National
Environment Awareness Campaign
The
objective of the scheme is to create mass awareness among general public,
students and other target groups about environmental problems and to take
measures for environment protection by active involvement of Students, NGOs,
rural masses and general public. The scheme was initiated by Ministry
of Environment & Forests, Govt. of
Council
also celebrates all environmentally important days such as World
Wetland Day (2nd February), Earth Day (22nd April)
World Environment Day (5th June), International Day for
Preservation of Ozone layer (16th Sep), International Day for
Conservation of Biodiversity (22nd May), etc. by motivating all
active NGOs and Schools/institutions in Punjab. Participating agencies take up
following activities on the occasion of celebration of Environment related
days:
·
Planting of local tree
species.
·
Cleaning of Public
places/school compounds/ponds/drains, etc.
·
Organization of film
or slide shows at community centers, Schools, Colleges, Museums, etc. on
environmental themes.
·
Organization of puppet
shows, street dramas, folk dances, songs, etc. to focus on the need to protect
our environment.
·
Saving water,
repairing leaking pipes and joints, installing flow reducers at business
premises/factories/mills.
·
Reducing water use in
garden by using drip or sprinkler systems.
·
Installation of rain
water harvesting system for management and storage of rain water.
·
Choosing products that
are recyclable and also products made from recycled materials.
·
Walking or riding a
bike for short trips.
·
Donating unwanted but
usable items.
·
Initiate the
establishment of plant nurseries in schools, villages, etc.
·
Organising simple exhibitions, fairs, melas,
etc. on environment.
·
Organising public debates and discussions on environment Vs. development in local languages for the general public.
·
Organising quiz/essay/painting/poster competitions on environment for
school children.
Further, teachers, eco-clubs students members, NGOs,
etc. celebrating environment related days may themselves present and solicit
ideas on what to do for particular day. They may form groups to discuss and
rank the ideas and add new ones. They may pick the top one, two, or three and devise
plans to make them happen.
To download the Performa for submission of Projects under NEAC, click
followings:-
Contact Person: Dr. S.S. Ladhar, ssladhar@pscst.com
National Green
Corps Programme
Ministry
of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India has initiated National Green Corps
(NGC) programme for implementation through the
mechanism of Eco-Clubs set up in schools from Class V-XII all over the country.
Under this scheme 250 schools have been selected from each district. Each
school is being provided financial aid of Rs. 2,500/-
per year. Besides, trainings and retrainings are
conducted for Incharge-teachers and resource
material on environment aspects is provided to each school. Objectives of
the scheme are :-
·
To make children
understand environment and environmental problems.
·
To provide
environmental education opportunities for school children.
·
To utilize the unique
position of school children as conduits for awareness of the society at large.
·
To facilitate
children’s participation in decision making in areas related to environment
& development.
·
To bring children into
direct contact with the environmental problems facing the society they live in
and make them think of solutions.
·
To involve children in
action based programmes related to environment in their surroundings.
Each
NGC school has constituted eco-clubs of 30-35 students to take up environment
awareness activities under the supervision of eco-club incharge
teacher. In all 5000 schools in
·
Organise seminars, debate, lectures & popular talks on
environmental issues in the school.
·
Field visits to
environmentally important sites including polluted and degraded sites, wildlife
parks, etc.
·
Organise rallies, marches, human chains and street theater at
public places with a view to spread environmental awareness.
·
Action based
activities like tree plantation, cleanliness drives both within and outside the
school campus.
·
Grow kitchen gardens,
maintain vermi-composting pits, construct
water-harvesting structures in school, practice paper recycling, etc.
·
Prepare inventories of
polluting sources and forward it to enforcement agencies.
·
Organise awareness programmes against defecation in public places,
pasting posters in public places and to propagate personal hygiene habits like
washing hands before meals, etc.
·
Maintenance of public
places like parks, gardens both within and outside the
school campus.
·
Mobilise action against environmentally unsound practices like
garbage disposal in unauthorized places, unsafe disposal of hospital waste,
etc.
·
Celebrate two
environmentally important days in a befitting manner.
Punjab
State Council for Science & Technology (PSCST) organized a 3 days training programme for Master Trainers of Punjab & Chandigarh at
Golden Jubilee Conference Hall, Panjab University,
Chandigarh from January 29-31, 2008 with the support of Ministry of Environment
& Forests, Govt. of
Celebration of
National Science Day:
National Science Day is
celebrated under the aegis of NCSTC, DST, Govt. of India on or around 28th of
February every year. The choice of the date is linked to the discovery of the
Raman Effect. Each year, a theme is given by DST, Govt. of India under which
proposals are invited from Institutes and NGOs. Activities like exhibitions,
competitions, lectures, seminars, slide shows, workshops, training camps etc.
are carried out. Every year more than 50 schools, colleges, institutions and
voluntary organizations participate in this activity including the universities
of the State. Also, a State level science essay writing competition is
organized under this activity for the students of 12- 17 years of age on
popular science topics.
Click here to
download Proforma for request of grant under National Science Day.
Contact Person: Dr. Neelam Gulati Sharma, ngsharma@pscst.com
Contact Person: Dr. K.S.Bath, ksbath@pscst.com
Celebration of
Technology Day:
National
Technology Day is celebrated each year on 11th of May to high light the
technological and scientific achievements of the country. The Council
celebrates this Day with the help of Technical Institutes of the state, NGOs
and Educational Institutes. Activities such as, exhibitions, competitions,
debates, lectures etc. are organized under this programme
to high light the emerging technologies in different sectors.
Click
here to
download Proforma for request of grant under National Technology Day.
Contact Person: Dr. Neeliam Gulati Sharma, ngsharma@pscst.com
Contact Person: Dr. K.S.Bath, ksbath@pscst.com
Incentives
to young scientists of
To encourage the budding scientists/technologists from
colleges, universities and institutions of Punjab and in order to acquaint them
with the latest developments in various areas of science/engineering and
technology, it is felt that scientists contributing significantly at the
national/international seminars/symposia/training programme
should be provided with travel finance assistance for meeting 50% air fare or
half of the maintenance allowance, including registration. Researchers at
colleges/universities and research institutions who have a minimum of 2
research publication in a refereed journal are eligible to apply. The awardee after their return shall share their experiences
with the fellow scientists by way of giving lectures at the institutions other
than their own parent institution where similar work is in progress.
Click Here to Download Proforma under the scheme.
PSCST
has initiated the Student Project Programme with a view to provide financial
support to final year B.E., MBBS, M.E., M. Tech, M.D. M. Phil, M. Pharm, B. Pharm and M.Sc. students. The main objective and purpose of this programme is to encourage the students and faculty members
of the engineering, medical colleges, polytechnics, universities and research
institutions to use their talent in various branches of engineering, medical
and basic sciences. This would help not only in meeting the qualitative and
quantitative standards of our technical education but will also stimulate a
number of students and faculty members to apply their mind to local problems
and frame the project accordingly, which would be more beneficial to the State.
These projects are expected to be formulated by final year students with the
help of faculty which shall be financed by the Punjab Govt. through PSCST. The
duration of the project shall not be more than a year and maximum financial
support shall be Rs.5,000/- per project. One of the
important activities of this programme is organization
of a seminar-cum-exhibition every year where selected projects shall be
exhibited for the benefit of the students and they are given an opportunity to
explain their project work in details. These projects after completion,
shall be evaluated by a subject expert in the respective field.
Click Here to Download Format for writing proposals under the scheme.
To encourage
young scientists of the state to keep up with latest developments in terms of
scientific and technological skills, the Council provides nominal financial
assistance for young scientists (upto 45 years of
age) who are employed in the institutes of
Click here to Download application Performa for the scheme.
The consultancy
cell has been set up to provide consultancy services to the small-scale
industry in pollution control, thus giving them compatible and cost effective
solutions. The cell conducts technical feasibility studies for establishing the
characteristics of waste waster / air emissions and to develop and demonstrate
cost effective pollution control technologies with major emphasis on :
The
demonstrated technologies are further replicated in industrial and rural
sectors. For making the industry self reliant , its
manpower is trained for the operation and maintenance of pollution
control systems.
The
Council has so far developed technologies for air pollution control in Brick
Kilns, Rice Shellers, Induction Furnaces, Cupola
Furnaces, Flyash brick making & Rolling Mills and
water pollution control in metal finishing units, parboiled rice mills &
vegetable bag tanning units. These technologies were replicated in more
than 4000 industrial units mainly in
For details of technologies visit at Council’s website www.pscst.com
The Punjab
Biodiversity Board has been established in the state as a statutory body under
the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to conserve and protect the natural
ecosystems of the state and its flora and fauna. The Board has been set
up in the Department of Environment to ensure
that biodiversity in both, wild and cultivated areas is properly protected. The
secretariat of Punjab Biodiversity Board (PBB) lies in PSCST. The major
functions of the Board include:
·
To implement the
provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, in the state.
·
To regulate the use of
State’s biological resources, especially by granting approvals for regulating
their commercial utilization and their bio-surveys/ bio-prospecting.
·
To levy collection fee
for these biological resources, wherever these are harvested by business houses
and individuals for industrial/ commercial use.
·
To ensure equitable
sharing of benefits arising out of their commercial use with the local
communities from where these resources have been accessed/ harvested.
·
To promote
biodiversity conservation activities, both in agricultural and wild areas.
·
To bring to the notice
of the National Biodiversity Authority such commercial use of resources by
foreigners and NRIs (including intellectual property
generated out of these resources).
·
To facilitate setting
up of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at
village & town level and expert committees at state and district level.
·
To promote the
preparation of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs)
through BMCs to document available resources and
protect traditional knowledge.
·
To take up capacity
building programs for masses, as well as, training of line departments of the
state government.
The PBB was notified in December, 2004 under the chairmanship of
Chief Minister,
Council has been recognized as the nodal agency for biodiversity
conservation in
ENVIS Centre on
State Environment Issues
ENVIS
(Environmental Information System) Centre established in PSCST is working on
‘Punjab State Environment Issues’. It is a part of decentralized system of
Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India with a network of
different subject oriented Centers (78 Centers all over India) involved
in collection, collation and dissemination of environment related information
to decision makers, policy planners, scientists, engineers, research workers,
etc.
ENVIS
(Environmental Information System) Node on 'State Environmental Issues' in
PSCST was established in Dec. 2002 under the World Bank assisted Project of
Environment Management Capacity Building for Environmental Information System
(EMCB-ENVIS) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF),
Government of India (GoI) to identify and highlight
the Punjab state environmental problems. The Node was converted to ENVIS Centre
on Jan, 2005 on ‘Status of Environment and Related Issues’ under the aegis
of MoEF, GoI, under the
10th five year plan. The Punjab ENVIS Centre is making its continuous efforts
for identifying and collecting information, locating data gaps, establishing
linkages with information providers & users and maintaining a databank on
environment issues in
ACTIVITIES UNDER
ENVIS CENTRE
Development
and maintenance of a bilingual website (in English & Punjabi) : The
website www.punenvis.nic.in was launched in Feb, 2005
providing information on the major issues of environmental concern in the State
of Punjab with special reference to Agriculture , Air, Water, Land,
Biodiversity, Demography, Energy, Solid-waste management, Environment education
& awareness and Policies & legislations. It also provides information
on related Departments, Weblinks, Photogallery,
Maps, News items & Events. Further, additional information can be accessed
from the other sublinks like Introduction, About
PSCST, About ENVIS, etc. This is an interactive site with a dynamic Query-Response
system and Searchable Databases on: Shiwalik
Biodiversity, Air Pollution, Water Quality in Major Rivers of Punjab,
Environment Literature. Punjab Environment Abstracts and
Directory of Experts/NGos/GOs working in the field of
Environment Education in
Publication of Newsletter, books, booklets, CD, etc. The Centre publishes quarterly Newsletter on the various issues related to the subject area. This Newsletter alongwith with its & other collaborative publications like Punjab Environment Abstract book (1975-1995), State of Environment Reports ( Punjab & Chandigarh), Biodiversity booklet, Field Guide of Birds of Kishopur Maini wetland, etc are also available on the website.
Public
outreach and capacity building activities: The Centre undertakes Public
outreach and capacity building activities from time to time. A few of them are
stated as follows:
o A
Three day Chandigarh Film Festival (outreached 3, 363 people during 9 shows)
o Syposium on ‘ Agriculture and Environment’ attended by 137
persons
o Assisting NASA’s (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration) ‘Cloudsat
Education Network Programme’ and helping the State Institute for Science
Education, Punjab to outreach eight selected schools (from Jalandhar
and Mohali district) in Punjab among the other 10
countries ( like USA, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Thailand, Indonesia,
etc.) in the world. Under this Programme, NASA is involving school students for
ground truthing of data generated by the satellites
for study of clouds and global climate under the NASA Earth Science Enterprise.
o Celebration of environment related
important days
The site can be accessed at www.punenvis.nic.in
Patent Information Centre (PIC)
has been set up in the council in December, 1998 as a joint project of
Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC),
Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and Govt. of Punjab to
create awareness on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)
and facilitate filing of patents from the region. The major objective of the
centre is to provide patent search and filing facilities (Technical and
Financial assistance) at the door step of innovators, researchers, R & D
establishments and entrepreneurs. The centre is creating awareness on IPR
issues by organizing workshops and seminars. Further,
since IPRs have been introduced as a compulsory subject
in the curriculum of Technical and Vocational Education in the state the centre
is also training the faculty of ITIs, Polytechnics
and
Further, Intellectual Property Facilitation
Centre for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of
Science and Technology for Women Empowerment
PSCST
has been making consistent efforts to promote grass root biotechnological
innovations relevant to socio-economic developmental needs of the rural areas
of
Under this programme, DST, GOI supports innovative projects aimed at women empowerment. The objectives of the programme are:
The following priority areas have been identified under this scheme by DST, GOI:
The guidelines for formulating the proposal can be downloaded from www.scienceandsociety-dst.org.
Contact person :
Dr. Jatinder Kaur Arora, Additional Director (Biotechnology), PSCST