun sedentary lifestyle and instant food and eat our local food to keep fit and healthy. Stating that lifestyle changes and unhealthy food habits are the main reason for the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in India, he suggested practice of yoga for better and healthy life.

Later, Venkaiah planted a sapling in front of the NARL main building and had a group photo with the NARL research students and staff .

District collector P S Pradyumna, SPs of Chittoor and Tirupati Urban Vikrant Patil, Anbu Rajan, Tirupati municipal commissioner Vijayarama Raju, sub-collector Mahesh Kumar and others participated.