Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, Oct. 30: The Centre has directed IIT Delhi to host a five-day science festival that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-linked body Vijnana Bharati will organise from December 4.
The science and technology department has asked the IIT to provide the venue and other help for the India International Science Festival, likely to be attended by over 4,000 scientists and students and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Kshitij Gupta, officiating director of the IIT, said the government had picked Vijnana Bharati as the main organiser. Institute chairperson Vijay Bhatkar, who also chairs Vijnana Bharati, said Sangh-minded scientists had founded the organisation in 1991.
“Vijnana Bharati promotes science by holding conferences and debates. It also tries to identify indigenous knowledge and works for its validation and propagation,” Bhatkar said.
IIT Delhi has in recent months been collaborating with several Sangh-linked or spiritual bodies.