CHENNAI: Worried over the
deteriorating state of environment
,
the central government
is mulling over ‘
zero-emission’ firecrackers
that would prove safe for the nature, according to
Union minister
of earth sciences and environment, Harsh Vardhan.
Vardhan was speaking during the valedictory session of the ‘India International Science Festival’ at Anna University, when he reiterated the content of a tweet he sent on October 15. “After (upcoming) Diwali, the government will organise a conclave of scientists where the technology to produce emissionless firecrackers will be discussed,” Vardhan said.
The minister added that the zero-emission
crackers would be made available for sale by next year’s Diwali. “These (crackers) will have zero side effect. Next Diwali, everybody can celebrate the festival happily traders, children and families without damaging the environment,” he said.
The announcement by the environment minister comes in the wake of a Supreme Court ban on sale of firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR region till October 31.
Vice-President M
Venkaiah
Naidu, state fisheries minister D Jayakumar, higher education minister K P Anbalagan and minister of state for earth sciences Y S Chowdary also participated in the event.
Naidu called on the government to step up investment in science and technology and said that he would like to see corporate and industry bigwigs contribute towards helping R&D grow.
“Corporate firms and industries should join hands and set up an exclusive corpus for encouraging innovative, out-of-the-box R&D projects that could provide long-lasting answers to problems faced by people,” he said.
Naidu advised the universities to create an atmosphere for bright research scholars to flourish and not be affected by “rules and red tape.”
Earlier, minister of state for earth sciences, Y S Chowdary, urged entrepreneurs to set up science start-ups in rural areas. He said that while science and technology will create more new jobs, young Indian workforce will need to train themselves in order to become employable in this sector.
During his speech, Harsh Vardhan also announced that the government will begin fellowships for budding filmmakers to produce documentaries based on science, technology and environment. The fellowship will be institutionalised within a period of one year, he added.