History of sorts is being created by the Indian Science Congress, as the traditionally state-funded Organisation is reaching out towards corporate giants like the ITC, Hindustan Lever, the ACC and the Peerless Group to prepare for lie 82nd congress to be held in Calcutta between January 3 and 8.
The unorthodox scheme of securing sponsorship from corporate houses for deliberations on "Science, technology and industrial development in India" comes in wake of the Centre's diktat to research organisations to generate part to their revenue from the private sector. Responding to charges that private sector funding may force universities to favour applied. Research in favour of fundamental research, Anand Dev Mukherjee, professor of geology at the Jadavpur University in Calcutta and the local organising secretary of the congress,says-, "Even if the corporate sector spends 20 per cent of their budget on fundamental or basic research, it would come as a boon to the scientific community."
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