THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala, living in a past glory of social standards and level of higher education, can still get ahead than most states if the people will stand together and work hard, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy while visiting the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), where he commissioned the new DNA fingerprinting laboratory. He also distributed student fellowships and launched the RGCB pension scheme.Describing the RGCB as an institution of pride for the state, the Chief Minister said that it helped to bring Kerala to the forefront of scientific education and research.“I remember in 2004 when a leading magazine did a survey of top 70 educational institutions in the country, there were none from the state. Four years later, when ‘Biospectrum’ did a similar survey of top institutes in biotechnology, RGCB came out right on top in the country,” Chandy recalled.Referring to the grants given to the institute while he was the Finance Minister many years ago and recently the 20 acres of land granted to the institute, the Chief Minister said that it was the responsibility of the government to encourage the development of such institutes and the financial grants given was rightly earned by the institute.Chandy commissioned the new finger-printing laboratory of the institute, which is primarily a public service unit with facilities for human DNA identification in paternity dispute cases, species identification in wildlife forensics, DNA bar coding services and DNA fingerprinting in species identification of plants and animals.The Chief Minister presented the awards for the best projects done under the ‘Hunt for Young Talents in Science’ for students from across the state who were given the unique opportunity to work on projects at the institute. RGCB director M Radhakrishna Pillai hoped that these lovely children would someday be the future of science in India.The awards went to four teams and for four totally different topics. Malini Elizabeth George of Holy Angels ISC School, Renjith S B of Saraswathy Vidyalaya and Abhay Menon of Loyola School for their project titled ‘Face, Finger and DNA: Its all about identity’.Joan Sony Cherian of St Thomas Higher Secondary School, Arshad Mohammed and Joel Peter James of Rajagiri Public School, Kalamassery, won the award for their work on why ginger was totally sterile. If Athmaja M Nair of St Thomas Central School, Raghav Vaidyanathan of Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir and Adithya Narayan of Loyola School won the award for observing cellular organelles using fluorescence, the team of Riya A S of GR Public School, Mary Tania Christopher of Good Shepherd School and Abin Haris of St Thomas Central School bagged the award for screening of bacterial colonies.While Rev Mathews Chackalackal, manager of Christ Nagar School urged the children to explore beyond the textbook, Oommen Chandy hoped that this encouragement would make the students aim high and succeed in life.The Chief Minister also lauded the RGCB for implementing a self-supporting pension scheme, which is almost at par with what is given to government employees. The pension scheme was launched with the Chief Minister distributing the pension to two retired employees Sivadasan and Krishnankutty. RGCB dean Sathish Mundayoor and RGCB controller Rajan Panicker also spoke on the occasion.
Comments
0 comment