New Delhi: For a period of two weeks, MPs will get an opportunity to refine themselves as catalysts of scientific and environmental change in their constituencies. On offer will be demos and literature on indigenous eco-friendly, people-centric technologies that they can select and seek transfer of with the objective of transforming lives back home.
From Bhabha Atomic Research Centre’s (BARC) irradiation technology to improve shelf life of farm produce to solar power tree of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, from portable toilet cabins built by National Physical Laboratory using tiles made from recycled polythene bags to technology to convert second-grade tea granule into high-value tea wine, the environment and science exhibition starting July 28 at Parliament Annexe promises to be an eye-opener for MPs.
Taking technology from “lab to field” is our vision behind organising this environment and science exhibition, said Renuka Chowdhury, chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests.
“During my visits to research institutes, I realised that revolutionary technologies have been developed by our scientists but these are not reaching the rural masses, just because the scientists are not trained to market them,” said Ms Chowdhury, who conceptualised the exhibition.
“Something as simple as BARC’s food irradiation technology can preserve potato yield for four-five months, saving the farmers from the trouble of keeping their produce in cold storage. Countries like Israel have been using this technology for decades as it can save surplus farm produce from rotting,” she said.
Irradiation preserves nutrients in food and kills microbes that destroy them. It improves the safety and extends the shelf life of foods, she said.
The exhibition will bring together five Union ministries and over a dozen autonomous institutes linked to them to showcase their people-oriented innovations and help MPs go “window shopping” for technologies that they think have scope for application in their constituencies. “Literature and demonstrations in the new technologies will be available at the exhibition. Visiting MPs will be educated and encouraged to help popularise them among their electorate,” said a member of the exhibition organising team.
Vice-president Hamid Ansari will inaugurate the exhibition at an event that will also be attended by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and environment and science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan, among others, he said. “All MPs will be sent an invitation for the exhibition,” he said.
Other environment-friendly technologies likely to be on display include dehydration of fruits like mango, hand-held kits to check milk adulteration and waste-to-energy and waste-to-manure options for handling municipal waste, he said.
