He was speaking at the launch of the first indigenously built research vessel ‘Sindhu Sadhana’, built for the National Institute of Oceanography.
Singh said that if India had to “fulfill its dream of becoming a superpower by 2021, it has to be based on a solid structure of scientific research.” Elaborating on the two main problems that the country faces – that is inadequate infrastructure and few youngsters coming into the field, he said that the new budget had given adequate weightage to science and research and the government was also doing its bit to attract youngsters into the field, adding that it was important to involve the future generations in science.
“We have been approached by NRIs, who see new possibilities with the new government and want to come back,” he also said.
The research vessel was dedicated to the country Saturday by Dr Singh at a ceremony in the presence of Dr P S Ahuja, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Dr S W A Naqvi, Director, NIO.
The ship, which is 80 meters long and 17.6 metres wide, can accommodate 57 personnel, and has 10 laboratories with state-of-the art equipment for high precision recording of data and sample acquisition.
Dr Naqvi said that the brand new ship acquired after 49 years was received some months back and sent to Coimbatore for fittings and tests.
Stating that now the NIO would be in a position to explore the Indian ocean, “one of the least known oceans, probably due to paucity of infrastructure.”
Stating that this was an all weather platform, it would help in research in food, energy, minerals as well as research on environment.
“We will be able to find out if human induced effect is there on global climate as well as check on resources within our exclusive economic zones,” Naqvi said.
