National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC)

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Bhubaneswar , often referred to as the ‘Temple City of India’, has emerged as the latest sports hub of the country and grabbed global attention recently by hosting the Men's Hockey World Cup successfully in which Belgium became the newest world champion.

Though known as a beautiful and planned city since long, Bhubaneswar caught the nation's imagination when it was listed as the No.1 Smart City in the country under the Ministry of Urban Development's agship Smart City project in 2017. A year later, Bhubaneswar featured among 20 global cities of the World in the Global Smart City Performance Index chosen by a UK-based research group. The list included Singapore, which topped the chart, San Francisco, London, New York, Barcelona, Berlin, Chicago, Portland and Tokyo.

It is the largest city and capital of Odisha which became a separate province on April 1, 1936. The government chose thBhubaneswar, already a pilgrim town because of the 11 century Lingaraj Temple, to be the new capital city of the state. The city

is split into two distinct areas—Old Town and New Capital. The old town, dotted by scores of ancient temples built between the th th6 and 13 century, has great historical and cultural importance.

The foundation of the new city was laid by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on April 13, 1948.

History records Bhubaneswar as the backdrop of the Kalinga War following which emperor Ashok embraced Buddhism. The war is believed to have been fought on the banks of the Daya river which ows close to the Dhauli hill adjacent the city.

Besides the scores of temples, the Khandagiri and Udaygiri hills are historic sites of ancient Jain monastery dating back to the nd2 century BC. The Dhauli hill has major edicts of Ashoka engraved on a mass of rock. A Peace Pagoda has been constructed

on the hill top. The historic and cultural signicance of the city has also made it a major tourist attraction. Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konarak form the golden triangle of Odisha tourism.

The modern Bhubaneswar was designed by the famous German architect Otto Konigsberger and it was among India's rst planned cities. The city is located adjacent a huge patch of forest known as Chandaka which has a variety of wildlife and birds. Bhubaneswar is also known for 'Nandan Kanan', an open air zoo which became famous after a normal Royal Bengal Tiger and Tigress gave birth to white tigers. It was a completely new lineage of white tigers separate from the Rewa lineage.

Bhubaneswar was designed by the famous German architect Otto Konigsberger and it was among India's rst planned cities. An emerging Information Technology and education hub, it is one of the country's fastest developing cities today. It is well connected by air and rail. An emerging centre of higher education, Bhubaneswar has a plethora of universities, IIT, NISER, International Institute of Information Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology and AIIMS. The city also boasts of research centres like Institute of Physics, Institute of Life Sciences, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (MMT) and Central Institure of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA). It is the only Tier-2 city host the top ve IT companies of the country, Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and Mindtree. The World Bank has reckoned Bhubaneswar to be the third best place to do business in India. Some high investment projects are in the process of implementation while few skill development centres and micro business incubators have also been set up in the city.

Bhubaneswar is hosting the National Children's Science Congress (NCSC) for only the second time and like the Hockey World Cup it is going to be a huge success.

WELCOME TO INDIA'S No.1 SMART CITY

VishleshanVishleshan27th December, 2018Newsletter of the 26th National Children’s Science Congress

The National Children's Science Congress (NCSC), a agship programme of the National Council f o r S c i e n c e a n d Te c h n o l o g y

Communication (NCSTC), Government of India, is being held in Bhubaneswar from December 27 to 31, 2018 at the Siksha 'O' Anusandhan Deemed to be University in Bhubaneswar. It is being organized in Odisha for the second time.

The NCSC, supported and catalysed by NCSTC (Department of Science and Technology), is held every year with the objective of spreading the concept of the method of science among children. The mandate of participation is that the children will carry out a project on a particular topic relating to a focal theme and several sub-themes decided for a period of two consecutive years. The study is carried out in the neighbourhood of the children where they live or study.

The children participants are designated as child scientists.

The theme for this year's NCSC is “Science, Technology and Innovation for Clean, Green

and Healthy Nation”. The theme has been chosen carefully to coax children to try

and nd solutions for many of their societal problems encouraging them to go beyond the precincts of their text books.

The sub-themes for these two years are: Ecosystem and Ecosystem Services; Health, Hygiene and

Sanitation; Waste to Wealth; Society, Culture and Livelihoods and Traditional

Knowledge Systems.

Around 800 children, in the age group of 10 to 17 years, along with 400 of their teachers,

parents, mentors and guides will be participating in the ve-day event. The participants will include children from Gulf and ASEAN countries.

Tthhe intricately designed arched gateway of the 10

century Mukteswar Temple in Bhubaneswar is thhighlighted in the logo for the 26 National

Children's Science Congress (NCSC) being held in the campus of the SOA Deemed University from December 27 to 31, 2018.

Bhubaneswar, Odisha's capital city, is also known as the 'city of temples' as it has more than 500 of India's nest temples dotting the landscape.

The Mukteswar Temple, which dates back to 950-975 AD, is said to be an important monument in the study of the development of hindu temples in Odisha. A prominent tourist attraction in the city, all the captains of the teams which participated in the recently concluded Odisha Hockey World Cup, had the arch of Mukteswar Temple as the backdrop for a photo session with the state chief

minister, Mr. Naveen Patnaik.

The presence of the arched gateway, known as 'Torana' in Odia, which is not found in any other temple, makes the

Mukteswar Temple unique. The main structure is accompanied by a group of smaller temples. Historians

believe that the construction of the gateway could have been part of a new age of experimentation in

temple construction which continued for about 100 years. It is also reected in the construction of

two other famous temples in the city-the Rajarani Temple and Lingaraj Temple.

The Mukteswar Temple is also often described as the 'gem of Odishan

architecture'. Some historians and archaeologists say that the arched gateway was inuenced by Buddhist

architecture. The gateway has thick pillars with

strings of beads and other ornaments carved on statues of smiling women.

thTHE STORY BEHIND THE 26 NCSC LOGO

NATIONAL CHILDREN'S SCIENCE CONGRESS

Siksha 'O' Anusandhan in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, is a socially inclusive Deemed to be University where quality academics and research are buzzwords. The

teaching-learning process at SOA is a holistic exercise aimed at creating community leaders in given disciplines and not merely churn out educated professionals.

SOA, which came into existence on July 17, 2007 when the HRD Ministry conferred on it the status of a Deemed University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, has emerged as a centre of superlative professional education over the years.

The multi-campus infrastructure of SOA is home to more than 10,000 students who have chosen the Deemed University to carve out a future for their lives. It has nine different institutes offering 89 academic programmes in Engineering, Medical Sciences, Dental Sciences, Management, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Legal Studies, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nursing and Agricultural Sciences.

SOA's quest for excellence was recognised when it was thranked 24 in the country in the university category by the

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Ministry of thHRD, in 2018. The NIRF ranked SOA 38 among institutions

thwhile placing its medical college at 19 in the country. The Deemed University has successfully met the requirements of various national and global benchmarking establishments and was accredited with 'A' Grade both in the rst and second cycles of assessment by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). In September 2017, three programs of Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), SOA's faculty of engineering and technology, were accredited by the prestigious Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), an internationally reputed US-based accreditation agency.

rdSOA was also placed 3 in the country in the Swachh Campus ranking conducted by the HRD Ministry in 2018.

SOA's focus being on research, it has identied 18 thrust areas while setting up 13 research centers and 35 research

labs. The Deemed University has one central library spread across 11,617 sq metres, 7 institutional and 142 departmental libraries. All campuses have network connectivity and wi-.

The Institute of Medical Sciences, the faculty of medical sciences of the Deemed University, has a 1000-bed hospital attached to it. Known as IMS and SUM Hospital, it has become one of the most sought after healthcare centers in the state. The teaching hospital which deploys excellent modern and advanced diagnostic, surgical and life saving equipments, extends quality medical assistance to patients at affordable cost. The hospital OPD does not charge any fee for patients while concessions are offered to senior citizens and those belonging to disadvantaged sections of the society.

The SOA Community Radio (90.4 MHz), functioning since 2012, was adjudged the best community radio by the Government of India in 2014. An entry by the station was chosen as the best in the 'Jingle' category for promoting routine immunization under “Mission Indradhanush” and won the UNICEF-AROI Radio4Child Award.

SOA has been expanding and new disciplines are on the anvil. But the principal objective remains to ensure that students, while training to be professionals, value their own lives as that of others.

About Siksha 'O' Anusandhan

AHHT E- R H SI IDU E DAP NI OD S FEE OK H BD EACN

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Have you ever heard of a beach where the sea disappears before your very eyes only to reappear after a few hours?

No kidding!

It actually happens every day at the Chandipur beach in Odisha which has come to be known as the 'hide and seek beach'. Tourists who visit the place, located about 200 km from Bhubaneswar and close to Balasore town, have been puzzled by the phenomenon having no clue to the mystery.

If you are taking a morning stroll on the casuarina-lined beach, you may nd the sea full with the waves crashing against the stone embankment. When you return in the afternoon, you nd the sea has disappeared exposing its dry bed where people are able to move around freely. The sea is not visible as it has receded more than 3 to 4 km.

Those who have the patience to wait for a few hours, may watch the waves advancing towards the coast slowly feeling in the dry space. Soon enough, the waves are hitting against the beach.

In Chandipur, tourists are often found riding bikes on the dry sea bed as they go in search of the waters. The beach is also home to a variety of biodiversity including the highly valued horse shoe crab.

Chandipur is also known for the periodic test ring of a range of missiles from the Interim Test Range located there. Though the country's missiles like 'Agni' and 'Prithvi' had been test red from this place since 1989, a bigger test range has been set up in an isolated island (part of a group of isles known as the Wheeler Group of islands)in the Bay of Bengal. The island has since been named after late President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

Tourists, however, are not very familiar about the Chandipur beach as the temple town of Puri is a more popular destination for its lovely beach.

Imagine someone using instruments fabricated by him comprising crude materials like bamboo sticks, wood and thread to scan the sky and arrive at immaculate predictions in positional astronomy!

Samanta Chandrasekhar (1835-1904), who was popularly known as Pathani Samanta, was perhaps the last link with the great Indian tradition of astronomy who had made remarkable observations through the naked eye.

Completely unaware of the latest scientic developments in the western world, particularly the invention of telescope and other instruments for observing the constellations, Samanta recorded his own observations in the 'Sidhanta Darpan' which was later recognized as a classic. It contained many of his original observations which were improvements over the past classics like 'Surya Sidhanta' and 'Sidhanta Siromani'.

What is incredible is that Samanta's predictions of positional astronomy are found to be more accurate than that of any other traditional astronomer. Born in the erstwhile Khandapada state which is now part of Odisha's Nayagarh district, Samanta never had any formal education in school or college.

After observing his young son's interest and passion for stars, planets and other celestial bodies, his father Shyamabandhu introduced him to a few stars, planets and constellations. He taught him some basic facts about the daily motion of stars and planets and how to observe and take note of their positions.

Samanta was around 15 years old when he spent sleepless nights watching the stars for months together. As he studied the stars and other celestial bodies, he kept records of his observations. Simultaneously, he was studying old astronomical classics like 'Surya Sidhanta' and 'Sidhanta Siromani' for making various calculations needed to prepare almanacs. He was, however, puzzled by the fact that the predictions derived from the method of calculation prescribed in the old classics were far removed from the planetary positions actually observed in the sky.

Greatly disturbed by his ndings, Samanta knew that no one would believe his observations as these classics were being used for hundreds of years for calculation. He, nonetheless, vowed to rectify the old classics and devise methods to correctly predict the planetary positions.

Samanta's observations over a period of 20 years were written on dry palm leaves and it took him nine years to complete his work --- 'Sidhanta Darpan'. Experts in the eld today feel that his observations and inferences were no less than any modern age research nding.

'Sidhanta Darpan' was published in 1899 with the help of Prof. Mahesh Chandra Nayaratna of Sanskrit University, Calcutta and Prof. Jogesh Chandra Ray, Professor of Physics, Ravenshaw College, Cuttack who were greatly impressed by Samanta's work. At that time, international journal in science and nature knowledge had published a review of Samanta's contribution and highly praised his work 'Sidhanta Darpan'. Samanta was even compared with the famous Dutch astronomer Tyco Brahe and was placed on a higher pedestal. The model of the solar system suggested by Samanta was identical with that of Brahe.

Today institutions like the Government College in Puri and Planetarium in Bhubaneswar have been named after Samanta Chandrasekhar. A postal stamp was also issued by the Government of India in recognition to Samanta's contribution to astronomy.

Great Scientists from Odisha: Pathani Samanta

Photographs of the Orientation Meeting of Evaluatorsheld on 26th December, 2018

Prof. Partha Ghose, FNASc, is an Indian physicist, author, philosopher, musician and former Professor at the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences in Kolkata. He is one of India's best known popularisers of modern science and has written inuential papers and books on Physics (particularly on the foundations of quantum mechanics) and on science as well. The pioneering contributions in his repertoire include:

Unravelling the nature of wave–particle duality in single-photon experiments leading in collaboration with D. Home and G. S. Agarwal (the GHA experiment)

He also made pedantic revelations by showing that 'entanglement' can occur in classical polarization optics resulting in violations of Bell-like inequalities hitherto believed to be exclusive to quantum systems conrming a consequently shifting boundary between quantum and classical physics.

Prof. Ghose received the National Award for the Best Science and Technology coverage in the Mass Media of the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) along with the Indira Gandhi Prize for the popularization of science by the Indian National Science Academy.

Prof. Partha Ghose

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