The 84th Foundation Day of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was celebrated today at the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) with prestigious Foundation Day Lecture delivered by Prof Anil Kumar Tripathi who is presently the Director of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali.
This year's Foundation Day Lecture delivered by Prof Tripathi focused on the "The Saga of Human Civilization through Inquiry, Invention and Innovation” and gave several examples to outline the difference between invention and innovation in day to day life. In his opening remarks, he highlighted how CSIR has touched the lives of Indians in the last eight decades and institutions like CSIR-IMTECH have driven science with a purpose.
Prof Tripathi gave a broad overview of the difference between the inventors and innovators and how both pave the way for commercial success. He also in his talk reflected on the importance of Nobel prize winning discoveries like pesticides, antibiotics, fossil fuels, plastics that were a boon to humanity and how misuse of these discoveries are now posing challenges to humankind.
Dr. Sanjeev Khosla, Director, CSIR-IMTECH while welcoming the guests and faculty to CSIR's Foundation day apprised the audience with the contributions and commitments of CSIR for the vision of making India a developed nation in 2047. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has been the knowledge backbone and torchbearer of innovation in the country. The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), known for its cutting edge R&D knowledge base in diverse S&T areas, is a contemporary R&D organization and was established in 1942.
Status report of CSIR-IMTECH for the year 2021 to 2023 was also launched during the occasion by Prof Anil Kumar Tripathi and Dr Sanjeev Khosla. As part of the celebrations, CSIR-IMTECH also felicitated its retirees and employees who have completed 25 years of their service. The institute also awarded mementoes to wards of its staff for their outstanding performances in various sporting events held at the state and national level.
As part of Foundation Day, an open day for the general public and students was also organized a few days back for them to get a glimpse of the facilities, infrastructure and showcase scientific prowess of CSIR-IMTECH. CSIR-IMTECH is a national center for excellence in microbial sciences and was established in 1984 under the aegis of CSIR.
IMTECH’s vision and mission are to create a translational ecosystem strengthened by fundamental discoveries and to address unmet healthcare and industrial needs with state-of-the-art processes and platforms.