Bhubaneswar, Oct. 17: The state government has formed a body to promote science and technology among the public, especially students.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will head the society - Odisha State Council of Science and Technology - which will suggest modalities for implementation of various schemes and programmes.

The society will also take the initiative to popularise space science among students by setting up science centres, science hubs, planetariums and science museums in various parts of the state.

The society will identify various areas for development of science and technology, especially in the backward, unemployed and rural areas.

"It will identify the problems of people belonging to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, landless labourers, artists, small and marginal farmers. It will offer solutions to those problems in a scientific way," said a senior official of the science and technology department.

The society will offer a proposal to the government for blueprint of the schemes on technology - administrative and legal - required to implement the schemes, especially in health, education and human resources sectors.

Posters, brochures, books, films and kits will be prepared by the society to popularise science.

The society, in association with various government, international and national NGOs, will promote science in the rural areas with the help of seminar and meetings. Plantation programmes will be organised to emphasise on the use of renewable energies at villages. "It will be great if the society organises competitions and exhibitions from time to time. This will go a long way in enhancing their knowledge," said Jyotsna Barik, a science teacher of BJB College.

"We learn more about the existing curriculum by engaging in projects and experiments. This will instill scientific temper among the students," said Piyush Rath, a student of the institute.