Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, former President of India, has urged students to develop a spirit of innovation and experimentation.
Launching the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA) here yesterday, Dr. Abdul Kalam laid stress on four qualities of uniqueness: Great Aim, Quest of Knowledge, Hard Work, and Perseverance.
Emphasising the value of learning he added, "we learn to live, we learn to think and we learn to learn". He concluded his speech by stressing upon attaching highest value to science.
The Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan is a unique concept developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development that aims to inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and love for science and mathematics in school children.
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani also addressed the gathering through video conferencing and highlighted the fact that the RAA is an initiative by her ministry to encourage students to learn sciences beyond the class room.
"It is an effort to take forward the Prime Minister's vision of Digital India, 'Make in India' and 'Teach in India," she said, adding that more and more women should be encouraged to participate in the field of science and technologies.
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She talked of efforts made by INTEL for nurturing scientific temper among girl students. She also mentioned Google India's initiative of Code to Learn Contest which will enable students to learn in the Google campus and announced that Phase II of RAA will be launched in January, 2016 for higher education under which model science labs will be established in all districts of the North Eastern States.
Under the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, government schools will be mentored by Institutes like IITs/ IIMs/ IISERs and other Central Universities and reputed organisations through innovative programmes, student exchanges, demonstrations, student visits, etc to develop a natural sense of passion towards learning of Science and Maths.
The launch event also saw some exhilarating moments with a laser show on science and maths which enthralled the audience.