Students participate in a CSIR programme on Youth for Leadership in Science at CMRI in Dhanbad. Picture by Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, Jan. 23: With the objective of stimulating scientific creativity from a young age, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has organised a two-day programme on Youth for Leadership in Science at Central Mining Research Institute in Dhanbad, starting today.

About 20 students from Bihar and Jharkhand participated in the programme, the restriction being participants should be of senior secondary school level.

Some of the schools which participated were Delhi Public School, Bokaro Steel City, Pentecostal Assembly School, Bokaro, Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Sindri, DAV Public School, Barkakana, Vidya Vihar Residential school, Purnia, DAV Public School, Khagaul (Patna), Mahabir Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Siwan, Notre Dame Academy, Patna, SNPM High school, Madhepura, and RKG High School, Madhepura.

Tomorrow, nearly 60 selected students from Bihar and Jharkhand will also participate in laboratory visits in Jharkhand, namely to CMRI, CFRI and NML.

Speaking on the occasion, director of CMRI, Amalendu Sinha said CSIR had launched this programme in 1999 with the objective of attracting young, bright minds towards science.

?Students nowadays focus only on cracking entrance examinations to engineering and medical institutes particularly at the intermediate level. Consequently, best of the brains among our children are attracted to professional degree courses, while cultivation of science takes a backseat. But, CSIR has devised this programme of laboratory visits for meritorious students in its 38 laboratories spread across India. The idea is to attract students to science,? Sinha added.

On the inaugural day today, the students were provided with an overview of mining, green house gases and global warming by scientists of CMRI.

Apart from the laboratory visits, the students would be given sessions on intellectual property rights, filing of patents and legislation regarding protection of infringement on intellectual rights in India.

Students pursuing science after Class X would be provided with support to carry out their projects in any of the CSIR laboratories. To inspire the young minds, they would also be given handouts of brief life history of eminent scientists, including lists of recipients of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards and young scientists? awards.

For the students participating, it?s a unique experience, especially since many of them come from areas where there are no such facilities available to work in or even visit.

?I am very excited about visiting the laboratory as I have seen nothing of this sort before,? said Bhavana, an intermediate student at Adarsh College in Madhepura. Like her, others called it an opportunity to learn about things they had not known.