NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY – SCI & TECH

News: National Science Day 2024: Date, history and significance of the day

 

What's in the news?

       The special day is observed on February 28 to commemorate the discovery of the Raman Effect by Indian Scientist CV Raman.

 

National Science Day (NSD):

       It is celebrated every year on February 28 to mark the contributions of scientists towards the development of the country.

       On this day, in 1928, Indian Physicists Sir CV Raman made an important discovery in the field of spectroscopy, which was later named after him - the Raman Effect.

       For this discovery, he was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

 

Backdrop:

       The National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC), in 1986, asked the Government of India to announce February 28 as National Science Day.

       The government accepted and declared the day National Science Day.

       The first National Science Day was celebrated on February 28, 1987.

 

Nodal Ministry - Ministry of Science and Technology

 

Theme of 2024 - "Indigenous Technologies for Viksit Bharat".

 

Significance of the Theme:

       It highlights the achievements and potential of homegrown innovations across sectors such as aerospace, defence, healthcare, agriculture and information technology.

       Celebrating indigenous technologies promotes national pride, economic growth, job creation and technological self-sufficiency.

 

Go back to basics:

Raman Effect:

       Some part of the light beam after passing through a transparent medium gets scattered.

       This phenomenon of scattering of light is termed as Raman Scattering and the cause of scattering is called the Raman Effect.

       The wavelength of these scattered rays is different from that of the incident rays of light.

In the Raman effect, when light is scattered off an object, say a molecule, two bands are observed, with higher and lower frequency than the original light, called the Stokes and anti-Stokes bands, respectively