Students of various colleges attend the DST-Inspire Internship Science Camp organised by department of science and technology, government of India, at Ravenshaw University on Sunday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, March 4: A five-day camp to promote basic sciences and attract more students to the field got under way at Ravenshaw University here today.

Over 300 students from various junior colleges of the city are attending the programme called DST-Inspire Internship Science Camp, organised by the department of science and technology (DST).

Inspire, short for Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research, is a unique initiative of the Centre to motivate the youth to pursue a career in basic sciences.

The DST officials said there was a notion that the opportunities in the field of natural sciences were limited.

This has led to a countrywide decline in the enrolment of quality students in the natural science courses. However, Inspire had changed the scenario to some extent, they said.

“Inspire has taken the form of a movement in the country after it was launched in 2007. So far, over 50,000 students in different states have been covered under this internship programme through 200 camps,” said DST advisor A. Mokhopadhaya.

He said the primary objective of the programme was to enable students to share their ideas with renowned scientists and professors attending the science camp.

“As of now, the response from various academic institutions has been overwhelming. Therefore, we have given a proposal to the government to strengthen the programme, which would be helpful in producing great scientists in future,” Mokhopadhaya said.

Director of the National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser), Bhubaneswar, T.K. Chandrasekhar, Ravenshaw University vice-chancellor B.C. Tripathy, head of Ravenshaw’s botany department P.K. Mohapatra and other lecturers were present at the inaugural session.

“Programmes such as this would mould the minds of young scientists and ultimately lead to a knowledge boom for society on the whole,” said Chandrasekhar, adding that the trend of pursuing a course in engineering or medicine was still continuing in the state.

“There is a great deal of pressure on students while choosing their career paths as parents expect them to become no less than an engineer or a doctor. But, at the end of the day, most students do not even get a suitable job despite paying a heavy course fee,” said Chandrasekhar.

“Instead, if one takes up a course in basic sciences and decides to become a scientist or a researcher, one can unravel the mysteries of the universe and win the Nobel Prize someday,” he said.

Experts from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, Central University, Hyderabad, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar and Ravenshaw would conduct technical sessions in the field of physics, chemical, biological, biotechnological, earth and environmental sciences.

There would also be scientific, visual displays and lab activities by students on various subjects.